Welfare Policy and Precarious Lives: “Welfare Reform” Revisited

Abstract:

Although welfare reform has not been one of the most highly visible policy agendas for the Trump administration, restricting access to public assistance programs has been a part of proposals and actions in a number of areas. The Trump administration’s overall approach to welfare reform was articulated formally in 2018 in an Executive Order and a Council of Economic Advisers Report. To provide some context for a discussion of these two documents, the article begins with a discussion of the different meanings of “welfare reform” identified in institutionalist literature, and a brief overview of some important findings on the impacts of the 1996 welfare reform. It then highlights some key aspects of the Trump administration’s approach to welfare reform and responses from the poverty research and advocacy community.     

Structural breaks in the mean of dividend-price ratios: Implications of learning on stock return predictability

In their out-of-sample predictions of stock returns in the presence of structural breaks, Lettau and Van Nieuwerburgh (2008) implicitly assume that economic agents’ perception of the regime-specific mean for the dividend-price ratio is time-invariant within a regime. In this paper, we challenge this assumption and employ least squares learning with constant gain (or constant-gain learning) in estimating economic agents’ time-varying perception for the mean of dividend-price ratio. We obtain better out-of-sample predictions of stock returns than in Lettau and Van Nieuwerburgh (2008) for both the U.S. and Japanese stock markets. Our empirical results suggest that economic agents’ learning plays an important role in the dynamics of stock returns.     

Will you miss me if I am leaving? Unexpected market withdrawal of Norwegian Joy and customer satisfaction

The first “Made in Germany, Designed for Chinese” luxury cruise, Norwegian Joy, announced an unexpected Chinese-market-withdrawal decision on July 14th, 2018, less than a year after her maiden voyage from Shanghai. How does customer satisfaction change as a response to a cruise's market-withdrawal decision? By resorting to the confirmation of expectation theory, our paper highlights satisfaction as being a function of the baseline effect of expectations plus perceived disconfirmation of expectations. We propose that customer satisfaction will rise because the withdrawal decision implies strategic mistake of the cruise and therefore lowers customer expectation. Drawing on customers' comments on the largest travel agency website in China, we conducted sentiment analysis and used ‘difference in difference’ statistical approach to test our hypothesis. Results show that customer satisfaction increased after Norwegian Joy's withdrawal announcement.     

基于模糊评价模型的物流管理专业实践教学体系研究

考虑物流管理专业实践教学的特性,从实践环节、创新与创业、管理机制、教学团队等方面构建了实践教学指标体系,并运用模糊综合评价法进行评价分析。研究结论表明,毕业实习、毕业论文、学科竞赛、创新与创业项目对物流管理专业实践教学的影响较大。     

网络流行语中民众网络话语权研究

网络流行语作为网络文化的产物，映射当下现代文明的各类现状。通过挖掘网络流行语内在起因、情境和心理，以反沉默螺旋法则为理论依据，研究当代民众网络话语权的产生、表达方式和表达心态以及相关应对机制。希望通过本研究对我国社会行政管理科学化进程有所助益。     

项目教学法在《酒水调制与服务》课程中的运用与反思

《酒水调制与服务》课程实施项目教学法，能使学生既学习到实践技能和操作规范，又能在这一过程中理解与提升理论知识。教学中应该注重转变教师角色，突出学生主体性，注重情境的创设，组建有效的合作型学习小组，建立新型师生关系，并重视项目展示与评价，使学生获得学习的满足感和成就感，从而激发学生再学习的动力。同时，还应该重视提高教师的教育教学水平及实践能力，提高硬件建设水平。     

烹饪专业食品营养与卫生课程教学改革

随着我国高职教育的迅速发展,以“工学结合”为特色的课程标准广泛应用于高职院校烹饪专业的教学中。食品营养与卫生课程是一门重要的课程,为进一步提升该课程的教学质量,培养学生的职业能力和职业素养。本文结合食品营养与卫生课程教学改革现状,提出教学改革途径,以期实现食品营养与卫生教学质量的进一步提升。     

产业融合发展、农产品供需结构与农业供给侧改革核心探寻

在农产品价格保护制度背景下,不能完成产业融合会限制产业之间的关联效应发挥,导致农产品供需反馈机制瓦解,从而使农产品供需结构出现矛盾。因此,需要对产业融合发展、农产品供需结构以及农业供给侧改革核心进行研究。论文从产业融合发展的必要性、产业融合发展与农产品供需结构之间的形成机理出发进行分析,探讨在新形势下,产业融合发展与农业供给侧改革的选择策略,从而创新我国的农业经营体系,构建完善的农业社会化服务体系,推动我国农业供给侧结构性改革的进一步发展。     

供给侧结构性改革进程中技术创新效率研究

本文以生产要素内部配置结构调整对边际产出弹性影响为基础,建立包含生产要素内部配置结构的科布-道格拉斯生产函数,对中国工业企业技术创新效率进行实证分析。主要结论有:区域外商投资工业企业比例的增加能提升资本和劳动力边际产出弹性;区域内资工业企业比例的增加能提升劳动力边际产出弹性;政府科技资助与工业企业技术创新效率之间并非简单的线性关系。提高工业企业技术创新效率需要政府科技资助形成一定规模;劳动者素质提高对工业企业技术创新效率产生积极影响。政策建议是:继续加大对外开放力度,优化区域生产要素配置结构;扩大政府科技资助规模,优化政府科技资助结构;有效引导高素质人才流动。     

山岭隧道洞口浅层滑坡处治关键技术研究

受地形地质条件、工程经济以及勘察深度等因素的制约,山岭重丘区隧道不可避免地会受到各种不良地质灾害的影响.为解决隧道穿越洞口浅埋段滑坡体的施工安全问题,以乐业至百色高速公路永乐隧道工程为研究背景,针对其地形地质条件及滑坡体情况,结合洞内变形与滑坡体变形相互作用机理,对隧道穿越洞口浅埋段滑坡体施工关键技术进行研究,并针对性地提出"洞外加固处治+洞内严格控制沉降"的综合处治方案.实践结果表明,本隧道工程穿越洞口浅层滑坡体的施工过程安全顺利,采取的施工控制措施方案实施效果良好.