The effects of water hardness level on washing quality using commercial laundry detergents

The water hardnesses were determined for 10 samples of water. A wide variation of water hardnesses were found ranging from very soft to very hard. The effectiveness of six commercial laundry detergents of different formulations were evaluated. The detergent containing a non-ionic surfactant with a phosphate builder was found to give the best whiteness results, regardless of water hardness. Because of the possible environmental problems associated with the use of phosphates, consumers may wish to select the next most effective detergent formulation, which varied between water samples.     

CRIME, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND LABOR FORCE WITHDRAWAL

This article explores the links between self-admitted drug dealing and labor force behavior to determine if and/or how returns to employment influence the decisions by both blacks and whites to enter drug dealing. Using data collected on inmates in prisons and jails in California, Michigan, and Texas, this analysis concludes that black and white offenders vastly differ in their perceptions of criminal opportunities. But the dominant factor contributing to entry into drug selling, especially among black males, is unattractive market opportunities. One cannot determine unambiguously whether this results from the lure of drug dealing for its entrepreneurial attractiveness or simply results from crime versus employment choices. In any case, evidence presented clearly shows that racial differences in returns to employment explain most of the gap between black and white drug dealing.     

IMPACTS OF VIOLENT CRIME ON BLACK FAMILY STRUCTURE

Violent crime contributes to depleting the supply of marriageable males in minority communities. Young black males die disproportionately due to homicides. Also, a disproportionate number of young black males are in prisons and jails. Consequently, they are withdrawn from the productive labor force and become less desirable mates and fathers. They become "marginalized." Black families, in turn, are deprived of productive male heads. This paper, using Current Population Survey data for 1985, demonstrates that a direct effect of reducing the supply of marriageable mates is to increase the proportion of black families headed by females. The impacts of homicide and incarceration far exceed those of public welfare in influencing changing black family structures.     

Congress and the Federal Reserve

We examine legislative activity to determine when Congress threatens the Fed and whether this pressure affects monetary policy. By the late‐1980s Congress shifted from threatening when unemployment was high to threatening when inflation was high. We use the Romer and Romer monetary shocks to isolate changes in the federal funds rate that cannot be explained by economic conditions and ask whether these shocks respond to pressure. In the 1970s, the Fed responded to bills credibly threatening Fed powers by lowering the federal funds target below that prescribed by current and forecast economic conditions. However, this accommodation ceased in the mid‐1980s.     

An Exploratory Behavioral and Socio-Economic Profile of Consumer Action About Dissatisfaction with Selected Household Appliances

Dissatisfactions of consumers with household appliances and consumers' attempts to get action to overcome their dissatisfaction are frequently discussed and reported. However, only limited empirical research that permits generalization is available. This study provides additional insight into characteristics of consumers experiencing dissatisfaction with some household appliances as well as a profile of those consumers who express their dissatisfactions and those who don't and the places turned to by those consumers who do complain.     

Do the Poor Pay More for Food? An Analysis of Grocery Store Availability and Food Price Disparities

Do the poor pay more for food? To answer this question, this study was conducted to provide an empirical analysis of grocery store access and prices across inner city and suburban communities within the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area. The comparison among different types of grocers and geographic areas is drawn from a survey of approximately fifty grocery items for fifty-five stores. Results indicate that the poor pay only slightly more in the Twin Cities grocery market. More significantly, those who shop in non-chain stores pay a significant premium, and the poor have less access to chain stores. This study reveals that the biggest factor contributing to higher grocery costs in poor neighborhoods is that large chain stores, where prices tend to be lower, are not located in these neighborhoods.     

Crisis Behind Closed Doors: Global Food Crisis and Local Hunger

The high and volatile food prices in 2007–8 triggered estimates of massive increases in poverty and hunger. However, hunger and volatile food prices have long been a feature of developing economies. This paper examines the impact of high global food prices on domestic terms‐of‐trade, food consumption and child undernutrition in the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Liberia and Sierra Leone, comparing findings with the impacts of ‘seasonality’. As high international food prices permeated domestic markets, households in all the case study areas resorted to coping strategies common in the annual hunger season. Though acute malnutrition has not risen as consistently as in a seasonal hunger crisis, reduced micronutrient intake threatens to have severe long‐term consequences for health and poverty reduction. The similar impacts of seasonal and global food price rises on households provide an opportunity to design appropriate interventions to protect livelihoods.     

THE CORPORATE SOCIAL PERFORMANCE–FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE LINK

Strategic managers are consistently faced with the decision of how to allocate scarce corporate resources in an environment that is placing more and more pressures on them. Recent scholarship in strategic management suggests that many of these pressures come directly from sources associated with social issues in management, rather than traditional arenas of strategic management. Using a greatly improved source of data on corporate social performance, this paper reports the results of a rigorous study of the empirical linkages between financial and social performance. Corporate social performance (CSP) is found to be positively associated with prior financial performance, supporting the theory that slack resource availability and CSP are positively related. CSP is also found to be positively associated with future financial performance, supporting the theory that good management and CSP are positively related.© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd     

COUNT DATA REGRESSION USING SERIES EXPANSIONS: WITH APPLICATIONS

A new class of parametric regression models for both under- and overdispersed count data is proposed. These models are based on squared polynomial expansions around a Poisson baseline density. The approach is similar to that for continuous data using squared Hermite polynomials proposed by Gallant and Nychka and applied to financial data by, among others, Gallant and Tauchen. The count models are applied to underdispersed data on the number of takeover bids received by targeted firms, and to overdispersed data on the number of visits to health practitioners. The models appear to be particularly useful for underdispersed count data. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.