The political influence of unions and corporations on COPE votes in the U.S. senate, 1979–1988

The political influence of unions and corporations is examined by analyzing Senate roll-call votes on COPE-identified legislation for the period 1979–1988. Union PAC contributions and union membership both have significant positive effects on three different types of COPE legislation: Narrow Union, General Labor, and Non-Labor. In addition, corporate PAC contributions to senators’ opponents reduce their pro-union voting behavior on Narrow Union and General Labor bills. There is no evidence that the political influence of unions in the U.S. is declining.     

Parents of young gamblers

A study of gambling among juveniles in the United Kingdom reveals that their favorite form of gambling, both in terms of percent participating and amounts spent, is playing Amusement with Prizes (i.e., slot) machines. These machines are widely, freely, and legally available to persons of all ages at amusement arcades, youth clubs, cafes, sports centers, bus and railroad stations, and other public settings. Before 1980, machine gamblers were rare at Gamblers Anonymous meetings. However, since that time, their numbers have increased rapidly, currently representing about half of all new members. Of these, 50% are described as children with the remainder in their late teens or early 20s.The balance of the paper describes the difficulties faced by the parents of these youth and the recent development and objectives of a unique self-help group called Parents of Young Gamblers.Editor's Note: Since this writing, P.O.Y.G. has channeled their energies into lobbying the Home Office to take action that would recognize slot machines as gambling devices, remove them from their present easy access to children, and restrict their availability to licensed Game Clubs where only registered adult members may play. The Home Office recently has agreed to place this matter under consideration.The Reverend Gordon E. Moody, M.B.E., was Secretary of the late (British) Churches' Council on Gambling. In the United Kingdom he is Honorary Founder-Patron of Gamblers Anonymous and Chairman of the Gamblers Anonymous General Services Board. He is Founder of Gordon House (a hostel for single, homeless compulsive gamblers) and Honorary Life Member of the Society for the Study of Gambling.     

The validity and use of the family-of-origin scale

This study explores the Family-of-Origin Scale (FOS) with regard to its validity and potential use. Subjects included 100 adults currently in psychotherapy, 100 who were not, 32 who previously had sought treatment, and 41 college students. Between-group comparisons, correlations with both the 16PF and a scale of authoritarianism, factor analyses of both the patient and nonpatient FOS responses, and a review of patient feedback revealed several significant results. The FOS differentiates between patients and nonpatients, but it measures only one general factor and delivers little information. Therefore, it has little value as a research instrument, but it may be a useful adjunct to psychotherapy in individual cases.     

A challenging marketplace for venture capital

This article looks at the contemporary situation facing the U.K. venture capital industry as it enters its second decade of activity. After 10 years of substantial growth, the industry is starting to mature. Accordingly, in an increasingly competitive marketplace, U.K. venture capital firms are having to address seriously strategic issues of product and market choice in order to meet the high investment expectations placed on them by their funders. There is evidence that the industry is already concentrating its finances into a small number of larger firms. It is likely that these better resourceed firms will have material advantages in initiating both product and market innovations. However, this concentration is unlikely to improve the supply of venture capital funds to start-up and other early stage, high risk ventures.     

The future of the bicycle —Its problems and its potentialities

In this article the author argues that the bicycle will undoubtedly be improved upon, but it is not likely to be supplanted. It will continue to provide the most energy-efficient short-distance form of individual ground transportation.Whether or not its share of the number of person-trips made in urban areas will increase dramatically depends partly on the improvements which are made to the vehicle, partly on the increasing costs and restraints on motor-vehicle use, but to a greater extent on the success with which planners solve the highway-intersection problem.     

Korean residents in Japan during the second world war: Official reports on rumours and public feeling

The article identifies some of the ways in which the ‘Victorian Gypsy’ was constructed by a group of authors known as Gypsy lorists, and develops reading strategies that highlight the politics of their writing, in particular using Jacques Derrida's theorisation of the archive. For the Victorians, it seemed that the Gypsy way of life would soon die out. The Gypsies' apparently imminent disappearance marks their world as delicate, natural and formerly pure. However, the structure of the archive means that the lorists' attempts to preserve their version of Gypsy culture are threatened from within: they hasten the forgetting of that which they would conserve and archivally silence Gypsy voices with their own. Claims of extinction have evidently been disproved, however, and new archives successfully augment what the lorists considered to be the last word on Gypsies in Britain.     

COOPERATION IN PUBLIC GOODS GAMES PREDICTS BEHAVIOR IN INCENTIVE-MATCHED BINARY DILEMMAS: EVIDENCE FOR STABLE PROSOCIALITY

We report the results of an experiment in which subjects completed second mover public goods game tasks and second mover binary social dilemma tasks. Each task was completed under three different incentive structures which were matched across tasks. The use of nonlinear incentive structures, along with a novel categorization method, allowed us to identify behavioral subtypes that cannot be distinguished using conventional linear incentive structures. We also examined how well behavior could be predicted across tasks. Subjects' average conditional cooperation levels showed significant cross-task predictability and stability. However, almost a third of responses (28%) demonstrated unambiguous preference reversals across tasks. We argue that prosociality is best described as an individual-level trait, similar to risk aversion in choice under risk. (JEL C7, C91, H41)     

Teaching Note—Integrating Theory and Research Methods in a First-Year Doctoral Sequence or Program

This teaching note describes an innovative process in which faculty members worked collaboratively to create an integrated three-course sequence of requisite course content in a PhD program, developed complementary assignments, and coordinated a classroom experience that led to the creation of an individualized area statement and eventual integrated literature review. Lessons learned from this experience are discussed.