An agent-based approach to modelling virtual enterprises

This paper describes how virtual enterprises (VEs) can be modelled using the AGORA multi-agent architecture, designed for modelling and supporting cooperative work among distributed entities. The model consists of a structure of AGORAs and agents, where AGORAs are facilitators of cooperative work for agents and the agents represent the partners of the VE, the cooperative mechanisms and the service providers. The distributed and goal-oriented nature of the VE provides a strong motivation for the use of agents to model VEs. The main advantages of this approach are that the structure of AGORAs provides a homogeneous modelling environment throughout the life cycle of the VE, traceability of the VE activities and a history of the VE. In addition to these, it is important to point out that, agents being computational entities, the resulting model provides an easy and efficient passage from the model to the computational support that is required by the VE.     

The Rights and Responsibilities of Gay and Lesbian Parents: Legal Developments, Psychological Research, and Policy Implications

With the growing number of same-sex unions, the legal system must determine the rights and responsibilities of gay parents who decide to end a relationship. In 2005, the California Supreme Court found that a child's lesbian caregiver was a legal "parent" despite having no biological or adoptive relationship, while the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 2004 concluded the opposite. Psychologists can inform this debate by presenting research demonstrating that (a) children benefit from contact with two parents, and (b) children's well-being is unaffected by their parents' sexual orientation. Psychologists can further assist the legal system by conducting future research. In order for psychologists to impact laws and policies, legal actors must utilize this expertise .     

Looking After Children: assessing outcomes in child care. The experience of implementation

A Department of Health initiative has supported the implementation of Looking After Children in over 90 per cent of local authorities in England. The process has required major organisational change and new values and attitudes towards children looked after away from home. Difficulties arise where management and monitoring systems are not available to support these wider changes and to assess the quality of practice. Nevertheless clear benefits to using the system can be identified. Pilot projects in Sweden, Canada and Australia provide an opportunity to compare experiences internationally; strong parallels are evident in some of the current issues facing child welfare.     

Preadolescent Parenting Strategies and Teens' Dating and Sexual Initiation: A Longitudinal Analysis

In this article we examine the effects of preadolescent parenting strategies on timing of adolescents' dating and sexual initiation. Using data from the 2 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (1987–1988 and 1992–1994) involving interviews with parents as well as adolescents 4 years later, we estimate the effects of preadolescent parental support, coercive control, and monitoring on the timing of teens' dating and sexual initiation. We also examine how adolescents' gender, race, family structure, and socioeconomic background affect relationships between earlier parenting strategies and adolescent dating and sexual debut. We find evidence for the effect of preadolescent parental monitoring, though relatively little connection between parental support and coercive control, and variations in the timing of adolescent dating and sexual initiation. The findings suggest that parental monitoring prior to the onset of adolescence is important as a basic foundation for young people who later must make behavioral choices outside of parental purview.     

Gender Differences in Time Use Among Adolescents in Developing Countries: Implications of Rising School Enrollment Rates

This comparative analysis of gender differences in time use among adolescents uses surveys from five developing countries and is motivated by an interest in gender role socialization and gendered patterns of behavior during adolescence. Exploring differences in work (both noneconomic household work and labor market work) and leisure time among adolescents according to school enrollment status, we examine the implications of school enrollment for adolescent development. Consistent differences in time use patterns exist between students and nonstudents across a range of settings. Students spend many fewer hours than nonstudents in work activities and the type of work they do is primarily domestic. Although females carry a heavier workload and enjoy less leisure time than males during their adolescent years regardless of enrollment status, the distribution of their time and the types of activities they participate in are much more similar to their male peers when they are students.     

Young Adult Dating Relationships and the Management of Sexual Risk

Young adult involvement in sexual behavior typically occurs within a relationship context, but we know little about the ways in which specific features of romantic relationships influence sexual decision-making. Prior work on sexual risk taking focuses attention on health issues rather than relationship dynamics. We draw on data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (n = 475) to examine the association between qualities and dynamics of current/most recent romantic relationships such as communication and emotional processes, conflict, demographic asymmetries, and duration and the management of sexual risk. We conceptualize ‘risk management’ as encompassing multiple domains, including (1) questioning the partner about previous sexual behaviors/risks, (2) using condoms consistently, and (3) maintaining sexual exclusivity within the relationship. We identify distinct patterns of risk management among dating young adults and find that specific qualities and dynamics of these relationships are linked to variations in risk management. Results from this paper suggest the need to consider relational dynamics in efforts to target and influence young adult sexual risk-taking and reduce STIs, including HIV.     

RISK AVERSION,WEALTH, AND BACKGROUND RISK

We use household survey data to construct a direct measure of absolute risk aversion based on the maximum price a consumer is willing to pay for a risky security. We relate this measure to consumer's endowments and attributes and to measures of background risk and liquidity constraints. We find that risk aversion is a decreasing function of the endowment—thus rejecting CARA preferences. We estimate the elasticity of risk aversion to consumption at about 0.7, below the unitary value predicted by CRRA utility. We also find that households' attributes are of little help in predicting their degree of risk aversion, which is characterized by massive unexplained heterogeneity. We show that the consumer's environment affects risk aversion. Individuals who are more likely to face income uncertainty or to become liquidity constrained exhibit a higher degree of absolute risk aversion, consistent with recent theories of attitudes toward risk in the presence of uninsurable risks. (JEL: D1, D8)     

The Maternal Wall

Although the economic and social position of women has improved considerably in the last decades, some gendered expectations and roles have proved remarkably resilient. Increasingly, the gender gap in compensation has become an issue of "mother" versus "other," as, for example, working mothers earn 60% of what working fathers earn. Conservatives tend to frame the gender imbalance in terms of women's choices; but feminists, including those in this issue, debunk explanations that blame women for gender differences in earnings. Contributors to this issue, whose work we introduce here, chronicle and analyze the power of stereotypic thinking and behavior, and also discuss how to change both stereotypes and realities.