EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY: POLICY AND MEASUREMENT PARADIGMS

Abstract Equality of opportunity is a widely accepted principle of distributive justice and it is the leading idea of most political platforms in several countries. According to this principle, a society might institute policies that secure an equal distribution of the means to reach a valuable outcome among its members. Once the set of opportunities have been equalized, which particular opportunity, the individual chooses from those open to her, is outside the scope of justice. Ex ante inequalities, and only those inequalities, should be eliminated or compensated for by public intervention. The recent literature on the opportunity egalitarianism often merges these questions introducing two different economic issues. On one side the design of a public policy intended to implement the equality of opportunity view and on the other side the problem of measuring the degree of opportunity inequality in a society. We describe the basic setting and assumptions of some different approaches derived by Roemer’s algorithm for public policy and then we discuss some theoretical and empirical studies to separate and test alternative paradigms on the measurement of inequality of opportunity. Accordingly, an extended critique on the causality issue on policies and measurements is taken into account.     

COGNITIVE MAPPING AND REPERTORY GRIDS FOR QUALITATIVE SURVEY RESEARCH: SOME COMPARATIVE OBSERVATIONS

A study of business strategy was carried out in 86 organizations in the crop protection industry. A multi-operational approach was used to enable validation of data by triangulation, including cognitive mapping used in an unusual way. This provided an unintended opportunity to conduct a comparative evaluation of interactive investigational methods in a relatively controlled, if unsophisticated manner. Results were interesting enough to suggest that further investigation is needed into the impact of various subject-generated factors such as face validity on methodological effectivness, as well as more traditional criteria such as construct validity of particular methods. Accordingly, process issues affecting repertory grids, cognitive mapping and software for the analysis of cognitive maps (COPE) are described and discussed. Recommendations are made for improvements to mapping and software and further studies suggested.     

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DECENTRALIZED PLANNING PROCEDURES

Abstract. The paper surveys the theory of decentralized planning procedures, dealing with price-guided, quantity-guided and mixed procedures. Informational and incentive properties of the various procedures are dealt with, as is the problem of public goods. The practice of planning in the USSR, Hungary and India is also discussed.     

浙江加强中小企业信用担保体系建设的实践与思考？

担保运作呈现“五多”浙江是中小企业发展的大省。目前全省中小企业占全部企业数的99%。其中工业企业实现总产值、工业增加值、缴纳税金和出口交货值,已占全省总量的50%至70%。为促进中小企业的健康发展,近年来,各级政府采取积极措施,不断优化中小企业发展环境。但由于中小企业面广量大,企业素质和信用状况参差不齐,面临的困难仍然不少。其中融资难是最突出的问题。尤其是许多初创型、成长型中小企业的贷款需求,不能得到充分满足。据专项调查,中小企业因不能落实贷款抵押而发生拒贷的有32.3%,因不能落实贷款担保而拒贷的有23.8%。因此,不健…     

THE PRIVATE FINANCING OF NHS HOSPITALS: POLITICS, POLICY AND PRACTICE

This article outlines and critiques the main fiscal and economic rationales for the Private Finance Initiative and examines the impact of the policy on the long-term financial viability of NHS trusts. It concludes that the PFI funding of capital investment is highly problematic. Its high costs can have a negative impact on the finances of health systems.     

THE USE OF GROUNDED THEORY FOR THE QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Qualitative social research generates large amounts of non-standard data which make analysis problematic. This discussion advocates the use of grounded theory as a way of handling these problems. The approach is illustrated, in the context of organizational research, by three cases of grounded theoretical analyses: (a) a study of face-to-face interaction in a hospital between nurses and patients’ relatives; (b) a field-study based on the complex organizational interrelationships associated with small batch production manufacturing; and (c) a documentary-based analysis of the organizational pre-conditions of large-scale accidents. The discussion of the cases stresses the manner in which the qualitative data collected were manipulated in order to give them theoretical shape.     

FORTY YEARS OF STATISTICS AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH IN THE NETHERLANDS

In 1985 we commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the V"VS, the Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research. In this paper the contributions in our country during the post–war period to the theory of quantitative methods and to their applications are reviewed briefly.     

TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF ACTION RESEARCH: A NOTE AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Action research simultaneously assists in practical problem-solving and expands scientific knowledge, as well as enhances the competencies of the respective actors, being performed collaboratively in an immediate situation using data feedback in a cyclical process aiming at an increased understanding of a given social situation, primarily applicable for the understanding of change processes in social systems and undertaken within a mutually acceptable ethical framework.     

SHIFTING ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PARADIGMS IN TWO FINNISH PAPER FACILITIES: A BROADER VIEW OF INSTITUTIONAL THEORY

Environmental management paradigm shifts are examined in two organizations, a packaging company and a printing paper firm, both of which belong to a Finnish paper corporation. The article looks at how new rules for the social construction of the business–natural environment relationship evolve in a business enterprise when its institutional context changes. The environmental issues with respect to the environmental management paradigm shift studied concern recycling and forest management. Both companies were able to respond to changes in their institutional context, but the change processes differed substantially. Important elements of shifting environmental management paradigms included the external impetus for change, the role of change agents, the influence of the identities of different professional groups on change, and phases in unlearning and relearning. In the packaging firm the results indicate a shift from a traditional management paradigm to an environment-related management. In the paper company, a shift from large-scale Scandinavian forestry to small-scale forest management is ongoing.     

LONGITUDINAL STUDIES OF HUMAN GROWTH AND HEALTH: A REVIEW OF RECENT HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Abstract This paper reviews recent literature using stature and weight as measures of human welfare with a particular interest in cliometric or historical research. We begin with an overview of anthropometric evidence of living standards and the new but fast‐growing field of anthropometric history. This literature is always implicitly and often explicitly longitudinal in nature. We then discuss (i) systematic empirical research into the relationship between conditions in early life and later life health and mortality and (ii) historical evidence on the relationship between body mass, morbidity and mortality. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of historical sources and understandings to health economics and population health.     

悟道·学法·练术——突破中国企业的管理瓶颈

中国企业的管理问题不是一个点上的问题,而是结构性问题.造成这些问题的根源就是--企业缺战略,更缺实施战略的操作系统. 人们常把企业比喻成人体,他有时健壮,有时会生病,同人一样,很多企业常常处于"亚健康"状态,那么中国企业最容易患上哪些"疾病"?换句话说,是哪些普遍性的问题导致中国企业难以长大甚至中途夭折?为形象地说明这个问题,让我们先看两幅中、外企业的现实场景: