AN EXPERIMENT ON INNOVATION AND COLLUSION

This paper examines the relationship between product innovation and the success of price collusion using novel laboratory experiments. Average market prices in low innovation (LO) experiments are significantly higher than those in high innovation, but otherwise identical experiments. This price difference is attributed to LO experimental subjects' greater common market experience. The data illustrate how collusion can be perceived as the “only way to make it” in LO markets where product innovation is not a viable strategy for increasing profits. They suggest that product homogeneity can be a proximate cause, and product innovation an ultimate cause, of collusion. (JEL L41, L10, C92)     

‘Disability is not a word we use’: Social workers' professional judgements about support for disabled young people leaving care

Disabled young people leaving care often experience a more complex transition to adulthood than other youths. Still, policy and services can fail to recognize the intersection between a young person's care experiences and disability. Drawing on data from a qualitative interview study with 14 social workers who work with aftercare in the Norwegian child welfare services, we investigate social workers' professional judgements about support for this subgroup of the leaving care population. Our analysis uses the theoretical construct of institutional logics and shows that social workers did not include concepts of disability in their judgements about support for these young people. Instead, the social workers' considerations were guided by three other organizing principles: a ‘medical logic’, an ‘activation logic’ and an ‘aftercare logic’. We discuss these findings in light of critical disability studies and argue for a more nuanced understanding of disability in social work practice with care leavers. Highlighting disability rights and going beyond diagnosis and categorisations of disabled people can challenge a medical model approach to service provision.     

Gender training for development practitioners: only a partial solution

This article considers gender training for Oxfam staff working on a development program or project in a particular context where their experience of gender relations and ability to seek gender equality is informed by their hierarchial position, by their national culture, and by the fact that institutions are also gendered. Thus, the article focuses on contextualizing gender training and on the potential of such training to transform institutions. The first section looks at gender training in the Oxfam head office and notes that, although Oxfam identifies itself as a learning organization, the former Training Department has been devolved into separate divisions, so there is no longer any centrally available gender training. The next section describes gender training in the field context where hierarchial positions that may influence the effectiveness of training are created by the age and sex of the trainer and where it is important to distinguish between gender frameworks (what is taught) from pedagogy (how it is taught). Oxfam's present gender training is limited by a lack of documentation of gender training efforts, by trainees' personal resistance to concepts of gender, by language barriers, and by logistical problems. The article then explores Oxfam's use of gender training as a transformative tool and notes that Oxfam focuses on individual rather than internal organizational transformation. It is concluded that gender training is only a partial solution unless its potential for personal and political transformational is recognized and fostered.     

The "X component" in Shanghai's social security reforms

In 2003, the Shanghai Bureau of Labour and Social Security launched the zhenbao (town insurance) programme, now widely known as 25 plus X. This scheme is regarded as an important experiment in social security reform and has been lauded for extending social security to areas where previously only segments of the population had mandatory coverage. Using data from 103,000 individuals enrolled in 25 plus X, we examine the extent to which the scheme represents an extension in social security coverage. Our analysis suggests that while it does represent an extension of benefits for some, for many it represents a considerable dilution in benefits.     

Evaluation of Tweedie exponential dispersion model densities by Fourier inversion

The Tweedie family of distributions is a family of exponential dispersion models with power variance functions V(μ)=μ ^p for . These distributions do not generally have density functions that can be written in closed form. However, they have simple moment generating functions, so the densities can be evaluated numerically by Fourier inversion of the characteristic functions. This paper develops numerical methods to make this inversion fast and accurate. Acceleration techniques are used to handle oscillating integrands. A range of analytic results are used to ensure convergent computations and to reduce the complexity of the parameter space. The Fourier inversion method is compared to a series evaluation method and the two methods are found to be complementary in that they perform well in different regions of the parameter space.     

The dynamics of credentialism: Ireland from bust to boom (and back again)

The relationship between educational qualifications and labour market outcomes has been perhaps the dominant theme in research on school to work transitions. A range of explanations has been offered for this relationship, but such explanations have often been quite static in nature or assumed that any trend is linear. This article explores the dynamics of educational credentialism using Ireland as a case study. Using data from the national School Leavers’ Survey for the period 1984-2007, it examines the way in which two dimensions of education - level and grades - have influenced early labour market outcomes over a period shifting from high unemployment to dramatic employment growth. The analyses presented point to both long-term and short-term changes in the education-employment relationship. An increase in the proportion of young people with upper secondary qualifications is found to result in a growing gap in employment chances between the more and less qualified. Furthermore, employers are found to rely on different educational signals depending on broader economic conditions, with grades assuming a more important role in accessing employment when jobs are scarce. It is argued that the Irish example points to a more comprehensive framework for understanding the dynamics of credentialism.     

Functional Assessment and Intervention for Organizational Behavior Change: Improving the Timeliness of Staff Meetings at a Human Services Organization

We implemented functional behavioral assessment (FBA) at a human services organization to reduce the tardiness of scheduled staff meetings. Following baseline, FBA focused on antecedent and consequence conditions that affected staff arriving on time to scheduled meetings. These data were subsequently presented at a staff meeting in which staff planned an intervention to improve the timeliness of meetings. The intervention, composed of premeeting reminders, positive reinforcement for arriving on time, and meeting termination criteria (to facilitate meeting-to-meeting transitions), was implemented in a multiple baseline design across 3 types of meetings. As a result of the intervention, the number of minutes late that meetings started decreased. We discuss FBA within organizational behavior management that targets performance improvement objectives.     

Partitioned algorithms for maximum likelihood and other non-linear estimation

There are a variety of methods in the literature which seek to make iterative estimation algorithms more manageable by breaking the iterations into a greater number of simpler or faster steps. Those algorithms which deal at each step with a proper subset of the parameters are called in this paper partitioned algorithms. Partitioned algorithms in effect replace the original estimation problem with a series of problems of lower dimension. The purpose of the paper is to characterize some of the circumstances under which this process of dimension reduction leads to significant benefits.Four types of partitioned algorithms are distinguished: reduced objective function methods, nested (partial Gauss-Seidel) iterations, zigzag (full Gauss-Seidel) iterations, and leapfrog (non-simultaneous) iterations. Emphasis is given to Newton-type methods using analytic derivatives, but a nested EM algorithm is also given. Nested Newton methods are shown to be equivalent to applying to same Newton method to the reduced objective function, and are applied to separable regression and generalized linear models. Nesting is shown generally to improve the convergence of Newton-type methods, both by improving the quadratic approximation to the log-likelihood and by improving the accuracy with which the observed information matrix can be approximated. Nesting is recommended whenever a subset of parameters is relatively easily estimated. The zigzag method is shown to produce a stable but generally slow iteration; it is fast and recommended when the parameter subsets have approximately uncorrelated estimates. The leapfrog iteration has less guaranteed properties in general, but is similar to nesting and zigzagging when the parameter subsets are orthogonal.     

Old age pension reform in China's state-owned enterprises

The old-age pension scheme in China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is experiencing a difficult transition period; in the past, SOEs were responsible for providing retirees with pension benefits. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, the financial position of SOEs deteriorated, making it difficult for them to honor their social welfare commitments. The background of the current pension crisis is examined, and recent attempts to improve the funding of pensions in China's state-owned sector are reviewed, focusing on the period since the State Council issued its "Decision on the Establishment of Unified Pension Insurance" in 1997. The article concludes with a review of priorities for further reform.     

Researching ethnic ‘others’: conducting critical ethnographic research in Australia and Scotland

In many parts of the world, classrooms are characterised by cultural and ethnic diversity. Increasingly, researchers are interested in exploring these rich and socially complex contexts. However, research into ‘the ethnic other’ can present complex ethical and methodological challenges. In this paper, the authors discuss, with reference to their respective studies in Australia and Scotland, their mission to give voice and agency to research participants and develop research relationships that reduce the power imbalance between researcher and researched. They conclude by suggesting that critical ethnographic research methods can assist in alleviating some of the difficulties inherent in research conducted in contexts where researchers are cultural outsiders. The authors also argue the need for protocols to be developed for research into ethnic minority communities.