Union security rights at the polls: A call for modeling right-to-work voting

From 1944 to 1986, 19 states held 27 referendums on right-to-work legislation, with 22.5 million people voting on the proposals. Despite its prominence as a public issue, most research on right-to-work laws focuses on their industrial relations impacts, and not on employees’ individual rights to refrain from joining unions or those same employees’ responsibilities to support their bargaining unit representative. Nor has there been any research on what citizen groups determine those rights and responsibilities in a right-to-work referendum. This study explores a potential operational model of anti-right-to-work voting with a multiple regression analysis of Missouri’s 1978 right-to-work election results, and hopes to serve as a stimulus to additional research on these particular dimensions of the right-to-work issue.     

Using partial identification methods to estimate the effect of violence against women on their children’s health outcomes

A growing literature in economics seeks to estimate the costs of violence against women by examining, for example, its impact on the health outcomes of their children. However, it is difficult to assign a causal interpretation to these nonexperimental studies due to the presence of unobservable characteristics affecting violence and health outcomes simultaneously. The lack of credible instrumental variables applicable in several countries further limits our knowledge. I address this gap by using new partial identification methods to estimate the relative size of the unobservables needed to eliminate the estimated effects in nonexperimental studies. I also expand the external validity of the analysis by using data from five standardized nationally representative household surveys in Latin America. Consistent with previous studies, cross-sectional estimates show large negative associations between violence against women and an array of child health outcomes. However, when accounting for omitted variable bias, at best, two-thirds of the estimates remain robust and they are concentrated on the outcomes with the largest cross-sectional estimated impacts.     

An analysis of media violence in commercials aired during the telecasts of sports events

The violence contained in television commercials has received less attention than other areas of media violence research. This study analyzed violent content in the Super Bowl commercials that aired between 2001 and 2009. Twenty-two percent of the Super Bowl commercials appearing from 2001 to 2009 contained some type of violence. A number of quantifications related to types of violence, targets and perpetrators of violent acts, and reasons for violence, among others, are reported. Subsequently, the relationships between the contextual factors of the violence and commercial likeability were examined.     

Party Discipline and Environmental Policy: The Role of “Smoke‐filled Back Rooms”*

We adopt the view that greater party discipline induces legislators to commit to promised policies after being elected. We then develop the hypothesis that the effect of party discipline on the stringency of environmental policy is conditional on the degree of government corruption. Our empirical work suggests that greater party discipline results in more stringent environmental policies when the level of corruption is relatively low, but in weaker policies when the level of corruption is comparatively high.     

The importance of being earners: why women in South Africa need well-paid jobs

The ‘children fare better’ viewpoint claims that children tend to be better fed if their mother (as opposed to father) has sufficient income of her own for food. This paper assesses this claim for South Africa, using data from household surveys. It considers the possibility that this issue is related to domestic violence between husband and wife, and finds an apparent link between wife's earnings, child nutrition and domestic violence. Children's well-being seems more assured if mothers have an adequate income; but there is more risk of inadequate nutrition in households where there is domestic violence against wives.     

Masculinities and gender-based violence in South Africa: A study of a masculinities-focused intervention programme

Violence, and particularly gender-based violence (GBV), has become an increasingly serious problem in the democratic era in South Africa. While numerous suggestions have been offered for why this is the case, a growing body of literature links the perpetration of violence and GBV to the expectations of men’s prescribed gender roles, or their masculinities. In response to this, some organisations have begun working specifically with men as a violence prevention mechanism, through the use of masculinities-focused interventions. This paper uses a South African example as a case study, looking primarily at how men who participate in the intervention understand masculinities and violence, and the impact that the intervention has on this understanding. Results suggest that violence has become largely normalised in the country, but that the intervention can play a role in beginning to problematise that normalisation.     

‘Never take pity’: an average French boxer’s ethnobiography

Based on a long-term ethnographic study of a group of French boxers, this article retraces the biography of one of its members. Éric was an average boxer who never truly mastered the art of dodging his opponents. He never left the ranks of amateur boxing either, although in fact he never truly hoped he would step into the limelight reserved for the very few champions who make it. His anonymous and relentless commitment to boxing was in fact filled with a different meaning that his ethnobiography brings to light. His commitment to boxing can be better understood in light of the trials he faced in “the poor life”, a life he described as flavorless, mired in unemployment and survival delinquency. Despite his repeated defeats in the ring, for him boxing was the only part of his identity that elevated his status and set him apart from those who only had the streets to hang out on. By revealing the meaning he gave to his pugilism, Éric’s ethnobiography offers a new perspective on the links between boxing, violence, and poverty. It also paves the way for exploring the dark side of a leisure activity and its struggles that extend far beyond the ring itself.     

Interpersonal violence in the United Arab Emirates

We aimed to study the anatomical distribution, severity and outcome of hospitalised interpersonal violence-related injured patients in Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates so as to give recommendations regarding the magnitude of this problem, its causes and priorities of prevention. Data were retrieved from Al-Ain Hospital Trauma Registry, which was prospectively collected over three years. There were 75 patients (males = 85.3%) having a mean age of 30 years. Eighty-one percent had blunt trauma. The estimated annual injury hospitalisation of interpersonal violence in Al-Ain city was 6.7 per 100,000 population. Females were significantly more injured by a family member (p = 0.02), at home (p = 0.005), and had more severe injuries (p = 0.003). There was a trend for children less than 18 years old to have more penetrating trauma (p = 0.06) and to be injured by a family member (p = 0.09). There was only one case of woman sexual assault and two cases of child abuse. The mean (SD) hospital stay was 7.87 (14.1) days. Less than 3% (n = 2) were admitted to the intensive care unit with no deaths. In conclusion, the majority of patients in our study had minor injuries. Nevertheless, the psychological impact may be major. This highlights the need to develop suitable mental health services in support of victims of interpersonal violence.