The Lichtenberg Financial Decision Screening Scale (LFDSS): A new tool for assessing financial decision making and preventing financial exploitation

ABSTRACT

One of the challenges in preventing the financial exploitation of older adults is that neither criminal justice nor noncriminal justice professionals are equipped to detect capacity deficits. Because decision-making capacity is a cornerstone assessment in cases of financial exploitation, effective instruments for measuring this capacity are essential. We introduce a new screening scale for financial decision making that can be administered to older adults. To explore the scale’s implementation and assess construct validity, we conducted a pilot study of 29 older adults seen by APS (Adult Protective Services) workers and 79 seen by other professionals. Case examples are included.     

The impacts of the food,fuel and financial crises on poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria: A retrospective approach to research inquiry

This article examines the impacts of the financial, food and fuel crises on poor and vulnerable households in two states of Nigeria: Lagos and Kano. It uses retrospective household‐level data to analyze the impacts of induced price variability on household welfare. The results indicate that aggregate shocks have significant adverse effects on household consumption, schooling and child labour decisions, with a degree of impact heterogeneity across regions and rural and urban areas of the country. We find that the coping strategies adopted by the poor to deal with the short‐term effects of the crises can lock households in a low‐income equilibrium or poverty trap. Provided that covariate shocks exacerbate these effects, they become central for policy design.     

Predicting children's savings: The role of parents' savings for transferring financial advantage and opportunities for financial inclusion

Parents transfer many forms of advantage to children based on their financial resources. Of interest is whether parents transfer educational and financial advantages and whether this occurs early in life. This paper examines financial advantage by asking whether children's own savings—apart from that of their parents—can be predicted by a separate measure of parents' savings for their child. This study predicts children's basic and college savings at ages 12 to 15 with separate samples from low-to-moderate- (LMI; N = 333) and high-income (HI; N = 411) households using Panel Study of Income Dynamics and Child Development Supplement data. Propensity score weighting and logistic regression results find that parents' savings for their child is significant in both household types. Given this, policies that aim to include children in savings may help reduce transfers of financial advantage and, ultimately, educational advantage.     

A general theory of addictions: A new theoretical model

A general theory of addictions is proposed, using the compulsive gambler as the prototype. Addiction is defined as a dependent state acquired over time to relieve stress. Two interrelated sets of factors predispose persons to addictions: an abnormal physiological resting state, and childhood experiences producing a deep sense of inadequacy. All addictions are hypothesized to follow a similar three-stage course. A matrix strategy is outlined to collect similar information from different kinds of addicts and normals. The ultimate objective is to identify high risk youth and prevent the development of addictions.     

Toward a theory of alienation: futurelessness in financial capitalism

Theory and Society - There is an extensive body of literature detailing the forces behind and experiences of alienation in a modern capitalist world. However, social scientific interest in...     

Nonprofit organization financial performance measurement: An evaluation of new and existing financial performance measures

Consensus about financial performance measurement remains elusive for nonprofit organization (NPO) researchers and practitioners alike, due in part to an overall lack of empirical tests of existing and new measures. The purpose of the current study was to explore potential similarities of financial performance measures derived from two sources: current NPO research and key informant interviews with NPO foundation constituencies. The authors examined financial performance measurement ratios with data from fifteen Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990 line items. Using factor analytic techniques, they found three performance factors, each with two associated financial measurement ratios, to be present. They categorized the performance factors as fundraising efficiency, public support, and fiscal performance. This article discusses implications of the findings and future research.     

Cognitive,social, and neural determinants of diminished decision-making and financial exploitation risk in aging and dementia: A review and new model

ABSTRACT

In this article we will briefly review how changes in brain and in cognitive and social functioning, across the spectrum from normal to pathological aging, can lead to decision-making impairments that increase abuse risk in many life domains (e.g., health care, social engagement, financial management). The review will specifically focus on emerging research identifying neural, cognitive, and social markers of declining financial decision-making capacity in older adults. We will highlight how these findings are opening avenues for early detection and new interventions to reduce exploitation risk.     

Ethics, regulation and the new artificial intelligence, part II: autonomy and liability

This is the second article in a two-part series on the social, ethical and public policy implications of the new artificial intelligence (AI). The first article briefly presented a neo-Durkheimian understanding of the social fears projected onto AI, before arguing that the common and enduring myth of an AI takeover arising from the autonomous decision-making capability of AI systems, most recently resurrected by Professor Kevin Warwick, is misplaced. That article went on to argue that, nevertheless, some genuine and practical issues in the accountability of AI systems that must be addressed. This second article, drawing further on the neo-Durkheimian theory, sets out a more detailed understanding of what it is for a system to be autonomous enough in its decision making to blur the boundary between tool and agent. The importance of this is that this blurring of categories is often the basis, the first article argued, of social fears.     

Self-esteem,financial knowledge and financial behavior

Financial knowledge is an important but insufficient driver of responsible financial behavior. Having a positive evaluation of oneself may also be essential for individuals to initiate and persist with the daunting process of financial management. In this study, we distinguish subjective financial knowledge from objective financial knowledge, and we propose that self-esteem relates to financial behavior both directly as well as indirectly through subjective financial knowledge. Results based on a nationally representative dataset of U.S. adults suggest that self-esteem significantly relates to individual financial behavior after controlling for financial knowledge and other socioeconomic factors. The association between self-esteem and financial behavior could be both direct and indirect through subjective financial knowledge. These findings highlight the importance of psychological traits such as self-esteem in explaining financial behavior difference. Its implications are discussed.     

Consequentialism,rights, and the new social welfare theory

Traditional consequentialist social welfare theory [SWT] is intendedly value-free and institutionless. It follows that, while unattenuated exchange and property rights are assigned an implicit, instrumental role in the achievement of first-best Paretian optima, little attention has focused on alternative rights construals, on their associated, correlative duties, and on the implications for SWT. This is true, even among economists who regard “freedom” as morally exigent.This paper argues that the rights which social welfare theorists regard as instrumentally important—and, therefore, legally sanctioned—need not, in consequentialist theory, be respected: The duties which are correlative to social welfare theorists' implicitly sanctioned rights may, in consequentialist terms, be overcome by purely utilitarian considerations. It follows, pari passu, that reliance on a goal-based efficiency standard is irreconcilable with respect for the rights which most economists either take to be intrinsically important or seek to justify. Granting this, normative analysis must take account of the logical and other tensions among consequences, rights, duties, and other dimensions of moral evaluation.     

Unravelling of the conspiracy theory: A new look at the pogroms

Michael I. Aronson, Troubled Waters: The Origins of the 1881 Anti‐Jewish Pogroms in Russia. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990. 286 pp. Maps. Tables. Bibliography. Index.

Michael F. Hamm, Kiev: A Portrait, 1800–1917. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. 304 pp. Map. Tables. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index.

Edward H. Judge, Easter in Kishinev: Anatomy of a Pogrom. New York and London: New York University Press, 1992. 186 pp. Bibliography. Index.

Robert Weinberg, The Revolution of 1905 in Odessa: Blood on the Steps. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993. 302 pp. Tables. Bibliography. Index.

Charters Wynn, Workers, Strikes, and Pogroms: The Donbass‐Dnepr Bend in Late Imperial Russia, 1870–1905. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. 289 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index.     

Distinguishing how elite newspapers and A-list blogs cover crises: Insights for managing crises online

Through a content analysis of 887 blog posts and online newspaper articles about five political crises, this study helps crisis managers negotiate the blogosphere by answering a fundamental question: How, if at all, do blogs and newspapers cover crises differently? Significantly, the study extends existing knowledge by examining both structural and content attributes that distinguish how blogs and newspapers cover crises.     

Predicting case conviction and domestic violence recidivism: measuring the deterrent effects of conviction and protection order violations

Previous research offered little guidance on sentencing outcomes for protection order (PO) violations in cases of domestic assault and whether PO violation charges affected offender recidivism rates. Using data from local court records, this study examined the effect of PO violation charges on the odds of case conviction relative to dismissal, and whether case conviction or a PO violation charge results in lower domestic violence rearrest rates compared to offenders not receiving these sanctions. The models indicate that PO violation charges has no significant effect on the odds of conviction or recidivism rates, and these trends were not significantly different for convicted versus dismissed offenders. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research with recommendations for future areas of study.     

Inequalities and financial globalization: A timely report

Following the launch of the World of Work Report, the new annual report of the ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies, this note presents the contents of the first report in this series, subtitled “Income inequalities in the age of financial globalization”. Its timely release at the end of October 2008 came amidst mounting concern over the extent, duration and economic and social consequences of the financial crisis. The report examines the determinants of widening income inequalities and how inequality relates to financial globalization, labour market institutions, employment – job creation and characteristics – and redistributive policies.     

Field theory in comparative context: A new paradigm for media studies

Theory and Society -     

Asset-building, financial self-management service model: piecing together consumer financial independence

This program represents an innovative approach to traditional money-management services. This asset-building, financial self-management service model has the potential to positively affect recovery, self-sufficiency, and community integration for people with mental illnesses. It is hoped this program will be replicated by other providers in a way that may effect systems change.