Toward a New Understanding of Ethnic‐Racial Settings for Ethnic‐Racial Identity Development

The purpose of this conceptual article is to advance theory and research on one critical aspect of the context of ethnic–racial identity (ERI) development: ethnic–racial settings, or the objective and subjective nature of group representation within an individual's context. We present a new conceptual framework that consists of four dimensions: (1) perspective (that settings can be understood in both objective and subjective terms); (2) differentiation (how groups are defined in a setting); (3) heterogeneity (the range of groups in a setting); and (4) proximity (the distance between the individual and the setting). Clarifying this complexity is crucial for advancing a more coherent understanding of how ethnic–racial settings are related to ERI development.     

External costs: Myth or rationale for state intervention?

The paper considers the extent to which problems of environmental pollution can be left to the market system. The concept of external cost is used to establish the presumption that market forces will lead to excessive pollution. The performance criterion, that of Pareto efficiency, leading to this presumption is discussed. It is shown that for significant problems of pollution it is not possible to limit the role of the state to that of re-defining property rights. What is necessary is state intervention by way of the taxing, or regulation, of discharges into the environment: where external effects are undepletable, markets cannot meet the requirements of Pareto efficiency. Government intervention to meet such requirements requires that the government has information which is, in practice, either unavailable or very costly. Intervention towards more restricted goals is discussed. It is shown that arguments to the effect that the role of the state can be restricted to defining private property rights are based on assumptions which are irrelevant to significant problems. In particular, it is argued that a recent publication by the Institute of Economic Affairs does not, as claimed, show either that external costs do not exist, or that they exist but imply a minor role for the state in the protection of the natural environment.     

Matching to prevent adoption disruption

The number of children being freed for adoption placement is increasing due to legislation. These children are frequently the victims of chaotic environments. Their exposure to adversity makes it more difficult for them to maintain long term placements. Suggestions are made toward the utilization of standardized instruments in the matching of adoptive parents and children to prevent adoption disruption.     

REVIEWS

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Strategy-proof allocation of multiple public goods

This paper characterizes strategy-proof social choice functions (SCFs), the outcome of which are multiple public goods. Feasible alternatives belong to subsets of a product set . The SCFs are not necessarily “onto”, but the weaker requirement, that every element in each category of public goods A _k is attained at some preference profile, is imposed instead. Admissible preferences are arbitrary rankings of the goods in the various categories, while a separability restriction concerning preferences among the various categories is assumed. It is found that the range of the SCF is uniquely decomposed into a product set in general coarser than the original product set, and that the SCF must be dictatorial on each component B _l . If the range cannot be decomposed, a form of the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem with a restricted preference domain is obtained.