COMMERCIAL BANKS AND THE FEDERAL FUNDS MARKET: RECENT DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLICATIONS

Several important aspects of the growth of the Federal funds market and non-bank participation in this market are examined. It is shown that the recent growth and development that has taken place has significantly influenced bank behavior and the process of bank credit determination. Additionally, it is shown that non-banks' use of Federal funds sales as an integral part of their cash management affects money demand. The implications of these recent developments in the Federal funds market for policymakers are examined.     

Components of change in the number of female family heads ages 15 to 44, an update and reanalysis: United States, 1940 to 1983

We review the literature dealing with the various components of change in the number of female family heads and conclude that P. Cutright's (1974, Journal of Marriage and the Family 36, 714–721) four components of change in the number of ever-married female family heads can be usefully applied to a reanalysis of decade-by-decade changes in this quantity among white and nonwhite women ages 15–44, from 1940 through 1980. However, we substantially revise and update Cutright's (1974) original data. Our findings include the fact that while the relative importance of the various components of increases in ever-married female family headship vary from decade to decade, overall trends are fairly similar for white and nonwhite women. Moreover, the rapid rise between 1970 and 1980 in the number of white and nonwhite female family heads among the never-married (single) continued through the 1980 to 1983 period. A decade ago, Cutright (1974) predicted that a change in the number of female family heads from 1970 on would reflect little more than changes in the numbers of ever- and never-married women ages 15–44. We discuss this inaccurate prediction and conclude that wishful thinking is a poor guide in forecasting the future.     

Against culture versus structure

Contemporary sociology is saddled with a culture–structure binary but the fault for its existence lies mostly with cultural sociology. This article is devoted to four related assertions: (1) There has never been any agreement on the definition of culture, making cultural sociology a field unable to define its central concept. (2) The binary ignores the fact that the proper explanation of social behaviour requires both structure and culture; culture cannot be its own cause. (3) Cultural sociology is soft and sentimental, avoiding conflict as well as politics. (4) It neglects policy and policy-relevant research even more than the rest of sociology. Structural sociology has some shortcomings as well, however, and the culture–structure binary should be abandoned.     

Towards Program Evaluation for Practitioner Learning: Human Service Practitioners' Perceptions of Evaluation

Abstract

While human service practice improvement is acknowledged as an important outcome of program evaluation, much evaluation is narrowly focused on accountability requirements. This type of evaluation often has limited use and relevance to human service practitioners. In exploring forms of evaluation that do have practice relevance, this article presents the experiences and perceptions of human service practitioners subject to evaluations that set out to foster learning. Across the cases participants expressed concerns about data quality and credibility, the relevance of evaluation data to the program context, the invasiveness of the evaluation, management of the process (particularly limited consultation with practitioners), and the lack of effective dissemination. These cases illustrate the challenges for evaluation to be useful to practice, and to foster meaningful improvements to services.     

The validity of the occupational stress indicator

During the last two decades two potent groups of predictors for work-related musculoskeletal problems have been identified: physical work load and poor psychosocial working conditions. However, little is known about their combined effects. In this study the buffering effect of control at work with respect to the negative effects of psychological demands and physical work load on musculoskeletal problems is examined. All study variables were sampled from 431 people working in geriatric nursing homes in Germany by means of questionnaires. Main effects and interactions were tested with multiple regression analysis. The results showed that control buffered the effects of high psychological demands, but not of high physical work load; the buffering effect of control was observed only when physical work load was low. The combined effects of demands and physical work load were over-additive. Thus, the power of different predictors for musculoskeletal symptoms depended on the level of other predictors. This suggests that the efficiency of certain strategies for the prevention of musculoskeletal problems is likely to depend on the level of risk factors, with different strategies being appropriate for different levels of risk.     

Cases for the nugget in modeling computer experiments

Most surrogate models for computer experiments are interpolators, and the most common interpolator is a Gaussian process (GP) that deliberately omits a small-scale (measurement) error term called the nugget. The explanation is that computer experiments are, by definition, “deterministic”, and so there is no measurement error. We think this is too narrow a focus for a computer experiment and a statistically inefficient way to model them. We show that estimating a (non-zero) nugget can lead to surrogate models with better statistical properties, such as predictive accuracy and coverage, in a variety of common situations.