RESPONSE LATENCY AS A SIGNAL TO QUESTION PROBLEMS IN SURVEY RESEARCH

This research explores the potential utility of response latencyas an index of question problems in survey research. The timerespondents took to answer three types of bad questions wascompared to the time they took to answer the repaired versionsof the questions. Questions containing a superfluous negativeand double-barreled questions took longer to answer than nearlyidentical questions without these problems. Repaired versionsof questions soliciting frequency estimates, however, took longerto answer than their problematic counter parts. The resultsare discussed in the context of a model of question answering,and their implications for survey methodology are explored.     

RACE AND HOME OWNERSHIP: IS DISCRIMINATION DISAPPEARING?

Racial differentials in home ownership rates are examined using data on households in the twenty-four largest metropolitan areas. considerable recent reduction in racial discrimination is indicatd, in contrast to the findings of a previous analysis of the St. Louis housing market. The results are maintained under a number of modifications of the model and estimation technique.     

A Structuralist Interpretation of the Fishbeinian Model of Intention

The traditional paradigm for research relating to the Fishbeinian model of intention is described and some of its limitations are discussed. A structuralist interpretation of the Fishbeinian equation is then put forward from the standpoint of the ethogenic perspective advocated by Harré and Secord. Each component of the Fishbeinian equation is assumed to be the symbolic expression of an account (or accounts) which is attributable to the agent and relates to the act in question. The equation as a whole is then interpreted as a rule governing the intelligibility of a cluster of such accounts. Empirical studies are reported which examine the consequences of transgressing the rule of intelligibility and which use instances of transgression as a means to theoretical development. In this development, the importance of the executive facet of action is acknowledged by utilising Abelson's schemes for the representation of plans. The paper concludes with a speculative discussion as to how this radically different conceptual and methodological approach might be used in future research on the intention-behaviour relation.     

Institutionalized Ambivalence: Social Work and the Children and Young Persons Act 1969

Summary Partly through political ambivalence, partly through internalcontradictions, the Children and Young Persons Act 1969 hasfailed to reconceptualize the relationship between justice andwelfare in the juvenile court. The social work role is now characterizedby the potential for role conflict and inappropriate exerciseof discretion. Nevertheless, it is argued that the Act raisesissues which must be addressed and the capacity of the ‘backto justice’ movement to do so is critically assessed.     

EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ON ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND OPERATIONS

To date, it is unclear as to how Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are implemented and what effects these systems have on other environmental and operational practices. This study reports empirical insights to EMS practices based on the largest EMS survey of manufacturing firms in the United States. The objective of the study is to test for a relationship between environmental management systems and perceived operations performance while considering direct and indirect effects of various environmental practices. The results of this study are supported by several field studies and provide a new source of information regarding EMS theory development. The results also indicate a positive relationship between an EMS, the environmental practices a firm engages, and operations performance measures.     

Corporate Social and Financial Performance: The Role of Size,Industry, Risk,R&D and Advertising Expenses as Control Variables

This article investigates the role of commonly specified control variables in moderating the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP). In addition, there are separate measures for positive (strengths) social actions, and for negative (concerns) social actions. The results support the positive relationship between CSP and CFP. The best model, as determined using factorial analysis of variance, is one which has the following control variables: size, industry, risk, and research and development expenditures. In examining the CSP/CFP relationship, researchers must control for these variables, in order to properly specify the model.     

Asymptotics for the Hirsch Index

Abstract. The last decade methods for quantifying the research output of individual researchers have become quite popular in academic policy making. The h‐index (or Hirsch index) constitutes an interesting combined bibliometric volume/impact indicator that has attracted a lot of attention recently. It is now a common indicator, available for instance on the Web of Science. In this article, we establish the asymptotic normality of the empirical h‐index. The rate of convergence is non‐standard: , where f is the density of the citation distribution and n is the number of publications of a researcher. In case that the citations follow a Pareto‐type respectively a Weibull‐type distribution as defined in extreme value theory, our general result specializes well to results that are useful for practical purposes such as the construction of confidence intervals and pairwise comparisons for the h‐index. A simulation study for the Pareto‐type case shows that the asymptotic theory works well for moderate sample sizes already.     

A CLEAR AND PRESENT MINORITY: HETEROGENEITY IN THE SOURCE OF ENDOWMENTS AND THE PROVISION OF PUBLIC GOODS

We conduct public goods experiments in which participant groups are heterogeneous in regards to the source of their endowments. We find that this dimension of heterogeneity significantly reduces contributions to the public good, yielding strong support for the Nash prediction of minimal contributions. These minimal contributions arise in environments in which there exists a clear minority in terms of source of endowments. We discuss these results in light of current research on the influence of heterogeneous populations on public goods provision and redistributive policies. (JEL C9, D63, H4, J15)