The Latin Melting Pot Is Boiling Over

A bstract . During the 1970s no area contributed more immigrants to the United States, both legal and illegal, than Latin America. The Latin American population in the U.S. has become the country's fastest growing large minority and unless economic conditions in Latin America improve for its poorer population, these people will continue to enter the U.S. in large numbers. The chaotic social situation in the country's Latin ghettos highlights a grave national problem. A. J. Jaffe, R. M. Cullen and T. D. Boswell of the Research Institute for the Study of Man completed a study of this immigration which deserves far greater attention than it has received. They found that cultural convergence of Latins with the non-Latin White population varied by subgroup, and was heavily dependent upon the volume of immigration of a particular subgroup and the degree of their concentration in this country.     

Highway robbery: complementary monopoly and the hold-up problem

We analyze the hold-up problem in the context of the Cournot–Ellet theory of complementary monopoly. The strategic interaction among travelers and two distinct owners of successive segments of a segment road is used as a metaphor for complementary goods that are traded sequentially. It is shown that when trade occurs double marginalization is eliminated. Furthermore, allowing for strategic placement of the tollbooths (simultaneous trade) avoids the hold-up problem but not double marginalization. Thus, this analysis suggests the endogenous creation of institutions among complementary monopolistic suppliers that assure their customers of not being held up whenever it is strategically possible.     

The strategic response by pharmaceutical firms to the Medicaid most-favored-customer rules

In 1991 a most-favored customer (MFC) rule was adopted to govern pharmaceutical prices paid by Medicaid. Theoretical models show that an MFC rule commits a firm to compete less aggressively in prices. I find that the price of branded products facing generic competition rose (4% on average). Brands protected by patents did not significantly increase in price. Generics in concentrated markets should display a strategic response to the brand's adoption of the MFC; I find that generic firms raise price more as their markets become concentrated. Hospital prices show little change. The results suggest that the MFC rule caused higher prices for some pharmaceutical customers.     

How identification facilitates effective learning: the evaluation of generic versus localized professionalization training

Worldwide, organizations are keen to ensure that they achieve a performance return from the large investment they make in employee training. This study examines the way in which workgroup identification facilitates trainees’ motivation to transfer learning into workplace performance. A 2 × 2 longitudinal study evaluated the effects of a new generic professionalization training program (NGP) – which tapped into distal work identities, and a standard local professionalization program (SLP) – which spoke more to localized work identities, on participant's motivation to transfer their learning to the workplace. The study found that, compared to participants on the SLP (n = 31), participants on the NGP (n = 35) indicated a reduction in 4 measures (perceived utility of training; workplace participation; relatedness and workplace identification). The authors draw on the social identity approach to illustrate how a reduction in these variables is indicative of a reduction in motivation to transfer learning to the workplace. In short, training which does not speak to meaningful localized identities results in reduced motivation to transfer compared to training that does speak to those identities. More broadly, the study demonstrates the capacity of the social identity approach to meet the increasing demands of training researchers for a comprehensive, multi‐dimensional, theoretical framework through which to understand the interplay of trainee and contextual factors that contribute to effective learning and performance in the workplace.