EXTERNALITIES IN PROGRAM EVALUATION: THE IMPACT OF A WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM ON IMMUNIZATION

Impact evaluations of development programs usually do not explicitly take into account externalities on non‐participants. Based on a unique dataset we estimate the direct as well as the spillover effects of Mahila Samakhya, a women's empowerment program in India, on child immunization. The survey covers both participants and non‐participants in program villages, as well as respondents in control villages. We account for participation selection bias using instrumental variables. We propose a direct test for the exclusion restriction using the control villages. We find both direct effects on the immunization rates of participants’ children and significant spillovers on immunization rates of non‐participants’ children. The impact of interventions might be substantially underestimated if such external effects were not taken into account. Alternative estimation methods such as propensity score matching and a regression discontinuity approach yield comparable results.     

A Tale of Political Trust in American Cities

This study performs a multilevel analysis of public trust inlocal government. We develop and test competing hypotheses aboutthe contextual and individual-level sources of local politicaltrust. The results show that citizens’ trust in localgovernment is shaped not only by individual-level factors butalso by city-level factors such as income inequality, ideologicalpolarization, political institutions, racial fractionalization,and size of population. Cross-level analysis further indicatesthat the effects of race on local political trust are conditionedby cities’ systems of political representation.     

Modelling Resource Allocation in a Decentralized Organization with an AI-Based,Goal-Directive Model*

Modelling the resource allocation decision process in a decentralized organization using mathematical programming decomposition approaches has proven intractable for all but the smallest of problems. In this paper three artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are integrated to model the resource allocation decision process, and the solution for a three-level decentralized organization is illustrated. The techniques are (1) the filtered beam search, which selects a list of potential projects at the subordinate level, (2) the world model, which describes the ordinate and superordinate's worlds and their decision-making processes, and (3) the blackboard model, which allows for global, but selective, storage of information. Benefits of the new approach include: several different mechanisms of managerial control may be modelled, the true information flow in an organization is more closely mirrored, and problems of a more realistic size are now viable. There are three primary ways in which the new model could be useful to management: The desirability and effects of different organizational structures can be modeled, the efficacy of various coordination mechanisms along the organizational structure can be examined, and a subset of projects from a wider list of possibilities can be selected. Also, an example is given showing how the model may be extended to scenarios with asymetric information and divergence of preferences, whereby subordinates have different objectives than their managers and where there is no way for managers to verify the truthfulness of their subordinates' responses.     

Postwar Reconfigurations of the US Empire and Global Military Occupation: Struggles against Enclosure in Okinawa

This article argues through an examination of an anti‐base struggle that erupted in early 1950 in Isahama, Okinawa that it is necessary to consider the ways that the so‐called new imperialism of the post‐World War II period required the transformation of social relations, even in places like Okinawa that are regarded as exceptional sites where US bases and facilities operate through the suspension of sovereignty. It asserts that a focus on the gendered dimensions of antagonisms that developed in Okinawa as the US built its military complexes there allows us to see how local communities, often led by women, fundamentally challenged the base‐related enclosures and pushed against the constant ideological work that the language of exception played in normalizing capitalist social relations in general. Finally, it claims that while Okinawa's case may not seem meaningful if taken in its singularity, if we keep in mind that the islands were just one locale within a global military empire that was comprised of hundreds of military complexes containing thousands of bases scattered throughout 64 countries at the height of the Cold War, the destabilizing force of struggles against enclosures as material and ideological sites through which capitalist social relations were naturalized should not be underestimated as valuable shapers of the post‐World War II American empire.     

Cohabitation and Marital Expectations Among Single Millennials in the U.S.

Cohabitation has surpassed marriage as the most common union experience in young adulthood. We capitalize on a new opportunity to examine both marital and cohabitation expectations among young single women in recently collected, nationally representative data (National Survey of Family Growth 2011–2015) (N?=?1467). In the US there appears to be a ‘stalled’ second demographic transition as single young adult (ages 18–24) women have stronger expectations to marry than cohabit and the vast majority expects to, or has, already married. Among young women expecting to marry, the majority (68%) expect to cohabit with their future spouse but about one-third expect to follow a traditional relationship pathway into marriage (to marry without cohabiting first). In addition, women from disadvantaged backgrounds report the lowest expectations to marry, but there is no education gradient in expectations to cohabit. Marriage expectations follow a “diverging destinies” pattern, which stresses a growing educational divide, but this is not the case for cohabitation expectations. Our results, based on recently collected data, provide insight into the contemporary context of union formation decision-making for the millennial generation.

     

Neighborhood Norms,Disadvantage, and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration

Most theoretical treatments of intimate partner violence (IPV) focus on individual‐level processes. More recently, scholars have begun to examine the role of macrolevel factors. Results of that research indicate that social ties facilitate the diffusion of cultural norms—including tolerance of deviance/violence—across neighborhoods. Yet the influence of the neighborhood normative climate extends beyond norms regarding the use of violence, shaping cultural understanding about dating and the opposite sex. Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), the current investigation examines the multilevel association between dating norms and IPV perpetration among a large, diverse sample of adolescents and young adults. Results indicate that individuals’ liberal dating attitudes are associated with IPV perpetration. Furthermore, this effect varies across levels of neighborhood disadvantage.     

The practical utility of the Welch Emotional Connection Screen for rating parent–infant relational health

Emotional Connection (EC) measured by the Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) was related to the Parent–Infant Interaction Rating System (PIIRS), a 5‐point adaptation of the rating system developed for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (e.g., NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1999, Developmental Psychology, 35, 1399). Parent–infant dyads (n = 49 mothers; 43 fathers) were videotaped during face‐to‐face interaction at infant age 6 months; interactions were coded with both the WECS and PIIRS. At age 3, mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist. WECS ratings of EC were associated with PIIRS rating items for both mother–infant and father–infant dyads. Mother–infant EC related positively to maternal sensitivity and positive regard for child, child positive mood and sustained attention, and dyadic mutuality, and negatively with maternal intrusiveness. Father–infant EC related positively to fathers' positive regard for child, child positive mood and sustained attention, and dyadic mutuality. Mother–infant EC predicted child behavior problems at age 3 better than mother–infant PIIRS ratings of dyadic mutuality. With fathers, neither EC nor dyadic mutuality ratings predicted mother‐reported child behavior problems. Findings highlight the practical utility of the WECS for identifying potentially at‐risk dyads and supporting early relational health.     

The educational gradient of childbearing within cohabitation in Europe

Nearly every European Country has experienced some increase in nonmarital childbearing, largely due to increasing births within cohabitation. Relatively few studies in Europe, however, investigate the educational gradient of childbearing within cohabitation or how it changed over time. Using retrospective union and fertility histories, we employ competing risk hazard models to examine the educational gradient of childbearing in cohabitation in eight countries across europe. In all countries studied, birth risks within cohabitation demonstrated a negative educational gradient. When directly comparing cohabiting fertility with marital fertility, the negative educational gradient persists in all countries except Italy, although differences were not significant in Austria, France, and West Germany. To explain these findings, we present an alternative explanation for the increase in childbearing within cohabitation that goes beyond the explanation of the Second Demographic Transition and provides a new interpretation of the underlying mechanisms that may influence childbearing within cohabitation.