A delicate balance protects everyone's rights

Clashes between employee and employer rights spill from the workplace out into the community at large. Drug testing, negligent hiring, sexual harassment and employment at will are issues that affect the individual, the company and the community at large.     

The value of youth: equalizing age differentials in marriages

"The objective of this paper is to present a model of constrained utility-maximizing behaviour which is able to explain several features of marriage. The model predicts that individuals meet in the marriage market and trade characteristics, in which they are relatively well endowed, to obtain characteristics in which they are less well endowed. The model implies a positive age differential in favour of the husband due to biological differences. This differential is shown to be attentuated by differences in earnings capacity and human capital investments. The model also has implications for dynamic aspects of marriage and provides an explanation for the secular increase in females' age of first marriage and difficulty experienced by females in the post thirty-year age group in finding suitable partners. An examination of unit record data on residents of metropolitan California from the 1980 United States Census reveals systematic patterns in the data are consistent with the theory."     

Fertility projection based on birth order data--a Swedish approach

"The decreasing fertility rates in Sweden during the 1970s can be explained as postponement of childbearing. An increasingly larger part of each generation has chosen to bear children at a late age, after education and some years of occupational work. As a consequence, the yearly age-specific rates will, in years to come, change systematically towards relatively high rates for women in the second half of the fertile period; changes which are important in population projections. To predict the future rates a model based on birth order data and assumptions about the final family size is used. The model and its application in the 1989 projection of the Swedish population is discussed in the paper. Alternative projections and the assumptions behind the alternatives are specified."     

Vying for time. Work and family

Time--there is never enough of it. There are never enough hours in the day to do everything at work and at home. Today's employees, forced to choose between work obligations and family responsibilities, often feel frazzled and guilty. Some employers recognize these conflicts and are finding ways to lighten the work/family load. They are offering a sophisticated combination of dependent-care options, flexible work hours and family-related benefits tailored to meet the needs of the employees within their specific industries. HRMagazine looks at leaders in six major industries--manufacturing, health, communications/technology, financial management, government and retail. No one can give employees that 25-hour day that everyone feels they need to juggle all their work and family obligations. But these industry leaders have provided a nurturing environment where employees can successfully balance those obligations.     

The effect of prospective payment under DRGs on the market value of hospitals

This article investigates the effect of a change in Medicare payment regulations on for-profit hospital market values. A theoretical argument on the effects of this regulatory event is presented in which hospital managers are concerned about firm wealth but also value prestige, provider perceptions of quality, and perhaps other prerequisites. In this case, DRGs will induce hospitals to seek higher wealth because they increase the opportunity cost of nonpecuniary benefits. The issue is pursued empirically by estimating the market response to DRG legislation using seemingly unrelated regressions.     

关于宁夏北部退耕还湖、退耕还沼的建议

宁夏北部地区主要指银川市为中心的银川平原中北部和卫宁平原的一部分，俗称“引黄灌区”，包括银川、贺兰、永宁、平罗、惠农、陶乐、吴忠、青铜峡、灵武、中卫、中宁11个县市和农垦系统13个国营农牧场，总面积2.13万m2。宁夏引黄灌区已有2000多年灌溉农业的历史，素有“天下黄河富宁夏”、“塞上江南”的美誉，其光、热、水、土资源较为丰富，农村产品品质优良。得天独厚的自然地理条件使宁夏平原成为发展农业不可多得的地带，其农业总产值约占全区的     

开创宁夏永宁县各项事业的新局面—访宁夏永宁县县委书记贺满明

记者：多年来，永宁县在自治区和银川党委、政府的正确领导下，以“三个代表”重要思想为指导，以加快发展为主题，以结构调整为主线，以强县富民为目标，正确处理改革、发展、稳定的关系，取得了令人瞩目的发展。请问贺书记，永宁县取得的成就主要表现在哪些方面？