Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Book Repair Basics For Libraries : Webinar, Peter D. Verheyen, Marianne Hanley

Librarian Publications

This presentation familiarizes viewers with different aspects of circulating collections book repair for school, public, and academic library staff. It shows basic descriptions of techniques using images, and video. This presentation should not be construed as a how-to, hands-on workshop. Likewise, it is not aimed at the treatment of special collections items. Selected resources for training, both hands-on and online are provided at the end. This webinar was presented to ALA/Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS). Online. Sep. 14, 2011. Download below or view online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qWWnIHoRig.

Social Interactions In The Labor Market, Andrew Grodner, Thomas J. Kniesner, John A. Bishop

Economics - All Scholarship

We examine theoretically and empirically social interactions in labor markets and how policy prescriptions can change dramatically when there are social interactions present. Spillover effects increase labor supply and conformity effects make labor supply perfectly inelastic at a reference group average. The demand for a good may also be influenced by either a spillover effect or a conformity effect. Positive spillover increases the demand for the good with interactions, and a conformity effect makes the demand curve pivot to become less price sensitive. Similar social interactions effects appear in the associated derived demands for labor. Individual and community factors may …

Losers And Losers: Some Demographics Of Medical Malpractice Tort Reforms, Andrew Friedson, Thomas J. Kniesner

Economics - All Scholarship

Our research examines individual differences in the effects of medical malpractice tort reforms on pre-trial settlement speed and settlement amounts by age and most likely settlement size. Findings of note include that, unlike previously assumed, both absolute and percentage losses from tort reform are small for infants in an asset value sense and that the prime-aged working population is the group most negatively affected by tort reform. Maximum entropy quantile regressions highlight the robustness of our conclusions and reveal that the settlement losses most informative for policy evaluation differ greatly from mean regression estimates.

The Turkish Wage Curve; Evidence From The Household Labor Force Survey, Badi H. Baltagi, Yusuf Soner Baskaya, Timur Hulagu

Center for Policy Research

This paper examines the Turkish wage curve using individual data from the Household Labor Force Survey (HLFS) including 26 NUTS-2 regions over the period 2005 - 2008. When the local unemployment rate is treated as predetermined, there is evidence in favor of the wage curve only for younger and female workers. However, if the lagged unemployment rate is used as an instrument for current unemployment rate, we find an unemployment elasticity of -0.099. We also find a higher elasticity for younger, less educated, low experienced workers than for older, more educated and more experienced workers. Another important finding is that …

What’S Wrong With Economics? It Ignores The Pogo Principle: 'We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us', Jerry Evensky

Economics - All Scholarship

The piece begins with the proposition that the economic perspective on human activity must reflect the fact that human beings transact in a world defined for the actors by social norms. An analysis of the crisis of 2008 is offered as a demonstration of the value of adopting such a broader perspective. Part two offers a historical model based on Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy of such a broader analysis. The piece closes with the case that the history of ideas offers alternative perspectives on the questions we explore in economics today and thus can serve as a valuable resource for …

August 2011 Vol. 2 No. 7, Near Westside Initiative

Near Westside Initiative News/Noticias

No abstract provided.

Losers And Losers: Some Demographics Of Medical Malpractice Tort Reforms, Andrew I. Friedson, Thomas J. Kniesner

Center for Policy Research

Our research examines individual differences in the effects of medical malpractice tort reforms on pre-trial settlement speed and settlement amounts by age and most likely settlement size. Findings of note include that, unlike previously assumed, both absolute and percentage losses from tort reform are small for infants in an asset value sense and that the prime-aged working population is the group most negatively affected by tort reform. Maximum entropy quantile regressions highlight the robustness of our conclusions and reveal that the settlement losses most informative for policy evaluation differ greatly from mean regression estimates.

Social Interactions In The Labor Market, Andrew Grodner, Thomas J. Kniesner, John A. Bishop

Center for Policy Research

We examine theoretically and empirically social interactions in labor markets and how policy prescriptions can change dramatically when there are social interactions present.

Spillover effects increase labor supply and conformity effects make labor supply perfectly inelastic at a reference group average. The demand for a good may also be influenced by either a spillover effect or a conformity effect. Positive spillover increases the demand for the good with interactions, and a conformity effect makes the demand curve pivot to become less price sensitive. Similar social interactions effects appear in the associated derived demands for labor.

Individual and community factors may …

The Value Of Life: Real Risks And Safety-Related Productivity In The Himalaya, Jeremy Goucher, William C. Horrace

Economics - All Scholarship

This paper estimates the value of a statistical life from commercial Himalayan expeditions. Because deaths occur with a fair amount of regularity, fatality rates are calculated for each mountain trail and are, hence, disaggregated measures of risk. Also, since the marginal product of labor in the industry is (in part) the marginal product of safety, our revenue measures may account for unobserved safety-related productivity of guides. Guide safety is explicitly observed by market participants, and is reflected in higher wages for safer guides. Our VSL estimates are about $5 M.

Leaving Or Staying: Inter-Provincial Migration In Vietnam, Phuong Nguyen-Hoang, John G. Mcpeak

Economics - All Scholarship

Internal migration has several policy implications for economic growth and development for developing countries in general and for the fast growing low-income country of Vietnam in particular. Little research has been done, however, on inter-provincial migration in Vietnam. This study makes two major contributions to the migration and development literature in terms of the datasets and policy-relevant estimation approach. It is the first paper to use the annual survey data on migration published by Vietnam’s General Statistics Office. This study also adopts a functional form to accommodate the flexibility of income’s elasticity. Income, together with urban unemployment rates, are endogenously …

July 2011 Vol. 2 No. 6, Near Westside Initiative

Near Westside Initiative News/Noticias

No abstract provided.

Homeownership Boom And Bust 2000 To 2009: Where Will The Homeownership Rate Go From Here?, Stuart A. Gabriel, Stuart S. Rosenthal

Economics - All Scholarship

The increase in the homeownership rate in the middle of the last decade extended to all age groups but was most pronounced among individuals under age 30. These increases coincided with looser credit conditions that enhanced household access to mortgage credit along with evidence of less risk averse attitudes towards investment in homeownership. Following the crash, these trends have reversed and homeownership rates have largely reverted back to the levels of 2000. The drop in the homeownership rate from an all-time high of 69.2 in 2004 to 66.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011 reflects a decline from unsustainable …

What's Wrong With Economics? It Ignores The Pogo Principle: "We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us", Jerry Evenesky

Economics - All Scholarship

The piece begins with the proposition that the economic perspective on human activity must reflect the fact that human beings transact in a world defined for the actors by social norms. An analysis of the crisis of 2008 is offered as a demonstration of the value of adopting such a broader perspective. Part two offers a historical model based on Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy of such a broader analysis. The piece closes with the case that the history of ideas offers alternative perspectives on the questions we explore in economics today and thus can serve as a valuable resource for …

Perflurorochemical (Pfc) Exposure In Children: Associations With Impaired Response Inhibition, Brooks B. Gump, Qian Wu, Amy K. Dumas, Kurunthachalam Kannan

Falk College Research Center

Background: Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) have been used widely in consumer products since the 1950s and are currently found at detectable levels in the blood of humans and animals across the globe. In stark contrast to this widespread exposure to PFCs, there is relatively little research on potential adverse health effects of exposure to these chemicals.Objectives: We performed this cross-sectional study to determine if specific blood PFC levels are associated with impaired response inhibition in children. Methods: Blood levels of 11 PFCs were measured in children (N = 83) and 6 PFCs: perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorohexane sulfate (PFHxS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), …

Do Arbitrageurs Amplify Economic Shocks?, Harrison Hong, Jeffrey D. Kubik, Tal Fishman

Economics - All Scholarship

We test the hypothesis that arbitrageurs amplify economic shocks in equity markets. The ability of speculators to hold short positions depends on asset values: shorts are often reduced following good news about a stock. Therefore, the prices of highly shorted stocks are excessively sensitive to shocks compared to stocks with little short interest. We confirm this hypothesis using several empirical strategies including two quasi-experiments. In particular, we establish that the price of highly shorted stocks overshoots after good earnings news due to short covering compared to other stocks.

The Impact Of International Trade On Wages: Trade Flows And Wage Premiums: Does Who Or What Matter?, Mary Lovely, J. David Richardson

Economics - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

June, 2011 Vol. 2 No. 5, Near Westside Initiative

Near Westside Initiative News/Noticias

No abstract provided.

An Overview Of The Engagement With Stakeholders To Determine Logical Subject Headings, Anne E. Rauh, Katie Sanders, Bryan Vogh

Librarian Publications

Xerxes is an interface application, used by over 40 institutions around the world (see http://code.google.com/p/xerxes-portal/wiki/Implementations) including several UW System Libraries. For these UW System Libraries, Xerxes serves as the user interface to MetaLib and also provides sophisticated citation management functionality and integration options. It's developed by libraries for libraries, and therefore designed to be completely customizable. One of the more challenges aspects of the Xerxes implementation is determining logical subject headings. The experiences of UW-Eau Claire, UW Colleges, and UW-Madison will be discussed.

Outsourcing Mutual Fund Management: Firm Boundaries, Incentives And Performance, Joseph S. Chen, Jeffrey D. Kubik, Harrison Hong

Economics - All Scholarship

This paper investigates the effects of managerial outsourcing on the incentives and performance of mutual funds. We document that mutual fund families outsource the management of a significant fraction of their funds to unaffiliated advisory firms. Funds managed externally significantly under-perform those ran internally. To establish the causality of this relationship, we instrument for whether a fund is outsourced and find similar estimates. We hypothesize that contractual externalities due to firm boundaries make it more difficult to extract performance from an outsourced relationship. We verify two auxiliary predictions of this hypothesis: compared to counterparts ran internally, an outsourced fund faces …

Challenging Orthodoxies: Understanding Poverty In Pastoral Areas Of East Africa, Peter D. Little, John G. Mcpeak, Christopher B. Barrett, Patti Kristjanson

Economics - All Scholarship

Understanding and alleviating poverty in Africa continues to receive considerable attention by a range of diverse actors, including politicians, international celebrities, academics, activists, and practitioners. Despite the onslaught of interest, there surprisingly is little agreement on what constitutes poverty in rural Africa, how it should be assessed, and what should be done to alleviate it. Based on data from an interdisciplinary study of pastoralism in northern Kenya, this article examines issues of poverty among one of the continents most vulnerable groups, pastoralists, and challenges the application of such orthodox proxies as incomes/expenditures, geographic remoteness, and market integration. It argues that …

Empirical Forecasting Of Slow-Onset Disasters For Improved Emergency Response: An Application To Kenya's Arid North, Andrew G. Mude, Christopher B. Barrett, John G. Mcpeak, Robert Kaitho, Patti Kristjanson

Economics - All Scholarship

Mitigating the negative welfare consequences of crises such as droughts, floods, and disease outbreaks, is a major challenge in many areas of the world, especially in highly vulnerable areas insufficiently equipped to prevent food and livelihood security crisis in the face of adverse shocks. Given the finite resources allocated for emergency response, and the expected increase in incidences of humanitarian catastrophe due to changing climate patterns, there is a need for rigorous and efficient methods of early warning and emergency needs assessment. In this paper we develop an empirical model, based on a relatively parsimonious set of regularly measured variables …

May 2011 Vol. 2. No. 4, Near Westside Initiative

Near Westside Initiative News/Noticias

No abstract provided.

Caring For Grandchildren And Intergenerational Support In Rural China: A Gendered Extended Family Perspective, Zhen Cong, Merril D. Silverstein

Falk College Research Center

This investigation examines how support from adult children is affected by their parents’ involvement in grandchild care. Instead of focusing on dyadic interactions, we adopt a gendered extended family perspective to examine how financial and emotional support from children was influenced when their siblings received help with child care from their elder parents. The data were from a two-wave (2001, 2003) longitudinal study of 4,791 parent–child dyads with 1,162 parents, aged 60 and older, living in rural areas of Anhui Province, China. Random effects regression showed that emotional support from both sons and daughters was strengthened when parents provided more …

Perceptions Of Gender Roles In The Advertising Industry, Cristina Perez Balitaan

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The advertising industry since its inception has been saturated with male views and opinions, consequently manifesting in the sexual objectification of women. However, with more career opportunities for women in recent years, more women are choosing to engage in non-traditional careers, such as the fields of advertising and marketing. Yet, despite the growing female population within the advertising industry, the content of advertising still continues to be filled with gender stereotypes. To understand how female advertisers negotiate their gender role and their role as a media producer, I surveyed female advertising students of S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications (N=100) …

Is Creativity Related To Physical Health? The Relationships Between Creativity, Flow, Self-Esteem, Physical Activity And Health-Related Quality Of Life, Molly Siwula

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The relationship between creativity and overall health has not been widely examined, as researchers have previously focused mainly on the association between creativity and mental illness. Certain aspects of the creative personality (i.e. high physical energy, intelligence, passion, and self-discipline) may predict engagement in healthy behaviors. Creativity has been shown to positively relate to self-esteem, which also has been linked to general health. In addition, both athletes and creative individuals tend to experience flow. This study examined self-esteem and flow as possible mechanisms to partially account for the relationship between creativity and general health. Community participants (N = 83) …

Content Management System, Timothy P. Daigle

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The goal of my project was to develop a Content Management System for the CitrusTV website. This project was first brought to my attention in the Fall of 2009 by fellow Syracuse University student Alyssa Elias.

As a Newhouse Broadcast Journalism major, Alyssa recognized a need to develop a site that better mirrored the CBS news video website after having interned there the summer entering Junior year.

I was brought into the project because of my Information Technology minor, which allowed me to be familiar with the technical background necessary for the project. Additionally, my role involved maintaining communication between …

Mandatory Hiv Testing During Pregnancy: A Review Of Its Considerations, Ethics & Precedents, Abigail C. Beaudette

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Every year, in the United States, between 100-200 babies are infected prenatally with HIV. With the use of antiretroviral medications, elective cesarean section and formula feeding, the risk of vertical transmission can be reduced to less than 2%. In this paper I analyzed whether or not state governments should mandate HIV testing for all pregnant women in order to reduce vertical transmission of HIV. By looking at the cases for and against mandatory testing, as well as looking at states such as Connecticut who have implemented mandatory testing, I will present the case for why the benefit of mandatory testing …

Preventing Pandemics: Contributing Factors To Susceptibility During The H1n1 Pandemic, Melanie A. Zilora

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper uses Poisson and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression techniques on panel data from the United Nations World Health Organization’s FluNet to evaluate factors contributing to a country’s H1N1 influenza (swine flu) pandemic outcomes. Countries with higher development (as measured by gross domestic product and the United Nations Human Development Program’s development index) and higher mean annual temperature (as measured in the capital city) tended to have an earlier first reporting of cases. Though subject to reporting biases, the results also suggest that mass vaccinations have a negative effect on weekly reported cases. Countries that would vaccinate in the …

The Effects Of Walmart On Healthcare And Unionization: Is America Really Saving Money And Living Better?, Leyla Ziad

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

As the largest private sector employer in the United States, corporate retail giant Walmart continues to make waves in United States culture and the economy since launching its first store in 1962. As Walmart seeks to expand, the validity of its consumer guarantee to “save money, live better” has been increasingly scrutinized, given Walmart’s use of controversial business practices, most notably its employee benefit policies and anti-unionization efforts. With over 1.4 million employees in the United States, there is much talk surrounding the potential costs of Walmart’s low prices. This study analyzes selected healthcare and unionization impacts of Walmart in …

Utilization Of The New York State Division Of Human Rights, Sarah Turney

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

There is a general disconnect between the services the New York State government offers and their utilization. This paper focuses on the New York State Division of Human Rights. The New York State Division of Human Rights purpose is to enforce the Human Rights Law through investigations into complaints of discrimination based on the protected classes. For the purposes of this paper, only employment discrimination will be discussed.

This paper argues the lack of utilization of these services arises from the lack of resident awareness of these services. Moreover, this paper argues that implementing practical government lesson plans into the …