Comparing several independent correlations with a standard correlation

The Dunnett procedure for comparing several treatments with a control is applied to the problem of comparing several independent correlations with a standard correlation. Appropriate critical values are specified and an example is provided.     

Ideology and Social Movements: The Contributions of Habermas*

Theorists of social movements have not developed a sufficiently complex perspective of the role that ideology has in the dynamics of social movements. This essay demonstrates that Habermas’theory of the autonomy of normative structures is useful to explain the independent role of ideology in determining the direction taken by social movements. Habermas’emphasis on the interrelationship between cultural traditions, consensus formation, epistemologies, and differentiated rationalization processes furnishes an alternative to the instrumentalist and ahistorical assumptions that often characterize theorists’treatment of ideology in social movements. Empirical examples from studies of social movements are utilized to demonstrate the usefulness of Habermas’approach.     

Additive and Multiplicative Models and Multistage Carcinogenesis Theory

In light of the Armitage-Doll multistage carcinogenesis theory, this paper examines the assumption that an additive relative risk relationship is indicative of two carcinogens that affect the same stage in the cancer process. We present formulas to compute excess cancer risks for a variety of patterns for limited exposure durations to two carcinogens that affect the first and penultimate stages; and using an index of synergy proposed by Thomas (1982), we find a number of these patterns to produce additive, or nearly additive, relative risk relationships. The consistent feature of these patterns is that the two exposure periods are of short duration and occur close together.     

Exact testing in multivariate regression

An F statistic due to Rao (1951,1973) tests uniform mixed linear restrictions in the multivariateregression model. In combination with a generalization of the Bera-Evans-Savin exact functional relationship between the W, LR, and LM statistics, Rao's F serves to unify a number of exact test procedures commonly applied in disparate empirical literatures. Examples in demand analysis and asset pricing are provided. The availability of exact tests of restrictions in certain nonlinear models when the model is linear under the null, originally explored by Milliken-Graybill (1970), is extended to multivariate regression. Generalized RESET, J-, and Hausman-Wu tests are resented. As an extension of Dufour (1989), bounds tests exist for nonlinear and inequality restrictions. Applications include conservative bound tests for symmetry or negativity of the substitution matrix in demand systems.     

Back to Normal: Gender and Disaster

Our earlier studies of Hurricane Andrew focused on the destruction of everyday life during the crisis itself and the reconstruction of a taken-for-granted world during the recovery period; this paper examines the significance of gender in these processes. The abrupt loss of taken-for-granted reality occasioned by the storm involved only a slight and momentary disruption of gender roles. The resilience of these roles can be understood only if gender is seen as a property of social organization that shapes not only interactional expectations and pressures, but also cultural and institutional processes, as well as bodily experiences.     

Discount rates and risky sexual behaviors among teenagers and young adults

This article examines the relationship between personal discount rates and sexual behaviors in a sample of teenagers and young adults. We find that higher discount rates (an indication of less willingness to forego current consumption for future consumption) are significantly associated with a range of sexual behaviors, including ever having sex, having sex before age 16 years, and past or current pregnancy. These associations are consistent with previous studies showing a link between discounting and other, non-sexual health behaviors. JEL Classification D80 · D90 · I10     

Privatizing Social Services in the U.S.A.

Governmental and private sector social services organizations have traditionally shared important roles for provision and delivery of social services in the United States. Over the past fifty years, however, a predominant position has developed for the public sector, especially through federal funding for social service programmes. Recent challenges to the prevailing role of public sector dominance have been expressed by the proponents for privatization at a time when decreasing federal funds are made available for social service programmes. The analysis presented here examines the potential and problems associated with the privatization strategies offered through load shedding, limited-government arrangements, fee charging and competition. As a macro level approach for a comprehensive system of social service provision and delivery, these privatization strategies raise more questions than immediate solutions. A more optimistic view is taken if privatization leads to a more meaningful balance with increased co-operation between public and private social welfare auspices.     

Adolescent Religiosity and School Contexts*

Objectives. Schools serve as the primary social organizations for adolescents, structuring their lives and conveying a variety of skills, norms, and values, but relatively little is known about how schools influence the development of religious belief, attitudes, and behavior during adolescence. We explore how schools' religious norms, coupled with adolescents' pursuit of social status through conformity, affect public and private religiosity. Methods. Employing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we use multilevel modeling to examine the impact of school context on adolescents' public and private religiosity. Results. We find that school norms are influential in shaping both public religious expressions and private devotional activities, but pursuit of social status is a motivation for change across religious contexts only of public religious activity. The effect of social status as a motivator of religious change was moderated by the strength of the adolescent's identification with the school, especially for private religiosity. Conclusions. Schools play a key role in the social development of adolescents, and students' religious beliefs and behaviors are influenced systematically and observably by the type of religious climate within the school.     

Updating the Debate on Intergenerational Fairness in Pension Reform

This article examines the arguments involved in claims about the fairness or unfairness of government policies that would require current working generations to bear the full impact of their lower fertility on the costs of retirement pensions. The analysis is set in the context of a wider review of debate on the role of the idea of generational fairness in assessing options for reform under conditions of population ageing. The article considers three questions: whether generational fairness poses a serious problem for pay‐as‐you‐go pension schemes; whether it is reasonable to assess the generational fairness of pension policy in isolation from other kinds of generational transfer; and whether there is a good case for redistribution from future generations in favour of the baby boom generation.