Lone Parents and Informal Childcare: A Tax Credit Childcare Subsidy?

The Labour government aims to increase the lone parent employment rate to 70 per cent by 2010. To achieve this aim, it has introduced a state subsidy for childcare in the form of the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit. So far this has been limited to formal childcare despite evidence that lone parents are more likely to use informal childcare. This article investigates the potential of a state subsidy to be extended to support informal childcare. Utilizing evidence from a study of 78 qualitative in‐depth interviews with lone parents, it explores preferences for informal care and the way that informal care is negotiated. On the one hand, we found that some lone parents held deeply embedded preferences for informal childcare based on trust, commitment, shared understandings and children's happiness. Thus it can be concluded that it is important for the government to support informal as well as formal care. On the other, we found that the way lone parents actually negotiated informal childcare involved complex notions of obligation, duty and reciprocity, suggesting that a subsidy could potentially intrude upon complex private family relationships. However, the evidence suggests that care was negotiated differently depending on whether it was provided by a grandparent or other family and friends, with lone parents tending to favour paying for childcare provided by other family and friends than grandparents. This has implications for a state subsidy, which needs further investigation.     

Predicting Support for Eliminating the Dividend Tax: The Role of Framing and Attributions for Wealth

The proposed elimination of the dividend tax was among the most debated aspects of the Bush administration's economic stimulus package. Both the fairness of the initiative and who would benefit from it were questioned. Drawing on the political rhetoric of these debates, 86 respondents completed materials assessing the effects of framing and attributions for wealth on support for eliminating the dividend tax. The participants were less supportive of eliminating the dividend tax when it was framed as benefiting the wealthy than when the initiative was framed as benefiting the general public. Attributing wealth to personal initiative and "warm" feelings toward the wealthy emerged as the most powerful predictors of supporting the tax's elimination. Implications for social policy and economic justice are discussed.     

论区域高等教育一体化与学分互换制度

学分互换是建设高教强省和区域高等教育一体化的内在要求。江苏高校已通过组建或参与教学共同体、大学联盟等形式开展学分互换的合作,但整体上还处于学分互换的起步和摸索阶段。加强学分互换制度建设应坚持完善学分制改革与推动学分互换并行不悖,坚持高校＂自下而上＂的自主探索和政府＂自上而下＂的积极介入并驾齐驱,坚持组织建设、技术建设和利益协调机制建设多管齐下。     

Credit and authorship practices: educational and environmental influences

A survey on credit issues of academic chemists in U.S. Ph.D.-granting institutions was conducted. The respondents rated 15 criteria for authorship of scientific publications; core intellectual contributions received the highest ratings although making a single suggestion that was essential to the successful completion of the project was rated very low. Acquisition of data was also rated highly. The respondents rated eight potential influences on their own "policy" toward giving credit; doing what "seems to be the right thing" was the highest rated influence followed by graduate educational experiences; professional society or other responsible conduct of research (RCR) institutional policies were rated, by far, the lowest.     

Political Mobilization in the Pews: Religious Contacting and Electoral Turnout

Objective . We probe the impact of voter contact by religious groups, in the form of direct attempts to encourage voters to vote in a certain way and the placement of voter guides in churches, on voter turnout among white evangelical Protestants, white mainline Protestants, white Roman Catholics, and black Protestants in 1994, 1996, and 1998. Methods . Using data from the 1994, 1996, and 1998 National Election Studies, we fit a series of logistic regression models of voter turnout that feature, as key predictors, variables indicating whether an individual was contacted by "any groups concerned with moral or religious issues that tried to encourage you to vote in a particular way" and whether "information about candidates, parties or political issues [was] made available in your place of worship before the election." Results . These forms of contact were most commonly experienced by white evangelicals and black Protestants, and in many instances such contacts accomplished their intended purpose. Conclusions . Interest group contacts—at least contacts from the types of groups examined here—have the potential to be no more effective than contacts by political parties, perhaps because their messages can be more narrowly targeted.     

Russian Political Culture: The View from Utopia

The economy of Russia today is essentially in a "dual" crisis: onto the prolonged socioeconomic crisis that began in the second half of 1989 has been superimposed a very acute financial crisis following the disaster of August 17, 1998.     

Credit risk assessment and meta-judgment

Decision-making problems in credit risk assessment and authorization are often too complex to be processed by conventional methods. They involve judgmental procedures which are by nature non-deterministic. Artificial intelligence methods can be used to approach the problem from a different angle. This paper shows the feasibility of a multi-expert approach driven by a meta-model in assessing business risk. More precisely it describes the meta-expert as part of a knowledge-based system being developed to assist bank loan officers in assessing the activities of firms applying for a loan. The use of a meta-model to represent the expert's strategic reasoning has the advantage of offering adaptable systems capable of building dynamically the resolution strategy most suited to the problem to be solved.     

Stability and efficiency in perfect foresight situation

We study the stable standard of behavior in a perfect foresight situation that was introduced by Xue (Econ Theory 11:603–627, 1998). We assume that the inducement relations are invertible and coalition free. We show that the conditions are sufficient for the existence of the nonempty-valued optimistic/conservative stable standard of behavior for perfect foresight situation (OSSB-PF/CSSB-PF). Moreover, we find that an OSSB-PF supports a Pareto-efficient outcome as a stable outcome; if the preference relations are strict, only the Pareto-efficient outcomes are supported by the OSSB-PF.     

现代公民之理性生存品质与高尚德性人格的养成——“信用价值观”建设的理论定位与实践追求

市场经济本质上就是"信用经济","信用"是市场经济的核心价值观念;"信用价值"的实质性内容,主要体现在信用对于个体与社群共同体的存续良性演进所具有的主体性正效应,以及在此基础上个体和社群共同体对这种效应的自觉体认和一致追求;信用是现代人最重要、最健康的生存品质和最为合理的生存信念追求,是现代"公民社会"理性公民最为合理的行为价值取向;信用的自觉践履是现代社会公民高尚德性人格养成的最为重要的途径之一,信用文明则更是现代社会与公民精神文明素养的基本内容。     

社会信用体系的重要支撑：信用制度

社会信用体系的构建是一项复杂的社会系统工程,最为关键的是要加强相关的信用制度建设,如产权制度、信用法律制度、信用奖惩制度等。这是社会信用体系的重要支撑。     

逃税行为的经济学分析

逃税是一种普遍的社会现象,尤其在发展中国家更为严重.纳税人在进行逃税活动时,总是权衡了风险和收益的情况下,选择最优的收入申报量,而使它的预期收入最大化.当逃税被稽查的概率与被查处所受惩罚的力度之积大于和等于1时,纳税人会倾向完全纳税,相反会倾向逃税.同时,逃税人的预期收入还受到收入、税率、稽查概率和惩罚力度等参数的影响.要遏制逃税行为,应采取适当提高稽查概率,加大惩罚力度和提高收入的显性化等措施,才能使它的危害程度降到最小.     

中国传统司法文化的价值取向

中国传统司法文化在实体价值层面的最大特色是司法的宗法伦理理性。“经义断狱” ,充分体现了儒家之礼对中国古代司法活动的影响 ,礼治主义成为中国传统司法的最高原则 ;“德主刑辅” ,着力提升道德在中国古代司法中的重要性 ,深刻反映了传统司法的德治主义精神 ;“御笔断罪” ,形象地表现了皇帝对司法的控制 ,透视出中国传统司法中皇权至上的实质和鲜明的人治主义色彩 ;“和谐与无讼” ,代表着传统中国人对诉讼司法目的的理想追求 ,是中国传统司法文化最根本的价值取向和最高的价值理想。     

日本大学学分制改革述评

日本大学的学分制源于美国,但并没有采用美国的完全学分制模式,而是引入了与学分制息息相关的平均绩点制、学分互换及插班入学、学分上限制度等,而且,这些改革措施目前仍然处于探索之中。由于管理体制、文化结构及现实问题等原因,日本大学没有选择关国的完全学分制模式,但它却选择了一个最适合自身的“日本模式”。     

Influences on Authorship Issues: An Evaluation of Giving Credit

A survey on authorship issues was conducted with academic chemists in Ph.D.-granting institutions in the United States. Six hundred faculty members responded. The respondents reported a wide range in their attitudes and behavior regarding giving credit in a publication. The various guidelines for authorship are independent of academic background factors such as the relationship between the senior author and the contributor-potential author. However, the survey data reveal significant context-dependency by the respondents. Many respondents would give more credit to their own student than to another professor's student for the exact same contribution to a research project. The survey data further shows that the faculty who received their Ph.D. in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s are the most likely to provide authorship, while those who received their Ph.D. in the 1990s and 2000s would most likely give either no credit or acknowledgments.     

The 1998 Children's Act: Problems of Enforcement in Ghana

Correspondence to Ms Siobhan Laird, 18 Ranfurly Avenue, Bangor, County Down BT20 3SN. E-mail: boreland{at}bangor.freeserve.co.uk Summary In Ghana during 1998 the Children's Act passed into law. Thislegislation was imitative of Britain's 1989 Children Act, towhich it bears a close resemblance. However, due to the verydifferent socio-economic and cultural context of Ghana, implementationof the 1998 Children's Act is problematic. This paper examinesthe similarity in the provisions between the British and GhanaianActs and explores the social, economic and cultural factorsmost immediately impacting on child welfare in Ghana. Considerationis then given to the criticisms of African scholars in relationto rights based approaches to intervention. Finally, alternativecourses of action to protect children and maintain their welfareare considered which are more consonant with the specific socio-economicand cultural setting of Ghana.     

进化史观对中国史学转型的促进和影响

19世纪末 2 0世纪初进化史观传入中国后 ,成为猛烈批判旧史学的思想武器 ,中国史坛由此提出了进行“史界革命”、建立“新史学”的口号和主张。进化史观在五四时期对中国史学的影响范围仍然最为广泛 ,影响力也更加深入。进化史观在五四前后中国史学转型、史学科学化的过程中 ,依然起到了重要的促进作用     

The IPO phenomenon in the 1990s

Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) were the most prevalent form of securities issued to raise capital by firms wanting to go public during the last decade (1990–2000) in the United States. The IPO phenomenon got a tremendous boost during the late 1990s by the popularity of the Internet stocks. In the so-called ‘bubble period’ of 1998–1999, hardly a week went by when one or two IPOs, particularly of the Internet variety, did not appear in the capital market. In this paper we have analyzed the IPO phenomenon during 1990–1995 and during 1996–1999. We have also focused on Internet bubble during 1998–1999, and the IPO meltdown after March 2002. We have found that not all IPOs performed well in 1999, the majority of the 25 IPOs that had the highest first-day gains over 200% in 1999 had also a poor performance record during 2001–2002. As the IPOs issued now are few in number, we may not see the kind of ‘irrational exuberance’ as we witnessed in the late 1990s, for the foreseeable future in the United States.     

论我国个人信用法律制度体系建设

建立个人信用法律制度体系是当前一个热门话题。中共中央十六届三中全会提出要建立健全社会信用体系,形成以道德为支撑、产权为基础、法律为保障的社会信用制度。关于对信用的理解学者们各抒己见,但在探讨个人信用法律制度体系建设中必须给信用一个合理的定位,才能进一步探讨我国个人信用法律制度体系建设的构架,从而提出一些设想。倡导和培育现代信用观念和信用文化,建立个人信用征集制度,完善信用公开披露制度,加强信用监督制度,加大失信惩戒机制,建立健全个人信用法律制度,制定一些与个人信用有关的法律,修改完善现行法律。政府应为建立个人信用法律制度体系创造良好的外部环境。     

Housing of Seniors in the Czech Republic: Challenges for Social Services

The article focuses on the housing market, the behavior and motivations of senior households to move or to stay in place. Knowing if and why seniors decide to move at retirement is a critical factor for the establishment of social service policies in terms of their structure, location, and provision.

This study uses secondary data based on information about Czech households collected by the Czech Statistical Office (CSO). The data are annually collected via sample surveys of the income and living conditions of households (EU-SILC). The sample covers more than eight thousands of households. Analyzed data cover the period 2007–2012 when the abolishment of rent regulation in the Czech Republic took place. It is hypothesized that an impact like this might increase the willingness to move and reveal the factors which underlie the decisions of particular households.

The results indicated that most Czech households that decided to move during the study period were driven by the increased financial burden of housing. Other factors, including the availability of social services and public utilities within the current location, played only minor roles. It seems that Czech senior households act in a very pragmatic and rational manner when deciding whether to stay in place or move, with the majority of households preferring not to move. Social policies should, therefore, concentrate on providing services for the current locations rather than on the construction of new social housing.     

泰国企业所得税制度及其现存问题探析

泰国政府于2011年颁布了第530号皇家法令,规定了降低企业所得税税率的政策,但该政策在泰国学界引起了很大争议。通过全面介绍泰国企业所得税制度,阐明了第530号法令规定的减税政策所造成的影响及泰国企业所得税制度存在的其他相关问题,提出了解决问题的方法。