Technology,Gender and Time: A Contribution to the Debate

Using the data collected from research carried out at two Portuguese universities, this article highlights the way university lecturers currently deal with space and time. Their professional activity is not externally subjected to a specific time geometry that defines their working day. Teaching and researching time–spaces are basically task oriented. Furthermore, university lecturers are increasingly requested to perform tasks in very short time periods in order to secure financial support. To a certain extent, this pressure upon their work is facilitated by the use of technology. However, technology also causes a profound reconfiguration of working times and spaces, especially because it allows lecturers to work at any time from anywhere. This not only renders university physical spaces and times virtual, but it also leads to the colonization of several other time–spaces of their social lives. This article analyses the ambivalence and difficulty of managing time–spaces, as described by the lecturers themselves, with the objective of providing a more accurate awareness of the implications of technology on their lives, as well as the hazards of the progressive externalization of academic work, particularly for women.     

Panel data regression for counts

A new panel data model for count data is introduced. We suggest alternative estimators, such as pseudo maximum likelihood and generalized method of moments, of structural and nuisance parameters. In addition, different test statistics of independence and overdispersion are obtained. The small sample performance of the estimators and tests are evaluated in Monte Carlo experiments. The model is applied to the number of days absent in Sweden 1981–1991 for a panel of Swedish male workers.     

Overcoming bias toward same-sex couples: a case study from inside an MFT ethics classroom

This article illustrates a teaching case in which a marriage and family therapy (MFT) trainee learned to develop cultural sensitivity toward same-sex couples despite religious beliefs that put her at risk of discriminating against that population. The case took place during a marriage and family therapy ethics course in the spring of 2003. From two first-person perspectives, the authors illustrate the processes that facilitated the student's change, addressing the class activities, discussions, and pivotal moments of teaching and learning that promoted the student's cultural competency and helped her to resolve this personal and ethical dilemma. A set of classroom techniques (creating a safe environment, using a stance of curiosity, finding alternative learning formats, extrapolating ideas from multiple sources, and capitalizing on students' experiences outside of class) used in the case are detailed throughout the article.     

“Economic Theory’s Stance On No-Fault Divorce”

This article explores key insights that economic theory can shed on the issue of no-fault divorce in the United States, addressing modifications in the incentive structure of individuals that resulted from the legislative reforms of the 1970s. After stressing the importance of correctly interpreting and classifying divorce laws, this work investigates the contributions of the theory of property rights, the contributions of game theory and intra-household bargaining, and the contributions of general equilibrium analysis in our understanding of how divorce laws work and what their impact is. By doing so, this exposé analyzes the theoretical consequences of no-fault divorce on the decision whether to get married or divorced, on the characteristics of spouses and divorcees, on divorce rates, and on marital-specific and non marital-specific investments.     

Why females live longer than males: control of longevity by sex hormones

Females live longer than males in many species, including humans. We have traced a possible explanation for this phenomenon to the beneficial action of estrogens, which bind to estrogen receptors and increase the expression of longevity-associated genes, including those encoding the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. As a result, mitochondria from females produce fewer reactive oxygen species than those from males. Administering estrogens has serious drawbacks, however--they are feminizing (and thus cannot be administered to males) and may increase the incidence of serious diseases such as uterine cancer in postmenopausal women. Phytoestrogens, which are present in soy or wine, may have some of the favorable effects of estrogens without their undesirable effects. Study of gender differences in longevity may help us to understand the basic processes of aging and to devise practical strategies to increase the longevity of both females and males.     

Slack free MEA and RDM with comprehensive efficiency measures

This paper extends two directional distance function models, the Multi-directional Efficiency Analysis (MEA) Model and the Range Directional Model (RDM), in order to account for any type of technical inefficiency, i.e. both directional and non-directional inefficiencies. We first focus on the variable returns to scale (VRS) case, because both VRS-MEA and RDM are translation invariant models, which mean that both models are able to deal with negative data. Our main result is the definition of a new comprehensive efficiency measure which is units invariant and translation invariant and covers both models. Secondly, we introduce the RDM model under constant returns to scale (CRS) together with a new comprehensive efficiency measure.     

Organizing the Global Value Chain

We develop a property‐rights model of the firm in which production entails a continuum of uniquely sequenced stages. In each stage, a final‐good producer contracts with a distinct supplier for the procurement of a customized stage‐specific component. Our model yields a sharp characterization for the optimal allocation of ownership rights along the value chain. We show that the incentive to integrate suppliers varies systematically with the relative position (upstream versus downstream) at which the supplier enters the production line. Furthermore, the nature of the relationship between integration and “downstreamness” depends crucially on the elasticity of demand faced by the final‐good producer. Our model readily accommodates various sources of asymmetry across final‐good producers and across suppliers within a production line, and we show how it can be taken to the data with international trade statistics. Combining data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Related Party Trade database and estimates of U.S. import demand elasticities from Broda and Weinstein (2006), we find empirical evidence broadly supportive of our key predictions. In the process, we develop two novel measures of the average position of an industry in the value chain, which we construct using U.S. Input–Output Tables.     

Shorter hours wanted? A systematic review of working-time preferences and outcomes

Changes in working time have important economic, social and environmental implications. However, research on workers' preferences is highly fragmented across disciplines and journals. To overcome this, the present article provides a systematic review of the literature, analysing 173 studies. The study shows that working-time outcomes and mismatches are mostly studied in a small group of OECD countries, using survey data and statistical methods. The most clear and consistent results are about gender, care responsibilities and current working hours. Among professions, only the medical workforce receives substantial attention. Norms and preference formation are poorly understood, and more qualitative research is essential to understand how working-time reductions could spread.     

A generalization of Jeffreys' rule for non regular models

ABSTRACT

We propose a generalization of the one-dimensional Jeffreys' rule in order to obtain non informative prior distributions for non regular models, taking into account the comments made by Jeffreys in his article of 1946. These non informatives are parameterization invariant and the Bayesian intervals have good behavior in frequentist inference. In some important cases, we can generate non informative distributions for multi-parameter models with non regular parameters. In non regular models, the Bayesian method offers a satisfactory solution to the inference problem and also avoids the problem that the maximum likelihood estimator has with these models. Finally, we obtain non informative distributions in job-search and deterministic frontier production homogenous models.