The Board of Directors and The Adoption of Quality Management Tools

Abstract

The article examines the role of the board of directors in Local Public Utilities (LPUs). It aims at verifying empirically if a correlation exists between specific characteristics of the board of directors and the adoption of innovative arrangements addressing emerging needs of users and citizens (i.e. quality). By means of applying multivariate statistical methods to a random sample of sixty Italian LPUs, this study finds the relational capital of the boards affecting the take up of quality-oriented actions by LPUs. These results support the resource-dependence theory, neglected by mainstream literature.     

URBANIZATION,HEALTH AND HUMAN STATURE

Economic growth has not always generated improvements in a population's health. Biological indicators of human well‐being, including stature, suggest the march to prosperity was not a steady one, and these biological indicators offer estimates of the health costs associated with modern economic growth. We employ an international data set to study the socioeconomic benefits and health costs associated with the transition to modern economic growth during the nineteenth century. We find that while the growth of GDP per capita had a positive impact on the stature of Western populations, prior to the mastery of the germ theory of disease, urbanization had a strong negative impact.     

从宁夏突发公共卫生事件看宁夏疾控机构图书馆(室)信息服务工作

针对宁夏突发公共卫生事件,探讨宁夏各级疾控机构图书馆(室)如何有效加强图书馆信息资源管理,转变服务模式,以促进宁夏图书馆(室)信息服务水平的进一步提升。     

Public Service Leaders as ‘Change Agents’ – for Whom?

Abstract

This article examines how far senior staff in English educational and health service organizations view themselves as leaders who are ‘change agents’ for government-driven reform and independent change agendas. The contribution of external leadership development provision to shaping these self-perceptions is explored. Special attention is paid to national leadership development bodies with different degrees of formal association with government. Whatever this relationship, such provision and other development support apparently reinforced a strong sense of personal agency (choice of action) associated with being a leader, empowering senior staff to adopt a modestly mediatory stance towards both reform and leadership development provision.     

Empirical studies on the relationship between public and private investment and GDP growth

This study performs empirical studies on the interaction between public and private investment and GDP growth for Japan and the USA. Since the data for each country used show features that are quite different from each other, empirical methods of GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) and OLS (Ordinary Least squares) are accordingly applied to Japan and the USA, respectively. The empirical results suggest that both public and private investment make great contributions to Japanese economic growth, while the US private investment seems to play a much more significant role than public investment.     

Reassessing welfare reform data: a response to cherry

Abstract

This is a response to Robert Cherry's comment on the article, “Welfare as We [Don't] Know It: A Review and Feminist Critique of Welfare Reform Research” that appeared in the 10(2) issue of Feminist Economics. This response argues that while some combination of welfare reform, the booming economy in the late 1990s, and changes in economic policy all worked together to decrease caseloads and increase employment rates among welfare leavers, these are incomplete measures of the impact of welfare reform on the lives of lone mothers. This paper also argues that the effects of welfare reform on lone mothers are more mixed than Cherry acknowledges. This paper concludes that when one holistically examines low-income lone mothers' lives, it is premature to declare welfare reform a success.     

社会资本的累积效应及其家庭福利改善

采用贫困家庭的调查数据,从社会资本的五个维度探讨累积效应对家庭福利的影响。这五个维度中,尤其是其中的社会网络规模、信任及其参与公共事务对家庭福利的影响系数为正,且在统计上显著。研究发现,对贫困家庭而言,社会资本的收入补偿效应很大。因此,在政策设计上,应提升贫困家庭的社会资本累积程度,从而提高贫困家庭的福利水平。     

Growth of China's foreign exchange reserve

China's growing foreign exchange reserve is estimated to exceed $2 trillion by 2010. The purpose of its paper is to examine its impact on the balance sheet of the Chinese central bank, the money supply and the bond market. The paper will then move on to discuss its social welfare effect by comparing the estimated future return of the foreign exchange reserves with its opportunity costs measured by the potential return of domestic investments.     

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文章结合工作实践,就如何做好财务出纳工作提出见解。