Female-Offender Parricides in South Korea, 1948–1963: Offender and Offense Characteristics

Asian Journal of Criminology - Existing parricide research is largely situated within a North American and European context, and foregrounds mental illness or adolescent offender typologies. As...     

Can budget ambiguity crowd out intrinsic motivation? Longitudinal evidence from federal executive departments

While some scholars have assessed how various features of organizational structure shape intrinsic motivation, the role of budgets and, in particular, programme funding has been overlooked. To address this gap in the literature, we examine how programme funding decisions impact employee motivation. Referencing previous work, we hypothesize that funding choices that emphasize some programmes over others signal clearer organizational goals for employees, thereby increasing intrinsic motivation. In contrast, departments that do not use their budgets to signal clear goals can run the risk of reducing their employees’ intrinsic motivation. We empirically investigate this hypothesis within the context of the US Federal executive departments, constructing a longitudinal dataset (2010–15) from multiple sources. Findings support our hypothesis. Employees in departments that more evenly fund their programmes report lower levels of intrinsic motivation.     

Sales Tax Competition among State–Local Governments: Evidence from the US Counties

This article estimates tax reaction function of local governments competing with other governments to provide the insight for tax policy decision makers. Employing a panel of county-level data in all the states from 1970 to 2006, this article analyzes sales tax competition between county governments. In addition to a static model, this article pays more attention to dynamics in tax reaction function estimated by general methods of moments containing lagged dependent variables in the reaction function. Focusing on county governments, this article finds evidence for strategic interaction, an interaction that has positive effects on the setting of tax rates in a county.     

If It Doesn't Fit,Throw Out the Old Pair and Get a New One

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

State-local sales tax,spillover, and economic activity: examining county governments in the US

The reliance on sales taxation has increased in both states and counties. This study aggregated county-level data and empirically explored the associations between state-local sales taxes and economic activity by industry types in county governments for the period of 1990–2013. The results revealed negative associations of sales tax rates with economic activity, especially in the manufacturing industry. Further, the findings provided the spatial dependence of economic activity across counties as a form of possible spillover. This study suggests that policymakers should pay attention to how the manufacturing and retail industries respond to any changes in sales tax rates for business activity.     

An archival exploration of homicide--suicide and mass murder in the context of 19th-century American parricides

There has been little attempt to integrate contemporary studies of suicide and mass murder to homicide-suicides. The current research attempts to do so in the context of 19th-century parricides in America. This project uses archival records from The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, 1851-1899, resulting in a total of 231 incidents. Our results indicate that parricides, mass murders, and suicides tended to originate as spontaneous acts, usually during the course of an argument, gathering momentum as the interaction unfolded. We contend that suicide is one way of alleviating threats to offender's loss of self-identity.