Non-profit,for-profit and government organisations in social service provision: comparison of behavioural patterns for Austria

This paper investigates behavioural differences between non-profit organisations (NPOs), government organisations (GOs), and private market organisations (PMOs) as suppliers of nursery schools and retirement homes. On the basis of Weisbrod's undersupply model, the differentiated demand approach, and the public finance argument on the redistributive role of government, three hypotheses are theoretically specified and empirically tested: client differentiation; product differentiation; and price differentiation. NPOs and PMOs are shown to provide qualitatively better services and charge significantly higher prices than GOs. A clustering of clients with similar socio-economic backgrounds can be observed: GOs provide services for clients with lower economic and social status than private suppliers. GOs, holding more than two-thirds of the respective markets, are responsible for a basic provision of services; they pursue distributional goals by producing services themselves; only rarely a contracting out to private suppliers can be noted.Christoph Badelt and Peter Weiss are both in the Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna, Austria.Financial support from the Research Foundation of the Austrian National Bank (Jubiläumsfondsprojekt no. 2814) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors wish to thank Helmut Anheier, Henry Hansmann and Burton Weisbrod for valuable comments on an earlier draft, which was presented to the International Conference on Voluntarism, Non-government Organisations and Public Policy, Jerusalem, May 1989. The usual caveat applies.     

Head movement during listening turns in conversation

In five subjects, head movement during conversation was monitored by polarised light goniometry, and recorded alongside speech and a signal proportional to peak amplitude of sound waves (peak loudness). Kinematic properties of listeners' head movements, such as amplitude, frequency and cyclicity, differentiated various conversational functions. That is, they were function-specific: symmetrical, cyclic movements were employed to signal yes, no or equivalents; linear, wide movements anticipated claims for speaking; narrow linear movements occurred in phase with stressed syllables in the other's speech (ynchrony movements); and wide, linear movements occurred during pauses in the other's speech. That, it is argued, bears upon the relation between thesignalling of communicative intentions and the synchronisation of interactional rhythm. Thus, the former appears to determine the timing and tempo of responses such as yes and no, while the latter determines the regulation of synchrony movements. The manner in which these factors interact in other conversational functions and their theoretical implications are discussed.     

Non-profit institutions in a flow of funds framework

The benefits of providing a separate accounting for non-profit organisations in the financial accounts of the United States are discussed. At present, national economic accounts in the US include non-profit organisations with individuals in the household sector; separate information on the financial activity of non-profit institutions until now has not been available. In this paper, aggregate statistics from federal government tax-exempt filings for non-profit institutions are put into a US flow-of-funds framework. The data for the 1982–1988 period indicate that non-profit institutions accounted for a significant and growing proportion of assets of the household sector in the United States. Their liabilities were also a surprisingly large share of the household sector total. Moreover, funds supplied by the non-profit sector for investment were in some years comparable to funds made available by several important groups of non-depository financial intermediaries. Separate accounting for non-profit organisations within national economic accounts would be likely to reveal an important channel for investment financing in the United States and would significantly improve our ability to measure and analyse the financial activity of individuals by allowing for a purer household sector.The analysis and conclusions set forth are those of the authors and do not necessarily indicate concurrence by Salomon Brothers, the Board of Governors, Federal Reserve Banks or other members of their staffs.     

Comment on stephen M. Wunker, ‘The promise of non-profits in Poland and Hungary: an analysis of third sector renaissance’

Both the pre-war tradition and the real socialist system have influenced the form of the non-profit sector emerging in Poland. In as much as the pre-war traditions are continued by the church charities, lay institutions are established on the basis of state structures in the form of specific non-profit organisations subsidised to a large extent by the state (the so-called non-profit social institutions). Perhaps in this way partnership relations will develop between the government and nonprofit organisations which will continue to expand. The stage through which Poland is currently passing means that a coherent system of non-profit organisations has not yet developed and, what is more, it is seldom called a voluntary or third sector. The only formalised institutions are foundations and associations. It is evidently necessary to fill the gap in social service provision caused by government and market failures, and we may cherish a hope that such a system of non-profit organisations providing services to those in most need will soon be created in Poland.     

Census data on non-profit organisations

This paper describes how the Bureau of the Census collects and publishes data on non-profit organisations in its economic censuses programme. The paper provides a brief history of the economic censuses and describes in more detail the census of service industries component. The progressive expansion of the industry coverage of the census is explained and related to the non-profit sector. The paper further describes concepts and methodologies that are used in collecting and publishing data for non-profit organisations. Definitions, methods of enumeration, and basic data measures are explained and contrasted to concepts used in covering the for-profit sector. Finally, the paper describes how census data can be used to better understand the non-profit sector and identifies some possibilities for improving information from the economic censuses and other statistical programmes which cover non-profit organisations.     

Nonbinary social choice for economic environments

Assume a finite integer l2 and a social choice correspondence mapping each (p, Z) into a nonempty subset (p, Z) of Z, where p is a profile of individual preferences and Z is a set of outcomes of cardinality l or more. Suppose that satisfies Arrow's choice axiom, independence of infeasible alternatives, and the Pareto criterion. If the preference domain is the family of profiles of classical economic preferences over the space of allocations of public goods, then is dictatorial.I am grateful for some especially helpful comments by Jerry Kelly, John Weymark, and two anonymous referees. In fact, they uncovered so many errors that I must revive the traditional disclaimer: All remaining mistakes are my own responsibility. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the financial support of the National Science Foundation, grants no. SES 9007953 and SES 9209039.     

KNOWING TOO MUCH ABOUT OTHERS: MODERATORS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EAVESDROPPING AND RAPPORT IN SOCIAL INTERACTION

This study examined the association between a partners ability to eavesdrop on nonverbal cues and an actors feelings of rapport during interaction, as well as neuroticism and self-monitoring as moderators of this effect. Eavesdropping ability was defined as lower sensitivity to cues of the face, a source of overtly displayed emotions, relative to sensitivity to cues of the body, a source of leakage of covert or hidden emotions. Results showed that actors felt less rapport the higher their partners eavesdropping. High neuroticism actors were especially likely to feel worse about their interaction and themselves when their partners were good at eavesdropping. In both instances, the eavesdroppers nonverbal behavior seems to have mediated the associations to a small degree.Both authors contributed equally to this paper. This research was supported by a Mary Switzer Research Fellowship to Tickle-Degnen from the National Institutes of Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the US Department of Education, a Sargent College of Boston University Accelerated Research Grant, and funding from the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc., the American Occupational Therapy Foundation, and Boston University through the Neurobehavioral Rehabilitation Research Center for Scholarship and Research.     

Interactive technology assessment of paediatric cochlear implantation

Interactive technology assessment is a novel approach to evaluating (health) technology, which philosophically draws from the works of Rawls and Habermas. That is, it seeks to organise a practical setting for discursive ethics in order to find a legitimate basis for policy to be pursued when the technology under scrutiny features a moral controversy. Interactive technology assessment involves a cycle of interviews with all stakeholders, who are explicitly asked to respond (anonymously) to the concerns and issues raised by other participants. This cycle is completed repeatedly, so that a process of vicarious learning develops. This process aims at identifying issues agreed and disagreed upon, on the basis of which widely endorsed policy recommendations can be formulated. This chapter involves an interactive technology assessment of paediatric cochlear implantation. The rationale, the design, and the results are explained, as well as the main ethical aspects of the procedure.

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Zusammenfassung Interactive technology assessment (interaktive Technologiefolgenabschätzung) ist ein neuer Ansatz zur Bewertung von (Medizin-)Technologie, der in philosophischer Hinsicht auf Arbeiten von Rawls und Habermas zurückgreift, das heißt, sie versucht eine praktische Situation für diskursive Ethik zu organisieren, um eine legitime Grundlage für eine Politik zu finden, die zu verfolgen ist, wenn die betreffende Technologie durch eine moralische Kontroverse gekennzeichnet ist. Zur interaktiven Technologiefolgenabschätzung gehört ein Zyklus von Befragungen aller Interessengruppen, die explizit gebeten werden, sich zu den Bedenken und Fragen anderer Teilnehmer (anonym) zu äußern. Dieser Zyklus wird mehrmals wiederholt, sodass sich ein Prozess mittelbaren Lernens entwickelt. Dieser Prozess hat das Ziel, Punkte zu identifizieren, in denen Übereinstimmung herrscht, und Punkte, über die die Teilnehmer sich nicht einigen können. Auf dieser Basis können dann allgemein gebilligte Politikempfehlungen formuliert werden. Dieses Kapitel befasst sich zum Beispiel mit der interaktiven Bewertung der Technologie der Cochlea-Implantation in Kindern. Es erklärt die Begründung, den Entwurf und die Ergebnisse der Prozedur sowie ihre wichtigsten ethischen Aspekte.

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Résumé Lévaluation technologique interactive est une nouvelle approche pour évaluer les technologies (médicales), qui tire son origine des travaux de Rawls et Habermas. Cela signifie quelle tente de dorganiser une configuration pratique pour léthique discursive, afin de trouver une base légitime aux politiques à suivre lorsque la technologie examinée fait lobjet dune controverse morale. Lévaluation technologique interactive implique un cycle de sondages auprès de tous les groupes concernés, auxquels il est explicitement demandé de sexprimer (anonymement) sur les préoccupations et les questions soulevées par dautres participants. Ce cycle est répété à plusieurs reprises, de sorte quun processus dapprentissage indirect se développe. Cette démarche vise à identifier les points suscitant laccord ou le désaccord, sur la base desquels des recommandations politiques approuvées par une large majorité peuvent être formulées. Ce chapitre porte sur lévaluation technologique interactive dans le cas des implants cochléaires en pédiatrie. Il présente le raisonnement, la conception et les résultats de la démarche de même que ses principaux aspects éthiques.

     

Competition between non-profits and for-profits: entry and growth

The non-profit sector in the United States relies on fee-paying individuals for a high proportion of its revenue. Given this fact, non-profits and forprofits coexist in the same industry when each type of firm can find a stable market niche that rewards its own special strengths: ideological commitment in the non-profit sector; access to capital and the profit motive in the for-profit. Coexistence is also possible when the non-profit form is superior but there is a shortage of non-profit entrepreneurs. The paper next considers the entry of non-profits into sectors dominated by for-profits. Here one must distinguish between purely commercial activities and those designed to further the charity's basic mission. In the former, non-profits should behave no differently than their for-profit competitors unless subsidies designed for mission-related activities are diverted to these activities. In the latter, the non-profits may have an advantage which reflects not unfair competition but a judgment that their activities are worthy of subsidy. In evaluating competition between non-profits and for-profits, one must separate the issue of the appropriateness of an organisation's tax-exempt status from the impact of its actions on for-profit firms.Prepared for the Research Conference on the Commercial Activities of Non-profits, New York University, November, 1988. I wish to thank Anne Buckholtz for helpful research assistance, and Woody Powell and Brad Gray for useful comments.     

The treatment of bulimia from a self psychological perspective

This paper examines concepts from self psychology which contribute to the understanding of bulimia. A case example from the author's work illustrates the significance of the sense of self both in the development of bulimic symptoms and also in the therapeutic process. Painful feelings of shame and humiliation over who and what one is are often part of the bulimic experience. The author suggests that therapist's role is not so much to change the bulimic person, but to accept and understand who the person is and how he or she came to be that way. Change often follows such understanding.     

Addiction to fruit machines: A preliminary study among young males

Although most sources treat gambling as an adult phenomenon, adolescent gambling is more widespread than is generally recognized, and in some cases may even be pathological. This paper outlines a preliminary study of eight adolescents addicted to playing and gambling on coin-in-the-slot machines (more commonly known as fruit machines). Factors involved in the onset of fruit machine playing are examined along with their alternative gambling activities and associated problems. The role of skill and excitement components in persistent playing are also discussed.The author would like to thank the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council for funding this work through a research studentship.     

Who Supports Marketization and Democratization in Post-Communist Romania?

The post-1989 change in former Communist societies in East and Central Europe is generally viewed as a double transition involving both marketization (removal of state hegemony over the economy)anddemocratization (move to a Western-style liberal democracy). Data from a nationwide survey of Romania in 1993 demonstrates that Romanians in fact distinguish two reform dimensions—marketization and democratization—as opposed to a single pro-Westernization dimension. Though Romanians distinguish marketization and democratization conceptually, support for reform in both instances is strongest among the same segments of the population: the young, the better educated, men, and those living in cities. Further analysis reveals that the effects of age, gender, and urban residence (but not education) largely wash out once the effects of risk aversion, individualistic ideology, and personal economic expectations are controlled for. Risk aversion is an especially important mediating variable. Men, the young, and those in cities are more likely to support marketization and democratization in large part because they tend to be less averse to risk.     

Permutation cycles and manipulation of choice functions

Let be a social preference function, and let v() be the Nakamura number of . If W is a finite set of cardinality at least v() then it is shown that there exists an acyclic profile P on W such that (P) is cyclic. Any choice function which is compatible with can then be manipulated. A similar result holds if W is a manifold (or a subset of Euclidean space) with dimension at least v()-1.Presented at the Fifth World Congress of the Econometric Society, MIT, Cambridge, Mass., August 17–24, 1985. This material is based on work supported by NSF Grant SES-84-18295 to the School of Social Sciences, University of California at Irvine. Particular thanks are due to David Grether, Dick McKelvey and Jeff Strnad for helpful discussion and for making available their unpublished work.     

A note on willingness to pay and willingness to accept

In a recent paper Loehman (1991) derives some relationships between measures of benefit for nonmarket goods. This note presents some remarks on Loehman's methodology, several results, if the good considered is normal, and an extension to the case of pollution, i.e. public bads.I would like to thank an unknown referee for helpful comments.     

Powers of subgroups in voting bodies

This paper discusses the power p _n of an n-member subgroup B _n of an N-member voting body, N odd and 1 n N. In contrast to bloc voting, we assume that the members vote independently with equal probability for and against a given issue. Power p _n is defined as the probability that the outcome of a vote changes if all members of B _n reverse their votes. Theorems: p _{n + 1} = _n for odd n < N; p _n + p _{N – n} = 1; P _m + p _n > p _{m + n} if m + n < N; p _{n + 1}/p _n (n + 1)/n as N for fixed even n; for rational 0 > > 1, p _N 2^–1 sin^{–1 1/2} as N . A simple summation formula is given for p _n .     

Ideology and welfare in the UK: the implications for the voluntary sector

The UK has, over recent years, moved from a welfare state to a more market-oriented system of welfare. But the extent of this change has varied considerably according to the ideological position of local government in different parts of the country. This makes it possible within one country to assess the implications for the voluntary sector of different models of welfare. This article develops a framework for looking at different welfare ideologies and the values they espouse, with reference both to the UK and to the models that exist in other countries. It then takes four examples of UK local authorities which demonstrate the different models and examines the implications for the voluntary sector. In doing so, it examines the prospects for the voluntary sector to deliver both service and political pluralism in the future.     

A quantitative theory of preferences: Some results on transition functions

We investigate a general theory of combining individual preferences into collective choice. The preferences are treated quantitatively, by means of preference functions (a,b), where 0(a,b) expresses the degree of preference of a to b. A transition function is a function (x,y) which computes (a,c) from (a,b) and (b,c), namely (a,c)=((a,b),(b,c)). We prove that given certain (reasonable) conditions on how individual preferences are aggregated, there is only one transition function that satisfies these conditions, namely the function (x,y)=x·y (multiplication of odds). We also formulate a property of transition functions called invariance, and prove that there is no invariant transition function; this impossibility theorem shows limitations of the quantitative method.Research supported in part by the National Science Foundation.     

Tax policy toward non-profit organisations: an eleven-country survey

The role of private non-profit organisations in modern economic systems is poorly understood. The tax and subsidy treatment of non-profits relative to private firms affects the competitive position of each, and thus their relative strength within any industry; in the United States, for example, non-profit organisations play major competitive roles in such industries as hospitals, nursing homes, day care centres, schools and arts organisations.This paper reports results from a survey of tax policies toward non-profit organisations in eleven countries. The major findings are: (1) the definition and scope of such organisations varies considerably; (2) non-profit organisations are typically regulated by the tax collection agency, but in some countries there is also involvement from the government agency responsible for the particular realm of activity, such as health or education; (3) tax subsidies to non-profits take many forms — not only exemption from corporate profits tax but, depending on the country, for land, buildings, mail and motor vehicles; (4) almost every country limits non-profit organisations' unrelated business activities; and (5) donors are generally permitted to deduct donations of money from taxable income, although there are typically both minimum and maximum limits. These findings point up the larger task of understanding why such differences exist across countries, and what are the effects.Burton Weisbrod is John Evans Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.Elizabeth Mauser is a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.We thank the Ford Foundation for financial support. We also thank those people who responded to the survey questionnaire: Christoph Badelt (Austria), Patrick De Bucquois (Belgium), Miklos Marschall (Hungary), Jimmy Weinblatt (Israel), Disiano Preite (Italy), Mark Robson (United Kingdom), Julia Montserrat (Spain), Ching-chang Yen (Taiwan), Somchai Richupan (Thailand), John Simon (United States) and Wolfgang Seibel (West Germany). In addition, we benefited from reading draft papers by Frits W. Hondius (Council of Europe) and Sheila Avrin McLean (McLean & Co. Ltd), both of whom have done related work on tax treatment of charities in various countries, and from comments by Christoph Franz on an earlier draft of this paper. A version of this paper will appear in a forthcoming volume published by the Center for Social Policy Studies, Jerusalem, Israel. The editors are grateful for the permission of Dr Yaakov Kop, Director of the Center, to publish this paper inVoluntas.     

European competition law and the non-profit sector

Although there has been a debate in the USA for more than two decades about competition policy and non-profit organisations, the debate has not yet had the same prominence in Europe. Only in the last few years, even in the USA, has anti-trust policy toward the sector been examined. The paper examines the position for two groups of competition issues in European Community law: first, the problem of the lawfulness of grant aid, given the rules against state subsidies distorting competition; and second, the application of the rules for competition in the single market including EC anti-trust law. Particular legal problems are identified for non-profits which use geographical catchment area agreements with similar organisations. Finally, the paper examines a range of policy issues which arise on consideration of Community law, including the idea of community development as a locally autarchic objective, the terms of competition for grants and contracts, and the possible implications of the future application of European competition law to non-profits in the Community.This paper is part of a series of studies on non-profit organisations and competition policy; others include 6, 1991; 1992a,b. Many people, all of whom know much more about the law and the economics of this subject than I do, have helped me with this paper. I am particularly grateful to Richard Steinberg, Tymen van den Ploeg, Richard Whish, Martin Knapp, Jeremy Kendall and Stephen Lloyd who read and commented on earlier drafts. Richard Whish urged me to greater caution on the meaning of undertaking and interstate trade effects, pointed out the relevance of the subsidiarity provisions in Maastricht, put me straight on the merger regulations, and saved me from a number of legal errors. I am grateful to Jeremy Kendall for pointing out the BUPA case to me, and to Tymen van den Ploeg for directing me to theDaily Mail case and explaining its significance to me with greater patience than I deserved. I have also benefited from advice from Lindsay Driscoll, Nigel Tarling, Bridget Phelps, Anita Randon and Janet Morrison. I am grateful also to all the people who attended an NCVO seminar on 27 April 1992 at which a late draft of the paper was given for their comment. None of them is responsible for my errors. Although I am employed by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, London, the paper represents my own views and not those of the Council.     

Infant “surprise” expressions as coordinative motor structures

This study found that the facial action of moderately or widely opening the mouth is accompanied by brow raising in infnats, thus producing surprise expressions in non-surprise situations. Infants (age = 5 months and 7 months) were videotaped as they were presented with toys that they often grasped and brought to their mouths. Episodes of mouth opening were identified and accompanying brow, nose, and eyelid movements were coded. Results indicated that mouth opening is selectively associated with raised brows rather than to other brow movements. Trace levels of eyelid raising also tended to accompany this facial configuration. The findings are discussed in terms of a dynamical systems theory of facial behavior and suggest that facial expression cannot be used as investigators' sole measure of surprise in infants.This research was conducted as part of the second author's undergraduate honors program project and was supported in part by a grant from the NICHHD #1RO1 HD 22399-A3 awarded to G. F. Michel.