A Disinflation Trade-Off: Speed Versus Final Destination

When introducing a new monetary regime designed to reduce inflation, does a central bank prefer more or fewer economic agents who form informed forecasts of inflation? The relevance of the question arises because the central bank can make a decision about how much information to disseminate about the nature of the new regime. We find that the central bank will prefer a higher proportion of agents who form rational expectations if it disinflates from a high level of inflation, but not so if it disinflates from a moderate or low inflation level.     

Lenin in Heidiland

In July 1916 Vladimir Lenin and his wife Nadezhda Krupskaia left on their annual holiday in the Swiss Alps. For eight weeks they stayed in the remote Kurhaus Tschudiwiese, high in the St Gallen Oberland south of Zurich, in a region now known as Heidiland. Lenin’s interest was in hiking, certainly not in Heidi, nor in plotting the revolution that was to topple Tsar Nicholas II less than six months after his return to civilization. As a result, this episode was ignored by virtually all Soviet writers and by most Western biographers. This article seeks to fill that lacuna by discussing Lenin’s little-known holiday pursuits and the limited work he pursued in his mountainous retreat. Particular attention is given to his extensive but often divisive and partially suppressed correspondence with Grigorii Zinov'ev, Inessa Armand, Roman Malinovskii, and Nikolai Bukharin. The picture that emerges is of a more human, non-geometric individual than that found in his Western and Soviet biographies. Visitors to Heidiland today will see many reflections of the fictional orphan and her idyllic stay in these mountains but none of the authentic Russian revolutionary who was to become the first leader of the new Soviet state.     

An Exploration of Family Therapists' Beliefs about the Ethics of Conversion Therapy: The Influence of Negative Beliefs and Clinical Competence With Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Clients

The majority of the literature on conversion therapy has focused on clients' experiences and rationales for seeking such therapy. This study sought to explore differences in the beliefs and clinical competence of therapists who practice and believe in the ethics of conversion therapy and those who do not. The sample for this study included 762 family therapists who were members of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Data were collected using electronic surveys that assessed participants' negative beliefs about and perceived clinical competence with lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. Results indicate that those who believe in the ethics of and/or practice conversion therapy report statistically higher levels of negative beliefs about LGB individuals and lower levels of clinical competence working with LGB clients. Implications for clinical practice and organizational policy are discussed.     

A simple approximation of the sampling distribution of least absolute residuals regression estimates

For multivariate regression with a symmetric disturbance distribution, the error in the least absolute residuals estimator is approximately multivariate normally distributed with mean zero and variance matrix λ²(X′X)^?1, where X is the matrix of K explanatory variables and T observations, and λ ²/T is the variance of the median of a sample of size T from the disturbance distribution. The approximate sampling theory is validated by extensive Monte Carlo studies, and some directions of possible refinement emerge.     

Assessing Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Affirmative Training in Couple and Family Therapy: Establishing the Validity of the Faculty Version of the Affirmative Training Inventory

This study established the validity and factor structure of the Faculty Version of the Affirmative Training Inventory (ATI‐F), which assesses faculty members’ perceptions of the level of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) affirmative training that occurs in clinical programs. Additionally, this study examined the latent associations among the subscales of the ATI‐F and three convergent validity items utilizing a sample of 117 faculty members from accredited family therapy programs. The findings provide empirical support for the relationship between including classroom content on LGB affirmative therapy and faculty members’ beliefs about LGB individuals and relationships. Specifically, faculty members who report more positive beliefs about LGB clients appear to be more likely to include LGB affirmative therapy content in the courses they teach.     

The effects of welfare and child support policies on union formation

We use data from a new longitudinal survey – the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study – to examine how welfare and child support policies, and local labor market conditions, affect union formation among unmarried parents who have just had a child together. We use multinomial logistic regression to estimate the effects of the policy variables along with economic, cultural/interpersonal, and other factors on whether (relative to being in a cohabiting relationship) parents are not romantically involved, romantically involved living apart, or married to each other about one year after the child's birth. We find that – contrary to some previous research – higher welfare benefits discourage couples from breaking up, while strong child support enforcement reduces the chances that unmarried parents will marry; local unemployment rates do not appear to be strongly associated with union formation decisions after a nonmarital birth.     

The Prevalence and Correlates of Multipartnered Fertility Among Urban U.S. Parents

Recent trends in marriage and fertility have increased the number of adults having children by more than 1 partner, a phenomenon that we refer to as multipartnered fertility. This article uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the prevalence and correlates of multipartnered fertility among urban parents of a recent birth cohort (N = 4,300). We find that unmarried parents are much more likely to have had a child by a previous partner than married parents. Also, race/ethnicity is strongly associated with multipartnered fertility, as is mothers’ young age at first birth, and fathers’ history of incarceration. To the extent that childrearing across households diminishes parental resources, multipartnered fertility has important consequences for children’s well‐being.     

Black portraits in African-American literature: A perpective from 1920–1996, including the midwest

What is the effect of sociocultural conditioning in creating black portraits in African-American literature? As twentieth century cultural attitudes change, stereotyped portraits have evolved to more individualized portraits. The question of how these changes have occurred caused me to research the “spirit or ethos” of selected black literature from 1920–1996. After screening various works, I selected authors representing the Harlem Renaissance 1920–1930; the Depression Era 1930–1940; World War II and the Post-War Period 1940–1960; Civil Rights/Black Power Movement 1960–1970; and Contemporary Literature 1970–1996. The results show these particular qualities in African-American Literature: use of explicit, distinctive language and folk idioms; protests against dehumanization and victimization; awakened moral and racial consciousness; emphasis on cultural nationalism; rebellion against racism, and a private search for self-realization by the characters.