The Impact of Competition and Labor Remuneration on Profitability in China's Industrial State-owned Enterprises

China's industrial state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have seen a secular decline in profitability throughout the reform period. Barry Naughton argues that this decline was in large part due to a decline in monopoly rents as competition with enterprises in other ownership forms increased. Fan Gang and Woo Wing-Thye, on the other hand, contend that profitability declined across all sectors independent of the degree of competition, and that excessive labor remuneration accounts for the broad decline in SOE profitability. Testing the two hypotheses with aggregate sectoral and provincial data from the mid-1980s to the late-1990s, neither appears convincing. Yet at closer inspection these are not competing hypotheses. The two causes affect overall profitability through different channels. Competition and labor remuneration have a highly significant impact on intermediate profitability measures that take the two channels into account separately. Together they explain most of the variation in overall profitability.     

Community Participation, the Environment, and Democracy: Brazil in Comparative Perspective

Grassroots environmental activism among Latin America's poor has altered the debate over environmental policy, social welfare, and citizenship. Yet the question remains whether this social mobilization of the poor is part of a larger trend toward broader environmental concerns and democratic political participation, or a shortlived movement susceptible to the same pressures that have dissolved community mobilization in the past. This article compares Brazil with other Latin American and European countries in surveys of environmental awareness, concerns, and reported behavior. It finds that Brazilians residing in the urban periphery link their own local environmental concerns to more global considerations, and that concern for and activism on environmental issues is positively related to wider community involvement.     

Reshaping of Japanese Politics and the Question of Democracy

Japan's need for economic and political reform has been recognized but the means to achieve this has not. In this article, J.A.A. Stockwin, professor of Modern Japanese Studies at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford, considers this question by examining the meaning of democracy then applying the theory to the specific case of Japan. He explains that although not identical to a democracy in a Western sense, Japan's system of government is genuinely democratic. Stockwin argues that Japan is now at a crossroads in her history, but before pressing for reform an understanding of the complexity of the Japanese system is necessary. He concludes that a radical restructuring of Japan's political party system towards a bipolar set of party arrangements is necessary but questions whether Prime Minister Junichirô Koizumi is up to the task.     

Psychosocial Correlates of Intimacy Achievement Among Adolescent Fathers-to-Be

We investigated the relation between urban psychosocial stressors and intimacy achievement in a sample of 59 African American, Hispanic American, and White adolescent fathers-to-be. Participants received an intimacy score based on Orlofsky's Intimacy Status Rating Scale. Those with higher cumulative psychosocial stressors had lower levels of intimacy. One psychosocial risk factor, low interpersonal empathy, was significantly associated with intimacy levels. African Americans had lower levels of intimacy than Hispanic or White participants.     

Willingness to Self-Disclose among Late Adolescent Female Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

The primary aim of this study was to compare the willingness of sexually abused (n = 22) and non–sexually abused (n = 36) late adolescent women to self-disclose both general and sexual information to strangers and intimate partners. Results, based on a sample of college women, indicate that those who were sexually abused in childhood are less likely than nonabused counterparts to be highly disclosing of sexual and general information to intimate partners. Avoiding extensive disclosure of personal information to intimate partners may serve to keep survivors of abuse at a relatively safe distance from their own dysphoric feelings and suggests that mistrust of others is an ongoing issue for this population.