The Impact of the Unemployment Rate on Unemployment Benefits in Barbados: An Impulse Response Approach

The purpose of this article is to determine how the rate of unemployment will impact on unemployment benefits in Barbados using annual data from 1982 to 2009 with the use of an impulse response function. The results show that when a shock is applied to the rate of unemployment, which causes it to rise, unemployment benefits will contract marginally and this reaction will not stabilize until the 14th period when a new equilibrium will be attained. Since this new equilibrium will lie below the original equilibrium, rising unemployment will impact negatively on unemployment benefits although this decline will only be marginal.     

Civic Engagement and Education: An Empirical Test of the Sorting Model

According to the sorting model of education, the impact of education on civic engagement is relative, rather than absolute. Education correlates with greater engagement because it is a marker of social status; the degree of status conferred by your level of education is determined by the average level of education within your environment. This article tests the sorting model by paying strict heed to its assumptions. The analysis confirms the model, but considerably narrows its reach. Sorting applies only to one particular type (electoral activity), only when the educational environment accounts for variation across age and place, and only when one models the interactive relationship between education at the individual and environmental levels. Furthermore, sorting applies more to men than women. The same analytical framework demonstrates that being in a more highly educated environment amplifies the relationship between education and democratic enlightenment (political knowledge and tolerance).     

The Party Systems of the Australian States: Patterns of Partisan Competition, 1945-1986

There has been a longstanding interest in the relationship betweenthe party system in reflecting regional diversity and maintainingthe dispersal of power in federations. Given the relative scarcityof information on this question in the Australian federation,this article examines the extent to which the party systemsof the Australian states differ by looking at a number of indicatorssummarizing patterns of partisan support in elections and legislaturesover a period of forty years. Its findings demonstrate persistentdifferences in the structure and dynamics of the state partysystems. In particular, the study shows that, in spite of thedichotomizing tendencies of a parliamentary system, electoralcompetition in the A ustralian states is characterized by astrong tendency to dispersed multi-partyism rather than simplebipartyism, although the individual states occupy varying positionswithin this range. The charting of this partisan diversity isimportant in questioning some of the presumptions of regionaluniformity that have been applied to the study of the Australianfederal system.     

Self-reported delinquency and home life: Evidence from a sample of British girls

This study examines the correlation between family variables and delinquency (both self-reported and official) in a small sample of British teenage girls. Factor analysis of the 72-item Home Life Questionnaire (from T. H. Hirschi [1969] Causes of Delinquency, University of California Press, Berkeley) revealed a clear four-factor structure of caring and communication, discipline, pressure and mother-daughter closeness, which cumulatively accounted for 31% of the variance. Multiple regression of these factors onto self-reported delinquency indicated the maternal factor to be most powerful, explaining 25% of the variance in self-reported delinquency. Institutionalized and noninstitutionalized girls showed only chance differences in terms of the quality of their home life.Anne Campbell's research interests are in sex differences in antisocial behavior, especially aggression.     

Feminist literary studies

Elaine Showalter (ed), The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on women, literature and theory (Virago) London, 1985.

Gayle Green and Coppélia Kahn (eds), Making a Difference: Feminist literary criticism (Methuen: New Accents) London, 1985.

Toril Moi, Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Theory (Methuen: New Accents) London, 1985.     

Helping women understand their risk in situations of intimate partner violence

Only approximately one-half of the 456 women who were killed or almost killed by a husband, boyfriend, or ex-husband or ex-boyfriend in a recent national study of homicide of women accurately perceived their risk of being killed by their abusive partner. Women are unlikely to overestimate their risk; however, many will underestimate the severity of the situation. From the same study, it was found that relatively few of the victims of actual or attempted intimate partner femicide were seen by domestic violence advocates during the year before they were killed; they were far more likely to be seen in the health care system. Implications are drawn as to innovative ways that women who are abused can be identified and with skilled assessment of the danger in their relationship helped make more informed plans for their safety.     

Entrepreneurship, Secrecy, and Productivity: A Comparison of Clinical and Non-Clinical Life Sciences Faculty

This paper addresses research in the life sciences, responsible for significant national expenditures for scientific investigations funded by both the federal government and industry. Our investigation examines faculty members' involvement with industry in entrepreneurial ways that is, involved in translating their research into potentially marketable knowledge or products. First, this study examines whether there are differences in entrepreneurial behaviour between clinical and non-clinical faculty in the life sciences with industry relationships, and, second, to discover any linkage between entrepreneurship and secrecy or productivity in different ways for clinical and non-clinical faculty. The study is based on survey responses of a national sample of 4,000 clinical and non-clinical life sciences faculty in 49 U.S. research universities. The results show non-clinical faculty as more involved at the back end. The more entrepreneurial end of commercialization while clinical faculty are involved at the back end. The more entrepreneurial faculty (non-clinical) are more likely to be secretive about their research. Clinical faculty are less likely to have been denied access to research results or products. Entrepreneurial faculty are not less productive in their faculty roles. This investigation is preliminary in that it addresses one large area of academic research but excludes fields with longer historical relationships with industry.