Bargaining over the budget

This article presents a theory of government expenditure and identifies how an inefficient government budget is shaped by its initial size and allocation. Assuming that the parties in the legislative body agree with the optimal size of a government budget but have conflict of interests over its allocation, we show that, if the initial budget size is sufficiently large and the initial allocation is sufficiently unequal, in equilibrium the budget size is greater than what it would be had the initial budget size been sufficiently small.     

Long over short term

Abstract

Managers and organizations are learning that dealing with ecological issues seriously is part of their responsibility. In this article, the inherent rationality of an ecologically oriented approach to management is highlighted. For this purpose, a conceptual framework for a comprehensive fitness of organizations is presented. Based on this framework and on case studies in small businesses a simulation model has been developed. The structure of this model is outlined. Then, on the basis of simulation experiments, several aspects of ecological management are discussed. The focus is on the role of pre-control, which substantiates the primacy of the long-term perspective. In this context, the trade-offs between short- and longer-term decisions, as well as the vulnerability of one-sided strategies are discussed.     

Transnationalism over the Life Course

The sociological research on transnational migration has blossomed over the past decade to become one of the most discussed ideas in the sociology of immigration and the discipline more generally. In this review, we draw attention to transnationalism research that includes elements of the life course perspective. We distinguish two ways that the life course approach can be integrated with research on transnationalism: Research that examines the unique transnational aspects of a single life stage, and research that considers transnational trajectories and transitions as individuals move through two or more life stages. We propose that more explicit attention to the life course in transnational research will lead to interesting and enlightening new research directions.     

Obesity over the life course

Obesity in middle-aged humans is a risk factor for many age-related diseases and decreases life expectancy by about 7 years, which is roughly comparable to the combined effect of all cardiovascular disease and cancer on life span. The prevalence of obesity increases up until late middle age and decreases thereafter. Mechanisms that lead to increased obesity with age are not yet well understood, but current evidence implicates impairments in hypothalamic function, especially impairments in the ability of hypothalamic pro-opiomelanocortin neurons to sense nutritional signals. The rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity at all ages in the past decade suggests that, in the next two or three decades, diseases associated with obesity, especially diabetes, will begin to rise rapidly. Indeed, these trends suggest that for the first time in modern history, the life expectancy of people in developed societies will begin to decrease, unless the rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity can be reversed.     

Justifiable preferences over opportunity sets

In this paper we say that a preference over opportunity sets is justifiable if there exists a reflexive and complete binary relation on the set of alternatives, such that one opportunity set is at least as good as a second, if and only if the there is at least one alternative from the first set which is no worse than any alternative of the two sets combined together, with respect to the binary relation on the alternatives. In keeping with the revered tradition set by von Neumann and Morgenstern we call a reflexive and complete binary relation, an abstract game (note: strictly speaking von Neumann and Morgenstern refer to the asymmetric part of a reflexive and complete binary relation as an abstract game; hence our terminology though analytically equivalent, leads to a harmless corruption of the original meaning). In this paper we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the justifiability of transitive and quasi transitive preferences over opportunity sets. I would like to thank Prasanta Pattanaik for motivation in this research. I would also like to thank Maurice Salles and an anonymous referee of this journal for useful suggestions leading to considerable improvement in the presentation. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Sixth Annual Conference on Econometric Modeling for Africa, held at Pretoria from July 4–6, 2001. I would like to thank all the conference participants for their observations on my paper. However, the sole responsibility for errors that do remain is my own.     

扩大民营投资的思考

民营投资,是相对于政府投资而言的。根据我国的国情,以投资主体作为划分标准可把投资分为政府投资和民营投资。民营投资是指扣除国有经济之后的其他经济类型的投资,也可以说是非国有经济的投资。民营投资的快速发展在我国国民经济发展中起着越来越重要的作用,从宏观角度看,民营投资的发展增加了整个经济投资总量,启动了长期以来被压抑的国内总需求,最终能刺激国民经济的快速增长,从微观看,扩大民营投资范围,可充分利用家庭储蓄资金,改变家庭单一的储蓄投资增值方式,提高家庭收入水平。民营投资在我国经济发展过程中从无到有,发展速度十分惊…     

Predictability of social connections over time

A developed theory of social networks would potentially provide predictive and explanatory models for social processes at the most general level. The paper contributes to such a theory by elaborating one basic proposition: that social connections attract each other as a regular function of network parameters such as ‘structural strength’ (number of common links) and ‘distance’ (length of minimal path of linkage). The proposition is tested on longitudinal data from three locality-based networks.     

Poverty over the family life cycle

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics is used to investigate vulnerability to poverty over the family life cycle. An examination of 1981–83 interview years reveals that family life cycle stage is a significant predictor of poverty status. Two-parent families are more vulnerable to poverty in the childbearing stage, and also when they are launching children. Female-headed families are more vulnerable to poverty when younger children are present in the household. Reasons for these different vulnerabilities to poverty are given, and the implications of these findings are discussed.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1987 meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society. I would like to thank Joan Aldous, David Klein and Rodney Ganey for their reviews of this paper.Robert C. Tuttle is an assistant professor, Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Wilkes College, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame and includes the economic situations of families, and family policy among his research interests.     

对发展燃料电池车的多种思考

介绍美国多方面的专家、学者所表达的关于如何开发美国氢能源的不同观点,可为中国规划和实施氢能源的研究开发工作有所借鉴。     

Policies over time and pareto optimality

This paper is concerned with sequences of policies that occur over time in voting models and planning procedures. The framework for our analysis includes assumptions that are satisfied by models in the corresponding literatures, together with other standard assumptions for microeconomic analysis that involve time. The starting point for our analyses is the prespective that results from combining the following (widely held) views: 1) certain voting models and planning procedures can be interpreted as being non-tatonnement or sequential processes (where each policy in the sequence that is generated is actually experienced by voters or consumers) and 2) an alternative being Pareto optimal in any given period (temporal Pareto optimality) is the appropriate efficiency criterion only if the alternative is the final outcome from a tatonnement process-and that, otherwise, one should examine the efficiency of the entire path (using intertemporal Pareto optimality). Our first observation about the planning literature is that is has (by and large) neglected the efficiency criterion that is appropriate for the discrete-time procedures that can be interpreted as non-tatonnement or sequential processes-and that, what's more, such trajectories will (in general) fail to meet this criterion. Our second observation identifies some results that can be used to establish that some of these trajectories will at least be ultimately intertemporally Pareto optimal. In our discussion of voting theory, we review Buchanan's opposition to requiring (social) choice consistency for voting procedures-and his argument for this position on (Pareto) efficiency grounds. We then consider voting procedures that can be interpreted as non-tatonnement or sequential processes and arrive at the conclusion that, in these cases, (i) majority rule cycles are intertemporally Pareto inefficient and (ii) achieving intertemporal Pareto optimality requires choice consistency. We then go on to show that related observations apply to Kramer's normative conclusions about his dynamical model of political equilibrium — and identify some further references where similar observations apply. In the final part of our discussion of voting models, we arrive at the further conclusion that, in the most relevant cases, a trajectory that stays in the temporal Pareto set is not necessarily more desirable (on efficiency grounds) than one that doesn't.This paper has been improved by helpful comments and suggestions that have been provided by Kenneth Arrow, an anonymous referee, and the editor who handled the paper.Peter Coughlin gratefully acknowledges financial support provided by (i) National Science Foundation Grant No. SES-8409352, and (ii) the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford (with support from National Science Foundation Grant No. BNS-8700864 and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation).     

高校青年教师离职问题思考

青年教师是高校教学工作未来的核心力量,由于自身特点和诸多外界因素,离职率一直居高不下,对学校正常教学、科研活动的开展带来了比较大的负面影响。本文对高校青年教师离职原因进行了分析,并提出了解决这个问题的思路。     

大学生另类行为思考

当代大学生群体中突出存在着语言另类、穿着另类、示爱另类、宠物另类、节日另类等另类行为。创新性思维发展、情感的冲动和波动性、自制力较差、追求个性释放与叛逆性格以及排解心理压力的需要等心理因素是其根源所在。对另类行为,我们既不可全盘肯定,也不能一味否定,而应给以适当的引导,使其真正体现大学生的个性差异和个性发展。     

Social Disputes over GMOs: An Overview

This review provides an overview of social research on genetically modified crops (GM crops), also known as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Academic inquiry on the social disputes over the future of agriculture biotechnology has multiplied since the mid‐1990s, when the first seeds were approved for market commercialization. This essay identifies and describes five prominent analytical approaches to explain public controversies over GMOs: the political economy of food and agriculture, social studies on science, democracy theory, research on corporations and hegemony, and social movement and peasant studies. This overview concludes by arguing that these different strains, although each privileging one analytical dimension and one level of analysis, converge in (i) the definition of the relevant explanatory factors, (ii) in the identification of the various levels of analysis – global, transnational, national and local – involved in the issue and (iii) in the prognostic that social disputes over GMOs are likely to remain a topic of public and scholar interest in the near future.