Pension scheme fees and charge ratios in 44 countries: A comparative study

Based on data received from pension supervisory authorities, the article reviews 85 different pension schemes in 44 jurisdictions by looking at fees and charges as well as their legal ceilings and their development since 2014. A key finding is the observed decrease in fees and caps. The article presents jurisdictions according to clusters, i.e. by groups of countries with identical or very similar items already covered by pension fees, and analyses the extent to which various cost and fee elements are covered by fees charged to members. Finally, we calculate charge ratios for each cluster to quantify the impact of fees and charges on pension savings. Occupational defined contribution pension schemes and personal plans linked to employment tend to be much more cost effective than personal schemes that have no direct employment link.     

Teaching Employees How to Receive Feedback: A Preliminary Investigation

ABSTRACT

There is a substantial literature on how to deliver feedback to change performance. However, to date no research has been conducted on teaching employees how to effectively receive feedback, even though employee behavior during a feedback session could moderate the effects of feedback. Thus, we developed a list of skills that should be exhibited by an employee while receiving verbal feedback. We then evaluated their acquisition after behavioral skills training using a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design across participants. The results showed that participants were able to acquire and maintain appropriate feedback receiving behavior.     

网络语言暴力:调查与分析

文章通过实证调查和分析,从语言形式、施为类型和话题类型等角度呈现网络语言暴力的现状,在访谈基础上分析其成因和对国民形象建构的负面影响。研究发现:网络语言暴力现象比较普遍;从言语行为看,断言类最多,指令和表情类次之,承诺类最少;语言暴力与话题密切相关,谈及社会时事时发生频率极高,涉及男女情感和娱乐八卦时语言暴力会经常发生,而谈论家庭琐事或者工作学习时则较少出现。文章最后从社会环境和个人心理机制解析网络语言暴力,并尝试提出了建议以期为实现和谐语用提供参考。     

Installing Circuit Breakers: Mechanisms to Avoid Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

This paper suggests that a synergy is both possible and necessary between two traditionally distinct management approaches: the Weberian approach, which contends that the bureaucratic structure of a company affects the daily activities of employees, and the human relations model, which holds that small group leadership dynamics at the divisional/department level affects daily activities of employees. The tendency within organizations is to promote one approach over the other. A resolution to the debate is suggested in applying mechanisms to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Indeed, the courts have inadvertently pointed the way: the reasonable woman standard urges a human relations approach to resolving the problem of sexual harassment, placing the burden of solving the problem on supervisor personnel and their ability to direct their employee's behavior; the hostile environment issues promotes a Weberian structural solution, requiring sound policy be developed at the executive level to ensure workplace compliance to appropriate normative behavior. A one-sided approach is doomed to failure, which may explain why the issue continues to rage in the corporate sphere.     

中国城市化进程中的“半融入”与“不融入”

关于农民、农民工如何融入城市社会,已成为当前学术界、传媒及政府政策研讨的热门话题,2011—2015年实施的国家十二五规划在城镇化管理部分专门提到了农业转移人口如何逐步转为城镇居民的问题。所以,农民、农民工的城市融入或社会融入,已经成为中国当前改革与发展中的重要议题。本文以笔者组织的清华大学社会学系2009—2010年在广州的调研数据为基础,分析了外来农民工所遇到的不融入问题、农转非人员遇到的半融入问题,同时针对这两个不同社会群体所遇到的不同社会问题,在政府的制度设计上提出具体的社会对策。     

数量视角下中国青年婚姻态势的城乡比较

文章对晚婚、大龄未婚、终身不婚几个概念进行辨析的基础上,结合权威部门发布的数据,对当下中国青年婚姻状况进行分城乡比较和考察。指出城市和农村在婚姻年龄模式上,男性＂大龄未婚者＂所面临的终身不婚风险上均存在着差异,并对这些城乡差异产生的原因及其可能的社会学后果进行深入思考。     

基于协同救助的海上救助报酬合理分配方法

海上救助报酬是为鼓励人们冒险参与海上救援,由受益人给予救助人的补偿和回报,具有射幸性,奉行“无效果、无报酬”的给付原则。本文以救助方成本性和非成本性投入对救助效果的贡献为依据,首先对各方的成本性投入进行补偿;然后从资源要素的关键性和参与人的重要性两个维度对各救助方的贡献进行综合评价,并按贡献度对“剩余”部分进行二次分配,两次分配之和即为各救助方所获得的分配总额。通过运用“重购成本”和Shapley值法分别对资源要素的关键性和参与人的重要性进行客观度量,该方法可同时解决共同救助报酬的外部分配与内部分配问题,不仅避免了目前各国司法实践中按成本投入比例进行分配的不合理性,也更能体现相关国际公约和国内立法有关救助报酬分配的原则。     

Evaluation of single and mixed verbal operant arrangements for teaching mands and tacts

The purpose of this series of experiments was to evaluate the effects of mixed mand-tact arrangements on the acquisition of mands and tacts in preschool-aged children. In Experiment 1, the effects of three training arrangements (mand-only training, tact-only training, and mand-tact training) were investigated with 3 typically developing children. Rates of acquisition in single (mand-only and tact-only) versus mixed (mand-tact) presentation were comparable, in contrast to earlier investigations. Experiment 2 attempted to clarify the equivocal findings of Experiment 1 by directly replicating the Carroll and Hesse (1987) investigation with 2 typically developing children. Results again demonstrated no clear benefit of mixed verbal operant training on tact acquisition. In Experiment 3, these same arrangements were evaluated with a boy with autism and included assessments to determine that a relevant establishing operation was in effect prior to each mand training session. Experiment 3 again failed to demonstrate the facilitative effects of mand-tact training on the acquisition of mands or tacts. Taken together, the data from these three experiments fail to support the improved efficiency of mand-tact training suggested by prior studies. Findings are discussed in the context of future research investigating mixed verbal operant arrangements.     

Defining delayed consequences as reinforcers: some do, some don't, and nothing changes

Results of a survey sent to members of the editorial boards of five behavior-analytic journals in 1990 indicated that there was no consensus among respondents with respect to whether delayed events can function as reinforcers (Schlinger, Blakely, Fillhard, & Poling, 1991). Since that time, several studies with nonhuman animals have demonstrated that events delayed by at least several seconds can increase the probability of occurrence of the responses that produce them. To determine the relative number of contemporary behavior analysts who nonetheless believe that reinforcers must immediately follow the responses that produce them, the present study replicated the procedures used by Schlinger et al., with similar results. That is, respondents did not agree with respect to whether delayed events could be reinforcers.     

古兰学与经注学关系研究

古兰学(‘Ulūmal-qur’ān)是研究《古兰经》的基础学科,也是伊斯兰文化体系的传统学科。尽管古兰学是一门独立学科,但它因以《古兰经》为研究对象而具有多学科交叉特点,并由此产生了若干分支学科,经注学(‘ilmal-tafsir)则是其中最重要的主干学科。古兰学与经注学在学科原理和认知经文层面的共性关系,既有助于人们了解和理解《古兰经》的文体经义,也为伊斯兰文化发展提供不可或缺的思想资源。