Unsettling connections: transnational networks,development and African home associations

With the transnational turn in the social sciences attention has now turned to ‘global civil society’, ‘transnational civil society’, ‘transnational networks’ and, most recently, ‘migrant’ or ‘diasporic civil society’. Claims are being made about the developmental potential of these new configurations of civil society, and the global connections forged by migrant and diaspora associational life have been reified into things called ‘networks’ for the purpose of enrolling them into development policy. In this article, we challenge the network model through an analysis of transnational Cameroonian and Tanzanian home associations. The idea of a network suggests an overly robust and ordered set of linkages for what are in effect often loose and transient connections. African home associations draw attention to the historically‐embedded and mundane ways in which forms of associational life can be ‘transnational’ outside the formalized structures and Eurocentric development hierarchies created by international NGOs and other development institutions. Although they form largely invisible connections operating outside these hierarchies, African home associations unsettle assumptions about the geography of civil society and its relationship with development. Close attention to the histories and geographies of African home associations reveals that power and agency more often lie with migrants and elites within Africa than with the transnational diaspora.     

DIAGNOSTICS FOR REDESIGNING SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES: MEASURING WORK IN THE CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY

Between 1986 and 1993, a program of questionnaire design andcognitive research was conducted by the Census Bureau and Bureauof Labor Statistics, to improve labor force measurements inthe Current Population Survey (CPS). As part of the researchprogram, diagnostic measures for systematically testing andevaluating alternative questionnaire versions were developedand applied. This article reports results of applying two methods,special follow-up probes and hypothetical vignettes, to themeasurement of "work" in the CPS. These measures provided bothdirect and indirect information about problems of respondentcomprehension and reporting errors. In this article, we analyzeresults using these diagnostic measures to evaluate the effectof questionnaire revisions on reporting of work activities,and we assess the consistency and usefulness of the informationprovided by alternative diagnostic measures for pretesting andselecting questions.     

Probabilistic ‘generalization’ of functions and dimension-based uniform convergence results

In this largely expository article, we highlight the significance of various types of dimension for obtaining uniform convergence results in probability theory and we demonstrate how these results lead to certain notions of generalization for classes of binary-valued and real-valued functions. We also present new results on the generalization ability of certain types of artificial neural networks with real output.     

WHO IS AFRAID OF THE FRIEDMAN RULE?

We explore the connection between optimal monetary policy and heterogeneity among agents in a standard monetary economy with two types of agents where the stationary distribution of money holdings is nondegenerate. Sans type-specific fiscal policy, we show that the zero-nominal-interest rate policy (the Friedman rule) does not maximize type-specific welfare; it may not maximize aggregate ex ante social welfare either. Indeed, one or, more surprisingly, both types may benefit if the central bank deviates from the Friedman rule. ( JEL E31, E51, E58)     

Semiparametric Density Deconvolution

Abstract.  A new semiparametric method for density deconvolution is proposed, based on a model in which only the ratio of the unconvoluted to convoluted densities is specified parametrically. Deconvolution results from reweighting the terms in a standard kernel density estimator, where the weights are defined by the parametric density ratio. We propose that in practice, the density ratio be modelled on the log-scale as a cubic spline with a fixed number of knots. Parameter estimation is based on maximization of a type of semiparametric likelihood. The resulting asymptotic properties for our deconvolution estimator mirror the convergence rates in standard density estimation without measurement error when attention is restricted to our semiparametric class of densities. Furthermore, numerical studies indicate that for practical sample sizes our weighted kernel estimator can provide better results than the classical non-parametric kernel estimator for a range of densities outside the specified semiparametric class.     

The Replication Problem in Sociology: A Report and a Suggestion*

The deleterious effects of joint bias in favor of statistical inference and against replication are becoming well known. The acceptance of numerous Type I errors into the literature is by far the most serious of these. Data on the contents of three major journals support the contention that a joint bias for statistical significance tests, for rejections, and against replication exists in modern sociology. This finding replicates that of Sterling (1959) for psychology. A speculative analysis of the dynamics of publication decisions suggests that a compact format for reporting replications might make their publication more attractive to editors, and thus increase their frequency in the literature. A possible format for briefly reporting replication studies is suggested.     

THE HOLLOW REALIGNMENT PARTISAN CHANGE IN A CANDIDATE-CENTERED ERA

In 1984 identification with the Republican party increased tothe point where the plurality of Democrats over Republicansreached its lowest point since such measurements began in 1952.Yet the realignment is a hollow one between two parties whostill have a weak image in the public mind and an uncertainrole in the future of American government. While the balanceof power between the two parties shifted, the importance ofpolitical parties to the electorate remained at an historicallyweak level. Split-ticket voting continued to be high and roughlya third of the electorate had nothing to say-either positiveor negative-about both the parties. In short, realignment occurredin 1984 without party revitalization and the reestablishmentof the linkage between parties and candidates.