Market management of the essential economy: an essay

This essay presents a framework for thinking about public economic policy. The argument is that the prevailing theory of competitive markets serves a useful public purpose but creates problems when made into an ideology. The core theory and philosophy suffers from oversights and illusions. Fundamentalist thinking found in it can be dangerous for the long run well-being of humanity. These insights lead to the conclusion that the fundamental task of an economics for public policy should be to develop a theory of workable markets.     

Paradoxes of Sexuality,Gay Identity,and the Closet

In this project, I illustrate how eight premises of sexuality, gay identity, and the closet contribute to the existence of paradox, an interactional situation constituted by contradiction. I first outline the following premises: gay identity is (1) inextricably tied to the metaphor of the closet; coming out is necessary when gay identity (2) is invisible; the closet draws meaning (3) only in relation to heteronormative contexts; gay identity, as a (4) stigmatized identity, makes coming out a (5) potentially dangerous act; coming out is conceived of as a (6) necessary and important, (7) discrete and linear, (8) inescapable and ever‐present process. I then use autoethnography to describe and analyze the lived experience of paradox in terms of these premises. I conclude by formulating ways a gay person can negotiate paradox in, and by way of, interaction.     

The social dimensions of happiness and life satisfaction of Australians: Evidence from the World Values Survey

Relatively short‐term verbal therapies and other forms of intervention may help people to overcome difficult passages in life, but studies in recent decades have pointed to the salience of social and economic conditions in shaping life satisfaction and happiness. The present study contributes to our knowledge of this field by extending the range of social factors considered, but also, crucially, by the employment of statistical analyses that serve to disentangle the often overlapping variables associated with life satisfaction and happiness. Our results support previous ‘demographic’ findings as well as new results including education, marriage, children, human rights and, particularly in the context of Australian society, perceived choice in life. Establishing what the major contributing factors are can assist the formulation of social policy. Moreover, it can alert practitioners to the value of consolidating their work by encouraging service users to utilise community sources that enhance life satisfaction and/or happiness. Key Practitioner Message: ● The informed linking of service users to sources of life satisfaction and happiness can ‘value add’ direct service interventions; ● The salience of exercising individual choice to achieving life satisfaction reinforces the importance of the practice principle of self‐determination; ● A person's sense of physical wellbeing is a relevant part of social assessment and subsequent planned actions.     

Marginal Correlation from Logit- and Probit-Beta-Normal Models for Hierarchical Binary Data

In hierarchical data settings, be it of a longitudinal, spatial, multi-level, clustered, or otherwise repeated nature, often the association between repeated measurements attracts at least part of the scientific interest. Quantifying the association frequently takes the form of a correlation function, including but not limited to intraclass correlation. Vangeneugden et al. (2010 Vangeneugden, T., Molenberghs, G., Laenen, A., Geys, H., Beunckens, C., Sotto, C. (2010). Marginal correlation in longitudinal binary data based on generalized linear mixed models. Communi. Stati. Theory &; Methods. 39:3542–3557. [Google Scholar]) derived approximate correlation functions for longitudinal sequences of general data type, Gaussian and non-Gaussian, based on generalized linear mixed-effects models. Here, we consider the extended model family proposed by Molenberghs et al. (2010 Molenberghs, G., Verbeke, G., Demétrio, C., Vieira, A. (2010). A family of generalized linear models for repeated measures with normal and conjugate random effects. Stat. Sci. 25:325–347.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This family flexibly accommodates data hierarchies, intra-sequence correlation, and overdispersion. The family allows for closed-form means, variance functions, and correlation function, for a variety of outcome types and link functions. Unfortunately, for binary data with logit link, closed forms cannot be obtained. This is in contrast with the probit link, for which such closed forms can be derived. It is therefore that we concentrate on the probit case. It is of interest, not only in its own right, but also as an instrument to approximate the logit case, thanks to the well-known probit-logit ‘conversion.’ Next to the general situation, some important special cases such as exchangeable clustered outcomes receive attention because they produce insightful expressions. The closed-form expressions are contrasted with the generic approximate expressions of Vangeneugden et al. (2010 Vangeneugden, T., Molenberghs, G., Laenen, A., Geys, H., Beunckens, C., Sotto, C. (2010). Marginal correlation in longitudinal binary data based on generalized linear mixed models. Communi. Stati. Theory &; Methods. 39:3542–3557. [Google Scholar]) and with approximations derived for the so-called logistic-beta-normal combined model. A simulation study explores performance of the method proposed. Data from a schizophrenia trial are analyzed and correlation functions derived.     

Transformational leadership climate: Performance linkages, mechanisms, and boundary conditions at the organizational level

Transformational leadership (TFL) climate describes the degree to which leaders throughout an organization engage in TFL behaviors. In this study, we investigate performance linkages, mechanisms, and boundary conditions of TFL climate at the organizational level of analysis. In a sample of 158 independent organizations, 18,094 employees provided data on TFL climate, positive affective climate, trust climate, and employees' task performance behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, human resource managers rated overall employee productivity. Study results yielded a pattern of moderated mediation for overall employee productivity and employees' aggregate task performance behavior, in that an organization's TFL climate was indirectly (through positive affective climate) related with these outcome variables under conditions of high trust climate, but not under conditions of low trust climate. Further, we found an organization's TFL climate to indirectly relate with employees' aggregate organizational citizenship behavior through positive affective climate, largely independent of the level of trust climate.     

Does the internet change how we die and mourn? Overview and analysis

The article outlines the issues that the internet presents to death studies. Part 1 describes a range of online practices that may affect dying, the funeral, grief and memorialization, inheritance and archaeology; it also summarizes the kinds of research that have been done in these fields. Part 2 argues that these new online practices have implications for, and may be illuminated by, key concepts in death studies: the sequestration (or separation from everyday life) of death and dying, disenfranchisement of grief, private grief, social death, illness and grief narratives, continuing bonds with the dead, and the presence of the dead in society. In particular, social network sites can bring dying and grieving out of both the private and public realms and into the everyday life of social networks beyond the immediate family, and provide an audience for once private communications with the dead.