Latin America: a new developmental welfare state model in the making?1

Latin America is emerging from a century of transformation – from a traditional agrarian to an urban industrial economy – where countries have taken diverse historical paths. Some have almost completed this transformation, others are taking early steps, and most are living through it. State‐led transition has followed two successive development strategies. From the 1920s to the 1980s, state developmentalism, for the most part, successfully assumed the twin challenges of economic and social progress. In the final decades of the century, Latin American states adopted the policies of the Washington consensus, which emphasized the importance of business in the framework of globalization, benefiting the affluent few. However, an unambiguous shift in direction has been taking place in Latin America since the 1997 economic crisis. This article suggests that a new developmental welfare state model is in the making. How will it evolve over the wider space of an increasingly integrated Latin America?     

An integrated relapse prevention and relationship safety intervention for women on methadone: testing short-term effects on intimate partner violence and substance use

This study tests the feasibility, safety, and short-term preliminary effects of a relapse prevention and relationship safety (RPRS) intervention in reducing drug use and the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) among women on methadone. For this randomized controlled trial, 34 women who met IPV and drug use criteria were randomly assigned to either the RPRS condition (n = 16) or a one-session informational control (IC) condition (n = 18). RPRS participants were more likely than IC participants to report a decrease in minor physical or sexual IPV (OR = 7.1, p = .05), minor psychological IPV (OR = 5.3, p = .03) and severe psychological IPV (OR = 6.07, p = .03) at the 3-month follow-up. Data suggest that RPRS participants were also more likely than IC participants to report a decrease in any drug use at 3 months (OR = 3.3, p = .08). This study provides preliminary evidence that the RPRS intervention is effective in reducing IPV and drug use among women on methadone.     

Spanish version of the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) / Versión española de la Escala de Inteligencia Cultural (EIC)

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of cultural intelligence has received increasing attention by researchers and professionals because of its theoretical and practical importance. To understand why some individuals adapt more effectively than others to culturally different social contexts has become a goal with implications for education, recruitment and the prevention of social conflict. The goal of this study was to adapt the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) to Spanish. To do so, two studies were carried out. In the first, the psychometric properties generated by the CQS on a Spanish sample (N = 413) were analysed. In the second study, a confirmatory replication of the factor structure and reliability of the CQS was performed with a different Spanish sample (N = 526) from the first study. The results indicated that the Spanish version of the Cultural Intelligence Scale can be considered a useful and appropriate tool to be used with psychometric guarantees in the Spanish-speaking population.     

Staying Close to the Core: Lessons from Studying the Costs of Unrelated Alliances in Spanish Banking

This article analyses whether alliances create shareholders value, and if this value differs depending on the similarity of the partners' businesses, or on the similarity of the partners' businesses with that of the alliance. Using data from 467 equity and non-equity based strategic alliances from 1996-1999 involving at least one listed Spanish bank, we find that, overall, alliances create shareholder value, but that the returns to shareholders are significantly higher when alliance activity is closer to the core business of the banks, than when alliances involve unrelated activities. Although there is no evidence that unrelated strategic alliances destroy value on average, the results obtained show that banks need to assess the benefits and costs of diversification strategies carefully, as their likelihood of success is initially smaller.     

Generalized Tobit models: diagnostics and application in econometrics

The standard Tobit model is constructed under the assumption of a normal distribution and has been widely applied in econometrics. Atypical/extreme data have a harmful effect on the maximum likelihood estimates of the standard Tobit model parameters. Then, we need to count with diagnostic tools to evaluate the effect of extreme data. If they are detected, we must have available a Tobit model that is robust to this type of data. The family of elliptically contoured distributions has the Laplace, logistic, normal and Student-t cases as some of its members. This family has been largely used for providing generalizations of models based on the normal distribution, with excellent practical results. In particular, because the Student-t distribution has an additional parameter, we can adjust the kurtosis of the data, providing robust estimates against extreme data. We propose a methodology based on a generalization of the standard Tobit model with errors following elliptical distributions. Diagnostics in the Tobit model with elliptical errors are developed. We derive residuals and global/local influence methods considering several perturbation schemes. This is important because different diagnostic methods can detect different atypical data. We implement the proposed methodology in an R package. We illustrate the methodology with real-world econometrical data by using the R package, which shows its potential applications. The Tobit model based on the Student-t distribution with a small quantity of degrees of freedom displays an excellent performance reducing the influence of extreme cases in the maximum likelihood estimates in the application presented. It provides new empirical evidence on the capabilities of the Student-t distribution for accommodation of atypical data.     

Söhne bevorzugt? Geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede beim Gymnasialbesuch türkischstämmiger Schülerinnen und Schülern

It is often assumed that in Germany the situation in Turkish families can be characterized by traditionalism, a patrilineal organization of family relationships and a rigid gender role orientation including a traditional gender division between gainful employment and housework. Against this background one would expect Turkish parents to have a particular strong interest in a high educational attainment of their sons and consequently they should invest more in their education. This article examines whether there is evidence for such preferences and relevant behaviours. An analysis of official school statistics of the federal state North-Rhine Westphalia shows that Turkish boys are more likely to make a transition to a Gymnasium than Turkish girls. However, a systematic preference of Turkish parents of a transition to secondary education for their sons cannot be confirmed by way of micro data. Moreover results from our macro data indicate that already in grade seven the gender ratio is reversed. All in all our analyses indicate that there is no significant and sustainable disadvantage for Turkish girls in comparison to Turkish boys.     

The Characteristics of Takeover Targets: The Spanish Experience 1991–1997

In this paper we analyse the characteristicspresented by Spanish firms that have been thesubject of takeover bids that allow them to bedifferentiated from other firms. To that end,we use a sample made-up of 69 non-financialfirms that were the subject of takeover bids inSpain during the period 1991–1997, togetherwith a further 69, selected randomly on anindustrial and time basis, that were not. Theresults show that the firms that were subjectto a takeover bid were not, in general,characterised by having lower profitability ora worse market valuation than other firmsoperating in the same sector. This resultmakes it difficult to argue that takeovers inSpain have in their majority been driven bydisciplinary or speculative motives. Bycontrast, certain variables that exert aninfluence over the cost of the transaction,such as the size and the ownership structure ofthe firm, do appear to play a relevant role inthe selection of the target on the part of thebidding firm.     

Laurie Nordic Ski Center

The proprietor of a ski lodge with Nordic ski trails faces increased competition from other private lodges that are subsidized by government agencies and from a non profit ski club, which is also subsidized by use of government owned land for which the ski club pays no rent. The proprietor must decide what she can do to meet this subsidized competition or whether she should sell her business before profitability disappears.