Apathy and Antipathy: Media Coverage of Restrictive Immigration Legislation and the Maintenance of Symbolic Boundaries

Although the government no longer explicitly establishes boundaries of whiteness, it continues to play a central role in shaping symbolic boundaries between immigrants and nonimmigrants through immigration lawmaking. However, the salience of these boundaries may depend on how the media disseminate them to the public. In this study, we investigate media framing of immigration lawmaking using an original data set of news coverage of six of the most widely recognized exclusionary immigration bills and laws at different levels of government. Two patterns emerged from an iterative frame analysis. First, in their coverage of frames critical of these bills and laws, outlets devoted more attention to the effects of exclusionary legislation for nonimmigrants. Second, in their coverage of frames supportive of the restrictive legislation, outlets provided more space to those who openly associated immigrants with criminality and terrorism. Regardless of outlets’ seemingly neutral stance toward restrictive legislation, their disparate coverage of exclusionary lawmaking demonstrates apathy and antipathy toward immigrants, which has repercussions for the maintenance of inequality.     

Economic convergence and life satisfaction in the European Union

The issue of convergence or divergence in the European Union (EU) is usually viewed from a macroeconomic perspective, using indicators such as the income per head, the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. Little attention has been paid to the possibility of an associated convergence in ‘well-being’ across countries. Since recent literature has shown that subjective well-being (life satisfaction, ‘happiness’) is significantly affected by macroeconomic variables, it is natural to ask not only whether or not subjective well-being converges, but also, whether, how and to what extent this process is linked to macroeconomic convergence. In this paper we use self-rated life satisfaction elicited in large scale surveys to address these questions. We find evidence of convergence of life satisfaction across the member states of the EU, which can be attributed to a considerable extent to the convergence in macroeconomic conditions. Among the various macroeconomic indicators, the convergence in inflation rates has played a major role for the convergence in life satisfaction.     

Antwort auf die Erwiderung zu den Anmerkungen zur Diskussion zur Haftung des Wirtschaftsprüfers am Primär-und Sekundärmarkt

Ohne Zusammenfassung Forschungsschwerpunkte: Investition, Finanzierung, interne und externe Rechnungslegung.     

Social capital or strong culture?

Organization scientists have recently introduced the concept of social capital to explain how the fabric of social connections among organization members leads to superior organizational performance. In this paper, I argue that the typical formulations of social capital sound remarkably similar to familiar conceptions of organizational culture, especially those features that indicate tightly coupled and deeply embedded social relations. I identify the common strands in the concepts of social capital and organizational culture. I propose that, without further efforts of conceptual clarification and empirical verification, the wholesale adoption by human resource development practitioners of the most popular features of the social capital concept is risky and likely to lead to disillusionment.     

Shapiro,A.C.: Multinational Financial Management

RJB Review of Journals and Books

Shapiro, A.C.: Multinational Financial Management     

Elderly African Americans as intragenerational caregivers

A growing number of older Americans serve as caregiving resources for their elderly spouses, partners, relatives, and/or friends. Yet, little research has addressed the impact and implications of this trend among African Americans. This article describes the results of a qualitative study examining the intragenerational caregiving experiences and perspectives of two cohorts of African Americans (urban and rural, N = 129) between the ages of 58 and 89. Its findings reveal important differences and commonalities associated with elderly African American caregivers and their care giving in urban and rural settings. Additionally, the study suggests that volunteer caregivers can often fill the void left by partners and relatives who predecease or fail to assume responsibility for the care of their elderly relatives. Their efforts do not displace those of friends and family members, but rather address unmet needs in available care. The discussion focuses on the implications of the study findings for public policy and practice.     

Joint measurement of risk aversion,prudence, and temperance

Risk aversion—but also the higher-order risk preferences of prudence and temperance—are fundamental concepts in the study of economic decision making. We propose a method to jointly measure the intensity of risk aversion, prudence, and temperance. Our theoretical approach is to define risk compensations of different orders, and in an experiment we elicit these compensations with a price list technique. We find evidence for risk aversion, prudence, and temperance. These traits correlate within subjects. The compensations elicited for prudence are significantly larger than those for risk aversion and temperance. In contrast to commonly used utility functions, prospect theory can predict this behavioral pattern. In our experiment, risk-averse, risk-loving, and risk-neutral subjects are prudent. This supports a recent theoretical observation that prudence may be a more universal trait than previously realized.     

Dominance criteria for welfare comparisons: using equivalent income to describe differences in needs

The article demonstrates that the dominance approach—often used for the measurement of welfare in a population in which there are different household types (see e.g., Atkinson and Bourguignon, Arrow and the foundations of the theory of economic policy, 350–370, 1987)—can be based on explicit value judgments on the households’ living standard. We define living standard by equivalent income (functions) and consider classes of inequality averse social welfare functions: Welfare increases if the inequality of living standard is decreased. In this framework, we suggest three new dominance criteria and obtain characterizations of second degree stochastic dominance and of two criteria proposed by Bourguignon (Journal of Econometrics 42:67–80, 1989).     

Clinical experiences with testosterone therapy: prostate safety

Due to a decrease in Leydig cell function, a considerable proportion of men over 50 years of age will develop hypogonadism. Consequently, loss of libido and several other testosterone-dependent symptoms may become evident. When decreased levels of biologically available testosterone are found, and corresponding symptoms are present, these men could be eligible for testosterone substitution therapy. Testosterone treatment in testosterone-deprived men has been shown to improve general well-being, osteoporosis, muscle atrophy, libido and - if present - anemia. Despite these positive effects, testosterone treatment has to be performed with caution. Although it has not been proven that elevation of the serum testosterone level to the normal range results in a greater risk of developing prostate cancer, the effects of testosterone on a prostate cancer already present are well established. Several studies have demonstrated that testosterone treatment does not result in a significant increase in serum levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) or prostate volume. The long-term effects, however, are currently unknown. For these reasons, testosterone treatment should be performed only when the presence of prostate cancer is unlikely; i.e. when PSA levels are within normal limits and digital rectal examination does not reveal any suspicious findings. These examinations may still miss some small prostate cancers that could be promoted by testosterone treatment. The determination of PSA levels under testosterone treatment is necessary every 3 months, at least for the first year. Steadily rising PSA levels require immediate cessation of testosterone administration and the initiation of further diagnostic procedures (prostate biopsy), to rule out prostate cancer.