Specification of dynamic wage-price relations in Poland (1980–1991)

This paper focuses on the analysis of wage-price relationships during the period 1980–1991 in Poland. The dynamics of wage and price series under radical structural changes are examined, as well as the impact of earlier sharp price increases. The process of wages-to-prices adjustment both in the long- and short-term is analysed. The hypothesis that the introduction of economic reform (at the beginning of 1990) would result in a tendency towards the stabilization of real wages is investigated. This is done through integration and cointegration analysis of wage and price series with special attention being paid to the problems arising from theI(2) character of the variables investigated. The concept of polynomial cointegration is applied to formulate error correction terms for the short-run model of wages. The computations have been made using quarterly data. The results reflect an inhomogeneity of the period investigated, especially the effects of the introduction of economic reform at the beginning of 1990. The nonstationarity of real wages is confirmed, but not their tendency towards stabilization.     

Who is a Proper Opponent? The Tibetan Buddhist Concept of phyi rgol yang dag

This paper examines the role of a proper opponent (phyi rgol yang dag) in debate from the standpoint of the Tibetan Buddhist theory of argumentation. A proper opponent is a person who is engaged in the process of truth-seeking. He is not a debater who undertakes to refute the tenets of a proponent. But rather, he is the model debater to whom a proponent can teach truth by using a probative argument in the most effective way. A proper opponent is thus the model thinker conceived by Tibetan Buddhist scholars, especially by the dGe lugs pa exegetes, to explain the idea of “inference for others.” The term phyi rgol yang dag figures in many text books of the dGe lugs pa school. And the germ of the dGe lugs pa's idea of ``proper opponent'' is found in early Tibetan tshad ma literature, too. The present paper shows that the dGe lugs pa scholars are largely concerned with the process by which one obtains an inferential knowledge about the unknown object, and also that they, when talking about a proper opponent, emphasize the pedagogical role of dialectic conversation rather than the competitive feature of debates.     

Interparental Aggression and Adolescent Adjustment: The Role of Emotional Insecurity and Adrenocortical Activity

Adolescents exposed to interparental aggression are at increased risk for developing adjustment problems. The present study explored intervening variables in these pathways in a community sample that included 266 adolescents between 12- and 16-years-old (M?=?13.82; 52.5 % boys, 47.5 % girls). A moderated mediation model examined the moderating role of adrenocortical reactivity on the meditational capacity of their emotional insecurity in this context. Information from multiple reporters and adolescents’ adrenocortical response to conflict were obtained during laboratory sessions attended by mothers, fathers and their adolescent child. A direct relationship was found between marital aggression and adolescents’ internalizing behavior problems. Adolescents’ emotional insecurity mediated the relationship between marital aggression and adolescents’ depression and anxiety. Adrenocortical reactivity moderated the pathway between emotional insecurity and adolescent adjustment. The implications for further understanding the psychological and physiological effects of adolescents’ exposure to interparental aggression and violence are discussed.     

Cognitive and interpersonal factors in woman abuse

As part of a larger ecological analysis of woman battering in Israel, this study examined the combined ability of selected cognitive and interpersonal measures to differentiate among couples in which women were battered and those in which they were not. The ability of these variables to predict men's physical violence and verbal abuse and women's verbal abuse was also executed. Results indicate that a combination of low marital adjustment, high levels of conflict over children, and more perceived self-control over one's life characterized violent men; low marital adjustment and high conflict over child rearing characterized battered women. Both men's and women's verbal abuse was moderately predicted by lower marital adjustment while men's physical violence was predicted by increased levels of conflicts with his partner over child rearing. These findings suggest the importance of marital relationship factors in domestic violence and highlight the need for further study of the interaction between perceived control and marital relationship problems in relationships where men physically abuse women.     

Topics in macro-modelling of East European countries in the period of transition

Central and European former Centrally Planned Economies (CPEs) entered a period of transition towards market economies. The evolution is marked by a transition from shortage- to demand-determined economies, associated with the abandonment of price control and the introduction of tight wage control. Stabilization programmes (in Poland from 1990), implementing tough deflationary fiscal and monetary policies, brought about the suppression of hyperinflation. The high adjustment costs — deep recession, high rates of unemployment — are characteristics of the early '90s. The deregulation of the public sector and the building of the private one commenced, and will be a long-lasting process. To meet the changes in economic regimes and mechanisms, the existing models had to be adequately respecified and new models constructed. The large W-5 macromodel for Poland, which covers the final and intermediate demands, had to be extended to introduce the market adjustment mechanisms and, more broadly, the financial flows. To meet the needs of short-term financial policies, new quarterly models had to be built, as, for instance, the WK macromodel for the Polish economy. The paper discusses the major problems of the models' specification under the data constraints.     

Legal Representation and Dissatisfaction with Workers’ Compensation: Implications for Claimant Adjustment

This study examined relationships between attorney retention and adjustment outcomes for Workers’ Compensation low back claimants at post-settlement (N?=?1,464; 21 months post-claim settlement) and long-term follow-up (N?=?371; 72 months post-claim settlement). Claimants were classified into three groups: those who had not retained an attorney (no attorney group, 15%); those who had retained an attorney, but for reasons other than dissatisfaction with Workers’ Compensation medical treatment (attorney group, 31%); and those who had retained an attorney specifically because of dissatisfaction with Workers’ Compensation medical treatment (dissatisfied/attorney group, 54%). Groups were compared on demographic characteristics, Workers’ Compensation variables, and adjustment indicators of pain intensity, pain-related disability, general physical and mental health status, and pain catastrophizing. Relative to the no attorney and attorney groups, claimants in the dissatisfied/attorney group were younger, had longer time to settlement, and reported greater post-settlement socioeconomic stress and catastrophizing. At long-term follow-up, the dissatisfied/attorney group reported higher levels of disability and catastrophizing, as well as lower levels of mental health status, relative to the other groups. The results suggest that attorney retention that is motivated by dissatisfaction with Workers’ Compensation medical care is a significant risk factor for poor adjustment, not only in the intermediate time frame following claim settlement, but also over the long term. Findings are discussed in the context of “perceived injustice” in the Workers’ Compensation system and the mechanisms by which dissatisfaction and attorney retention may impact adjustment.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms,Relationship Adjustment,and Relationship Aggression in a Sample of Female Flood Victims

This study tested a model examining the interrelationships among posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, intimate relationship adjustment, and intimate relationship aggression in a sample of 205 adult female flood victims. At the bivariate level, higher PTSD symptoms were associated with higher physical and psychological aggression victimization, poorer relationship adjustment, and higher physical and psychological aggression perpetration. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses indicated that relationship aggression victimization influenced aggression perpetration directly, and in the case of physical aggression, indirectly through its relationship with PTSD symptoms and relationship adjustment. The influence of PTSD symptoms on physical aggression perpetration was fully explained by poorer relationship adjustment. These findings extend prior work from other traumatized populations documenting associations between variables reflecting PTSD symptomatology and indices of relationship functioning, and indicate a need for further investigation in this area of inquiry. This research was supported in part by a grant to Patricia A. Resick from the National Institute of Mental Health (1-R01-MH55542).     

Prior adjustment of violent juvenile offenders

This study compares 202 juvenile offenders on a series of preoffense adjustment variables grouped into five categories: Family Dysfunction, School Adjustment, Prior Violence, Criminal Activity, and Substance Abuse. Emphasis is placed on the importance of distinguishing subgroups of violent youth based on the type of assault (interpersonal conflict or crime-related) and the youth's relationship to the victim (parent or other victim). Findings support the need to identify multiple developmental pathways and distinctive risk factors for different forms of juvenile violence.     

Child witnesses and the confrontation clause

InMaryland v. Craig, the United States Supreme Court relied heavily on a brief prepared by a committee of the American Psychology-Law Society on behalf of the American Psychological Association (APA). The APA brief concluded that sexually abused children may be particularly vulnerable to distress in the legal process, especially when forced to confront the defendant face to face, and that such acute distress may be inconsistent with the state's interests in promotion of reliable testimony and child welfare. APA also argued that psychological theory and research provide foundations for individualized determination of the need for measures to protect children from face-to-face confrontation. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** AFE06051 00002     

Attitudinal characteristics of males who have engaged in spouse abuse

Several of the attitudinal characteristics which are frequently attributed to abusive males were investigated in this study. Samples of male military personnel who had engaged in at least one serious episode of interspousal violence in the previous 6 months were administered measures of the following variables: (1) Attitudes toward self — The Coopersmith Self-The Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory; (2) Attitudes toward others — The Generalized Expectations of Others Questionnaire, a short form of The Attitudes Toward Women Scale and The Mehrabian and Epstein Empathy Scale; and (3) Dogmatism —The Rokeach D Scale and the Revised Authoritarianism Index, When compared to matched control groups of nonabusive males, statistically significant differences were found only for The Self-esteem Inventory and one item of the Generalized Expectations of Others Questionnaire. It is concluded that many of the attitudinal characteristics of abusive males reported in the clinical literature may not be a significant component in the etiology of spouse abuse.     

Transition, the Evolution of Stock Market Efficiency and Entry into EU: The Case of Romania

In this paper we demonstrate that the measurement of stock market efficiency is an important activity in establishing whether eastern European countries satisfy the Copenhagen Criteria for EU membership. Specifically, we argue that developing an efficient stock market should be an important policy focus for countries with aspirations to join the EU as it helps to demonstrate the existence of a functioning market economy. We illustrate this issue by examining the evolution of stock market efficiency in the Bucharest Stock Exchange from mid-1997 to September 2002. We use a GARCH model on daily price data and model the disturbances using the Student-t distribution to allow for ‘fat-tails’. We find strong evidence of inefficiency in the Bucharest Stock Exchange in that the lagged stock price index is a significant predictor of the current price index. This result is robust to the inclusion of variables controlling for calendar effects of the sort that have been observed in more developed stock markets. The level of inefficiency appears to diminish over time and we find evidence consistent with stock market efficiency in Romania after January 2000.     

Latent-variable models in criminological research: Applications and a generalization of Joreskog's LISREL model

This paper examines issues in LISREL models involving latent, or unobserved, variables. We discuss estimating parameters in multiple-indicator models, various approaches to assessing goodness of fit, different types of linear measurement models, using LISREL to correct for attenuation in models involving single indicators with known reliabilities, and estimating parameters in structural equation models involving latent exogenous and endogenous variables. Finally, we present a generalization of the standard LISREL model which explicitly identifies implicit constraints on parameters in the standard LISREL model. We argue that the generalization can accommodate a wider range of models and provide additional diagnostic information on some assumptions in the standard LISREL model. By example, we show how the more general model can be estimated using Joreskog's LISREL program.     

Maximizing R&D investments in the Department of Energy's Environmental cleanup program

The investment made in research and development (R&D) by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) program must result in products that will significantly benefit the Department's cleanup efforts. A customer-oriented decision-making process for managing technology development is needed to appropriately link technology development activities with cleanup operations. This paper presents a process for R&D management, which we have named the Technology Investment Decision Model.The model identifies six R&D stages leading to technology implementation. The model incorporates decision points (or “gates”) within the R&D process where projects are selected for funding. The purpose of this “stage-gate” process is to ensure early evaluation of projects against technical and nontechnical criteria in order to ensure that end products will not only provide superior performance, but also meet the acceptance requirements of the intended customers. The model addresses the technology transfer and commercialization factors that must be considered to get technological innovations into the marketplace. The model is now being implemented within the EM technology development program and is providing a common framework to align the Department's environmental R&D activities with its cleanup goals.     

Soft budgets and hard rents: a note on Kornai and Gomulka

This note shows how Kornai's concept of the soft budget constraint can be decomposed into separate elements of technical inefficiency and relative price distortion. The distinction between r-budget softness and m-budget softness introduced by Gomulka is shown to correspond to the equivalent and compensating variation measures of efficiency loss. It is also argued that budget softness should be viewed as the outcome of a rent-seeking process in which a firm's action in the control sphere incurs an opportunity cost in the real sphere. Adopting such a perspective leads to a re-definition of the resource loss associated with budget softness and results in much higher estimates of the social costs of soft budgets than those proposed in the existing literature.     

Differential inflation,Phillips curves,and price competitiveness in a new euro-member country

This article analyzes the inflation process before and after a new country with a middle-income joined the eurozone. It starts with comparative price level gaps in the European single market and with a reformulated basic macroeconomic model for a country adopting the euro. The inflation process in Slovenia is analyzed with the Phillips curve. The Phillips curve before adoption of the euro is a classical equation with the NAIRU and the nominal exchange rate as a control variable. It was expected that the Phillips curve would have to be modified after the euro was adopted. The Phillips curve after the euro was adopted should take into account the initial comparative price level gap, the law of one price, and the Balassa effect. The result is higher differential inflation; that is, national inflation is higher compared with the rate in the eurozone. Differential inflation may have a detrimental effect on export-driven catch-up growth. Instruments for taming inflationary pressure could include a higher unemployment rate and lower growth of labour unit costs.     

Influence of Perpetrators' Account on Nurses' Recognition and Reporting of Child Abuse

Suspected perpetrators may attempt to influence the professional's recognition and reporting of child abuse by providing an account that explains or justifies their behavior or the child's injury. A factorial survey design was employed in which a random sample of nurses (N = 1038) judged vignettes that included systematic variations of types of accounts and selected case characteristics. In comparison to the other characteristics of the case, perpetrator accounts had little impact on nurses recognition and reporting of child abuse. Only two types of accounts influenced the nurses' responses, and from the perspective of the suspected perpetrator they backfired, resulting in greater recognition and reporting of abuse. Interaction terms constructed of accounts and situational variables had little impact on nurses' judgments when sexual abuse was involved, but resulted in both higher and lower recognition and reporting scores when physical and emotional acts were judged.     

Long and Short Run Determinants of Small and Medium Size Enterprise Share: The Case of Venezuelan Manufacturing

Economic Change and Restructuring - Two recent studies of SME share determination have employed a partial adjustment model which specifies disequilibrium as the sole means of explanation....     

The Belief in a Just World and Personality: A Meta-analysis

Several meta-analyses using twelve studies were conducted, combining different forms of the belief in a just world (BJW) and the five-factor model in order to determine possible relationships between personality factors and individual differences regarding justice. As expected, the general (n = 2579) and personal (n = 1346) forms of BJW were negatively associated with neuroticism, and positively associated with extraversion and agreeableness. Summary effect sizes for neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness were r = ?0.08, r = 0.10, and r = 0.09 concerning the general BJW, and r = ?0.25, r = 0.18, and r = 0.10 concerning the personal BJW, respectively. Although no causality could be determined, possible interpretations of the relationships include BJW as a personal resource that increases emotional stability, BJW and extraversion’s reciprocity in the developmental process, and trust as an origin of both agreeableness and just world beliefs. In addition, the associations were significantly stronger when the personal BJW was used, as opposed to the general form, but only regarding neuroticism and extraversion. Attitudes concerning others and their well-being may explain the differential gap of associations when using BJW for the self or for others.     

Family Variables that Mediate the Relation Between Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Child Adjustment

This study examined the mediating roles of several family variables in the relation between IPV witnessing and children’s emotional and behavioral problems among 129 low-income, African American children ages 8 to 12. According to the mediational model tested, experiencing or witnessing IPV negatively impacted the following family variables: maternal psychopathology, family cohesion, and relatedness quality, which were subsequently associated with diminished child adjustment. These findings were stronger when child reports were considered and when the outcome variable was internalizing problems. Findings from this study support the value of targeting these variables in the development of culturally appropriate child witness interventions for low-income African American families. Recommendations for future interventions based on study conclusions are offered.