Health‐care Nonprofits: Enhancing Governance and Public Trust

Nonprofits are a major part of the U.S. economy and they are not immune from corporate malfeasance controversies. Even Congress has expressed concern about the crisis in nonprofit governance. The nonprofit response to Congress has been a historic initiative recognizing critical challenges to nonprofit governance. In contrast to their for‐profit counterparts, nonprofits are committed to missions serving the public benefit and not to shareholder profits. Accordingly, their missions and financial resources are intrinsic to their very existence, which is built upon the public trust. That trust is rooted in fiduciary responsibility and reflected in best practices. This article traces the history of the nonprofit public trust and fiduciary standards and examines principles of Sarbanes–Oxley and other best practices as they apply to nonprofits. The authors sampled 80 health‐care nonprofit corporation web sites from eight asset classes to determine compliance with Sarbanes–Oxley and identification of fiduciary duty, ethical values, and other best practices. Among the very largest health‐care nonprofits, many comply with Sarbanes–Oxley and identify fiduciary duty, ethical values, and other best practices. However, there are substantial deficiencies in such compliance and identification among all remaining seven asset classes ranging from 99.9 million to less than 100,000. The results appear to corroborate the urgent necessity for reform articulated by the Congress and the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit governance has entered a new era where best practices must be implemented to sustain the public trust.     

WAGES AND EMPLOYMENT IN PUBLIC-SECTOR UNIONS

We model the politics of wage and employment determination for unionized public-sector workers who can strike. If the employment level affects the identity of the decisive voter in budget referenda and other elections, then unions may be able to increase wages by increasing employment. We identify conditions under which public sector unionization will lead to increased wages and employment; we also show that a majority of voters may favor unionization. (JEL 545, J51, H4)     

Public Attributions for Poverty in Canada*

Les auteurs de cet article décrivent les caractéristiques sociales de la pauvreté en utilisant des données d'interviews téléphoniques effectuées en 2002 au moyen d'un échantillon aléatoire d'adultes sélectionnéà partir de huit voisinages à Toronto et Edmonton, enrichi par des données d'interviews. Une régression logistique multivariée a été utilisée afin de prédire l'attribution des caractéristiques structurelles, individualistes, intergénérationnelles et fatalistes à la pauvreté, en se servant de variables démographiques et de la variable exposition à la pauvreté. Les participants étaient plus susceptibles d'expliquer la pauvreté par des causes structurelles et moins susceptibles de favoriser une explication individualiste. Le revenu a été associé négativement à des déterminants individualistes, fatalistes et à une des causes structurelles, et lié positivement au facteur intergénérationnel.
This paper describes public attributions for poverty using data from telephone interviews conducted in 2002 with a random sample of adults from eight neighbourhoods in Toronto and Edmonton, supplemented with interview data. Multivariate logistic regression was used to predict support for structural, individualistic, intergenerational and fatalistic attributions for poverty by demographic and exposure-to-poverty variables. Participants were most likely to attribute poverty to structural causes and least likely to favour individualistic attributions. Income was negatively associated with individualistic, fatalistic and one of the structural attributions, and positively related to the intergenerational attribution.     

The Interviewee and the Research Interview: Analysing a Neglected Dimension in Research*

L'entrevue de recherche est généralement examinée du point de vue du chercheur. Contrairement à la recherche activiste, qui accorde beaucoup d'carimportance à l'opinion du participant, les constructivistes ont ajouté une nouvelle perspective en démontrant comment l'entrevue de recherche est à la fois collaborative et génératrice de significations. Notre étude livre une analyse plus explicite de l'entrevue du point de vue de l'interviewé. Selon une étude portant sur les Canadiens qui migrent à l'intérieur du pays, la signification pour l'interviewé de l'entrevue qualitative est expliquée plus en détail. Nous discutons la motivation qui pousse à la participation en nous fondant sur les concepts de validation d'carexpériences et sur un processus appelé progression réflexive, qui met en lumière le déroulement d'carune entrevue selon la perspective de l'interviewé. The research interview is usually discussed from the vantage point of the researcher. While activist research has drawn attention to the voice of the participant, constructivists have added a new perspective by showing how the research interview is both collaborative and meaning‐making. Our study provides a more explicit analysis of the interview from the perspective of the interviewee. Based on a study of internal migrants in Canada, the meaning of the qualitative interview for the interviewee is more carefully explicated. We discuss motivation for participation using the concepts of event validation and a process called reflexive progression to illuminate what happens in the interview from the interviewee's perspective.     

THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM? BIRTH ORDER EFFECTS IN A DYNAMIC FAMILY MODEL

Birth order effects are found in empirical work but lack solid theoretical foundations in economics. Our new modeling approach to children provides this. Each child’s needs change as it grows, and births are sequential. Each child has the same genetic makeup and parents do not favor one child over the other. Parental childcare time lowers the caregiver’s current and future wages; this opportunity cost varies across time. Benefits also vary and when parental childcare is a public input, coresident children allow economies of scope in childcare. Birth order effects emerge from the changing benefits and costs. (JEL D13, D91, J13)     

In Whose Interest? Women Organizing on the Waterfront – St. John's,Newfoundland, 1948

In 1948, female fish and blueberry processors formed the Ladies' Cold Storage Workers Union in Job Brothers fish plant, St. John's, Newfoundland. This was accomplished in the context of structural and social change in the Newfoundland fishery that altered the social relations of paid work for the women. Literature on unionization generally assumes it to be a positive event for women workers, but closer examination of specific instances raises questions about economic, social and ideological conditions shaping experiences of unionization. Whose interests were served by the formation of the Ladies' Cold Storage Workers Union and how did women engage with “their union” in this moment?