The Perceptions of Academic Lawyers Concerning the Effects of the United Kingdom's Research Assessment Exercise

In this article, the authors analyse quantitative and qualitative data compiled from a large-scale postal survey of legal academics concerning the United Kingdom's Research Assessment Exercise. The purpose of the study was to measure the attitudes of academic lawyers affected by the RAE rating process and institutional responses to that process. The study reveals that a substantial number of respondents lack faith in the objectivity of the rating process, believe institutional responses to the RAE have caused damage to academic working environments, and perceive that the RAE has failed to improve the quality of legal research.     

The Impact of Electoral Reform on the Public Service: The New Zealand Case

October 1996 marked the beginning of a new era in New Zealand politics, with the advent of a system of proportional representation based on the German model. This article explores the impact of electoral reform on the public service. First, it summarises the extensive public sector reforms during the mid-to-late 1980s and considers the preparations undertaken by the public service for proportional representation. Second, it outlines the concerns and expectations about the likely consequences of the new electoral system on the bureaucracy. Third, against this background, the article examines the extent to which the public service has been affected by electoral reform. It is argued that despite some notable changes to the political environment within which officials operate, the overall impact of proportional representation on the public service to date has been modest. The analysis presented here is based on a series of interviews conducted during 1997 with ministers, senior public servants, ministerial advisers and parliamentary officials, along with a range of secondary sources.     

Evaluation of the Abbott TDx-radiative energy attenuation (REA) ethanol assay in a study of 1105 forensic whole blood specimens

In a preliminary study to determine the applicability of the Abbott radiative energy attenuation (REA) method for the quantification of ethanol in whole blood specimens it was concluded that a larger number of samples was required to evaluate the method, particularly for use in forensic toxicology applications. In this study, 573 blood specimens from suspected driving while intoxicated individuals (DWI blood) and 532 postmortem blood specimens (PM blood) were analyzed by the REA method and a headspace gas chromatographic method (GC) currently used in this laboratory. "Negative" specimens (less than 10 mg/dL by GC) and "positive" specimens (greater than or equal to 10 mg/dL by GC) in each category were analyzed. Linear regression analysis comparing the REA values with the GC values was performed for each type of blood specimen. The equation obtained for DWI blood specimens was REA = 0.943 GC + 1.54; the equation for PM blood specimens was REA = 0.980 GC + 2.76. The correlation coefficient for each group was greater than 0.99. The data suggested that a limit of detection of 10 mg/dL could be applied for DWI blood specimens, while 20 mg/dL would be recommended as the limit of detection for PM blood specimens.     

Partial information and volatility in a two-bloc world

This paper examines the effects of partial information on volatility and on the design of simple feedback rules in a rational expectations context. Previous studies have investigated these effects using small analytical models. Here we employ an empirical two-bloc model derived from the OECD Interlink model. The main conclusions are that when current asset prices are observed, but GDP is observed with a delay, then the effect on volatility is small, compared to the full information case. Likewise the choice of simple feedback rules is little affected, although a non-optimal use of information in their design may lead to a deterioration in performance.     

Recent Data Trends Show Welfare Reform to Be a Mixed Success: Significant Policy Changes Should Accompany Reauthorization

The conventional wisdom is that the 1996 federal welfare reform law has been a stunning success. Welfare caseloads have declined significantly and employment among disadvantaged single mothers has increased more than anticipated. Also, more low‐income children were living with married couples in the late 1990s. However, welfare reform was enacted in the midst of exceptional economic, demographic, and other policy changes and it is impossible to disentangle the impact of federal welfare reform from these other factors. This article describes these factors and puts the income gains and losses among families with children between 1996 and 2000 into the historical context of the past twenty‐five years. This analysis provides substantial evidence that welfare reform may have “worked” for many low‐income families with children while failing other low‐income families. Furthermore, despite recent increases in poverty following the 2001 recession, welfare caseloads continued to decline, indicating a fundamental flaw in what has traditionally been a countercyclical program. Data also suggest that the significant increase over the 1990s in the share of low‐income children living with married couples has been reversed following the recent recession. These findings suggest that the 1996 welfare law needs to be considerably retooled.