DEPRESSED WAGES ALONG THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Portions of the United States near the Mexican border are experiencing massive inflows of both legal and illegal migrants of Mexican origin. The resultant concentration of low skill labor in these areas of the southwestern states supposedly has led to an excess supply of labor and subsequent depressed labor market conditions, particularly for blue collar workers and Mexican-American nationals. This paper analyzes the degree to which the labor market in this area is depressed. The results presented here tend to verify hypotheses suggested by several other authors but indicate that the magnitude of the problem as reflected by low wages along the border is much less severe than generally believed. The importance of this study is that it measures a phenomenon that heretofore has been accepted with very little empirical verification.     

FURTHER RESULTS ON EQUILIBRIUM PATTERNS OF COMPETITION IN OCS LEASE SALES

A prior model of competitive bidding for offshore petroleum leases is subjected to more extensive empirical testing based on underlying geological data prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey. The current results strongly reinforce the tentative conclusions advanced in the previous paper, and demonstrate the robustness of the model. In light of the current results, it seems very likely that participants in offshore lease sales behave as if their operations were constrained physically such that only a limited volume of petroleum reserves are pursued in any one sale.     

ECONOMIC WELFARE, PRICE AND PROFIT: THE DETERRENT EFFECT OF ALTERNATIVE ANTITRUST REGIMES

This paper critically examines the deterrent effect of price-fixing statutes under alternative antitrust regimes. A regime is defined by the litigation strategy which the antitrust agency employs in detecting cartels and in determining whether prosecution is warranted and by the basis upon which courts estimate damages. The results of the analysis suggest that antitrust policy may actually induce cartels to further restrict output, increasing welfare loss above the level imposed by an unthreatened, perfect monopoly. Litigation strategy and damages should be founded upon consideration of welfare loss measures to avoid this possibility.     

Germany's Anti-Foreigner Crisis: State Disunity and Collective 'Forgetting'

Abstract: Employment of foreign labor in Germany is generally perceived as a recent phenomenon; Germany's pre-war experiences with foreign labor do not figure prominently in public discussion. This article analyzes the active omission of this aspect of the past as an important feature of German social memory. Drawing largely on Ulrich Herbert's research, the forgotten' history of pre- and post-war experiences with foreign labor is summarized. This provides a perspective on the significant parallels between conflicts today and those of prior periods and exposes a fundamental conflict within the state regarding the use of foreign labor. Anti-foreigner violence is reinterpreted as representing a failure of the state to maintain ideological unity without periodically responding to powerful and enduring anti-foreigner pressure.     

The role of physical contact in childcare

SUMMARY. There is a risk that recent concern over child sexual abuse will inhibit those working with children from having appropriate physical contact with the children. The author discusses the importance of touch in children's experience, outlines some dilemmas facing the childcare worker, and suggests a number of specific and general ways in which workers may resolve these difficulties, with special reference to residential childcare     

A TALE OF TWO QUESTIONS: BENEFITS OF ASKING MORE THAN ONE QUESTION

In the last two months have you had a physical examination?The ability of 660 people to accurately report on their ownrecent health procedures was assessed by comparing the recollectionsof patients to information extracted from their medical records.A major finding was that when people were asked whether theyhad a specific procedure in a given reference period (e.g.,physical exam within the last two months), overreporting occurred.A simple technique reduced overreporting: The technique entailedasking people about the procedure twice, first in connectionwith a different reference period (e.g., physical exam withinthe last six months) and then in connection with the referenceperiod of interest (e.g., physical exam within the last twomonths). Our data support a "Precision" hypothesis: The advantageof the two–time frame questioning procedure is that itconveys to the respondent that the interviewer wants greaterprecision in dating than the single–time frame questionimplies.     

Transnational social movements and changing organizational fields in the late twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries

Recent decades have seen dramatic changes in the global political arena, including shifts in geopolitical arrangements, increases in popular mobilization and contestation over the direction of globalization, and efforts by elites to channel or curb popular opposition. We explore how these factors affect changes in global politics. Organizational populations are shaped by ongoing interactions among civil‐society, corporate and governmental actors operating at multiple levels. During the 1990s and 2000s, corporate and government actors promoted the ‘neoliberalization of civil society’ and the appropriation of movement concepts and practices to support elite interests. Not all movement actors have been passive witnesses to this process: they have engaged in intense internal debates, and they have adapted their organizational strategies to advance social transformation. This article draws from quantitative research on the population of transnational social movement organizations (TSMOs) and on qualitative research on contemporary transnational activism to describe changes in transnational organizing at a time of growing contention in world politics. We show how interactions among global actors have shaped new, hybrid organizational forms and spaces that include actors other than states in influential roles.