Misreporting and Vicarious Political Participation at the Local Level

The paper provides a method for examining the differences betweenpeople who actively participate in politics as contrasted withthose who are not participants, and those who misreport theirlevel of participation. Application of this method shows thatthe participants and the misreporters share numerous characteristicsthat set them apart from nonparticipants. The main distinguishingcharacteristic of the misreporters is their significantly higherexposure to television. The results lend support to the theorythat one effect of television is to depress routine forms ofpolitical participation, while simultaneously distorting people'sperception of their actual participation in political life.     

Marriage in nineteenth-century Canada*

Les données de recensement sur le marriage au Canada pour la période 1851–1891 sont examinées. La nuptialité canadienne est perçue dans le contexte du type de marriage unique et historique d'Europe occidentale, et la conclusion en est tirée que le niveau de nuptialité au Canada est peu élevé, comme du reste, celui d'Europe occidentale qu'il essaye de suivre. Les éléments qui influencent les tendances et le taux de nuptialité sont discutés avec l'emphase sur les variables démographiques. Les variations inter-provinciales du marriage au xix^e siècle sont présentées et analysées.
Census data concerning marriage in Canada for the period from 1851 to 1891 are examined. The Canadian nuptiality experience is viewed in the light of the unique, historical western European marriage pattern, with the finding that Canadian nuptiality levels are low, in keeping with the western European pattern. Factors accounting for nuptiality level and trend are discussed, with a particular focus on demographic variables. Provincial variation in nineteenth-century marriage behaviour is described and analyzed.     

GRADUATE EDUCATION AND PRIVATE RATES OF RETURN: A REVIEW OF THEORY AND EMPIRICISM

In this paper twelve recent studies regarding private rates of return for graduate education are reviewed and evaluated. Possible sources of error due to data base, methodology and interpretation of results are examined and compared. After this has been done, the authors calculate returns to graduate education with spatial distribution problems and job security incorporated in the model. The article concludes that the typical rate of return method has been pushed about as far as it can go and now is the time for the economic profession to develop more meaningful techniques which will allow us to come to grips with the policy issues regarding the level of support for education.     

A QUALITY-ADJUSTMENT MODEL OF THE ACADEMIC LABOR MARKET: THE CASE OF ECONOMISTS

This paper uses some new data on the initial academic placements of new Ph.D. economists to test a quality-adjustment model, which is consistent with the hypothesis that most academic appointments follow a "downstream" pattern. By the use of weighted least squares the authors confirm the importance of the perceived quality of the faculty of the degree granting program, the publishing performance of former graduates of these programs, and the student/faculty ratio of these programs in economics over the period 1960 to 1978. Finally, it is shown that contrary to popular opinion, the extent of the "downstream" pattern has not been magnified in the so-called buyers markets of the 1970's.     

Gender,Racial, and Ethnic Disclosure in NIH K-Award Funded Diabetes and Obesity Clinical Trials∗

In 1993, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) passed The Revitalization Act (Subtitle B) which mandated that all NIH funded clinical trials have “appropriate representation” of minority and women subjects. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of the mandate by examining the reporting and inclusion of minority and female subjects into NIH K-Award funded clinical trials, addressing the minority predominant diagnoses of diabetes and clinical obesity. Using the CRISP search engine and PUBMED, we selected publications published by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) K-grant recipients during 1989–2004, associated with all the diabetes and obesity clinical trials. Studies were stratified into three timeline categories (1989–1993, pre-mandate; 1993–1996, post-mandate, and 1997–present, well past mandate) to evaluate trends in the recruiting of minorities and women before, during, and after the passing of the Revitalization Act. Of the 165 papers, only 37% disclosed race, a number that did not improve over time (p = .15), whereas 92% disclosed gender. Clinical trials that focused on females increased across the 3 timeframes (p < .001) for diabetes studies but not obesity studies. Overall, disclosure of race declined over the 3 timeframes whereas individually, the disclosure of African Americans improved.     

The Optimal Trade-Off Between Quality and Quantity with Unknown Number of Survivors

In a model of endogenous fertility where individuals know the probability of child survival but not the final number of survivors, parents do not always formulate a precautionary demand for children. For some utility functions, parents have fewer children than what they would have in a situation in which the number of survivors is known earlier. The properties of the optimal economic policy depend on the degree to which the social welfare function takes ignorance into account. If social welfare is evaluated after parents know how many children survived, the parental response to uncertainty is socially inefficient. Individual decisions then should be corrected through tax or transfer on both births and education. This property helps determine the optimal public response to mortality crisis in the presence of educational externalities.