A “brer rabbit” case for reverse mandated benefits

Reverse mandated benefits is a government-mandated policy that requires employees to provide their employers with benefits that workers would not provide otherwise. Of course, only those benefits would be mandated that are worth more to employers than they cost, as determined by political authorities. My case for such a policy argues that it is at least as sensible as policies mandating that employers provide benefits to their employees that would not be provided otherwise.     

Going to Pieces: Paul Monette and the Fragments of the Tribe

Author of the highly acclaimed Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir (1988) and winner of the 1992 National Book Award for his autobiography Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, Paul Monette died of complications from AIDS in Los Angeles on February 12, 1995. His most recent work, Last Watch of the Night: Essays Too Personal and Otherwise (1994), is his third volume in a trilogy of autobiographical writing on growing up gay, coming-out, and living with AIDS. A graduate of Phillips Academy and Yale University, Monette received a number of awards for his writing and his work as an outspoken voice in the battle against AIDS, including the National Book Award, three Lambda Literary awards, the PEN Center West Freedom to Write Award, and three honorary doctorate degrees, from Wesleyan University, the City University of New York, and the State University of New York at Oswego. A memorial service was held for Monette on Sunday, February 19, 1995, at the Directors Guild of America on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Paul Monette was 49.     

面向人与自然和谐共生的环境党内法规的治理逻辑

建设面向人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化,中国式法治化是必然要求,其中环境法治不可或缺。中国式的环境法治必然要重视党内法规的特殊法治和治理功能。可从着力发挥党内法规在环境法治中的特殊作用、统筹推进环境综合治理的规范功能、推动构建人类环境命运共同体的制度文明三方面,揭示出环境党内法规所秉持环境系统观、环境效能观、环境文明观的政理法理。环境党内法规有广义和狭义之分,环境党内法规所承载上述治理逻辑的规范样态,不仅包括符合《中国共产党党内法规制定条例》严格形式要件的狭义党内法规,也包括引领环境法治发展的环境政策、起到监督保障等作用的党内环境规范性文件。从环境党内法规的政治功能和规范效力来讲,将以决议、决定、意见、通知等为主要载体的环境政策视为广义的环境党内法规,符合新形势下环境党内法规体系构筑的核心要义。从目前党内法规体系的构成情况看,起到监督保障作用的党内环境规范性文件成为了主力军,但其数量庞杂又单线作战的实践困境使其亟需完善以形成治理合力。因此,应进一步探讨党的环境政策和党内环境规范性文件向狭义党内法规的有机转化,使狭义的环境党内法规成为环境党内法规体系的主体部分。广义视阈下的环境党内法规,在面向人与自然和谐共生的现代化中发挥着规范、治理与重塑的制度功能。环境党内法规通过将党的不成文的环境文明提炼转化为具有约束力的制度形态,从而使其获得长远的效能力和长期的执行力。环境党内法规通过为生态文明建设提供制度赋能,从而全面发挥其环境治理的政治效能、预防效能和发展效能。环境党内法规以党的领导为本质特征的政治结构为环境文明奠基、以人民为中心的人本理念为环境文明铸魂、以党规国法共治为保障的外部制度为环境文明塑形,使其实质上具备了打造人类环境文明新形态的重塑功能。需要注意的是,完备的环境党内法规体系对上述功能的系统发挥尤为重要,因此,面向人与自然和谐共生的环境党内法规,还有待进一步体系化完善。     

寄生在同一个链条上的两害——乌鲁木齐市贩毒、吸毒人群与艾滋病人群的相关研究

新疆毗邻世界毒源重地"金新月"地区,特殊的地理位置为国际、国内大小毒枭所垂青,使其不仅是毒品的集散地,也是吸毒的重灾区。同时,当地的艾滋病疫情也不容小视。调查研究表明:乌鲁木齐(包括新疆)不是制毒的基地,而是"金新月"毒贩选定贩运毒品的重要通道;贩毒、吸毒、艾滋病,没有民族界限;贩毒———吸毒与艾滋病是同一链条上的两害,是当地艾滋病疫情的主要成因。     

Was there compression of disability for older Americans from 1992 to 2003?

Medical advances and the growth of the elderly population have focused interest on trends in the health of the elderly. Three theories have been advanced to describe these trends: compression of morbidity, expansion of morbidity, and dynamic equilibrium. We applied multistate life table methods to the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey to estimate active and disabled life expectancy from 1992 to 2003, defining disability as having difficulty with instrumental activities of daily living or activities of daily living. We found increases in active life expectancy past age 65 and decreases in life expectancy with severe disability. These trends are consistent with elements of both the theory of compression of morbidity and the theory of dynamic equilibrium.     

Using age and spatial flow structures in the indirect estimation of migration streams

This article outlines a formal model-based approach for inferring interregional age-specific migration streams in settings where such data are incomplete, inadequate, or unavailable. The estimation approach relies heavily on log-linear models, using them to impose some of the regularities exhibited by past age and spatial structures or to combine and borrow information drawn from other sources. The approach is illustrated using data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. and Mexico censuses.     

As low birth weight babies grow,can well-educated parents buffer this adverse factor? A research note

This research note combines two national Taiwanese data sets to investigate the relationships among low birth weight (LBW) babies, their parents' educational levels, and their future academic outcomes. We find that LBW is negatively correlated with the probability of such children attending college at age 18; however, when both parents are college or high school graduates, such negative effects may be partially offset. We also show that discrimination against daughters occurs, but only for daughters who were LBW babies. Moreover high parental education can buffer the LBW shock only among moderately LBW children (as compared with very LBW children) and full-term LBW children (as compared with preterm LBW children).     

Race,military service,and marital timing: Evidence from the NLSY-79

I use data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth to examine the relationship between military service and marital timing for white men and black men during the 1980s. I use information about active-duty and reserve-duty service as well as veteran status to implement strong controls for selectivity. I find that active-duty military service increases the probability of first marriage for both whites and blacks. In part, this relationship is due to positive selectivity into the military and, for whites, to greater income and economic stability. Above and beyond the effects of selectivity, income, and economic stability, the effect of active-duty military service is particularly strong for black men.     

The demography of disability and the effects of immigrant history: Older Asians in the United States

Using data from the 2000 U.S. census, we compare the older Asian population with U.S.-born, non-Hispanic whites with respect to three indicators of disability. Insofar as any Asian "advantage" in health vis-a-vis whites exists among the population aged 65 and over, our evidence suggests that it occurs primarily among the U.S.-born segments of this population. We also investigate how differences in disability levels among Asian immigrant groups are influenced by country of birth and by the combined effects of duration of residence in the United States and life cycle stage at entry. These results highlight the diversity of the older Asian population with respect to the ways in which immigration and origin history are linked to disability outcomes. We conclude that in later life, immigrant status confers few disability advantages among the Asian population in the United States.     

Strength of attachment: Survey coverage of people with tenuous ties to residences

This article draws on evidence from an exploratory survey of living situations to assess the validity of assumptions about residence and to offer methodological innovations to improve coverage of people with tenuous attachment to households. These innovations include more inclusive probes and questions used to compile the roster of household residents; a review of the places a person stayed the previous few months; and a Residential Attachment scale that measures strength of attachment to households. This scale shows that it takes more probing to list tenuously attached people than most surveys do, suggesting that tenuously attached people are likely to be omitted from the typical survey roster. The Residential Attachment scale is correlated with social and economic participation in households, suggesting that participation is fairly high even among those with tenuous or no residential attachment.