Labor Shortages:Should We Take Precautionary Measures?

While people generally worry about unemployment and the pressures on employment in China, the relationship between supply and demand in the labor market has quietly shifted in the opposite direction. First, shortages of migrant workers occurred in coastal areas in 2004 and have not yet been alleviated. Even in some central provinces     

Where Should We Look for Mental Representations? On the Need for Epistemic Ethics

Recent scientific studies of consciousness reveal the challenges involved in striking the proper balance between concrete fact and abstract theory. Christof Koch believes he is on the road to a scientific understanding of consciousness because he has a research paradigm which appears to create solvable puzzles. Unfortunately, work in other areas of neuroscience reveal that these puzzles rely too heavily on Aristotelian common sense to account for the unique nature of connectionist processing. William Ramsey claims that biological versions of traditional theories of representation, of the sort embraced by Koch, Fodor, and others, are so inadequate that we should give up all attempts to create high level abstract theories about human cognition. I argue, however, that what is needed is more abstract theorizing, not less. The intelligible entities described by Dynamic Systems Theory should be seen as embodiments of mental representations. These embodiments are physical in the sense that they are comprehensible in terms of modern physics, even if they are not material items that can be directly perceived.     

Which Error Story is Best?

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty - Two recent papers, Harless and Camerer (1994) and Hey and Orme (1994) are both addressed to the same question: which is the ‘best’ theory of decision...     

Should Public Pensions be Funded?

This paper outlines some of the arguments for and against the funding of public pensions, with a view to establishing whether there is an economic basis for judging it to be superior to pay-as-you-go (PAYG). It is concluded that if funding has an edge over PAYG, it is not an overwhelming one. While funding may have a modest cost advantage over PAYG and have superior characteristics from the standpoint of intergenerational redistribution, its alleged superiority in handling demographic and economic risk, as well as in signalling future pension costs, is difficult to justify. While theoretical arguments tend to be consistent with the view that funding will be associated with higher saving than PAYG, convincing empirical support is missing. Nevertheless, the momentum for shifting from PAYG to funding remains. But if there is to be such a shift, there may also be a case for shifting from public to private pension provision.     

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Children's Placement Preferences Longitudinally

ABSTRACT

Perceptions of permanency from the child's perspective can aid in giving voices to children impacted by foster care, thus promoting their personal sense of empowerment. This research represents a longitudinal assessment of how children living in foster care perceive permanency; specifically, their placement preferences while living in temporary foster care. Analyses were conducted on a subset of 2,671 children from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). Utilizing attachment and social capital constructs, children's preferences were predicted using Generalized Ordered Logistic regression analyses. Results demonstrated differences in children's perceptions and preferences for permanency at three waves of data collection.     

Which ethics for science and public policy?

The problem of inaccurate, misapplied or fraudulent scientific data could be addressed by government regulations, or by self‐regulation from within science itself. To many, self‐regulation implies the grounding of research activities in some “neutral”; standard of “ethics”; acceptable in a “pluralistic”; society. Yet, there is no such thing as a “neutral ethics”; and many “contemporary”; theories contain such serious theoretical deficiencies and contradictions that they are practically inapplicable. As a viable alternative to these theoretical and practical problems, an objectively based realistic framework of ethics is considered, and used to ground both the individual scientific and the collective public policy decision making processes. This is an ethics of properly integrated relationships. It is then applied to an analysis of many of the causes of incorrect scientific data, as well as of many of the internal and external pressures and abuses often experienced by scientists today. This approach respects the integrity of each decision maker as a human being and a moral agent—which in turn better insures the integrity of the protocol, the data, and the public policy decisions which follow—and ultimately, the integrity of the scientific enterprise itself. The alternative is government regulations.     

What Do We Know about the Family?

Over the years we have spoken and written a great deal about universal pedagogical education, about the search for new forms and methods for educators to work with families, and we have been drawing inferences from a variety of sometimes brilliant and interesting experience. But can we claim today that the school has accomplished much in the way of pedagogical enlightenment of parents, or exerting influence on the family? It would take a great deal of boldness to do so. What is wrong here? Isn't it a fact that, while attempting to influence the family, we fundamentally know nothing about it—except, perhaps, whether it is a "drinking" family or a sober one? Yet statistics make very clear that more and more offenses are being committed by adolescents who come from families that are considered well off. Hence, this well-being must be illusory, and it is essential that we study the family more comprehensively and in depth, that we figure out what is important to teach parents. Considerable help in this regard can be provided by special studies that are being carried out at the Institute of Sociological Research, USSR Academy of Sciences. In this article we acquaint readers with this research.     

Which Welfare States are Most Likely to Survive?

This paper considers the major shocks to which modern welfare systems are having to adapt. These include the growing inequalities of rewards for those in work, the growing scale of unemployment, global economic pressures, the ageing of populations and the combination of fiscal constraint with rising consumer expectations. It discusses how different kinds of welfare state are responding to these pressures and looks especially at the policies of the new Blair government. The paper concludes by suggesting that these issues are taking the UK to a distinctive welfare regime position.     

Which Scoring Rule Maximizes Condorcet Efficiency Under Iac?

Consider an election in which each of the n voters casts a vote consisting of a strict preference ranking of the three candidates A, B, and C. In the limit as n→∞, which scoring rule maximizes, under the assumption of Impartial Anonymous Culture (uniform probability distribution over profiles), the probability that the Condorcet candidate wins the election, given that a Condorcet candidate exists? We produce an analytic solution, which is not the Borda Count. Our result agrees with recent numerical results from two independent studies, and contradicts a published result of Van Newenhizen (Economic Theory 2, 69–83. (1992)).     

Relative Risk Aversion: What Do We Know?

The relative risk aversion measure that represents the risk preferences of a decision maker depends on the outcome variable that is used as the argument of the utility function, and on the way that outcome variable is defined or measured. In addition, the relationship between any two such relative risk aversion measures is determined by the relationship between the corresponding outcome variables. These well-known facts are used to adjust several reported estimates of relative risk aversion so that those estimates can be directly compared with one another. After adjustment, the significant variation in the reported relative risk aversion measures for representative decision makers is substantially reduced. JEL Classification: D81     

Which Champions,Which People? Public and User Involvement in Health Care as a Technology of Legitimation

This paper concerns two practices, public consultation and user involvement, whose adoption has been urged upon the UK National Health Service in recent years. Public consultation is a local attempt to seek the views of a broad constituency of persons. User involvement is a local attempt to include organized groups of service users in the planning, and occasionally the management, of such services. The paper has four objectives. First, it locates the topic in the context of several related current debates. Second, it outlines the main findings of a recent empirical study of public consultation as they relate to the above debates. Third, it summarizes the relevant findings of an empirical study of user involvement. Finally, it examines these two practices as technologies of legitimation which can be seen as a means by which managerial legitimacy is maintained in the context of an increasingly pluralistic policy arena.     

Introduction Are We Ready to Translate Research Into Programs?

There is enough basic research on social cognition, developmental psychology,and peer relations as they relate to prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping to address program development and evaluation. At the same time, there are enough race relations programs being developed and implemented to inform basic research on prejudice. This issue brings together articles on the interface between basic research and programs on prejudice. The articles focus onspecific programs such as affirmative action, multicultural and bilingual education, cooperative learning, social-cognitive skills training, and bystander interventions. This introductory article provides an overview of the goals and implications of the issue.     

Poverty and Pediatric Palliative Care: What Can We Do?

It has been recognized that families of children with life-limiting health conditions struggle with significant financial demands, yet may not have awareness of resources available to them. Additionally, health care providers may not be aware of the socioeconomic needs of families they care for. This article describes a mixed-methods study examining the content validity and utility for health care providers of a poverty screening tool and companion resource guide for the pediatric palliative care population. The study found high relevance and validity of the tool. Significant barriers to implementing the screening tool in clinical practice were described by participants, including: concerns regarding time required, roles and responsibilities, and discomfort in asking about income. Implications for practice and suggestions for improving the tool are discussed. Screening and attention to the social determinants of health lie within the scope of practice of all health care providers. Social workers can play a leadership role in this work.