bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Everyday value conflicts and integrative complexity of thought
Authors: Myyry Liisa
Published: March 2003

This study examined the value pluralism model in everyday value conflicts, and the effect of issue context on complexity of thought. According to the cognitive manager model we hypothesized that respondents would obtain a higher level of integrative complexity on personal issues than on professional and general issues. We also explored the relations of integrative complexity to value priorities, measured by the Schwartz Value Survey, and to emotional empathy. The value pluralism model was not supported by the data collected from 126 university students from social science, business and technology. The cognitive manager model was partially confirmed by data from females but not from males. Concerning value priorities, more complex respondents had higher regard for self–transcendence values, and less complex respondents for self–enhancement values. Emotional empathy was also significantly related to complexity score.
Normal Inverse Gaussian Distributions and Stochastic Volatility Modelling
Authors: Barndorff‐Nielsen Ole E.
Published: March 2003

The normal inverse Gaussian distribution is defined as a variance‐mean mixture of a normal distribution with the inverse Gaussian as the mixing distribution. The distribution determines an homogeneous Lévy process, and this process is representable through subordination of Brownian motion by the inverse Gaussian process. The canonical, Lévy type, decomposition of the process is determined. As a preparation for developments in the latter part of the paper the connection of the normal inverse Gaussian distribution to the classes of generalized hyperbolic and inverse Gaussian distributions is briefly reviewed. Then a discussion is begun of the potential of the normal inverse Gaussian distribution and Lévy process for modelling and analysing statistical data, with particular reference to extensive sets of observations from turbulence and from finance. These areas of application imply a need for extending the inverse Gaussian Lévy process so as to accommodate certain, frequently observed, temporal dependence structures. Some extensions, of the stochastic volatility type, are constructed via an observation‐driven approach to state space modelling. At the end of the paper generalizations to multivariate settings are indicated.
On Minimum Distance Estimation in Recurrent Markov Step Processes. I
Authors: Höpfner R. , Kutoyants Yu.
Published: March 2003

Consider a Markov step process X=(Xt)t≥0whose generator depends on an unknown d‐dimensional parameter ϑ. We look at certain empirical measures for recurrent Markov step processes and their a.s. convergence; based on this, we introduce a class of minimum distance estimators. For broad families of sequential observation schemes (at stage n, the trajectory of X is observed up to time Sn, (Sn)n a sequence of stopping times increasing to ∞), we formulate a stochastic expansion of the suitably rescaled estimation error; for a particular scheme, asymptotic normality is obtained as n→∞. A minimax property under misspecification of the model (in the sense that the true probability law is contiguous to the parametric model but not contained in it) is given.
A Class of Efficient Non‐parametric K‐sample Tests for Multivariate Counting Processes with Frailties
Authors: Chang I‐Shou , Chen Li‐Ru , Hsiung Chao
Published: March 2003

AK‐sample testing problem is studied for multivariate counting processes with time‐dependent frailty. Asymptotic distributions and efficiency of a class of non‐parametric test statistics are established for certain local alternatives. The concept of efficiency is to show that for every non‐parametric test in this class, there is a parametric submodel for which the optimal test has the same asymptotic power as the non‐parametric one. The theory is applied to analyse a diabetic retinopathy study data set. A simulation study is also presented to illustrate the theory
Isotonic Window Estimators of the Baseline Hazard Function in Cox's Regression Model Under Order Restriction
Authors: Chang Myron N. , Chung Daehyun
Published: March 2003

The regression model suggested by Cox (1972) has been widely used in survival analysis with censored observations. We propose isotonic window estimators for a monotone baseline hazard function in the Cox regression model. We prove that these estimators are asymptotically normal. The simulati on results presented in the article suggest that the proposed estimator performs better than several existing estimators in the literature
Non‐parametric Variance Estimation from Ergodic Samples
Authors: Arfi Mounir
Published: March 2003

It is shown that a kernel estimate for the variance function is uniformly strongly consistent, under the ergodic condition
Stochastic Monotonicity and Conditioning in the Limit
Authors: Nerman Olle
Published: March 2003

Suppose that {(Xn, Yn)} is a sequence of pairs of cector‐valued stochastic variables which converges weakly to (X, Y), and that {yn} converges to y. Sufficient conditions for the conditional distribution of Xn given Y = y are given in terms of stochastic monotonicity. Conditions, which guarantee that also moments of the conditional distributions converge to the moments of the ones of the limit, are also derived.
The L2 Rate of Convergence for Event History Regression with Time‐dependent Covariates
Authors: Huang Jianhua Z. , Stone Charles J.
Published: March 2003

Consider repeated events of multiple kinds that occur according to a right‐continuous semi‐Markov process whose transition rates are influenced by one or more time‐dependent covariates. The logarithms of the intensities of the transitions from one state to another are modelled as members of a linear function space, which may be finite‐ or infinite‐dimensional. Maximum likelihood estimates are used, where the maximizations are taken over suitably chosen finite‐dimensional approximating spaces. It is shown that the L2 rates of convergence of the maximum likelihood estimates are determined by the approximation power and dimension of the approximating spaces. The theory is applied to a functional ANOVA model, where the logarithms of the intensities are approximated by functions having the form of a specified sum of a constant term, main effects (functions of one variable), and interaction terms (functions of two or more variables). It is shown that the curse of dimensionality can be ameliorated if only main effects and low‐order interactions are considered in functional ANOVA models.
Generalized L‐statistics: Correction to the Form of the Asymptotic Variance Presented by Helmers et al. (1990)
Authors: Putt Mary , Chinchilli Vernon M.
Published: March 2003

We show that the asymptotic variance of a “generalized L‐statistic” is a function of the difference between the conditional and unconditional cumulative distribution functions of the kernel used to form the statistic.
Consistency of the GMLE with Mixed Case Interval‐Censored Data
Authors: Schick Anton , Yu Qiqing
Published: March 2003

In this paper we consider an interval censorship model in which the endpoints of the censoring intervals are determined by a two stage experiment. In the first stage the value k of a random integer is selected; in the second stage the endpoints are determined by a case k interval censorship model. We prove the strong consistency in the L1(μ)‐topology of the non‐parametric maximum likelihood estimate of the underlying survival function for a measure μ which is derived from the distributions of the endpoints. This consistency result yields strong consistency for the topologies of weak convergence, pointwise convergence and uniform convergence under additional assumptions. These results improve and generalize existing ones in the literature.
Non‐parametric Tests for the Comparison of Point Processes Based on Incomplete Data
Authors: Sun Jianguo , Rai Shesh N.
Published: March 2003

We consider the comparison of point processes in a discrete observation situation in which each subject is observed only at discrete time points and no history information between observation times is available. A class of non‐parametric test statistics for the comparison of point processes based on this kind of data is presented and their asymptotic distributions are derived. The proposed tests are generalizations of the corresponding tests for continuous observations. Some results from a simulation study for evaluating the proposed tests are presented and an illustrative example from a clinical trial is discussed.
Confidence and Likelihood*
Authors: SCHWEDER TORE , HJORT NILS LID
Published: March 2003

Confidence intervals for a single parameter are spanned by quantiles of a confidence distribution, and one‐sidedp‐values are cumulative confidences. Confidence distributions are thus a unifying format for representing frequentist inference for a single parameter. The confidence distribution, which depends on data, is exact (unbiased) when its cumulative distribution function evaluated at the true parameter is uniformly distributed over the unit interval. A new version of the Neyman–Pearson lemma is given, showing that the confidence distribution based on the natural statistic in exponential models with continuous data is less dispersed than all other confidence distributions, regardless of how dispersion is measured. Approximations are necessary for discrete data, and also in many models with nuisance parameters. Approximate pivots might then be useful. A pivot based on a scalar statistic determines a likelihood in the parameter of interest along with a confidence distribution. This proper likelihood is reduced of all nuisance parameters, and is appropriate for meta‐analysis and updating of information. The reduced likelihood is generally different from the confidence density.

Confidence distributions and reduced likelihoods are rooted in Fisher–Neyman statistics. This frequentist methodology has many of the Bayesian attractions, and the two approaches are briefly compared. Concepts, methods and techniques of this brand of Fisher–Neyman statistics are presented. Asymptotics and bootstrapping are used to find pivots and their distributions, and hence reduced likelihoods and confidence distributions. A simple form of inverting bootstrap distributions to approximate pivots of the abc type is proposed. Our material is illustrated in a number of examples and in an application to multiple capture data for bowhead whales.
A Problem of Dimensionality in Normal Mixture Analysis
Authors: BEE MARCO , FLURY BERNARD
Published: March 2003

Suppose the p‐variate random vector W, partitioned into q variables W1 and p‐q variables W2, follows a multivariate normal mixture distribution. If the investigator is mainly interested in estimation of the parameters of the distribution of W1, there are two possibilities: (1) use only the data on W1 for estimation, and (2) estimate the parameters of the p‐variate mixture distribution, and then extract the estimates of the marginal distribution of W1. In this article we study the choice between these two possibilities mainly for the case of two mixture components with identical covariance matrices. We find the asymptotic distribution of the linear discriminant function coefficients using the work of Efron (1975) and O'Neill (1978), and give a Wald–test for redundancy of W2. A simulation study gives further insights into conditions under which W2 should be used in the analysis: in summary, the inclusion of W2 seems justified if Δ 2.1, the Mahalanobis distance between the two component distributions based on the conditional distribution of W2 given W1, is at least 2.
On the Convergence of the Monte Carlo Maximum Likelihood Method for Latent Variable Models
Authors: CAPPÉ OLIVIER , DOUC RANDAL , MOULINES ERIC , ROBERT CHRISTIAN
Published: March 2003

While much used in practice, latent variable models raise challenging estimation problems due to the intractability of their likelihood. Monte Carlo maximum likelihood (MCML), as proposed by Geyer & Thompson (1992), is a simulation‐based approach to maximum likelihood approximation applicable to general latent variable models. MCML can be described as an importance sampling method in which the likelihood ratio is approximated by Monte Carlo averages of importance ratios simulated from the complete data model corresponding to an arbitrary value ϕ of the unknown parameter. This paper studies the asymptotic (in the number of observations) performance of the MCML method in the case of latent variable models with independent observations. This is in contrast with previous works on the same topic which only considered conditional convergence to the maximum likelihood estimator, for a fixed set of observations. A first important result is that when ϕ is fixed, the MCML method can only be consistent if the number of simulations grows exponentially fast with the number of observations. If on the other hand, ϕ is obtained from a consistent sequence of estimates of the unknown parameter, then the requirements on the number of simulations are shown to be much weaker.
Knowledge for Statecraft Lecture Given by the Winner of the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, Uppsala, October 3, 1998
Authors: George Alexander L.
Published: March 2003

The occasion of receiving the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science is perhaps an appropriate occasion to recall the origins of my interest in developing knowledge for statecraft. During the course of my years as a member of the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, I became aware that much academic research on international relations was not providing the type of theory and knowledge needed for dealing with the challenges the United States was facing during the Cold War. I felt it necessary to undertake the challenging task of devising a new approach for producing the type of knowledge that would come closer to meeting the needs of policy makers who were trying to avoid getting into dangerous war‐threatening crises and, when such crises nonetheless occurred, to manage and terminate them without triggering escalation to war.
Limits of the Literal: Five Recent Books About Metaphor
Authors: Gwyn Richard
Published: March 2003

Charles Forceville. Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising.

Raymond W. Gibbs Jr. The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language and Understanding.

Andrew Ortony (ed.). Metaphor and Thought. (2nd edition)

Gerard Steen. Understanding Metaphor in Literature: an Empirical Approach.

Roger M. White. The Structure of Metaphor
Pax Americana? Accent attitudinal evaluations in New Zealand, Australia and America
Authors: Bayard Donn , Weatherall Ann , Gallois Cynthia , Pittam Jeffery
Published: March 2003

This study describes a series of evaluations of gender pairs of New Zealand English, Australian English, American English and RP‐type English English voices by over 400 students in New Zealand, Australia and the U.S.A. Voices were chosen to represent the middle range of each accent, and balanced for paralinguistic features. Twenty‐two personality and demographic traits were evaluated by Likert‐scale questionnaires. Results indicated that the American female voice was rated most favourably on at least some traits by students of all three nationalities, followed by the American male. For most traits, Australian students generally ranked their own accents in third or fourth place, but New Zealanders put the female NZE voice in the mid‐low range of all but solidarity‐associated traits. All three groups disliked the NZE male. The RP voices did not receive the higher rankings in power/status variables we expected. The New Zealand evaluations downgrade their own accent vis‐a`‐vis the American and to some extent the RP voices. Overall, the American accent seems well on the way to equalling or even replacing RP as the prestige—or at least preferred—variety, not only in New Zealand but in Australia and some non‐English‐speaking nations as well. Preliminary analysis of data from Europe suggests this manifestation of linguistic hegemony as ‘Pax Americana’ seems to be prevalent over more than just the Anglophone nations.
Contesting meaning: Newfie and the politics of ethnic labelling
Authors: King Ruth , Clarke Sandra
Published: March 2003

The ethnic label Newfie is a site of ideological dispute: for some, it is simply an informal term for residents and expatriates of the Canadian province of Newfoundland, for others it may function as an in–group term of solidarity which takes on negative connotations when used by non–Newfoundlanders, and for still others it is the equivalent of a racial slur. In this study we first trace the history of the term, a fairly recent innovation. We then examine present–day attitudes as expressed in (provincial and national) media discourse and in self–report data. We argue that debate over Newfie is part of a larger ideological struggle concerning the commodification of an ‘invented’ Newfoundland culture, which itself must be understood in terms of Newfoundland’s socioeconomic position as Canada’s poorest province. Finally, we compare the Newfie case to other instances of contested group labelling.
Imprecise Tests and Imprecise Hypotheses
Authors: Darnell A. C.
Published: March 2003

This paper argues that theoretical predictions can only ever be expected to hold inexactly empirically, and constructs a method of inexact tests of exact hypotheses. Using a two‐parameter cost structure of ‘acceptance’ and ‘rejection’ of a simple null hypothesis, recognising a distinction between ‘statistical’ and ‘material’ significance, hypotheses are ‘accepted’ if they are only ‘slightly’ false. This may be contrasted with the exact testing of inexact hypotheses and the circumstances in which the two methods are equivalent are identified. The proposal facilitates informed decisions regarding the size and power of tests of simple hypotheses, and provides a transparent method of testing.
On the Coherence of Post‐Keynesian Economics
Authors: Walters Bernard , Young David
Published: March 2003

Recently the claim that post‐Keynesianism represents a coherent alternative to orthodox/neoclassical theory has regained favour with many leading post‐Keynesians. The purpose of this paper is to consider the basis for any such claim that post‐Keynesianism is a coherent alternative. A variety of forms of coherence are considered in relation to post‐Keynesian analyses and a number of shortcomings are identified. The broad conclusion is that post‐Keynesianism has not yet decided upon its preferred conception of coherence and consequently, cannot be regarded, at present, as an alternative school of economic thought.
On Inflation Targeting in the United Kingdom
Authors: Haldane Andrew G.
Published: March 2003

This paper discusses some of the operational issues relevant to inflation‐targeting in the United Kingdom, in particular: whether inflation targeting is ‘new’; whether it is potentially destabilising; and whether it requires too much knowledge on the part of the authorities. It goes on to discuss the role of inflation forecasts in general, and inflation probability distributions in particular, in the context of inflation‐targeting in the UK. It also discusses the role of transparency in such a regime, and provides some evidence on its effect.
The Evolution of European Central Bank Independence: An Updating of the Masciandaro and Spinelli Index
Authors: Tavelli Henry , Tullio Giuseppe , Spinelli Franco
Published: March 2003

In an earlier paper in this journal, Masciandaro and Spinelli computed an index of central bank independence for a number of countries on the basis of the institutional arrangements in place in 1990. Since then the situation has changed and therefore that work needs an updating. This shows that the Bundesbank remains the most independent central bank, but several other central banks have increased their independence: see the cases of Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Great Britain. The Bank of Spain has registered the biggest improvement and the Bank of Portugal remains the least independent.
Nonparametric Regression and Causality Testing:A Monte‐Carlo Study
Authors: Bell David , Kay Jim , Malley Jim
Published: March 2003

In this paper we propose a new procedure for causality testing using nonparametric additive models. We argue that the major advantage of our proposed method is that it can be used if the underlying data generation process (DGP) is either linear or nonlinear. Our results show that the nonparametric testing procedure provides a more robust test of causality. Furthermore, we show that the loss of power associated with the nonparametric procedure is minimal if the true DGP is linear.
Modelling Evolving Long‐run Relationships: An Application to the Italian Energy Market
Authors: Morana Claudio
Published: March 2003

This paper considers a SUTSE model embedded in a dynamic framework to estimate an energy cost share model for the Italian economy in an evolving environment. This is achieved by allowing stochastic seasonal and trend components in the long‐run specification and constructing an error correction mechanism to model short‐run dynamics. Modelling instability in the structural time series approach is shown to be a very flexible approach to non conventional cointegration analysis. Tests for instability in the cointegrating regression support the evolving specification adopted.
Monitoring and Motivation in Principal‐Agent Relationships: Some Issues in the Case of Local Authority Services
Authors: Walker Bruce
Published: March 2003

This paper examines a number of issues concerning the effects of monitoring on principals and agents involved in the provision of local authority services subject to competition. It examines, and then extends, existing theoretical work indicating the potential for sub‐optimal outcomes which result from the principal introducing monitoring schemes which focus upon the measurable aspects of the agent’s performance. The paper then departs from the received principal‐agent paradigm in order to consider whether monitoring and competitive regimes more generally have negative effects on the welfare and performance of principals and agents in both theory and practice.
How Do Employees of Ethnic Origin Fare on the Occupational Ladder in Britain?
Authors: Borooah Vani K.
Published: March 2003

This paper is concerned with inter‐group differences in the chances of being in different occupational classes. In particular, it focuses on Indian and on Black‐Caribbean men, in Britain, who were in full‐time employment. It asks: how much of the relative lack of occupational success experienced by Indians and Black‐Caribbean men can be explained by ethnic disadvantage and how much by the fact that they have the wrong worker attributes? It develops a decomposition methodology for answering this question within the context of discrete choice models with more than two alternatives, and it applies this methodology to microdata from the 1991 Census for Britain.
ω‐Homothetic Preferences: Theory and Applications
Authors: Datta Bipasa , Dixon Huw
Published: March 2003

This paper develops a new class of homothetic preferences which generate Marshallian demand curves for individual goods which can be concave, convex or linear in own price under the assumption that agents treat aggregate price indices as given (as in Dixit‐Stiglitz, 1977). The preferences are represented by a cost function which has two parameters: one determining the curvature of the Marshallian demand; the other determining the elasticity of demand when all prices are equal. The elasticity of demand varies with relative prices. Illustrative examples are given of Cournot duopoly and exchange rate pass‐through.
Partial Ownership Induces Customised Investments Under Repeated Interaction: An Explanation of Japanese Manufacturer‐Suppliers Relationships
Authors: Morita Hodaka
Published: March 2003

A dominant manufacturing firm often holds partial shares of its suppliers, and the suppliers are willing to make investments customised to the manufacturer. Furthermore, this type of manufacturer‐suppliers relationship is often long‐term and stable. This paper provides an explanation for this phenomenon by modelling repeated interaction between a downstream manufacturer and upstream suppliers. In the model, the manufacturer could avoid, by partially owning a supplier, hold‐up problems which would arise from the supplier’s customised investment. The model distinguishes between two sources of appropriable quasi‐rents, and yields new empirical predictions concerning the relationship between appropriable quasi‐rents and vertical integration.
Money, Credit and Spending: Drawing Causal Inferences
Authors: Caporale Guglielmo Maria , Howells Peter
Published: March 2003

It is widely accepted that loans cause deposits. Hitherto, though, the empirical evidence has come from bivariate causality tests which we now know can give rise to invalid inference if either of the two variables is causally influenced by some third, omitted, variable. In this paper we have used tests developed by Toda and Yamamoto to investigate the possibility that earlier inferences were incorrect because of the omission of a third relevant variable, total transactions in this particular case. Including the third variable requires us to revise some of the earlier inferences reported here, Howells and Hussein (1998). The most striking result, however, is that while deposits appear to be caused by total transactions (which could have invalidated the fundamental inference that loans cause deposits) our tests show that even in the presence of a third variable, the core of the endogeneity thesis prevails. Loans do cause deposits.
Take–up of Means–tested Benefits and Labour Supply
Authors: Creedy John
Published: March 2003

This paper examines take–up rates in a model in which there is a fixed non–refundable cost of applying for benefits. The model involves a joint decision regarding both labour supply and the take–up of the benefit. There is a single means–tested benefit involving a ‘taper rate’ at which benefits are withdrawn as earnings increase. It is found that take–up increases as the level of the taper rate increases, and the value of benefits increases. The achievement of 100% take–up is associated with labour supply responses whereby there are few, if any, individuals who are both working and eligible for benefits. The results have implications for the effects of lowering the taper rate on the costs and effective targeting of benefits.
Foreign Ownership and Productivity in the United Kingdom—Some Issues When Using the ARD Establishment Level Data
Authors: Harris Richard
Published: March 2003

In a recent paper, Griffith (1999) reviews the scope and usefulness of the recently released micro data underlying the UK Annual Census of Production (the ARD). In particular, she produces estimates of the Cobb–Douglas production function that show that foreign owned establishments in the motor vehicle industry do not have higher levels of productivity, after taking account of different levels of factor inputs. This is an important result, since much recent work has suggested that multinational firms have a significant impact on productivity and technical progress in host countries. However, there are a number of issues that can be raised regarding the Griffith study and which are important in any work involving the ARD. Firstly, there are problems with the raw data used since a significant number of establishments have been omitted. Secondly, Griffith uses unweighted data and therefore her parameter estimates are not representative of the underlying population of establishments operating in the UK motor vehicle industry. There is also an issue of whether plant level data should be used as opposed to establishment data. Finally, and most importantly, I do find that foreign–owned plants are significantly more productive than UK–owned plants, when using the same econometric approach as that adopted by Griffith. For comparative purposes, the analysis is extended beyond motor vehicles to include the next four largest and most important foreign–owned sectors in UK manufacturing.
Forest Fragmentation in the Humid Tropics: A Cross–National Analysis
Authors: Rudel Tom , Roper Jill
Published: March 2003

While habitat destruction always causes species extinctions, the rate of extinction may be highest in those habitats which become the most fragmented as they decline in size. For this reason, knowledge about the patterns and origins of rain forest fragmentation in the tropics may prove useful in efforts to preserve biodiversity. This paper calculates the degree of fragmentation in the tropical rain forests of 51 nations containing 83 per cent of the world’s tropical forests. By these measures, West Africa and Central America have the most fragmented tropical rain forests in the world. Not surprisingly, rain forests in the Amazon basin are the world’s least fragmented. Some patterns of tropical deforestation appear to produce more fragmentation than others. A two‐stage least squares analysis of these data suggest that deforestation driven by smallholders is most likely to produce highly fragmented forest habitats. The implications of these findings for policy and for further research are briefly discussed.
Malaria, Forests and People in Southeast Asia
Authors: Prothero R. Mansell
Published: March 2003

Forests and deforestation have important implications for health from ecological, social, economic and political points of view. These implications are examined for the case of malaria, a major public health problem which is difficult to control for various biomedical and entomological reasons. In addition, there are significant socio‐economic and political factors, particularly internal and international movements of population, which need to be examined for their role in the spread of malaria. Examples drawn from Southeast Asia and specifically Thailand are discussed in this paper.
Resource Struggles and the Politics of Place in North Lampung, Indonesia
Authors: Elmhirst Rebecca
Published: March 2003

This paper considers the difficulties inherent in countering the negative effects of globalisation in Indonesia through an enhanced recognition of place‐based cultural communities, which are seen to offer an alternative and more progressive path towards development. Focusing on the local history of resource struggles involving Javanese migrants and local people in North Lampung, the paper examines the ways that different groups of migrants and local Lampung people have dealt with changing resource control mechanisms in the context of the local transmigration (Translok) programme and large‐scale agro‐industrial development in the region. Whilst elites have been able to develop their personal wealth by capitalising on political and economic uncertainty, poor people from both groups have had to contend with conflict and increasing livelihood vulnerability that, if anything, has been intensified through the reassertion of place‐based cultures of resource control. In challenging populist narratives of resistance to transmigration that pit migrants against “indigenous” local people, the paper identifies the class‐related ambivalences towards development and structures of authority that cut across community and locality in the Translok zone
Effects of Urbanisation on Channel Morphology: The Case of Ekulu River in Enugu, South Eastern Nigeria
Authors: Jeje L.K. , Ikeazota S.I.
Published: March 2003

This study focuses on the effects of urbanisation on the morphology and hydraulic geometry of the Ekulu River in Enugu, southeastern Nigeria. Measurements of channel properties were taken along a 25 km stretch at 45 sites grouped into three sections: section A, upstream of the town (15); section B, within the town (15); and section C, downstream of the town (15). Spatial interpolation techniques were used to predict channel morphometric properties within and downstream of Enugu on the basis of upstream relationships. The independent variable in the analysis was drainage area, used as a surrogate for discharge. In section A, channel parameters increased systematically downstream with basin area. Within the town, channel parameters exhibited sudden dimensional increases. Based on sectoral relationships, measured channel dimensions showed moderate increases above the expected values, with average enlargement ratio indices of 34 per cent, 91 per cent and 65 per cent in width, channel capacity and depth, respectively, between sections A and B. Between B and C the channel exhibited average reduction ratio indices of 21 per cent and 27 per cent in capacity and depth, respectively, and an average enlargement ratio index of 17 per cent in width relative to the expected value. The increase in channel dimension within the town is explained by: (1) the confluence with a third‐order tributary; (2) the poorly structured, loose, incoherent and highly erodible channel bank materials; (3) high volumes of runoff generated from the impermeable urban surfaces; (4) urban hydrological routing due to urban drainage; (5) human traffic across the river banks; and (6) the huge volume of garbage and solid wastes dumped into the channel.
Individual Differences in Children’s Understanding of the School
Authors: Buchanan‐Barrow Eithne , Barrett Martyn
Published: March 2003

Following previous research (Buchanan‐Barrow and Barrett, 1996) which investigated the developmental trends in children’s understanding of the school, this paper reports a study which explored wider influences on children’s thinking in an examination of individual differences within those broad trends. First, the role of socio‐economic class, gender and birth‐order were examined for possible relationship to the children’s understanding. Second, the attitudes of children, parents and teachers towards their school were investigated in order to assess possible links with the children’s thinking. Children, aged 5‐11, from two primary schools, were interviewed, with separate questionnaires being completed by their parents and teachers. Although the findings suggested developmental trends associated with age, there were also clear indications of other patterns associated with all the social categories examined in this study. Furthermore, there was evidence of context‐effects, with links between the children’s attitudes and their understanding of the school and also between parental and children’s attitudes. Given the extent and significance of the factors which emerged, children’s social understanding would appear to be complex and liable to vary according to their social group memberships.
Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me?—Paying for Care in Old Age
Authors: Parker Gillian , Clarke Harriet
Published: March 2003

A major issue for social policy in the twenty‐first century will be providing good‐quality support and care for older people. However, recent debate about this has been driven more by ideology than by evidence. This paper examines the socio‐economic, demographic and policy changes that are influencing the debate, and outlines findings from current research on attitudes towards financial planning for care in old age. This shows that the majority of people feel that the state should provide or pay for care for older people, either through a means‐tested system or one which provides some basic level of protection which people can choose to enhance through their own means. However, only a minority would be willing to pay themselves for this, either directly through increased taxation or indirectly through reduced prospects of inheritance of housing capital. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings.
Healthcare Provision for Elderly People in Argentina: The Crisis of PAMI
Authors: Lloyd‐Sherlock Peter
Published: March 2003

This paper highlights the problems of administering health insurance programmes in Latin America and the difficulties of imposing effective reforms. It examines the development, financial collapse and subsequent restructuring of a health insurance programme specifically targeting elderly people in Argentina. By the 1990s the Integrated Healthcare Programme (PAMI) had become one of the largest components of the country’s public welfare system, managing an annual budget of US $2.5 billion. It provided elderly people with a wide range of services, including free and discounted medical care and a national network of day centres. The Programme was widely praised as efficient and innovative both within Argentina and beyond and was considered a model which other developing countries might emulate.

However, in 1994 it was discovered that PAMI had accumulated a deficit of US $1.3 billion and was suffering from a large number of serious structural weaknesses. These included a complete absence of financial accountability (both internally and externally), the piecemeal expansion of services, employment featherbedding, political patronage and corruption. Also, the Programme had contributed to long‐standing inequalities between different geographical regions and between insured and uninsured populations. Since then, numerous attempts have been made to reform the Programme, some of which have received funding from the World Bank, but these initiatives are only being very gradually implemented.
Eligibility Criteria and Entitlements: Defining Need for NHS Continuing Care
Authors: South Jane
Published: March 2003

The 1995 guidance HSG(95)8 “NHS Responsibilities for Meeting Continuing Health Care Needs” required health authorities to develop local policies and eligibility criteria for a range of continuing care services. The role of criteria in defining health need, and the potential effect on open‐ended rights to NHS care, need to be considered in light of the prior erosion of rights associated with changes in continuing care provision. This paper examines whether the development of eligibility criteria has led to a loss of entitlements to NHS care. Analysis of empirical evidence from a study of the policies and criteria of six health authorities found that criteria for fully funded care were generally well defined and restricted access to those with very intense and specialist needs, thereby constituting a loss of rights. In contrast, the criteria for community‐based services left eligibility dependent on professional discretion but often failed to clarify the relationship between individual need and levels of service provision. The research found that resource limits are likely to remain a factor in the allocation of services and this will affect the status of the criteria as potential entitlements.
Resources for Social Policy
Authors: Shaw Ian
Published: March 2003

The paper attempts the difficult task of identifying and exploring key resource factors which may influence social policy in the next millennium. It begins by critically examining the impact of demographic trends upon finance and demand for welfare in Europe. The possible impact of this is then examined in relation to the role of the family as a primary welfare resource and upon the supply of professional services. The implications of diminishing environmental resources are then examined and green social policy proposals are briefly outlined. However, the paper argues that the key resource is public goodwill and support for a range of social policy interventions. “The public” has been regarded as homogeneous in many surveys, but this paper argues that trends in middle‐class welfare support and welfare activity pose concerns for the future of welfare provision.
Partnership Working and Eligibility Criteria: What Can We Learn from the Implementation of Guidance on Continuing Health Care?
Authors: Abbott Stephen , Lewis Helen
Published: March 2003

Current government policy places great importance both on clinical governance and on partnership working between health and social services. Separately and together, these policy emphases require greater clarity in and between organizations about who should provide what care where than has often been achieved in the past. A study of the implementation of continuing health care policies suggests that clarity about appropriate long–term health and social care provision was difficult to achieve in the 1990s quasi–markets, because there were too few financial and structural incentives for agencies to cooperate in developing and implementing precise and comprehensive eligibility criteria. This problematic interplay between financial and structural factors is being addressed by a number of government initiatives designed to stimulate joint working, although the difficulty of drawing a clear boundary between health care (free at the point of delivery) and social care (which can be means–tested) remains.
Food and Poverty in Britain: Rights and Responsibilities
Authors: Dowler Elizabeth
Published: March 2003

Social policy and food/nutrition are both to some extent contested disciplines and areas for intervention. The role of food in poverty definition and measurement by experts and within the lived experience by those defined poor, has been a neglected component of disciplinary study and focused policy response in Britain in the latter half of the twentieth century. This paper explores the historical and contemporary complementarities and challenges, and examines some of the consequences poor people face because society has ignored the social aspects of nutritional needs, and the nutritional contributions to poverty definition and interventions. Current policy initiatives in the health, food and social sectors in Britain are briefly reviewed and their potential shortcomings discussed.
Islam, Social Traditions and Family Planning
Authors: Hasna Fadia
Published: March 2003

This article explores the doctrine of Islam and the different theological interpretations of the position of Islam about family planning in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Jordan, following the Sunni and Shia traditions. Principles that led to fatwas (rulings) in both these theological traditions, together with the main arguments of the debate between the proponents and opponents of family planning in Islam and the Higher Judge's interpretation (Islamic Courts in Jordan) of the position of Islam on family planning, are included. Men's and women's views are summarized, based on the findings of natural group discussions and in‐depth interviews conducted in 1998 with couples and individuals within their social networks in the different contexts in Jordan. Based on a gap analysis between doctrine, policy and people's beliefs, this study shows a need for family planning programmes to address men and women in a culturally sensitive manner: Men shape reproductive decisions. It is therefore argued that if men were more pro‐actively involved in family‐planning awareness campaigns, there might be a transformation of values and perceptions around fertility and family planning. Another conclusion drawn from the findings is that local resources, especially religious men, can be instrumental in promoting political trust in—and a sense of ownership of—family planning programmes in Jordan. Using local resources in advocacy for family planning, based on the cultural context of Shari’ah, seems effective in changing the reproductive behaviour of men.
Local Development and Heritage: Traditional Food and Cuisine as Tourist Attractions in Rural Areas
Authors: Bessière Jacinthe
Published: March 2003

This paper analyses the transformation and redefinition of local identity in rural France from the perspective of heritage – more precisely food and gastronomy – and local rural tourism. As an identity marker of a geographic area and/or as a means of promoting farm products, gastronomy meets the specific needs of consumers, local producers and other actors in rural tourism. The paper considers the meaning of food from a theoretical perspective. The current interest in traditional food and cuisine is part of a general desire for authentic experiences. At the regional level, the dynamics of building up heritage consist in actualizing, adapting, and re‐interpreting elements from the past, thus combining conservation and innovation. Local development can be seen as a process of territorial and heritage construction. Culinary heritage is a social construction and an important resource for local action. The paper examines the case of the Haut Plateau de l’Aubrac (Central France), where the local development process is closely linked to the valorization and the re‐creation of gastronomic knowledge and skill.
Essentially Non‐Peasant? Some Critical Comments on Post‐Modernist Discourse on the Peasantry
Authors: Djurfeldt Göran
Published: March 2003

This is a review article of Michael Kearney’s Reconceptualizing the peasantry: Anthropology in a global perspective. The article argues that Kearney is right on one score: the peasantry needs to be reconceptualized, and has long needed reconceptualization, since the very term ‘peasant’ is ethnocentric amd since it is too easily coupled with an evolutionist or modernist research programme. Rural sociology would do better with an analytical model of family farming as a core concept. Such a concpet would open up for comparative and historical studies of agrarian (and non‐agrarian) societies, and would hopefully help us to systematize what we already know about farmers worldwide. To argue, as Kearney does, that peasants must exit as ’ploybians’ enter the historical scene is misplaced and mistaken on a number of counts. It is misplaced methodologically, because it means committing what the author terms the epochal fallacy. It is mistaken empirically, because pluriactivity in various forms, including seasonal migration, has long been a feature of agrarian societies.
Impact and Potential: A Comparative Review of European Rural Development Practices
Authors: Van Der Ploeg Jan Douwe , Renting Henk
Published: March 2003

Rural development practices are found throughout Europe and cover a wide range of different types of activity. At first sight there does not seem to be much similarity between these different practices. This paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of some 30 cases of rural development from the different tracts of European countryside studied in the first phase of the impact research programme. The paper summarizes several of the communalities that were revealed in the analysis and goes on to consider differences that may be relevant to policy, especially in relation to the levels of socio‐economic impact generated by rural development practices in terms of extra income and employment. By means of clustering sets of cases according to regional and farm level impact data, a number of underlying factors in successful rural development and its translation into socio‐economic impacts are identified. Important factors relate the dissemination of activities by integrating new participants and repetition by others, the unleashing of synergy effects within clusters of compatible and mutually reinforcing rural development activities,and the construction of regional ‘protected spaces’ within the dominant technological regime that favour rural development.
Medicalisation by Whom? Accounts of Menstruation Conveyed by Young Women and Medical Experts in Medical Advisory Columns
Authors: Oinas Elina
Published: March 2003

The term medicalisation is considered in the light of an empirical study on menstruation as discussed in medical advisory columns. The focus is on how the medical profession responds to young women’s questions about their maturing bodies. The questions are seldom of a medical nature; rather, they are concerned with normality and coping with menstruation in everyday life. The doctors’ response is clear: the patient need not worry, the medical profession is both willing and able to take over the responsibility for, and control over, the body. The medicalisation of menstruation that can be found in advisory columns strengthens the position of the medical establishment as the legitimate authority on the body. Nevertheless, the letters sent to the magazines do not lend support to the idea of medicalisation as an endeavor pursued by the medical profession alone. The letters are also a means whereby young women try to establish standards for proper female gender behaviour in an areas where lay society remains silent.