Suchergebnisse

The empirical value of Mark Crain's & Brian Goff's conclusions regarding the advantages of TV broadcasts for incumbent political candidates ("Televising Legislatures: An Economic Analysis," Journal of Law & Economics, 1986, 29, 405-421) is examined. They argue that in states with small populations, per seat TV coverage is an advantage for incumbents, but that the opposite is true for states with large populations per seat. When these conclusions are tested using other institutional variables, eg, the number of multimember districts, the average number of incumbents per multimember district, the number of seats open, & the ratio of minority to majority party, this hypothesis is supported. It is concluded that TV affects political services, making them like "search products" in which actual qualities can be compared with purported qualities prior to consumption. 6 Tables, 12 References. L. Baker

This book focuses on the emotional hazards of conducting fieldwork about or within contexts of violence and provides a forum for field-based researchers to tell their stories. Increasingly novice and seasoned ethnographers alike, whether by choice or chance, are working in situations where multidimensional forms of violence, conflict and war are facets of everyday life. The volume engages with the methodological and ethical issues involved and features a range of expressive writings that reveal personal consequences and dilemmas. The contributors use their emotions, their scars, outrage and sadness alongside their hopes and resilience to give voice to that which is often silenced, to make visible the entanglements of fieldwork and its lingering vulnerabilities. The book brings to the fore the lived experiences of researchers and their interlocutors alike with the hope of fostering communities of care.

Hospitals are under significant pressure from payers to reduce costs. The single largest fixed cost for a hospital is inpatient beds, yet there is significant variation in hospital capacity utilization. We study bed capacity in New York City hospital obstetrics units and find that while many hospitals have an insufficient number of beds to provide timely access to care, overall there is significant excess capacity. Our findings, coupled with current demographic and clinical practice trends, indicate that a large fraction of obstetrics units nationwide could likely reduce their bed capacity while assuring timely access to care, resulting in large savings in capital and staffing costs. Given emerging health care delivery and payment models that will likely decrease demand for other types of hospital beds, our study suggests that data-based methodologies should be used by hospitals and policy makers to identify opportunities for reducing excess bed capacity in other inpatient units as well.

Political, intellectual, and academic discourse in the United States has been awash in political correctness, which has itself been berated and defended -- yet little understood. As a corrective, Nelson and Greene look at a more general process: adopting political positions to enhance one's reputation for trustworthiness both to others and to oneself. Phillip Nelson and Kenneth Greene are Professors of Economics in the Department of Economics at the State University of New York, Binghamton