Explaining Suicide in Organizations: Durkheim Revisited

Drawing on Durkheim's concept of anomie, we address the under‐explored phenomenon of anomic suicide in contemporary organizations and discuss the consequences of solidarity for organizations and society. The relations of social solidarity to issues of identity and insecurity are explored through the cases of France Telecom Orange and Foxconn. Remedial implications for organizing, considered as community building, are discussed. Durkheim wrote not only about anomic but also altruistic suicide. We will also analyze examples of this type of suicide. Some tentative suggestions are made for how to organize to minimize the incidence of suicidal violence in organizations.     

Towards the Establishment of a Green Infrastructure in the Region of Montreal (Quebec,Canada)

Through the analysis of semi-structured interviews held with key actors involved in the planning of the Greater Montreal region, we seek to understand the conditions that could lead to the establishment of a green infrastructure for the city. This article first describes the region's environmental and political context and then analyzes the opportunities, constraints, advantages and disadvantages in the implementation of this type of project. We conclude that experts favor an approach leading to ecological connectivity, but they underline several obstacles that could hinder its implementation.     

Cognitive Factors and Male Genital Pain: A Preliminary Study

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate how pain catastrophizing and sexually related thoughts help explain pain intensity in men with genital pain. Methods: Fifty men with genital pain completed an online survey. Results: Sexually related thoughts explained an additional 11.5% of variance of pain intensity, above and beyond the influence of pain catastrophizing and medical conditions. Conclusions: Overall, findings showed that cognitions during sexual activity also contribute to explain pain intensity in men with genital pain. Besides the severity of organic factors and pain catastrophizing, sexually-related thoughts should also be included in clinical evaluation and treatment of male genital pain.     

Comparison of Kernel Density Estimators with Assumption on Number of Modes

A data-driven bandwidth choice for a kernel density estimator called critical bandwidth is investigated. This procedure allows the estimation to have as many modes as assumed for the density to estimate. Both Gaussian and uniform kernels are considered. For the Gaussian kernel, asymptotic results are given. For the uniform kernel, an argument against these properties is mentioned. These theoretical results are illustrated with a simulation study that compares the kernel estimators that rely on critical bandwidth with another one that uses a plug-in method to select its bandwidth. An estimator that consists in estimates of density contour clusters and takes assumptions on number of modes into account is also considered. Finally, the methodology is illustrated using environment monitoring data.     

Income distribution determinants and public spending efficiency

This paper examines the impact of public spending on income distribution in OECD countries, paying attention in particular to the impact of the quality of education and public institutions. The paper assesses the efficiency of public spending in improving income distribution by using Data Envelopment Analysis. The empirical analysis shows the existence of both input and output inefficiencies across countries when relating public social spending to the inequality in income distribution.     

Role of physical activity in the prevention of falls and their consequences in the elderly

This work aims to provide an inventory of the risk factors and consequences of falling in the elderly, namely fractures, and to identify strategies to prevent falls and minimise their effects. Falls in elderly people are a major cause of injuries, leading to a general fear of falling, poorer quality of life and even death. The increase in life expectancy brought by developments in the medical and health sciences has not always brought enhanced quality of life. More elderly people live with reduced functional capacities resulting in a higher prevalence of falls and associated problems for themselves and for society. Risk factors for falling, commonly resulting from normal aging processes, have already been identified through multiple studies. Exercise may play an important role in fall prevention and their consequences. Although, effective strategies are usually multi-disciplinary and focus simultaneously on several risk factors. However, only large-scale prevention programmes can have significant effective social impact. To minimise occurrence and consequences of falls, policies to systematically implement prevention programmes should be established.     

Portuguese Migrants in the German Labor Market: Selection and Performance1

The labor market performance of Portuguese workers in Germany is analyzed in this article. While previous work has compared wages and characteristics of migrants to natives only, this study also matches the data set with an equivalent survey from the sending country. The findings show that Portuguese migrants as a whole are negatively selected, with the exception of blue‐collar workers, the largest group among the movers. The finding that Portuguese migrants earn more than comparable Germans indicates that they have higher unobservable skills.     

Behavior towards health risks: An empirical study using the “Mad Cow” crisis as an experiment

The paper exploits the “Mad Cow” crisis as a natural experiment to gain knowledge on the behavioral effect of new health information. The analysis uses a detailed data set following a sample of households through the crisis. The paper disentangles the effect of non-separable preferences across time from the effect of previous exposure. It shows that new health information interacts in a non-monotonic way with disease susceptibility. Individuals at low or high risk of infection do not respond to new health information. The results show that individual behavior partly offsets the effect of new health information.