Contractors’ and Agency Decisions and Policy Implications in A+B Bidding

The focus of this study is on the A+B transportation procurement mechanism, which uses the proposed cost (A component) and the proposed time (B component) to score contractors’ bids. Empirical studies have shown that this mechanism shortens project durations. We use normative models to study the effect of certain discretionary parameters set by state transportation agencies on contractors’ equilibrium bidding strategies, winner selection, and actual completion times. We model the bidding environment in detail including multi‐dimensional bids, contractors’ uncertainty about completion times, and reputation cost. The latter refers to a private penalty that accrues to tardy contractors from increased cost of posting bonds and reduced prospects of winning future projects. Our model explains why contractors may skew line‐item bids and why winners frequently finish earlier than bid. It has several policy implications as well. For example, we recommend that agencies set the daily incentive, disincentive, and road user cost to be equal and not cap incentives. This is a departure from current practice, where incentives are often capped and weaker than penalties. Furthermore, we show that agencies may be justified in setting daily road user cost strictly smaller than the true cost of traffic disruption during construction.     

An Evaluation of Healthy Relationship Education to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence

This research evaluated the impact of the Within My Reach healthy relationship education program on intimate partner violence for 419 high-risk adults in an urban area. Key outcomes such as relationship knowledge, communication/conflict resolution skills, relationship quality, and physical and emotional abuse were evaluated through survey research immediately post- and 6-months postprogram participation. Results suggest that participation in the Within My Reach program is associated with a statistically significant decrease in physical and emotional abuse, as well as isolation behaviors. Differences by participant demographics and the role of communication skills and relationship quality as mediators of these outcomes are also discussed.     

The interrupted chain: traditional receiver countries,migration regimes,and the East European Jewish diaspora, 1918–39

This article focuses primarily on countries that had been, prior to 1914, among the most favored destinations for East European Jewish migrants: chiefly the United States, Canada, Palestine, Brazil and Argentina. In the inter-war years, these ceased to be the only ports of final entry for Jewish migrants. However, despite restrictive migration regimes and unfavorable economic conditions, traditional receiver countries continued to absorb the largest share of such migrants (the U. S. and Palestine, between them, accounting for over 800,000). Jewish migration to countries other than the United States peaked around 1933; was just about equal to the U. S.-bound migrant stream by 1938; and fell off in 1939–1940. The Jewish case raises several theoretical and methodological issues, including the definition of migrant motivation as well as the framing of immigration policy as products of mixed factors – both political and economic.     

Strengthening the Systemic Ties that Bind: Integrating Common Factors into Marriage and Family Therapy Curricula

Specific models guide the training of marriage and family therapists (MFTs) as they offer both structure and organization for both therapists and clients. Learning models may also benefit therapists‐in‐training by instilling confidence and preventing atheoretical eclecticism. The moderate common factors perspective argues that models are essential, but should not be taught as “the absolute truth,” given there is no evidence for relative efficacy of one empirically validated model versus another, and no single model works in all instances. The following article provides a blueprint for infusing a common factors perspective into MFT programmes by reviewing innovations in course design, outlining specific teaching strategies, and highlighting potential implementation challenges.     

Evaluating the psychometrics of the SSIS SEL in a socio-economically diverse sample

The increasing interest in implementing social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions within schools calls for more reliable and valid assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of SEL programs. We investigated the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Social Skills Improvement System – Social-Emotional Learning Edition (SSIS SEL) with a group of ethnically and socio-economically diverse grade 3 students in Ontario, Canada (n = 427). The SSIS SEL is an age-normed measure used for the evaluation of interventions and prevention initiatives. Data collected included both teacher-report and student self-report measures. The factor structure proposed by the scale developers was not replicated using this smaller single grade sample. However, the study demonstrates evidence of good construct and convergent validity supporting the novel factor structure. Results from this study suggest that more research on the SSIS SEL's application in real-world intervention research programs is needed.