CAN MONETARY POLICY INFLUENCE LONG‐TERM INTEREST RATES? IT DEPENDS

Can monetary policy influence long‐term interest rates? Studies that have tackled this question using vector autoregressions (VARs) generally find that monetary policy's influence on long‐term interest rates is small and often statistically insignificant. Other studies, however, using a single‐equation approach, have found a robust relationship. Our study sheds new light on this question by estimating the effect of monetary policy shocks on long‐term interest rates in a VAR with long‐run monetary neutrality restrictions. We find that U.S. monetary policy can strongly influence long‐term interest rates, but only when the Federal Reserve has inflation‐fighting credibility and is able to firmly anchor inflationary expectations. (JEL E43, E51, E52)     

Early Work Orientation & Later Situational Factors as Elements of Work Commitment Among Married Women College Graduates*

Using Becker's theory of commitment, national longitudinal data on 1961 college graduates are analyzed to determine the effects of early work orientation and the situational attributes of full-time work experience, husband's attitude and income, and number of children on the probability of 1968 employment among white married women. Work orientation is an insignificant predictor of work status and remains insignificant even when bolstered by any of the above variables. Similarly, the statistical interaction of other pairs of predictors makes no contribution to the probability of wives' employment. In the additive model, neither work orientation nor work experience affects employment probability. Three marriage-family variables are significant predictors: favorable husband, low income husband and absence of children. The findings are consistent with Becker's theory of nonconscious commitment.     

Impact of Marital Dissolution on Men's and Women's Incomes: A Longitudinal Study

This study adopted a longitudinal framework in examining economic consequences of marital dissolution for men and women. Data collected in the Survey of Labor and Income Dynamics from 1998 to 2005 were used to compare men's and women's incomes for up to 5 years during and after marital dissolution. Marital dissolution was defined as divorce or separation from a spouse or a common-law partner. Results revealed a dramatic drop in women's income and a slight drop in men's income during the dissolution year. One year later, women's income was 80% that of men's; 4 years past dissolution, it reached 85% that of men's. Gender differences in adjusted incomes were statistically significant for up to 3 years postdissolution. These findings suggest that the level of deterioration in women's economic well-being after marital dissolution has not improved in the last 2 decades.     

Parental Housing Assistance and Parent‐Child Proximity in Italy

Many studies of intergenerational exchanges include parent‐child proximity as an exogenous explanatory variable. Proximity may itself be a consequence of intergenerational resource flows, however. We analyze patterns of economic transfers between generations and their relationship to parent‐child proximity in Italy. Parental support for a child's home purchase may influence the child's choice of location, whether to facilitate parent‐child contacts, grandchild care, or parent care. We examine the situation of married couples, focusing on housing help received and the association of that help with proximity to each spouse's parents. Using 1998 survey data and multinomial logistic regression models, we find that past housing assistance has a significant effect on current proximity to each spouse's parents, controlling for parents' survival, family composition, and other factors.     

MORE MORTGAGES,LOWER GROWTH?

In newly collected data on 46 economies over 1990–2011, we show that financial development since 1990 was mostly due to growth in credit to real estate and other asset markets, which has a negative growth coefficient. We also distinguish between growth effects of stocks and flows of credit. We find positive growth effects for credit flows to nonfinancial business but not for mortgage and other asset market credit flows. By accounting for the composition of credit stocks and for the effect of credit flows, we explain the insignificant or negative growth effects of financial development in recent times. What was true in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s when the field of empirical credit‐growth studies blossomed, is no longer true in the 1990s and 2000s. New bank lending is not primarily to nonfinancial business and financial development may no longer be good for growth. These trends predate the 2008 crisis. They prompt a rethink of the role of banks in the process of economic growth. (JEL E44, O16, O40, C33)     

GROWTH AND CONVERGENCE WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN CAPITAL ARE COMPLEMENTS

This article presents a model of endogenous growth, in which a firm's technology and a country's human capital stock are complementary in the production of output. Production technologies are created by costly research and development (R&D) and are owned by firms that can freely choose where in the world to produce. Both production and R&D have a positive effect on a country's human capital stock. While all countries typically grow at the same rate in the long run, they differ in their levels of human capital, per capita output, and the quality of the technologies that are used in production. A country's relative position in terms of productivity is history dependent. Countries that start out with a lower human capital stock or industrialize later end up with a lower per capita GDP in long‐term equilibrium. (JEL O4, O33, O47)     

INEQUALITY AND GROWTH IN THE UNITED STATES: WHY PHYSICAL AND HUMAN CAPITAL MATTER

We investigate the relationship between economic growth and top income inequality under the influence of human and physical capital accumulation, using an annual panel of U.S. state‐level data. Our analysis is based upon the “unified” framework offered by Galor and Moav (2004) while the empirics account for cross‐section dependence, parameter heterogeneity, and endogeneity, in nonstationary series. We conclude that changes in inequality do not influence growth, neither in the short run nor in the long run in the United States as a whole in the 1929–2013 period. Our findings are robust to the inclusion of overall income inequality measures. These findings provide support for the theoretical prediction of the unified theory of inequality and growth, according to which the growth effect of inequality becomes insignificant in the latest stages of economic development that the United States experiences during our period of investigation. Therefore, future policies aiming at moderating the concentration at the upper end of income distribution are not likely to have adverse growth consequences in developed countries such as the United States. (JEL I21, O47, C23)     

Gender differences in public relations students' career attitudes: A benchmark study

Numerous articles have examined differences in men's and women's experiences in public relations, but few studies have explored students' perceptions of gender issues. This study fills that gap. A two-page survey instrument was completed during April/May 1997 by 430 students studying public relations at 17 different schools across the United States. There were no statistically significant differences in male and female students' desires to perform managerial activities, but there were statistically significant differences in several areas. Female students reported they expect to earn less money starting out and to be promoted more slowly than their male counterparts expect. Female students were more likely to believe that they will need to postpone having a family in order to advance in their careers. Additionally, female students reported they want to “do it all” — both managerial and technical activities. These findings have both positive and negative implications for the profession.Dr. Betty Farmer is an assistant professor of communication and public relations, and Ms. Lisa Waugh was a senior majoring in public relations at Western Carolina University at the time of this study. This research was funded by an Undergraduate Research Grant from Western.The findings from this study have both positive and negative implications for the profession. The data seem to support the need for continued focus on women's advancement issues, particularly in the area of young women's career expectations and young men's attitudes toward women in managerial positions.     

THE ROLE OF HOSPITAL COMPETITION ON TREATMENT EXPENDITURE AND OUTCOME: EVIDENCE FROM STROKE AND CARDIAC TREATMENT IN TAIWAN

This article examines whether market competition affects treatment expenditure and health outcomes of stroke and cardiac treatment in Taiwan. Our measure of treatment expenditure is the hospital expenditure paid at the index admission (short term) and the sum of inpatient and outpatient expenditures paid in the subsequent year (long term). Our measure of health outcome is the probability of death in 1 and 12 months after the hospital's discharge. Our measure of competition follows the method developed by Kessler and McClellan that calculates the Herfindal index based on the predicted patient flows using exogenous variables (e.g., traveling distance to hospitals). Using data of patients hospitalized for new stroke and cardiac treatment between 1997 and 2001 in Taiwan, we find that an increase of market competition results in an insignificant impact on a patient's mortality. In terms of treatment expenditure, our results indicate that hospitals facing more competition incur higher expenditures, either the short‐ or long‐term expenditure. Finally, we find evidence showing that an increase of treatment expenditure at admission is due to a raise of length of stay and treatment intensity per day as well as the usage of expensive equipment. (JEL I11, L13, L41)     

Streamlining for democracy: Intercultural predispositions of the Croatian secondary school population

This work interprets the results of empirical research conducted into the intercultural predispositions of secondary school students in Croatia. Data were collected in 1993 and in 1998, using specially constructed questionnaires in which, for a variety of democratic values, a Likert-type battery of questions, were given to respondents. In 1993 the stratified research sample consisted only of secondary school students, while in 1998 the research sample also included students, parents and teachers. An analysis of the results shows that: (1) students had, generally speaking, affirmative attitudes both in 1993 and 1998 and that the hierarchy of support for these values remained the same; and (2) all three groups examined in 1998 shared a common hierarchy of values. However, they differed in the degree to which they accepted democratic values; teachers ranked the highest, students the lowest. The fact that students' attitudes were much closer to their parents' than to their teachers' leads to the conclusion that schools are not the major factor in the "political" socialization of young people in Croatia. This indicates a need for the introduction of new curriculum in all secondary schools. This curriculum should include educational content that emphasizes democratic values and intercultural relations, and methods that stress students' participation through action, reciprocity, dialogue, and solidarity, led by well-trained teachers.     

Evaluating Therapeutic Intervention with Sexually Abused Children

The progress of sexually abused children attending community-based treatment programmes run by selected voluntary agencies was evaluated on several different dimensions. By the end of the treatment programmes, improvement was apparent in the children's scores on the Children's Depression Inventory and self-esteem scores and in behaviour (CBCL) reports from parents. Young people over the age of 11 years reported for themselves improvements in the CBCL total problem and internalizing scores, but no improvement in the externalizing scores. The reasons why many therapists had difficulty providing all the necessary information were explored in interviews with senior managers and suggestions are made for improving the ways in which abused children's progress through treatment can be evaluated. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

TECHNOLOGIES OF CIVIL SOCIETY

Emerging technologies of communication and cooperation are increasingly mediated through flows of connectivity and information, leading to distributed forms of civil participation. In this article I discuss ‘technologies of civil society’ whereby people who are investing in information-access, increased mobility and knowledge-sharing contribute to multiple networks of co-participation and cooperation. Civil society is increasingly becoming visible through the technologies used to receive, organize and utilize the information flows. In order to sustain cooperation, complex interrelations between individuals and their technically mediated communications must of necessity be deliberate and intentional strategies. I argue that communication technologies are informing strategies of civil participation and cooperation at ever more accelerated rates, aiding bottom-up strategies of organization.

‘A society's fitness is determined by its social cognitive map’ (Robert Artigiani)     

Under Pressure: Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Free Time and Feeling Rushed

Free time has the potential to reduce time pressures, yet previous studies paradoxically report increases in free time concurrent with increases in feeling rushed. Using U.S. time diary data from 708 individuals in 1975 and 964 individuals in 1998, we review the evidence on trends in free time and subjective perceptions of feeling rushed, and reexamine the relationship between free time and time pressure. We find that women's time pressure increased significantly between 1975 and 1998 but men's did not. In addition, the effects of objective time constraints vary by gender. Whereas more free time reduces men's perceptions of feeling rushed at both time points, among women, free time marginally reduced time pressure in 1975 but no longer reduced time pressure in 1998. Our findings suggest that persistent inequality in gendered time‐use patterns is paralleled by gendered experiences of time pressure.     

CONTRACT DESIGN AND SELF‐CONTROL WITH ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION

We study optimal contracting by a monopolistic seller of investment goods to a time‐inconsistent consumer and, in doing so, introduce asymmetric information to the model of DellaVigna and Malmendier (2004) . We find (1) the below‐marginal‐cost‐pricing rule may fail for a low‐value consumer; (2) the firm's profit is no longer unaffected by the consumer's short‐run impatience, as the latter is sophisticated. We find that there is an important threshold value of short‐run patience. When the consumer's short‐term patience is below this level, then, as the patience increases, the firm suffers. When the consumer's short‐run patience is above this threshold, then, as it increases, the firm benefits. Finally, we show that unlike monopoly, perfect competition with asymmetric information achieves the first‐best outcome. (JEL D03, D82, D91)     

THE TURKISH CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT

During the 2011–2015 period, Turkey's current account deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) was one of the largest among the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries. In this paper, we examine if this deficit can be considered optimal using the Engel and Rogers's approach. In this framework, the current account of a country is determined by the expected discounted present value of its future share of world GDP relative to its current share. A country whose income is anticipated to rise relative to the rest of the world is expected to borrow now and run a current account deficit. Our findings suggest that Turkey's current account deficit in 2015 may be considered optimal if the Turkish economy's share in the world economy could continue to grow at rates similar to the past or to the predictions from professional forecasts. The same approach, however, indicates that the current account deficit in 2011, at its peak, was unlikely to be optimal. (JEL F32, F41, F43)     

A functional analysis of press releases from Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain during the 2008 primary presidential election

Press releases from Senators John McCain and Barack Obama's official websites were content analyzed using functional theory. Intercoder reliability was high and the results yielded significant results. Patterns from previous research were found but there were also new findings that may be a result of the fact that this is the first presidential election since 1928 that an incumbent President or Vice President has not run for their party's nomination.     

Financial inclusion through a public works programme: Does left‐wing extremism make a difference?

Using district‐level household data, the study investigates the impact of left wing extremism (LWE) violence on financial inclusion in India. Exploiting the staggered roll‐out of a major public works programme, we find that the programme has the potency to improve financial inclusion, notwithstanding the deleterious effects of higher LWE violence. These findings are, however, different in the post‐Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (Prime Minister's People Money Scheme) phase, especially in the short run wherein there is an increase in both access to and use of finance. The findings are consistent with the citizen support model and suggest that demonstrable government commitment in the form of spending on public works has the capacity to raise financial inclusion, even if the programme occurs in LWE‐affected districts.     

Family preservation and child protection: The reality of Children's Court decision-making

Abstract

Ainsworth and Maluccio (Australian Social Work, December 1998) drew attention to the increased use of kinship care for children who need care away from their parents. This paper discusses the aim of family preservation, on which kinship care is predicated, and the challenges for legal decision-makers to meet this aim when children are before the courts in need of care and protection. It draws from findings of a study of magistrates' decision-making in child protection cases (Sheehan 1999). The paper provides examples of family situations that typically confront the Children's Court in Victoria and the court's response to them as it attempts to balance the importance of family ties and the reality of risk for a child; a reality that challenges valued beliefs about families and their ability to always care for their children.     

What Women Do,Believe in,and Financially Contribute—What Matters More in Couples' Decision Making? Gender Inequality in Ghana's Small-Scale Fisheries☆

Studies of couple's decision-making power consistently show that women disproportionately occupy subordinate positions. Using survey data (N = 400) from an ethnographic study on Ghanaian female fisherfolk, we examine the influences of women's financial contributions, ownership of production assets and gender role attitudes, and how they interact with the bodily capacities required to perform different fishery tasks to shape women's decision-making power. Findings show that financial contributions and ownership of production assets remain salient determinants of women's fishery decision-making power. However, their participation in strenuous tasks dampens the positive relationship between their financial contributions, gender role attitudes and decision-making power, such that financial contributions become insignificant. Women's decision-making power varies according to the sex-typed division of labor in small-scale fishing, and those who violate it are ‘punished’—as evident in their decreased decision-making power. Attention to the co-implications of socio-economic forces and material factors such as women's embodied experiences highlights (1) the specificities of occupational sex segregation and decision-making in agricultural sectors of developing economies and (2) how such entanglements can be reconfigured to enhance women's decision-making power in such contexts.     

Hybridising the cultural identity of Mulan from a Chinese ballad to American films

Hybridisation refers to the fusion of diverse cultural elements which generates new cultural forms that are distinct yet interconnected with one another. Previous studies affirmed that hybridisation has become part of an ongoing trend in transnational culture, emerging from a Third Space where diverse cultural elements enmesh. This study aims to explore how Mulan's cultural identity is hybridised when the folklore flows from China to America, becoming entangled within a conflict of Chinese-Western transcultural clashes. Using Jameson's cultural identity model, the paper analyses Mulan's cultural identity in three texts which are the original The Ballad of Mulan, Disney's animated movie Mulan (1998) and its subsequent life-action installment Mulan (2020). Components measuring the protagonist's cultural identity comprising vocation, class, geography, philosophy, language, biological traits with cultural aspects are compared. The findings show that the movies have particularly hybridise the protagonist's cultural identity from the aspects of geography, philosophy, and language. This results in a hybrid cultural identity with transnational markers in Mulan. The significance of the research thus lies in its contribution towards highlighting how Chinese figures are increasingly hybridised by Western influences as the Chinese culture continues to transcend transnational borders.