Values,decision-making,and the rich life

Young people increasingly take only one value seriously in making decisions about careers, that of salary levels. They should understand that there are many values which need to be weighed in making decisions about employment. Given the present milieu, it may prove effective to use language which describes these other, nonmonetary values as contributors to the “rich lifer”     

Programa shortstop: a culturally focused juvenile intervention for Hispanic youth

Culturally sensitive juvenile delinquency and substance abuse interventions are relatively limited and unavailable to many first-time Hispanic juvenile offenders. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a culturally focused juvenile and substance abuse intervention program for first time Hispanic youth offenders. The intent of the program was to decrease juvenile recidivism and increase substance abuse resistance. Programa Shortstop is a family based intervention designed for Hispanic youth ages 9-17. The intervention was delivered to 352 youth and at least one parent/caregiver over the 5-year study period. For intervention youth, the results of the recidivism study (n = 321) indicated that 89% of youth participating in Programa Shortstop between 1995 to 1997 were not rearrested within one year of completing Programa Shortstop. Additionally, statistical paired t-test analysis found that the intervention model had a positive effect on legal knowledge and school related factors associated with substance abuse and delinquency. Parent participants demonstrated significant increases in knowledge related to substance abuse and the legal system.     

Loan performance and race

Recent studies find evidence of racial discrimination in mortgage markets. Although these studies explore loan approval rates for whites versus minorities, they do not specifically consider loan performance, either in the form of default rates or loan administration costs. This study considers discrimination in the used car credit market, where the collateral is not subject to location externalities, collateral value and quality do not vary as much as in real estate, and the loan terms are shorter. We find administration costs and default rates are higher for minorities than for whites, controlling for age, income, home ownership, wealth, occupation, loan terms, and geographic location.     

Book Review: Debating Development by Deborah Eade and Ernst Ligteringen (eds.). Oxfam GB,Oxford, 2001

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Effect of autocorrelation when estimating the trend of a time series via penalized least squares with controlled smoothness

This paper studies the effect of autocorrelation on the smoothness of the trend of a univariate time series estimated by means of penalized least squares. An index of smoothness is deduced for the case of a time series represented by a signal-plus-noise model, where the noise follows an autoregressive process of order one. This index is useful for measuring the distortion of the amount of smoothness by incorporating the effect of autocorrelation. Different autocorrelation values are used to appreciate the numerical effect on smoothness for estimated trends of time series with different sample sizes. For comparative purposes, several graphs of two simulated time series are presented, where the estimated trend is compared with and without autocorrelation in the noise. Some findings are as follows, on the one hand, when the autocorrelation is negative (no matter how large) or positive but small, the estimated trend gets very close to the true trend. Even in this case, the estimation is improved by fixing the index of smoothness according to the sample size. On the other hand, when the autocorrelation is positive and large the simulated and estimated trends lie far away from the true trend. This situation is mitigated by fixing an appropriate index of smoothness for the estimated trend in accordance to the sample size at hand. Finally, an empirical example serves to illustrate the use of the smoothness index when estimating the trend of Mexico’s quarterly GDP.     

Late-Life Depression,Social Support,Instrumental Activities of Daily Living,and Utilization of In-Home and Community-Based Services in Older Adults

This study examined the relationship between social support, depression, instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), and utilization of in-home and community-based services. The sample included 39 adults age 65 years old and older. The data were collected by distributing a self-administered questionnaire. Depression levels significantly decreased as levels of social support increased. IADLs functioning significantly decreased as depression levels increased. The number of in-home services used significantly increased as IADLs functioning decreased. The number of community-based services used significantly increased as depression levels decreased. The number of in-home and community-based services used significantly increased as levels of support decreased.     

Intergroup contact and prejudice in Moroccan and Spanish users of Spanish public libraries: mediating variables and directionality of the process / Contacto intergrupal y prejuicio en usuarios marroquíes y españoles de bibliotecas públicas españolas: variables mediadoras y direccionalidad del proceso

This study tests two serial models of intergroup contact in intergroup relations between users of Spanish public libraries and the directionality of the contact-prejudice relationship. Participants were selected in libraries that meet IFLA Guidelines in Barcelona (N_Spaniards = 138 and N_Moroccans = 89) and libraries that do not meet these guidelines in Almería (N_Spaniards = 116 and N_Moroccans = 100). They responded to a survey about the quantity of intergroup contact, anxiety, ethnocultural empathy, outgroup knowledge and prejudice. Several serial mediation analyses reveal a model where the indirect effect of quantity of contact in the library on prejudice was mediated by intergroup anxiety and ethnocultural empathy in Moroccans in Almería and Spaniards and Moroccans in Barcelona, and it found that the direction of this relationship is from contact to attitudes, but not attitudes to contact. These results show that the mediating power of affective variables is stronger than that of cognitive variables. Explanations about the absence of significant results in Spaniards in the Almería group are provided.     

New business development in mature firms

New business development (NBD) is one of the main strategic options for the ‘mature’ company. The authors discuss the reasons why NBD should be considered and suggest a framework for developing new businesses. The results of a two year investigation of a sample of 14 UK companies' NBD initiatives are presented. Half of the sample have either abandoned or are reducing their new business activities. The reasons are manifold and relate to a failure to define specifically the role of the NBD initiatives; a lack of appreciation of the risks, long time spans for development and the high financial commitment associated with NBD; a weakening of the mainstream business (this in itself suggesting that companies often leave NBD ‘too late’); and a naive approach toward marketing. Some lessons for mature companies' future involvement in NBD are drawn.