Urban versus Rural: Fertility Decline in the Cities and Rural Districts of Prussia, 1875 to 1910

Marital fertility in 54 Prussian cities and 407 Prussian Kreise (administrative areas) is analyzed using unusually rich and detailed socioeconomic and demographic data from eight quinquennial census between 1875 and 1910. Pooled cross-section time series methods are used to examine influences on marital fertility level and on marital fertility decline, focusing particularly on fertility differences according to level of urbanization. Increases in female labour force participation rate and income, the growth of financial services and communications, improvement in education, and reduction in infant mortality account for most of the marital fertility decline in 19th century Prussia. In 1875, rural and urban fertility were similar but by 1910, urban fertility was far lower than rural in part because the values of some of these variables changed more rapidly in the cities, and in part because some of these variables had stronger effects in urban settings.     

How Organizational Cognitive Neuroscience Can Deepen Understanding of Managerial Decision‐making: A Review of the Recent Literature and Future Directions

There is growing interest in exploring the potential links between human biology and management and organization studies, which is bringing greater attention to bear on the place of mental processes in explaining human behaviour and effectiveness. The authors define this new field as organizational cognitive neuroscience (OCN), which is in the exploratory phase of its emergence and diffusion. It is clear that there are methodological debates and issues associated with OCN research, and the aim of this paper is to illuminate these concerns, and provide a roadmap for rigorous and relevant future work in the area. To this end, the current reach of OCN is investigated by the systematic review methodology, revealing three clusters of activity, covering the fields of economics, marketing and organizational behaviour. Among these clusters, organizational behaviour seems to be an outlier, owing to its far greater variety of empirical work, which the authors argue is largely a result of the plurality of research methods that have taken root within this field. Nevertheless, all three clusters contribute to a greater understanding of the biological mechanisms that mediate choice and decision‐making. The paper concludes that OCN research has already provided important insights regarding the boundaries surrounding human freedom to act in various domains and, in turn, self‐determination to influence the workplace. However, there is much to be done, and emerging research of significant interest is highlighted.     

Asymptotic Distributions of Quasi‐Maximum Likelihood Estimators for Spatial Autoregressive Models

This paper investigates asymptotic properties of the maximum likelihood estimator and the quasi‐maximum likelihood estimator for the spatial autoregressive model. The rates of convergence of those estimators may depend on some general features of the spatial weights matrix of the model. It is important to make the distinction with different spatial scenarios. Under the scenario that each unit will be influenced by only a few neighboring units, the estimators may have ‐rate of convergence and be asymptotically normal. When each unit can be influenced by many neighbors, irregularity of the information matrix may occur and various components of the estimators may have different rates of convergence.     

Implicit prejudicial biases in student learning: the effects of sexual orientation

In an investigation of students' potential biases toward gay and lesbian instructors, 93 female and 59 male undergraduates viewed a lecture, rated the instructor and perceived learning, and completed a lecture-retention test. Lectures were given by a man or woman, identified as straight or gay or lesbian. Sexual orientation did not affect the instructor evaluation or perceived learning ratings for any of the groups. Although sexual orientation did not affect the lecture-retention scores for the female students, learning by the male students was significantly lower with the gay male instructor than with the straight male instructor (p = .03), suggesting an implicit bias.     

Issues in the development of a computer-based safety programme for children with severe learning difficulties

In the last decade, professional interest in and awareness of the sexual abuse of children has increased dramatically and has led to the development of safety programmes which aim to teach children a range of personal safety skills (Tutty, 1992). These efforts have previously concentrated on children in mainstream schools, but there is growing recognition of the need for parallel concern for children in vulnerable groups such as those with learning difficulties. The present paper outlines the development of a personal safety prevention programme for children with severe learning difficulties. The programme has incorporated work by Tutty (1992, 1994) and others who argue for a more developmental view in designing such programmes. Concepts such as the child's understanding about authority figures and moral development have been integrated into the programme, which utilizes multi-media technology. As this is a computer-based programme, the reason for such a medium rather than previously implemented presentation (e.g. books, film) are discussed. Views of the participants evaluating the implementation of the teaching package are also described. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Separate Spheres or Increasing Equality? Changing Gender Beliefs in Postwar Japan

This research investigates change in gender beliefs in Japan during a period of economic hard times in the late 1990s. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme on the Japanese population from 1994 (n = 1,054) and 2002 (n = 872), we examined how cohort replacement and intracohort change contributed to changes in gender beliefs. We found important differences from the patterns of change reported for many Western countries, namely, a decoupling between societal trends in the female labor force participation rate and beliefs about gender. Such differences may be attributable to factors such as the high societal valuation of the housewife role compared to that in other postindustrial countries and sanctions against full‐time employment for women in Japan.     

“Where the Danger Lies”: Race,Gender, and Chinese and Japanese Exclusion in the United States, 1870–19241

Race too often is used as the explanatory variable for understanding immigration exclusion, marginalizing the significance of race making, ethnic differentiation, and gender construction in particular. This article explores these processes by examining exclusionary policies implemented against Chinese and Japanese immigrants from the mid‐1870s to 1924, the year the National Origins Act was passed. Politicians, intellectuals, and moral reformers used a gendered logic—the construction of idealized gender norms, roles, and sexual propriety and the attachment of these meanings to male and female bodies—to distinguish Japanese immigrants from the Chinese immigrants they followed, allowing for ethnic differentiation and dissimilar policies. The convergence toward exclusion rested on a racialized logic—the construction and attachment of inferior status and meanings to immigrant groups through discourse, formal and informal categorization, or social closure—which claimed that the Japanese were unassimilable and racially undesirable like the Chinese. Exclusionists focused on the immigrant women, decrying their sexual and gender impropriety as evidence of the groups’ threats to the sanctity of white families, which imperiled the nation. Gender and race both mattered in these logics and their meanings were constructed as their salience interconnected.