CANNABIS USE AND ITS EFFECTS ON HEALTH,EDUCATION AND LABOR MARKET SUCCESS

Cannabis is the most popular illegal drug. Its legal status is typically justified on the grounds that cannabis use has harmful consequences. Empirically investigating this issue has been a fertile topic for research in recent times. We provide an overview of this literature, focusing on studies which seek to establish the causal effect of cannabis use on health, education, and labor market success. We conclude that there do not appear to be serious harmful health effects of moderate cannabis use. Nevertheless, there is evidence of reduced mental well‐being for heavy users who are susceptible to mental health problems. While there is robust evidence that early cannabis use reduces educational attainment, there remains substantial uncertainty as to whether using cannabis has adverse labor market effects.     

Tax instruments as constraints on the disposition of public revenues

This paper examines the possible selection of tax instruments as means of inducing a Leviathan-like government to provide the public goods and services that taxpayer-beneficiaries desire. The analysis is conducted in a constitutional setting, in which potential taxpayers-beneficiaries confront choices among tax instruments, when these are taken to be the primary constraints on the behavior of government in postconstitutional periods. The analysis suggests a particular form of earmarking; each expenditure is allotted a particular tax base that is highly complementary with the public good itself. The complementarity between tax base and the corresponding public good is the central relationship that exerts discipline on government. Arguments for this type of earmarking have not, to our knowledge, been previously developed in tax theory.     

Is environmental policy a secondary trade barrier? An empirical analysis

Abstract Should international trade agreements be extended to include negotiations over environmental policy? The answer depends on whether countries distort levels of environmental regulations as a secondary means of providing protection to domestic industries; our results suggest that they do. Previous studies of this relationship have treated the level of environmental regulation as exogenous, and found a negligible correlation between environmental regulation and trade flows. In contrast, we find that, when the level of environmental regulation is modelled as an endogenous variable, its estimated effect on trade flows is significantly higher than previously reported. JEL Classification: F1, F14, F18 Est‐ce que la politique environnementale est une barrière commerciale secondaire? Une analyse empirique Est‐ce que les accords commerciaux internationaux doivent être étendus pour couvrir la politique environnementale? La réponse dépend du degré de distorsion que les pays introduisent dans leur politique environnementale pour protéger leurs industries nationales. Nos résultats suggèrent que cet impact est important. Des études antérieures de cette relation ont traité la politique environnementale comme exogène, et ont montré qu’il existe une co‐relation négligeable entre politique environnementale et flux commerciaux. Au contraire, nous révélons que, quand la politique environnementale est considérée comme variable endogène, son effet sur les flux commerciaux est plus élevé de manière significative que ce qu’on a noté antérieurement.     

Politics as Tragedy in Several Acts

James Madison noted that government would be unnecessary if men were angels. The shortfall of value between the idealized anarchy of a society of angels and the society of men as they are measures the tragedy of politics, which emerges at several levels. Resources are required for the maintenance of order, and those agents who are guardians of order will not, themselves, be angels. Further, rents promised to such agents will attract efforts at capture. Reductions in the measure of the tragedy remain possible through both shifts in ethical standards, at all levels, and shifts in institutional-constitutional structures.     

Value-added care: a paradigm shift in patient care delivery

Spiraling costs in health care have placed hospitals in a constant state of transition. As a result, nursing practice is now influenced by numerous factors and has remained in a continuous state of flux. Multiple changes within the last 2 decades in nurse/patient ratio and blend of front-line nurses are examples of this transition. To reframe the nursing practice into an economic equation that captures the cost, quality, and service, a paradigm shift in thinking is needed in order to assess work redesign. Nursing productivity must be evaluated in terms of value-added care, a vision that goes beyond direct care activities and includes team collaboration, physician rounding, increased RN-to-aide communication, and patient centeredness; all of which are crucial to the nurse's role and the patient's well-being. The science of appropriating staffing depends on assessment and implementation of systematic changes best illustrated through a "systems theory" framework. A throughput transformation is required to create process changes with input elements (number of front-line nurses) in order to increase time spent in value-added care and to decrease waste activities with an improvement in efficiency, quality, and service. The purpose of this pilot study was two-fold: (a) to gain an understanding of how much time RNs spent in value-added care, and (b) whether increasing the combined level of RNs and unlicensed assistive personnel increased the amount of time spent in value-added care compared to time spent in necessary tasks and waste.     

FAILURE, UNCERTAINTY AND CONTROL: THE ROLE OF OPERATORS IN A COMPUTER INTEGRATED PRODUCTION SYSTEM

This article presents the findings of a case study which analyzed how new electronics and computing technology affected the role of process operators in a continuous process plant manufacturing pigments in Scotland. the first stage of the research was a participant observation study of the site over two years. Three years later, production managers and operators were interviewed, and an observation study was carried out over one full shift in the plant studied. the results demonstrate that the process operators required considerable skill, knowledge, experience and training to deal with process faults, cope with contingencies, and to control the process effectively. the operators reported that they found interest and challenge in the work. the impact of technical change on the quality of working life was, however, equivocal. the operators’ mobility was constrained, they were isolated from the rest of the plant, some messy manual tasks remained, and they were still dependent on the technical and chemical expertise of management and engineering staff to handle serious problems. Other operators were less enthusiastic about the work. Management expected the new systems to reduce human intervention and control. But the limitations of the computer controls and the high cost of error meant that effective production was more dependent on human presence and ability than in simpler batch production. Advances in computing technology may highlight the conflict between management desires to reduce human operator control and to design effective integrated production systems.     

PUBLIC SERVICES MANAGEMENT: ACTIVITIES, INITIATIVES AND LIMITS TO LEARNING

Private sector-style management initiatives to ensure UK public services managers’ learning from private sector management practice are examined, and their rationale questioned. The lack of a coherent, systematic and agreed view of what constitutes ‘management’ and ‘managerial work’ in the private sector is discussed. It is argued that there are reasons for believing that the particular character and organizational contexts of public services will require different managerial behaviours. The manner in which experimental managerial initiatives in some public services have shifted into mandatory innovations is examined. Such innovations can be incompatible with the values of those managing in the public service, who frequently fail to recognize the advantages of late innovation, incrementalism and circumspection. In public services particularly, many managerial activities are the province of ‘non managerial’ staff. Though frequently not considered, the values of these de facto managers may be central to the progress of such innovations. It is further argued that risk-taking as applied in a business context is inappropriate to the degree that public services managers must be concerned with the common weal, equity and accountability. The article concludes with a detailed research agenda to support the need to recognize public services management as a rich and varied area of managerial behaviour in its own right. Its character and variation warrants further investigation as a basis for formulating more appropriate management concepts against which to measure public services managers’ behaviour and performance.