The Cognitive and Emotional Components of Behavior Norms in Outdoor Recreation

Behavioral norms consist of two components: a cognitive component of obligation that is the memory repository of social standards, and an emotional component of sanctions that are the feelings and physiological states that result when actual behavior is consistent or not consistent with the obligation. This article analyzes the cognitive and emotional components of norms identified in three studies of behaviors (littering, controlling dogs while cross country skiing, and bikers and skaters warning when passing) in outdoor recreation settings. All three studies provide data on obligations to behave a particular way and internal and informal sanctions for correct or incorrect behavior. Obligations for all the behaviors were highly crystallized and were not statistically different. Internal sanctions were shame and guilt, and informal sanction was embarrassment. The intensity of the norms was determined by summing individuals' responses for shame, guilt, and embarrassment. The power and prevalence of the norms were determined by cross tabulating obligations by intensities. Intensity, power, and prevalence were very high for littering and failing to control your dog while cross country skiing, but were very low for skaters and bikers failing to warn when passing slower users on a multiple use trail. Measuring sanctions is shown to be critical to determining the intensity, power, and prevalence of behavioral norms. Suggestions are given for ways to include sanctions in studies of social and environmental condition norms.     

Some Teaching Techniques for High School Economics

In this article two high school economics teachers describe several teaching techniques that have proven successful in their school. The use of a team approach is briefly explained, and the importance of student motivation is stressed. Among the methods included are skits, plays, the use of video tapes, simulations and games, and the analysis of important economic problems. The means by which the instructors are evaluating their course are set forth, with evidence that the experience helps to destroy commonly held myths about economics and greatly improves student understanding of basic principles.     

美国医疗决策中的卫生技术评估

卫生技术评估（Health technology assessment，HTA）是对卫生保健技术应用所产生的短期与长期结果进行检验的一种政策研究形式。评估的内容包括安全性、有效性、患者自报结果、现实效果、成本和成本一效果以及社会、法律、伦理和政治影响等。     

TV viewing: application of a formal choice model

Choices of television programs is viewed as a process of deciding among a set of alternative goods with zero prices. A choice model can thus be based purely on individuals' preferences for various characteristics of a set of shows available, incorporating the option of not watching if all shows are too dissimilar to these desires. The shows are first grouped according to salient characteristics and a preferred value for each characteristic is estimated for each potential viewer. A perceived position of each show is similarly estimated and watching is shown to decline as similarity between preferred show and available alternatives declines. The choice model predicts show choice better than simpler models based on aggregate audience measures or on network loyalty, but the explanatory power is weak; some suggestions for improvement are made.     

New Methods for Forecasting Inflation,Applied to the US*

Models for the 12‐month‐ahead US rate of inflation, measured by the chain‐weighted consumer expenditure deflator, are estimated for 1974–98 and subsequent pseudo out‐of‐sample forecasting performance is examined. Alternative forecasting approaches for different information sets are compared with benchmark univariate autoregressive models, and substantial out‐performance is demonstrated including against Stock and Watson's unobserved components‐stochastic volatility model. Three key ingredients to the out‐performance are: including equilibrium correction component terms in relative prices; introducing nonlinearities to proxy state‐dependence in the inflation process and replacing the information criterion, commonly used in VARs to select lag length, with a ‘parsimonious longer lags’ parameterization. Forecast pooling or averaging also improves forecast performance.     

Mobilizing consent: paternalism and cellular manufacturing

In this paper we explore the dynamics of the introduction of New Systems and Structures of Work Organization (NSSWO) in the context of the forces impacting upon organizational change in the unionized sector of manufacturing industry throughout the Thatcher period. This we do by way of a detailed case study of a major UK auto-components manufacturer. We explore a number of changes in work organization, including the introduction of a cellular-based system of manufacturing, from its initial strategic conception through to its implementation; the delegation of responsibility for quality to shop-floor operators and the use of more flexible working practices. In doing so, we reconsider the context of change, the detailed processes of change and the pattern of accommodation between labour and management. Drawing upon our previous work on the nature of paternalism (Ackers,and Black, 1991), we explore its significance in terms of management’s constant drive for more economic work practices and patterns of organization. Specifically we explore the significance of paternalism as a relevant concept in interpreting the case, and hence, also, as a relevant concept in understanding HRM. The case challenges the prevailing ideology that the ‘successful’

economic organization requires (a) a de-regulated labour market and (b)

a trade union free environment, or, failing this, that management needs to

develop an individualistic approach towards the work-force, moving from the

more pluralist‘industrial relations’approach towards an essentially ‘unitarist framework, as found in certain interpretations of ‘uman resource management’(Guest, 1987)

The paper is thus a contribution to the continuing analysis of those ‘tensions and struggles through which the open ended potential of labour power have been managed, through shifting patterns of coercion, accommodation and compliance into profitable forms of production’(Elger and Smith, 1994: 12; Thompson, 1990). By means of this case we attempt to explore this issue with respect to three interconnected

themes:

The place of paternalism as a relevant concept in the age of HRM.

The extent to which organizations may be better advised to look towards ways

to build upon their existing organization culture, rather than seeking solutions

from overseas models.

Linking with previous work on the ‘Joint Process’in the US (Black and Ackers, 1994), the paper raises issues concerning the ‘strategic issue . . . which managers have to face . . . the balance between joint regulation and joint consultation’(Storey and Sissons, 1993: 221), and hence the role of trades unions in organizational change programmes.     

The Status of Econometrics in the Economics Major: A Survey

In this article, the authors describe the place of econometrics in undergraduate economics curricula in all American colleges and universities that offer economics majors as listed in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges 2010” guide (U.S. News & World Report 2009). Data come from online catalogs, departmental Web sites, and online course syllabi. About one-third of the schools require econometrics of all students majoring in economics, about half require it of none, and a sixth require it of some, but not all, economics majors. Among universities with economics PhD programs and liberal arts colleges, almost all those ranked in the top 10 require it. Below the top 10, there is little correlation between ranking and econometrics requirements. Liberal arts econometrics classes are much more likely to require research projects than their counterparts in universities.