An Empirical Investigation of Terrorism-induced Stress on Expatriate Attitudes and Performance

Despite international terrorism's increasing relevance for international business, the effects of terrorism that confront employees during assignments abroad have hardly been investigated. Applying a stress perspective, this article analyzes the impact of terrorism-induced stress on attitudes and the performance of expatriates. Employing data from 143 expatriate managers in high-risk countries, the study shows that several terrorism-related stressors create a significant stress level for the individual, causing negative work attitudes and attitudes towards host country nationals (disaffection). This eventually leads to worse performance. We applied partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the entire impact path and found substantial support for our hypotheses. Of all the relevant stressors, intra-family conflicts due to terrorism have the greatest impact.     

Backward Induction Is Not Robust: The Parity Problem and the Uncertainty Problem

A cornerstone of game theory is backward induction, whereby players reason backward from the end of a game in extensive form to the beginning in order to determine what choices are rational at each stage of play. Truels, or three-person duels, are used to illustrate how the outcome can depend on (1) the evenness/oddness of the number of rounds (the parity problem) and (2) uncertainty about the endpoint of the game (the uncertainty problem). Since there is no known endpoint in the latter case, an extension of the idea of backward induction is used to determine the possible outcomes. The parity problem highlights the lack of robustness of backward induction, but it poses no conflict between foundational principles. On the other hand, two conflicting views of the future underlie the uncertainty problem, depending on whether the number of rounds is bounded (the players invariably shoot from the start) or unbounded (they may all cooperate and never shoot, despite the fact that the truel will end with certainty and therefore be effectively bounded). Some real-life examples, in which destructive behavior sometimes occurred and sometimes did not, are used to illustrate these differences, and some ethical implications of the analysis are discussed.     

Cross-Validated Assessments of Test Scoring Models

On a multiple choice test in which each item has r alternative options, a given number c of which are correct, various scoring models have been proposed. In one case the test-taker is allowed to choose any size solution subset and he/she is graded according to whether the subset is small and according to how many correct answers the subset contains. In a second case the test-taker is allowed to select only solution subsets of a prespecified maximum size and is graded as above. The first case is analogous to the situation where the test-taker is given a set of r options with each question; each question calls for a solution which consists of selecting that subset of the r responses which he/she believes to be correct. In the second case, when the prespecified solution subset is restricted to be of size at most one, the resulting scoring model corresponds to the usual model, referred to below as standard. The number c of correct options per item is usually known to the test-taker in this case.

Scoring models are evaluated according to how well they correctly identify the total scores of the individuals in the class of test-takers. Loss functions are constructed which penalize scoring models resulting in student scores which are not associated with the students true (or average) total score on the exam. Scoring models are compared on the basis of cross-validated assessments of the loss incurred by using each of the given models. It is shown that in many cases the assessment of the loss for scoring models which allow students the opportunity to choose more than one option for each question are smaller than the assessment of the loss for the standard scoring model.     

Will They Ever Converge? Earnings of Immigrant and Canadian-born Workers over the Last Two Decades1

Using Census data covering the 1980–2000 period, this article examines what outcomes would be necessary for today's recent immigrant cohorts to achieve earnings parity with Canadian‐born workers. Our results show that today's recent immigrants would have to experience a drastic steepening of their relative age‐earnings profile in the near future for their earnings to converge with their Canadian‐born counterparts. The reason is simple: the greater relative earnings growth experienced by recent immigrant cohorts has only partially offset the drastic deterioration in their relative earnings at entry.     

IMPROVING POPULATION-SPECIFIC ALLELE FREQUENCY ESTIMATES BY ADAPTING SUPPLEMENTAL DATA: AN EMPIRICAL BAYES APPROACH

Estimation of the allele frequency at genetic markers is a key ingredient in biological and biomedical research, such as studies of human genetic variation or of the genetic etiology of heritable traits. As genetic data becomes increasingly available, investigators face a dilemma: when should data from other studies and population subgroups be pooled with the primary data? Pooling additional samples will generally reduce the variance of the frequency estimates; however, used inappropriately, pooled estimates can be severely biased due to population stratification. Because of this potential bias, most investigators avoid pooling, even for samples with the same ethnic background and residing on the same continent. Here, we propose an empirical Bayes approach for estimating allele frequencies of single nucleotide polymorphisms. This procedure adaptively incorporates genotypes from related samples, so that more similar samples have a greater influence on the estimates. In every example we have considered, our estimator achieves a mean squared error (MSE) that is smaller than either pooling or not, and sometimes substantially improves over both extremes. The bias introduced is small, as is shown by a simulation study that is carefully matched to a real data example. Our method is particularly useful when small groups of individuals are genotyped at a large number of markers, a situation we are likely to encounter in a genome-wide association study.     

Suppressing Asset Price Inflation: The Confederate Experience, 1861–1865

Confederate asset price stabilization policies appear to have increased the velocity of circulation and counterproductively channeled inflationary pressures into other areas of the economy. Three successive monetary reforms encouraged holders of Treasury notes to exchange these notes for bonds by imposing deadlines on their convertibility. We show that Confederate funding acts aimed at precipitating the conversion of currency into bonds did temporarily suppress currency depreciation. These acts also triggered upsurges in commodity prices, however, because note holders rushed to spend the currency before their exchange rights were reduced.     

FOCUSED SUPERVISION SEEN THROUGH A RECURSIVE FRAME ANALYSIS*

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the literature addressing family therapy training and supervision (Liddle, Breunlin, & Schwartz, 1988; Morris & Chenail, 1995; Selekman & Todd, 1995; Thomas, 1994). Most of this literature, however, focuses on theory rather than prctice. This paper presents a study of solution-focused therapy's model of supervision, which we have labeled focused supervision. This supervisory process is conceptualized as a conversation during which supervisor and supervisee engage in a dialogue that mutually shapes the meaning of the experience. This study attends to the actual words spoken and utilizes recursive frame analysis to get closer to the talk of a focused supervisory session.     

Wer erbt Mehr? Erbschaften, Sozialstruktur und Alterssicherung

How do inheritances affect social structure, wealth formation, and provision for old age? Who benefits the most from inheritances? We analyse these questions based on the 2001 wave of the Socio-Economic Panel, which gives information on the deceased, and on the type, time, chance, and amount of the inheritance. Our findings confirm the theoretical hypotheses in general. Inheritance research is intergenerational research: most inheritances come from parents and benefit the recipients in the second half of their lives. However, the chances of receiving an inheritance and amounts inherited are distributed very unevenly. West Germans inherit significantly more frequently and larger amounts than East Germans due to the continuing effects of conditions in the former GDR. Foreigners have particularly low chances of receiving an inheritance. Thus, provision for old age through inheritance is limited mainly to specific groups of people. The most advantaged groups are the highly educated classes, which already receive higher (retirement) income.     

Transfer programs and aggregate household formations

The number of households in the United States increased by over fifty percent in the 1960s and 1970s, nearly double the rate of population growth. Part of the increase is explained by the movement of large cohort groups of the population into prime household-forming age categories, but higher headship rates also contribute. Age-specific headship rate increases result from non-demographic factors, and this paper focuses on the role of government transfer payment programs. Specifically considered are Social Security, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and Food Stamps. These programs are found to have accounted for as many as 4 million net household formations between 1961 and 1984. The findings have implications for expected households formations in the 1990s.