Gender Differences in Voting for Female Candidates: Evidence from the 1982 Election

This paper analyzes voting in five 1982 elections in which womenran as major party candidates for high-level offices: Governorin Vermont and Iowa; and U.S. Senator in Missouri, New York,and New Jersey. Results indicate that the sex of the candidategenerally has little impact on voting and that solid women candidatescan attract cross-over votes, while weaker ones can lose them.The implications of these results are discussed in the concludingsection.     

A Cognitive Approach to the Treatment of Offenders

Summary This is an initial attempt to apply the principles of cognitivetherapy to the treatment of adult offenders. The paper includesa brief presentation of the basic theory of cognitive therapyand a discussion of its relevance to criminal behaviour. Itthen describes a group of treatment techniques, with examplesof their application. The interventions fall into three generalcategories: cognitive restructing and impulse control, problem-solvingand social-skills training, and cognitive stimulation. Someof the techniques are borrowed, with adaptations. from the literatureof cognitive therapy and some are presented here for the firsttime.     

From Values of Rights in Social Work: Some Issues in Practice Development and Research

Prof. E. Sainsbury. Dept. of Sociological Studies. University of Sheffield. Sheffield S10 2TN. Summary The following is a discussion paper prepared for a researchteam engaged in a project funded by the Joseph Rowntree MemorialTrust. The problems it sought to address concerned how the teamcould derive a clear statement of clients rights from broadformulations of professional values, and the extent to whichresearch can measure the realization of these rights in socialwork practice. It was found in the research that the practical wisdom (commonsense) of social workers is frequently assumed to be based onprofessionally agreed values, and that—in the pressuresof daily work —values are seldom articulated in ways whichchallenge the procedures and solutions dictated by common sense.Thus, an initial purpose in preparing the paper was to commenton ways in which matters concerned with values become obscuredin practice, and to find ways of linking together values. rightsand practice more strongly. In offering this paper for widerpublication. the research team hopes that it will stimulatecomments which will assist their thinking.     

FAMILY LIFE AND AMERICAN POLITICS: THE "MARRIAGE GAP" RECONSIDERED

In recent years, several writers have identified marital statusas a potentially important line of political cleavage, observingthat singles are more likely to vote Democratic than marriedvoters are. Changes in both the structure of American familiesand in the salience of "family politics" in the policy arenasuggest increased attention to the political consequences ofmarital status and family life-style. This paper contributesto advancing theory concerning the relationship between familylife and politics, and empirically evaluating several competinghypotheses concerning the so-called marriage gap in the 1972through 1988 presidential elections.     

MEASURING EXTREME RESPONSE STYLE

Research on extreme response style (ERS) in rating scale responseshas been characterized by conflicting findings and little agreementover how to assemble and validate ERS measures. This articleproposes that, when ERS is defined as a proportion of extremeresponses, an ERS measure will be more accurate if the itemsare uncorrelated and have equal extreme response proportions.Furthermore, appropriate stochastic models should be used toassess the internal reliability and convergent validity of thesemeasures. An ERS measure is created and validated with thismethod, using items from a survey administered in 1975 and 1987to large samples of U.S. adults serving on a consumer panel.We find that ERS is stable over a lengthy survey compared toa benchmark stability for a "perfect" measure. Furthermore,the distribution of ERS over this population is stable overtime. Respondents' ERS is related to their age, education level,and household income but not to their gender.     

Estimators Based on Data‐Driven Generalized Weighted Cramér‐von Mises Distances under Censoring – with Applications to Mixture Models

Abstract. Estimators based on data‐driven generalized weighted Cramér‐von Mises distances are defined for data that are subject to a possible right censorship. The function used to measure the distance between the data, summarized by the Kaplan–Meier estimator, and the target model is allowed to depend on the sample size and, for example, on the number of censored items. It is shown that the estimators are consistent and asymptotically multivariate normal for every p dimensional parametric family fulfiling some mild regularity conditions. The results are applied to finite mixtures. Simulation results for finite mixtures indicate that the estimators are useful for moderate sample sizes. Furthermore, the simulation results reveal the usefulness of sample size dependent and censoring sensitive distance functions for moderate sample sizes. Moreover, the estimators for the mixing proportion seem to be fairly robust against a ‘symmetric’ contamination model even when censoring is present.     

SIGNAL EXTRACTION AND RATIONAL INATTENTION

In this paper we examine the implications of two theories of informational frictions, signal extraction (SE) and rational inattention (RI), for optimal decisions and economic dynamics within the linear‐quadratic‐Gaussian (LQG) setting. We first show that if the variance of the noise and channel capacity (or marginal information cost) is fixed exogenously in the SE and RI problems, respectively, the two environments lead to different policy and equilibrium asset pricing implications. Second, we find that if the signal‐to‐noise ratio and capacity in the SE and RI problems are fixed, respectively, the two theories generate the same policy implications in the univariate case, but different policy implications in the multivariate case. We also show that our results do not depend on the presence of correlation between fundamental and noise shocks. We then discuss the applications to macroeconomic models of permanent income and price‐setting. (JEL C61, D81, E21)     

The boundaries of transnationalism: the case of assisted voluntary return migrants

Few studies on transnationalism have focused on migrants who return to their country of origin with insufficient resources and limited mobility. This study sheds light on the transnational connections of those who went back to Georgia and Armenia from Belgium on a voluntary assisted return and reintegration programme. Using Boccagni's (2012) analytical framework, we reveal the returnees' interpersonal, institutional and symbolic transnational ties. Although these ties were often limited and had little effect on their daily lives, and although the migrants' desire to participate in the transnational field rarely matched their ability to do so, they nonetheless attached great value to them symbolically and emotionally. Our findings question current conceptualizations of transnationalism and the focus on the home country as the sole context in which transnational ties should have an impact. We believe that there is a need to pay greater attention to the subjective and symbolic dimensions of the return–transnationalism field, including the relationship between integration and return migration policies.     

Transnational migrant entrepreneurship,gender and family business

Despite increased academic attention paid to migration flows in Europe, the gendered nature of transnational migrant entrepreneurial journeys within the context of a family business remains under‐researched. We address this gap by investigating how transnational spaces allow women to challenge dominant ideas about their roles, and to claim legitimacy by opening branches of their family business abroad. With extensive longitudinal evidence collected over a seven‐year period, we showcase four biographical narratives of women operating transnational family businesses in the UK that had originated in Eastern Europe. Adopting this novel longitudinal approach, we provide insights into how these transnational migrant women entrepreneurs exercise individual agency to overcome structural constraints by developing strategies that prioritize their own business aspirations without fully sacrificing their family ties.