Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Straw Bale Building, David A. Bainbridge

David A Bainbridge

Straw bale building offers many advantages, high insulation value, thermal mass of interior plaster, resistance to fire, and low embodied resource cost. Super-insulation becomes possible at affordable prices with straw bales. Used with great success for both residential and commercial building projects.

True Cost Accounting For A Post-Autistic Economy, David A. Bainbridge

David A Bainbridge

True cost accounting attempts to include the full cost of products and services in economic consideration. This brings what are often categorized as "external costs" into pricing. The failure to include these social and environmental costs has led to many of our worst crises -- from global climate change to ill health and resource depletion.

Super Efficient Irrigation With Buried Clay Pots, David A. Bainbridge

David A Bainbridge

Buried clay pot irrigation was first described in an agricultural extension bulletin in China more than 2000 years ago. The clay pot provides demand responsive irrigation at very high efficiency. Clay pot irrigation can be 5-10 times more efficient than conventional irrigation. It is being used more widely in Asia, Africa, Latin American and the US.

Death By A Thousand Curb-Cuts: Evidence On The Effect Of Minimum Parking Requirements On The Choice To Drive, Rachel R. Weinberger

Rachel R Weinberger

Little research has been done to understand the effect of guaranteed parking at home –in a driveway or garage—on mode choice. The research presented here systematically examines neighborhoods in the three New York City boroughs for which residential, off-street parking is possible but potentially scarce. The research is conducted in two stages. Stage one is based on a Google Earth© survey of over 2,000 properties. When paired with the City’s tax lot database, that survey served as the basis to estimate on-site parking for New York City neighborhoods. With parking availability estimated, a generalized linear model based on census tracts …

Deaf Education Policy As Language Policy: A Comparative Analysis Of Sweden And The United States, Sarah Compton

Sarah Compton

The present study offers a cross-national, comparative analysis of Swedish and US deaf education policies to examine the ways in which status planning and acquisition planning for sign languages are taken up. Major policy documents were selected from each polity, reflecting key national legislative policies as well as the primary texts that guide educational implementation: for Sweden, the Ordinance for Special Schools, the Education Act, and the national syllabi for special schools; for the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Analysis of these texts shows that such planning tends …

El Tribunal De Los Militantes: El Control Judicial De Los Conflictos Intrapartidistas En México, Javier Martín Reyes

Javier Martín Reyes

The Party Members’ Court: Judicial Control over Intraparty Disputes in Mexico.

This paper explains how the Electoral Court of the Federal Judicial Branch (TEPJF) of Mexico, without a supporting legislation, was able to establish a direct and far reaching control over intraparty disputes such as the election of party leaders, the selection of candidates, or the punishment of party members. Following a strategic behavior approach, I will provide empirical evidence to prove that there was a negative correlation between the level of judicial control over the parties’ internal life, on the one hand, and the vulnerability of the TEPJF from …

Engineers And Communities, Earthea Nance

Earthea Nance

No abstract provided.

Bank Credit And Economic Growth: A Dynamic Panel Analysis, Nuno Carlos Leitão

Nuno Carlos Leitão

This study examines the link between bank lending and economic growth for European Union (EU-27) for the period 1990 to 2010. We apply a dynamic panel data (GMM-system estimator). This estimator permits to solve the problems of serial correlation, heteroskedasticity and endogeneity for some explanatory variables. As the results show, savings promotes growth. The inflation and bank credit have a negative impact on economic growth as previous studies.

México En El Nuevo Órden Mundial, Alberto Sánchez Estrada

Alberto Sánchez Estrada

ANÁLISIS DE LA INTEGRACIÓN DE MÉXICO EN EL NUEVO ORDEN MUNDIAL

Evoking Luck, Kianna R. Simmons

Kianna R Simmons

No abstract provided.

Early Evidence For Complex Social Structure In Proboscidea From A Late Miocene Trackway Site In The United Arab Emirates, Faysal Bibi, Brian Kraatz, Nathan M. Craig, Mark Beech, Mathieu Schuster

Nathan M Craig

Many living vertebrates exhibit complex social structures, evidence for the antiquity of which is limited to rare and exceptional fossil finds. Living elephants possess a characteristic social structure that is sex-segregated and multitiered, centred around a matriarchal family and solitary or loosely associated groups of adult males. Although the fossil record of Proboscidea is extensive, the origin and evolution of social structure in this clade is virtually unknown. Here, we present imagery and analyses of an extensive late Miocene fossil trackway site from the United Arab Emirates. The site of Mleisa 1 preserves exceptionally long trackways of a herd of …

Crime De Lavagem De Dinheiro – A Ordem Econômica Como Bem Jurídico Protegido, Amilton Bispo Dos Reis

Amilton Bispo dos Reis

This paper aims to a deeper discussion about legal good protected by the brazilian law 9613/98, which deals with prevention and combating the crime of money laundering. Since there is no doctrinal agreement on the subject, essentially seeks to reinforce the doctrinal current that supports the economic order as the essential good to be protected by the law, through the presentation of data and macroeconomic arguments Try it also to demonstrate that such a discussion do not fades into a mere academic rhetoric exercise, since the crime of money laundering affects basic fundamentals of the economy, causing damage to the …

Therapeutic Landscapes: Understanding Migration To Australian Regional And Rural Communities, Rob Townsend Dr, Jan Pascal Dr

Rob Townsend Dr

No abstract provided.

How Much Serving Size Affects Consumption : Catch-22, Natalina Zlatevska, Chris Dubelaar, Stephen S. Holden

Stephen S Holden

The effect of serving-size on consumption is well-established: the larger the serve, the greater the amount consumed. But what is the size of the effect, what are the processes driving the effect, and what are the conditions that facilitate vs. inhibit the effect? The present research uses a meta-analysis of 67 studies to quantify the effect of serving-size on amount consumed and to test two competing explanations of why the effect occurs. One view is that the serving-size is mediated by a perceptual effect, the other that it is mediated by a consumption norm. The meta analysis demonstrates that when …

La Izquierda En La Historia, Jose Luis Sardon

Jose Luis Sardon

No abstract provided.

The Maps Of The Society For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge, Cathy Moulder

Cathy Moulder

The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge produced maps for the self-education of working men between 1829 and 1885. This article looks briefly at the history and characters involved in SDUK's mapping program and its impacts.

Alison Larkin: The English American Speaks Her Truth About Adoption, Mirah Riben

Mirah Riben

Mirah Riben interviews Alison Larkin, adoptee, author and one-woman show writer-performer, about her adoption, international adoption practices, and her reunion and relationship with her mother and father.

Pollution, Economic Development And Democracy: Evidence From The Mena Countries, Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, Gunther Markwardt

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries are among the top emitters of CO2 and SO2 in per capita terms in the world. Our goal is to show that whether investing in the democratic development of countries is an effective tool to make the economic growth in this region more environmentally compatible. We use pooled OLS, country and time fixed and random effects, and system GMM method to estimate the marginal pollution impact of a 1% increase in GDP per capita at different levels of democracy from 1960 to 2005.

Regardless of method of estimation, we can see a …

Resource Wealth And Entrepreneurship: A Blessing Or A Curse?, Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

Resource-rich countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have the highest youth unemployment rate in the world. While other parts of the world are experiencing an increasing trend in new firms’ formation as a potential solution for their unemployment problem, the MENA region has the lowest records in new business establishments. In this study, we investigate the reasons behind such a significant lag of the resource-rich countries in entrepreneurship. Panel data for more than 80 countries from 2004-2009 shows that higher dependence on resource rents reduces entrepreneurship activities. The decline is more significant in countries with higher levels …

Natural Resources And Internal Conflicts - How Decentralization Lifts The Curse, Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, Gunther Markwardt, Christian Lessmann

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

We study how the natural resource endowments affect risk of internal conflicts and how this effect depends on decentralization levels in a political system. Resource rents, especially lootable resources such as oil, finance conflicts, creating strong separatist movements. Our main hypothesis is that increasing the levels of political decentralization can limit the destructive effect of the natural resource rents on internal conflicts. We use cross-country and panel data covering the period from 1984–2004 from more than 80 countries to test this hypothesis. Our estimates confirm that the relationship between the natural resource rents and risk of internal conflict is dependent …

Military Spending And Economic Growth: The Case Of Iran, Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

Iranian government budget on military over the last decade has been higher than the average of the world. The current increasing international sanctions aim to reduce the military capabilities and capacities of the Iranian government. In this study, we analyze the response of the Iranian economy to shocks in its military budget from 1959-2007, using Impulse Response Functions (IRF) and Variance Decomposition Analysis (VDA) techniques. The Granger causality results show that there is unidirectional causality from military spending to the economic growth. The response of income growth to increasing shocks in the military budget is positive and statistically significant.

Resource Curse And Power Balance: Evidence From Iran, Kjetil Bjorvatn, Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, Friedrich Schneider

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

Empirical research shows that natural resources have a detrimental effect on economic growth, a phenomenon known as the “resource curse”. Competition between influence groups for access to the resource rents, that is, rent-seeking, is often blamed for this curse. In this paper we dig deeper into the link between political competition and the resource curse by studying the case of Iran from 1960-2007. We present a theoretical model demonstrating how the effect of rents on the economy depends on the balance of political power. The model shows that an increase in rents may lead to a sharp reduction in income …

Role Of Agriculture In Economic Growth Of Pakistan, Syed Ali Raza Mr, Yasir Ali, Farhan Mehboob

Farhan Mehboob

This research based on the role of agriculture in the economic growth of Pakistan. Secondary data has been collected from the year 1980-2010 from the government authentic websites. For this purpose simple regression applied to identify the significance relationship of agricultural sub-sectors with GDP. Results suggested that there is the significance role of agriculture sub-sectors towards the economic growth only forestry showed insignificant relationship with GDP. Another objective is based on to know the contribution of each sub-sector over the aggregate agriculture amount. Result suggest that crops and livestock’s total contribute 91% combined in the aggregate agriculture sector that represent …

Stimulating Learning-By-Doing In Advanced Biofuels: Effectiveness Of Alternative Policies, Xiaoguang Chen, Madhu Khanna, Sonia Yeh

Xiaoguang Chen

No abstract provided.

Explaining The Reductions In Us Corn Ethanol Processing Costs: Testing Competing Hypotheses, Xiaoguang Chen, Madhu Khanna

Xiaoguang Chen

No abstract provided.

Meeting The Mandate For Biofuels: Implications For Land Use, Food, And Fuel Prices, Xiaoguang Chen, Madhu Khanna, Haixiao Huang, Hayri Önal

Xiaoguang Chen

No abstract provided.

The Market-Mediated Effects Of Low Carbon Fuel Policies, Xiaoguang Chen, Madhu Khanna

Xiaoguang Chen

No abstract provided.

Hacia Un Programa De Investigación En Sociología De La Innovación, Manuel Fernández-Esquinas

Manuel Fernández-Esquinas

This article analyzes the main features of the sociological perspective on innovation. The main goal is to specify the concepts and analytical tools commonly used by sociologists that can be useful for the study of the innovation processes. The strategy of the paper starts by specifying the object of study, the influences from other specialties inside and outside the sociological field and the research topics related to innovation that attract the attention of sociologists. Then the main components for a research programme on the sociology of innovation are outlined. For that purpose the article departs from the distinction between culture …

Leading Change Revolutions, Christopher M. Davis

Christopher M Davis

Presentation on how to lead change revolutions within organizations.

Africa, Mark J. Calaguas

Mark J Calaguas

The Africa Committee's contribution to the 2011 Year-in-Review issue of the American Bar Association Section of International Law's quarterly journal, The International Lawyer.