Advertising and the Price and Quality of Legal Services: The Case for Legal Clinics

Because the holding in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona is narrow and because some lawyers remain opposed to advertising, the dispute over lawyer advertising continues. Many who favor restricting advertising contend that it will not benefit consumers. They argue that prices must either rise to cover the cost of advertising or, if prices do fall, that quality must also drop.
This article addresses itself to both charges. The first section is theoretical, demonstrating how advertising could lower the costs of producing legal services. Advertising increases the volume of services a lawyer can expect to sell. Greater volume, in turn, allows greater specialization in production, more effective use of systems management, and the substitution of paralegals and capital for lawyer inputs. The authors argue that each of these changes will lower costs, thereby lowering prices without necessarily reducing quality. The second section is empirical, comparing the prices and particularly the quality of services produced by a heavy advertiser, the Legal Clinic of Jacoby & Meyers, and the traditional firms in the Los Angeles market with which the clinic competes. Quality is defined both subjectively and objectively, and original data are presented indicating that the quality of service that the clinic supplies is at least equivalent, and on some measures better, than the quality of service that traditional firms provide.     

The lay component in Scottish juvenile justice

A recently completed study of the Scottish juvenile justice system, employing a variety of methodological approaches, is used as a source of information on the behavior and attitudes of the lay volunteers who make up children's panels and are responsible for decisions concerning young people who are alleged to have committed an offense or are believed to be in need of care and protection. The reported data relate to the beliefs of panel members as to the causes of delinquency and the objectives of intervention and alternative disposals; the topics they raise for discussion in children's hearings and the factors which influence the decisions they make; and the manner in which they are perceived by the children and parents who have appeared before them.     

A horse race around a Möbius strip: A review and a test of utility-maximizing and organizational-process models of public expenditure decisions

This article shows how we might choose between utility-maximizing and organizational-process models of public expenditure decisions and concludes we ought not to try. Both contribute to our understanding of public expenditure outcomes. Furthermore, an integrated approach could better explain public expenditure decisions, than could either approach taken alone.The ideas and their presentation in this paper are the responsibility of Fred Thompson. Richard Williams carried out the data collection and editing and the statistical analysis described herein. Indebtedness to Patrick Larkey of Carnegie-Mellon University is very great. He gave many long hours to discussions of the points raised in this paper. Without his contribution it is doubtful that it would have been written. It is not simply egotism, however, which prevents our sharing authorship with him. The fact is, that after many long hours of discussion and exchange of drafts, we continue to find ourselves irreconcilably divided as to the respective merits of the two models. The paper also benefited from extensive comments by Jim Stephenson and Aiden Vining of UBC, Kristen Monroe of NYU and William Zumeta of UCLA.Now Senior Research Consultant, Regulation Reference, Economic Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.Now at Behavioral Research Institute, University of Colorado.     

Dimensions of innovation

Within a conceptual framework of three dimensions, this paper examines parallels between the process of innovation in ship-building and in nursing care. Major conclusions are:

1. A given innovation must include not only technological change but also embedding activities to ensure its fit into the adopting organization.
2. To ensure continuation of the innovating process, it is necessary to build innovative capacity, with leadership vested in some person or group.
3. System-wide innovation requires both an effective diffusion process and diffusion capacity, to disseminate knowledge about specific innovations and also about ways to build innovative capacity.
4. Building both innovative capacity and diffusion capacity must be seen as responsibilities of the entire organization or system.

     

Attitudes and Family Violence: Linking Intergenerational and Cultural Theories

Drawing on intergenerational transmission and cultural (attitudinal) theories, this study examines the extent to which attitudes help explain (1) the relationship between experiencing violence while growing up and subsequent violence against one amp apose;s children and spouse, and(2) demographic differences in violence. Structural equation modeling techniques are used to examine data from a representative sample of the general population and a sample of ex-offenders. The findings indicate that experiencing violence while growing up is related to favorable attitudes towards violence against spouses. The experience of violence while growing up and attitudes are related to violence against both children and spouses. The relationship between experiencing violence while growing up and engaging in violence against spouses is mediated by attitudes. The results also suggest that men and nonwhites are more approving of violence towards spouses. However, attitudes do not account for demographic differences in violence against children and spouses.     

Bringing the ‘economic’ back in;the case of nationalism

Marxism and Nationalism analyses the histroy of thinking on nationalism within classical historical materalism from Marx and engles themselves, through lenin and the Austro-Marxists to Gramsci. While it identifies variations in the degree of reductionism and economism involved, it finds a recurrent distorian due to the underlying errors of Marxist theory itself. The theorist who most escaped from these constraints was Otto Bauer. Nimni's analysis, while rich and suggestive, is however too indulgent towards nationalism itself, and fails to identify the enduring importance of economic factors in the rise of nationalist movements. Itis also mistakenly identifies as specific to marxism a belitting of nationalism that is common to much liberal and sociological thought.