A WINNING PROPOSITION: THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF SUCCESSFUL NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE FRANCHISES

Research has demonstrated that a Super Bowl victory increases the personal income of the individuals in the metropolitan area from which the winning teams come. We argue that the economic benefits should extend beyond just the championship team's city to the cities of teams that experience seasonal success, and thus, the winning percentages of National Football League teams were included in our model. When controlling for sources of bias, winning percentage of the local professional football team had a significant positive effect on real per capita personal income. Explanations for these conclusions are offered from a psychological perspective. ( JEL L83, R19)     

On Teaching and Applying the Law in Social Work: It is not that Simple

Summary The teaching of welfare law to social workers has recently beenthe subject of critical scrutiny. Concurrently the relationshipbetween social work practice and the law, the place that legislationshould occupy in daily working practice, has been openly debated.This paper, based on our teaching and practice experience anda small evaluation exercise, criticizes the principal positionstaken in the debate on that relationship. It also evaluatestwo approaches to teaching law to social workers. We argue thatteaching law to social workers and using legal knowledge andprovisions in practice is not as simple and straight-forwardas some commentators allege. Rather, we argue that, for socialworkers to learn and apply the law effectively, both teachinglaw and any subsequent application of this knowledge must beconsidered in a conceptual frame of practice dilemmas whichconfront every practitioner and create role conflict, uncertainty,ambiguity, and insecurity.     

The abuse of children in out of home care

SUMMARY: One of the major paradoxes in child protective services in the United States is that children removed from their homes on protective orders and placed in foster and group care face continued abuse. These children are reported at two to three times the rates of children living with their families. Investigations are performed by the very system that marks placements. In the US, some recommend resolving these problems by withdrawing from the active protection of children in care. Others hold that because children are in the care and custody of the state, and demand a higher standard of care, specialised prevention, identification. reporting and investigation initiatives are necessary to ensure their safety. This has important implications for other countries, especially the United Kingdom with its recent spate of inquiries into abuse in residential care.     

Borders and Boundaries of State and Self at the End of Empire

Abstract Peoples that span national borders are ambiguous in that they in some ways partake of both nations and in other ways partake of neither. This paper analyzes how the boundary - the power to impose difference - of the United States and Mexico is being eroded by transnational developments causing the structure of the nation-states to become problematic. To the degree that anthropology is an official discipline predicated on the distinction between Self and the alien Other which it presumes to represent, the deterioration of the borders and boundaries of the nation-state have serious implications for its epistemology and legitimacy and its power of representation of transnational communities and of difference in general. Furthermore, as national distinctions decline ethnicity emerges as a consciousness of difference.     

ESTIMATING THE FISHER EFFECT AND THE STOCHASTIC MONEY GROWTH PROCESS

This paper demonstrates that a change in the stochastic process generating money can alter the relationships between money and inflation and between inflation and interest rates. The extent to which inflation is forecastable is shown to depend significantly on the extent to which money is forecastable. Thus, the greater the persistence and forecastability of money, the greater the likelihood of observing a statistically significant Fisher effect.
US. data over the 1953–86 period are used to demonstrate that instability in the Fisher effect coincides with changes in the stochastic process generating money. There is a significantly stronger Fisher effect during a subsample in which money—and hence inflation—are more predictable.     

RETURNS TO SKILLS AND PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS

Personnel records are used to examine compensation, recruitment, and retention of a group of highly skilled workers: civilian scientists and engineers in U.S. Department of Defense laboratories. In contrast to those of the private sector, returns to skills were largely flat for this group from 1982 to 1996. Despite this, quality and performance of recruits relative to earlier cohorts, and of those retained relative to those who left, remained stable. One explanation is the importance of defense industry–specific human capital. These results hold for three different pay plans, including the federal government's primary plan and two intended to introduce greater flexibility in personnel management. (JEL J31 , J44 , J45 , M52 )     

Blau's Dialectical Sociology

The focus of Blau's dialectical sociology is the notion that human organization is characterized by dilemmas, such as the freedom-order problem. Dilemmas are inherent in social existence and underlie conflict and change. Blau's dialectic of conflict can be supplemented by dialectics of cooperation to make a more comprehensive theory.