A population sample registry for public health survey investigations: methods,lessons, and successes

Public health relies on sample surveys to monitor the health of populations and investigate factors that contribute to population health and illness. Such investigations require surveying individuals who are selected in ways that support statistical inference to the population. Faced with rising costs and declining participation, survey researchers are exploring economical ways to recruit samples that validly represent larger populations. The current report describes an innovative resource, the Colorado Adult Population Sample–Survey Research Registry, which maintains survey access to respondents from a probability-based state health survey. We describe recruitment and retention strategies, explore representativeness, report several studies that used the registry, and discuss future directions.     

Welche Lohnungleichheiten sind gerecht?Which income inequalities are considered just?

This article examines the reasons for inequalities of earnings in Germany and the extent to which these inequalities are considered to be legitimate. We focus on three major inequality-generating factors derived from labour market and inequality research: individual, firm-specific and structural factors. We then investigate empirically the importance of these factors in the emergence of differences of earnings and the extent to which employees consider the rents of each factor to be just or unjust. Analyses based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel reveal that wage differentials are considered as just if they can be attributed to individual factors (level of education, professional experience). In contrast, wage differentials due to firm-specific factors (atypical employment, seniority-based pay) and structural factors (certain occupational groups/industries, differences between regions) are the major reasons for perceived earnings injustice. The results of this study will contribute to the debate concerning increasing wage inequalities and reveal that distinguishing between just and unjust inequalities is essential, especially in discussions regarding the social or political consequences of this trend.     

Reporter in der Organisation – Systemisches Storytelling für Journalisten

This article describes a storytelling method, which combines the craft of journalism with premises of systemic organizational development. It transfers the model of press freedom to the organization. Companies hire reporters to be free to cover the everyday life and culture inside the organization. Part of the method are storytelling-events where the reporters present their investigation to an internal public. The radical independence sets the systemic storytelling apart from other formats of corporate communications. The benefit is reliability. This opens new opportunities for companies to deal with itself and defines new turfs for journalists.     

Codependent VAR models and the pseudo-structural form

This paper investigates whether codependence restrictions can be uniquely imposed on VAR models via the so-called pseudo-structural form used in the literature. Codependence of order q is given if a linear combination of autocorrelated variables eliminates the serial correlation after q lags. Importantly, maximum likelihood estimation and likelihood ratio testing are only possible if the codependence restrictions can be uniquely imposed. Applying the pseudo-structural form, our study reveals that this is not generally the case, but that unique imposition is guaranteed in several important special cases.     

Seat belt laws: why we should keep them

In the June 2007 issue of Significance , John Adams argued for the repeal of seat belt laws. They have never been demonstrated to save lives, he said; and they increase the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed on the roads. Richard Allsop, Oliver Carsten, Andrew Evans and Robert Gifford argue that Parliament should keep the seat belt laws on the statute book and that we should all keep wearing belts whenever we travel in a car, van or coach—and they contest John's statistics.     

Does Child Gender Predict Older Parents’ Well-Being?

Inconsistencies in comparisons of older parents’ well-being with that of older, childless adults may be resolved by considering the separate effects of sons and daughters on parents. The hypothesis was that older parents of only daughters have greater life satisfaction, more satisfying relations with their children, more intimate family relations, and greater social support satisfaction compared to older childless adults and parents of only sons. Childless older adults were predicted to have more intimate friends. The effect of having both sons and daughters was also explored. Longitudinal results indicated parents had greater life satisfaction than childless adults, and parents of daughters were more satisfied with relations with their children than parents of only sons. Childless adults had more relations with friends and fewer family intimate relations. Neither social support satisfaction or affect varied across groups. The findings are related to gender socialization, social support, and normative expectations.     

A Social Comparison Perspective of Treatment Seeking by the Homeless

The homeless will readily list ailments they claim to have, yet they will also claim that such ailments are not a problem and do not warrant treatmente In an attempt to understand this apparent paradox, data from a sampLe of homeless individuals were re-analyzed from a social comparison perspective. It was hypothesized that increased entrenchment in homelessness (increased isolation from “nonhomeless” environments and further involvement in the homeless environment) — operationalized by longer time spent on the street and a greater number of street friends — would lead homeless individuals to alter their perceptions of what constitutes a problem worthy of treatment. Results supported this hypothesis, in direction, and in almost all tests conducted. The involvement of adaptation level theory in such a social comparison process and the implications for intelVention and treatment are discussed.     

Uncanny Repetitions. Abu Ghraib in Afterthought

In this article we investigate the imagery that came to light with the Abu Ghraib scandal. We take up both the original photographs of humiliation and torture that were published by 60 Minutes and The New Yorker in 2004, and examples of the many varied responses that have since then emerged on the internet in the form of caricatures and imitations. In analysing this imagery we introduce the theoretical concepts of the uncanny and of repetition. By analysing both the form and the content of these various images, we argue that it is necessary to introduce a further theoretical concept: comedy. Drawing upon our analysis, we conclude by discussing what the Abu Ghraib images can tell us about the present state of Western culture.     

Financing Unemployment Benefits: Dismissal versus Employment Taxes

Abstract. This paper investigates the effects of using dismissal taxes to finance unemployment benefits. We compare dismissal and employment taxes in a model with search frictions. Employment taxes give rise to externalities because firms do not take into account the effects their dismissal decisions have on others. These externalities can be tackled by using dismissal taxes to finance unemployment insurance. Taking into account the budget for unemployment insurance, employment taxes can be reduced by more than is necessary to offset the adverse effect of dismissal taxes on the value of the firm. The introduction of dismissal taxes leads to higher job creation and lower unemployment.