Back Pay for Trafficked Migrant Workers: An Indonesian Case Study

In 2015 the International Organization for Migration (IOM) identified almost 1,200 trafficked migrants working in slave‐like conditions on fishing boats in East Indonesia. The IOM helped the migrants and offered to cover the cost of repatriation to their countries of citizenship. The Indonesian government appreciated the financial support, not least because the victims’ embassies refused to pay. But most victims in one location refused to return to their home country without the wages owed to them by their trafficker‐cum‐employers. IOM policy states that migrants are eligible to use the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) service if they are unable or unwilling to remain in the host country. But another condition is that migrants must use the services voluntarily. The IOM could not force the migrants to leave the country, and national law prevented the Indonesian government from deporting the migrants because the IOM had identified them as victims of trafficking. 1     

Two Stochastic Multidimensional Choice Models for Marketing Research

Two recently developed probabilistic multidimensional models for analyzing pairwise choice data are introduced, discussed in terms of their differential properties, and extended in several ways. The first one, the wandering vector model, was originally suggested by Carroll [12] and extended by De Soete and Carroll [30]. The second model, called the wandering ideal point model, is a more recently proposed [32] unfolding analog of the wandering vector model. A general maximum likelihood estimation method for fitting the various models described is mentioned, as well as a statistical test for assessing the goodness of fit. Finally, an application of the models is provided concerning consumer choice for some 14 brands of over-the-counter analgesics to illustrate how such models can be gainfully utilized for marketing decision making concerning product positioning.     

On the Creation of Acceptable Conjoint Analysis Experimental Designs

Conjoint analysis studies typically utilize orthogonal fractional factorial experimental designs to construct a set of hypothetical stimuli. Occasionally, these designs include environmentally correlated attributes that can lead to stimulus profiles that are not representative of the subject's environment. To date, no one has proposed a remedy well-grounded in statistical theory. This note presents a new methodology utilizing combinatorial optimization procedures for creating modified fractional factorial designs that are as “orthogonal” as possible, which do not contain nonrepresentative stimulus profiles.     

On the Measurement of Perceived Consumer Risk

The role of perceived risk in consumer behavior has been studied extensively by academic researchers. This paper introduces a methodology for the measurement of the effects of product features, marketing mix components, and individual differences on perceived consumer risk based on theoretical foundations in the literature. A conjoint-type model based on paired comparison judgments is estimated to provide attribute weights. A modification of a stochastic multidimensional scaling-based vector model is then used to measure and summarize individual consumer differences with respect to the impact of brand attributes and marketing mix components on latent levels of perceived consumer risk. An illustration is provided using students’ risk perceptions of sports cars.     

Intimate Partner Communication From the War Zone: A Prospective Study of Relationship Functioning,Communication Frequency,and Combat Effectiveness

This study examined (a) the association between relationship functioning prior to and during deployment, and the frequency of communication during deployment; and (b) the association between relationship functioning and depression during deployment and their influence on service members’ ratings of duty performance. Participants were 144 partnered Airmen assessed immediately before and during a one‐year high‐risk deployment to Iraq. Results showed an overall high frequency of partner communication during deployment. High relationship distress at predeployment predicted lower frequency of communication during deployment. Changes in relationship distress from before deployment to during deployment independently predicted frequency of communication, above and beyond predeployment distress levels. Level of relationship distress and depression during deployment independently predicted service members’ ratings of impact on duty performance.     

BAD NEWS FROM THE FRONT AND FROM ABOVE: BOMBING RAIDS,MILITARY FATALITIES AND THE DEATH PENALTY IN NAZI GERMANY

We examine how the decision-making of political elites respond to an imminent external threat to the existence of the state in times of war. To do so, we exploit exogeneous variation in exposure to battle deaths and bombing raids to estimate the effect of variation in the intensity of war on the probability that individuals charged with treason and/or high treason in Nazi Germany received the death sentence. A doubling of the number of military fatalities as well as bombing raids in the same week in which a defendant was sentenced increased the likelihood of receiving the death penalty by about 10 percentage points. (JEL K14, N44)     

Exploring Community Cohesion in Rural Canada Post-Extreme Weather: Planning Ahead for Unknown Stresses

As social capital evolves, we need to better address how we assess it in terms of community connection and involvement. This research presents a longitudinal study of Goderich, Ontario’s post-tornado community connection and involvement in relation to the Capacities and Vulnerabilities Analysis (CVA) model’s social, physical, and motivational factors. We first address literature around rural communities, extreme stresses related to capacity and vulnerability, the window of opportunity, and current uses for the CVA model before continuing with a brief synopsis of the study community and our research methods of surveys and interviews. Our results highlight three key findings: (a) there was a reduction in perceptions of connection and satisfaction with rebuild from 2012 to 2016; (b) in 2016, employed individuals experience a stronger sense of connection to community; and (c) five years after the tornado, the more satisfaction with involvement the higher the sense of community connection. Concluding our discussion of these findings, we propose a modification to extend the CVA model’s usefulness to a wider range of situations. We argue a pre-emptive, motivationally focused CVA model can be a useful tool for rural communities in multi-level income locations to address their community’s capacities and vulnerabilities prior to an extreme stress and build their connection and involvement levels.     

Analytical Characterization of the Information Matrix for Split-Plot Designs

This article provides the analytical characterization of the inverse of the information matrix for second-order SPD. A particular feature of these explicit expressions is that they are functions of the design parameters enabling the development of analytical functions to efficiently compute exact design optimality criteria. The application of these analytical expressions is demonstrated using the generalized variance of the parameter estimates for second-order SPD. An example illustrating the use of these expressions is also presented.     

Regression Estimation of Crop Acreages With Transformed Landsat Data as Auxiliary Variables

Methods are developed for combining data collected by satellite with data collected in an area survey to estimate crop acreages. The basic procedure is that of survey regression estimation. Two methods of transforming the satellite information prior to regression estimation are compared.     

A “Subterranean Agenda”? Racial Attitudes, Presidential Evaluations, and Tea Party Membership

Recent research suggests that fiscally conservative policy preferences and disapproval of President Obama are significant predictors of Tea Party membership (Maxwell and Parent 2012). Unfortunately, however, we know very little about the reasons why Tea Party members so aggressively disapprove of President Obama. While Tea Party members adamantly deny that President Obama’s race plays any role in their motivations, their critics argue that racial attitudes are a primary reason why individuals choose to join the movement. In this article, using national survey data conducted by Knowledge Networks (n = 1649), we explore the possibility that three unique racial attitudes have been influential in the establishment of the Tea Party. Specifically, we investigate the role of symbolic racism, racial stereotypes, and ethnocentrism as predictors of self-identified Tea Party membership among whites.