Network and perceptual determinants of satisfaction among science and engineering faculty in US research universities

This study examines how personal research collaboration and advice networks of academic faculty in six fields of science and engineering affect three kinds of satisfaction: satisfaction with rewards; satisfaction with reputation of department and institution; and satisfaction with professional recognition and visibility of research. The study includes determinants found in the literature such as perceived influence on departmental decisions, departmental provision of resources, and perceptions of time spent on service and other controls. Using data collected from a national survey of academic faculty in six fields of science and engineering in Carnegie designated Research I universities, regression models test literature derived hypotheses. Findings show that the effects of network structure and resources on satisfaction depend on the kind of satisfaction studied. Non-network variables demonstrate associations with satisfaction that are generally expected from the literature. The paper provides evidence of the critical role that personal research collaboration and advice networks play for scientists’ satisfaction. It also raises important questions about the complex relationships between network structures and resources, and satisfaction. Conclusions present implications for university and departmental administrators.     

The financial implications of merging proactive CCTV monitoring and directed police patrol: a cost–benefit analysis

Objectives

This study presents a cost–benefit analysis of an intervention pairing proactive CCTV monitoring with directed police patrol in Newark, NJ. A recent randomized control trial found that the strategy generated significant crime reductions in treatment areas relative to control areas. The current study focuses on the financial implications of the experimental strategy through a cost–benefit analysis.

Methods

The study begins by measuring the costs and benefits associated with the experimental strategy, the findings of which can inform agencies with existing CCTV infrastructure. Follow-up analyses measure the costs and benefits of the intervention for agencies absent existing CCTV infrastructure, meaning a CCTV system would have to be funded in addition to the intervention outputs. Alongside overall benefits, this study presents the tangible cost savings afforded to the Criminal Justice system as well as to each of the separate criminal justice (CJ) system components: Policing, Courts, and Corrections.

Results

We found the experimental strategy to be highly cost effective for agencies with existing CCTV infrastructure. However, when the cost of the CCTV system is considered, the strategy is largely cost prohibitive. While the cumulative societal and criminal justice findings suggest some evidence of a modest cost savings, the strategy is highly cost prohibitive for each of the individual CJ system components when CCTV system costs are included.

Conclusions

Results suggest that the experimental strategy is a worthwhile investment for agencies with existing CCTV infrastructure. Agencies absent CCTV may want to consider whether funds would be better allocated towards alternate strategies.

     

Distributive Justice and the Allocation of Costs,Losses, and Profits

In an experimental study, participants read a scenario about five business partners who sold plants at a flea market. Each partner obtained a different outcome and still had to pay the costs of the partnership. Participants either had to indicate what they considered to be a fair distribution of the costs (given each individual partner's earnings) or what they considered to be a fair distribution of the net results (the total outcome minus the costs). The total outcome was either higher or lower than the costs (i.e., the enterprise resulted in a net profit or a net loss). The results indicate that fairness judgments are affected by the target of distribution. Negative outcomes are distributed differently than positive outcomes, and within the domain of negative outcomes, marked differences are observed between costs and net losses. The results are explained in terms of the differential salience of the distribution of the net result.     

Freeing money: Why have states been more willing to liberalize capital controls than trade barriers?

This article investigates why advanced industrial states have chosen to dismantle their postwar capital controls during a period — the 1970s and 1980s — when they became less enthusiastic about eliminating trade restrictions. Four explanations are presented. First, the unique mobility and fungibility of money was important in both encouraging competitive deregulation pressures and making the control of financial movements difficult, each of which created differing collective action dynamics in the financial sector than existed in the trade field. Second, the US and Britain played a leading role in encouraging financial liberalization because they held distinct hegemonic interests in finance that did not exist to the same degree in the trade sector. Third, domestic coalitions of neo-liberal advocates and internationally-oriented corporate interests encountered relatively little domestic political resistance to their demands for financial liberalization because of the low domestic political visibility of international financial issues. Finally, financial liberalization and trade protectionism may in fact have been directly related: it has proven difficult for states to maintain liberal practices in finance and trade at the same time.     

Does school accountability lead to improved student performance?

The leading school reform policy in the United States revolves around strong accountability of schools with consequences for performance. The federal government's involvement through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 reinforces the prior movement of many states toward policies based on measured student achievement. Analysis of state achievement growth as measured by the National Assessment of Educational progress shows that accountability systems introduced during the 1990s had a clear positive impact on student achievement. This single policy instrument did not, however, also lead to any narrowing in the Black‐White achievement gap (though it did narrow the Hispanic‐White achievement gap). Moreover, the Black‐White gap appears to have been adversely impacted over the decade by increasing minority concentrations in the schools. An additional issue surrounding stronger accountability has been a concern about unintended outcomes related to such things as higher exclusion rates from testing, increased dropout rates, and the like. Our analysis of special education placement rates, a frequently identified area of concern, does not show any responsiveness to the introduction of accountability systems.© 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

The impacts of foreignness and cultural distance on commercialization of patents

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Foreign-born academic scientists have been consistently shown to be more productive than the native-born in the United States with regard to research and...