Stepfamily fertility in contemporary Sweden: The impact of childbearing before the current union

We focus on the fertility of Swedish men and women who lived in a consensual or marital union in the 1970s and 1980s, and where at least one of the partners had children before they entered that union. Couples without any children before the current union were included for contrast. We find clear evidence that couples wanted a shared biological child, essentially regardless of how many children (if any) they had before their current union. The shared child seems to have served to demonstrate commitment to the union, as did its conversion into a formal marriage. We have not found much support for the hypothesis that our respondents sought to enter parenthood to attain adult status. A second birth might have been valued because it provided a sibling for the first child -- a half-sibling acting as a substitute for a full sibling -- but our evidence for such eåects is contradictory. Our analysis makes it very clear that parity progression depends on whose parity we consider.     

Knowledge-based reactive scheduling

Reactive scheduling has emerged as a new concept in production planning and control over the past few years. It is attracting the increased interest of both academic and industrial researchers in developing available knowledge-based techniques in real-time shop floor control applications and providing advanced tools for subsequent industrial applications. In this paper, we provide an overview of research results in the domain of knowledge-based reactive scheduling and some related industrial applications. Since reactive scheduling is a new and not well-defined paradigm, we start by examining some definitions of the problem given by different practitioners in the field. We then examine alternative knowledge-representation technologies and reasoning approaches which, because of t heir flexibility and reactive capability, are often applied in real-time decision-making environments. This is followed by a review of some reported industrial applications, and a summary on major areas for further research, which gives a picture of the width of the gap between the results of current research and their application in practice. Finally, some major trends apparent in the domain are outlined.     

PAYOFF DOMINANCE VS. COGNITIVE TRANSPARENCY IN DECISION MAKING

This paper reports on three laboratory experiments designed to investigate the roles of decision costs and rewards on the accuracy of economic decisions. The experimental vehicle is a purchase decision employing the Becker-DeGroot-Marshak (BDM) mechanism. The first experiment verifies the incentive-compatibility of the BDM in a pure induced-value setting; the second tests its performance under different information regimes and payoff schedules; the third addresses the role of feedback information. Steep payoff schedules are found to be necessary to optimizing behavior only in cases where subjects must search out an optimal strategy rather than being able to deduce it from information provided. (JEL C91, D83)     

Ambiguities in Decision Making: Social Work's Response to 'Glue-Sniffing' in Scotland

Correspondence to Dr Elizabeth Jagger, Social Science Department, Park Campus, 1, Park Drive, Caledonian University, Glasgow G3 6LP Summary This paper examines how social workers make decisions aboutwhich cases of ‘glue-sniffing’ require intervention,in the context of a government policy which construes the problemprimarily within the arena of parental responsibility. Usingdata from interviews with social workers and research on ‘glue-sniffing’,it shows that social workers were frequently reluctant to dealwith cases. It explains that this has to do with factors suchas organizational priorities, lack of resources and, in particular,the ambiguous status of ‘glue-sniffing’ within theirown professional discourse. It concludes that the complex interplayof these factors means that government policy is not translatedinto practice in any simplistic manner.     

On the Relevance of Informal Social Networks to Social Work Intervention

Summary Taking as its starting point the Barclay Committee's definitionof community in terms of local informal networks, this papersets out to cull some relevant material from the literatureof social networks and to use it to demonstrate the appropriatenessof orienting social work practice to the community. In suggestingan emphasis on supporting rather than supplanting existing informalcaring systems, it is made dear that, if motivated by parsimonysuch an approach risks irresponsibly increasing distress andsocial costs.     

COLLEGE FOOTBALL TELECASTS: WHERE ARE THEY GOING?

Observed Nielsen ratings for college football games show a decreasing trend in the number of viewers in recent years. As the market for these telecasts becomes more competitive, both buyers and sellers should adjust rights fees for quality differences. A model of full income allocation is proposed to isolate pure quality changes from true changes. Using a sample of weekly national collegiate telecasts the optimum optimorum is determined from the set of generalized Box-Cox forms. Regional data provide an application of the model. Quality and hedonic indexes show not only a deterioration in quality over time but also a downward trend in demand for quality-adjusted units. Implications for alternative television policies are discussed.     

THE FAILURE OF GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED CARTELS AND DEVELOPMENT OF FEDERAL FARM POLICY

While economists recognize that private cartels are difficult to sustain, they are too sanguine about the prospects for government-assisted cartels. Although the state's coercive power would seem to make it an effective enforcer of cartel agreements, the political costs of enforcement can be high of segments of the industry resist. The government's solution lies in alternative strategies for raising prices. Examining government efforts to organize an orange cartel in the 1930s, we find that farmers' opposition to output cuts and quota assignments because of their distributional effects forced a policy she to purchases of "excess stocks."     

An Examination of Socially Responsible Firms' Board Structure

This study investigates the structure of the board of directors at socially responsible (SR) firms. Using a sample of 394 SR firms and comparing these to a matched sample of firms, I find that SR firms have characteristics associated with effective board structures. For instance, SR firms have more outsiders and women directors, and less instance of CEO/Chairman duality than non-SR firms. Results are similar when using a continuous measure of social responsibility. Also, I document that SR firms have higher Governance Index scores than the matched sample. Overall, this suggests that a reason for shareholders' appeal in socially responsible firms and mutual funds may be because these firms have stronger governance mechanisms in place than do non-SR firms. In addition, it appears that effective governance structures are more likely to exist in firms that focus on a broad range of stakeholders, rather than in firms that have a strict focus on shareholder wealth maximization.