The Role of Temporary Help Agency Employment on Temp-to-Perm Transitions

This paper evaluates the impact of agency work on temporary workers’ posterior likelihood of being hired on a permanent basis. We use administrative data on two groups of temporary workers for whom we have complete work histories since they are first observed in 1998 until the year 2004. One group consists of workers employed through a temporary help agency (THA) at some point during the 7 year period under examination (treated group). The other group is composed of individuals employed as direct-hire temps at some point between 1998 and the year 2004, but never via a THA (control group). Using propensity score matching methods, we find that agency workers endure a lower likelihood of being hired on a permanent basis following their temporary assignment than their direct-hire counterparts. However, there are relevant differences for some groups of workers.

The best-laid schemes: An analysis of discrepancies between migration intentions and behavior

A longitudinal survey approach is used in a largely rural area in the Philippines to examine consistency between migration intentions and subsequent migration behavior. Inconsistencies in movement behavior, the timing of a move, and the destination are analyzed. Discrepancies between intentions and behavior are explained in terms of unanticipated constraints and facilitators as well as changes in the conditions that precipitated the migration intention in the first place. Intended international movers who did not actually move in a 2-1/2 year period were thwarted mainly by legal hurdles that could not be overcome. Intended internal migrants who did not actually move remained in their origin area primarily because of changes in job opportunities or family relationships. Methodological and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men Gang aft agley, An' la'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy! we must bear in mind the distinction between direct and facilitating factors involved in migration processes . migration analysis should consider some factors that facilitate or impede migration rather than determine migration directly (Goldscheider, 1971:38).This article was originally presented at the annual meetings of the Population Association of American in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 2–5, 1984. The authors wish to thank Lynna Sycip for her assistance in the preparation of the tabulations for this article. In addition to the authors, the co-investigators for this project are James T. Fawcett, East-West Population Institute and Ricardo G. Abad, Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University. Research for this article has been supported by NIH Grant No. R01-HD13115, the Population Center Foundation, Manila, Philippines, and the East-West Population Institute.     

Preliminary Evaluation of the Validity and Reliability of the Spanish Version of the Therapeutic Alliance with Clinician (TAC) Questionnaire

As part of a broader study aimed at evaluating perceived alliance with service providers and level of satisfaction with services received, 103 monolingual Spanish speaking Hispanic women were interviewed. Participants were receiving ongoing behavioral health treatment at three different community service provider sites located in the greater New Haven area in Connecticut. These sites included a community health center (n = 40), a community behavioral health center (n = 40), and a faith-based agency (n = 23). As part of this study, the English version of the Therapeutic Alliance with Clinician (TAC) questionnaire was translated into Spanish and administered to our sample of Hispanic women. Results on the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the TAC are presented in this article.     

Shortcomings in the Measurement of Innovation: Implications for Accounting Standard Setting

Innovation is nowadays a fundamental determinant of value creation in business companies and economic growth. Therefore, the measurement of innovation has become a significant concern both for business companies and governments. Traditionally, attempts to measure innovation have adopted a macroeconomic approach, as they have been largely based on broad surveys. However, no attempt has been made to date in order to complement the information provided by such surveys with aggregated data obtained from the financial reports of individual companies. This paper analyses the conceptual and methodological problems underlying the measurement of business innovation by means of surveys and discusses the lack of ability of accounting standards to accurately reflect innovative activities in the financial statements of business firms.In the light of the evidence provided by the empirical studies published to date, we analyse the Spanish situation by reviewing innovation studies conducted by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), and assessing the relationship between the value relevance of accounting information and the firm's technological level. Our results suggest that both, micro- and macroeconomic approaches towards the measurement of innovation have significant shortcomings. Thus, a joint effort seems to be needed in order to overcome the methodological limitations affecting innovation studies based on surveys and those relying on financial accounting information. Despite their limitations, surveys provide a sound basis for the identification of trends, key factors and explanatory variables. On the other hand, financial statements could provide a sound basis for the measurement of innovation if they included more relevant information on the intangible determinants of the value of companies. This has obvious implications for the standard setting process.     

A Systematic Review of the Assessment of Quality of Life in Adolescents

This study examined how the quality of life (QoL) affects an individual’s disaster preparedness behavior (PB); furthermore, it also considered and examined the mediating effects of trust in government (GT) and the moderating effects of self-efficacy (SE). One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to test the differences in QoL, GT, SE, and PB, by socio-demographic, and the study hypotheses were verified by using hierarchical regression analysis based on 1682 samples. The Johnson–Neyman technique was used to test the conditional effects of SE on QoL and PB. All the hypotheses presented in this study were supported: (1) QoL had a positive effect on PB; (2) QoL had a positive effect on GT; (3) GT had a positive effect on PB; (4) GT mediated the relationship between QoL and PB; (5) SE moderated the relationship between QoL and PB. Specifically, when SE was high, the positive relationship between QoL and PB increased; (6) SE moderated the relationship between GT and PB. Specifically, when SE was high, the positive relationship between GT and PB increased; and (7) SE moderated the indirect effect of QoL on PB. Specifically, when SE was high, the mediating effect of GT on the relationship between QoL and PB increased. This study makes significant contributions in terms of identifying the mechanisms of QoL on PB based on the moderated mediation model. Improving individuals’ QoL is not only an important societal goal, but also an effective way to enhance people’s positive behavioral outcomes. Therefore, QoL improvement should be considered in the top-level design of government policies, and it should also be regarded as an important indicator of government performance assessment.

     

Are persons with disabilities included in the Colombian peace process?

This article follows on from our previous one about the armed conflict in Colombia and its relationship with disability. We seek here to explore the ways in which people with disabilities are starting to be involved in the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP), and the avenues there are for representative organizations of disabled people to have a louder voice in Colombia. Currently, while legal and human rights approaches are important, people with disabilities in Colombia do not generally have the resources to fight for their own rights. However, there could be opportunities in the negotiations currently with the National Liberation Army (ELN) to include a specific focus on the rights of people with disabilities.     

A spatial model of political competition and proportional representation

 A spatial model of party competition is studied in which: (i) Parties are supposed to have ideology. By this we mean that their goal is to maximize the welfare of their constituencies. (ii) The policy implemented after the election does not need to coincide with the one proposed by the winner. The policy implemented should be a compromise that considers the proposals made by the different parties. In the case of proportional representation this compromise is modeled as a convex combination of the proposed policies with weights proportional to the number of votes obtained by each party. We provide some existence theorems and compare the equilibrium in our model with the equilibrium that exists under some probabilistic models. It is also shown that proportional representation will create incentives for the parties to announce radical platforms. Received: 17 May 1994/Accepted: 5 March 1996