The volatility of the socially optimal level of investment

In this paper, an annual series for the socially optimal level of investment from 1960–1961 to 1993–1994 for Australia is derived from a vintage production function and compared to the actual series for investment over the same period. The vintage production function can be expected to yield a smoother socially optimal investment series than that derived from a nonvintage, homogenous capital production function. Even so, the resulting series for socially optimal investment is much more volatile than the series for actual investment. Several alternative assumptions are tried in an attempt to further smooth the socially optimal investment series. These include smoothing the assumed values of the exogenous variables, modelling adjustment costs and delivery lags, and changing the form of the production function. While these approaches do succeed in smoothing the investment series, in order for the socially optimal investment series to be as smooth as the actual series the assumed values of the parameters must be quite unrealistic. In the conclusion, we suggest that, in the future research on the socially optimal level of investment, the role of liquidity constraints and of irreversible investment should be investigated.     

What Future for Green Infrastructure Planning? Evaluating the Changing Environment for Green Infrastructure Planning Following the Revocation of Regional Planning Policy in England

ABSTRACT

The revocation of the regional tier of planning by the UK Coalition Government in 2010 removed the established framework of strategic planning in England. Using a case study of green infrastructure (GI), this paper examines whether revocation has negatively impacted the development of environmental, and specifically GI policies and practice. It questions if changing government policy narratives have hindered advocacy and subsequently the delivery of GI and the extent to which it has been able to position itself as a mainstream approach in planning. Using the development of the RSS in England, and the North-East and East of England sub-regional GI strategies (areas of significant policy development), as case studies, the paper presents an ex-ante evaluation prior to revocation of the evolution of GI policy at a regional scale, alongside an ex-post assessment (2011–2015) of its continued growth within sub-regional policies. The paper concludes that whilst RSSs provided a promotional forum, that revocation has not negatively impacted upon GI development, as its advocates have facilitated a supportive policy-implementation environment which has led to the development of more integrated approaches in planning praxis.     

Exploring the dynamics of racial food security gaps in the United States

Review of Economics of the Household - Household-level food insecurity is one of the largest public health concerns facing millions of people in the United States today. Although recent work has...     

Effects of a web-based pre-enrollment alcohol brief motivational intervention on college student retention and alcohol-related violations

Objective: To determine whether completing a pre-enrollment Web-based alcohol brief motivational intervention (BMI) increased student retention and reduced student alcohol-related violations. Participants: Fall 2011 (3,364) and Fall 2012 (3,111) entering cohorts of all first-year students at a midwestern state university. Method: Students completing the brief intervention (BI) were compared to students not completing the BI. Retention was tracked for four years for the 2011 cohort and three years for the 2012 cohort. Campus and community alcohol violations were tracked for two academic years following enrollment. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and Cox regression were used to test retention survival. Logistic regression was used to test campus and community violations. Results: Students in both cohorts who completed the BI had significantly higher retention and significantly fewer alcohol-related violations than noncompleters. Conclusions: Population-level Web-based BIs help prevent student dropout and decrease alcohol-related violations, with impacts extending multiple years. Web-based BI is an efficacious population-level prevention tool.     

Mission,evidence and outcomes: Building a future for social work

Abstract

Australian social work entered the twenty-first century facing major challenges to its mission, identity and future viability. Thus, the journal's initiative in promoting a serious discussion on the future of social work is a welcome development. Elsewhere I have elaborated many of the same concerns posed by MacDonald and Jones (O'Connor 1997; O'Connor 2000; O'Connor, Warburton and Smyth 2000) and have no fundamental disagreements with the issues raised with my colleagues. Hence in this brief response I argue that social work must respond to the current challenges by reasserting and re-expressing its mission; and a precondition for successfully reengaging with mission is to actively engage with a knowledge or evidence based approach to education, practice, policy and interventions.     

Nursing a Grievance? The Role of Healthcare Assistants in a Modernized National Health Service

The complex division of labour in health care has encouraged the analysis of occupational boundary disputes between separate professions. Less attention has been directed at the divisions in individual occupational groups but in a context of intensive health sector workforce reform there has been a growth in lower status occupations. This article extends debate about lower status occupations by exploring the manner in which nurses and healthcare assistants engage in boundary work to advance their occupational interests. The UK government's modernization agenda has encouraged a more prominent role for healthcare assistants and the findings confirm that this agenda has reinforced occupational boundary disputes between nurses and healthcare assistants. Tensions between nurses and healthcare assistants took particular forms influenced by gendered notions of caring work. The consequences of these boundary management strategies in terms of work undertaken, pay and status are also explored.     

Frame attunement and footing in the organisation of talk radio openings

Conversation analysts have argued that institutions do not define the kind of talk produced within them; rather participants' ways of designing their talk actually constructs the 'institutionality' of such settings. Previous research has focused mainly on sequential considerations. This article extends that research by drawing on Goffmanian ideas of frame attunement and footing. Focusing on opening sequences on a talk radio show, I trace the incremental process by which mutually ratified participation in an institutional encounter is accomplished as a temporally unfolding, conjoint activity. The first three seconds of each call see the participants embodying a series of footings as they come to establish their relevant institutional identities.