Disability and Its Correlates in a Developing Country Context: Evidence from Multiple Datasets and Measures

Disability profiles showing how the magnitude of disability differs across subgroups of a population are important tools in designing effective policies. Yet little is known about the sensitivity of the correlates of disability to the way disability is measured. This study uses an unprecedentedly large amount of nationally representative survey data from Indonesia. Based on 13 different datasets that were collected between 2000 and 2014, and which together contain disability information on more than 1 billion individuals, we assess how robust disability profiles are to measurement issues. Our findings suggest that irrespective of the dataset and measure used, disability is disproportionally more common among the poor, the elderly and rural areas in the country. Hence, Indonesian policies on poverty reduction, population ageing, and rural development should pay particular attention to how they reach and affect persons with disabilities. Our research further reveals that the gender gap in disability is highly sensitive to measurement issues with different datasets and measures reaching different conclusions about the size and direction of the gap.     

China’s economic reforms: A synoptic view

Structural-systemic reforms of China’s economy were initiated in 1979 against a background of economic crisis, absence of a reform blueprint, and unsatisfactory experience with past developmental models. The reforms may be seen as having five major components; pragmatic gradualism; marketization of the coordination mechanism; diversification of the property structure (destatization); outward orientation (controlled openness); and retention of political monopoly power by the communist party. Of these, the proliferation of various property forms is novel, problematical, and conceptually intriguing. The reforms have resulted in or been accompanied thus far by modernizing but erratic and uneven economic growth and marginal political liberalization; strong inflationary pressures; unresolved state sector property problems; and uncertainties of political succession. The vision of China’s economic future is obscured by the unfinished business of significant state ownership of industry and an authoritarian polity seasoned by corruption. Unless these are removed, the danger remains that the reforms will be undone.     

Lobbying and asymmetric information

Informational lobbying — the use by interest groups of their (alleged) expertise or private information on matters of importance for policymakers in an attempt to persuade them to implement particular policies — is often regarded as an important means of influence. This paper analyzes this phenomenon in a game setting. On the one hand, the interest group is assumed to have private information which is relevant to the policymaker, whilst, on the other hand, the policymaker is assumed to be fully aware of the strategic incentives of the interest group to (mis)report or conceal its private information. It is shown that in a setting of partially conflicting interests a rationale for informational lobbying can only exist if messages bear a cost to the interest group and if the group's preferences carry information in the ‘right direction’. Furthermore, it is shown that it is not the content of the message as such, but rather the characteristics of the interest group that induces potential changes in the policymaker's behavior. In addition, the model reveals some interesting results on the relation between, on the one hand, the occurrence and impact of lobbying and, on the other hand, the cost of lobbying, the stake which an interest group has in persuading the policymaker, the similarity between the policymaker's and the group's preferences, and the initial beliefs of the policymaker. Moreover, we relate the results to some empirical findings on lobbying. qu]Much of the pressure placed upon government and its agencies takes the form of freely provided “objective” studies showing the important outcomes to be expected from the enactment of particular policies (Bartlett, 1973: 133, his quotation marks). qu]The analysis here is vague. What is needed is an equilibrium model in which lobbying activities have influence. Incomplete information ought to be the key to building such a model that would explain why lobbying occurs (information, collusion with decision makers, and so on) and whether lobbying expenses are socially wasteful. (Tirole, 1989: Ch. 1.3, p. 77, Rentseeking behavior).     

Robberies in Prague

This paper is concerned with the issue of robberies in the Czech Republic, primarily in the capital city, Prague. Statistics show that there has been a sharp rise in the number of robberies recorded in the Czech Republic following the political upheavals of 1989. In spite of this, current Czech criminology does not give proper attention to this kind of criminal activity. For this reason, the authors will attempt not only to summarise research efforts hitherto undertaken in this field and place them in a wider international context, but also to offer basic and criminologically relevant data on offenders, victims and some other significant factors, making use of official crime statistics as well as special police statistical records, including data obtained through the authors' own analysis of a sample of court files.     

Immigration and National Security

The greatest threat to U.S. homeland security comes from illegals who enter the country through its porous borders in order to attack. The tide of illegal immigration must be stemmed in order to secure the United States against terrorism. It is all too easy for illegal immigrants to slip in beneath the radar, eschewing the legalization process and never being detected and deported. And as long as the benefits of illegally immigrating outweigh the costs, the influx will continue. Legal immigration itself needs reform, too; particularly the visa-waiver program and the rules governing dual citizenship, which pose further security challenges. Federal government officials must overcome their fear of alienating ethnic voters and American business, enhance border security, and reform the nation's immigration policies.     

Trading Signs: Semiotic Practices in Law and Medicine

Lawyers write, blog and are otherwise producers of words; they structure public life through legal discourse and integrate all issues that reinforce legal reasoning. Even if one is inclined not to justify the power of their words in the context of a democratic theory, one is hardly able to challenge its public acceptance. But semiotic analyses harden the question whether these emperors wear nothing but robes. That attitude intensifies where medicine becomes increasingly relevant for legal discourse, as becomes clear where for instance US political viewpoints bring bioethical issues to the Courts. One major theme in today’s medicine pertains to identity in its psychological, philosophical and social dimensions. Identity thus becomes a groundbreaking semiotic issue in law and medicine; both discourses are particular important to the otherness of the other. A US criminal law case interests here (Harrington v. State of Iowa, 2003; cited as: 659N.W.2d 509). The case is decided with “information about what the person has stored in his brain”. A chain of signs is involved: from “brain-function” to “brain-storage” via “brain-scan” to “brain-fingerprint”, for which the case became famous. A long series of signs and meanings belong here to intertwined discourses. Central is a particular sign in each discourse: “brain” means brain scan, and “fingerprint” means law! The two display trading mechanisms, which determine the otherness of the other and the self! The chain of signs in the Harrington case shows inter-disciplinarity in law and inter-discursivity among law and medicine. The trading itself underlines the semiotic dimensions in cyberspace, in particular the semiotics of the virtual (Hayles, Kurzweil) and their effects on legal discourse.     

Reference ballistic imaging database performance

Ballistic imaging databases allow law enforcement to link recovered cartridge cases to other crime scenes and to firearms. The success of these databases has led many to propose that all firearms in circulation be entered into a reference ballistic image database (RBID). To assess the performance of an RBID, we fired 4200 cartridge cases from 600 9 mm Para Sig Sauer model P226 series pistols. Each pistol fired two Remington cartridges, one of which was imaged in the RBID, and five additional cartridges, consisting of Federal, Speer, Winchester, Wolf, and CCI brands. Randomly selected samples from the second series of Remington cartridge cases and from the five additional brands were then correlated against the RBID. Of the 32 cartridges of the same make correlated against the RBID, 72% ranked in the top 10 positions. Likewise, of the 160 cartridges of the five different brands correlated against the database, 21% ranked in the top 10 positions. Generally, the ranking position increased as the size of the RBID increased. We obtained similar results when we expanded the RBID to include firearms with the same class characteristics for breech face marks, firing pin impressions, and extractor marks. The results of our six queries against the RBID indicate that a reference ballistics image database of new guns is currently fraught with too many difficulties to be an effective and efficient law enforcement tool.