民族法制的中国经验及其贡献

在中国，平等、团结、互助的社会主义民族关系已经建立并进一步巩固发展，这是实施民族区域自治制度的结果，它为当代国际社会解决民族问题提供了有益的经验。这些经验是对民族团结概念作宪法安排以建构公民认同；以少数民族干部制度作为沟通的制度性安排；自治权作为发展权的制度设置以实现各民族的共同繁荣发展；设立少数民族聚居区的独特安排，保证了民族关系历史与现实的统一；以多元与一体并存的发展形式，保证各民族语言文化的平等共同发展。     

国有商业银行资本市场业务研究

本文首先从国际金融界混业经营 ,国内银行、保险、证券三业互相渗透共同发展 ,我国资本市场发展对银行传统业务的冲击 ,以及加入 WTO挑战的需要等方面论述了国有商业银行拓展资本市场业务的客观现实性。其次 ,从资本市场规模、银行和证券公司、基金、保险公司的业务合作领域 ,以及合作的层次和市场发展潜力等方面阐述了国有商业银行进行资本市场业务创新的动因及其目前在资本市场业务方面存在的问题和解决办法。进而分析了进一步拓展资本市场业务从建立战略同盟、壮大资金实力和实现综合经营有效切入的问题     

Sweatshops and third world living standards: Are the jobs worth the sweat?

Many studies have shown that multinational firms pay more than domestic firms in Third World countries. Economists who criticize sweatshops have responded that multinational firms’ wage data do not address whether sweatshop jobs are above average because many of these jobs are with domestic subcontractors. We compare apparel industry wages and the wages of individual firms accused of being sweatshops to measures of the standard of living in Third World economies. We find that most sweatshop jobs provide their workers an above average standard of living. The authors thank Jeffery Hummel, Charles Murray, Larry Pratt, and Edward Stringham for helpful comments on earlier drafts. Financial support from the American Institute for Economic Research is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies.     

A LOTTO SYSTEMS PROBLEM

A Lotto Systems bet allows the player to nominate n numbers from which (s)he believes the winning six numbers will be drawn, and to bet on all combinations of six of these n numbers. Assume that the winning six numbers come from the nominated n. How many combinations must be entered to guarantee that one combination will include at least five of the winning six numbers? The problem is generalized in this paper, and the method of simulated annealing is used to find solutions for various situations. The case where two supplementary numbers are drawn after the initial six winning numbers is also considered.     

Poor People in Poor Places: Local Opportunity Structures and Household Poverty*

Abstract Accounts of poverty generally fall into either “individualist” or “structuralist” camps. Often these are seen as irreconcilable and incompatible competing perspectives. This paper integrates individualist and structuralist accounts of poverty by examining the relationship between “person poverty” and “place poverty” in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan labor markets, using a multilevel framework. I fashion a general model of poverty production and allocation, drawing on the labor market ecology perspective. After a discussion of this perspective, I develop a multilevel framework for analyzing data from the 1990 Census PUMS‐L sample, STF‐3c, and other sources to show how compositional and contextual factors affect households' likelihoods of being in poverty. These multilevel models also allow us to estimate the degree to which labor market conditions influence the magnitude of household labor supply characteristics. Results suggest that both compositional and contextual factors contribute to the metro‐nonmetro difference in poverty rates, and that the effects of employment vary in accordance with labor market characteristics.     

Buying a Dream: Alternative Models of Demand for Lotto

Existing lotto demand models utilize effective price, computed as the face value of a ticket minus the expected value of prize money per ticket, as their primary explanatory variable. By contrast, this article proposes a key role for consumption benefit or "fun" in the demand for gambling in general and lotto demand in particular. It develops an alternative model of lotto demand that focuses on the maximum possible prize. When this is tested against the traditional model using data from the U.K. National Lottery, we find that jackpot considerations exert an influence over and above that of variations in effective price.     

Spiritual Gatekeepers: Time and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults

This article addresses the process of initiation into the Catholic Church by analyzing in‐depth interviews with parish‐based professional initiation coordinators. The formal title given to this process of initiation by the Church since Vatican II is the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Since the RCIA's promulgation, the Church has hired a host of lay and religious professionals to coordinate its implementation at the parish level. Our analysis focuses on the temporal sequencing and the problem of duration of initiation. The data show that both city and suburban coordinators adapted the Church's mandated length of time for initiation in different ways as they negotiated covenantal and contractual social relations among RCIA participants.