TRUST,SOCIAL CAPITAL,AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Many argue that elements of a society's norms, culture, or social capital are central to understanding its development. However, these notions have been difficult to capture in economic models. Here we explore a possible role for “trustworthiness” as corresponding to social capital. Individuals are trustworthy when they perform in accordance with promises, even if this does not maximise their payoffs. The usual focus on incentive structures in motivating behaviour plays no role here. Instead, we emphasise more deep‐seated modes of behaviour and consider trustworthy agents being socialised to act as they do. To model this socialisation, we borrow from a process of preference evolution pioneered by Bisin and Verdier (2001). The model developed endogenously accounts for social capital and explores its role in the process of economic development. It captures in a simple, formal way the interaction between social capital and the economy's productive processes. The results obtained caution against rapid reform and provide an explanation for why late‐developing countries may not easily be able to transplant the modes of production that have proved useful in the West. (JEL: O1, O3, O4, Z1)     

Toward Less Division of Labor? New Production Concepts in the Automotive, Chemical, Clothing, and Machine Tool Industries

In this contribution, we focus on the results ofthe Belgian Trend Study. The intention of this study wasto examine the prevalence of new production conceptswithin the widest possible range of companies in the automotive, the machine tool, thechemical, and the clothing industries. The Trend Studyaimed to answer the following questions: is theTaylorist division of labor a thing of the past? Whatare the alternatives? Are shifts in the division oflabor accompanied by another type of personnel policy,and do traditional industrial relations have to make wayfor this new approach? The methodological concept used had to guarantee that the findingsat the level of each industry could be generalized.Though the picture emerging from the empirical datacollected in the four industrial sectors is inevitablydiverse, the data make it possible merely to suggest aneo- rather than a post-Taylorist or -Fordistconcept.     

Living apart together

Traditionally, marriage has been the social institution for couples that have been together for a long period. Some decades ago a new social institution appeared in the Western world: non-marital cohabitation, although this was slower to be accepted in some countries than in others. Living Apart Together (LAT) relationships, are a new phenomenon which seems to have the potential of becoming the third stage in the process of social change. In contrast to couples in commuting marriages which have one household in common, couples living in LAT relationships have one household each. We discuss some data on the frequency of LAT relationships in Sweden and Norway as well as some varieties of the phenomenon. Our analysis suggests that the existence of cohabitation as a social institution, alongside marriage, is a necessary precondition for LATs to be recognised as a social institution. LAT relationships could not exist unless a preceding social institution of cohabitation also exists.     

The Distribution of the German Public–Private Wage Gap

This paper provides a distributional analysis of the public–private sector wage gap in Germany from 1984 to 1996. The public sector wage distribution is generally less dispersed than the private sector wage distribution. The raw wage differential is positive for males who are at the lower tail of the male wage distribution and negative at the upper tail. In contrast, females enjoy positive wage gaps along most part of the wage distribution. A decomposition analysis reveals that the male wage premium, i.e. the part of the wage gap not accounted for by differences in observable characteristics, is uniformly negative, whereas the female wage premium is positive.     

The extent of children's knowledge of court as estimated by guardians ad litem

‘Knowledge of court’ questionnaires were completed by 35 designated professionals (guardians ad litem) with specific responsibility for children in family proceedings in the civil judicial system within England and Wales who then estimated the percentage of 11‐year old children, in general, which they would expect to provide a ‘full’, ‘partial’ and ‘incorrect’ answer to each question. These estimations were compared with normative data on this questionnaire obtained from actual 11‐year‐olds. This comparison suggests that guardians ad litem tend to overestimate the extent of such children's knowledge, implying that individual children may not be as well prepared for involvement with the legal system as such informed professionals might believe; such a tendency might render it less likely that easily corrected misconceptions and gaps in knowledge be identified and subsequently addressed, thereby failing to minimize the stress (e.g. fear of the unknown) which can often accompany contact with the courts. The possibility that the discrepancy between actual and estimated scores might be, in part, due to a failure in adults to adopt the ‘psychological perspective’ of the child in the unfamiliar world of the adult judicial system is discussed. Although this possibility requires further investigation, making an explicit effort to ‘get into the child's shoes’ is suggested as a potentially valuable and practical first step towards reducing such discrepancies. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adolescent Depression and Time Spent with Parents and Siblings

This study examines adolescent depressive symptoms and the quantity and quality of time spent by adolescents with their parents and siblings. We use measures of the quality of relationships with parents and siblings as proxy indicators for the quality of time spent with these social partners. The study emphasizes the salience of parent relationships to adolescent depression. The structural equation models suggest that time spent with parents is indirectly linked with the severity of depressive symptoms via adolescents’ perceptions of how accepting their parents are of them, and the extent to which parents avoid exerting psychological control. We discuss these findings in relation to clinical practice.     

Equilibrium unemployment and the duration of unemployment benefits

This paper uses microdata to evaluate the impact on the steady-state unemployment rate of an increase in maximum benefit duration. We evaluate a policy change in Austria that extended maximum benefit duration and use this policy change to estimate the causal impact of benefit duration on labor market flows. We find that the policy change leads to a significant increase in the steady-state unemployment rate and, surprisingly, most of this increase is due to an increase in the inflow into rather than the outflow from unemployment.     

Self‐Help Groups in the Welfare State: Treatment Program or Voluntary Action?

This article identifies two different perspectives used when studying self‐help groups: the professional treatment perspective and the voluntary action perspective. An outline of the perspectives leads to a discussion of their consequences for self‐help group research. The authors categorize about five hundred scientific publications from all over the world on the basis of the perspectives they present on self‐help groups; the results indicate that different perspectives seem to be preferred in different countries and when discussing different subjects. Finally, the authors suggest questions and concepts that the perspectives generate, and they emphasize the importance of being aware of which perspective is used in the study of self‐help groups.     

TEACHING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT THROUGH GLOBAL PROJECTS WITH GLOBAL PROJECT TEAMS

In this article, we describe the Global Project Coordination Course, a course in which project teams composed of three students from each of two overseas universities execute company‐sponsored projects dealing with global supply chain management issues. The $75,000 to $100,00 contributed in total by the three to four sponsoring companies funds all course expenses. We assess the benefits and challenges of the use of cross‐cultural project teams with diverse educational backgrounds. We conclude that the course provides a unique and effective vehicle for furthering students' knowledge of Supply Chain Management and Information Systems, improving understanding of “soft” issues, and training students to work in diverse, global, cross‐cultural project teams.     

Soziologie der Forschung,Methoden, Sozialstrukturanalyse,Soziologie der Mobilität,Soziologie des Essens

Literaturbesprechungen

Soziologie der Forschung, Methoden, Sozialstrukturanalyse, Soziologie der Mobilit?t, Soziologie des Essens