bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Black Civil Violence and White Social Science: Sense and Nonsense
Authors: Miller Abraham H.
Published: March 2003

Some thirty years ago, the Kerner Commission report explained the outbursts of urban violence in America’s Black ghettos as caused by Black deprivation wrought by white racism. In its rendition of the Black experience through four hundred years of American racism and its description of the conditions in the urban ghettos of the 1960s, the report is worthy of the acclaim it has received. In its analysis of the causal factors that led to the riots, the report attempts to appeal to intuition but falls far short of making a case on the basis of any remote standard of causal analysis. Indeed, the report strikingly resembles the academic studies that have invoked relative and absolute deprivation theories to explain the American urban riots of the 1960s and which have repeatedly collapsed under the scrutiny of basic considerations of social science methodology.

The causes of riots might as aptly fall into situational explanations, including the pattern of police response, as they fall into theoretical ones. While social scientists debate such issues, policy makers have had to respond to the realities of riots, both in terms of causes and effects.

Surprisingly, many policy makers, irrespective of their own ideologies and notions of causes, when dealing with America’s urban riots, appear to have come to the same general conclusions about the policies that need to be implemented to prevent future racial crises. Looking at these responses, as well as both the idiosyncratic and common attributes of riots, this paper suggests reconceptualizing and rethinking the nature of riots so as to move toward a better understanding of this type of racial crisis.
Earthquakes and Water Security: Contingency Planning in California
Authors: Putnam David R.
Published: March 2003

California was affected by a number of earthquakes and disasters that affected water supply systems in the 20th century. Lessons learnt from these experiences led to engineering developments and emergency planning, which have improved water system reliability in recent earthquake events. Conscientious engineering has improved system reliability by design. The use of redundancy, spare and substitute structures enables quick repair, if possible, while providing alternative options for system operation. Well‐conceived emergency planning standardization imposed by the government has improved inter‐agency co‐ordination for more effective response. Voluntary planning and response partnerships also improved overall response capabilities of agencies experiencing significant damage to their systems.
You’re on Your Own: Community Vulnerability and the Need for Awareness and Education for Predicatable Natural Disasters
Authors: King David
Published: March 2003

During a hazard event, individuals and communities are often isolated from the support and intervention of emergency service providers. Household and school‐based studies have shown inadequate levels of awareness and preparedness for predictable and regularly occurring hazards like floods and tropical cyclones. Post‐disaster studies have demonstrated both a lack of preparedness and the extent to which people are surprised by the ferocity or extent of the hazard. These research findings underscore the importance of providing specific and targeted education to enhance community capability to withstand a natural hazard with minimal harm and loss of property. At the same time, efforts must be enhanced to mitigate against disaster through better planning of urban development.
Crisis and Organisational Paralysis: The Lingering Problem of Korean Public Administration
Authors: Jun Jong S. , Park Myung S.
Published: March 2003

This essay argues that the Korean crisis is caused by the enduring problems of administrative culture, such as central control of decision‐making, corruption, passive learning, moral decay, and a lack of self‐governance and autonomy of administrators. The crisis has brought organisational paralysis because public administrators are not capable of responding to and coping with the crisis situation. The authors state that solutions to these problems are difficult and require strategies beyond short‐term, instrumental solutions because change involves education and raising consciousness of public servants at all levels.
The relationship between DSM‐IV oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder: findings from the Great Smoky Mountains Study
Authors: Rowe Richard , Maughan Barbara , Pickles Andrew , Costello E. Jane , Angold Adrian
Published: March 2003

Background: We examine models of the relationship between oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) in a community sample. Particular attention is paid to the generalisability of findings based on clinic‐referred boys. Methods: The analyses were based on four waves of data from the Great Smoky Mountains Study covering children in the community aged 9–16 years. Child and parent reports of DSM‐IV symptoms, diagnoses, and a range of family and environmental adversities were collected using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment. Results: Cross‐sectional analyses indicated that CD and ODD largely shared similar correlates, although some aspects of parenting appeared more related to CD than ODD. This pattern was broadly similar in boys and girls. Longitudinal analyses confirmed that ODD was a strong risk factor for CD in boys and there was a suggestion that ODD was a stronger risk factor for CD than for other common disorders. Atypical family structure was an important factor in the transition between ODD and CD in boys. In girls ODD provided no increased risk for later CD but was associated with increased risk for continued ODD, depression, and anxiety. Conclusions: These results are more consistent with a developmental relationship between ODD and CD in boys than girls.
Nighttime sleep‐wake patterns and self‐soothing from birth to one year of age: a longitudinal intervention study
Authors: Burnham Melissa M. , Goodlin‐Jones Beth L. , Gaylor Erika E. , Anders Thomas F.
Published: March 2003

Background: The objectives of this study were to: (1) describe the longitudinal development of sleep‐wake patterns of solitary‐sleeping infants from 1 to 12 months of age, (2) identify effects on sleep patterns and on self‐soothing behaviors of introducing a novel sleep aid, and (3) identify predictive factors of self‐soothing at 12 months using a transactional model as a guide. Methods: Eighty infants' nighttime sleep‐wake patterns and associated variables were studied at 5 times across the first year of life using videosomnography and questionnaires. Results: Sleep‐wake state developmental changes, as reported in investigations of infant sleep, were replicated, although a great deal of individual variability in the development of all sleep‐related variables was noted. No major effects on sleep or on self‐soothing behavior were evident from the introduction of the novel sleep aid. Three variables were identified as significant predictors of self‐soothing at 12 months: decreasing amounts of time spent out of crib across the first year, high levels of quiet sleep at birth, and longer parental response times to infant awakenings at 3 months. Conclusions: These data lend preliminary support for the transactional model and suggest that infant and parental factors interact to influence the development of self‐soothing.
Comparison of male adolescent‐report of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms across two cultures using latent class and principal components analysis
Authors: Rasmussen Erik R. , Todd Richard D. , Neuman Rosalind J. , Heath Andrew C. , Reich Wendy , Rohde Luis A.
Published: March 2003

Background: The goal of this study is to gauge the consistency of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) latent class models that are generated by different informants such as adolescents and parents. The consistency of adolescent‐derived latent classes from two different samples was assessed and these results were then compared to the class structure generated by parent‐report ADHD information. Methods: Self‐reported DSM‐IV Criterion A ADHD symptoms of 497 adolescent males from a population‐based twin study in the state of Missouri (USA) were subjected to principal components and latent class analysis, and findings were compared to previous results obtained from identical analyses using an adolescent sample from Porto Alegre, Brazil (N= 483). Results: The bi‐dimensional structure of self‐reported ADHD symptoms was similar for both male adolescent groups, but explained less than 40% of the symptom variance in either sample. Two factors, one with loadings on inattention symptoms only and the other with loadings on hyperactive‐impulsive symptoms only, were identified in the Missouri sample. Specific ADHD latent classes did not replicate well across the Missouri and Brazilian samples, and both groups were characterized by the presence of several combined symptom classes but few inattentive or hyperactive‐impulsive classes. Conclusions: While adolescent‐report information across two different cultures can at least in part reproduce the two‐factor structure of ADHD, results from latent class analysis suggest that adolescent reporting on their own symptoms is markedly different from the type of information parents provide about ADHD symptoms in their offspring. The current findings indicate that if male adolescents endorse any ADHD symptoms there is a tendency for them to report combined type problems.
Do children with autism fail to process information in context?
Authors: López Beatriz , Leekam Susan R.
Published: March 2003

Background:  This research investigated the proposal that children with autism are impaired in processing information in its context. To date, this proposal rests almost exclusively on evidence from verbal tasks. Given evidence of visuo‐spatial proficiency in autism in other areas of functioning, it is possible that the ability to use context is spared in the visual domain but impaired in the verbal domain.

Method: Fifteen children with autism and 16 age and IQ‐matched typically developing children were tested on their ability to take account of visual context information (Experiment 1) and verbal context information (Experiment 2) using an adaptation of Palmer's (1975) visual context task. They were also given an adaptation of Tager‐Flusberg's (1991) visual and verbal semantic memory task (Experiment 3) and Frith and Snowling's (1983) homograph task (Experiment 4).

Results: Experiment 1 showed that children with autism were facilitated by the provision of visual context information. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the same children were also able to use both verbal context information when identifying words and semantic category information in a verbal task when naming and recalling words. However, in Experiment 4 these children had difficulties with a sentence‐processing task when using sentence context to disambiguate homographs.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that children with autism do not have a general difficulty in connecting context information and item information as predicted by weak central coherence theory. Instead the results suggest that there is specific difficulty with complex verbal stimuli and in particular with using sentence context to disambiguate meaning.
Maternal adjustment, parenting and child behaviour in families of school‐aged twins conceived after IVF and ovulation induction
Authors: Tully Lucy A. , Moffitt Terrie E. , Caspi Avshalom
Published: March 2003

Background: Previous studies that have examined the long‐term effects of infertility and assisted reproductive technology on parenting and child behaviour in families with twins have suffered from methodological problems. This study compared measures of parental adjustment, parenting and child behaviour in families with 5‐year‐old twins who were conceived after in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or ovulation induction (OI) with families whose twins were naturally conceived (NC).

Methods: The families who conceived via IVF/OI (N=121) were identified from an epidemiological study of twins and matched to families who were conceived naturally (N=121) on the basis of eleven child and family variables. Mothers were interviewed in their homes for the study.

Results: No significant differences were observed between the IVF/OI families and the NC families on measures of parental adjustment or parent and teacher ratings of the twins’ behaviour. IVF/OI mothers and their partners agreed with each other about discipline more than NC couples, but otherwise no other differences in parenting were found. Conclusions: Overall, this study provides evidence that families who conceive twins following IVF/OI are functioning well and that the experience of fertility treatment does not lead to long‐term difficulties for parents or children.
Depression markers in young children's play: a comparison between depressed and nondepressed 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds in various play situations
Authors: Lous Annemieke Mol , De Wit Cees A.M. , De Bruyn Eric E.J. , Marianne Riksen‐Walraven J.
Published: March 2003

Background and method: The behaviour of 30 depressed 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds was observed in three play situations (solitary free play, interactive free play, and play narratives) and compared to the behaviour of 30 nondepressed clinical and 30 nondepressed nonclinical peers.

Results: Depressed children showed significantly less play, particularly less symbolic play, than nondepressed children. Instead, they exhibited more nonplay behaviours, such as exploration and undirected behaviours, than the control children. Moreover, the behaviour of the depressed children was less coherent than that of the nondepressed children, as evident from a greater number of shifts from one type of behaviour to another.

Conclusions: Differences between depressed and nondepressed children were most prominent during the play narratives and were particularly striking when a sad mood was presented.
From the particularistic to the universalistic: national narratives in Israel’s mainstream press, 1967–97
Authors: Yadgar Yaacov
Published: March 2003

The aim of this article is to study the development of the Jewish‐Zionist national idea as expressed in the national narrative as it appeared in Israel’s mainstream press during the years 1967–97, against the background of five critical events in the Israeli collective experience as well as in the wake of the Holocaust Memorial Days. This development is studied as a case of the immanent tension between nationalism’s universalistic message and its particularistic application. The Jewish‐Zionist narrative in Israel is found to be ‘shifting’ from its particularistic towards its more universalistic pole. This development is discussed as a transition from a ‘purely national’ to a ‘post‐national’ narrative, and is positioned in its local and global contexts.
Empire‐nation: national and imperial discourses in England
Authors: Wellings Ben
Published: March 2003

When the states of England and Scotland combined in 1707, conditions were created whereby English nationalism could merge into British nationalism. With the expansion of empire, English nationalism was expressed through imperial‐national discourses allowing English nationalists to claim non‐English space when articulating what might be best understood as an Anglo‐British nationalism. Accordingly, such discourses largely ‘hid’ what one might now understand as ‘English nationalism’ within a ‘British’ discourse of empire. The case of England illustrates that imperial discourses can become intimately bound up with the ‘national’ discourse of the nations at the core of the imperial structures. Accordingly, it is here argued that imperial and national discourse are not necessarily opposed to each other, but are able to feed into each other, affecting the manner in which ideas of the nation and empire are conceived and articulated.
Understanding processes of ethnic control: segmentation, dependency and co–optation in post–communist Estonia
Authors: Pettai Vello , Hallik Klara
Published: March 2003

Amidst an arguably exhaustive range of studies regarding ethno–politics in post–communist Estonia, this article sets out a new framework derived from Ian Lustick’s model of ethnic control. We argue that one of the key reasons for ethnic peace and stability in Estonia over the past ten years has been a considerable degree of control instituted by the Estonian political community over its sizeable Russian–speaking minority. We analyse this control using Lustick’s three main indicators of segmentation, dependence and co–optation. In addition, we differentiate within each of these categories between structural, institutional and programmatic levels of control measures. Our aim is to place Estonia into a better comparative perspective by bringing to light its particular configuration of control mechanisms. The article concludes with an assessment of what this configuration might mean for future ethno–political developments.
Event–related potential indices of masked repetition priming
Authors: Misra Maya , Holcomb Phillip J.
Published: March 2003

Two experiments sought to identify event–related potential (ERP) correlates of masked repetition priming of words in lists and to verify that such effects are not due to brief prime durations. In Experiment 1, prime stimuli were masked and their durations were individually titrated for each participant. Targets that were immediate or delayed repetitions of masked primes resulted in attenuation of the N400, with little or no enhancement of a late positive component (LPC).Delayed, in–the–clear repetitions of unmasked targets led to attenuation of the N400 and enhancement of the LPC. Experiment 2 used similar stimulus timing parameters, but primes were unmasked. More typical unmasked repetition effects were observed for immediate repetitions including a larger attenuation of the N400 and enhancement of the LPC. These findings are discussed within current notions of the functional significance of the N400 and LPC.
Acute cortisol effects on immediate free recall and recognition of nouns depend on stimulus valence
Authors: Tops Mattie , Pompe Gieta Van Der , Baas Daan , Mulder Lambertus J. M. , Den Boer Johan A. , Meijman Theo F. , Korf Jacob
Published: March 2003

The present study investigated the acute effects of cortisol administration in normal healthy male volunteers on immediate free recall and recognition of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral nouns using a between‐subjects double‐blind design. Two hours after cortisol (10 mg) or placebo administration, impaired recall and recognition of neutral and pleasant words was found in the treatment group, whereas recall and recognition of unpleasant words was similar in both groups. The interaction between treatment and stimulus valence was not mediated by “semantic cohesion,” nor does it seem to have been mediated by stimulus arousal. Cortisol did not change mood. The changes with cortisol in recall and recognition of pleasant and unpleasant words parallel those found in depression, a condition that is often accompanied by elevated basal cortisol levels.
Rural Banking and Landless Labour Households: Institutional Reform and Rural Credit Markets in India
Authors: Ramachandran V.K. , Swaminathan Madhura
Published: March 2003

Financial liberalization is a key component of programmes of orthodox structural adjustment. Financial reforms include, among other things, the removal of controls on interest rates and the abolition of programmes of directed credit. Here the effect of financial sector reform on rural banking and rural credit transactions in India is examined, with particular reference to landless labour households. First, the trends in selected indicators of rural banking at the national level over the last 30 years are reviewed. Secondly, longitudinal data for a village in Tamil Nadu are used to examine changes in patterns of indebtedness and credit transactions among landless labour households. It is argued that the exploitation of landless labour households in the credit market has intensified with the introduction of financial reforms. Lastly, the policy envisaged as an alternative to the formal credit sector in the countryside – the establishment of micro–credit projects – is examined critically.
Responding to Inequality Today: Eleven Theses Concerning the Redesign of Policies and Agents For Reform
Authors: Buchanan John , Pocock Barbara
Published: March 2003

This paper addresses two questions: What can be done to address the forces driving inequality in Australia today? And who can do it? We suggest that we need better tools of analysis to understand the current situation and better categories to help understand the links between work, social, and economic life. We go on to suggest, more tentatively, that these categories can also provide important tools for developing new policy ideas. We also show how these categories can guide initiatives directed at mobilising support for a new approach to combating inequality today. The argument is structured around eleven theses.
Traces of self and others in research articles. A comparative pilot study of English, French and Norwegian research articles in medicine, economics and linguistics
Authors: Rongen Breivega Kjersti , Dahl Trine , Fløttum Kjersti
Published: March 2003

This article presents a pilot study which has been undertaken as preparation for a comparative research project called “Cultural identity in academic prose”. The general aim of the project is to study which aspects of scientific activity are most important for what we may call cultural identity in academic writing. Whether such identities are primarily national or discipline‐specific is discussed. The project involves research articles from three disciplines – medicine, economics and linguistics – and three languages – English, French and Norwegian. The central questions are related to authorial presence and stance, to the manifestation of other researchers’ voices and to the authors’ promotion of their own research. This article takes a linguistic approach, and the pilot study focuses on the use of the following categories: first person pronouns, metatextual comments, explicit and implicit references and lexical items. The pilot study comprises 18 research articles; in the large‐scale study the corpus will consist of about 500 articles. In the pilot study presented here the main finding is that the proposed categories seem to be well suited to the purposes of the large‐scale study. The data also allow some preliminary hypotheses about ‘non‐expressive medical researchers’, ‘shy economists’ and ‘polemic linguists’ to be formulated.
An Investment Decision Model with the Survival Probability Criterion and its Numerical Solutions: The Finite Horizon Case
Authors: Xu Xiaowei , Lin Yuanlie
Published: March 2003

This paper studies a finite horizon investment decision model. Suppose that an investor is endowed with initial wealth in the beginning. At every stage, he needs to consume a part of his wealth and allocate the rest between a risky and a riskless asset. The investor wishes to maximize the survival probability that his wealth can satisfy the consumption requirements during the horizon and reach a disaster level at the end. Since the allocation decision depends on not only his wealth but also the disaster level, we introduce a Markov decision process based on decision space to describe the investment behavior of the investor and prove the existence of a deterministic Markov optimal policy. An algorithm to compute the optimal policy and the maximal probability of survival is given and four numerical examples are discussed.
Performance Analysis of CSMA/CA Protocol for High‐speed Wireless LANs
Authors: Yue Wuyi , Matsumoto Yutaka
Published: March 2003

In this paper, we present an exact analysis to numerically evaluate the performance of the multiple random access method with non‐persistent carrier sense multiple access with collision‐avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol for high‐speed and realizing fully‐distributed wireless LANs. The collision‐avoidance portion of CSMA/CA in this model is performed with a random pulse transmission procedure, in which a user with a packet ready to transmit initially sends some pulse signals with random intervals within a collision‐avoidance period before transmitting the packet to verify a clear channel. The system model consists of a finite number of users to efficiently share a common channel. The time axis is slotted, and a time frame has a large number of slots and includes two parts: the collision‐avoidance period and the packet‐transmission period. A discrete‐time Markov process is used to model the system operation. The number of slots in a frame can be arbitrary, dependent on the chosen lengths of the collision‐avoidance period and packet‐transmission period. The influence of possible length of the collision‐avoidance period and packet‐transmission period, and pulse transmission probabilities on the network performance are discussed, based on the results of the utilization of channel and average packet delay for the different packet generation rate.
Dual Stochastic Dominance and Quantile Risk Measures
Authors: Ogryczak Wlodzimierz , Ruszczyński Andrzej
Published: March 2003

Following the seminal work by Markowitz, the portfolio selection problem is usually modeled as a bicriteria optimization problem where a reasonable trade–off between expected rate of return and risk is sought. In the classical Markowitz model, the risk is measured with variance. Several other risk measures have been later considered thus creating the entire family of mean–risk (Markowitz type) models. In this paper, we analyze mean–risk models using quantiles and tail characteristics of the distribution. Value at risk (VAR), defined as the maximum loss at a specified confidence level, is a widely used quantile risk measure. The corresponding second order quantile measure, called the worst conditional expectation or Tail VAR, represents the mean shortfall at a specified confidence level. It has more attractive theoretical properties and it leads to LP solvable portfolio optimization models in the case of discrete random variables, i.e., in the case of returns defined by their realizations under the specified scenarios. We show that the mean–risk models using the worst conditional expectation or some of its extensions are in harmony with the stochastic dominance order. For this purpose, we exploit duality relations of convex analysis to develop the quantile model of stochastic dominance for general distributions.
How did the world's poorest fare in the 1990s?
Authors: Chien Shaohua , Ravallion Martin
Published: March 2003

Drawing on 297 national sample surveys spanning 88 countries, we find that there was a net decrease in the overall incidence of both absolute and relative consumption poverty between 1987 and 1998. But it was not enough to reduce the total number of poor by various definitions. The incidence of absolute poverty fell in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East–North Africa, while it rose in Sub‐Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe–Central Asia. Over the whole data set, interpersonal distribution improved slightly from the point of view of the poor, due mainly to growth in China.
Capitalism, cities, and the production of symbolic forms
Authors: Scott Allen J.
Published: March 2003

A striking characteristic of contemporary capitalism is the increasing importance (in terms of growth, employment, revenue, etc.) of sectors whose outputs are imbued with significant cultural or symbolic content. Sectors of these sorts are predominantly, though not exclusively, located in large cities. I describe how these cities function as creative fields generating streams of both cultural and technological innovations. Post‐Fordist cities are shown to be especially fertile terrains of commodified cultural production. A number of these cities have become major centres of image‐producing industries such as film, music recording, or fashion clothing, and this phenomenon is also often associated with profound transformations of their physical landscapes. I argue that the economic foundations of these trends reside, in part, in the structural characteristics of image‐producing industries, marked as they frequently are by modularized, network structures of production and a strong proclivity to geographic agglomeration. At the same time, the main centres of the contemporary cultural economy are caught up in insistent processes of globalization. I suggest that after an initial phase of product standardization and concentrated development in only a few major centres, the cultural economy of capitalism now appears to be entering a new phase marked by increasingly high levels of product differentiation and polycentric production sites. I also submit that the contemporary cultural economy of capitalism constitutes a historical shift beyond consumer society as such.
‘Institutional thickness’, political sub‐culture and the resurgence of (the ‘new’) regionalism in Italy – a case study of the Northern League in the province of Varese
Authors: Giordano Benito
Published: March 2003

In recent years, the ‘regional scale’ within the European Union (EU) has become more central within academic and policy debates. In particular, there has been an increased focus upon the importance of so‐called ‘institutional thickness’ for regional development within the EU. Furthermore, the fact that in several European countries, regionalist political parties have made significant electoral gains has ensured that the ‘regional question’ in Europe has become even more prevalent. This paper explores the linkages between institutions and regionalist political parties by focusing upon the situation in Italy where the resurgence of political regionalism, centred on the Lega Nord (LN) or Northern League political party, has been particularly strong. In particular, the paper focuses upon the development of the LN in a particular province of Northern Italy, Varese. This section explores the ways in which the LN has developed institutionally and electorally and indeed whether the party has been able to develop a specific political sub‐culture to replace the previous one associated with the Christian Democrat (DC) party, which was the main party in Varese before the landmark changes that took place in Italian politics in the early 1990s.
Governance, institutional capacity and partnerships in local economic development: theoretical issues and empirical evidence from the Humber Sub‐region
Authors: Gibbs David C. , Jonas Andrew E. G. , Reimer Suzanne , Spooner Derek J.
Published: March 2003

Recent research on local and regional economic development has focused upon transformations in local governance and institutional capacity. It has been argued that local authorities have ceded power to other actors and institutions involved in economic development and regeneration, and that the success of local and regional economic development is closely related to the strength of ‘institutional capacity’ within an area. In this paper, we examine these claims with reference to the operation of EU Structural Funds in the Humber Sub‐region of the UK. Previous research on local governance and institutional capacity has had a limited empirical focus, drawing conclusions from studies of either economically ‘successful’ regions or regions undergoing regulatory and institutional transformation and precluding analysis of the nature and conditions of local governance and institutional capacity in less developed regions. Our case study evidence not only suggests that arguments about the declining influence of the local state are overdrawn, but also indicates a need for more nuanced accounts of the role of institutional capacity in regional development.
Global commodity networks, ethical trade and governmentality: organizing business responsibility in the Kenyan cut flower industry
Authors: Hughes Alex
Published: March 2003

This paper engages critically with current ethical trading practice in the global cut flower trade, focusing on the specific case of Kenyan export production for European markets. Notions of governmentality are adopted in the analysis, in order to understand the rationalities and materialities that underpin the organizational geographies of business responsibility in this context, and serve to re‐regulate the trading network. Mentalities of stakeholding and practices of auditing are shown to play prominent roles in this process. However, it is argued that regulatory contradictions associated with the audit economy place organizational limits on the effective practice of ethical trade.
Cleaning up after the Celtic Tiger: scalar ‘fixes’ in the political ecology of Tiger economies
Authors: Boyle Mark
Published: March 2003

This paper explores intersections between political economy and nature in the so‐called Tiger economies that have risen to prominence since the 1960s. Whilst Tiger states are in many ways emblematic of the extremes of late capitalism, they are nevertheless characterized by socio‐natural environments that are distinctive, both in terms of the political and economic interests that have underpinned them and their rates of production. Whilst produced under a distinctive set of capitalist social relations, the dialectical reading offered herein chooses to foreground the agency that socio‐nature itself possesses in relation to prevalent class interests. This agency is conceptualized in terms of a series of cultural wars over transformed nature. Using a theoretically provocative case study that examines the politics of waste management in Ireland, the paper argues that in reflecting upon the role of such culture wars in the constitution of dominant social relations in Tiger states, the concepts of scalar strategies and struggles over scale may prove useful. Whilst social contests over the scaling of governance have tended thus far to focus upon the dialectical relations between scale and political economy, the paper argues that ecological projects too are fundamentally produced by and implicated in the structuration of scale. In calling for dialogue between political ecological studies and recent work in geography that has sought to theorize scale as a social process, the paper hopes to contribute towards the development of a political ecology of Tiger states.
Diversity and change in Australia’s rangelands: a post–productivist transition with a difference?
Authors: Holmes John
Published: March 2003

Australia’s rangelands are experiencing a post–productivist transition at a tempo comparable to Western Europe’s, but in contexts that ensure marked divergence in impulses, actors, processes and outcomes. In Australia’s most marginal lands, a flimsy mode of pastoral occupance is being displaced by renewed indigenous occupance, conservation and tourism, with significant changes in land ownership, property rights, investment sources and power relations, but also with structural problems arising from fugitive income streams. The sharp delineation between structurally coherent commodity–oriented regions and emerging amenity–oriented regions can provisionally be mapped at a national scale. A comparison of Australia with Western Europe indicates that three distinct but interconnected driving forces are propelling the rural transition, namely: agricultural overcapacity; the emergence of amenity–oriented uses; and changing societal values.
Analyst Coverage and Intangible Assets
Authors: Barth Mary E. , Kasznik Ron , McNichols Maureen F.
Published: March 2003

This study examines the relation between analysts' incentives to cover firms and the extent of their intangible assets. Because intangible assets typically are unrecognized and estimates of their fair values are not disclosed, absent analyst coverage firms with more intangible assets likely have less informative prices. Accordingly, we expect analysts have greater incentives to cover firms with more intangible assets and, thus, predict they have higher analyst coverage. As predicted, we find that analyst coverage is significantly greater for firms with larger research and development and advertising expenses relative to their industry, and for firms in industries with larger research and development expense. We also predict and find that analyst coverage is increasing in firm size, growth, trading volume, equity issuance, and perceived mispricing, and is decreasing in the size of the firm's analysts' brokerage houses and the effort analysts expend to follow the firm. These findings indicate that analyst coverage depends on private benefits and costs of covering a firm. We also test hypotheses related to analyst effort. We predict and find that analysts expend greater effort to follow firms with more intangible assets, after controlling for other factors associated with analyst effort. Our evidence indicates that intangible assets, most of which are not recognized in firms' financial statements, are associated with greater incentives for analysts to cover such firms, and greater costs of coverage. An open question is whether financial statement recognition of intangible assets could more efficiently provide information about such assets to investors.
Do Analysts and Auditors Use Information in Accruals?
Authors: Bradshaw Mark T. , Richardson Scott A. , Sloan Richard G.
Published: March 2003

Existing research indicates that firms with high accruals are more likely to experience future earnings problems, but that investors' expectations, as reflected in stock prices, do not appear to anticipate these problems. In this paper, we directly examine the published opinions of two types of professional investor intermediaries to see if they provide investors with information concerning the future earnings problems experienced by firms with high accruals. First, we examine the earnings forecasts of sell‐side analysts. We show that analysts' earnings forecasts do not incorporate the predictable future earnings declines associated with high accruals. Second, we examine the behavior of independent auditors. We find no evidence that auditors signal the future earnings problems associated with high accruals through either their audit opinions or through auditor changes. Overall, our evidence indicates that analysts and auditors do not alert investors to the future earnings problems associated with high accruals, thus corroborating previous findings that investors do not appear to anticipate these problems.
The Impact of Securities Litigation Reform on the Disclosure of Forward‐Looking Information By High Technology Firms
Authors: Johnson Marilyn F. , Kasznik Ron , Nelson Karen K.
Published: March 2003

This study evaluates corporate voluntary disclosure of forward‐looking information under the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Using a sample of 523 computer hardware, computer software, and pharmaceutical firms, we find a significant increase in both the frequency of firms issuing earnings and sales forecasts and the mean number of forecasts issued following the Act’s passage. To provide more direct evidence that our findings are attributable to the Act reducing firms’ legal exposure, we develop a proxy for litigation risk and examine whether the increase in disclosure is more pronounced for firms at greatest risk of a lawsuit. As expected, we find that the change in disclosure is increasing in firms’ ex ante risk of litigation. Finally, we report that the safe harbor had no adverse impact on the quality of forward‐looking information. Forecast errors, whether directional or non‐directional, were not significantly affected by the Act’s passage.
Analyst Specialization and Conglomerate Stock Breakups
Authors: Gilson Stuart C. , Healy Paul M. , Noe Christopher F. , Palepu Krishna G.
Published: March 2003

This paper examines whether firms emerging from conglomerate stock breakups are able to affect the types of financial analysts that cover their firms as well as the quality of information generated about their performance. Our sample comprises 103 focus‐increasing spin‐offs, equity carve‐outs, and targeted stock offerings between 1990 and 1995. We find that, after these transactions, sample firms experience a significant increase in coverage by analysts that specialize in subsidiary firms’ industries, and a 30–50% increase in analyst forecast accuracy for parent and subsidiary firms. The improvement in forecast accuracy is partially attributable to expanded disclosure. However, forecast improvements for specialists exceed those for non‐specialists, leading us to conclude that corporate focus can facilitate improved capital market intermediation by financial analysts with industry expertise.
Earnings Predictability, Information Asymmetry, and Market Liquidity
Authors: Affleck‐Graves John , Callahan Carolyn M. , Chipalkatti Niranjan
Published: March 2003

We investigate the relation between earnings predictability, information asymmetry and the behavior of the adverse selection cost component of the bid‐ask spread around quarterly earnings announcements for NASDAQ firms. While we find an increase in the adverse selection component of the bid‐ask spread on the day of and the day prior to quarterly earnings announcements for firms with less predictable earnings, we find no evidence of such changes for firms with more predictable earnings. During a non‐announcement period, we find that firms with relatively less predictable earnings have consistently higher total bid‐ask spreads than firms with more predictable earnings. This finding suggests that firms with relatively less predictable earnings have a higher cost of equity capital than comparable firms with more predictable earning streams, ceteris paribus. Hence, earnings predictability may be a legitimate concern of managers who wish to minimize their cost of equity capital at least as it pertains to bid‐ask spreads.
Estimating the Value of Employee Stock Option Portfolios and Their Sensitivities to Price and Volatility
Authors: Core John , Guay Wayne
Published: March 2003

The costs associated with compiling data on employee stock option portfolios is a substantial obstacle in investigating the impact of stock options on managerial incentives, accounting choice, financing decisions, and the valuation of equity. We present an accurate method of estimating option portfolio value and the sensitivities of option portfolio value to stock price and stock‐return volatility that is easily implemented using data from only the current year’s proxy statement or annual report. This method can be applied to either executive stock option portfolios or to firm‐wide option plans. In broad samples of actual and simulated CEO option portfolios, we show that these proxies capture more than 99% of the variation in option portfolio value and sensitivities. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the degree of bias in these proxies varies with option portfolio characteristics, and is most severe in samples of CEOs with a large proportion of out‐of‐the‐money options. However, the proxies’ explanatory power remains above 95% in all subsamples.
Momentum Strategies: Evidence from Pacific Basin Stock Markets
Authors: Hameed Allaudeen , Kusnadi Yuanto
Published: March 2003

We investigate the profitability of momentum investment strategy in six Asian stock markets. Unrestricted momentum investment strategies do not yield significant momentum profits. Although we find that a diversified country‐neutral strategy generates small but statistically significant returns during 1981–1994, when we control for size and turnover effects we find that the country‐neutral profits dissipate. Our evidence suggests that the factors that contribute to the momentum phenomenon in the United States are not prevalent in the Asian markets.
Deciphering the Motives for Equity Carve‐Outs
Authors: Powers Eric A.
Published: March 2003

I analyze 181 equity carve‐outs to determine whether the transactions are motivated by potential efficiency improvements or by an opportunity to sell overvalued equity. Carve‐out operating performance peaks at issue, declining significantly thereafter. Parents sell a greater percentage of shares when subsequent performance is poor. A negative relation also exists between long‐term excess returns and the percentage of shares sold. If subsequent performance is correlated with the degree to which parent managers believe carve‐out subsidiaries are over‐ or undervalued, results imply that many carve‐outs are conducted, not to improve efficiency, but to sell potentially overvalued equity.
Symptoms of depression, relational quality, and loneliness in dating relationships
Authors: Segrin Chris , Powell Heather L. , Givertz Michelle , Brackin Anne
Published: March 2003

This study tested the hypothesis that symptoms of depression are negatively related to relational quality, which in turn is negatively related to feelings of loneliness among members of dating couples. Potential sex differences in the magnitude of association between depressive symptoms and relational quality, and potential emotional contagion of depressive symptoms within dyads, were also explored. One hundred and one dating couples completed the Oral History Interview along with other measures of relational quality, depressive symptoms, and loneliness. Results for both males and females indicated that depressive symptoms were negatively associated with relational quality and that relational quality was negatively associated with loneliness. The association between symptoms of depression and poor relational quality was similar for females and males. There was no evidence suggestive of emotional contagion in these dating couples. Implications of these findings and their potential limitations are discussed.
Implicit theories of relationships: Implications for relationship satisfaction and longevity
Authors: Franiuk Renae , Cohen Dov , Pomerantz Eva M.
Published: March 2003

The role of implicit theories in romantic relationships was investigated in two studies. People holding a soulmate theory, who believed that finding the right person is most important for a satisfying relationship, were compared to people holding a work–it–out theory, who believed that effort is most important for building a successful relationship. In Study 1, college students (N = 527) completed a set of questionnaires, including measures of relationship theories and functioning within romantic relationships. Approximately 8 months later, a subset of these students (N = 176) completed a second set of questionnaires for Study 1. The implicit theories were highly stable over time (r = .74). For soulmate theorists, feelings that one’s specific partner is ideal predicted relationship satisfaction and relationship longevity to a greater extent than for work–it–out theorists. Whereas Study 1 investigated people’s theories of relationships as ends of a bipolar continuum, a separate study explored people’s theories of relationships as two unipolar dimensions. Findings from Study 2 (N = 266) supported a representation of the theories as two negatively correlated factors, and supported findings from Study 1 highlighting the role of the interaction between the relationship theories and partner fit in predicting relationship satisfaction.
Kin Effects on Black‐White Account and Home Ownership
Authors: Heflin Colleen M. , Pattillo Mary
Published: March 2003

This article combines the literature on kin networks and racial disparities in asset ownership. Specifically, we examine the effects of kin characteristics—sibling poverty and parental poverty, education, and occupation—on financial account ownership and home ownership. We find that kin matter for these outcomes. Having a poor sibling and coming from a poor family are negatively associated with account and home ownership while mother’s education has a positive effect. Separate analyses by race suggest that kin characteristics matter for both Blacks and Whites for account ownership, but for home ownership they are significant for Whites only. Racial differences in kin characteristics account for over half of the racial gap in account ownership, but are not important for understanding the racial gap in home ownership. The significant effects of extended family characteristics on socioeconomic well‐being make a case for the inclusion of kin variables in the growing literature on wealth disparities among Blacks and Whites.