Field Perspectives on the Causes of Low Employment Among Less Skilled Black Men

This article presents findings from a unique survey that assessed explanations for low black male employment by questioning participants in a low skill labor market. Black men identified barriers to hiring—including felony convictions, drug testing, low skill levels, and bias—as major reasons for their non‐employment. Employers believed black male applicants were less likely to have the desired interpersonal skills and work ethic, and that they were less likely to pass pre‐employment drug tests.     

Do Investors Value Sustainability? A Natural Experiment Examining Ranking and Fund Flows

Examining a shock to the salience of the sustainability of the U.S. mutual fund market, we present causal evidence that investors marketwide value sustainability: being categorized as low sustainability resulted in net outflows of more than $12 billion while being categorized as high sustainability led to net inflows of more than $24 billion. Experimental evidence suggests that sustainability is viewed as positively predicting future performance, but we do not find evidence that high‐sustainability funds outperform low‐sustainability funds. The evidence is consistent with positive affect influencing expectations of sustainable fund performance and nonpecuniary motives influencing investment decisions.     

Neoliberalism,Contingency and Urban Policy: The Case of Social Housing in Ontario

Various authors have argued that common understandings of neoliberalism are flawed because they do not adequately account for its geographical contingency or internal contradictions. Many have suggested that neoliberalism is either too internally riven with contradiction to be considered a singular consistent project, or that its implementation is so locally contingent that we cannot plausibly speak of one ideal‐type placeless ideology. Primarily based on interviews with over half of the municipal housing providers in Ontario, this article explores the extent to which the meta‐ideas of neoliberalism are filtered and manifest (or not) locally. Social policy has been neoliberalized in Ontario at least since the advent of the ‘common sense revolution’ in 1995, when a Tory government was elected on a platform of neoliberal reform. The experience of social housing in the province, before, after and during the transition offers a useful window into the debate about the dissonance (or lack thereof) between ideal‐type and contingent neoliberalism. Based on this case, we argue that, despite its obvious conceptual flaws, it is politically and analytically important to understand ideal‐type neoliberalism better.     

Clothing construction for students of merchandising: lecture versus laboratory

Two methods of teaching clothing construction to students of merchandising were compared using a lecture group, laboratory group and a control group. A pretest, post-test, and attitude questionnaire were administered to the lecture and laboratory groups. The control group took the pretest only. Statistical analysis of pretest and post-test data showed no significant difference in the amount of improvement between the lecture and laboratory groups, although there was a difference between groups on the pretest. The questionnaire indicated that attitudes were significantly higher (positive) in the laboratory group than in the lecture group, regardless of the amount of prior clothing construction experience. Implications of the study are that the lecture format of instruction is as effective as the laboratory in conveying principles of clothing construction, even though student attitude in the lecture was not as favourable as in the laboratory group.     

Rural-urban differentials in children's household production time

This research examined the amount of time rural and urban children spent in household production activities, and several demographic factors related to that time use. Data were obtained from a multi-state family time-use survey, NE-113 ‘Use of Time in Rural and Urban Families’. Home interviews were conducted with 2,100 families in II states. The sample consisted of 1,045 rural children and 1,026 urban children, aged 6–17. The hypothesis, that the differentials in time spent in household production by rural and urban children will be due to assignment of tasks by sex, was confirmed. Boys spent similar amounts of time in housework regardless of place of residence, while rural girls spent more time than urban girls.     

Influence of apparel quality knowledge,purchase attitudes and demographics on patronage preferences of rural and urban women

The influence of extrinsic cues (price, quality, store image), intrinsic cues (apparel quality knowledge) and demograpics on the store-patronage preferences of rural and urban consumers was determined. Multiple linear regression was used to generate three predictor models of store patronage (P < 0.05) for 192 rural and 149 urban women responding to a mail survey on attitudes toward discount stores. No differences were noted in attitudes of rural and urban consumers. Attitudes toward apparel price, quality and store image in discount and non-discount stores were much better predictors of store-patronage preferences than were apparel quality knowledge and demographic characteristics. The results of this study may help retailers in defining and reaching their target markets and help educators in assisting students to understand consumer-purchase attitudes and patronage preferences.