MITIGATING HYPOTHETICAL BIAS IN STATED PREFERENCE DATA: EVIDENCE FROM SPORTS TOURISM

One of the major criticisms of stated preference data is hypothetical bias. Using a unique dataset of both stated and actual behavior, we test for hypothetical bias of stated preference survey responses. We consider whether respondents tend to overstate their participatory sporting event behavior ex ante when compared to their actual behavior at different registration fees. We find that stated behavior accurately predicts actual behavior at a middle level of respondent certainty, overpredicts actual behavior at a lower level of certainty, and underpredicts behavior at a higher level of certainty. This result suggests that respondent uncertainty corrections can be used to mitigate hypothetical bias and stated preference data can be used to better understand actual behavior in situations where no data exist. (JEL L83, Q51, Z2)     

Identity processes in the global era: the case of young immigrants living in Italy

The paper explores processes of identity construction in young people of foreign origin living in Italy. The aim was to understand how youth construct their selves in the global era, characterized by an increase in the possibility of choosing but also in the perception of uncertainty; how they perceive this uncertainty, whether as a chance to construct multifaceted and continually changing identities or as a source of insecurity and loss for their identity. Drawing on 46 in-depth interviews, the research reveals that young people of foreign origin are continually shaping their identities mixing different cultural repertories related to their – or their parents’ – homeland, to the host country, global cultures and youth cultures. Several patterns of identity emerge and they are linked to different perception of uncertainty. A typology of these patterns was developed: young people construct flexible identities or hyphenated identities, or move from a fixed identity to an undefined identity. These types of identity are respectively associated with the perception of uncertainty as a resource, as a constraint, finally with a strategy of reducing or eliminating uncertainty.     

Medical Uncertainty in Students Entering Medical School

Abstract

Uncertainty is a fundamental characteristic of medical practice. Renee Fox described three types of uncertainty: limitations in the body of medical knowledge, incomplete mastery of existing knowledge, and distinguishing between limitations and mastery of knowledge. This investigation administered ten Likert-format questions about uncertainty to 171 incoming medical students at one state medical school Items were reliable over a six week test-retest, and validity was supported by correlations with an Intolerance of Ambiguity scale. Entering students recognized that uncertainty exists in medical knowledge and mastery of medical knowledge. Factor analysis of the ten item uncertainty scale revealed three dimensions: uncertainty of the profession, practice certainty, and growth in uncertainty. No significant differences in the uncertainty items, scale, or factors existed by demographic characteristics or medical specialty preferences. These findings suggest that students are aware of issues surrounding uncertainty in medicine as they begin medical school, but medical uncertainty at this early stage in medical socialization is not sufficiently powerful to be associated with medical specialty preference.     

Medical decision-making: Whose values?

Abstract

Bioethical debates contribute to discussions about the direction of healthcare funding as we enter the twenty - first century. The funding of healthcare is debated by economists, bioethicists and clinicians. Because of their practice experience and knowledge base social workers are also well-placed to contribute to such issues. The debate has taken place at the ‘macro’ rather than the ‘micro’ level. Yet many ethical decisions about healthcare are made at the patient's bedside. Are they procedural or clinical decisions? Are decisions made for a group or class of patient or on an individual basis? Answers for these questions are sought in a study of medical decision-making for head-injured patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a major teaching hospital.

This paper attempts to draw out ethical principles which are part of medical decision-making. The notion of contextual ethics is likened to the ecological approach of Carel Germain which provides a useful framework for ethnomethodological research.     

Gendered uncertainty and variation in physicians' decisions for coronary heart disease: the double-edged sword of "atypical symptoms"

Nonmedical factors and diagnostic certainty contribute to variation in clinical decision making, but the process by which this occurs remains unclear. We examine how physicians' interpretations of patient sex-gender affect diagnostic certainty and, in turn, decision making for coronary heart disease. Data are from a factorial experiment of 256 physicians who viewed 1 of 16 video vignettes with different patient-actors presenting the same symptoms of coronary heart disease. Physician participants completed a structured interview and provided a narrative about their decision-making processes. Quantitative analysis showed that diagnostic uncertainty reduces the likelihood that physicians will order tests and medications appropriate for an urgent cardiac condition in particular. Qualitative analysis revealed that a subset of physicians applied knowledge that women have "atypical symptoms" as a generalization, which engendered uncertainty for some. Findings are discussed in relation to social-psychological processes that underlie clinical decision making and the social framing of medical knowledge.     

Time orientations and emotion-rules in finance

This article explores how Anglo-American financial firms since the 1980s have operated and acted in an increasingly deregulated, risky, and uncertain arena. I look at these firms and their actions with a particular focus on “temporality” and requisite “emotion-rules,” where variations in emotion-rules correspond with organizational definitions of uncertainty. Firms impose specific emotion-rules, depending on national policies, official duties, and interpretations of each risk. In finance, caveat emptor (i.e., buyer or lender distrust) is an emotion-rule set in screening policies and data collection for credit risks and risks of fraud by personnel, and it gives rise to actual emotions. I argue that three time-orientations are significant in creating emotion-rules. If a past, present, or a long-term future is deployed to construct a future, that creates and frames an institution’s attempts to manage uncertainty. Looking exclusively at Anglo-American corporate finance policies and strategies (often deemed the international “one best way”), six modes of certainty constructions are presented. Each is assessed against the dispositions and emotional strategies required in highly-skilled careers, in specific organizational settings. The relative influence of individual perspectives, institutional rules and general typologies of social action is assessed and found to comprise one past view, three present views, and one future-oriented perspective towards the future. Implications are outlined for emotion-rules relevant to financial careers and office. This article was written before the full financial crisis unfolded, which the argument here substantially foreshadows.

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Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Labour Market Structures and Prospects for Women edited by Robert Lindley Women and Low Pay: Identifying the Issues by Shirley Dex, Steve Lissenbourg and Mark Taylor Women in Post-Compulsory Education and Training in Wales by David Istance and Teresa Rees Equality Issues in Scotland: A Research Review by Alice Brown, Esther Breitenbach and Fiona Myers. Black Women in the Labour Market, a Research Review by R. Bhavnani. Ethnic Minority Women and the Labour Market: Analysis of the 1991 Census by D. Owen. The Gender Impact of CCT in Local Government by Karen Escott and Dexter Whitfield     

Power and identity in theory and practice

Power is often theorised in a way that equates its meaning with A's control over B. Alternatively, it is regarded as a universal transformative capacity. In which case, power is conceptualised in terms of its accomplishment of social order. The central objective of this paper is to expose the contribution and limitations of existing functionalist, action theoretic, radical and relational conceptions of power. This is done by attending to the significance of identity securing strategies in the reproduction of power relations. Highlighting the relevance of this identity dimension, we argue that individuals’ attempts to distance and protect themselves from their ‘powerlessness’ can have important, self-defeating consequences in respect of the reproduction of asymmetrical relations of power. Connecting the search for independence to the preoccupation with securing a stable and valued sense of identity, we explore how this preoccupation sustains the very structural conditions that promote insecurity. Our thesis on power and identity is then applied and illustrated through a critical discussion of relevant aspects of two recent labour ethnographies: Nichols and Beynon's Living with Capitalism and Willis's Learning to Labour.     

ETIENNE BALIBAR and IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN (eds.), Race,Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities

Book reviewed in this article: VIC SATZEWICH, Racism and the Incorporation of Foreign Labour: Farm Labour Migration to Canada Since 1945     

Promoting Youth Development and Community Involvement with Technology: The Long Beach YMCA CORAL Youth Institute

ABSTRACT

The Long Beach YMCA CORAL Youth Institute is an innovative program that uses technology as a mechanism for promoting positive youth development and technology skills while enhancing school and life success among low-income, culturally-diverse, urban high school students. This article describes the Youth Institute and explores program outcomes on participants from the 2003 Intensive Summer Program (N = 37). Results from the quantitative and qualitative research indicated significant positive changes in both technology and leadership skills as well as increased positive youth development and community involvement for participants involved in the program.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Managing the Shopfloor. Subjectivity, Masculinity and Workplace Culture by David L. Collinson. Servicing the Middle Classes: Class, Gender and Waged Domestic Labour in Contemporary Britain by Nicky Gregson and Michelle Lowe. Women and Market. Learning of the Differences in the Finnish and German Labour Markets by Pertti Koistinen and Ilona Ostner (eds.).     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Multinational Business and Labour. By Peter Enderwick Multinationals and Transfer Pricing. Edited by Alan M. Rugman and Lorraine Eden Multinationals as Mutual Invaders: Intra-Industry Direct Foreign Investment. Edited by Asim Erdilek Social Development in the Third World - Level of Living Indicators and Social Planning. Edited by J. G. M. Hilhorst and M. Klatter The Comoro Islands: Struggle against Dependency in the Indian Ocean. By Malyn Newitt Labour and Parastatal Politics in Sierra Leone: A Study of African Working-Class Ambivalence. By David Fashole Luke     

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this articles: Sociology: The State of the Art Tom Bottomore, Stefan Nowak and Magdalena Sokolowska (eds) A Treatise on Social Theory, Volume 1: The Methodology of Theory W.G. Runciman Contemporary Political Philosophy: Radical Studies Keith Graham (ed.) Capital and Politics Roger King (ed.) Supremaey and Subordination of Labour: The Hierarehy of Work in the Early Labour Movement Mike Holbrook-Jones The Development of the Labour Process in Capitalist Societies: A Comparative Study of the Transformation of Work Organisation in Britain, Japan and the USA Craig R. Littler Blue-Collar Workers and Politics: A French Paradox Richard A. DeAngelis Contemporary French Political Parties David S. Bell (ed.) The Family and Industrial Society C.C. Harris White-Collar Work K. Prandy, A. Stewart and R.M. Blackburn Industrial Relations in Britain G.S. Bain (ed.) Women in Control: Dilemmas of a Workers Co-operative Judy Wajeman An Economic History of Women in America Julie A. Matthaei Racial and Ethnic Competition Michael Banton Labour and Raeism Annie Phizacklea and Robert Miles Racism and Migrant Labour Robert Miles Contemporary Education Policy John Ahier and Michael Flude (eds) Solidarity: The Analysis of a Social Movement: Poland 1980–1981 Alain Touraine, François Dubet, Michel Wievorka, Jan Strzelcki The Rites of Rulers Christel Lane Political Anatomy of the Body: Medical Knowledge in Britain in the Twentieth Century David Armstrong Class, Sports, and Social Development Richard Gruneau Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word Walter J. Ong From Author to Reader Peter H. Mann     

The Social Nature of Demeanor*

Goffman argues that individuals offer themselves to the group through well demeanored appearance for which they are granted deference. In this paper, I try to expand Goffman's insights by focusing directly on demeanor itself. From observations in Intensive Care Units, I find that demeanor is an achievement, a cooperative social accomplishment, and a form of deference. It is normatively a working ideal by which individuals gain acceptance as competent group members. A well de-meanored appearance makes interaction more pleasant; it permits others to antici pate that one will try to conform to interactional norms; it facilitates whatever task is at hand; it validates the deference that an individual grants; and it is itself a form of deference. It does not remain the responsibility of the individual, and we must therefore examine how groups constitute individuals. From the analysis, I derive explanations of the level of demeanor in a given setting, and propositions predicting the behavior of individuals within a setting.     

PERSONALITY,INFORMATION ACQUISITION,AND CHOICE UNDER UNCERTAINTY: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

This article studies the role of personality in choice under risk and uncertainty. We explore the hypothesis that personality plays a role in decision making in situations of uncertainty but not in situations of risk. In addition to offering support for this main hypothesis, we explore the various pathways through which personality exerts its influence. What we find is that in uncertain environments, where decision makers are able to acquire information about the unknown probability distributions they face, personality variables influence the type of information people acquire, which then influences their choice. Our experimental design brings in two novel aspects of choice under uncertainty: information acquisition and advice. The findings indicate that indeed, under uncertainty, personality matters for choice in a way it does not under risk. Furthermore, the results suggest that personality can play a role at multiple levels, such as people's preferences for certain types of information and the likelihood of following advice. (JEL C90, D03, D81)     

Differences between medical and recreational cannabis

Every state has its own process for regulating legal cannabis, but we have been particularly interested in Massachusetts, which has a carefully structured process for regulation of both medical (established in 2013) and the recently approved recreational dispensaries — we visited a medical dispensary recently (see ADAW, June 24).     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Review Essay Global Agriculture and Food: Libby , Ronald T. Protecting Markets. Review Essay Global Agriculture and Food: Fletcher , Lehman B. (ed.). World Food in the 1990s: Production, Trade and Aid. Review Essay Global Agriculture and Food: Schmandt , Jurgen , Frederick Williams , Robert H. Wilson , and Sharon Strover (eds.). Telecommunications and Rural Development: A Study of Private and Public Sector Innovation. Review Essay Global Agriculture and Food: Korsching , Peter F., Timothy O. Borich, and Julie Stewart (eds.). Multicommunity Collaboration: An Evolving Rural Revitalization Strategy. Review Essay Global Agriculture and Food: Buse , Rueben C., and James L. Driscoll (eds.). Rural Information Systems: New Directions in Data Collection and Retrieval. Review Essay Global Agriculture and Food: Flora , Cornelia Butler , Jan L. Flora , Jacqueline D. Spears, and Louis E. Swanson, with Mark B. Lapping and Mark L. Weinberg . Rural Communities: Legacy and Change. Rural Development: Straub , Lavonne A., and Norman Walzer (eds.). Rural Health Care: Innovation in a Changing Environment. Rural Development: Reidy , Joseph P. From Slavery to Agrarian Capitalism in the Cotton Plantation South: Central Georgia, 1800–1880. Rural Development: Davidson , Osha Gray . Broken Heartland: The Rise of America's Rural Ghetto. Regional Studies: Cobb , James C. The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity. Regional Studies: Thompson , Paul B. The Ethics of Aid and Trade: U.S. Food Policy, Foreign Competition, and the Social Contract. International Trade: Dicken , Peter . Global Shift: The Internationalization of Economic Activity (2nd ed.). International Trade: Satzewich , Vic . Racism and the Incorporation of Foreign Labour: Farm Labour Migration to Canada Since 1945. Environmental Issues: Croll , Elisabeth, and David Parkin (eds.). Bush Base, Forest Farm: Culture, Environment and Development. Environmental Issues: Krimsky , Sheldon, and Dominic Golding (eds.). Social Theories of Risk.     

Uncertainty with ordinal likelihood information

We present a model that is closely related to the so-called models of choice under complete uncertainty, in which the agent has no information about the probability of the outcomes. There are two approaches within the said models: the state space-based approach, which takes into account the possible states of nature and the correspondence between states and outcomes; and the set-based approach, which ignores such information, and solves certain difficulties arising from the state space-based approach. Kelsey (Int Econ Rev 34:297–308, 1993) incorporates into a state space-based framework the assumption that the agent has ordinal information about the likelihood of the states. This paper incorporates this same assumption into a set-based framework, thus filling a theoretical gap in the literature. Compared to the set-based models of choice under complete uncertainty we introduce the information about the ordinal likelihood of the outcomes while, compared to Kelsey’s approach, we incorporate the advantages of describing uncertainty environments from the set-based perspective. We present an axiomatic study that includes adaptations of some of the axioms found in the related literature and we characterize some rules featuring different combinations of information about the ordinal likelihood of the outcomes and information about their desirability.     

Review essay: Slavery now: Unfree labour and modern capitalism

Capitalism and Unfree Labour: Anomaly or Necessity? Robert Miles. London and New York: Tavistock Publications. 1987. 250pp. £10.95 pbk.

The New Helots: Migrants in the International Division of Labour. Robin Cohen. Aldershot: Gower Publishing Co. 1987. 290pp. £8.95 pbk; £27.50 hbk.

Sugar and Modern Slavery: A Tale of Two Countries. Roger Plant. London: Zed Press, 1987. 177pp. £7.95 pbk; £24.95 hbk.

Slavery in the Twentieth Century. Roger Sawyer. London and New York: Routledge &; Kegan Paul. 1986. 274pp. £15.95 hbk.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Privatization of Information and Agricultural Industrialization, edited by Steven A. Wolf. Peasant Maids, City Women: From the European Countryside to Urban America, edited by Christiane Harzig. Land and Labour Relations in South‐West Bangladesh: Resources, Power and Conflict, by Anjan Kumar Datta. Debt and Dispossession: Farm Loss in America's Heartland, by Kathryn Marie Dudley. Disappearing Peasantries? Rural Labour in Africa, Asia and Latin America, edited by Deborah Bryceson, Cristóbal Kay, and Jos Mooij. A Nation Divided: Diversity, Inequality and Community in American Society, edited by Phyllis Moen, Donna Dempster‐McClain, and Henry A. Walker. Property and Value: Alternatives to Public and Private Ownership, edited by Charles Geisler and Gail Daneker. New Frontiers in Agricultural History, Vol. 1, edited by Kyle D. Kauffman.