A Development Delivery Institution for the Tribal Communities: Experience of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India

This article examines the varied impacts of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) as a development delivery institution for the tribal communities vis‐à‐vis other social groups across the Indian States, using the framework of new institutional economics. A number of State‐specific, socio‐economic institutional factors seem to be responsible for these variations. The article therefore suggests institutional reforms and convergence of the development initiatives of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs with the NREGS in order to realise the optimal potential of the scheme, and, in particular, to ensure greater livelihood opportunities for these marginalised groups and their entitlement to productive resources with greater socio‐economic and political empowerment.     

Unspoken Assumptions: Voice and Absolutism at the Court of Louis XIV

This paper indicates how what Norbert Elias described as the disciplining of the aristocracy in 17th-century France, which he took to be essential to the ascendancy of Louis XIV and the growth of the modern state, was itself part of a broader pattern of voiceless politics. The French political bureaucracy and the monarch in this period were able to accumulate power by restraining public political speech, and using a combination of rituals of subjugation and material forms like fortresses to exemplify the power and social efficacy of this political regime. The result was a new form of power, importantly demonstrated in the land and its people: what we have come to call the territorial state.     

Parents’ Union Dissolution and Adolescents’ School Performance: Comparing Methodological Approaches

We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study to estimate how parents’ union dissolution influences changes in adolescents’ mathematics course work gains, overall grade point average, and course failure rates during a window of approximately 1 year (N =2,629). A primary purpose of this study is demonstrating the utility of propensity score matching techniques for studying topics such as ours that pose methodological challenges such as dealing with endogeneity and selection bias. We compare propensity score matching techniques to ordinary least squares (OLS) regression methods to show and discuss comparability of results obtained using these different procedures. Findings suggest that associations between parents’ union dissolution and achievement may be causal, regardless of method used.     

A NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING/LEARNING MARITAL AND FAMILY THERAPY

A computer technology known as Group Support Systems (GSS) was pilot tested in a doctoral marital and family therapy (MFT) course to explore its usefulness in teaching/learning marital and family therapy. GSS allowed participants to combine face-to-face interaction with dialogue structured by GSS on personal computers. Through linked computers, each participant contributed to group discussions both simultaneously and anonymously. GSS was used to discuss a videotape, to conduct two role plays, and to write this paper. GSS was found to improve brain-storming, enhance collaboration, reduce hierarchical status among participants, increase self-reflection, create a trusting environment, and promote group-supported active learning. Recommendations for further MFT teaching, research, and application of GSS are presented.     

Small Area Estimation for Zero-Inflated Data

The commonly used method of small area estimation (SAE) under a linear mixed model may not be efficient if data contain substantial proportion of zeros than would be expected under standard model assumptions (hereafter zero-inflated data). The authors discuss the SAE for zero-inflated data under a two-part random effects model that account for excess zeros in the data. Empirical results show that proposed method for SAE works well and produces an efficient set of small area estimates. An application to real survey data from the National Sample Survey Office of India demonstrates the satisfactory performance of the method. The authors describe a parametric bootstrap method to estimate the mean squared error (MSE) of the proposed estimator of small areas. The bootstrap estimates of the MSE are compared to the true MSE in simulation study.     

On the sample redundancy and a test for exponentiality

In this paper we obtain the. sampling properties of a scale-free estimator of "redundancy," an information theoretic measure, which is used by economists and communications engineers. We then propose a new test of exponentiality based upon the sample redun- dancy. This test is asymptotically unbiased against a large class of alternatives, and it performs a t least as well as a recently proposed test with respect to power and asymptotic relative effi- ciency.     

Small area estimation of proportions under a spatial dependent aggregated level random effects model

This paper describes small area estimation (SAE) of proportions under a spatial dependent generalized linear mixed model using aggregated level data. The SAE is also applied to produce reliable district level estimates and mapping of incidence of indebtedness in the State of Uttar Pradesh in India using debt and investment survey data collected by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and the secondary data from the Census. The results show a significant improvement in precision of model-based estimates generated by SAE as compared to direct estimates. The estimates generated by incorporating spatial information are more efficient than the one generated by ignoring this information.     

Communication and diffusion of the iucd: a case study in urban india

In this study the diffusion and adoption framework is used to investigate a family planning innovation. The study indicates the utility of this framework from an analytical point of view both for the researcher to the process by which family planning comes to be adopted, and for the administrator to understand the working of the communications elements of his program.The data indicate that different communications media and informal communications networks are used at different stages of the adoption process. At the awareness stage, messages emanating from the family planning administration make their biggest impact. At the later stages of interest and evaluation, local sources of information become important, and interaction with the clinic staff takes place at high rates.Both husbands and wives are involved in the communications processes, but they have different communication patterns. Both are also involved in the final adoption decision-making processes.