An empirical analysis of the social security disability application,appeal, and award process

We provide an empirical analysis of the Social Security disability application, award, and appeal process using the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS). We show that the appeal option increases the award probability from 46% to 73%. However, this comes at the cost of significant delays: the duration between application and award is over three times longer for those who are awarded benefits after one or more stages of appeal. Our results reveal the importance of self-selection in application and appeal decisions. In particular, an individual's self-assessed disability status emerges as one of the most powerful predictors of application, appeal, and award decisions.     

Identity, reputation and social interaction with an application to sequential voting

We analyze binary choices in a random utility model assuming that agent’s preferences are affected by conformism (with respect to the behavior of the society) and coherence (with respect to identity). We show that multiple stationary equilibria may arise and that the outcome looks very different from a society where all the agents take their decisions in isolation. We quantify the fraction of agents that behave coherently. We apply the analysis to sequential voting when voters “like to win”. Compared to the present literature, we enrich the setting assuming that each voter is endowed with an ideology and we consider the interplay between coherence and the desire to vote with the (perceived) majority.     

诺基亚:没有健康的员工,就没有健康的公司

今天,王淑红10岁的女儿 异常兴奋,因为她跟妈妈一起 参加了妈妈公司组织的一个“寻宝游戏”,她们奔跑在植物 园的树林里、山坡上,还有草丛 中,比赛看谁最先发现宝藏, 然满头大汗,气喘嘘嘘,让她直 嚷嚷“累死了”,可是,当游戏 结束时,组织者给她颁发了一 个“参与奖”,小姑娘的疲劳忘 也就无影无踪了。     

Language and interaction: applying sociolinguistics to social network analysis

Quality & Quantity - In recent years social network analysis, influenced by relational sociology, has taken a cultural turn. One result has been a growing interest in...     

GMM estimation of social interaction models with centrality

This paper considers the specification and estimation of social interaction models with network structures and the presence of endogenous, contextual, correlated, and group fixed effects. When the network structure in a group is captured by a graph in which the degrees of nodes are not all equal, the different positions of group members as measured by the Bonacich (1987) centrality provide additional information for identification and estimation. In this case, the Bonacich centrality measure for each group can be used as an instrument for the endogenous social effect, but the number of such instruments grows with the number of groups. We consider the 2SLS and GMM estimation for the model. The proposed estimators are asymptotically efficient, respectively, within the class of IV estimators and the class of GMM estimators based on linear and quadratic moments, when the sample size grows fast enough relative to the number of instruments.     

A model for the influence of social interaction and social support on female expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment

This paper offers a model to describe the way in which female expatriates develop relationships and utilize those relationships to become cross-culturally adjusted. This model includes three predictive components affecting cross-cultural adjustment. The first includes the factors affecting whether a woman is able to form relationships on the expatriate assignment. These antecedents can include the female expatriate's personality, the cultural norms towards women, her language skills and the availability of possible opportunities for interaction. The second component includes the various sources of social interaction and social support (e.g. family members, and host national colleagues). The third component describes the nature of a female expatriate's social interaction and social support (e.g. emotional, informational and instrumental). Practical considerations for multinational organizations sending female expatriates are offered.     

城市园林与城市社会生活——以南京为例

分析了20世纪末城市园林与中国城市社会生活的关系,探讨了传统园林、城市新园林在城市社会中的作用和表现,提出城市园林在社会关系建构、城市发展进程中的意义.并结合南京城市发展趋势,揭示了城市园林发展中的诸多问题,提出相应的建议.     

城市空间、社会分层与社会和谐

我国90年代以来的城市化浪潮,不仅是一个规模扩展的过程,也是一个利益重构与社会分化的过程,并带来城市居住空间上的"阶层化".这种社会阶层在生活空间上的疏离与隔膜对社会和谐造成负面影响,解决的途径可选择:适度的多样化混居;改造和提升弱区位的公共服务;充分考虑到外来工的生活居住问题等.     

The social impact of advice during disability welfare reform: from social return on investment to evidencing public value through realism and complexity

ABSTRACT

This article illustrates how advice services create diverse public values within welfare reform. It develops a social impact framework using public value, realism, and complexity literature. Starting from a social return on investment study of advice, qualitative interviews are analysed with twenty-two clients, who sought advice for welfare benefits, and had disabilities, or physical or mental health conditions. Integrating these clients’ experiences with wider evidence illustrates how advice services advocated for people’s needs within a complicated (and controversial) welfare system. However, advice services face funding cuts, benefit assessment costs have risen, and welfare reforms have yet to meet their aims.     

Gender,social salience,and social performance: how women pursue and perform in social ventures

Abstract

We investigate how women that start organizations contribute to the creation of social value in communities and society. We draw on theory from gender self-schemas and social identity theory to explain how women with a female gender-self schema have a natural inclination to create organizations with social goals and intentions in mind. We label these social goals and intentions as social salience and draw on goal theory and existing understandings on intentions to explain how the presence of a social salience in an organization is related to the social performance of their organization. Utilizing structural equation modeling, we show that gender positively influences social salience that subsequently has a positive relationship with the social performance of the organization. We also show that social salience fully mediates the relationship between gender and social performance implying that gender alone is not enough to explain the social performance of an organization. We conclude by highlighting the implications, contributions, and future research that result from our findings.     

Local tax interaction and endogenous spatial weights based on quality of life

This paper studied the role of municipal quality of life as a driver of strategic tax interactions among local governments. A number of studies point out the existence of strategic interactions using spatial econometric models in which the spatial weights are mostly based on non-economic criteria or basic economic variables such as per capita gross domestic product (GDP). We propose the more sophisticated well-being indicator of municipal quality of life as the driver for these interactions. To deal with the potential endogeneity, we rely on instrumental variable estimators. The empirical analysis focuses on the main local tax in Spain (property) and on municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, and it confirms the relevance of differentials in quality of life for the understanding of tax choices.     

有感于"健康工作、快乐生活"

最近有两条消息颇具人情味道：一是中原油田采油三厂近日召开了一个特殊表彰会,向三年来一直无病史、无病假、健康工作、表现突出的30名员工颁发了“健康工作奖”;二是塔里木油田塔西南勘探公司推出了＂强制休假＂制度,规定在完成生产任务的前提下,每年必须有85%以上的员工享受到休假,对常年在一线沙漠腹地或边远、艰苦岗位工作的员工,实行轮休串休假制度,把原来每年10～14天的工休假全部调整为20天,并调高了职工探亲交通费用核销标准.     

Ethical notions and social life: some problems in the measurement of attitudes

In this paper an attempt is made to distinguish three types of ethical orientation. The first one, individually oriented ethics, consists of a set of norms regulating the social behavior of people in which the predominating norms are those which regulate behavior towards other members of small, more or less informal, groups. The second one, socially oriented ethics, does not so much evaluate the personal qualities of the individual nor the various elements of his conduct as a person, but rather the effects caused by the fact that he occupies a definite position in the social structure. Empirical data—based on Polish and American studies—support these distinctions. The third type of ethics, which emerged recently and is based on the concern about population growth, human resources, environment, etc., says that the earth is the only and common home for different social systems. It embraces also the relation of mankind to all other living creatures. This is global ethics.     

生活质量--21世纪质量工作的重要新领域(3)健康生活质量

１体质与物质生活质量物质是健康的基础。无论什么人，为了保持身体健康，都必须使自己的物质生活达到一定的水平。可是，在具备了一定的物质生活条件之后，却并不一定就能保证身体健康。从１９９７年到２０００年，国家体育总局和教育部的相关机构，用三年时间进行了国民体质监测，监测结果表明：我国公民的体质总体上呈逐年下降趋势，主要表现有三：一是身高降低；二是体重增大；三是机能减退。值得注意的是，这三年正是我国人民物质生活质量大幅度提高的三年。为什么物质生活质量提高了，国民体质反而下降了呢？专家们经过分析后认为，最…     

Work and social well-being: the impact of employment conditions on quality of life

This paper aims to extend our understanding of the impact of management practises and employment conditions in the contemporary workplace on the broader social realm. The study provides an analytic account of how these employment conditions impact on the social well-being of a representative sample of individuals and households. We assess the propensity of working arrangements that are manifested in various high performance work systems either to enhance or to diminish quality of life. The paper indicates that certain management practises and employment conditions have impacts that extend beyond the workplace and influence the broader well-being of individuals and families.     

Altruism, redistribution and social insurance

The paper examines the influence of altruism on voluntary transfers and government redistribution in a simple model: two jobs of different productivity are assigned by chance to two individuals. Ex ante the individuals are identical, ex post they have different incomes. The first part of the paper examines voluntary transfers determined ex post or agreed upon ex ante in the absence of altruism. In the second part, the influence of altruism is examined. Altruism is modelled as a pure public good: the minimum consumption (or income, since there is only one consumption good). Both individuals can contribute to its provision, one person by earning wage income, the other by voluntary transfers. The ex ante solutions generally lead to higher expected welfare but create several incentive problems. Only lump-sum transfers are considered. Received: 28 February 1997 / Accepted: 31 January 2000     

Institutions,social capability,and economic growth

I discuss correlations between the historical growth of social capabilities and patterns of economic growth across world regions since the industrial revolution and especially in recent decades. Based on this analysis, I argue that the apparent relationship between institutions and economic growth results in part because better institutional performance goes hand in hand with more advanced social capabilities.     

Client–consultant interaction: Capturing social practices of professional service production

Based on the investigation of seven consultancy projects within an international technical consulting firm, we identify three major practices that characterize client–consultant interaction – shaping impressions, problem-solving, and negotiating expectations – and discuss their respective characteristics, activities, and contingencies. Our discussion of these practices provides not only a more differentiated picture of client–consultant interaction but also uncovers the critical role that clients play in these practices.