Quasi-transitive and Suzumura consistent relations

We examine properties of binary relations that complement quasi-transitivity and Suzumura consistency in the sense that they, in conjunction with the original axiom(s), are equivalent to transitivity. In general, the conjunction of quasi-transitivity and Suzumura consistency is weaker than transitivity but in the case of collective choice rules that satisfy further properties, this conjunction implies transitivity of the social relation. We prove this observation by characterizing the Pareto rule as the only collective choice rule such that collective preference relations are quasi-transitive and Suzumura consistent, and standard social choice axioms are satisfied.     

Does the minimum wage drive teenagers out of the labor force?

Labor force participation is directly related to the value of being in the labor force. The effect of the minimum wage on labor force participation thus measures how the minimum wage affects the welfare of labor force participants. In contrast, a decline in employment tells us little about welfare, because of the offsetting wage increase. Only changes in labor force participation can directly measure the welfare effects of the minimum wage. Despite this, most literature about the minimum wage has been focused on employment. My empirical results show that the minimum wage has a significant negative effect on teenage labor force participation. Thus, a minimum wage reduces the value of entering the labor market.     

Rent Control: An Economic Abomination

Rent control is a public policy which fails on both normative and positive economic grounds. In the former case, it violates all canons of equity, of both right (private property rights are sacrosanct) and left (it does not promote egalitarianism, rather, often, it enriches rich tenants and impoverishes poor landlords). In the latter, it leads to inefficiency, deterioration of rental housing, reduces incentives for upkeep and maintenance, reduces labor mobility, exacerbates landlord tenant relations, promotes housing abandonment and homelessness, and misallocates resources away from residential rental units. This sovietization of housing has effects similar to the sovietization of anything else: farming, factories, industry, forestry, whatever. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Disagreement point monotonicity,transfer responsiveness,and the egalitarian bargaining solution

This paper provides an axiomatization of the egalitarian bargaining solution. The central axiom used (together with some standard properties of bargaining solutions) in this characterization is a transfer responsiveness condition. First, it ensures that no transfer paradox can occur if bargaining power is transferred from one agent to another by decreasing one agent's and increasing the other agent's component of the disagreement point. Second, the extent of external effects of such a transfer is limited by requiring that agents not involved in the transfer neither gain more than the winner nor lose more than the loser of the transfer. Journal of Economic Literature Classification No.: C78.I thank William Thomson whose comments on an earlier version led to substantial improvements.     

Sensory language (SDM) to foster empathy in social work students

Assessment and management of emotional situations are generally discussed in academic studies in the field of social work through verbal interventions, while the art of developing awareness to nonverbal feelings has yet to see widespread use. Sensory experience based on nonverbal communication and body language can highlight complex feelings and problems that the social worker confronts. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of an intervention of sensory body language using a modified Sherborne Developmental Movement (SDM) model, in a course for social work students. The course’s multidimensional process involved cognitive and affective components of understanding and identifying thoughts, feelings, and emotional states of others. The intervention combined art activity and focusing to foster empathy among social work students in the group setting. Twenty social work students attending college in the north of Israel participated in the course, writing reflective diaries throughout the course, which were collected and analyzed. The findings suggest that sensory language and movement through the group experience enhanced social work students’ empathy and their awareness of its importance for practice. Learning to be empathic through nonverbal communication also challenged perceived barriers to empathy such as cultural and language differences.     

The effects of a workplace intervention on employees’ cortisol awakening response

Work-related stressors are known to adversely affect employees’ stress physiology, including the cortisol awakening response (CAR) – or the spike in cortisol levels shortly after people wake up that aids in mobilizing energy. A flat or blunted CAR has been linked to chronic stress and burnout. This daily diary study tested the effects of a workplace intervention on employed parents’ CAR. Specifically, we tested whether the effects of the intervention on CAR were moderated by the type of days (workday versus non-work day). Data came from 94 employed parents from an information technology firm who participated in the baseline and 12-month diurnal cortisol components of the Work, Family, and Health Study, a group-randomized field experiment. The workplace intervention was designed to reduce work-family conflict (WFC) and implemented after the baseline data collection. Diurnal salivary cortisol was collected on 4 days at both baseline and 12 months. Multilevel modeling revealed that the intervention significantly increased employees’ CAR at 12 months on non-workdays, but this was not evident on workdays or for employees in the usual practice condition. The results provide evidence that the intervention was effective in enhancing employees’ biological stress physiology particularly during opportunities for recovery that are more likely to occur on non-work days.