The Political Economy of Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia Nervosa constitutes a major social problem. There have, however, been few, if any, attempts to understand the distinctive features of this disorder from within the social sciences. Rather, the increasing prevalence of all forms of eating disorders are understood as a product of how the concepts of ‘femininity’ and the ‘controlled body’ are constructed within contemporary society. Bulimia and anorexia are ultimately seen to have their roots in the same social phenomena. While recognising the insights that the existing literature offers, we argue that in order to fully understand the rise of bulimia we must focus on the food system. More precisely, we must examine how the commercialisation of food preparation has led to a partial breakdown in meal structures and the rise of ‘everyday’ bingeing. The rise of extreme forms of disordered consumption associated with bulimia can be related to broader changes in the eating regime.     

Pesticides,Preference Heterogeneity and Environmental Taxes

In this paper we present results from two choice experiments (CE), designed to take account of the different negative externalities associated with pesticide use in agricultural production. For cereal production, the most probable impact of pesticide use is a reduction in environmental quality. For fruit and vegetable production, the negative externality is on consumer health. Using latent class models we find evidence of the presence of preference heterogeneity in addition to reasonably high willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for a reduction in the use of pesticides for both environmental quality and consumer health. To place our WTP estimates in a policy context we convert them into an equivalent pesticide tax by type of externality. Our tax estimates suggest that pesticide taxes based on the primary externality resulting from a particular mode of agricultural production are a credible policy option that warrants further consideration.     

NONHOMOTHETIC GROWTH MODELS FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL KUZNETS CURVE

We show the role of the elasticity of substitution between general consumption and the environment in environmental degradation. Specifically, our numerical experiments demonstrate, for a wide range of models, exponential utility generates the environmental Kuznets curve without adding any special assumptions. With exponential utility, the elasticity of substitution and hence the substitution effect between consumption and the environment are both decreasing in income. Hence, when income is low, society (the government) readily gives up environmental quality in return for more consumption, but it does not want to substitute consumption for the environment anymore, once it becomes wealthy enough.     

Making Sense of the Costs and Benefits of Brexit: Challenges for Economists

The UK’s decision to leave the European Union will have a wide-ranging effect on the British economy, but the scale and sequencing of the likely effects are hard to gauge. The uncertainties surrounding how a country separates itself from a regional economic bloc have posed challenges to the economics profession about how best to analyse the many consequences. The paper discusses the main lines of relevant economic argumentation, and reviews the evidence from studies of the likely effects of “Brexit”. It then considers how the UK’s economic linkages with the EU might evolve and examines some of the ensuing political economy challenges. The concluding section ponders the role of economists in so contentious a political development.     

Evaluating the impact of a communication exercise in an industrial works

In this article Alistair Ostell and his colleagues discuss a study which evaluated the impact of communicating business information to a large industrial workforce. The results indicated that the exercise was successful in terms of informing employees but it apparently failed to motivate them to act or think differently.     

Consumer law and structures of thought: A comment

Conclusion Consumer law seems to be a particularly post-modern form of law. It is pluralistic, its boundaries are more a matter of academic fiat than representing natural borders, it is neither obviously a prop for thestatus quo nor an instrument of social transformation, and it is, as Bourgoignie (1991) argues, resistant to grand narratives. It does not fit neatly into traditional visions of class politics but does raise questions of class, gender, and race (see further Ramsay, 1991b). Recent theoretical work has shown greater introspection concerning the assumptions and nature of consumer law and the competing political visions of consumer protection embedded in consumer law and protection. It is important that this theoretical dialogue continue as consumerism, consumer protection, and consumer law migrate to countries of the South and Eastern Europe. If, as Frances Fukuyama (1992) argues, the consumer society is the end of history, then it suggests that research on the consumer society as a cultural, economic, political, and social form and the role of law in this society is an important theoretical problematic.The author would like to thank Reuben Hasson, Norbert Reich, David Vaver, and Toni Williams for comments on an earlier draft.     

Understanding the relationship between experiencing workplace cyberbullying,employee mental strain and job satisfaction: a dysempowerment approach

Although the literature on traditional workplace bullying is advancing rapidly, currently investigations addressing workplace cyberbullying are sparse. To counter this, we present three connected research studies framed within dysempowerment theory (Kane, K., & Montgomery, K. (1998). A framework for understanding dysempowerment in organizations. Human Resource Management, 37, 263–275.) which examine the relationship between volume and intensity of cyberbullying experience and individual mental strain and job satisfaction; whether the impact is more negative as compared to traditional bullying; and whether state negative affectivity (NA) and interpersonal justice mediate the relationship. Additionally, we also considered the impact of witnessing cyberbullying acts on individual outcomes. A total sample comprised 331 UK university employees across academic, administrative, research, management and technical roles. Overall, significant relationships between cyberbullying exposure and outcomes emerged, with cyberbullying exposure displaying a stronger negative relationship with job satisfaction when compared to offline bullying. Analysis supported an indirect effect between cyberbullying acts and outcomes via NA and between cyberbullying acts and job satisfaction via interpersonal justice. No support for a serial multiple mediation model of experiencing cyberbullying to justice to NA to outcome was found. Further, perceived intensity of cyberbullying acts and witnessing cyberbullying acts did not significantly relate to negative outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed.     

Measuring the impact of R&;D on Productivity from a Econometric Time Series Perspective

In this paper we argue that the standard sequential reduction approach to modelling dynamic relationships may be sub-optimal when long lag lengths are required and especially when the intermediate lags may be less important. A flexible model search approach is adopted using the insights of Bayesian Model probabilities, and new information criteria based on forecasting performance. This approach is facilitated by exploiting Genetic Algorithms. Using data on U.K. and U.S. agriculture the bivariate time series relationship between R&D expenditure and productivity is analysed. Long lags are found in the relationship between R&D expenditures and productivity in the U.K. and in the U.S. which remain undiscovered when using the orthodox approach. This finding is of particular importance in the debate on the optimal level of public R&D funding.JEL Classification: C22, C51, Q16