Understanding the Demand for Travel: It's Not Purely 'Derived'

We contest the derived demand paradigm for travel as a behavioural absolute. To the contrary, we suggest that travel has an intrinsic positive utility and is valued for its own sake, not just as a means of reaching a destination. We argue that the same positive characteristics that lead people to engage in travel as a recreational activity in itself are likely to motivate them to engage in apparently excess travel in the context of their mandatory and maintenance activities as well. This paper explores the conceptual basis of a positive utility for travel, and presents some results from an ongoing empirical study of attitudes toward travel. In modelling distance travelled (in each of 11 categories), we found that subjective variables such as Travel Liking, the adventure-seeker Personality trait, the travel stress Attitudinal factor, and the Excess Travel indicator added considerable explanatory power to the Demographic variables traditionally used in such models. It appears that, far from being completely determined by demographically based needs, the amount of travel demanded is heavily influenced by one's attitudes toward travel. This is not only true for discretionary (entertainment) purposes, as would be expected, but for more 'mandatory' purposes such as work/school-related activities as well. We are convinced that the demand for travel arises from a fundamental human need for mobility and other subjective characteristics, as well as from the external causes typically measured. To more accurately forecast travel demand and policy response, the role of those subjective characteristics needs to be understood much better than it is at present.     

Training Policy Governance in Nonprofit Boards of Directors: The Views of Trainer‐Consultants

Although scholars widely discuss John Carver's (1990) Policy Governance model for nonprofit organizations, they have conducted little formal research on the implementation of the model. For this study, the researchers surveyed ninety‐two trainer‐consultants who graduated from Carver's Policy Governance Academy. The goal was to learn three things from their experiences: (1) whether trainer‐consultants maintain the model as a coherent whole or teach only parts of it; (2) what they perceive as the major challenges for nonprofit boards in implementing the Policy Governance model; and (3) what contextual factors, if any, they feel affect implementation of the model across nonprofit boards with different characteristics. Survey responses indicated that (1) consultants predominantly teach the model as a whole, (2) particular policy areas appear to be problematic for nonprofit boards of directors that implement the model, and (3) two contextual factors may negatively affect the ability of a board of directors to successfully implement Policy Governance boards larger than fifteen members, and organizations with no hierarchy, where the board also functions as staff. Overall, consultants' responses indicated that they feel Policy Governance is far superior to other models, but they recognize the problems and challenges that boards face in trying to implement it.     

Children’s Experiences After the Unintended Birth of a Sibling

This study examines whether children with a younger sibling whose birth was unintended experience larger declines in the quality of their home environment and larger increases in behavioral problems than children whose younger sibling’s birth was intended. We use data from the NLSY79 to estimate cross-lag regression models that assess changes in the home environment and children’s behavioral problems after the birth of a sibling (intended or unintended). Results are consistent with our hypotheses, finding that, indeed, unintended births have negative spillover effects. Compared with children whose sibling’s birth was intended, both boys and girls whose sibling’s birth was unintended experienced larger declines in the quality of their home environment, and boys had larger increases in behavioral problems. We also find some unexpected evidence that mistimed births may have larger negative effects than unwanted births. This deserves further research, and we offer some possible explanations that could guide those investigations.     

Quality Assurance in Social Work Education: A Comparison of Outcome Assessments across the Continuum

Abstract

Although assessing program outcomes has become increasingly important in higher education, no systematic research has been undertaken to determine the outcome measurement systems used across the entire continuum of social work education. This study, based on a 1992 survey of more than 150 baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral social work education programs, is the first to provide substantive data about the types of assessment systems in place at all three levels. It describes the frequency of use of various systems, makes comparisons across the levels of education, and discusses the implications for social work education at each level.     

Bayesian testing of an exponential point null hypothesis

The problem of testing a point null hypothesis involving an exponential mean is The problem of testing a point null hypothesis involving an exponential mean is usual interpretation of P-values as evidence against precise hypotheses is faulty. As in Berger and Delampady (1986) and Berger and Sellke (1987), lower bounds on Bayesian measures of evidence over wide classes of priors are found emphasizing the conflict between posterior probabilities and P-values. A hierarchical Bayes approach is also considered as an alternative to computing lower bounds and “automatic” Bayesian significance tests which further illustrates the point that P-values are highly misleading measures of evidence for tests of point null hypotheses.     

An extreme null distribution approach to the problem of paired comparisons

David (1963) and Davidson & Farquhar(1976) contain extensive bibliographies of proposed approaches to problems involving paired comparisons. However, each of the discussed methods that is based on a hypothesis test, relies heavily on the assumption that all paired comparisons are made independently. In this paper we eliminate this assumption and develop a new procedure based on an adaptation of a statistic considered by Kendall & Babington Smith (1940). We show that their original test procedure substantially underestimates the true significance level if the comparisons are not made independently. Our modification utilizes the approach developed in Costello & Wolfe (1985) for the problem of agreement between two groups of judges and relies heavily on computer-generated tables.