Erratum to: Token Reinforcement of Verbal Responses Controlled by Temporally Removed Verbal Stimuli

In the present study we examined the effects of token reinforcement on the convergent control of immediate and temporally removed verbal stimuli over the verbal behavior of three school-age children with autism who showed specific deficits in intraverbal responding. Throughout the study, participants were systematically introduced to a series of visitors to a university-based autism center, and subsequently probed for information about the visitor they had most recently met. Results show that contingent token reinforcement was effective at establishing control by temporally removed verbal stimuli.     

Market-Type Mechanisms and Public Service Equity: A Review of Experiences in European Public Services

In seeking to benefit from the competitive pressures exerted through marketization, governments have hoped to gain improvements in public service efficiency. Yet, concerns remain about the effects of marketization on how equitably public services are provided. We consider evidence about the relationship between the introduction of market-type mechanisms in the European public sector and the efficiency and equity of service provision. Our analysis reveals that although market-type mechanisms sometimes result in worse service equity, there is only weak evidence of a trade-off between efficiency and equity.     

Relational Autonomy in Assisted Living: A Focus on Diverse Care Settings for Older Adults

Consistent with Western cultural values, the traditional liberal theory of autonomy, which places emphasis on self-determination, liberty of choice, and freedom from interference by others, has been a leading principle in health care discourse for several decades. In context to aging, chronic illness, disability, and long-term care, increasingly there has been a call for a relational conception of autonomy that acknowledges issues of dependency, interdependence, and care relationships. Although autonomy is a core philosophy of assisted living (AL) and a growing number of studies focus on this issue, theory development in this area is lagging and little research has considered race, class, or cultural differences, despite the growing diversity of AL. We present a conceptual model of autonomy in AL based on over a decade of research conducted in diverse facility settings. This relational model provides an important conceptual lens for understanding the dynamic linkages between varieties of factors at multiple levels of social structure that shape residents' ability to maintain a sense of autonomy in this often socially challenging care environment. Social and institutional change, which is ongoing, as well as the multiple and ever-changing cultural contexts within which residents are embedded, are important factors that shape residents' experiences over time and impact resident-facility fit and residents' ability to age in place.     

A Geometric Approach to Nonlinear Econometric Models

Conventional tests for composite hypotheses in minimum distance models can be unreliable when the relationship between the structural and reduced‐form parameters is highly nonlinear. Such nonlinearity may arise for a variety of reasons, including weak identification. In this note, we begin by studying the problem of testing a “curved null” in a finite‐sample Gaussian model. Using the curvature of the model, we develop new finite‐sample bounds on the distribution of minimum‐distance statistics. These bounds allow us to construct tests for composite hypotheses which are uniformly asymptotically valid over a large class of data generating processes and structural models.     

The Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Other Trauma on Drug Court Participants

Within the context of a larger study of drug court participants, this study examined the impact of traumatic experiences on psychiatric distress and on court outcomes. In the analyses, the participants (n = 229) were separated into 3 groups: childhood sexual abuse (CSA; n = 18), other trauma (n = 134), and no trauma (n = 77). The CSA group had higher mean scores on depression, anxiety, panic disorder, social phobia, somatization, and posttraumatic stress disorder than the other trauma group. Path analyses suggest that a history of trauma is a positive predictor of psychiatric distress and negative court events (positive urine screens, sanctions, etc.), with indirect effects on substance abuse severity, and failure in the drug court. These results suggest a need for the initial assessment procedure in drug courts to include a screening for trauma history, including CSA. They also suggest a need for trauma-informed care within drug courts.     

Building on the life-span perspective: a model for infusing geriatric social work

The growth in the older adult population and the demand for better trained geriatric social workers challenge the existing curricula of social work programs. The Geriatric Enrichment Grant funded by the John A. Hartford foundation has provided financial support for curricular reform. Curriculum reform is a challenging undertaking at any level. Each program and educational institution experiences the process of curriculum reform in unique ways. This paper describes one program's experience of curriculum reform for the purpose of infusing geriatric content.     

Getting to Yes or Bailing on No: The Site Selection Process of Ethanol Plants in Wisconsin

Prior studies of ethanol location rest on the assumption that ethanol producers are economic free agents—evaluating sites as if all counties are contenders for their business, weighing the availability of feedstocks along with their infrastructure needs, operating without ties to localities, and being subject to enticement from policy incentives. We analyze the political‐economic process through which ethanol plants come into communities by examining plant location decisions, plant financing, community receptivity toward the plant, local government incentives, and the dynamics of the approval process. We use case studies of ethanol plants in Wisconsin to explore the economic, social, and political dynamics of ethanol plant location. Our case studies provide evidence in support of some findings in the ethanol location literature—such as the importance of access to corn; however, they also suggest site selection criteria not adequately addressed by the literature. Furthermore, our data suggest that capital may not be as mobile as location theory assumes it to be and that location decisions are not primarily determined by consideration of profit maximization. Instead, the location of ethanol plants is greatly influenced by the extent to which the original initiators of the plant are locally embedded in its host community. Our research answers Barkley and McNamara's ( 1994 :45) call for a return to a case studies approach in order to develop “reliable insights into the location process.”     

High wage workers and low wage firms: negative assortative matching or limited mobility bias?

Summary.  In the empirical literature on assortative matching using linked employer–employee data, unobserved worker quality appears to be negatively correlated with unobserved firm quality. We show that this can be caused by standard estimation error. We develop formulae that show that the estimated correlation is biased downwards if there is true positive assortative matching and when any conditioning covariates are uncorrelated with the firm and worker fixed effects. We show that this bias is bigger the fewer movers there are in the data, which is 'limited mobility bias'. This result applies to any two-way (or higher) error components model that is estimated by fixed effects methods. We apply these bias corrections to a large German linked employer–employee data set. We find that, although the biases can be considerable, they are not sufficiently large to remove the negative correlation entirely.     

Wheeling uphill? Reflections of practical and methodological difficulties encountered in researching the experiences of disabled volunteers

This paper focuses on methodological and practical issues surrounding research into disabled volunteers. It focuses on three key methodological and practical issues which were encountered by the author in preparing for and conducting fieldwork: difficulties in conceptualising disability for the purpose of the study; problems of access; and problems of reflexivity. Attention is also given to how the researcher responded to the problems and difficulties as they emerged throughout the research. The paper concludes by commenting that the overall commitment, social entrepreneurship and social advocacy of wheelchair users who volunteer is in stark contrast to the negative images of vulnerability and dependency often associated with disability.