What influences the size of child maintenance payments? A register‐based study of maintenance payments in Finland

The aim of this study was to explore how particular economic and demographic factors contribute to the level of the child maintenance payment (CMP) paid by the non‐resident parent. For this study, we used 5‐year longitudinal panel data from years 2009 to 2013 consisting of over 80,000 non‐resident parents from the Finnish Tax Administration and The Finnish Population Register Centre. Results from regression models indicate that the single biggest factor affecting the size of CMPs is the number of dependent children. We found that the non‐resident parent's higher income is associated with higher CMPs and that non‐resident fathers pay on average larger CMPs than non‐resident mothers, even after accounting for differences in income. Unexpectedly, we found that the age of the dependent child did not predict changes in CMPs. This suggests that once formal CMP‐contracts are determined between the parents, they are seldom changed. Our results suggest that some degree of mandatory periodic review for maintenance contracts is worth considering.     

Job insecurity and work outcomes: The role of psychological contract breach and positive psychological capital

Job insecurity has received growing attention from researchers because it poses serious challenges for organisations and for society as a whole. However, there are insufficient studies about the processes through which job insecurity affects outcomes as well as potential ways to reduce its negative impact. This study focuses on the relationship between job insecurity and individual-level outcomes (in-role performance and organisational deviance) and examines if (a) job insecurity is positively and/or negatively related to work outcomes, (b) psychological contract breach acts as a mediator of the relationship between job insecurity and work outcomes, and (c) positive psychological capital (PsyCap) buffers the job insecurity–work outcomes relationship via psychological contract breach. With a sample of 362 employee–supervisor dyads, in which the outcome measures were collected from the supervisors, we found support for our hypotheses. Specifically, we found a moderated mediation effect, whereby PsyCap moderates the negative indirect relationship of job insecurity on outcomes through psychological contract breach.     

Coordinating contracts for a financially constrained supply chain

We consider a financially constrained supply chain in which a supplier (leader) sells products to a retailer (follower) who has no access to bank financing due to her low credit rating. However, the supplier can borrow from a bank and offer trade credit to the retailer to alleviate her financial constraint. Failure to pay off a bank loan or trade credit incurs a variable default cost. We analyze the centralized version of the supply chain to obtain new coordination requirements. We then examine whether revenue-sharing, buyback, and all-unit quantity discount contracts can coordinate our supply chain. We show that the all-unit quantity discount contract fails to coordinate. However, the revenue-sharing and buyback contracts can coordinate the supply chain, but only when the supply chain has a sufficient total working capital. Moreover, they cannot allocate profit flexibly unless the supplier has a large enough working capital. Finally, we design a generalized revenue-sharing contract that coordinates the supply chain with flexible profit allocation, and also show by numerical examples its superiority over the revenue-sharing and buyback contracts.     

自贡盐业契约“出山约”与“出丢上中下节约”研究

在清代民国时期,四川自贡井盐生产过程中出现了“出山约”、“上、中、下节约”等特殊契约形式,导致这种契约形式出现的原因是多方面的,其中自然环境、盐井开采技术以及市场竞争是导致这些契约关系出现的重要原因。这些契约形式的出现对当时自贡地区盐业生产产生了极大的影响,有效地解决了投资者与地主之间的矛盾,保证了井盐开采所需资金来源,分散了投资风险,优化了盐井生产组织形式,提升了投资的积极性,从而使自贡地区的井盐生产能形成独特的生产模式,长盛不衰。     

Missing item imputation for quality-of-life instruments with application to asthma quality-of-life questionnaires

There has been increasing use of quality-of-life (QoL) instruments in drug development. Missing item values often occur in QoL data. A common approach to solve this problem is to impute the missing values before scoring. Several imputation procedures, such as imputing with the most correlated item and imputing with a row/column model or an item response model, have been proposed. We examine these procedures using data from two clinical trials, in which the original asthma quality-of-life questionnaire (AQLQ) and the miniAQLQ were used. We propose two modifications to existing procedures: truncating the imputed values to eliminate outliers and using the proportional odds model as the item response model for imputation. We also propose a novel imputation method based on a semi-parametric beta regression so that the imputed value is always in the correct range and illustrate how this approach can easily be implemented in commonly used statistical software. To compare these approaches, we deleted 5% of item values in the data according to three different missingness mechanisms, imputed them using these approaches and compared the imputed values with the true values. Our comparison showed that the row/column-model-based imputation with truncation generally performed better, whereas our new approach had better performance under a number scenarios.     

近十年《关于正确处理人民内部矛盾的问题》的研究述评

《关于正确处理人民内部矛盾的问题》是毛泽东在我国社会主义建设早期,对马克思主义矛盾学说理论进行阐释的十分重要的经典著作之一.它的发表对于正确认识和处理我国社会主义建设时期的人民内部矛盾,提供了科学的理论遵循和方法借鉴,并产生了重大影响.学界近十年对《关于正确处理人民内部矛盾的问题》的研究,产生了大量的优秀理论成果,主要涉及文本的解读、历史的考察、哲学的思考、思政教育探析、当代价值、意义和启示等层面,但同时也存在一些问题,如研究视域相对狭小、研究深度相对不够、研究内容相对零碎、研究范式相对僵化、研究层面相对失衡等.学界需要在继承原有研究成果基础之上,扩大研究视野、创新研究范式、平衡研究层面,来促进《关于正确处理人民内部矛盾的问题》研究的不断深化.     

对“公司＋农户”组织模式的反思

本文对当前我国“公司＋农户”组织模式困境作了较为深入的剖析。一是对公司和农户签订的契约环境进行分析,找出“公司＋农户”组织困境产生的根源。二是对履约过程中的障碍进行分析,找出“公司＋农户”组织运行的困境。结合我国实际提出了“公司＋农户”组织模式改进的建议：通过提高农户的组织化程度,构建有效的治理结构,摆脱集体行动逻辑的困境;扩大农户生产规模,提高自我履约能力;双方建立起真正的利益共享机制;政府体制进行改进和互补性制度的安排。     

高校师资管理改革中的心理契约违背问题分析

心理契约违背是个体在组织忽视其心理期望、未能履行承诺与责任时所产生的一系列消极情绪和行为。高校师资管理改革在促进教育发展的同时,也增加了教师心理契约违背的可能性。单一、量化的绩效考评机制、教师职业特性的调整和聘用制的不完善实施所带来的心理压力是导致高校教师心理契约违背的主要原因,管理者需通过建立科学的绩效考评体系、完善激励制度、加强沟通等措施重构高校与教师之间的心理契约,去除心理契约违背产生的消极影响,近而激发教师的工作潜能,提高高校整体的师资管理水平。     

合同案件民事审判中法官自由裁量权刍议——以对事实的认定为例

合同案件民事审判中法官自由裁量权主要包括举证责任分配的自由裁量,判断证据之证据能力即合法性的自由裁量和适用证明标准的自由裁量。当前,合同案件民事审判中法官自由裁量质量不高且比较混乱,基本没有规则可循。要搞好合同案件民事审判中法官对事实认定的自由裁量,必须在思想和组织上高度重视,加强对事实认定方面在判决书中的说理和公开审判制度,加强监督和对错案的纠正。     

胎儿利益的法律保护

胎儿是未来的、潜在的民事主体,对胎儿利益的保护程度是衡量一个国家法制文明和社会进步的重要标志。阐释胎儿利益的法律保护范围,考察其他国家和地区关于胎儿利益保护的立法,评析中国现行的相关立法并提出具体的完善建议。