Migration,rank-size distribution,and economic development: The case of Mexico

This is an examination of whether city size is truly an independent variable when the relationships between city size and certain economic and social phenomena are considered. A new hypothesis is presented that postulates that relative or systemic city size is an independent variable that affects urban growth patterns through varying, non-optimum migration flows. The hypothesis is tested using official Mexican data for the period 1960 to 1970.     

Slim just left town: decisionmaking on an intensive care unit

The title of this paper comes from an incident that occurred while I was participating in morning rounds on the pediatric and surgical intensive care unit of a large, midwest tertiary care center. The patient under discussion was an eight-week-old girl who had been born without kidneys, and who had been cared for on the unit for seven weeks. In the previous week, the baby's condition had gone steadily downhill, as she experienced on medical catastrophe after another. One of the nurses asked the staff doctor who was leading rounds that morning, "What are the baby's chances?" The physician replied, "Her chances are slim." To which one of the young residents immediately answered, "Slim just left town."     

Gender Differences in Self-Perceptions and Academic Outcomes: A Study of African American High School Students

There is increasing divergence in the academic outcomes of African American males and females. By most accounts, males are falling behind their female peers educationally as African American females are graduating from high schools at higher rates and are going on to college and graduate school in greater numbers. Some have suggested that school completion and performance is associated with how students feel about themselves. The purpose of this study was to explore gender differences in the relationship between self-perceptions and 2 academic outcomes among a sample of 243 African American high school sophomores. The results suggest that, overall, females are more favorably oriented toward high school completion. Both male and female students with more positive self-perceptions have stronger intentions to complete the current year of high school. Higher grade point averages were more strongly associated with greater self-efficacy for females than for males. Given these findings, increased attention to educational programming, societal messages, and future research is warranted.     

Does Federalism Matter for Biopolicies? Switzerland in Comparative Perspective

This article analyses how federalism matters for the policy‐designing process and the resulting policies in the field of Assisted Reproductive Technology through the comparison of four countries, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Canada. It reconstructs from an actor‐centred perspective how federalism interacts with other country and policy‐field specific characteristics and empirically assesses how this interaction influenced the final policies. By focusing on Assisted Reproductive Technology, the article examines the potential influence of federalism on public policies beyond the standard discussion of the comparative political economy of federalism.