bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Community Law in the National Legal Order: A Systems Analysis
Authors: Maher Imelda
Published: March 2003

Within an emerging global system of law national legal orders are just one dimension of a world‐wide network of legal communications. The Community as a legal order dependent on the Member States for its creation and implementation of its norms shores up the state in this increasingly global and fragmented system. Although this interdependency facilitates the implementation of Community norms, difficulties remain because of the different characteristics of competence, territory and time between the legal orders. More fundamentally, the strength of the links between existing law and social processes may inhibit and refract the introduction of Community norms.
Living in EMU: Prices, Interest Rates and the Adjustment of Payments in a Monetary Union
Authors: Tamborini Roberto
Published: March 2003

Balance‐of‐payments problems for the EMU member countries will not vanish by virtue of the use of a single currency. This article discusses two aspects of the adjustment of payments in a monetary union that may have major repercussions for the EMU countries, for their policy‐makers and for the Union's institutional design. The first aspect concerns the role of national banking systems in the adjustment process. The second is the role of changes in general price levels, and hence in the terms of trade. The two aspects are interconnected. In addition to structural features that may hinder changes in interest rates and the terms of trade in the EMU, the presence of institutional commitments of member countries that may work perversely is considered.
Risk Reduction in the EMS? Evidence from Trends in Exchange Rate Properties
Authors: Frömmel Michael , Menkhoff Lukas
Published: March 2003

The performance of the European Monetary System is still being debated. On the subject of exchange rate characteristics it has been claimed that evidence from looking at the statistical properties of the exchange rate distribution indicates an increased risk for agents. Others argue that the apparent success of the EMS is illusory, as it has not performed better than other currencies over the same period. We analyse these propositions by searching for trends in risk of EMS exchange rates and comparing them to outside benchmarks. We find properties indicating decreasing risk and these results also hold when structural breaks are considered. Moreover, this decline seems to be faster than for world benchmarks.
Europeanization and Globalization: The Missing Link
Authors: Hennis Marjoleine
Published: March 2003

European integration theory is currently dominated by a debate about the role of domestic changes, state‐society relations, and policy networks within Europe. This article seeks to contribute to this debate by dealing with what is understood as a generally poor conceptualization of the interaction between globalization and Europeanization. A framework is offered which takes account of the impact of globalization on the underlying economic structure and on European regulation. It is argued that only such a comprehensive approach can provide a greater insight into the development of European integration. These issues are addressed through the analysis of the common agricultural policy (CAP).
Europe’s New Border Taxes
Authors: Verwaal Ernst , Cnossen Sijbren
Published: March 2003

Instead of abolishing internal border controls in 1993, the European Union (EU) replaced them with VAT and statistical requirements that appear to be just as onerous. For Dutch businesses, the compliance costs of the new requirements are, on average, 5 per cent of the value of their intra‐EU trade. The figure is probably higher for other EU Member States. Obviously, the costs constitute a (differentiated) border tax that impedes intra‐EU trade. The article analyses the determinants of the compliance costs, as well as their effect on intra‐EU trade intensity. The article submits that the differential compliance costs violate the non‐discrimination provisions of the EC Treaty. Suggestions are made to reduce them.
The Accession of the UK to the EC: A Welfare Analysis
Authors: Gasiorek Michael , Smith Alasdair , Venables Anthony J.
Published: March 2003

This article provides a decomposition of the welfare impact on the UK arising from the changes in manufacturing trade consequent upon joining the EC. The methodology employed is that of computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling, where the underlying model is based on trade under imperfect competition with firms producing under conditions of increasing returns to scale. CGE models can be seen as providing numerical illustrations of theory, or as empirical tools providing estimates of policies. A second aim of this article is then to asses the extent to which CGE models can be used as serious tools of policy analysis. We examine this by assessing the success of the model in replicating counterfactual outcomes. The results indicate (i) that the model does reasonably well in replicating complex reality and that such models can be empirically useful; (ii) that a substantial portion of the welfare impact is attributed to distortions associated with imperfect competition, and that the impact is potentially quite large.
The EU as a Regional Actor: The Case of the Czech Republic
Authors: Marek Dan , Baun Michael
Published: March 2003

This article examines the impact of EU enlargement on regionalization in the Czech Republic. It asks whether pre–accession preparations for EU regional policy have promoted regionalization and governmental decentralization in the Czech Republic, a question prompted by the debate about EU regional policy and regionalization in the current Member States. After reviewing Czech preparations for EU regional policy and the administration of pre–accession structural aid programmes, it concludes that the EU’s impact on regionalization in the Czech Republic has been both limited and highly ambivalent. The article thus confirms the findings of previous research on EU enlargement and regionalization in the candidate countries.
EU Enlargement and Consolidating Democracy in Post–Communist States — Formality and Reality
Authors: Pridham Geoffrey
Published: March 2003

European integration’s impact on democratization in post–authoritarian societies has usually been considered in the academic literature to be of significance in the long term, in helping to firm up regime consolidation. It is important, however, to consider impacts which come earlier through the accession process. This is shown by focusing on the implementation of the EU’s political conditions by new democracies in post–communist Europe. The two case studies of Slovakia and Romania show the different salience in accession countries of problems related to the political conditions, but common to both is the dynamic created by the advance of negotiations for membership. At the same time, negative effects may be present, coming from the intense pressure to join. Overall, integration effects vary between levels of democratic consolidation, being greater at the institutional than the societal level.
No Magic Bullets: Privatization's Threat to Urban Public Administration
Authors: Chisholm Donald
Published: March 2003

The privatization movement poses a serious crisis for American urban public administration. It seeks to over‐turn the century‐old Progressive expansive vision of urban government and to revert many goods and services, now produced publicly, to the private sector. For its precepts and normative policy proposals, privatization relies on Public Choice Theory, a formal, deductive enterprise, itself founded in Adam Smith's 18th century economics. It is this deductive method, not the substance of privatization's proposals, which is so troubling. Public policy and institutional reform must rest on a firm empirical foundation, not on deduction from abstract first principles. In this, the privatizers ought to turn to the pragmatic method of the Progressives that treats public policies and institutional forms as hypotheses to be validated by empirical experminentation and to abandon deductive approaches.
Selecting and Developing Crisis Leaders Using Competency‐Based Simulations
Authors: Yusko Kenneth P. , Goldstein Harold W.
Published: March 2003

Crisis simulations provide organizations with a powerful means of selecting and training its leaders to effectively handle crisis situations. This article provides a hands‐on approach to developing high‐quality crisis simulations in organizations. Several topics are discussed, including: (1) the use of a Behavioural Crisis Analysis (BCA) to define the critical tasks and knowledge, skills and abilities involved in effectively addressing a crisis; (2) guidelines for designing a high‐fidelity crisis exercise; (3) methods for measuring the crisis handling performance of participants during the simulation; and (4) how to use the information obtained from the simulation for selecting, coaching and developing crisis leaders.
Articulating Environmental Policy Decision to the Public
Authors: Bacot A. Hunter , McCabe Amy Snyder , Fitzgerald Michael R.
Published: March 2003

Relations between policy makers (as well as other public officials) and the media are a crucial, but often neglected, element of public management. In this article, the authors seek to illuminate the relationship between public policy and the mass media by focusing on how policy matters are communicated, while emphasizing the important role played by public officials in this communication process. Recommendations thus ensue as to how public managers can more effectively disseminate information about environmental policies to a diverse, and often hostile, clientele which public policy makers and managers must be prepared to engage.
Crisis Management in Finland: Contemporary Challenges
Authors: Lintonen Raimo
Published: March 2003

Finnish crisis management has become more challenging after the Cold War. The country is now considered increasingly vulnerable as it faces a diversified set of threats. These changing perceptions are reflected in substantial doctrinal changes: a broader security agenda and a new foreign policy line with crisis management as one of the central foci, guided by national defence priorities and constrained by economic imperatives. The ever‐present resource scarcity has not hindered organizational changes and improvements in the Finnish capacity for crisis prevention and response. Future enhancement of Finnish crisis management requires the development of international structures and the creation of a knowledge community of academics and practitioners.
Review Essay
Authors: Haines Fiona
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed:

Christopher C. Sellers, The Trials of Developing the ‘Social’ With the ‘Science’: A Review Essay of Hazards of the Job: From Industrial Disease to Environmental Health Science
Controlling Corruption in Hong Kong: From Colony to Special Administrative Region
Authors: Lo Jack M. K.
Published: March 2003

Corruption has been a perennial problem in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong of the post‐war years represented what appeared to have become an intractable case of a society in which corruption was entrenched as part of political, economic and social life. This paper seeks to delineate the experience of Hong Kong’s fight against corruption in the midst of a rapidly changing political and social environment. After describing the context in which the Hong Kong anti‐corruption programme is set, this paper identifies the critical policy decisions that account for the programme’s success and the lessons Hong Kong has learned from the campaign. It ends by highlighting some of the current issues and problems that arise from the changing circumstances of Hong Kong’s development.
‘Reliability’ Reconsidered: A Critique of the HRO‐NAT Debate
Authors: Jarman Alan
Published: March 2003

The concept of reliability is beginning to take on new meaning as Information Technology becomes pervasive in both the private and public sectors. This topic deserves further attention as new mobile Internet systems proliferate. This research note is concerned with developing a more operational understanding of the concept of ‘reliability’. The HRO‐NAT Debate is raising many related issues in this regard. However, the article goes further and seeks to provide a multi‐level contingent schema for this purpose.
The Los Angeles Riots: A Study in Crisis Paralysis
Authors: Miller Abraham H.
Published: March 2003

Although social scientists have sought to understand riots in terms of social structure, few causal explanations have withstood the tests of ongoing empirical examination. In America, presidential commissions sought to put the black urban riots of the mid‐sixties in a similar context. Despite the laudable attempts at deriving benign policy implications from such explanations, the commissions’ explanations were no better than the social science of the time. Understanding the causal basis of riots has been elusive, but our understanding of riots as problems of crisis management has been far more reachable. A comparison of two Los Angeles riots, Watts 1965, and the Rodney King riots of 1992, shows that the intensity, spread and duration of the riots were a function of crisis paralysis. We might not know, in any scientific sense, what causes riots but we appear to know a great deal about the consequences of not appropriately preparing for or managing riots. These are the lessons of both Los Angeles riots.
Trust Evaluation Model for Catching Japanese Bankruptcy Chances
Authors: Ogawa Shingo
Published: March 2003

This article aims at verifying the rationality of experiential subjectivities of credit analysts. In order to understand future events that can occur in an enterprise, uncertainty can be reduced based on their expertise. Rather than bankruptcy prediction accuracy, as in preceding studies, the aim here is to build a credit risk model from the viewpoint of credit analysts with sufficient experience for causal analysis. Factors that professional analysts pay major attention to in discovering bankruptcy chances are studied. The significant factors presented are four categories of what I call trust fear factors. The significance of the credit risk model based on these four factors was validated by statistical test, and this model was verified as a pragmatic model. The finding here is that subjective expertise works effectively for discovering an enterprise’s critical situation turning towards bankruptcy.
Response perseveration in adolescent boys with stable and unstable histories of physical aggression: the role of underlying processes
Authors: Séguin Jean R. , Arseneault Louise , Boulerice Bernard , Harden Philip W. , Tremblay Richard E.
Published: March 2003

Background: It was unclear whether response perseveration and underlying processes, often related to antisocial externalizing disorders, were also related to histories of physical aggression. Method: Boys of age 13 years were selected on the basis of childhood histories of physical aggression: stable, unstable, and non‐aggressive. Performance on a Card Playing Task provided a perseveration index. Results: Physical aggression, regardless of history, predicted perseveration in adolescence. However, qualitative differences revealed that Neuroticism increased the risk for perseveration only in the unstable aggressive group relative to the other groups. Perseveration in the stable aggressive group maybe related to a more fundamental information‐processing deficit. Conclusion: The identification of these processes has implications for developmental theories of physical aggression; they may help discriminate those children who show early physical aggression and who will remain aggressive from those who will only show occasional physical aggression during later childhood.
Attentional blink modulation during sustained and after discrete lead stimuli presented in three sensory modalities
Authors: Lipp Ottmar V. , Neumann David L. , Pretorius Natalie R. , Mchugh Meredith J.
Published: March 2003

Previous studies found larger attentional modulation of acoustic blinks during task‐relevant than during task‐irrelevant acoustic or visual, but not tactile, lead stimuli. Moreover, blink modulation was larger overall during acoustic lead stimuli. The present experiment investigated whether these results reflect modality specificity of attentional blink modulation or effects of continuous stimulation. Participants performed a discrimination and counting task with acoustic, visual, or tactile lead stimuli. Stimuli were presented sustained or consisted of two short discrete stimuli. The sustained condition replicated previous results. In the discrete condition, blinks were larger during task‐relevant than during task‐irrelevant stimuli in all groups regardless of lead stimulus modality. Thus, previous results that seemed consistent with modality‐specific accounts of attentional blink modulation reflect effects of continuous stimulus input.
The Peasants Seminar of the University of London, 1972–1989: A Memoir
Authors: Byres Terence J.
Published: March 2003

This is a memoir of the Peasants seminar of the University of London, which ran between January 1972 and February 1989, and to which 208 papers were presented. The following are considered: its origins, the influences which shaped it, and its agenda; the circumstances of its launching; how it gave rise, very directly, to the Journal of Peasant Studies in 1973; its synergy with JPS, especially in the 1970s, and something of its themes, ambience and development. It is concluded that there is no better way of starting and sustaining, in its early phases, a journal than first securing a strong intellectual base, in the shape of a seminar that meets regularly and has a cohesive, but critical, intellectual community.
‘The Day of Burning’: Eviction and Reinvention in the Margins of Northwest Zimbabwe
Authors: Hammar Amanda
Published: March 2003

A violent eviction in a remote northwestern corner of Zimbabwe in late 1997 provides a prism through which to explore the changing dynamics of competition over space, power and production in Zimbabwe's agrarian margins, where con?ict over wildlife and agriculture has intensi?ed and the state has become a key player. The article argues that in its quest to (re)gain control over one such location, the state has had to construct it as space of violence in order to de‐civilize it and reinvent it as a wilderness zone. The ‘day of burning’ is taken not only as a signi?er of the violent potential of such competition, but also as a metaphor for the state's increasing loss of legitimacy in the margins: that is, the ‘burning away’ of any residue of illusion about the state as either the democratic embodiment of the people's will or compassionate provider of services and security.
Women’s Struggle to Escape Rural Poverty in South Africa
Authors: Sender John
Published: March 2003

Results of a purposive sample of the poorest are contrasted with the methods and conclusions of other research into ‘income poverty’. The deprivation suffered by an important class of rural women in South Africa is documented. Escape routes from poverty are described that have a more realistic prospect of success than those promoted in the international and South African policy literature, including the literature on land reform. The distinguishing demographic characteristics of women who have taken the first steps on these routes are analysed, together with the political context of their relative success. Escaping the worst forms of deprivation depends on women’s wages in rural labour markets, rather than their incomes from self‐employment, but conventional microeconomic theory cannot explain the distribution of wages in these markets. The South African government has been unduly influenced by such conventional theories and the rhetoric of the development aid bureaucracy. It is failing to consider policies that are relevant to the poorest people.
Reviews: The Politics Of Language In The Spanish‐speaking World
Authors: Hernández‐Campoy Juan Manuel
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article:

Claire Mar‐molinero, The Politics Of Language In The Spanish‐speaking World
Form‐focused remedial instruction:an empirical study
Authors: Chan Alice Y.W. , Li David C.S.
Published: March 2003

This article reports on an empirical study exploring the effectiveness of giving oral remedial instruction to secondary and university students using a consciousness‐raising approach. The focus of remedial instruction was three high‐frequency lexico‐grammatical anomalies: ‘pseudo‐tough movement’, the verb concern and the related adjective concerned, and the connective on the contrary. The instrument consisted of two identical tests before treatment (pre‐test) and after treatment (post‐test), as well as a delayed post‐test with different test items. The tests were also administered to some control groups, but while the experimental groups received treatment using a rigorous consciousness‐raising approach, the control groups received a milder version of it. It is found that effective acquisition took place and both the experimental and control groups show significant improvement in their performance. Where conditions of treatment were the same, students in the experimental group slightly outperformed those in the control group, suggesting that a model of remedial instruction structured in the form of proceduralized steps supported by explicit rules is more manageable and therefore more conducive to acquisition.
Distributed Social Dilemma With Competitive Meta‐players
Authors: Yamashita Tomohisa , Suzuki Keiji , Ohuchi Azuma
Published: March 2003

In our research, we propose the solution to the ‘Distributed Social Dilemma’ as an extended social dilemma model. In this model, in order to prevent the players from becoming freeloaders, we introduce competitive meta‐players. Our purpose is to evaluate, through agent‐based simulation, how the meta‐players effect to increase cooperation amongst players in a distributed social dilemma. In order to examine our proposed solution, we introduce the preference of the players to cooperate as the measure of the effect of the meta‐players. On the basis of the result of the simulations, we show the degree of the effect of the competitive meta‐players on the distribution social dilemma.
Combining the Filtered Evaluation Function With Coevolutionary Shared Niching in Genetic Algorithms
Authors: Suzuki Keiji , Ohuchi Azuma
Published: March 2003

In this paper, we propose the combination of filtered evaluation and coevolutionary shared niching (CSN) for extending the search ability of genetic algorithms (GA). The proposed scheme can overcome the problems of the filtering GA (FGA) and the CSN. The successful optimization ability of the FGA is supported by the filtered evaluation method that can modify the landscape for escaping local optima. However, the problem of the FGA is the relatively high cost to maintain the filter. The CSN can autonomously maintain the shared distance using the coevolution between two populations (called customers and businessmen). However, the escaping ability from local optima of the CSN is still insufficient. Therefore, the combination of the filtered evaluation and the CSN is proposed, to reduce the cost of the FGA filter. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is confirmed through test problems.
An Acquisition of Evaluation Function for Shogi by Learning Self‐Play
Authors: Yamamoto Masahito , Suzuki Keiji , Ohuchi Azuma
Published: March 2003

Since Deep Blue, which is a chess program, beat the world human chess champion, recent interest in computer games has been directed to shogi. However, the search space for shogi is larger than that of chess and a captured piece is available again in shogi. To overcome these difficulties, we propose a reinforcement learning method by self‐play, in order to obtain a static evaluation function, which is a map from any positions in shogi to real values. Our proposed method is based on temporal difference learning, developed by R. Sutton and applied to backgammon by G. Tesauro. In our method, the neural network, which takes the board description of shogi positions and outputs the winning percentage from the position, is trained by only self‐play without any knowledge of shogi. In order to show the effectiveness of obtained evaluation function, some computational experiments will be presented.
China's Economic Reform Promotes Operational Research Applications in the Processing Industry
Authors: Shen Zuzhi , Xie Dunli , Xu Weizuan
Published: March 2003

This paper illustrates the opportunities for operational research (OR) applications that the authors found in the course of economic reform and show how these applications were brought to success. In the paper, representative models and their associated algorithms are described. The effects of OR in improving productivity and managerial decision‐making are also indicated by real examples. These will, in the authors' belief, strengthen the resolve of enterprise managers and of OR researchers to continue research into OR applications.
On Conducting Simultaneous Versus Sequential Engineering Activities in Risky R&D
Authors: Zemel Amos , David Israel , Mehrez Abraham
Published: March 2003

We consider development projects in which the activities can be classified in two types: uncertainty resolving R&D efforts that accumulate in the form of knowledge to eventually give rise to a discovery; and routine technical investments which aim at improving the profitability of the project once the discovery has been made. The advantage of initiating routine preparatory activities prior to the achievement of a technological breakthrough in such projects, sometimes termed as ‘concurrent engineering’, is analyzed within a suitable dynamic optimization framework. The optimal double expenditure policy is compared with the conservative delayed investment policy, under which all the routine engineering activities are delayed until the risky R&D efforts culminate in a breakthrough. A criterion for the optimality of the latter policy is developed on the basis of the probability distribution of the discovery date. The application of the criterion is illustrated for a variety of specifications regarding the uncertainty associated with the R&D process. We find that simultaneous investment is the optimal policy for a large class of probability distributions. However, if the conditional probability of immediate discovery is always below some critical value, it is optimal to delay the preparatory activities until the discovery.
Implementing Quality Improvement Strategies in Brazilian Hospitals: A Model for Guidance of the Initial Stage of Implementation
Authors: De Macedo‐Soares T. Diana. L. v. A. , Neves João Alberto
Published: March 2003

Since the early 1990s, Brazilian hospitals have increasingly adopted quality improvement strategies with a view to attending more demanding customers and to the higher performance standards required by the Ministry of Health. However, most efforts have not been successful, partly because hospitals lack adequate methodologies, namely implementation models. This paper presents a two‐stage model to help Brazilian hospitals deploy such strategies more effectively. It focusses on the development and pilot‐test of the model for the buy‐in stage. Distinctive features of the model were found to be critical for results at this stage: 1) An ad hoc structure to manage the changes involved; 2) A performance measurement system to lever and monitor its implementation, while aligning the actions taken with strategy objectives. Other aspects found to be crucial for success were creative application of model elements to the culture of the hospital and to Brazilian contingencies.
Control Policies of an M/G/1 Queueing System with a Removable and Non‐reliable Server
Authors: Wang Kuo‐Hsiung , Ke Jau‐Chuan
Published: March 2003

This paper considers a single non‐reliable server in the ordinary M/G/1 queueing system whose arrivals form a Poisson process and service times are generally distributed. We also study a single removable and non‐reliable server in the controllable M/G/1 queueing systems operating under the N policy, the T policy and the Min(N, T) policy. It is assumed that the server breaks down according to a Poisson process and the repair time has a general distribution. In three control policies, we show that the probability that the server is busy in the steady‐state is equal to the traffic intensity. It is shown that the optimal N policy and the optimal Min(N, T) policy are always superior to the optimal T policy. Sensitivity analysis is also investigated.
Economic Analysis of a High‐volume Flexible Manufacturing System by High‐speed Processing
Authors: Fujii Susumu , Morita Hiroshi , Tatsuta Yasuto , Takata Yoshiharu
Published: March 2003

Agility in manufacturing requires a quick response to the changes in quantity of products without losing productivity. A high‐volume flexible manufacturing system (HV‐FMS) attains the high flexibility as well as the high volume production. We consider in this paper the energy‐saving effect of HV‐FMS from the viewpoint of consumed electric power. We take a production system of cylinder heads for automobile engines as a subject in this study, and draw a comparison of the energy‐saving effect between HV‐FMS and flexible transfer line to verify the effectiveness of HV‐FMS. Moreover, we discuss the economic effect of high‐speed processing at HV‐FMS. We measure the energy‐saving effect by high‐speed processing and give the permissible level for additional tooling cost.
A genetic algorithm for a university weekly courses timetabling problem
Authors: Yu Enzhe , Sung Ki–Seok
Published: March 2003

The timetabling problem is concerned with the allocation, subject to constraints, of given resources to objects in space and time in such way as to satisfy as nearly as possible a set of desirable objectives. This problem is known to be NP–complete and as such only combinatorial optimization methods can guarantee an optimal timetable. In this paper we propose a sector–based genetic algorithm for solving a university weekly courses timetabling problem. Preliminary experimental results indicate that the algorithm is promising.
Response Surface Methodology Applied to Toll Plaza Design for the Transition to Electronic Toll Collection
Authors: Perry Ronald F. , Gupta Surendra M.
Published: March 2003

Electronic toll collection (ETC) holds the promise of greatly reduced congestion at toll roads, bridges, and tunnels. Using automatic vehicle identification (AVI), vehicles are charged a toll as they drive non‐stop through a tollbooth. Since a transition to the AVI‐dominated toll plaza cannot occur overnight, a plan for the increasing use of AVI tollbooths that does not increase congestion for non‐AVI vehicles is needed. Experiments using a simulation model of a typical toll plaza with varying mixes of vehicle types and tollbooth allocations provided data for four output measures: vehicle volume, average queue length, average waiting time, and tollbooth utilization. Multiple linear regression analysis was then applied to fit response surfaces for each measure. The response surfaces provided the optimum tollbooth allocation for a given mix of vehicles. Two decision rules were evaluated based on their ability to specify near‐optimum tollbooth allocations for varying mixes of vehicle types using vehicle volume as the output measure.
How Much Should the Government Spend?
Authors: D'Ambrosio Conchita
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article:

V. Tanzi and L. Schuknecht, Public Spending in the 20th Century

Y.‐K. Ng, Efficiency, Equality and Public Policy with a Case for Higher Public Spending
Behavior of Household Portfolios in France: the Role of Housing
Authors: Arrondel Luc , Lefebvre Bruno
Published: March 2003

The two‐dimensional aspects of dwellings occupied by their owner, consumption and investment, make the analysis of households’ portfolio choice and the analysis of housing purchases more difficult. But it seems difficult to analyze portfolio decisions without taking account of owner‐occupied housing that has an important effect on wealth composition over the life cycle. In this paper we estimated a portfolio choice model where the different dwellings are defined as assets and we showed that we cannot separate investment decisions from housing consumption. Especially, risky assets demand should be greatly influenced by attitudes toward home property.
The German Unemployment Compensation System: Effects On Aggregate Savings And Wealth Distribution
Authors: Heer Burkhard
Published: March 2003

The effects of the German unemployment compensation system on aggregate savings and the distribution of wealth are studied in a general equilibrium 60–period OLG model. The distribution of wealth is derived as an endogenous function of the parameters characterizing the unemployment compensation system, which comprises unemployment insurance (Arbeitslosengeld), unemployment assistance (Arbeitslosenhilfe), and welfare payments (Sozialhilfe), the latter two being subject to a means test. As our main results: (i) both aggregate savings and wealth equality are a monotone decreasing function of unemployment benefits; (ii) optimal unemployment compensation declines over the spell of unemployment; (iii) asset–based means tests are shown to reduce welfare if the allowable wealth level is below the average wealth in the economy.
The spatial anatomy of an epidemic: influenza in London and the county boroughs of England and Wales, 1918–1919
Authors: Smallman–Raynor Matthew , Johnson Niall , Cliff Andrew D.
Published: March 2003

From uncertain origins in the spring of 1918, an apparently new variant of influenza A virus spread around the world as three distinct diffusion waves, infecting half a billion and probably killing around 40 million people. This paper examines the spatial structure of influenza transmission during the ten–month course of the epidemic in England and Wales, June 1918–April 1919, using the weekly counts of influenza deaths in London and the county boroughs as collated by the General Register Office, London. In addition, a particular case study of the borough of Cambridge is presented. From mid–1916, Cambridge contained, as well as its undergraduate population, a large naval contingent billeted in both the colleges and the town. It therefore affords the opportunity of studying the effect of the epidemic in contiguous groups with widely differing demographic characteristics. Through the application of a range of statistical methods (average lags, correlations and regressions), it is shown that the three waves that comprised the pandemic had fundamentally different spatial and temporal characteristics. The first, moving through a population that was a virgin soil to the new virus strain, was explosive in its north to south progress across the country. The second wave was somewhat slower in its rate of diffusion and displayed a south to north drift. Finally, the third wave reverted more closely to the form of the first. The spread of all three waves, however, was underpinned by a clearly defined process of spatial contagion. The Cambridge study showed the special characteristics of this pandemic in terms of the ages of those attacked: high rates were experienced across the age spectrum, a feature also seen internationally.
The Dilemma of “Authentic Self” Ideology in Contemporary Japan
Authors: Maekawa Michiko
Published: March 2003

This paper examines dilemmas inherent in the pursuit of the modern ideology of “authentic self”, which first emerged in the 1960s and is now widespread in contemporary cultures. The ideology is exemplified, in a religious scene, as “self‐transformative” religions wherein seekers seek to transform themselves spiritually in order to realize their authentic, or “sacred” selves. Through an examination of Aum Shinrikyo, which began as a typical “self‐transformative” religion but later transformed into a destructive cult, I will explain the intrinsic moral imperatives of the ideology of “authenticity”. This study of Aum explores the introverted lifestyle and extreme desocialization, which resulted in obsession with the central guru, being legitimated by the ideology. This search for “authenticity” resulted in the members cutting themselves off from the reality of the world. The final analysis suggests that possible consequences of the endless pursuit of the “authentic self” are a “vacuum” self and a loss of empathy with other people. The ontological conditions created by this bring about potential destructiveness, either internal or external.
Role of Local Newspaper Media in Generating a Citizen Volunteer Consciousness
Authors: Rausch Anthony S.
Published: March 2003

The present paper explores the role of the local media, in the form of a prefectural–level newspaper, in relation to local volunteer activity. The local newspaper's potential for generating social knowledge and uniting resident's consciousness about volunteerism and volunteer activity is examined, considering the influence of volunteer organization leaders on media and public volunteer–related agendas. The data presented appear to point to a role for the local newspaper in generating a positive volunteer consciousness, which is latent at present. The results suggest that while volunteer organization leadership is active in contacting the media, they appear to be less careful in establishing or policing the message they would have the media deliver. The present paper concludes by proposing that for Japanese volunteer organizations to better use the media in creating positive volunteer consciousness in their communities, they must work to establish their own media agenda and use both indirect means (through traditional media) and direct means (through direct public relations campaigns), to get that message to local residents.
Balance Sheet Management: The Case of Short‐Term Obligations Reclassified as Long‐Term Debt
Authors: Gramlich Jeffrey D. , McAnally Mary Lea , Thomas Jacob
Published: March 2003

We investigate potential management of balance sheet ratios by a sample of firms that reclassify short‐term obligations to long‐term debt and subsequently declassify that debt (return it to the current liability section). Although aggregate measures of liabilities and equity remain unchanged when firms reclassify (declassify), the practice does increase (decrease) reported measures of liquidity, such as the current ratio, and long‐term leverage. Our results suggest that firms reclassify and declassify to smooth reported liquidity and leverage, relative to the prior year and to industry benchmarks. Our evidence is also consistent with firms working around restrictive debt covenants.
Japanese and American Identities: Values and Their Transmission in the Family
Authors: Silver Catherine B.
Published: March 2003

In this paper, we are studying social identities within a cross‐national framework as they are reflected in values regarding social institutions. We compare value items to infer similarities and differences between Japan and the US, but more importantly we analyze value configurations, using factor analysis, as an expression of underlying cultural expectations. We also argue that the way values are transmitted further defines the distinctive cultural basis of social identities. Using a unique data set, The Generations Survey, we propose to contribute theoretically and methodologically to understanding the role of culture in postmodern societies. Our research, based on identical national surveys collected in 1995, provides a systematic way to compare values in two countries. The research builds on and specifies existing ethnographic case studies and in‐depth interviews around a variety of themes that shape social identities such as the link between family and work expectations, the role of ethical values in business, the importance of national identification, and the meaning of community involvement. The paper concludes by suggesting that despite homogenizing trends and surface similarities, cultural distinctiveness persists in the ways values cluster and is transmitted in the family, shaping the social identities of Japanese and US respondents.
The Collapse of Civility in Russia: The Young and Aged in a Failed Society
Authors: Jones Ronald E.
Published: March 2003

Employing Edward Shils’ paradigm of center–periphery, the successful functioning of which produces high levels of civility in a society, an analysis of the aged and the young subsystems in the former Soviet Union and present–day Russia is provided. Specifically, the center–periphery relationship and its deterioration is traced up to and through the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The negative consequences of this deterioration for the young and old, and the resulting loss of civility are also documented.
Tools for Comparative Analysis of Alternatives: Competing or Complementary Perspectives?
Authors: Hofstetter Patrick , Bare Jane C. , Hammitt James K. , Murphy Patricia A. , Rice Glenn E.
Published: March 2003

A third generation of environmental policy making and risk management will increasingly impose environmental measures, which may give rise to analyzing countervailing risks. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of all risks associated with the decision alternatives will aid decisionmakers in prioritizing alternatives that effectively reduce both target and countervailing risks. Starting with the metaphor of the ripples caused by a stone that is thrown into a pond, we identify 10 types of ripples that symbolize, in our case, risks that deserve closer examination: direct, upstream, downstream, accidental risks, occupational risks, risks due to offsetting behavior, change in disposable income, macro‐economic changes, depletion of natural resources, and risks to the manmade environment. Tools to analyze these risks were developed independently and recently have been applied to overlapping fields of application. This suggests that either the tools should be linked in a unified framework for comparative analysis or that the appropriate field of application for single tools should be better understood. The goals of this article are to create a better foundation for the understanding of the nature and coverage of available tools and to identify the remaining gaps. None of the tools is designed to deal with all 10 types of risk. Provided data suggest that, of the 10 types of identified risks, those associated with changes in disposable income may be particularly significant when decision alternatives differ with respect to their effects on disposable income. Finally, the present analysis was limited to analytical questions and did not capture the important role of the decision‐making process itself.
Life Cycle Emission Distributions Within the Economy: Implications for Life Cycle Impact Assessment
Authors: Norris Gregory A.
Published: March 2003

Refinements of methods for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) are directed at removing unjustified simplifications and quantifying and reducing uncertainties in results. The amount of uncertainty reduction that is actually achieved through LCIA method refinement depends on the structure of the life cycle inventory model. We investigate the general structure of inventory models using an economic input/output (I/O) life cycle assessment model of the U.S. economy. In particular, we study the results of applying a streamlining algorithm to the I/O LCA model. The streamlining algorithm retains only those “branches” of the process tree that are jointly required to account for a specified fraction of the total impacts upstream of each point in the tree. We examine the implications of these “tree pruning” results for site‐informed LCIA. Percentiles are presented for U.S. commodities and several important pollutants, for the share of total upstream emissions contributed by the set of processes in each supply tier, that is, each set of processes that directly supply inputs to another set of processes. Capturing at least 90% of the total direct plus upstream emissions for criteria air pollutants and toxic releases for at least 75% of the commodities in the U.S. economy requires full modeling of direct emissions plus the first five supply tiers. The requirements for capturing a high percentage (e.g., > 80%) of total emissions vary widely across products or commodities. To capture more than 60% of total emissions for more than half of all commodities requires models with more than 4,000 process instances. To well characterize the total impacts of products, life cycle impact assessment methods must characterize foreground process impacts in a site‐informed way and mean impacts of far‐removed processes in an unbiased way.
A Risk Analysis for Airborne Pathogens with Low Infectious Doses: Application to Respirator Selection Against Coccidioides immitis Spores
Authors: Nicas Mark , Hubbard Alan
Published: March 2003

Probability models incorporating a deterministic versus stochastic infectious dose are described for estimating infection risk due to airborne pathogens that infect at low doses. Such pathogens can be occupational hazards or candidate agents for bioterrorism. Inputs include parameters for the infectious dose model, distribution parameters for ambient pathogen concentrations, the breathing rate, the duration of an exposure period, the anticipated number of exposure periods, and, if a respirator device is used, distribution parameters for respirator penetration values. Application of the models is illustrated with a hypothetical scenario involving exposure to Coccidioides immitis, a fungus present in soil in areas of the southwestern United States. Inhaling C. immitis spores causes a respiratory tract infection and is a recognized occupational hazard in jobs involving soil dust exposure in endemic areas. An uncertainty analysis is applied to risk estimation in the context of selecting respiratory protection with a desired degree of efficacy.
Hate Speech: Asian American Students’ Justice Judgments and Psychological Responses
Authors: Boeckmann Robert J. , Liew Jeffrey
Published: March 2003

Two experiments using Asian American university student participants examined the distinctive characteristics of responses to racist hate speech relative to responses to other forms of offense. The studies varied the target of insulting speech (Asian, African, and Overweight person) or the nature of offence (petty theft vs. insulting speech). Participant variables included collective self‐esteem and social identification. Results indicate that hate speech directed at ethnic targets deserves more severe punishment than other forms of offensive speech and petty theft. Hate speech also results in more extreme emotional responses and, in the case of an Asian target, has a depressing influence on collective self‐esteem. Ethnic identification moderated punishment responses in study 1 only. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.
Cultural Identification and Second Language Pronunciation of Americans in Norway
Authors: Lybeck Karen
Published: March 2003

Schumann’s Acculturation Theory as presented in The Pidginization Process: A Model for Second Language Acquisition (1978) predicts that the degree of a learner’s success in second language (L2) acquisition depends upon the learner’s degree of acculturation. Attempts to test this theory have not been particularly fruitful due to the lack of an adequate measure of acculturation and the particular linguistic markers selected to measure success in L2 acquisition. This study proposes to measure sojourners’ acculturation in terms of their social exchange networks (Milroy & Wei, 1995). It measures L2 success in terms of pronunciation, which in the view of many scholars (Guiora, Beit–Hallahmi, Brannon, Dull, & Scovel, 1972; Labov, 1972; Scovel, 1988) is the strongest linguistic marker of a speaker’s cultural identification. Using this framework, the current study provides strong evidence in support of Schumann’s Acculturation Theory. The acculturation experiences and L2 pronunciation of 9 American women residing in Norway are described and the relationship examined. It is concluded that learners who developed positive network connections with native speakers of Norwegian evidenced more native–like pronunciation than those who had greater difficulty establishing such relationships.