BUSINESS COMBINATION DECISIONS: A U.S./CANADA STUDY*

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the motives behind business combination decisions. Twenty-one favorable characteristics associated with the motivations for business combinations were selected to serve as the basis for an empirical survey. Our analysis revealed that there are seven motivational variables of varying import and that the motivations underlying business combination decisions are similar for U.S. and Canadian executives.     

The potential of a couples approach to employment assistance: results of a nonexperimental evaluation

We present findings from a nonexperimental evaluation of an employment program in which both partners in young, low-income, primarily African-American couples simultaneously participated. Mothers participating in the couples program had larger immediate gains in employment and earnings and decreases in TANF receipt following their exit from the program relative to mothers who received employment assistance as individuals. Fathers showed similar although weaker results. These immediate benefits appeared to be driven by higher rates of program completion among couples’ participants. Couples in which both partners completed the program experienced the largest quarterly earnings gains, and couples with greater earnings’ gains were more likely to still be together one year after the program ended. Mothers’ earnings gains eroded in the two years following program completion and many reported new pregnancies and problems with child care. We suggest directions for future programs and encourage future studies to consider the range of mechanisms associated with a couples focus, including potential motivational benefits and unintended consequences.

Estimating the effectiveness of a misdemeanor drug diversion program using propensity score matching and survival analyses

This study analyzes three years of data on misdemeanor drug offenders in Winnebago County, Wisconsin. A portion of these offenders opted into a Misdemeanor Drug Diversion Program (MDDP) offered instead of traditional adjudication. Recidivism in the treatment and comparison groups is estimated using standard binary response techniques augmented with propensity score matching to address selection bias. Results show that the MDDP reduces the probability of re-offense by 16%, after adjusting for possible selection bias. Cox proportional hazard modeling is also used to assess time-to-re-offense differentials between the treatment and comparison groups. The survival analysis indicates that the hazard rate of re-offense is 60% lower per day among those treated with the MDDP program than those who did not complete the program. The average number of days to re-offense among those that do re-offend is 297 days in the treatment group and 203 days in the comparison group.     

Czechoslovakia’s Interrupted Revolution

Russia’s transition to a market economy has been accompanied by serious, and in some ways unanticipated, disruptions of the existing social welfare system. The social policy dilemma has become a contentious issue in the national political arena. This paper examines the debate on the relationship between social welfare and democratization in post-communist Russia, exploring the case of pensions for the elderly. Although the causes of the pension crisis are complex and rooted in institutional difficulties, the state’s fiscal weakness alone does not explain the difficulties and controversies associated with Russia’s pension crisis. Analysis of the assumptions and principles of pension policy during the Soviet era and perestroika reveals that Russia today is caught between contradictory and competing discourses over citizens’ entitlement to pensions: Is an old-age pension to be considered a reward distributed by a prosperous society, or a basic and inviolable human right? Although the Russian government has used an argument that in effect makes pensions conditional on government resources, citizen and opposition protest has to some extent compelled the Russian government to be increasingly sensitive to demands for guaranteed pensions.     

Application of FISK,an Invasiveness Screening Tool for Non‐Native Freshwater Fishes,in the Murray‐Darling Basin (Southeastern Australia)

The Fish Invasiveness Scoring Kit (FISK) is currently one of the most popular pre‐screening tools for freshwater fishes. A recent upgrade has ensured its wider climatic relevance to countries with subtropical regions. This enhancement is of particular importance to Australia, which encompasses tropical, arid, and temperate zones, and where the introduction of non‐native fish species poses a significant risk to biodiversity. In this study, 55 fish species previously evaluated in a U.K.‐based calibration of FISK are reassessed for their potential invasiveness in the Murray‐Darling Basin (MDB; southeastern Australia), the continent's largest catchment encompassing arid and temperate climates. Approximately half of the species were classed as “medium risk” and the other half as “high risk,” and the ≥19 threshold previously identified from the calibration study was confirmed. The three highest scoring species (common carp Cyprinus carpio carpio, goldfish Carassius auratus, and eastern mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki) were those already present and invasive in the area, whereas nearly half of the tropical and subtropical species had lower scores compared to U.K. assessments, possibly because of climate change predictions of drier conditions across the MDB. There were some discordances between FISK and two Australian‐based assessment protocols, one of which is qualitative and the other represents a simplified version of FISK. Notably, the Australian origins of FISK should provide for an additional reason for further applications of the tool in other RA areas (i.e., drainage basins) of the continent, ultimately encouraging adoption as the country's reference screening tool for management and conservation purposes.     

Effectiveness of FISK,an Invasiveness Screening Tool for Non‐Native Freshwater Fishes,to Perform Risk Identification Assessments in the Iberian Peninsula

Risk assessments are crucial for identifying and mitigating impacts from biological invasions. The Fish Invasiveness Scoring Kit (FISK) is a risk identification (screening) tool for freshwater fishes consisting of two subject areas: biogeography/history and biology/ecology. According to the outcomes, species can be classified under particular risk categories. The aim of this study was to apply FISK to the Iberian Peninsula, a Mediterranean climate region highly important for freshwater fish conservation due to a high level of endemism. In total, 89 fish species were assessed by three independent assessors. Results from receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that FISK can discriminate reliably between noninvasive and invasive fishes for Iberia, with a threshold of 20.25, similar to those obtained in several regions around the world. Based on mean scores, no species was categorized as “low risk,” 50 species as “medium risk,” 17 as “moderately high risk,” 11 as “high risk,” and 11 as “very high risk.” The highest scoring species was goldfish Carassius auratus. Mean certainty in response was above the category “mostly certain,” ranging from tinfoil barb Barbonymus schwanenfeldii with the lowest certainty to eastern mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki with the highest level. Pair‐wise comparison showed significant differences between one assessor and the other two on mean certainty, with these two assessors showing a high coincidence rate for the species categorization. Overall, the results suggest that FISK is a useful and viable tool for assessing risks posed by non‐native fish in the Iberian Peninsula and contributes to a “watch list” in this region.