The Dodgson ranking and its relation to Kemeny’s method and Slater’s rule

In this paper we provide a binary extension of Dodgsons non-binary preference aggregation rule. This new aggregation rule is then compared to two other rules which, as Dodgsons rule, are also explicitly based on distance functions, namely Kemenys and Slaters rule. It is shown that the alternative which is top ranked by any of those rules can occur at any position in the Dodgson ranking.I am very grateful to Nick Baigent, Daniel Eckert and the participants of the CEPET 2002 Workshop in Udine and the Graz University Research Seminar for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. It goes without saying that any remaining errors are exclusively the authors responsibility.     

Head movement during listening turns in conversation

In five subjects, head movement during conversation was monitored by polarised light goniometry, and recorded alongside speech and a signal proportional to peak amplitude of sound waves (peak loudness). Kinematic properties of listeners' head movements, such as amplitude, frequency and cyclicity, differentiated various conversational functions. That is, they were function-specific: symmetrical, cyclic movements were employed to signal yes, no or equivalents; linear, wide movements anticipated claims for speaking; narrow linear movements occurred in phase with stressed syllables in the other's speech (ynchrony movements); and wide, linear movements occurred during pauses in the other's speech. That, it is argued, bears upon the relation between thesignalling of communicative intentions and the synchronisation of interactional rhythm. Thus, the former appears to determine the timing and tempo of responses such as yes and no, while the latter determines the regulation of synchrony movements. The manner in which these factors interact in other conversational functions and their theoretical implications are discussed.     

Alcohol Consumption and Self-Control of Gambling Behaviour

This paper reports the results of a preliminary investigation into whether the drinking of alcohol contributes to impaired control of gambling behaviour. The sampling method consisted of a two-phase survey design, collecting data both prospectively within session and retrospectively via a take-home questionnaire. One hundred sixteen people were interviewed while in a gaming venue playing on an electronic gaming machine (egm) of whom 34 men and 11 women also returned take-home surveys. Comparisons of the sample to previous studies suggested that the sample was representative of the population of egm players. Results indicated a consistent theme of alcohol use contributing significantly to impaired control of gambling behaviour, with level of involvement (Corless & Dickerson, 1989) contributing the most significant variance in the independent variables. Limitations of the study are discussed, but the case is argued that this type of process research is essential in better understanding how these two types of popular leisure activities may interact, possibly leading to the previously recorded chronic, excessive alcohol intake and problematic gambling (e.g. McCormick, Russo, Ramirez & Taber, 1984).     

Measuring freedom of choice: An alternative view of a recent literature

A recent literature has emerged in social choice theory which attributes intrinsic importance to freedom in the evaluation of states of affairs. The literatures philosophical basis lies in Berlins notion of positive liberty. Accordingly, axiomatic measures of availability of choices are developed and the information they convey used for ranking states on the basis of the extent of liberty they offer to individuals. I am grateful to Nancy Cartwright, Dan Hausman and Marco Del Seta for their suggestions to previous drafts of this paper. The usual caveat applies. The support of the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the London School of Economics is also acknowledged.     

The Guijin Therapist and the Nature of Therapeutic Truth: A Relational Perspective

The professional literature is replete with examples of the benefits of the client–clinician dyad being of the same ethnic group. Noted advantages include a perceived implicit understanding of the clients subjective experience and a furthering of the therapists personal and professional growth as a result of the therapeutic interaction. This paper suggests that there are also benefits to the clinician being considered a guijin or outsider to the clients culture of origin. Utilizing a relational perspective with an emphasis on multiple self-state theory, this paper will discuss the advantages of being perceived as an outsider when working with an Asian bicultural client.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual International Conference for the Advancement of Private Practice in Clinical Social Work in Lisbon, Portugal on June 8, 2002.     

Factors Contributing to Parents’ Preparation For Special-Needs Adoption

Three hundred and sixty-eight parents shared their perceptions of special-needs adoption preparation. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data to determine and understand what factors contribute to preparation, this study found that 12 child, family, and agency variables were correlated with perceived preparation, and that parents perceived level of preparation was predicted by the childs ability to attach, by the parents relationship with the agency, by the duration of the adoption, and by the parents ages at the time of adoption. Implications of these findings are discussed, as they relate to supporting parents, children, and families in special-needs adoptive placements.     

The Effect of a Family Policy Reform on Mother’s Pay: A Natural Experiment Approach

All parents in Norway with children aged one to three, who do not attend publicly subsidised day care, are entitled to a cash-for-care (CFC) subsidy. Studies have shown that the reform has reduced mothers labour supply. In this paper we analyse wage effects of the reform. We put forward a framework for evaluating reforms when reforms are uniformly and equally accessible nation-wide. First, running a simple Difference in differences (DD) analysis, results suggest that the CFC reform has reduced the mothers wages. However, after controlling for the age of the child effect, by running a triple difference approach, we no longer find any evidence of negative wage effects.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the authors name and to the heading of table A2.     

Inequality and welfare evaluation of heterogeneous income distributions

This paper establishes the principles that should govern the welfare and inequality analysis of heterogeneous income distributions. Two basic criteria – the equity preference condition and the compensation principle – are shown to be fundamentally incompatible. The paper favours the latter, thereby vindicating the traditional method of dealing with heterogeneous samples. However, inequality and welfare comparisons will usually be well defined only if equivalent incomes are obtained using constant scale factors; and researchers will need to distinguish clearly between inequality of nominal incomes and inequality of living standards. Furthermore, household observations must always be weighted according to family size.     

Getting There: The Unfolding Potential of Psychoanalysis, A Personal View

Even though psychoanalysis has the potential to free the mind it can also (however unwittingly) be used to bind it. This paradoxical tendency is especially noticeable in some psychoanalytic trainings, when students can be under pressures to comply with accepted theory and practice and, in some cases, to toe the line in their training analysis and/or in their supervised cases. We therefore have to be increasingly mindful of the ways in which our training of psychoanalytic students can foster a false extension of psychoanalysis, by which the practitioner can become bound to a theory rather than be freed by it.     

Choice,freedom, and freedom of choice

This paper argues in favour of a distinction between freedom and freedom of choice – a distinction that economists and political philosophers have so far either ignored or drawn wrongly. Drawing the distinction correctly may help to resolve a number of disputes in contemporary political philosophy and non-welfarist normative economics regarding the so-called preference-based account of freedom and the relevance, to judgements about freedom, of degrees of similarity between agents options. The paper begins by setting out three much discussed axioms for the measurement of freedom (of choice?) originally put forward by Pattanaik and Xu. It is suggested that the problems these axioms give rise to can be solved by distinguishing correctly between freedom and freedom of choice. The paper then sets out definitions of freedom, choice and freedom of choice, justifying these in philosophical terms and arguing their superiority to alternative definitions. Finally, on the basis of these definitions and with reference to Pattanaik and Xus axioms, it is shown that an agent can enjoy freedom without enjoying freedom of choice, and that she can enjoy an increase in one of these without enjoying an increase in the other. For their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, I should like to thank Keith Dowding, Martin van Hees, Matthew Kramer, Marco Negri, Serena Olsaretti, Olof Page, Mario Ricciardi, Alan Ritter, Hillel Steiner, Kotaro Suzumura and audiences at seminars in Manchester, Palermo, Pavia and Oxford. I am grateful to the Italian Ministry for Higher Education (MURST) and the Italian National Research Council (CNR) for funding that facilitated the completion of the paper.     

Doubling vs. Constant Bets as Strategies for Gambling

Some gamblers use a doubling strategy as a way of improving their chances of coming home a winner. This paper reports on the results of a computer simulation study of the doubling strategy and compares the short term and long term results of doubling to gambling with a constant sized bet. In the short term players using a doubling strategy were more likely to win, then lose, however in the long term, the losses suffered by doublers were much greater than that suffered by constant bettors. It is argued that the use of a doubling strategy is related to an incomplete conceptualization of random events sometimes known as the law of averages. A second simulation examined the fate of doubling in an ideal world in which the law of averages was actually true. In this ideal world, doublers were much better off than constant bettors. The relationship of the results to a naive conceptualization of random events is discussed.     

A note on willingness to pay and willingness to accept

In a recent paper Loehman (1991) derives some relationships between measures of benefit for nonmarket goods. This note presents some remarks on Loehman's methodology, several results, if the good considered is normal, and an extension to the case of pollution, i.e. public bads.I would like to thank an unknown referee for helpful comments.     

Addiction to fruit machines: A preliminary study among young males

Although most sources treat gambling as an adult phenomenon, adolescent gambling is more widespread than is generally recognized, and in some cases may even be pathological. This paper outlines a preliminary study of eight adolescents addicted to playing and gambling on coin-in-the-slot machines (more commonly known as fruit machines). Factors involved in the onset of fruit machine playing are examined along with their alternative gambling activities and associated problems. The role of skill and excitement components in persistent playing are also discussed.The author would like to thank the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council for funding this work through a research studentship.     

The instability of robust aggregation

Levis robust aggregation suggests a generalization of the standard ex ante mode of aggregating individuals expected utilities into a social choice function. This generalization applies some social choice rule not only to the actual individuals but also to hypothetical individuals with all possible combinations of the actual individuals probabilities and utilities. We show that robust aggregation can lead to preference reversals in the social choice when the very same decision situation is described with different degrees of detail, thus violating a desirable stability condition. We also show that any stable robust social choice rule must collapse back into the ex ante mode without recourse to hypothetical individuals. Under sufficient conditions, such as strong Pareto optimality, robust aggregation even leads to an infinite series of reversals in group choices. By contrast, stability is ubiquitous in the standard ex ante mode and is closely related to independence of irrelevant alternatives.I wish to thank Christs College, Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology for their generous financial and academic support. I am grateful to three anonymous referees for their helpful comments. I am much indebted to Isaac Levi, Philippe Mongin and Teddy Seidenfeld for their help and encouragement.     

What a Weberian approach to interests can contribute to economic sociology

This review essay addresses Richard Swedbergs recent attempt to redefine the field of economic sociology. Grounding his position in Max Webers work, Swedberg advocates a type of economic sociology that not only focuses on social relations but also considers culture and interests, arguing that it is interests that drive action but that they are shaped by culture and enacted through social relations. We conclude our analysis with a consideration of the practical and empirical implications of this new approach for the study of economic life.     

Brief Communications: Treating Problem Gamblers: A Residential Therapy Approach

The Gordon House Association (GHA) is the UK's only specialist and dedicated residential facility for problem gamblers. This paper describes the GHA therapeutic programme which is centred round a nine-month period of residency. Progression through the programme is described by overviewing each of the phases. These are initial assessment and five distinct phases comprising coping with today (Phase One), coping with yesterday (Phase Two), coping with change (Phase Three), coping with tomorrow (Phase Four), and coping on my own (Phase Five). These phases are themselves underpinned within the GHA core therapeutic approach which is also described.     

Hierarchy or co-operation: labour-management relations in church institutions

Aspects of industrial relations and internal co-ordination have been a major topic of empirical research in the German business enterprise sector. In contrast, there are practically no empirical investigations into labour-management relations in third sector institutions. The largest share of this sector in Germany is represented by the two Christian churches with presently about 900,000 employees. According to the notion of church officials, labour-management relations in these institutions are characterised by a specific normative concept which emphasises a trustful co-operation of all employees in the mission of the church. The major concern of our research project focused on the question whether the specific conditions of employment within church institutions favour more hierarchical or more co-operative forms of co-ordination and how employees and employee representatives perceive the ideal of the community of service (Dienstgemeinschaftsgedanke). The results of our research lead to the conclusion that church labour-management relations are characterised by a remarkable contrast between the participative or co-operative notion of the ideal of the community of service and present forms of hierarchical co-ordination inside church institutions.This article gives a selected overview of Beyer and Nutzinger (1991). The research was supported by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung (Düsseldorf) and the University of Kassel.     

Gender and Community Context: An Analysis of Husbands’ Household Authority in Rural Guatemala

Drawing on research about womens autonomy, gender, and development, and Latin America, I analyze individual, household, and community-level factors associated with husbands sole authority with regard to four household issues: (1) money management; decision-making about (2) food purchases, (3) medicine purchases, and (4) health providers. The results point to how husbands authority varies across household issues and how the dynamics of authority differ with regard to money management and the other decision-making issues studied. This study found that husbands authority varied not only by individual characteristics but also by community features and thus adds to efforts to represent more fully how context matters to household gender relations.     

Welfare,Intergenerational Cohabitation Penalties,and Single Mothers’ Employment

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 changed welfare programs by increasing state income maintenance programs emphasis on employment. Following reform, several states paid reduced welfare benefits to single mothers who resided in their parents homes, compared to those single mothers who lived independently. This paper evaluates whether the benefit reductions lower the probability of intergenerational cohabitation or the employment of single mothers recognizing that family support might facilitate single mothers labor market attachment. The results suggest that family cohabitation penalties reduce the likelihood single mothers live in their parents households and work. Despite several empirical limitations, the results offer evidence that intergenerational living arrangements positively influence employment.*The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Federal Reserve Board or its staff. Thanks to the Urban Institute and staff, in particular Gretchen Rowe for discussing policy collection and information. Beneficial comments have come from the editor, Shoshana Grossbard, two referees, Donna Gilleskie, David Guilkey, William Grant, Carolyn Heinrich, Thomas Mroz, and Wilbert van der Klaauw.     

Clinical Challenges Following An Adolescent’s Death By Suicide: Bereavement Issues Faced By Family,Friends, Schools,And Clinicians

Given the increasing prevalence of adolescent deaths by suicide, social workers are increasingly likely to be called upon to respond to traumatically bereaved families, peers, and possibly professional colleagues following an adolescents death by suicide. The authors discuss current trends in adolescent suicide. A stress diathesis model is applied to considering risk factors and their clinical implications following an adolescents death by suicide. Using a case scenario, the authors discuss clinical issues of complex bereavement following suicide, along with some suggestions for effective clinical follow-up with surviving families, peers, and professionals.