Methods and tools for integrated assessment of land use policies on sustainable development in developing countries

For stimulating sustainable development in developing countries, land use patterns and land use changes are considered critical, and therefore effective and efficient land use policies are needed. In this paper we present a methodological framework that has been developed in a joint European and developing countries project (LUPIS – Land Use Policies and Sustainable Development in Developing Countries), to assess the impact of land use policies on sustainable development in developing countries. An illustrative application is presented for a case study in China, where water pollution due to agriculture in Taihu Basin is a major problem.     

Personalien

Personalien

Personalien     

The Method of Purging Applied to Repeated Cross-Sectional Data

In cross-sectional survey research, it is quite common to estimate the(standardized) effect of independent variable(s) on a dependent variable. However, if repeated cross-sectional data are available, much is to be gained if the consequences of these effects on longitudinal social change are considered.To assess these consequences, we describe a type of simulation in whichlongitudinal shifts in the independent variable's distribution, and longitudinal variation in effect on the dependent variable are `purged' from the data. Although the method of purging is known for many years, we add new practical features by relating the method to logistic and linear regression analysis. Because both logistic and linear regression analysis can be found in all majorstatistical packages, the method of purging is made available to a wider group of social scientists. With the use of repeated cross-sectional data, gathered in the Netherlands between 1970 and 1998, the new practical features of the purging method are shown, using the SPSS package.     

Comparing levels of anti-Muslim attitudes across Western countries

In this study we describe differences of the ethnic majorities?? attitudes toward Muslims across Western countries. Using data from the Pew Global Attitudes Survey (2005), we were able to increase and test cross-cultural comparability of anti-Muslim attitudes. We constructed a single factor CFA model with three indicators, which was tested for scalar equivalence. Our results indicate that anti-Muslim attitudes differ significantly across the countries in our analysis. Germany and the Netherlands turned out to display relatively high levels of anti-Muslim attitudes, whereas these levels were relatively low in Great-Britain and the USA. We conclude our study with giving some post-hoc explanations for the differences found across countries.     

The standardized effect of a compound of dummy variables or polynomial terms

A method is proposed to obtain standardized regression coefficients for composite variables made up of dummy variables or polynomial terms. The method to be described enables the researcher to compare the effect of the composite variable with the effects of other predictor variables. Forming a composite variable is particularly useful in polynomial regression where individual regression coefficients are hard to interpret. A second application is assessing the impact of a compound of dummy variables. An empirical example dealing with the curvilinear relationship between church involvement and prejudice is used to illustrate the approach.     

Benefits and Disadvantages of Individuals’ Multiple Team Membership: The Moderating Role of Organizational Tenure

Many employees in today’s organizations are involved in more than one team at the same time. Building on the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, this study investigates potential benefits and disadvantages of such multiple team membership (MTM) for individual employees. Furthermore, we extend this framework with insights from the job demands-resources model to propose that, depending on an employee’s organizational tenure, individual MTM will differentially shape his or her perceptions of work challenge and role ambiguity, subsequently influencing the employee’s job performance and absenteeism. We tested our conceptual model using time-lagged multi-source data from a large organization of applied research (N = 1211). Our results demonstrate that, for employees with relatively low organizational tenure, MTM was negatively associated with perceived work challenge and positively associated with perceived role ambiguity, which in turn associated with lower job performance and higher absenteeism. For employees with higher organizational tenure, by contrast, MTM associated positively with their work challenge perceptions and subsequent performance outcomes, whereas MTM was unrelated to perceived role ambiguity as well as absenteeism. These findings identify relevant psychological mechanisms and a key contingency factor that explain when and why MTM may have positive or negative individual-level consequences.