Mass Society and Political Conflict: Toward a Reconstruction of Theory

Many recent studies in economics have uncovered the economic and socio-economic factors that are most related to differences among nations in citizens' self-reported levels of well-being (SWB). However, these cross-country studies have generally not taken into account the fact that around the SWB national average, a considerable spread of scores exists within nations. In an extreme case, a country may be in the midst of a major social upheaval, with a large group of dispossessed and disadvantaged individuals, yet this fact is completely hidden by the arithmetical average. Using cross-country data with diverse economic and socio-economic characteristics and the latest available dataset on well-being, we uncover the factors that appear to be the most highly correlated with the inequality of well-being within nations. We find the inequalities in individual incomes and quality of health, and the level of institutional qualities to be most important in explaining the inequalities of well-being.     

An Afriat Theorem for the collective model of household consumption

We provide a nonparametric ‘revealed preference’ characterization of rational household behavior in terms of the collective consumption model, while accounting for general individual preferences that can be non-convex. Our main result is the Collective Afriat Theorem, which parallels the well-known Afriat Theorem for the unitary model. First, it provides a characterization of collectively rational consumption behavior in terms of collective Afriat inequalities. Next, it implies the Collective Axiom of Revealed Preference (CARP) as a testable necessary and sufficient condition for data consistency with collective rationality. Finally, the theorem has some interesting testability implications. With only a finite set of observations, the nature of consumption externalities (positive or negative) in the intra-household allocation process is non-testable. The same non-testability conclusion holds for privateness (with or without externalities) or publicness of consumption. By contrast, concavity of individual utility functions (representing convex preferences) turns out to be testable. In addition, monotonicity is testable for the model that assumes all household consumption is public.     

Attaining Sustainable Farm Management Systems in Semi-Arid Areas in Kenya: Few Technical Options,Many Policy Challenges

Soils in arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) are fragile, low in fertility and susceptible to erosion and leaching. To address these problems, activities were implemented in 1998–2003 to identify current problems, and design, test, implement, demonstrate and disseminate improved, integrated soil fertility management techniques. Current soil fertility management results in slightly negative nutrient balances, especially for phosphorus and potassium. Recycling of nutrients through crop residues and animal manure is inefficient, with evidently high losses. Due to the relatively high price of fertilisers and the high risks of crop failure, use of mineral fertilisers is restricted to market-oriented farms with access to irrigation facilities. Of the total farm household population, 35–85% lives below the poverty line. Applying higher rates of Farm Yard Manure (FYM) and/or fertilisers is unattractive and risky. Combinations of FYM and fertilisers give better financial returns than either of the two alone. Where irrigation is available, farmers adopt innovative farming systems that include higher application of mineral and organic fertilisers, and result in higher and more stable yields and higher financial returns. A set of specific policy measures for the semi-arid areas were identified to arrive at necessary changes in the economic environment, leading to a wider range of financially attractive technology options for smallholders.     

Education and social mobility

This paper shows that the design of education policy involves a potential conflict between welfare and social mobility. We consider a setting in which social mobility is maximized under the least elitist public education system, whereas welfare maximization calls for the most elitist system. We show that when private education is available, the degree of elitism that maximizes social mobility increases, while the welfare-maximizing degree of elitism decreases. The ranking between the welfare- and mobility-maximizing degrees of elitism may even be reversed. Utilitarian welfare is always higher when private supplementary education is available, but social mobility may be reduced.     

工作背景下知识型员工情绪影响因素维度研究

在知识经济时代，知识型员工对企业获得核心竞争力起着越来越重要的作用。知识型员工的情绪管理是对员工进行潜能开发的关键，也是未来人力资源管理工作的重点。本文主要针对企业的知识型员工进行情绪影响因素调查，然后通过扎根理论的质化研究方法，提炼出在工作背景下影响知识型员工情绪的因素（即12个维度）。针对这12个维度，笔者进一步基于文献和管理理论进行了维度精练，得到9个维度。然后，根据得到的维度，编写问卷，收集数据，通过探索性因子分析得到知识型员工的情绪管理维度。     

Cultural changes,popular creativity and mass communication: the Brazilian carnival over the past two centuries

The article analyses festive activities of central/south Brazilian urban society during the past two centuries examining cultural changes, the role of popular creativity, and the effect of the mass media. The article notes the rise of a dominant sector in society which imposes cultural creations on the lower classes while at the same time appropriating cultural traits of popular origin adapting those to fit into a consume oriented capitalist system.     

The Washington Consensus: A post-mortem

After guiding development policies for nearly 20 years, the “Washington Consensus” lies in shambles. Although selected components remain relevant for development policies around the world, some specifics of the broader policy “package” and, more generally, the concept of a standardized package of policies applicable to all developing countries has clearly been discredited.Criticism has been directed at the assumed link from economic liberalization of international trade and financial flows to more rapid economic growth. Apart from a handful of developing countries, admittedly including some large and important ones, most of the world saw little of the promised economic benefit from widespread and on-going trade and financial liberalization, initially. Many countries actually regressed, when evaluated against broader socio-economic development goals, including income inequality. We conclude that differences in initial conditions (history, culture, geography and levels of industrial and institutional development) preclude any single development policy package from being universally effective.     

Time-Series Characteristics and Long-Run Equilibrium for Major Australian Office Markets

While much attention has focused on the modeling of office property markets, little emphasis has been put on distinguishing between permanent and temporary effects. This article attempts to address this issue in the context of the rental adjustment mechanism and the demand–employment relationship for major Australian central business district office markets. It is shown that, by allowing the natural vacancy rate and the work–space ratio to be endogenously determined, it offers richer model specifications that permit a partitioning between long-run and short-run influences. This is achieved by employing econometric techniques that examine the stochastic behavior of time series data. It is found that, while equilibrium relationships exist (between the vacancy rate and rent, and demand and employment), other macroeconomic variables are found to be relevant cyclical determinants.