Bending the bars of the iron cage: Bureaucratization and informalization in capitalism and socialism

Despite some important similarities, capitalism's informal economy and socialism's second economy are not functional equivalents or structural counterparts. An informal economy is the product of efforts to circumvent accountability to the explicit rationalizations of regulatory bureaucratization. It operates according to principles disparate from those of the rules of internal labor markets but congruent with the market principles that coordinate the formal economy. In the centrally planned economies of state socialism where informalization responds to the contradictions of redistributive bureaucratization, the embryonic market relations of the second economy are incongruent with the bureaucratic principles that coordinate the formal economy, and in fact, stimulate the institutionalization of transactive market relations and the expansion of property rights inside the socialist enterprise. As a sphere of activity relatively autonomous from the state, the second economy is a source of fundamental change remaking the economic institutions of socialism.     

Robustness estimators of location:a classification of linear and adaptive estimators

Real-world data sets may be described in terms similar to trauma cases- 'messy' with 'high morbidity'. Alternative estimators to the traditional mean are examined via a simulation study over a wide range of both symmetric and asymmetric distributions. These alternative estimators are data depenmdent and, in most cases, represent data far better than the usual mean. Princeton and post-Princeton linear and adaptive estimators of location are summarized, and a classification scheme based on an ancillary or selector statistic is proposed. The computational formulae for the collection of estimators have been standardized, as have the ancillary statistics. We classify these estimators by their computational form, give the computational formulae for each in a standardized notation, evaluate the subclass of estimators, and identify our 'winner' in that class.     

Robust Two-Sample Statistics for Testing Equality of Means: a Simulation Study

When testing the equality of the means from two independent normally distributed populations given that the variances of the two populations are unknown but assumed equal, the classical two-sample t-test is recommended. If the underlying population distributions are normal with unequal and unknown variances, either Welch's t-statistic or Satterthwaite's Approximate F-test is suggested. However, Welch's procedure is non-robust under most non-normal distributions. There is a variable tolerance level around the strict assumptions of data independence, homogeneity of variances and normality of the distributions. Few textbooks offer alternatives when one or more of the underlying assumptions are not defensible.     

Reducing Electricity Use on Campus: The Use of Prompts,Feedback, and Goal Setting to Decrease Excessive Classroom Lighting

Energy conservation is an important factor in both sustainability programs and operating costs faced by organizations. The current study used visual prompts, performance feedback, and goals setting to reduce unnecessary classroom lighting on a college campus. A package intervention was applied weekly over a semester using a multiple baseline design across three units, with one unit serving as a baseline-only control. Signs were hung in classrooms and updated weekly. The signs asked users to conserve energy by turning off the lights when the room is not in use, and indicated progress toward a goal for the current room as well as the building overall. The combined treatment successfully reduced unnecessary classroom lighting and generated interest in campus sustainability programs.     

“I’m Just a Woman. But I’ve Never Been a Victim”: Re-conceptualizing Prostitution Policy through Individual Narratives

Drawing on narrative theory in political science and policy studies, this article argues that narratives serve definitional purposes in the prostitution policy process, but not all narratives are equally influential here. To illustrate, it shares Gloria Lockett’s narrative. Lockett is a 65-year-old African American former sex worker, prostitutes’ rights activist, and the cofounder and the current executive director of the California Prostitutes Education Project, an HIV/AIDS prevention and education nonprofit in the San Francisco Bay Area. Although Lockett’s narrative does not represent all women in prostitution, it complicates dominant understandings of prostitution in the United States, contests the current criminalization regime, and alerts health authorities to sex workers’ occupational health and safety concerns. Yet even as others share and support her narrative, various legal and ideological factors limit its impact in the policy process.     

The Effects of Gender and Relationship Context Cues on Responsive Sexual Desire in Exclusively and Predominantly Androphilic Women and Gynephilic Men

Sexual desire may be “responsive,” emerging from sexual arousal to sexually competent cues. Cues that elicit sexual arousal and desire differ, however, by gender and direction of sexual attractions. Further, relationship context cues are thought to be important for responsive desire, but this has not been tested directly. The current study examined gynephilic men’s (n = 27) and exclusively (n = 23) and predominantly (n = 17) androphilic women’s dyadic and solitary responsive sexual desire, as well as genital and self-reported arousal, to audio narratives varying by gender (male, female) of the sexual partner and relationship context (stranger, friend, long-term relationship). Consistent with previous literature, gynephilic men’s solitary and dyadic desire were gender-specific (greater to female than to male sexual partners). Exclusively androphilic women’s dyadic desire differentiated less to cues of gender than gynephilic men’s, and their solitary desire did not differentiate by gender cues at all, replicating previous research. Androphilic women with some gynephilia reported a gender-nonspecific pattern of dyadic and solitary desire (i.e., responsive desire to both male and female narratives). No effect of relationship context was found for any groups. Results suggest that responsive sexual desire may be more closely associated with self-reported than genital arousal patterns.     

Exploring the experiences and dynamics of an unconditional cash transfer for low-income mothers: A mixed-methods study

ABSTRACT

Little is understood about how an unconditional cash transfer might operate and affect behavior among low-income parents of infants in the United States. We investigate these questions using data from a random-assignment pilot study (N?=?30) in which unconditional cash transfers were distributed monthly on debit cards to two groups of low-income parents in New York City during the first 12 months of their newborns’ lives. Mothers were randomized to receive either $100 per month or $20 per month. Mothers distinguished spending the cash transfer on essentials vs. extras, such as going out to dinner with family. The monthly cash transfer “tided them over,” even at the lower amount of $20, especially when income from other sources ran short at the end of the month. Some mothers reported saving money for unexpected expenses.