Item Similarity in Scale Analysis

A statistic—the similarity coefficient—is developedfor assessing the property that a set of scale items measuresone and only one construct. This statistic is rooted in an explicitmeasurement model and is flexible enough to be used in exploratoryscale analyses, even in small samples. Methods for analyzingsimilarity coefficients are described and illustrated in analysesof Stimson's (1991) policy mood data and Markus' (1990) popularindividualism items. The Appendix discusses the statisticalproperties of similarity coefficients.     

Measuring bureaucratic reputation: Scale development and validation

Despite growing interest in bureaucratic reputation as a theoretical construct, the field lacks a standardized measure that can be used in surveys to capture individual‐level variation in the reputation judgments of citizens and other audiences. The aim of this article, therefore, is to develop a standardized, individual‐level measure of bureaucratic reputation based on the conceptual definition provided by Carpenter ( 2010 ). Employing feedback from experts and data from a survey of over 300 U.S. citizens, this article develops and tests a unidimensional scale of bureaucratic reputation, representing the content domains of performance, morality, procedural fairness, technical competence, and general reputation. Results suggest that our proposed bureaucratic reputation scale (BRS) has good internal reliability and that it is positively associated with support for autonomy, budget, and power, which provides evidence of criterion validity. Potential uses of the scale to study bureaucratic reputation are discussed.     

Prudent Public Sector Investing and Modern Portfolio Theory: An Examination of Public Sector Defined Benefit Pension Plans

This research examines the extent to which public pension programs allocate assets in a manner that is consistent with an optimal portfolio, as defined by Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). The examination is pursued by way of a statistical analysis, using a portfolio optimization model and data on some of the nation's largest public DB plans. The analysis illustrates that the majority of the plans in the sample are incurring far more risk in their portfolios than is optimal given their target rates of return and that this risk level is a result of nonprudent allocation across asset classes. The findings suggest that there might be opportunities to improve the long‐term performance of defined benefit plans by adjusting asset allocation targets and legal lists in a manner that is more consistent with MPT.     

A structural equation modeling analysis of marital bullying scale

Bullying has received increasing research interest, whether bullying among students in schools and universities, or bullying among employees. There is still no accordance regarding to bullying between the couple. This study aimed to investigate the construct validity and psychometric properties of the marital bullying scale with advanced statistical procedure, structural equation modeling, and exploratory factor analysis. The researchers prepared the marriage bullying scale consisting of 25 self‐report items and applied it in a random sample consisting of (760) married individual, and then, the researchers extracted the psychometric characteristics of this scale. The finding indicated that the scale has psychometric properties with a high validity and reliability. In order to ensure the validity of the structure of this scale, the researchers developed a measurement model for marital bullying. The results of the exploratory factor analysis pointed to the saturation of the items of the scale (25) on five factors and accounted for 80.815% of the total variance of the scale. The first factor was verbal bullying that accounted for 37.658%, the second factor was physical bullying that accounted for 16. 249 %, the third factor was psychological bullying that accounted for 12.850 %, the fourth factor was social bullying that accounted for 8.584 %, and the fifth factor was family bullying that accounted for (5.475 %) of the total variance of marital bullying. And then by using confirmatory factor analysis, results showed that the structure of the proposed measurement model of marital bullying has good fitness with the data collected from the sample of the study, which enhances confidence in the ability of the scale to assess marital bullying. The findings shed new light on the underlying theory behind marital bullying and proved the usefulness of structural equation modeling framework in scale development.     

How Large‐Scale Research Facilities Connect to Global Research

Policies for large‐scale research facilities (LSRFs) often highlight their spillovers to industrial innovation and their contribution to the external connectivity of the regional innovation system hosting them. Arguably, the particular institutional features of LSRFs are conducive for collaborative research. However, based on data on publications produced in 2006–2009 at the Neutron Science Directorate of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee (United States), we find that internationalization of its collaborative research is restrained by coordination costs similar to those characterizing other institutional settings. Policies mandating LSRFs should consider that research prioritized on the basis of technological relevance limits the international reach of collaborations. Additionally, the propensity for international collaboration is lower for resident scientists than for those affiliated with domestic universities or government laboratories. Policies conceiving LSRFs as “knowledge attractors” therefore should consider the complementarities between research at a LSRF and in its academic context at a regional or national level.     

社会福利指数、政府支出规模及其结构优化

政府支出规模及其结构优化应以提高社会福利水平而不是以经济增长为其最终目标。构建了政府支出与消费、社会福利之间的理论分析模型,利用优化控制理论与方法,从理论上论证了在最大社会福利的基础上存在最优政府支出规模与支出结构安排,设计了衡量社会福利水平的新指标,并以此指标为基础,利用中国1982年—2005年的年度数据,对政府支出规模及其结构优化进行计量分析。其基本结论是:我国政府支出规模及其各种单项支出与社会福利指数之间存在较强的相关性,为满足我国不断增加的公共服务需求,应增加政府支出规模,优化政府支出的内部结构体系,即适度提高中央政府支出在政府总支出中所占的比重,减少投资性支出和行政管理支出,增加以教育、公共卫生、公共安全、社会保障为主体的公共服务性支出,以促进我国社会福利水平的提高。     

Predicting Party SizesThe 2007 Johan Skytte Prize Lecture

The Skytte Foundation states that I was awarded the Skytte Prize 2008 for ‘profound analysis of the function of electoral systems in representative democracy’. What does this mean? As examples, I would highlight three relationships that qualify as laws in the strongest scientific sense. They do so because they offer a logically supported model as well as agreement with data, which gives them broad predictive ability.     

Credible Comparisons Using Interpersonally Incomparable Data: Nonparametric Scales with Anchoring Vignettes

Comparisons of individuals based on their selections from an ordinal scale traditionally assume that all respondents interpret subjective scale categories in exactly the same way. Anchoring vignettes have been proposed as a method to replace this homogeneity assumption with individual‐specific data about how each respondent uses the ordinal scale. However, improving interpersonal comparisons with anchoring vignettes also requires a new set of assumptions. In this article, I derive the assumptions needed to make credible nonparametric comparisons using anchoring vignettes, and propose a new nonparametric scale that does not assume homogeneity among respondents. I also provide methods for evaluating empirically whether a set of anchoring objects can produce credible nonparametric interpersonal comparisons. Two empirical studies illustrate the importance of accounting for differences in the use of ordinal scales by showing how our inferences about interpersonal comparisons may change as a function of the assumptions we accept.     

测量国债规模的模型阐释——基于国债功能的变迁

采用经济学规范研究方法,沿袭了模型阐释国债规模测量的主流研究路径--当前价值的借款约束模型和国债自然规模模型,从宏观和微观、供给与需求的角度,剖析了决定一国国债规模的关键要素.关注了不同模型下的均衡结果,获得了国债功能变迁下测量国债规模的组合模型.研究表明,在制度变迁等外部因素影响下,国债功能有显著的变化.国债功能的变迁是国债规模波动的主要原因之一.理论上,现今的国债规模测量存在短期均衡和长期均衡交替呈现的基本特征.而在动态分析框架下,国债规模的测量受到宏观和微观因素的共同影响.研究对理论模型结果进行了操作性解释,为实证研究搭建了必要的实施框架.研究认为,进一步地探寻测量国债规模组合模型的微观基础,是将来研究的主要方向.     

A New Measure of Red Tape: Introducing the Three-Item Red Tape (TIRT) Scale

ABSTRACT

Much empirical red tape research utilizes the General Red Tape (GRT) scale, which asks respondents to rate the level of red tape on a scale of 0 to 10 (Rainey, Pandey, and Bozeman 1995 Rainey, H. G., S. K. Pandey, and B. Bozeman. 1995. “Research Note: Public and Private Managers’ Perceptions of Red Tape.” Public Administration Review 55(6): 567–574.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Because “popular usage of the term ‘red tape’ requires no precision” (Bozeman and Feeney 2011 Bozeman, B. and M. K. Feeney. 2011. Rules and Red Tape: A Prism for Public Administration Research and Theory. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. [Google Scholar], 3) and the GRT scale “assumes that respondents understand the terms to which they are responding” (101), evaluating red tape in this way may be theoretically disadvantageous. This article proposes a new measure—the Three-Item Red Tape (TIRT) scale—consisting of three items drawn from previous rules research on rule characteristics to which respondents characterize organizational rules by how burdensome, unnecessary, and ineffective they are. This measure has several advantages over existing measures: it includes several indicators; it does not include the term “red tape”; and it is drawn directly from Bozeman's (1993 Bozeman, B. 1993. “A Theory of Government ‘Red Tape.'” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 3(3): 273–303. [Google Scholar]; 2000 Bozeman, B. 2000. Bureaucracy and Red Tape. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. [Google Scholar]) operational definition of red tape. Using structural equation modeling to model survey data from two local government organizations (n = 1,666), this article evaluates the theoretical and empirical validity of this TIRT scale, compares it with the GRT scale, tests its relationship with formalization, which is known as a distinct concept, and addresses implications of this scale on red tape theory.     

District magnitude,electoral formula,and the number of parties

Abstract. Duverger's propositions concerning the psychological and mechanical consequences of electoral rules have previously been examined mainly through the lens of district magnitude, comparing the properties of single–member district plurality elections with those of multimember proportional representation elections. The empirical consequences of multimember plurality (MMP) rules, on the other hand, have received scant attention. Theory suggests that the effect of district magnitude on the number and concentration of parties will differ with regard to whether the allocation rules are plurality–based or proportional. I test this theory by drawing on a uniquely large–sample dataset where district magnitude and electoral formula vary but the basic universe of political parties is held constant, applying regression analysis to data from several thousand Hungarian local bodies elected in 1994 consisting of municipal councils, county councils, and mayors. The results indicate that omitting the variable of electoral formula has the potential to cause significant bias in estimates of Duvergerian consequences of district magnitude. In addition, the analysis of multi–member plurality elections from the local election dataset reveals counter–intuitively that candidate and party entry may increase with district magnitude under MMP, suggesting important directions for future investigation of MMP rules.     

Bayesian Factor Analysis for Mixed Ordinal and Continuous Responses

Many situations exist in which a latent construct has both ordinaland continuous indicators. This presents a problem for the appliedresearcher because standard measurement models are not designedto accommodate mixed ordinal and continuous data. I addressthis problem by formulating a measurement model that is appropriatefor such mixed multivariate responses. This model unifies standardnormal theory factor analysis and item response theory modelsfor ordinal data. I detail a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithmfor model fitting. I apply the model to cross-national dataon political-economic risk and find that the model works well.Software for fitting this model is publicly available in theMCMCpack (Martin and Quinn 2004, "MCMCpack 0.4–8") R package.     

Proximity voting in the 2010 U.S. House elections

Utilizing data that allows for the placement of both of the candidates running and voters on the same ideological scale, I model proximity voting in the 2010 House elections. I demonstrate that though the literature predominantly emphasizes partisanship and incumbency, relative distance from the candidates also plays a significant role in the voting decision. Additionally, I show that these proximity effects are conditional upon the type of candidate running and the individual's partisan attachment. In total, these results show that while the rates of partisan voting and incumbent victory are high in House elections, voters do consider ideological proximity and can punish candidates who take positions that are too far out of line.     

Persuading Caesar: A new interpretation of Farquharson's problem

Merely because voting takes place in a real-life social decision system, we are not thereby confronted by a ‘voting game’. Often we are confronted by something that looks more like an advising game, in which voting is mainly important as a language by which policymakers render advice to other policymakers (possibly including their own future selves) who will act later. In this brief research note, the foregoing theme is illustrated by re-interpreting the same case from ancient Roman senatorial politics which inspired Robin Farquharson's seminal Theory of Voting. I stress that the contributions of this article lie entirely in the interpretation of allegedly gamelike situations, not in the formal analysis of games proper.     

Determinants of government size: evidence from China

This paper investigates the determinants of government size at the provincial level in China. We employ the panel data model as a platform for empirical analysis and control for endogeneity in the study. Our study shows that openness to trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) may curtail government expansion, and that the provincial-level public sector is characterized by economies of scale. This study also documents that Wagner’s law does not hold true for China. Moreover, both expenditure decentralization and revenue decentralization contribute to the expansion of China’s government.     

Lessons in disguise: multivariate predictive mistakes in?collective choice models

Many political processes can be characterized as repeated collective decisions, in which individual choices rendered by the same actors are combined to produce salient outcomes (e.g., voting in legislatures). The inherent interdependence among the choices within repeated collective decisions is often missed in statistical analysis. I introduce the joint prediction error (JPE)—a?grouping of individual decisions that is poorly predicted by a model. JPEs capture the intersecting information missed by conventional diagnostics. I?demonstrate the use of JPEs on data from two published articles—one on U.S. Supreme Court voting and another on international defense alliances.     

Partisan Differences in Swedish Macroeconomic Policy

The purpose of this paper is to trace partisan differencesamong Swedish governments during the period 1958-2000. According tothe Partisan Theory of macroeconomic policy left-wing governmentsare relatively more concerned with the performance of the realside of the economy (real output and unemployment) as compared toright-wing governments, that place a higher weight on the nominalvariables (inflation). Left-wing governments would therefore pursue moreexpansionary aggregate demand policy, and thereby be willingto risk a higher inflation, in order to improve real economicperformance. In this paper we apply the model developed in Hibbs (1994) onSwedish data. Our empirical results support the partisan theory,showing that, ceteris paribus, aggregate demand policy under left-winggovernments is relatively more expansionary than under right-wing governments, even if the expansionary policysometimes leads to higher inflation.     

公共领域马斯洛现象与政府规模扩张分析

通过较长期的观察和对许多地方政府规模增长过程的实际考察,认为政府规模扩张有理性的一面。作为学术性研究,不仅应对政府的非理性增长作出种种分析,还应对政府规模的理性增长做出探究。采用理论分析与实证分析相结合的方法、定性分析与定量分析相结合的方法,将马斯洛需求层次规律演绎到公共领域,提出了公共领域马斯洛现象和公共领域马斯洛规律的认识。进而提出,公共领域马斯洛规律是导致公共管理部门扩张的重要原因,也是导致政府规模理性扩张的重要原因之一。     

On Developing an Inter-Agency Trust Scale for Assessing Governance Networks in the Public Sector

ABSTRACT

This article presents the development and validation of a psychometric scale for assessing public sector inter-agency trust. The instrument is grounded in contemporary trust theory and methodologically adapted from a measure developed for private sector alliances. Tested using four discrete studies of governance networks, each addressing transboundary environmental issues such as climate change and fisheries, the scale exhibits reasonably valid psychometric properties while also enabling visualized analysis of networked trust distributions. Based on this work, we outline further research needs with a view to stimulating greater trust research in governance networks and facilitating more collaborative and innovative policy outcomes in the public sector.     

Foucault Contra Honneth: Resistance or Recognition?

This article deals with the relationship between the thought of Michel Foucault and that of Axel Honneth, arguing in favour of the former against the latter. I begin by considering Honneth’s early engagement in The Critique of Power with Foucault’s thought. I rebut Honneth’s criticisms of Foucault here as a misreading, one which prevents Honneth from coming to grips with Foucault’s position and hence the challenge that it poses to Honneth’s project. I then move on to offer a Foucauldian critique of Honneth’s own position, arguing for a Foucauldian alternative to Critical Theory.