Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

From The Mcdonald Report To The Kelly Committees: The Government Research And Policy Making Process Connected To Oppositional Political Terrorism In Canada, Jeffrey Ian Ross Ph.D.

Jeffrey Ian Ross Ph.D.

This article presents an analysis of the Canadian government's research and policy-making processes in connection with oppositional political terrorism during the time between the McDonald Report (1977) to the Third Kelly Committee (1999). In particular, the article examines this subject by reviewing popular, scholarly, and governmental literature; relying on personal experiences; and, most importantly, focusing on information gathered during a series of interviews with key informants conducted over a 14-year period. The article concludes with a list of factors that impeded government research and policy development connected with this subject and policy area and a handful of suggestions for overcoming …

Knocking On The Ivory Tower's Door: The Experience Of Ex-Convicts Applying For Tenure-Track University Positions, Jeffrey Ian Ross Ph.D., Stephen C. Richards, Greg Newbold, Mike Lenza, Daniel S. Murphy

Jeffrey Ian Ross Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Disciplina De Mestrado: Geografia De Relações Internacionais, Prof. Dr. Eloi Martins Senhoras

Elói Martins Senhoras

No abstract provided.

Human Capital-Centered Regionalism In Economic Development: The Case Of Philadelphia’S Biosciences Sector, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

The paper, drawing on a case study of a regional "talent development" consortium in the Greater Philadelphia metro region, argues that the analytic tools developed to facilitate workforce- and occupation-led economic development are ahead of the institution-building required to put new approaches into practice, for two reasons. First, tensions persist around the role of the public sector workforce system in regional development initiatives. Second, regional stakeholders disagree about whether “knowledge economy” investments should include the training of manufacturing, transportation and logistics workers, leading to the frequent and controversial neglect of blue-collar occupations. The documentation of regional occupational specializations, “talent gap” …

"Inks In The Islamic Manuscripts Of Northern Nigeria - Old Recipes, Modern Analysis And Medicine", Michaelle Biddle

Michaelle Biddle

This study is concerned with what specific materials are used in fabricating the inks used in the surviving, largely undated Northern Nigerian manuscripts written in Arabic script. These manuscripts belong to the West African tradition of Islamic culture and scholarship, of which Timbuktu, Mali, was a key center. The manuscripts themselves, and 4500 km of road travel throughout Northern Nigeria, suggest a local tradition of dye, ink and pigment fabrication rather than one derived from the Mediterranean and the Islamic heartlands. Technical materials analysis, recipes from ethno-cultural studies, and replicative experiments revealed a reliance on local plants and materials. Botanical …

Moving Upstream: The Merits Of A Public Health Law Approach To Human Trafficking, Jonathan Todres

Jonathan Todres

Human trafficking, a gross violation of human rights and human dignity, has been identified by numerous government leaders as one of the priority issues of our time. Legislative efforts over the past decade have produced a patchwork of criminal laws and some assistance programs for victims. There is no evidence, however, that these efforts have reduced the incidence of trafficking. This lack of meaningful progress prompts questions as to what the best framework is for addressing human trafficking. This Article begins with a discussion of the limitations inherent in the current law-enforcement-centric approach to the problem. It then explores the …

How Does Size Matter? Investigating The Relationships Among Plant Size, Industrial Structure, And Manufacturing Productivity., Joshua Drucker

Joshua Drucker

Lost Jobs And Health Insurance: An Analysis Of The Impact Of Employment Volatility On Firm-Provided Health Insurance Coverage, Fredrik Andersson, Iben Bolvig, Matthew Freedman, Julia Lane

Matthew Freedman

It is an established fact that there are high levels of employment volatility in the United States. Despite the importance of employer-provided benefits in the U.S. insurance system, the impact of prior job instability on one’s future ability to obtain insurance coverage is not well understood. This paper finds a negative relationship between the volatility of a worker’s employment and her likelihood of receiving firm-provided health insurance. Previous employment volatility reduces each of the four factors necessary to receive such insurance: a worker’s subsequent chances of getting a job, her chances of getting a job in a firm that offers …

Low-Income Housing Development And Crime, Matthew Freedman, Emily Owens

Matthew Freedman

Beyond Competing Theories Of The Hidden Economy, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate critically the validity of rival theorisations of the hidden economy that variously read this sphere as a leftover from a previous era, a by-product of a new emergent form of capitalism, a complement to formal employment or an alternative to the formal economy. Until now, the common tendency among economic theorists has been to either universally privilege one theorisation over others, or to represent each theory as valid in different places. Design/methodology/approach – To evaluate their validity to the city of Moscow, a survey is reported involving 313 face-to-face interviews with inhabitants conducted …

Evaluating The Nature Of The Relationship Between Informal Entrepreneurship And The Formal Economy In Rural Communities, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

This paper evaluates critically the different theorizations of the nature of the relationship between informal entrepreneurship and the formal economy, which variously depict informal entrepreneurship as a leftover from a previous era, a survival practice for those excluded from the formal economy, and a complement or an alternative to participation in the formal economy. Reporting evidence from 350 face-to-face interviews in English rural communities, no single theorization is found to be universally applicable. Instead, all are shown to be valid in relation to different forms of informal entrepreneurship, and only by combining them is it feasible to achieve a finer-grained, …

The Illusion Of Capitalism In Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study Of The Gambia, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate critically the meta-narrative that there is no alternative to capitalism. Building upon an emerging body of post-structuralist thought that has begun deconstructing this discourse in relation to western economies and post-Soviet societies, this paper further extends this critique to Sub-Saharan Africa by investigating the degree to which people in the Gambia rely on the capitalist market economy for their livelihood. Reporting the results of 80 household face-to-face interviews (involving over 500 people), the finding is that only a small minority of households in contemporary Gambian society rely on the formal market economy alone …

Rethinking The Nature Of Community Economies: Some Lessons From Post-Soviet Ukraine, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

This paper contributes to a small but growing body of thought that has questioned the hegemony of capitalism by revealing the persistence of multifarious economic practices in everyday community economies. To further advance this school of thought, first, a conceptual framework is developed to map the diverse economic practices used by communities and second, this is applied through a survey of 600 households in Ukraine. The outcome is to reveal that just as multifarious economic practices prevailed under state socialism, the same applies in societies in transition to capitalism, suggesting that there are alternative futures for community economies beyond market …

Women Entrepreneurs In The Indian Informal Sector, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Purpose – Studies on women entrepreneurs either view women through a structuralist lens, as marginalised populations engaged in low-quality work, or through a neo-liberal lens, as engaged in relatively higher quality endeavour more as a rational choice. The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically these explanations in relation to women entrepreneurs in the informal sector in India. Design/methodology/approach – To evaluate the contrasting explanations of structuralist and new liberal approaches, questionnaire surveys were conducted in two phases, namely 2007 and 2010, over a period of several months. The sample design was stratified random and the sample was taken …

'The Most Model Prison Of The World': The Albany County Penitentiary And 19th Century Prison Reform, Robert G. Waite

Robert G. Waite

No abstract provided.

Willingness To Pay For Electric Vehicles And Their Attributes, Michael K. Hidrue, George R. Parsons, Willett Kempton, Meryl Gardner

George Parsons

This paper presents a stated preference study of electric vehicle choice using data from a national survey. In our choice experiment, 3029 respondents chose between their preferred gasoline vehicle and two electric versions of their preferred gasoline vehicle. Using the response data we valued five electric vehicle attributes: driving range, charging time, fuel cost saving, pollution reduction, and performance. Driving range, fuel savings, and charging time led in importance to respondents. Individuals were willing to pay (wtp) from $35 to $75 for a mile of added driving range, with incremental wtp per mile decreasing at higher distances. They were willing …

Gauging The Value Of Short-Term Site Closures In A Travel-Cost Rum Model Of Recreation Demand With A Little Help From Stated Preference Data, George R. Parsons, Stela Stefanova

George Parsons

No abstract provided.

The Economic Value Of Viewing Migratory Shorebirds On The Delaware Bay: An Application Of The Single Site Travel Cost Model Using On-Site Data, Peter E T Edwards, George R. Parsons, Kelley A. Myers

George Parsons

We estimated a count data model of recreation demand using data from an on-site survey of recreational birders who had visited southern Delaware during the month-long annual horseshoe crab/shorebird spring migration in 2008. We analyzed daytrips only. Our estimates from the models ranged from $32 to $142/trip/household or about $131 to $582/season/household (2008$). The variation was due to differences in the value of time. The average household size was 1.66. We found that the valuation results were sensitive to the inclusion of covariates in the model. Our results are useful for damage assessments and benefit-cost analyses where birdwatching is affected.

Bondage And Barbeques, Margot D. Weiss

Margot Weiss

Consequences Of Interest-Based Learning On The Social-Affective Behavior Of Young Children With Autism, Carol M. Trivette, Carl J. Dunst

Carol M. Trivette

Activity: Online Information Hunt., Thomas Ivie

Thomas Ivie

No abstract provided.

Marketing And Promotion Of Library Services Using Web 2.0: An Annotated Mediagraphy., Thomas Ivie, B. Mckay, F. May, J Mitchell, H. Mortimer, L. Walker

Thomas Ivie

No abstract provided.

Parties, Elections, & Policymaking - Syllabus & Complete Lectures (Spring 2011), David R. Mayhew

David Mayhew

Sources For Legislative Proposals, David R. Mayhew

David Mayhew

No abstract provided.

Predicting Feelings Of School Safety For Lower, Middle, And Upper School Students: A Gender Specific Analysis, Ronet Bachman, Whitney Decamp, Nicholas W. Bakken

Whitney DeCamp

Does Financial Development Reduce Corruption?, John Thornton, Yener Altunbas

John Thornton

We estimate the impact of bank credit to the private sector on corruption using indicators of a country’s legal origin as instrumental variables to assess causality. We find that bank credit to the private sector reduces corruption, with the result robust to instrumenting for bank credit and for many different controls.

Post-Crisis Financial Reform: Where Do We Stand?, John Thornton, Alessandro Giustiniani

John Thornton

The financial reform agenda is broad, ranging from strengthening prudential regulation; to enhancing supervision; from mitigating pro-cyclicality to integrating micro- and macro-prudential oversight; from reducing the systemic risk associated with large and complex financial institutions to expanding resolution process and fortifying financial market structure. Reforms are proceeding slowly but important building blocks have been laid down, such as Basel III; other difficult reforms are in the making, such as the resolution framework for cross-border financial institutions or how to deal with systemically important financial institutions. This paper presents an analytical survey of recent developments.

The Intertemporal Relation Between Government Revenue And Expenditure In The United Kingdom, 1750 To 2004, John Thornton, Lusine Lusinyan

John Thornton

We examine the intertemporal relation between government revenue and expenditure in the UK during 1750 to 2004. We pay particular attention to long run trends by applying a battery of unit root and cointegration techniques to the data, and we use a modified Granger causality test on data spans organized around structural breaks in the series. The results suggest that, allowing for structural breaks, UK real revenue and spending are I(1) series and cointegrated and that Granger causality runs from government spending to revenue. As such, the ‘spend-tax’ hypothesis appears to best characterize the long run intertemporal relation between government …

A Contemporary Examination Of Factors Promoting The Academic Success Of Minority Students At A Predominantly White University, Robert T. Palmer, Phd, Dina C. Maramba, Phd, Sharon L. Holmes, Phd

Robert T. Palmer, PhD

Although the numbers of minority students are increasing in higher education, researchers remain concerned about the ability of predominantly White institutions (PWIs) to support and retain these students. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore factors promoting the academic success of minority students at a research intensive PWI. Four themes emerged including the impact of a) student involvement, b) faculty interaction, c) peer support, and c) self-accountability. While this study confirms research about minority students at PWIs, it also provides new insight and provokes questions that warrant further investigation. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

The Impact Of Family Support For African American Males At An Historically Black University: Affirming The Revision Of Tinto’S Theory, Robert T. Palmer, Phd, Ryan J. Davis, Dina C. Maramba, Phd

Robert T. Palmer, PhD

This qualitative study of 11 Black male students, who entered a public historically Black college and university (HBCU) as academically underprepared and persisted to graduation, provides insight into the ways in which family promote academic success for Black male students at a public HBCU. The study’s findings encourage practitioners at HBCUs to reassess the relationship between family involvement and academic success for Black male students. Further, the findings affirm the justification to revise Tinto’s theory of student departure to account for relationships minority students have with support networks outside the campus milieu.