America's Most Important Problem--A Trend Analysis, 1946-1976

Using an extremely rich data series, this paper traces trendsin America's most important problem from 1946 to 1976. Bothlong-term and short-term changes in public concern are charted.Additionally, the problem profiles of major sociodemographicgroups are analyzed. Changes in the problem concerns of thesegroups are also followed across time.     

LOSS AVERSION AND MANAGERIAL DECISIONS: EVIDENCE FROM MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Previous research indicates that management changes are important events for organizations, partly because they lead to reversals of poor prior decisions. An unanswered question is why replacing the manager seems to be necessary for reversing poor decisions. One explanation is that managers have an irrational behavioral aversion to admitting mistakes (loss aversion). We test this hypothesis with a research design that mitigates many of the measurement problems associated with investment decisions in traditional corporate settings, and that allows us to distinguish agency cost from loss aversion as explanations. Using Major League Baseball data, we find that new managers, compared to continuing managers, are more likely to divest low‐performing players. Moreover, when the manager is new and the previous manager was responsible for acquiring a player who is underperforming, the likelihood of player divestiture is significantly higher relative to low performers acquired by earlier managers. Experience of the acquiring manager does not affect the likelihood that the manager retains a low performer, suggesting that it is loss aversion, and not career concerns, that motivates acquiring managers to retain low performers. The findings suggest that loss aversion plays a significant role in managerial decisions and managerial turnover. (JEL J6, L8, D8)     

HOME COMPUTERS AND EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES: EVIDENCE FROM THE NLSY97 and CPS*

Although computers are universal in the classroom, nearly 20 million children in the United States do not have computers in their homes. Surprisingly, only a few previous studies explore the role of home computers in the educational process. Home computers might be very useful for completing school assignments, but they might also represent a distraction for teenagers. We use several identification strategies and panel data from the two main U.S. data sets that include recent information on computer ownership among children—the 2000–2003 Current Population Survey (CPS) Computer and Internet Use Supplements matched to the CPS basic monthly files and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97)—to explore the causal relationship between computer ownership and high school graduation and other educational outcomes. Teenagers who have access to home computers are 6–8 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than teenagers who do not have home computers after controlling for individual, parental, and family characteristics. We generally find evidence of positive relationships between home computers and educational outcomes using several identification strategies, including controlling for typically unobservable home environment and extracurricular activities in the NLSY97, fixed effects models, instrumental variables, and including future computer ownership and falsification tests. Home computers may increase high school graduation by reducing nonproductive activities, such as truancy and crime, among children in addition to making it easier to complete school assignments (JEL I2).     

Local Power Analyses of Goodness-of-fit Tests for Copulas

Abstract.  The asymptotic behaviour of several goodness-of-fit statistics for copula families is obtained under contiguous alternatives. Many comparisons between a Cramér–von Mises functional of the empirical copula process and new moment-based goodness-of-fit statistics are made by considering their associated asymptotic local power curves. It is shown that the choice of the estimator for the unknown parameter can have a significant influence on the power of the Cramér–von Mises test and that some of the moment-based statistics can provide simple and efficient goodness-of-fit methods.     

On Patient Satisfaction in Cerebral Palsy Care

Correspondence to Professor W. G. Kernohan, Room 12J08, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey BT37 0QB Summary The value of managing teamwork in health care is well recognized.Yet, for a variety of reasons, it often fails to provide thedegree of support required. To investigate the capacity forall-round service provision in Northern Ireland, a survey wascarried out to obtain both quantitative and qualitative dataon the degree of social and health care support for familieswith a child affected by cerebral palsy, one of the most seriousorthopaedic disorders. Results suggest that, while clinicalmedical care is generally good, the role of social support inhealthcare management seems poorly defined, fragmented and variable.     

ADAM SMITH'S RATIONAL CHOICE LINGUISTICS

Adam Smith offers an account, based on rational choice considerations, of the grammatical change experienced by languages when adults attempt to communicate across languages in such a way as to minimize transactions costs. His model predicts what is known to linguists as a "pidgin," a language learned by adults in which to make trades. His model can be extended to predict the grammatical trajectory toward pidgin experienced by dying languages. (JEL A1, B3)     

Uniform in Bandwidth Estimation of Integral Functionals of the Density Function

Abstract. We apply recent results on local U‐statistics to obtain uniform in bandwidth consistency and central limit theorems for some commonly used estimators of integral functionals of density functions.     

Not Such an 'Ordinary' Relationship: the role of women support staff in relation to men with learning disabilities who have difficult sexual behaviour

This paper brings together some preliminary data on the management of men with learning disabilities who have unacceptable/abusive sexual behaviour patterns with a small pilot study which specifically explores the roles of women support workers in relation to difficult sexual behaviour. A specific focus on the behaviour of men with learning disabilities is justified because of consistent evidence that it is men, rather than women, service users who challenge services in this way. The studies explore with staff the boundaries of what is considered acceptable sexual behaviour and how breaches of these are responded to within services. One issue which we have chosen to highlight is the frequent exposure of women staff to the men's sexual behaviour, sometimes precipitated by the unusual relationship that exists between the two parties, and exacerbated by the lack of clear management guidance within the gendered hierarchies found in service agencies.