bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Lindesmith on Addiction: A Critical History of a Classic Theory
Authors: Weinberg Darin
Published: March 2003

The evolution of Alfred Lindesmith's classic theory of addiction is analyzed as a product of the particular intellectual currents and controversies in and for which it was developed. These include the conflicts that pitted qualitative against quantitative sociology; the fledgling discipline of sociology against medicine, psychiatry, and psychology; and advocates of therapy for addicts against those who would simply punish them. By casting the meaningful experience of drug effects exclusively in terms of symbolically mediated mental representations of brute physiological sensations, Lindesmith's theory posits an epistemologically untenable dualism between mental and bodily perception that unnecessarily limits the explanatory scope of sociological research. As an alternative to this dualism, a praxiological approach to the meaning of drug-induced behavior and experience is proposed.
A Sociology of the Unmarked: Redirecting Our Focus
Authors: Brekhus Wayne
Published: March 2003

This article suggests that American sociology has developed a de facto tradition in the sociology of the marked that devotes greater epistemological attention to “politically salient” and “ontologically uncommon” features of social life. Although the “unmarked” comprises the vast majority of social life, the “marked” commands a disproportionate share of attention from sociologists. Since the marked already draws more attention within the general culture, social scientists contribute to re-marking and the reproduction of common-sense images of social reality. This has important analytic consequences. This article argues for developing a stronger tradition in a sociology of the unmarked that explicitly foregrounds “politically unnoticed” and taken-for-granted elements of social reality. Three strategies are proposed toward this end: (1) reversing conventional patterns of markedness to foreground what typically remains unnamed and implicit, (2) marking everything by filling in all the shades of social continua so that each shares the same degree of epistemological ornamentation, and (3) developing an analytically nomadic perspective that observes social phenomena from multiple vantage points.
The Significance of Shils
Authors: Turner Stephen
Published: March 2003

Edward Shils was a widely recognized but misunderstood thinker. The original contexts of his thought are not well understood and greatly distorted by associating him with the concerns of Parsons. Shils provides a fully comparable alternative to the thought of Habermas and Foucault, with essentially similar roots: practice theory, the dissolution of Marxism in the twenties, and Carl Schmitt. Though Shils was indebted to the American sociological tradition, with respect to these issues his sources were outside it: in Hendrik de Man, T. S. Eliot, and Michael Polanyi. It is shown how Shils responded to Schmitt's argument about the inherent conflict between democracy and liberalism in terms of an account of civility and tradition, and how this argument results in a critique of Foucault, Habermas, and collectivistic liberalism.
The Might Have Been and Could be of Religion in Social Theory
Authors: Lemert Charles
Published: March 2003

Religion may well be the most inscrutable surd of social theory, which began late in the 19th century dismissing the subject. Not even the renewal of interest in religion in the 1960s did much to make religion a respectable topic in social theory. It is possible that social theory's troubles are, in part, due to its refusal to think about religion. Close examination of social theories of Greek religion suggest, for principal example, that religion is perfectly able to thrive alongside the profane provided both are founded on principles of finitude, which in turn may be said to be the foundational axiom of any socially organized religion. The value of a social theory of religion, thus defined, may be seen as a way out of the current controversies over the politics of redistribution and politics of recognition. Any coherent principles of social justice, whether economic or cultural, may only be possible if one begins with the idea that all human arrangements are, first and foremost, limited—that is to say: finite; hence, strictly speaking, religious. Durkheim got this only partly right.
The Trouble with Modernity: Gender and the Remaking of Social Theory
Authors: Thistle Susan
Published: March 2003

There is continued frustration over the failure of established social theory to be altered despite dramatic developments in women's lives and feminist theory. I argue that this process has been blocked by an overly static conception of society and gender itself. Close examination of the actual circumstances of African American and white women in the nineteenth-and twentieth-century United States reveals the relationship between gender and economic and political development has been a dynamic historical one, culminating recently in a radical transformation of women's lives and work. I develop the implications of this argument for older analytic divisions between work and home, or productive and reproductive labor, and for recent shifts in theory. Coherent grasp of the events currently altering women's lives provides a clear way to join gender with earlier theoretical concerns, as another moment of social transformation brought about by a still-unfolding process of economic and political development.
Cognitive Value Commitments in Formal Theoretical Sociology
Authors: Fararo Thomas J.
Published: March 2003

This paper aims to communicate some of the value commitments that characterize my approach to formal model building in theoretical sociology. It does this through a narrative method, an autobiographical account of shifts in intellectual interests through various phases of my career: from history to philosophy, from philosophy to sociology, from sociology to mathematics and back, followed by several long-term formal theoretical research programs. One of these, pertaining to the formal representation of institutionalized social action systems, is described in terms of its linkage to interpretive sociology, while also noting its limitations from a theoretical science point of view. By interweaving intellectual biography and intellectual history, the paper also provides some contextual background for appreciating the work of the other contributors to this symposium.
Gemeinschaft Revisited: A Critique and Reconstruction of the Community Concept
Authors: Brint Steven
Published: March 2003

Community remains a potent symbol and aspiration in political and intellectual life. However, it has largely passed out of sociological analysis. The paper shows why this has occurred, and it develops a new typology that can make the concept useful again in sociology. The new typology is based on identifying structurally distinct subtypes of community using a small number of partitioning variables. The first partition is defined by the ultimate context of interaction; the second by the primary motivation for interaction; the third by rates of interaction and location of members; and the fourth by the amount of face-to-face as opposed to computer-mediated interaction. This small number of partitioning variables yields eight major subtypes of community. The paper shows how and why these major subtypes are related to important variations in the behavioral and organizational outcomes of community. The paper also seeks to resolve some disagreements between classical liberalism and communitarians. It shows that only a few of the major subtypes of community are likely to be as illiberal and intolerant as the selective imagery of classical liberals asserts, while at the same time only a few are prone to generate as much fraternalism and equity as the selective imagery of communitarians suggests. The paper concludes by discussing the forms of community that are best suited to the modern world.
Theoretical Implications of Regional Effects
Authors: Hopcroft Rosemary L.
Published: March 2003

Local economic institutions (systems of property rights and rules of land use) influenced the course of economic change in European history, as well as state formation and religious change. In this paper, I outline the theoretical implications of these regional effects. None of our existing macrolevel theories and explanations of the “rise of the West” can adequately incorporate them, so I present an alternative theory, based on rational choice premises. Yet the existence of these regional effects also highlights the deficiencies of a rational choice theoretical approach. First, the approach is unable to explain historical contexts, institutional legacies, or the effects of timing, which were vital for outcomes of social change but that lie outside the model itself. Second, although it can be very useful, the model of the actor motivated by material self-interest often proved inadequate in historical situations. Solutions are suggested.
Structural Engineering Applications with Augmented Neural Networks
Authors: Yeh I‐Cheng
Published: March 2003

This paper presents an augmented neural network (ANN), a novel neural network architecture, and examines its efficiency and accuracy for structural engineering applications. The proposed architecture is that of a standard backpropagation neural network with augmented neurons, that is, logarithm neurons and exponent neurons are added to the network's input and output layers. The principles of augmented neural networks are (1) the augmented neurons are highly sensitive in the boundary domain, thereby facilitating construction of accurate mapping in the model's boundary domain, and (2) the network denotes each input variable with multiple input neurons, thus allowing a highly interactive function on hidden neurons to be easily formed. Therefore, the hidden neurons can more easily construct an accurate network output for a highly interactive mapping model. Experimental results demonstrate that the network's logarithm and exponent neurons provide a markedly enhanced network architecture capable of improving the network's performance for structural engineering applications.
Intelligent Tools for Wastewater Treatment Design
Authors: Krovvidy Srinivas
Published: March 2003

Wastewater treatment design involves identifying the sequence of environmentally acceptable technologies that need to be applied based on the influent concentrations of several contaminants in the wastewater. This paper proposes a set of tools including a learning system to extract knowledge‐based rules for treatment technologies, an optimization algorithm to obtain treatment trains, and a case‐based retrieval system to identify applicable environmental regulations.
Data Fusion of Fixed Detector and Probe Vehicle Data for Incident Detection
Authors: Ivan John N. , Sethi Vaneet
Published: March 2003

An important feature of many advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) is real‐time information about incidents on the street network. This paper describes a system for automatically detecting incidents for such an ATIS developed using artificial neural networks and statistical prediction methods. The system monitors traffic conditions using two types of data: inductive loop detectors (ILDs) and vehicle probes. For both neural network and statistical methods, incident detection is accomplished using two approaches: by processing traffic input data directly and by processing the output of specialized algorithms that detect incidents using information from each data source. Analysis data generated from a simulation of a typical suburban signalized major arterial street are used. Different model configurations are examined and tested to identify the input variables and methods that are the best predictors of incident occurrence. The neural network approaches consistently perform at least as well as the discriminant analysis models, especially when results are adjusted to avoid false alarms.
Distributed Control of Large‐Scale Structural Systems
Authors: Udwadia F. E. , Hosseini M. , Wada B.
Published: March 2003

This article develops a methodology for the distributed active control of large structural systems. The central idea is to use a set of active members in a structural system, each {locally} controlled. The method relies on an understanding of (1) the peculiar interaction of force feedback and velocity feedback in an active member and (2) the interaction between such active members, as well as that between active and passive members in a structural system. Using a commonly occurring MDOF model of a structural system, we show that the distributed‐local‐control design is robust. Locating the active members so that all the eigenvalues of the damping and stiffness matrices of the controlled system are assuredly increased leads to several results on where and how active members might be located in such a structure.
Fuzzy Evaluation of the Thermal Quality of Buildings
Authors: Ribeiro Rita Almeida
Published: March 2003

This article presents an application relevant to civil engineering that deals with the classification of the thermal quality of buildings using a fuzzy multiple‐attribute decision support tool. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the potential and flexibility of using these types of tools in the civil engineering arena. The application selected follows the Portuguese standards for classifying building insulation construction projects.
A Distributed Computing Environment for Dynamic Traffic Operations
Authors: Peeta Srinivas , Chen Shu‐Ching
Published: March 2003

This study explores distributed computing techniques in the context of dynamic network algorithms for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) applications. ITS technologies such as Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) and Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS) provide traffic‐related information on‐line for a new generation of models and methodologies that aim at the real‐time enhancement of network performance and efficiency. However, existing sequential processing solution techniques and/or single‐processor computational environments pre‐ clude translation of these methodologic and algorithmic advances to on‐line operability due to the severe computational burden of processing networkwide time‐dependent traffic‐related data (such as volume, speed, occupancy, and classification). To address this problem, we investigate two remote procedure call (RPC)—based distributed computing techniques on a network of workstations. Computational results indicate that the distributed implementation performs better than sequential computation, although tradeoffs between communications overheads and computational savings become critical with the number of processors. This suggests a threshold number of processors for optimal computational performance depending on the specific problem and its solution logic. The results also illustrate the effects of congestion levels, loading profiles, and output data size on computational performance.
Harmonization for Omnidirectional Progression in Urban Traffic Control
Authors: Findler Nicholas V.
Published: March 2003

I describe harmonization as part of my work on distributed, knowledge‐based, real‐time, traffic‐adaptive control of street and highway ramp traffic signals. The control system developed in prior efforts includes a two‐stage learning process. The first stage optimizes the control of steady‐state traffic at a single intersection and over a network of streets. The second stage of learning, not related yet to harmonization, deals with the predictive/reactive control of dynamic traffic flow in street networks. However, the control regimes at the individual intersections do not consider the time behavior of adjacent intersection control regimes. Optimal traffic flow in street networks must be with reference to signalization, phasing, and harmonization of control at all intersections. Harmonization represents the best approximation to a coordinated omnidirectional progression (“green wave”). This means that the resulting control regime produces a minimum of the sum, over all intersections, of delay times due to red lights and of unused green periods, each contributing term being weighted by the respective traffic flow values. The system has been tested in the laboratory on a range of scenarios (in terms of geometries and traffic flows) and has been found to perform as expected.
Recurrent Neural Networks for Structural Optimization
Authors: Parvin Azadeh , Serpen Gursel
Published: March 2003

This paper presents an improvement for an artificial neural network paradigm that has shown significant potential for successful application to a class of optimization problems in structural engineering. The artificial neural network paradigm includes algorithms that belong to the class of single‐layer, relaxation‐type recurrent neural networks. The suggested improvement enhances the convergence performance and involves a technique that sets the values of weight parameters of the recurrent neural network algorithm. The complete procedure of solving an optimization problem with a single‐layer, relaxation‐type recurrent neural network is introduced. The discrete Hopfield network is employed to solve the weighted matching problem. A set of simulation experiments is performed to analyze the performance of the discrete Hopfield network. Simulation results confirm that the discrete Hopfield network locates a locally optimal solution after each relaxation once the weight parameters are specified as defined in the suggested technique.
An Internet‐Based Multimedia Highway Information System
Authors: Wang Kelvin C. P. , Zhang Hui , Li Xuyang
Published: March 2003

As a part of highway infrastructure management, photographic logging systems are used widely in highway departments. However, the technology associated with current photographic logging systems is largely based on analog video technology. New technologies in digital video, the Internet, and database management have provided opportunities to overcome the limitations of analog video and improve the accessibility and functionality of photographic logging and traditional engineering databases. This article describes a newly developed multimedia‐based highway information system (MMHIS) and its implementations in the World Wide Web environment. MMHIS is an integrated database system combining traditional highway engineering site data with visual graphic and roadway videos. The objective of developing the Web‐based MMHIS was to establish a Web site and a server to provide simultaneous information retrievals of the multimedia database through the Internet and the highway agency's internal computer network. This article presents the capabilities of MMHIS and discusses the implementation of a WWW‐based MMHIS. It is concluded that it is cost‐effective to establish a Web‐based MMHIS for production purposes.
Two Parallel Computing Methods for Coupled Thermohydromechanical Problems
Authors: Schrefler B. A. , Matteazzi R. , Gawin D. , Wang X.
Published: March 2003

Two different approaches are presented for the parallel implementation of computer programs for the solution of coupled thermohydromechanical problems. One is an asynchronous method in connection with staggered and monolithic solution procedures. The second one is a domain decomposition method making use of substructuring techniques and a Newton‐Raphson procedure. The advantages of the proposed methods are illustrated by examples. Both methods are promising, but we actually have no comparison between the two because one works on a linear program with only two interacting fields and the other on a full nonlinear set of (multifield) equations.
An MPI Parallel Implementation of Newmark's Method
Authors: Namazifard Ali , Parsons I. D.
Published: March 2003

The standard message‐passing interface (MPI) is used to parallelize Newmark's method. The linear matrix equation encountered at each time step is solved using a preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm. Data are distributed over the processors of a given parallel computer on a degree‐of‐freedom basis; this produces effective load balance between the processors and leads to a highly parallelized code. The portability of the implementation of this scheme is tested by solving some simple problems on two different machines: an SGI Origin2000 and an IBM SP2. The measured times demonstrate the efficiency of the approach and highlight the maintenance advantages that arise from using a standard parallel library such as MPI.
Some Learning Methods in Functional Networks
Authors: Castillo Enrique , Gutiérrez José Manuel , Cobo Angel , Castillo Carmen
Published: March 2003

This article is devoted to learning functional networks. After a short introduction and motivation of functional networks using a CAD problem, four steps used in learning functional networks are described: (1) selection of the initial topology of the network, which is derived from the physical properties of the problem being modeled, (2) simplification of this topology, using functional equations, (3) estimation of the parameters or weights, using least squares and minimax methods, and (4) selection of the subset of basic functions leading to the best fit to the available data, using the minimum‐description‐length principle. Several examples are presented to illustrate the learning procedure, including the use of a separable functional network to recover the missing data of the significant wave height records in two different locations, based on a complete record from a third location where the record is complete.
Grouping Pavement Condition Variables for Performance Modeling Using Self‐Organizing Maps
Authors: Attoh‐Okine Nii O.
Published: March 2003

Different modeling techniques have been employed for the evaluation of pavement performance, determination of structural capacity, and performance predictions. The evaluation of performance involves the functional analysis of pavements based on the history of the riding quality. The riding comfort and pavement performance can be conveniently defined in terms of roughness and pavement distresses. Thus different models have been developed relating roughness with distresses to predict pavement performance. These models are too complex and require parsimonious equations involving fewer variables. Artificial neural networks have been used successfully in the development of performance‐prediction models. This article demonstrates the use of an artificial intelligence neural networks self‐organizing maps for the grouping of pavement condition variables in developing pavement performance models to evaluate pavement conditions on the basis of pavement distresses.
A Distributed Object‐Oriented Finite‐Element Analysis Program Architecture
Authors: Chen Hung‐Ming , Archer Graham C.
Published: March 2003

This article presents a distributed object‐oriented design for a nonlinear finite‐element analysis using the message‐passing paradigm and a single‐program, multiple‐data scheme. The architecture is an extension of an existing sequential object‐oriented architecture. The design recognizes the costly communication startup time penalty by attempting to minimize the frequency of communications. This is facilitated by distributing not only the elements in the model but also their associated nodes and mapping between the degrees of freedom and the analytical equations of equilibrium. The proposed object design was implemented and tested on a nonlinear static pushover analysis of three moment‐resisting frames.
Curriculum‐Based Measurement in the Content Areas: Validity of Vocabulary‐Matching as an Indicator of Performance in Social Studies
Authors: Espin Christine A. , Busch Todd W. , Shin Jongho , Kruschwitz Ron
Published: March 2003

In this study, we examined the reliability and validity of two curriculum‐based measures as indicators of performance in a content‐area classroom. Participants were 58 students in a 7th‐grade social studies class. CBM measures were student‐ and administrator‐read vocabulary‐matching probes. Criterion measures were knowledge pre‐ and post‐tests, the social studies subtest of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and student grades. Results revealed moderate alternate‐form reliability for both vocabulary‐matching measures. Reliability of the measures was increased by combining scores across two testing sessions. Correlations between the predictor and criterion variables were moderate to moderately strong, with the exception of those between vocabulary‐matching and student grades. Observed scores for students with LD were lower than for students without LD on both student‐ and administrator‐read vocabulary‐matching measures. Few differences in reliability and validity coefficients were found between the student‐ and administrator‐read measures. Results are discussed in terms of the use of CBM as a system for monitoring performance and designing interventions for students with learning disabilities in content‐area classrooms.
Predicting, Explaining, and Preventing Children's Reading Difficulties
Authors: McCardle Peggy , Scarborough Hollis S. , Catts Hugh W.
Published: March 2003

Several decades of research have made it clear that by the time children enter school they already vary widely in their reading‐related knowledge and skills. How well do these differences predict differences in reading acquisition? What can they tell us about the causes of reading disabilities? How might these research findings be used to reduce the number of children who have difficulty learning to read? Answers to such questions are fundamental for designing early interventions for children at risk. In this paper, we summarize what has been learned so far, and discuss what directions need to be taken in future research so as to provide fuller answers.
Systems of Benevolent Utility Functions
Authors: Bergstrom Theodore C.
Published: March 2003

This paper studies systems of utility functions in which each person's utility depends on his or her own consumption as well as on the utilities of others. We consider the question of when a system of interdependent utility functions induces unique utility functions over allocations and identifies the class of transformations on interdependent utility functions that are equivalent in the sense of inducing the same preferences over allocations. We show that well‐behaved systems of this kind can be studied by means of the theory of dominant‐diagonal matrices and that the theory of dominant‐diagonal matrices with finitely many elements extends in a satisfactory way to denumerable matrices. The theory of denumerable dominant diagonal matrices allows an elegant analysis of systems of intergenerational benevolence. We also revisit and extend the theory of two‐sided altruism as formulated by Kimball and by Hori and Kanaya.
Economies with Public Goods: An Elementary Geometric Exposition
Authors: Thomson William
Published: March 2003

This paper explains how to represent economies with one private good, one public good, and two agents when the public good is produced from the private good by operating a linear technology, by means of the so‐called “Kolm triangle.” It also shows the usefulness of this representation in analyzing this class of economies.
The Mordukhovich Normal Cone and the Foundations of Welfare Economics
Authors: Khan M. Ali
Published: March 2003

The statement that Pareto optimal allocations require the equalization of marginal rates of substitution, or in an economy with public goods, require the equalization of the aggregate of the marginal rates in consumption to those in production, is formalized through the use of the Mordukhovich normal cone. Since this cone is strictly contained, in general, in the Clarke normal cone, the results generalize earlier work of Khan and Vohra, Quinzii, Yun, and Cornet. The results are an application of Mordukhovich's 1980 theorem on necessary conditions for optimality in constrained optimization problems involving functions that are not necessarily differentiable or quasi‐concave. As such, the results suggest a distinction between the mathematical programming approach to the “second welfare theorem,” as in the work of Hicks, Lange, and Samuelson, and that based on the separation of sets, as pioneered by Arrow and Debreu.
Input Substitution and Pollution Control under Uncertainty and Firm Heterogeneity
Authors: Wu Junjie
Published: March 2003

Much research has focused on emission‐based instruments for pollution control, but indirect approaches that control input use or production technologies are often used. This article derives a simple rule for evaluating the relative efficiency of input‐use taxes and standards in the presence of input substitution, firm heterogeneity, and uncertainty. The importance of input substitution is demonstrated and the key parameters that determine the relative efficiency are identified.
Lobby Groups and the Financial Support of Election Campaigns
Authors: Puy M. Socorro
Published: March 2003

We study a model of competition between two political parties with policy compromise. There is a special interest group with well‐defined preferences on political issues. Voters are of two kinds: impressionable and knowledgeable. The impressionable voters are influenced by the election campaigns. The objective of the parties is to obtain the maximum votes. Parties compete for financial support from a given interest group. Each party proposes a platform in exchange for an amount of campaign funds, and the interest group decides whether to accept or reject each of these proposals. We show that parties' competition resembles, to a certain extent, Bertrand competition. Furthermore, in equilibrium only one party gets funds from the interest group. This result differs from the one obtained in a similar model by Grossman and Helpman in which, in equilibrium, both parties are financed by the interest group. This difference arises because Grossman and Helpman assume that it is the interest group who makes the proposals to the political parties.
Second Best Redistributive Policies: The Case Of International Trade
Authors: Guesnerie Roger
Published: March 2003

The paper presents a brief review of recent work that focuses on the normative economics of international trade. In a Heckscher–Ohlin‐like economy, with skilled and unskilled workers, the available redistributive tools (that include income taxation) are not powerful enough to allow the separation of efficiency and equity issues, and “production efficiency” is no longer desirable. At a social optimum that calls for redistribution toward the unskilled workers, the social value of the unskilled intensive good is necessarily smaller than its production price. This finding allows us to unify existing results and suggests conjectures.
Reclaiming a Theological Reading of the Bible: Barth’s Interpretation of Job as a Case Study
Authors: Sherman Robert J.
Published: March 2003

Modern scholarship often seems intent on breaking scripture apart without offering a means to put it back together again in an intellectually responsible and theologically useful way. This article recognizes that numerous scholars have sought to redress this situation and suggests that Karl Barth’s method of scriptural interpretation may be a useful and instructive resource. Barth possessed the historical‐critical skills of his day yet always employed them in the service of his theological interpretation. One clear example of his method may be found in his ‘mini‐commentary’ on the book of Job (in Church Dogmatics IV/3), which is examined as a case study.
Recent Developments in Modelling Nonstationary Vector Autoregressions
Authors: Mills Terence C.
Published: March 2003

In this paper we review some recent developments in the modelling of nonstationary vector autoregressions (VARs) which we feel have great potential for furthering applied researchers understanding of the relationships linking the variables making up a VAR. The developments surveyed are the use of model determination criteria in selecting lag length, trend order and cointegrating rank, causality testing in vector error correction models, FM‐VAR estimation of levels VARS, common trends and cycles analysis, permanent and transitory decompositions, impulse response asymptotics, and the links between cointegrated VARs and structural models. The techniques are illustrated by applications to the modelling of U.K. equities, dividends and interest rates.
A Primer on Unit Root Testing
Authors: Phillips Peter C. B. , Xiao Zhijie
Published: March 2003

The immense literature and diversity of unit root tests can at times be confusing even to the specialist and presents a truly daunting prospect to the uninitiated. In consequence, much empirical work still makes use of the simplest testing procedures because it is unclear from the literature and from recent reviews which tests if any are superior. This paper presents a survey of unit root theory with an emphasis on testing principles and recent developments. The general framework adopted makes it possible to consider tests of stochastic trends against trend stationarity and trend breaks of a general type. The main tests are listed, and asymptotic distributions are given in a simple form that emphasizes commonalities in the theory. Some simulation results are reported, and an extensive list of references and all annotated bibliography are provided.
Structural Analysis of Cointegrating VARs
Authors: Pesaran M. Hashem , Smith Ron P.
Published: March 2003

This survey uses a number of recent developments in the analysis of cointegrating Vector Autoregressions (VARs) to examine their links to the older structural modelling traditions using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), and Simultaneous Equations Models (SEMs). In particular, it emphasizes the importance of using judgement and economic theory to supplement the statistical information. After a brief historical review it sets out the statistical framework, discusses the identification of impulse responses using the Generalized Impulse Response functions, reviews the analysis of cointegrating VARs and highlights the large number of choices applied workers have to make in determining a specification. In particular, it considers the problem of specification of intercepts and trends and the size of the VAR in more detail, and examines the advantages of the use of exogenous variables in cointegration analysis. The issues are illustrated with a small U.S. Macroeconomic model.
Job Assignment and Promotion
Authors: Valsecchi Irene
Published: March 2003

The paper surveys theoretical models of job mobility with special attention to promotion and career profiles. The review is ordered according to the assumptions concerning information on workers’ relevant characteristics (i.e. perfect vs. imperfect information, private vs. public information) and technology (i.e. single‐job models vs. many‐job models). JEL classification: D21, J31, L23
Expectations Formation and Risk in Three Financial Markets: Surveying What the Surveys Say
Authors: MacDonald Ronald
Published: March 2003

This paper attempts to provide a logical overview of the literature which exploits survey data to examine issues of expectations formation and risk aversion in financial markets. Our survey suggests that: short term expectations are excessively volatile and exhibit bandwagon effects, while longer term expectations appear to be regressive and therefore stabilising; in bond and foreign exchange markets the standard result of forward rate biasedness is due in part to time‐varying premia; recent research using disaggregate foreign exchange survey data demonstrates the importance of heterogeneous expectations.
What do We Know About Investment Under Uncertainty?
Authors: Carruth Alan , Dickerson Andy , Henley Andrew
Published: March 2003

Recent theoretical developments relating to investment under uncertainty have highlighted the importance of irreversibility for the timing of investment expenditures and their expected returns. This has subsequently stimulated a growing empirical literature which examines uncertainty and threshold effects on investment behaviour. This paper presents a review of this literature. A variety of methods have been used to investigate the empirical implication of irreversibility in investment, the majority focusing on the relationship between investment flows and proxy measures of uncertainty. A general conclusion is that increased uncertainty, at both aggregate and disaggregate levels, leads to lower investment rates. This suggests that there is an irreversibility effect, under which greater uncertainty raises the value of the ‘call option’ to delay a commitment to investment. This effect appears to dominate any positive impact on investment arising from the fact that greater uncertainty, under certain circumstances, increases the marginal profitability of capital. The methods used raise a number of issues which call into question the reliability of the findings, and these are addressed in the paper. However, if such irreversibility effects are present, then their omission from traditional investment models casts doubt on the efficacy of such specifications. JEL Classification: D81, D92, E22
On the Use of Collateral
Authors: Coco Giuseppe
Published: March 2003

This paper surveys existing explanations for the pervasive use of collateral in credit markets and relates them to the empirical evidence on the subject. Collateral may be used as a screening or an incentive device in markets characterized by various forms of asymmetric and biased information. The evidence is incompatible with the use of collateral as a signal of projects’ quality, while broadly consistent with explanations based on its incentive properties and asymmetric evaluation of projects.
Collective Action Cascades: An Informational Rationale for the Power in Numbers
Authors: Lohmann Susanne
Published: March 2003

Self‐interested individuals pursue their goals rationally taking into account the constraints imposed by their environment and best‐responding to the strategic behavior of other individuals: when applied to collective action, economic theory predicts undersupply.

Meanwhile, the behavior of masses of people is described as excitable, emotional, irrational, suggestible, hypnotic, disorderly, and unpredictable: in practice, it seems, collective action is oversupplied, and erratically so. The contagious and volatile dynamics of collective action appear to defy rationalization.

I conceptualize a social movement as a dynamic informational cascade. Turbulencies emerge endogenously from rational individual behavior. Disorderly mass behavior is a by‐product of a powerful decentralized mechanism of information aggregation.
Preference Reversal
Authors: Seidl Christian
Published: March 2003

Preference reversal concerns a systematic divergence between prices of lotteries and subjects’ expressed preferences for playing the respective lotteries. This article surveys the discovery of preference reversal by psychologists, its re–examination and corroboration both by psychologists and later on by (first sceptical) economists, as well as the causes of preference reversal. The preference reversal phenomenon has been explained to be caused by four determinants, viz. by the mode of elicitation of certainty equivalents, by intransitivity of preferences, by overpricing and/or underpricing of lotteries, and by nonlinear probabilities. JEL classification: D81
Family Therapy Training Research – An Updating Review
Authors: Street Eddy
Published: March 2003

This paper provides an update of research into the training of family therapists. Issues from the overarching contexts of adult learning, professional training and current themes in the practice of family therapy are briefly outlined. The early organization of the training research field is seen as being programme orientated, lacking a multi‐perspective approach (particularly that of the trainee) and not making use of qualitative research methods. The more recent empirical research is reviewed with these issues to the fore. The paper concludes by providing a new set of research questions, many of which can be addressed by qualitative methodologies and by calling for the research process to be an essential ingredient of training for family therapists aided by the development of the trainer/researcher role.
Women and men in conversation: a consideration of therapists' interruptions in therapeutic discourse
Authors: Stratford Jacqueline
Published: March 2003

Studies of day‐to‐day conversation have shown that interrupting can be used as a gendered means of determining both conversational topic and speaker. This paper explores the nature of interruptions in therapeutic conversations in this light. Drawing upon two recent studies of therapists' interruptions, the author offers some preliminary ideas for consideration by therapists, clinical supervisors and researchers.
The McMaster Approach to Families: theory, assessment, treatment and research
Authors: Miller Ivan W. , Ryan Christine E. , Keitner Gabor I. , Bishop Duane S. , Epstein Nathan B.
Published: March 2003

The McMaster Approach to Families is a comprehensive model of family assessment and treatment. This paper provides an overview of the McMaster Approach and consists of five major sections. First, the under‐lying theoretical model (McMaster Model of Family Functioning) is described. Second, the three assessment instruments of the approach (Family Assessment Device, McMaster Clinical Rating Scale, McMaster Structured Interview of Family Functioning) and their psychometric properties are summarized. Third, the family treatment model (Problem Centered Systems Therapy of the Family) is presented. Fourth, the research conducted using the McMaster Approach is reviewed. Finally, the clinical uses and advantages of the McMaster Approach are discussed.
State Formation and Property—Reflections on the Political Technologies of Space in Central America
Authors: Ronsbo Henrik
Published: March 2003

The paper analyzes state formation as the process whereby power/knowledge complexes organize, use and produce social space. In particular the focus is placed on private land ownership as a historical form of land possession. Privatization of land as a technique of government produced a homogeneous fragmentation of space, and the argument made in the paper is that this space became the primary technique in the construction of dualized Salvadorean society based on the exclusion from the political nation of a large group of delinquent and deviant bodies that should be policed, and the inclusion in the political nation of a small group of land owning individuals that took part in politics.
Unspoken Assumptions: Voice and Absolutism at the Court of Louis XIV
Authors: Mukerji Chandra
Published: March 2003

This paper indicates how what Norbert Elias described as the disciplining of the aristocracy in 17th‐century France, which he took to be essential to the ascendancy of Louis XIV and the growth of the modern state, was itself part of a broader pattern of voiceless politics. The French political bureaucracy and the monarch in this period were able to accumulate power by restraining public political speech, and using a combination of rituals of subjugation and material forms like fortresses to exemplify the power and social efficacy of this political regime. The result was a new form of power, importantly demonstrated in the land and its people: what we have come to call the territorial state.
Class, Culture and Empire: E. P. Thompson and the Making of Social History
Authors: Gregg Robert
Published: March 2003

In this article, the author asks: How has the legacy of E.P. Thompson helped shape the emergence of Social History in the United States? How have ideas about race, gender and empire, largely absent from Thompson’s work, been incorporated in writing on labor, immigration, and American exceptionalism? Is it now possible to synthesize race, class, and gender? Or, have histories based on class analysis so elided race and gender that such grafting has been foreclosed? With a bit of gossip here, a gesture to historiography there, and as little charm as possible, the author wonders: Is there any justice for “the Subaltern” in this profession? Or, is it just another “Organization Man” gone West?
The State of Indian Exorcism: Violence and Racial Formation in Eastern Brazil
Authors: Warren Jonathan W.
Published: March 2003

As in various parts of the Western Hemisphere, the indigenous population of eastern Brazil has increased rapidly in recent decades. Based on over fifty in‐depth interviews that I conducted with eastern Indians and the twelve months I spent living in their households and communities between 1994 and 1997, I discovered that much of this demographic phenomenon has been fueled by increasing numbers of individuals self‐identifying as Indian who had not always identified as such or their parents had not identified as Indian. A number of lay people and scholars have argued that this shift in the direction of racial formation has been driven by state induced material incentives. Yet my ethnographic data, which I detail in great depth in this article, suggests that in terms of the material factors responsible for Indian resurgence that the state’s sticks have been a much more significant variable than the state’s racializing carrots. In other words, I found that the fundamental change in state practices in eastern Brazil has been in the drastic reduction of the costs of being Indian. Thus I posit and demonstrate how one of the primary variables behind this demographic shift has been the reduction of state led and sanctioned anti‐Indian violence in eastern Brazil.
Contention and Social Movements in an International and Transnational Perspective: Denmark 1914 – 1995
Authors: Mikkelsen Flemming
Published: March 2003

Ever since the emergence of mass movements as a mode of political organization in the 19th century we have witnessed simultaneous waves of protest in different countries and the diffusion of social movements across nations. After a presentation of data, methods, and theory, this article endeavors to analyse the development of contentious politics in Denmark, 1914 –1995, as a function of the international distribution of power, international political and economic crises, and the diffusion of social movements. The important analytical implication is that social movements and contentious politics must not only be understood in the light of national factors, but the existence of international opportunity structures must also be considered.
Responsible Mothers and Normal Children: Eugenics, Nationalism, and Welfare in Post‐revolutionary Mexico, 1920–1940
Authors: Stern Alexandra Minna
Published: March 2003

This article examines the emergence of the eugenics movement in Mexico during the 1920s and 1930s and explores the ways in which eugenicists and physicians participated in the creation of a new paternal order focused on motherhood, sexuality, and child welfare. I analyze this transformation as part of a broader process of medicalization and state expansion that recast understandings of reproduction, heredity, childhood, and the female body during the post‐revolutionary period. I argue that eugenics, and the related puericulture movement, played a critical role in the emergence of novel forms of governmentality, the nationalization of women, and the neutralization of anterior forms of patriarchy in modern Mexico. The article contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the meaning of motherhood, the standardization of elementary school education, and the formation of welfare states in Latin America.