How Reliable are Students’ Evaluations of Teaching (SETs)? A Study to Test Student’s Reproducibility and Repeatability

Social Indicators Research - Students’ Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) are widely used as measures of teaching quality in Higher Education. A review of specialized literature evidences that...     

Capacity constraints and the dynamics of underwriting profits

The presence of an underwriting profit cycle in property/liability insurance has become a stylized fact. Models of this'underwriting cycle'imply that the insurance market is governed by two regimes, as capacity is constrained or not. We apply the smooth transition regression model to insurance industry data for 1934–1993 to test for a regime shift. We find a rapid shift between two distinct regimes with different dynamics. When capacity is not restricted, we find no evidence of a cycle. The cycle is present in periods when capacity is restricted, immediately following World War II and after 1968. The underwriting cycle appears to be a recent phenomenon.     

Irregular employment amongst migrants in Spanish cities

This article presents the irregular employment situation of non-European union immigrants in Spanish cities. Foreign labor is remarkable for its heterogeneity in terms of country of origin, demographic characteristics, and the different ways in which immigrants have entered the job market. Legal immigrants tend to concentrate in five different branches of activity, such as domestic service (mostly women), hotel and restaurant industry, agriculture, building and retail trade. Migrants who work in agriculture suffer the worst labor conditions than all other migrants. However, all migrants experience difficulty in obtaining residency and labor permits. Four integration strategies among Moroccan immigrants in Catalonia are discussed and can be viewed as support networks of the immigrants.     

The effects of smoking laws on seating allocations of restaurants, bars, and taverns

Supporters of smoking laws often argue that they do not harm restaurants, bars, and taverns and may even raise their profits. Opponents argue that owners cater to customer preferences regarding smoking and that laws mandating specific smoking policies will therefore negatively impact profits of some firms. This article tests hypotheses regarding how smoking laws affect seating allocations, using data from a nationwide survey of restaurant and bar owners. The empirical evidence indicates that smoking laws exert no significant effect on seating allocations. Firms are shown to allocate greater shares of seating to nonsmoking use when customers exhibit stronger preferences for such seating.     

自动往返电动小汽车的设计原理与制作方法

本文介绍了采用脉冲主动采集、计数程序控制、虚拟脉冲复位、撞击转向的方式完成自动往返电动小汽车的构思、设计及制作的方法。     

“The adoption and implementation of performance measurement process in Italian public organisations: the influence of political,cultural and rational factors”

One of the main challenges in the field of performance measurement and management in public organisations is about how to use and manage performance measures effectively. This study aims to examine the stages involved in the process of utilisation of performance measures, i.e. adoption and implementation, and to investigate the political, cultural and rational factors that affect this process. For this purpose, a theoretical model from the literature has been extended and tested by using the data gathered through a survey involving the managers of several departments of Italian regions and municipal districts. The final sample has included 201 usable observations. The data analysis has been conducted using structural equation modelling. A significant cause-and-effect relationship was found between the stages of adoption and implementation. Moreover, it was found that adoption is driven significantly by rational factors. Otherwise actual implementation is influenced by factors addressed both by political considerations, such as external interest groups and by rational evaluations such as resources. The effects of other rational and cultural factors on implementation stage are mediated by adoption.     

Situated Knowledge and Learning in Dispersed Teams

This qualitative field study explores how geographically dispersed teams learn and accomplish challenging work by drawing on knowledge situated in the multiple physical locales they span. We propose the construct of situated knowledge as important for understanding the learning process in dispersed teams. Data collected on seven development projects, each spanning multiple sites, reveal that situated knowledge is at the same time a valuable resource and a source of communication difficulty for dispersed teams. We find that, because their members understand and participate in locale–specific practices, dispersed teams can easily access and use unique locale–specific knowledge resources to resolve problems that arise in those same locales. However, when dispersed teams need knowledge situated at a site other than where the problem occurred, they must first recognize and adjust for locale–specific practices within which that knowledge is embedded before they can use it. The paper reports on analyses of 44 learning episodes that involved identifying and engaging situated knowledge, and draws from these data to identify implications for research and practice.     

Use of a case study in sequencing/scheduling research

This paper describes a study of an industrial sequencing/scheduling problem. The study contains the definition of the problem, data requirements and examination of solution technique. Definition of the problem is discussed from the aspect of uniqueness of the specific system. Discussion of data requirements includes availability and accuracy, while examination of solution technique considers limitation of time, computer capacity, etc., as well as the possibility of imbedding available algorithms into the solution procedure. Conclusions are presented relative to the use of the case study approach in sequencing/scheduling research.     

A hierarchical theory of occupational segregation and wage discrimination

Becker's model of discrimination is extended to the case where men exhibit distastes for working under female managers. The distribution of women in the resulting occupational hierarchy depends on the number of women in lower occupations, the wages of male workers in lower occupations, and male distastes for female management. Thus, there exists an occupational sorting function, related to wages, that determines the occupational distribution of women. We integrate this sorting function into a standard wage equation to derive a new decomposition of male-female wage differentials and apply it to a sample of insurance industry workers from the 1988 CPS.