GENDER, DIMENSIONS OF WORK, AND SUPPORTIVE COWORKER RELATIONS

Do women report a higher level of coworker support than men? If so, do dimensions of work contribute to that difference? To address these questions, I examined data from a sample of employed Toronto residents. Overall, women reported a higher level of coworker support than men. Job authority and nonroutine work are associated positively with coworker support, while job noxiousness is associated negatively with coworker support. In addition, two gender‐contingent associations between work dimensions and coworker support emerge: (1) job autonomy is associated positively with coworker support among women only, and (2) job demands are associated negatively with coworker support among women and positively with coworker support among men. I discussed ways that these findings fit into and extend sociological analysis of the links between occupational life and psychosocial functioning.     

Child Care Use and Parental Desire to Switch Care Type Among a Low-Income Population

This study investigates the use of and satisfaction with child care among low-income families, who are those likely to be affected by recent changes in public policy that emphasize increased work effort. Data from the Survey of Wisconsin Works Families portray differences in the use of center-based care depending on whether or not the family received a child care subsidy. A multivariate analysis of a measure of parental satisfaction, whether a parent would switch child care sources if all care were available at no charge, suggests that parents tend to be more satisfied with center-based care than with alternative forms of care. The analysis also suggests that mothers who received a child care subsidy were significantly more likely to have their children in center-based care.     

Neural Correlates of Human and Monkey Face Processing in 9‐Month‐Old Infants

Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence suggests a gradual, experience‐dependent specialization of cortical face processing systems that takes place largely in the 1st year of life. To further investigate these findings, event‐related potentials (ERPs) were collected from typically developing 9‐month‐old infants presented with pictures of familiar and unfamiliar monkey or human faces in 2 different orientations. Analyses revealed differential processing across changes in monkey and human faces. The N290 was greater for familiar compared to unfamiliar faces, regardless of species or orientation. In contrast, the P400 to unfamiliar faces was greater than to familiar faces, but only for the monkey condition. The P400 to human faces differentiated the orientation of both familiar and unfamiliar faces. These results suggest more specific processing of human compared to monkey faces in 9‐month‐olds.     

Organizations in the Public Sector in Hong Kong: Core Government, Quasi-Government and Private Bodies with Public Functions

Twenty-five years ago, the Hong Kong government was lauded as the model of a small, restricted government which was most suited to capitalist economic growth. Since that time, the government and the organizations which it has created have expanded to such an extent that there has been widespread concern that the public sector has grown too large. This article examines the reasons for the rapid growth in the size of the public sector, reflects on the organizational forms outside the traditional civil service that have been adopted, and analyzes the attempts that have been made to reduce the public bureaucracy by corporatizing and privatizing some of the services that it provides. Central to the argument presented is the question of whether an ideological commitment to small government or other functional and political factors have been the critical determinants of organizational change.     

THE WELFARE EFFECTS OF DISTRIBUTION REGULATIONS IN OECD COUNTRIES

This article presents new data on distribution margins in eight OECD countries and uses an Applied General Equilibrium (AGE) framework to assess the welfare impacts of inefficient distribution. I estimate the extent to which regulations inflate margins. A comparison of margins across countries finds, in contrast to other studies, that Japan's margins are unusually high. The AGE simulations imply that inefficient distribution imposes substantial welfare costs, especially in Japan, with the costs rivaling those of trade barriers. The results also imply that distribution impediments can significantly reduce imports. (JEL D58 , F13 , L81 )     

Interest Group Participation in Rule Making: A Decade of Change

Ten years ago we completed a survey that examined interest groupparticipation in the rule-making process. At the time, it wasthe first major study to examine the role of interest groupsin one of the most important policy-making venues in our democraticsystem. This article reexamines interest group participationin rule making a decade later. We focus most of the study oncomparisons in how organizations access rule-making agencies,what techniques are used to lobby agencies, and the perceivedeffectiveness of these techniques by the organizations themselves.In addition, given the relatively new phenomenon of e–rulemaking and the increase of other electronic communication techniques,we open an examination of interest groups use of these formsof communications and their implications. We find that rulemaking continues to be a primary concern of organizations tryingto influence federal public policy, even as they have focusedmore on campaign and grassroots activities. In some ways, theseefforts are more important now than they were ten years ago.