The Duplic and Codic: the Importance of a Consistent Taxonomy of Verbal Behavior

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Behavior analysts operationally define relations among environmental stimuli and behavior both functionally and topographically, and an insistence on objectivity,...     

Before,Now, and After: Assessing Hurricane Katrina Relief

We assess governmental and non-governmental responses to disasters using primary data of Hurricane Katrina survivors along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Non-governmental sources include nonprofit relief groups, faith-based organizations, and survivors’ self-identified social networks. We assess the impact of these governmental and non-governmental relief efforts on survivors’ economic, psychological, physical, and social effects from the disaster. Our results show that social isolation significantly increases perceptions of disaster disturbance and decreases perceived rates of disaster relief. Additionally, survivors perceive that social networks provide greater sources of psychological, financial and social disaster relief than government sources. However, survivors’ social networks decay sharply in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, and they do not appear to fully recover a year from the disaster. These social networks themselves are not fully resilient to a disaster.

“Do We Have A Customer?” — A Team Approach To Intake

This article examines some of the ambiguities surrounding requests for assistance in the voluntary sector. The authors have developed a team approach at the ‘intake’ stage for clients whose requests often demand a well-thought-out response in order, as Haley suggests we must, “to start well”. Some of the literature about ‘beginning with families’ is examined, and the complex issues of ‘engaging’ and ‘joining’ are discussed. It is suggested that not every ‘shopper’ is necessarily a ‘customer’ for our wares, but that they are almost certainly shopping for something. ‘Emergency’ and ‘crisis’ calls are distinguished, and different responses to each are indicated. Finally, the procedures used are described, within the context of this particular voluntary agency, so that readers may distinguish what could be applicable in different contexts.     

Backlash against the inclusion of students with learning disabilities in higher education: Implications for transition from post-secondary environments to work

Individuals with learning disabilities (LD), the largest group of people with disabilities in the United States, are attending college in greater numbers than ever before. Post-secondary training is critical for individuals with LD to make successful transitions into a changing and ever more demanding world of work. Research indicating that college faculty are willing to provide requested accommodations to students with LD suggests that they are increasingly likely to experience successful post-secondary outcomes, and therefore improve their vocational prospects. However, college students with LD and the accommodations they receive have recently garnered some highly critical press. These portrayals may portend problems in higher education for students with LD, who must self-identify and make specific accommodation requests to faculty in order to receive the instruction and testing environments that they require to succeed. Efforts to ensure that the LD label is not ubiquitously applied and that college faculty attempt to separate the idea of merit from achievement and implement instructional practices to better meet the educational needs of students with and without LD are recommended.     

Inclusion and transition: Partners in progress or policy paradox?

The article examines the compatibility of inclusion and transition, two of the most important reforms to affect the field of special education in recent years. The main premise is that the noble ideals associated with full inclusion have the potential to contravene the delivery of responsive and proven-effective career services for students with disabilities as they make the transition from public schools to the world of work. Additional emphasis is placed on casting inclusion and transition within the context of contemporary reforms in general education, most notably the quest for academic excellence and the related practice of high-stakes testing.     

Efficient Estimation of Data Combination Models by the Method of Auxiliary-to-Study Tilting (AST)

We propose a locally efficient estimator for a class of semiparametric data combination problems. A leading estimand in this class is the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT). Data combination problems are related to, but distinct from, the class of missing data problems with data missing at random (of which the average treatment effect (ATE) estimand is a special case). Our estimator also possesses a double robustness property. Our procedure may be used to efficiently estimate, among other objects, the ATT, the two-sample instrumental variables model (TSIV), counterfactual distributions, poverty maps, and semiparametric difference-in-differences. In an empirical application, we use our procedure to characterize residual Black–White wage inequality after flexibly controlling for “premarket” differences in measured cognitive achievement. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Underinvestment in a Profitable Technology: The Case of Seasonal Migration in Bangladesh

Hunger during pre‐harvest lean seasons is widespread in the agrarian areas of Asia and Sub‐Saharan Africa. We randomly assign an $8.50 incentive to households in rural Bangladesh to temporarily out‐migrate during the lean season. The incentive induces 22% of households to send a seasonal migrant, their consumption at the origin increases significantly, and treated households are 8–10 percentage points more likely to re‐migrate 1 and 3 years after the incentive is removed. These facts can be explained qualitatively by a model in which migration is risky, mitigating risk requires individual‐specific learning, and some migrants are sufficiently close to subsistence that failed migration is very costly. We document evidence consistent with this model using heterogeneity analysis and additional experimental variation, but calibrations with forward‐looking households that can save up to migrate suggest that it is difficult for the model to quantitatively match the data. We conclude with extensions to the model that could provide a better quantitative accounting of the behavior.