Evaluating the impact of utility company billing plans on residential energy consumption

Many utility companies offer their customers the choice of participation in an average payment plan, which enables them to pay a fixed sum for their utility bill each month (with final settlement at the end of the billing year), instead of the conventional “pay as you go” billing procedure. Because customers on average payment plans are protected from paying large bills during peak energy-use seasons and because the information about monthly energy use and its cost is perhaps less salient to them, it was hypothesized that customers on the average payment plan would use more electricity than customers not on the plan. Using a nonequivalent control group design, the electricity consumption of a selection of customers of two utility companies (Ns = 475 and 74) was examined. The results showed that there was no evidence to support the hypothesis. Since the logic of hypothesis testing does not permit the ready acceptance of the null hypothesis, several procedural, methodological, and statistical points were made to buttress the conclusion that the average payment plans had no effect on electricity consumption.     

The TRIPs agreement and technological innovation

In this paper we attempt to evaluate the possible spill-over of the international agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property rights (TRIPs for short), underwritten in 1994, regarding economic growth for both wealthy and developing countries. We find that the TRIPs convention has prompted, at the same time, innovation in developing countries and a rise in the per capita income for all the economies involved in international commerce. As a by-product of our research we find that, despite the strong growth of resident patents application after 1995 (the year in which TRIPs came into force), most of the increase in the gross domestic product per capita in developing countries is attributable to the international transfer of technologies, via foreign direct investments.     

The Many Faces of Asset Specificity: A Critical Review of Key Theoretical Perspectives

This paper presents a review of the concept of asset specificity and of the impact which asset specificity is expected to exert on the performance of buyer–supplier relationships. The paper begins by unpacking the complex definitional features of asset specificity and how its multifaceted nature is reflected in an inconsistent and rather ad hoc operationalization of the construct in the extant empirical literature. Following a comprehensive examination of the many dimensions of asset specificity, the review then focuses on the expected role of asset specificity in inter‐firm relationships according to three different theoretical perspectives: transaction costs economics, the resource‐based view and relational exchange theory. Considerable ambiguities and inconsistencies are highlighted by reviewing hypotheses typically developed within their respective theoretical framework. The paper concludes by identifying key challenges and new directions in order to derive maximum benefit from future research.     

Lessons Learned from an LGBTQ Senior Center: A Bronx Tale

This article describes an interdisciplinary pilot study exploring the impact of LGBTQ senior centers on the lives of center members. Many LGBTQ adults face the future having experienced stigma and bias, restricted rights, and rejection from family of origin, and are now growing older without the support of a partner and adult children. As a result, older LGBTQ adults experience higher rates of depression, loneliness and isolation, and shortened life expectancy as compared to non-LGBTQ peers. Findings from focus group and key informant interviews highlight features of LGBTQ senior center experiences that can significantly improve members’ quality of life. These include providing family, acceptance and a home, which can have an impact on outlook and outcomes. Moreover, findings suggest the need for re-thinking hetero-normative definitions of “community” in the context of LGBTQ aging.

Beyond sharing findings from the study, suggesting a conceptual framework for deepening understanding about LGBTQ aging, and identifying lines of future inquiry, the article articulates implications for social work research, practice and education. Ultimately, the article argues that social work is well positioned to improve quality of life for this under-served population when it adopts a cultural humility stance in research, practice and education.     

‘The smell of the place’: Managerialist culture in contemporary UK business schools

By introducing an intentionally provocative critique of managerialist regimes which typify contemporary UK business school culture, we argue that current business school management practices generate a climate of mistrust and alienation amongst academics. Such a climate is not conducive to a reformative agenda that business schools should be pursuing if they are to improve staff morale and the educational environment. Drawing on Ghoshal's ‘smell of the place’ metaphor to structure this argument, we court deliberate irony and paradox. Rather than draw on heterodox theory to inform our critique we, instead, turn relatively mainstream management and organization theory against itself. Our argument is that even when examined through orthodox lenses, managerialist practices are found wanting and contradict the precepts of much mainstream normative theory.     

The United States at mid-decade

This report examines the demographic forces at work in the US that will influence the country's future. A profile of the US population in the mid-1990s reveals that the US is the third most populated countries in the world and one of the fastest growing of the industrialized countries. 70% of this growth is due to natural increase and 30% to immigration. The first topic covered in this report, geographic patterns of growth and change, includes a consideration of regional patterns, population growth by state, residential patterns, and the increase in the number of minorities living in suburban areas. The second topic is the changing age structure, which is characterized by an aging of the population and an increase in the number of children. Racial and ethnic diversity is discussed in terms of fastest growing groups, where minorities live, the Native American population, and the impact of this diversity on political participation. Immigration is analyzed to reveal sources and destinations, linguistic diversity, effects on schools and the labor market, and socioeconomic effects. The section on American families focuses on trends in marriage and divorce, types of households and families, and household patterns by race/ethnicity. The last topic looks at the distribution of income and poverty as well as at regional and state differences, race/ethnicity differences, the effects of marital status on income, who constitutes the poor, and how income is distributed. In conclusion, it is noted that America's social and economic future depends upon whether current demographic trends will lead to a fragmented and divisive society or to a stronger nation built upon diversity.     

New realities of the American family

The demographic, social, and economic characteristics of American families have changed dramatically over the past few decades. While the male breadwinner/female homemaker model was long traditionally typical,l contemporary families may be openly made up of single-parents, remarried couples, unmarried couples, stepfamilies, foster families, extended or multigenerational families, or 2 families within 1 household. Families are now most likely to have 3 or fewer children, a mother employed outside of the home, and a 50% chance of parental divorce before the children are grown. These trends are common not only in America, but in most industrialized nations around the world. In fact, family trends are so fluid that the US Census Bureau and workplace policy find it difficult to keep pace. This report presents and discusses social and demographic trends behind the ever-changing face of the American family. Households and types of families are further defined, as are the living arrangements of children, young adults, and the elderly. Marriage, divorce, and remarriage trends, age at marriage rates, and interracial marriage are then discussed. Next examined are declining family size, teenage parents, contraception and abortion, unwed mothers, and technological routes to parenthood. The changing roles of family members and family economic well-being are discussed in sections preceding closing comments on the outlook for the American family.     

Challenges and practical aspects of obtaining temporary protection in EU countries and the impact of obtaining protection on the right to work

In general, the situation that has developed in Ukraine on the border with the European Union shows that despite the long history of the UN and the agreement of states to resolve all conflicts through negotiations, the prohibition of the use of force and threat of force, respect for the independence of other states, there are still terrorist states in the world that do not recognize and violate international law. Thus, the states that follow the norms and principles of international law, respect the key European values, support and protect human rights and peace on the continent must unite to overcome armed aggression. That is why the granting of temporary protection to Ukrainian citizens is an important issue, as it is one of the EU's significant contributions to the protection of the identity of the Ukrainian people, who are fighting for their independence. The purpose of the article was to study the peculiarities of obtaining temporary protection in the EU, to compare it with refugee status, to analyse the approaches to this procedure in individual states, as well as to determine the impact of obtaining the relevant status on the realization of the fundamental right to work. The main method used for the research is the method of analysis and synthesis. Its application provided reliable results in many areas of research. First of all, this method was applied in the analysis of EU and international law in the context of granting refugee status and temporary protection. Also, the method of analysis and synthesis was used by the author in the study of the peculiarities of temporary protection in individual Member States. Finally, the author used this method to analyse the problems currently faced by Ukrainian citizens and their possible solutions.     

Legal families and environmental protection: Is there a causal relationship?

In this paper we build on the analysis of La Porta et al. [La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F., Shleifer, A., & Vishny, R. W. (1998). Law and finance. Journal of Political Economy, 106(6), 1113–1155], to investigate the importance of legal families in explaining the dissimilar levels of environmental quality indicators among countries with different legal systems. The main intuition behind our analysis is that the nations in which the rights of shareholders are more protected promote real and financial investment; this increases the speed at which the per capita income corresponding to the declining branch of the Environmental Kutznets Curve (EKC) is achieved. In econometrics different regressions analyses were performed, using as dependent variables three different kinds of pollutants (CO₂, fine suspended particulates and waste), and including as an explanation some financial variables never before considered in this kind of study.