THE BOOKER DECISION AND DISCRIMINATION IN FEDERAL CRIMINAL SENTENCES

I test how federal criminal sentences changed after the Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Booker changed the sentencing guidelines from “mandatory” to “advisory.” Conditional on final guideline cell, results show Booker significantly reduced sentences, especially for women and defendants with a terminal high school degree, but less so for college graduates. This suggests discrimination among federal judges. When accounting for judges' control over final offense level, evidence regarding high school graduates and college graduates is unchanged, but evidence that sentences fell for women and the default group weakens substantially. This latter result suggests, perhaps, a new methodology by which judges applied offense levels and guideline‐conditional sentences post‐Booker.     

SQUEALER DEALERS: THE MARKET FOR INFORMATION IN FEDERAL DRUG TRAFFICKING PROSECUTIONS

Federal data on drug trafficking sentences are used to determine factors that affect market quantities of providing information against other defendants (i.e., defendant probabilities of receiving testimony‐related sentence reductions) and market prices of information (i.e., the sizes of such sentence reductions). Women and better‐educated defendants experience high demand (higher quantities and prices) for information. Blacks, Hispanics, and non‐U.S. citizens experience low demand. Defendants expecting longer sentences have higher supply of information. Conditional on expected sentence, crack dealers, high‐level dealers, and dealers with long criminal histories experience low demand, while low‐level dealers experience high demand. Women of all races experience high demand for information. (JEL K14, J15, J16)     

OCCUPATION AND ELECTORAL SUCCESS IN CANADA: THE 1974 FEDERAL ELECTION*

Des données professionnelles sont examinées pour les candidats au Parlement en 1974. Pour tous les parties politiques, les professions de rang élevéétaient sur-représentées, par comparaison aux données du marché du travail, et principalement dans les parties Libérale et Conservateur. Uniquement dans le cas du Crédit Social, a-t-on rencontré une majorité numérique de candidats venants de professions de rang inférieur. En examinant le succes électoral, on a trouvé que indépendamment de l'attache politique, un candidat d'une profession de rang élevé a presque une probabilité deux fois plus grande d'être élu qu'un candidat d'une profession d'un rang inférieur. Les données montrent un phénomène double, dans le sens que premièrement l'ensemble de tous les candidats constitute une plus grande proportion de personnes de rang élevé que la population adulte du Canada et deuxièmement les membres finalement élus constituent encore une plus grande proportion de personnes de rang élevé. Occupational data were examined for all candidates for Parliament in 1974. For all parties, high status occupations were over-represented, relative to labour force statistics, expecially in the Liberal and the Progressive Conservative parties. Only in the Social Credit party did we find a numerical majority of lower status candidates. In examining electoral success, it was found that regardless of political affiliation, a high status candidate had almost twice as high a probability of election as a low status candidate. The data illustrate a two-step phenomenon, wherein the pool of all candidates contains a larger proportion of higher status persons than the total adult Canadian population, while the elected members contain yet a larger proportion of high status persons.     

INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE AND MONOPOLY POWER IN THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Predictions of various models of public sector supply rely on the assumption of bureau monopoly power. This assumption is tested first by measuring industrial structure of the federal public sector using the concentration ratio and Herfindahl index, and second by examining the relationship between the resulting estimates and bureau monopoly power. The findings indicate that monopoly structure of the federal bureaucracy is more limited than is generally assumed. Interpretations on the basis of traditional industrial organization theory and contestable market theory suggest that bureau monopoly power is questionable and may not be the source of observed inefficiencies in bureau supply.     

FEDERAL TRANSFER PAYMENTS IN AMERICA: VETERANS' PENSIONS AND THE RISE OF SOCIAL SECURITY

This paper examines the determinants of the adoption of the veterans' pension program and how it served as a prototype for the creation and administration of the federal welfare system in the United States. We provide statistical evidence in the form of an analysis of votes in the House of Representatives that state-based special interests which had supported the ongoing liberalization of the veterans' pension program provided significant support for the adoption of the Social Security Act of 1935. There is clear evidence the social security system was not adopted as a simple extension of state old-age pension programs.     

FEAR AND LATHING IN THE MICHIGAN FURNITURE INDUSTRY: EMPLOYEE-BASED DISCRIMINATION A CENTURY AGO

We analyze employee-based discrimination using historical data on workers attributes from Michigan's furniture industry. The data provide compelling evidence of employee-based discrimination in the form of a compensating wage differential. A one percentage point decrease in the share of the work force from the worker's own ethnic group increased the wage about 0.1 percent. This response was larger in small firms, in small towns, and among certain ethnic groups. Protestants were generally paid more to work with Catholics. The additional labor costs generated by employee-based discrimination were probably offset by several benefits which rendered complete segregation unnecessary.     

THE "PSYCHOSOMATIC FAMILY" RECONSIDERED: DIABETES IN CONTEXT

Minuchin, Rosman and Baker's (1978) Psychosomatic Families is widely cited as a demonstration that the physiological disturbance of some diabetic patients serves a function in their families. We found that the original data did not provide such a demonstration. We examined the psychosomatic family model in light of recent developments in the study and treatment of diabetes. We concluded that the model decontextualizes the family and assigns to it characteristics that are more appropriately seen as reflections of the disease process, the family coping tasks this entails, and the nature of the family's relationship with the health care system. The need for new open-systems models of the family's role in diabetes is discussed .     

THE "PSYCHOSOMATIC FAMILY" RECONSIDERED: DIABETES IN CONTEXT–A REPLY

Minuchin, Rosman and Baker's (1978) Psychosomatic Families: Anorexia Nervosa in Context, is a work that does demonstrate that physiological disturbance of some, very specifically defined, diabetic patients serves a function in their families. Statistical analyses of the original data are reported which strongly support the original conclusions; Coyne and Anderson's (1988) presentation of the methodology and findings of the original study is shown to substantially misrepresent information actually presented in the book. Review of the literature they cite was informative about some aspects of poorly controlled diabetes for a variety of populations but not relevant for psychosomatic patients; however, some of it supported our findings. Responsibility for "constraining" and/or "providing momentum" for the field is rejected and precise and rigorous thinking encouraged in developing both studies and critiques .     

BARRIERS TO ENTRY IN THE MARKET FOR STUD SERVICES: GOVERNMENT AND "NON-PROFIT" INSTITUTIONS IN COLLUSION

Modern technologies are banned in the breeding of Thoroughbred horses. These practices have been banned by the states defining a Thoroughbred as a horse registered by the Jockey Club of New York, and by the Club refusing to register horses bred "unnaturally." Modern technologies would vastly increase the number of high quality foals and lead to a decline in industry prices and profits. The breeding restrictions protect the wealth of owners at the expense of consumers, potential input suppliers, and new breeders. Because of the distribution of costs and benefits in the political process, we foresee no end to legislatively mandated stagnation.     

THE SECOND GENERATION IN "BIG D": KOREAN AMERICAN AND INDIAN AMERICAN ORGANIZATIONS IN DALLAS,TEXAS

Asian American professionals who have grown up in the United States and attained upper-middle class status frequently join ethnic organizations. Yet, what motivates these professionals to join and how their organizations frame their communities deserve greater attention, for racial and ethnic solidarity supposedly decline with greater class status. This research analyzes what kinds of organizations that second generation Korean and Indian Americans create in Dallas, Texas and why. Ultimately, the organizations and their members demonstrate that race and ethnic culture do not lose relevance for individuals with greater economic standing, but instead their class position shapes how they interpret their ethnic minority status. Despite their economic status, individuals felt labeled as racially different and as "foreigners" from White peers while growing up, and seek greater comfort with co-ethnics in organizations. The organizations promote another racial stereotype, as the economically-successful model minority, in order to fight the image of the perpetual foreigner. The Dallas culture, population size, and economy encourage organizational endorsement of the model minority stereotype. Members also join associations to maintain those parts of their ethnic heritage that fitwith American norms. The organizations, however, downplay the significance of culture as they focus on the model minority image. The model minority stereotype excludes some individuals from joining the organizations and eventually can hurt the communities, even as the organizations promote it in part to alleviateproblems.     

BANK PANICS, SUSPENSIONS, AND GEOGRAPHY: SOME NOTES ON THE "CONTAGION OF FEAR" IN BANKING

Recent attempts to understand bank panics tend to emphasize informational asymmetries or the possibilities of multiple equilibria. Such approaches stand in contrast to historical research that emphasizes legal factors influencing the organization of the banking system. This paper constructs a model of a banking system operating under regulations similar to those in effect under the National Banking System and in which information is complete. In all other respects the model resembles that of Diamond and Dybvig [1983]. The results indicate that, given the regulatory environment, it would have been surprising if suspensions of convertibility had not recurred periodically.     

A CHANGE POINT ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF "ENVIRONMENTAL FEDERALISM" ON AGGREGATE AIR QUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES: 1940–98

During President Reagan's administration, environmental policy making was substantially shifted from the federal level to the state and local levels. We use techniques in Bai (1997a, 1997b) to determine change points in the trends of three important air pollution series. We find that the beneficial trends in the emission series began with federal legislation and were not due to the Reagan devolution. However, second-round change point tests indicate that the beneficial trends in the emissions series that began with federal legislation continued unabated following the Reagan devolution. (JEL Q20 , C50 )     

Toward a reconceptualization of "choice": challenges by women at the margins

It has been suggested that recent first world and third world feminist movements have gained impetus from a shared emphasis on "body politics" (abortion, rape, and domestic violence). It has been made clear by other writers, however, that first and third world women (including women of color in the first world) have very different conceptions of which policies and practices should be pursued to change their reproduction experiences (because the overriding experiences of their entire lives are so very different). Likewise, the concept of "the right to choose" has been challenged on the grounds that it ignores the external conditions (such as economics) which, in fact, dictate "choice." Eugenics also influences which "choices" are promoted among populations considered "undesirable." The dilemmas associated with reproductive choices are further highlighted by debate about the use of amniocentesis in India for sex determination and female feticide. At the center of this debate is whether calling for a ban on this practice would support or violate a woman's choice. The rhetoric of choice arose in the first place because women who wanted to end a pregnancy had "no choice" but to seek illegal abortions. However, working class women and Black women in the US object to the narrowness in the abortion rights agenda dictated by the use of this term. To assert women's "choice" absolves all others of the responsibility for a pregnancy. The "choice" concept is also vulnerable to political manipulation. "Choice" also evades ethical problems such as sex selection. Disabled feminists have also pointed out that it is as important to create conditions which include "the choice to have a disabled child" as it is to choose not to be a mother. Can feminists oppose the selective abortion of female fetuses while leaving the choice to abort a defective or unwanted fetus of either sex up to the mother? Objection to sex determination can be categorized as consequentialist (based on various predicted social and psychological consequences, such as more men would lead to more violence in the world) or nonconsequentialist (based on the inherent immorality of selective abortion). The benefits of sex selection would possibly include a reduction in sex-linked diseases and a reduction in the overall birth rate. Most US feminists support the moral, but not the legal, condemnation of sex selection. In India, where sex selection is openly practiced, feminists have tried to achieve legal prohibition of the use of tests for this purpose. This difference from the US position may be due to the difference in the abortion context in the 2 countries. Whether feminists support legal and/or moral prohibition of sex selection, however, almost all call for the longterm structural changes which must be made in the context of imperialism, racism, and poverty which would allow true "choices" to prevail.     

INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Does Gender Make a Difference?

This article compares in regression models the effects of occupational status of both fathers and mothers simultaneously upon the attainment of men and women in the Irish Republic. The sample matches male respondents from the 1973/1974 Irish Mobility Study with the labour active female sibling next closest in age. Since the analysis compares working siblings and each 'matched pair' shares the same family origin characteristics, the problems attendant upon using a sample originally of men only are partially avoided. The results advance beyond previous research since, rather than separate models by gender, models include parents and children of both genders, allowing direct rather than indirect evaluation of gender-based determinants of occupational attainment. Both fathers and mothers significantly affect children's attainment, in ways that vary by the child's gender. The results highlight the salience of mothers' attainment for their children and question the 'mainstream' model of equivalent mechanisms of occupational attainment for both genders. Models of social mobility that consider men and women as special instances of a general perspective provide the most fruitful approach for further development.     

THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY IN NAVIGATING POLITICAL INCORPORATION: Defining a Niche for Human Relations in Orange County, California, 1971–2000

Political incorporation represents an important and complex trajectory for social movements. Whether that trajectory leads to favorable substantive outcomes or merely to formalistic representation within the polity depends in part on the strategic decisions made by leaders. We have few frameworks, however, for understanding their role in navigating incorporation. This research presents a "niche definition" framework emphasizing strategic differentiation and articulation across political actors in distinct institutional locations sharing common goals. It focuses attention on leaders' efforts to identify and exploit unique resources and leverage made available through incorporation. Overall, the framework emphasizes the potential for collective strategy and cooperative interorganizational dynamics, thereby expanding possibilities for favorable outcomes of political incorporation. The framework is illustrated through a case study of the Orange County (California) Human Relations Commission from its creation in 1971 to 2001. I trace the long-term challenges and consequences of incorporation through leaders' definition of successive niches.