A POLITICAL ECONOMY THEORY OF FISCAL POLICY AND UNEMPLOYMENT

This paper presents a political economy theory of fiscal policy and unemployment. The underlying economy is one in which unemployment can arise but can be mitigated by tax cuts and increases in public production. Such policies are fiscally costly, but can be financed by issuing government debt. Policy decisions are made by a legislature consisting of representatives from different political districts. With the available policies, it is possible for the government to completely eliminate unemployment in the long run. However, with political decision making, the economy always has unemployment. Unemployment is higher when the private sector experiences negative shocks. When these shocks occur, the government employs debt‐financed fiscal stimulus plans which involve both tax cuts and public production increases. When the private sector is healthy, the government contracts debt until it reaches a floor level. Unemployment levels are weakly increasing in the economy's debt level, strictly so when the private sector experiences negative shocks. Conditional on the level of workers employed, the mix of public and private output is distorted.     

Leadership as social identity management: Introducing the Identity Leadership Inventory (ILI) to assess and validate a four-dimensional model

Although nearly two decades of research have provided support for the social identity approach to leadership, most previous work has focused on leaders' identity prototypicality while neglecting the assessment of other equally important dimensions of social identity management. However, recent theoretical developments have argued that in order to mobilize and direct followers' energies, leaders need not only to ‘be one of us’ (identity prototypicality), but also to ‘do it for us’ (identity advancement), to ‘craft a sense of us’ (identity entrepreneurship), and to ‘embed a sense of us’ (identity impresarioship). In the present research we develop and validate an Identity Leadership Inventory (ILI) that assesses these dimensions in different contexts and with diverse samples from the US, China, and Belgium. Study 1 demonstrates that the scale has content validity such that the items meaningfully differentiate between the four dimensions. Studies 2, 3, and 4 provide evidence for the scale's construct validity (distinguishing between dimensions), discriminant validity (distinguishing identity leadership from authentic leadership, leaders' charisma, and perceived leader quality), and criterion validity (relating the ILI to key leadership outcomes). We conclude that by assessing multiple facets of leaders' social identity management the ILI has significant utility for both theory and practice.     

A guideline for designing experimental studies in marketing research and a critical discussion of selected problem areas

Experiments are a well-suited method for empirically studying cause-and-effect relationships. This article provides a guideline for designing experiments. We develop an integrative framework that illustrates the key decisions in designing experimental studies. With this framework, we discuss important problem areas in the design of experiments (e.g., determining the experimental setting, choosing participants). Finally, for the different decisions and identified problem areas, we derive concrete recommendations for designing experimental studies in marketing research.     

Counter-knowledge and realised absorptive capacity

In the following paper we investigate the concept of counter-knowledge and how its effects may be mitigated in an organisational context. Counter-knowledge may be acquired unwittingly from unreliable or inaccurate sources such as gossip, lies, exaggeration and partial truths. We consider that if counter-knowledge is present then specific actions are required to stimulate realised absorptive capacity and, hence, provide for the creation and assimilation of new knowledge and new knowledge structures. Thus, in this paper, we focus on intentional unlearning as a method to counteract the problem of counter-knowledge. We have analysed the relationships between an unlearning context and counter-knowledge using an empirical study of 164 Spanish hospitality companies in order to identify whether the impact of unlearning on RACAP can be strength. A model is tested in which counter-knowledge is simultaneously a hindrance and a challenge stressor. Our results confirm that counter-knowledge is a variable that, when controlled, has the effect of strengthening the relationship between unlearning and RACAP. However, when left uncontrolled, the relationship between unlearning and RACAP is weaker than it otherwise would be.     

Emergency Department Staff Planning to Improve Patient Care and Reduce Costs

In the face of high staffing costs, uncertain patient arrivals, and patients unsatisfied with long wait times, staffing of medical emergency departments (EDs) is a vexing problem. Using empirical data collected from three active EDs, we develop an analytic model to provide an effective staffing plan for EDs. Patient demand is aggregated into discrete time buckets and used to model the stochastic distribution of patient demand within these buckets, which considerably improves model tractability. This model is capable of scheduling providers with different skill profiles who work either individually or in teams, and with patients of varying acuity levels. We show how our model helps to balance staffing costs and patient service levels, and how it facilitates examination of important ED staffing policies.     

Simulation of the interactions of predatoryTyphlodromus mites with the European red mite,Panonychus ulmi (Koch)

Summary Interactions ofTyphlodromus mites and their prey, the European red mite, in orchard settings were examined through computer simulation. In particular, the consequences of very slow dispersal by the predators, compared with the weather-dependent higher rates of prey dispersal, were elucidated. In simulations of the interactions of the predator and its prey, both dispersal and temperature strongly affected the available supply of juvenile prey, and thus could determine whether the predators on an individual tree survived or perished.     

Avowed happiness as an overall assessment of the quality of life

The concept of happiness has been mistakenly identified with feelings of pleasure in recent studies of quality of life. This paper clarifies the meaning of the concept ‘happiness’ and establishes grounds for its proper use in scholarly research. In addition, an empirical test of four major accounts of happiness derived from a careful review of philosophical and empirical literature is undertaken to propose a theory of happiness. The theory suggests that happiness is primarily a product of the positive assessments of life situations and favorable comparisons of these life situations with those of others and in the past. The various personal characteristics of an individual and the resources in his command, such as sex, age and income, influence happiness mostly through their effects upon the two psychological processess of assessment and comparison.     

Time diaries and time data for extension of economic accounts

Economic accounts provide a statistical picture of the economic system. The present Canadian accounts include all production that enters the market place. Additionally, the output of all enterprises, including farms, is included even though this output is not sold. Thus, the measure of output of such items does not vary according to whether such output is sold or consumed by the producer. Government activity is also included, valued at cost. The present accounts do not include household production consumed by the producing household.Two major criticisms, not unrelated, have been leveled at the existing structure of the accounts; namely, that they do not provide an adequate measuring stick for all economic activity, and that they do not provide an adequate measure of economic welfare. As a result of these criticisms there is significant agreement that a number of changes to the accounts would be desirable and perhaps more practical than had previously been contemplated.     

Regression analysis of regional quality of life

A regression procedure, using survey data on individual's stated preferences for communities, is used to calculate an index of ‘quality of life’. The survey instrument is extraordinarily simple, asking only for limited information about the subset of communities most well-known to respondents. The index is based upon an assumption about the distribution of the errors individuals make in perceiving the true, underlying index. The index is computed from dummy variables and is shown to have nice properties, including invariance to data ordering and (with full information) constant and equal standard errors associated with relative interplace index values. The index is estimated for a case study of 52 Pennsylvania counties.     

Book Review: Eugenics: A Reassessment. Richard Lynn. Westport,CT: Praeger, 2001, 367 pp. (hardbound), $85.00

Population and Environment -