Internal and International Migration Across the Urban Hierarchy in Albania

The interactions between the processes of urbanization and international migration in less developed and transition countries have important repercussions for socioeconomic development, but are not well understood. Based on the retrospective data from the Albanian Living Standards Measurement Survey 2008, we first assess the geography of migration in terms of the rural–urban continuum, the urban hierarchy and the outside world since 1990. We then investigate the spatio-temporal diffusion of rural-to-urban and international movements using survival models. Results reveal an immediate onset of large-scale rural exodus, despite the post-communist crisis. Internal migrants mainly moved to the capital, bypassing secondary cities, and were predominantly female. Initially, international migrants were primarily men who tended to originate from the main urban agglomerations. The diffusion of opportunities to emigrate down the urban hierarchy and across the sexes then redirected the rural exodus abroad, despite domestic economic development. This evolution in population mobility is related to the gendered patterns and interlinkages of the two flows, as well as to rising inequalities within the urban hierarchy.

     

The age-varying effects of adolescent stress on impulsivity and sensation seeking

Adolescence is defined in part by heightened exposure and sensitivity to stressors. In a longitudinal cohort of youth at risk for substance use problems, we examined the age-varying relationship between stress exposure and traits that are central to the dual systems model. The positive associations between stress exposure, impulsivity, sensation seeking varied as function of age. Specifically, the influence of stress exposure on impulsivity strengthened during early adolescence and remained stable into early adulthood, while the influence of stress exposure on sensation seeking strengthened from early- to mid-adolescence and weakened thereafter. These findings suggest that the maturational imbalance between the capacity to regulate impulsive tendencies and sensation seeking may be exaggerated for youth who are exposed to a high number of stressors.     

Estimation for the Generalized Pareto Distribution Using Maximum Likelihood and Goodness of Fit

In this article, we introduce a new estimator for the generalized Pareto distribution, which is based on the maximum likelihood estimation and the goodness of fit. The asymptotic normality of the new estimator is shown and a small simulation. From the simulation, the performance of the new estimator is roughly comparable with maximum likelihood for positive values of the shape parameter and often much better than maximum likelihood for negative values.     

What to Make of the Liberal Paradox?

Sen's Liberal Paradox has received a good deal of attention in the literature. However, it is worth re-opening the discussion since the solutions offered so far have serious problems and since there is more to say about the nature of the problem displayed by the Liberal Paradox. I propose a new solution to the paradox in the following sense: First, I argue that its range of applicability is not very broad. Second, there is nothing paradoxical about a conflict of the principles involved in the Liberal Paradox. (Nagel's thesis of the ``fragmentation of value' is important to make this point.) Third, I make a recommendation about how to remove conflicts when they occur in a restricted class of cases. For the other cases, no recommendation of similar appeal is available. But in the light of the first point, the availability of a generally applicable recommendation was not to be expected.     

Thinking Like a Social Worker: Examining the Meaning of Critical Thinking in Social Work

This article proposes a model for interprofessional collaboration within the context and process of field experiences in public schools. The model evolved out of a collaborative venture between the schools of social work and education at Boston College. The placement of pairs of social work and education interns in urban schools provided an opportunity to identify the nature of collaboration that is transdisciplinary and not parallel practice. This transdisciplinary practice model is based on a common goal, discipline-specific objectives, and co-facilitated activities. The discussion includes issues of project design and implementation as well as the advantages and challenges of interprofessional field work.     

Citizen‐agency versus state‐agency at the frontline in prisons and probation services: A systematic literature review

Street‐level bureaucrats play a key role in the delivery of public services to the citizens with whom they interact. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta‐Analyses approach, we rely on a street‐level perspective to report a systematic review of 46 studies about officer–offender interactions in prisons and probation services. In doing so, we examine how correctional officers articulate state‐agency – whereby they focus on the implementation of rules and policies – and citizen‐agency – whereby their decisions regarding offenders are based on judgements of offenders' worth. Our results provide evidence that frontline work in prisons and probation services stems from a mix of citizen‐ and state‐agencies in which the former is prioritized over the latter: when rule enforcement allows it, correctional officers often make discretionary decisions based on professional judgements rooted in professional norms. In this respect, the managerial and actuarial approach to risk management and public protection involved by contemporary correctional reforms comes with new role expectations that conflict with correctional officers' rehabilitative ideals. At the same time, the literature provides many instances of officers coping with workload in order to meet policy objectives and organizational demands while maintaining satisfactory working conditions. In other words, there is an increasingly elaborate and fragile articulation of state‐ and citizen‐agencies at the frontline, in prisons and probations services. We conclude with some implications and an agenda for future research.     

TRANSFERABLE CONTROL

In this paper, we introduce the notion of transferable control, defined as a situation where one party (the principal, say) can transfer control to another party (the agent) but cannot commit herself to do so. One theoretical foundation for this notion builds on the distinction between formal and real authority introduced by Aghion and Tirole, in which the actual exercise of authority may require noncontractible information, absent which formal control rights are vacuous. We use this notion to study the extent to which control transfers may allow an agent to reveal information regarding his ability or willingness to cooperate with the principal in the future. We show that the distinction between contractible and transferable control can drastically influence how learning takes place: with contractible control, information about the agent can often be acquired through revelation mechanisms that involve communication and message‐contingent control allocations; in contrast, when control is transferable but not contractible, it can be optimal to transfer control unconditionally and learn instead from the way in which the agent exercises control. (JEL: C70, C72, D23, L2)