Taking action to contain health care costs: Part 1

Health care is one company expenditure that can definitely be cut and controlled. Part I of this two-part study focuses on what major corporations have been doing to keep their costs down and their employees healthy--practices which will work within most existing corporate structures.     

Sanctions and Education Outcomes for Children in TANF Families

Most research on the impact of Welfare Reform has been upon the employment status of parents and trends in declining caseloads. Recent research has examined how children in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program families are faring, with growing interest in the effects upon children of the disruptions to cash benefits that result from program sanctions, the policies that are intended to motivate parents to comply with work requirements. Adding to the body of knowledge on children and TANF sanctions, this study used administrative data to examine school attendance rates and disruptions to enrollment, for children from families with at least one sanction. Findings indicate that there are important probable connections between the factors that contribute to challenges to employment that relate to parenting and the school engagement of children in TANF families.     

NEW DIRECTIONS IN MEDICAL OUTCOMES RESEARCH: THE VIEW FROM HARVARD

This study evaluates the emerging field of medical outcomes research based on interviews at Harvard Medical School. Medical outcomes research at Harvard is multifaceted, but may be summarized as involving certain key components. The emphasis at Harvard is on “quality of care,” viewed as a combination of outcomes evaluation and process evaluation, delivery of the service and its result. In a time of shrinking budgets, outcomes and process research can be justified economically because of the relatively low cost of patient self‐reports and because of their usefulness. Physicians may be motivated to measure quality of care by emphasizing the positive effects of research on the process of care and outcomes. Medical outcomes research is a field that is undergoing change and is becoming increasingly oriented toward the practical needs of patients and physicians.     

Low-Power Contributions in Multilateral Negotiations: A Framework Analysis

Negotiation Journal - How do low-power parties contribute to the resolution of complex, multiparty conflicts? The research reported here uses content analysis to capture evidence of the strategies...     

Institutionalizing Legal Consciousness: Regulation and the Embedding of Market Participants in the Securities Industry in Ghana and Fiji

How do differences in the implementation of regulation impact market behavior? I propose a theoretical framework to understand this impact as part of the process of embedding market participants through the institutionalization of legal consciousness within a field of action. I use this framework to understand the impact of the difference in the implementation of securities regulation in Ghana and Fiji. In Fiji, where the regulatory agency is more present and process‐oriented, brokers operate with a greater orientation toward formal rules. In Ghana, where the regulatory agency is distant and auditing, brokers rely on explicit enforcement of floor‐based norms. Conceiving of legal consciousness as an emergent feature of a field of social action advances the understanding of how legality is institutionalized, since the emergent structure shapes the orientations, behavior, and relations of actors within the field.