Correction Constants for Present Values of Seasonal Cash Flows

In a recent Decision Sciences article, McMath (1990) developed the correction constants approach for eliminating the end-of-year bias in the present value of streams with subannual cash flows. A limitation of this approach is that it assumes subannual cash flows are level. In many types of businesses, subannual cash flows follow a predictable seasonal pattern and, consequently, a present value estimate based upon a level correction constant is biased. This article derives a general formula for determining correction constants for seasonal cash flow patterns, examines the direction and magnitude of the seasonal bias, and applies seasonal correction constants to a capital budgeting problem.     

‘Indigenous Rights’ or ‘Racial Privileges’: The Rhetoric of ‘Race’ in New Zealand Politics

The New Zealand parliamentary election campaign of 2005 was marked by a significant break in the consensus between the two major political parties, Labour and National, in the area of Maori affairs: a consensus that had previously been articulated in terms of a shared commitment to ‘biculturalism’ and the Treaty of Waitangi. In January 2004, the National Party launched an attack on government policies, describing them as giving unfair privileges to Maori based purely on ‘race’. The present paper examines the National Party's adoption of the rhetoric of ‘race’ and the conceptual, political and ideological considerations behind it. It also examines attitudinal, social policy and socioeconomic factors to explain the widespread acceptability of this rhetoric among the New Zealand public. These events are considered within the context of a growing academic and political critique of ‘culturalism’ in New Zealand social policy and social science.     

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AS CONTESTED GROUND IN AN ERA OF GLOBALIZATION: WORKER PERCEPTIONS AND SATISFACTION IN THE USPS

Many prior efforts have examined the personal characteristics of workers or the structural features of an organization that impact job satisfaction. By contrast, we examine organizational culture in the context of "high-performance work systems." We analyze the organizational culture of the United States Postal System, as it is presented in key organizational documents and perceived by workers. It is argued that a viable theory of job satisfaction in the modern workplace must treat worker perceptions, which spring from an organizational culture that is both prescribed and lived.     

Starting Behind: A Comparative Analysis of the Academic Standing of Students Entering Charter Schools*

Objectives. The purpose of this study is to assess if students enter charter schools at an academic disadvantage compared to students who make other types of school‐choice decisions, such as transferring between district schools, from a charter to a district school, or staying in the same school. We assess the demographic and academic characteristics of students prior to choosing to attend a charter school in comparison to students who made other types of school‐choice decisions and broaden the operational definition of a “disadvantaged” student when exploring differences between charter and district students to include academic achievement prior to entering a school. Methods. The analysis is conducted with student‐level panel data and a progressive series of ANCOVA models that were estimated using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. This methodology allows for a comparison of the mean differences in academic achievement among students who made different types of school‐choice decisions while controlling for student‐level covariates. Results. Students who transferred from district to charter schools had the lowest levels of prior academic achievement compared to students who made other types of choice decisions. Conclusions. When Arizona charter authorizers face the deluge of renewal decisions that are approaching, the quality of education available to the next generation of charter school students is at stake. Renewal decisions will impact what choices are available going forward and, given the comparative academic disadvantage of charter school students prior to entering, those decisions should take into consideration the starting point for students entering charter schools.     

Do perceptions of their partners’ childbearing desires affect young women’s pregnancy risk? Further study of ambivalence

We explore whether young women’s perceptions of their sexual partners’ childbearing desires contribute to their risk of pregnancy. We used weekly journal data collected from 787 young women to measure their childbearing desires and their perceptions of their partners’ childbearing desires. We then conducted hazard modelling to predict pregnancy risk with variables based on interactions between the women’s desires and their perceived partners’ desires. Models that include perceived partners’ desires perform better than one based on women’s desires alone. The best model contains three significant predictors: one confirms the importance of pronatal, ambivalent, and indifferent desires for pregnancy risk; one indicates that the perceived partners’ antinatal desires reduce women’s pregnancy risk; and one suggests that women who both perceive their partners accurately and are in agreement with them have a lower pregnancy risk. The results indicate that perceived partner data can improve prediction and enhance our understanding of pregnancy risk.     

Toward Disentangling Fathering and Mothering: An Assessment of Relative Importance

This study employed dominance analysis to assess the relative importance of maternal and paternal support, behavioral control, and psychological control in explaining depression, antisocial behavior, and social initiative within 644 adolescents. We noted the lack of replicated findings concerning differential effects of mothers and fathers and employed an approach that considered mothers’ and fathers’ overlapping predictive abilities in determining their relative importance. Results lend support to the overall parental framework and additionally suggest (a) mothers’ behavioral control is relatively more important than fathers’ in explaining sons’ subsequent antisocial behavior, (b) fathers’ support is relatively more important than mothers’ support in explaining subsequent youth social initiative, and (c) mothering and fathering tend to have a cross‐gendered effect on early adolescents’ depression.     

New ideas and fertility limitation: The role of mass media

This article investigates the mass media as a social change that shapes individual behavior primarily via ideational mechanisms. We construct a theoretical framework drawing on social demography and social psychology to explain how mass media may affect behavior via attitudinal change. Empirical analyses of 1,091 couples in the Chitwan Valley Family Study, using detailed measures of social change from rural Nepal, show that exposure to the mass media is related to childbearing behavior, and to preferences for smaller families, weaker son preferences, and tolerance of contraceptive use. This result should motivate greater research attention to the influence of changing ideas on behavioral changes, particularly in the study of families.     

Setting Priorities in the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse

In its ‘National Campaign Against Drug Abuse’, the Federal Government has decided to give top priority in the 1987 financial year to preventing the use of heroin and cocaine, particularly among the young. After reviewing the drug consumption habits of North Queenslanders, we conclude that this decision does not address the most immediate drug-related health problems of the region. Our data suggest not only that legal drugs pose a far greater threat to the health and welfare of Australian society but also that drug abuse is primarily concentrated within the adult population.