Do experimental and nonexperimental evaluations give different answers about the effectiveness of government‐funded training programs?

This paper uses meta‐analysis to investigate whether random assignment (or experimental) evaluations of voluntary government‐funded training programs for the disadvantaged have produced different conclusions than nonexperimental evaluations. Information includes several hundred estimates from 31 evaluations of 15 programs that operated between 1964 and 1998. The results suggest that experimental and nonexperimental evaluations yield similar conclusions about the effectiveness of training programs, but that estimates of average effects for youth and possibly men might have been larger in experimental studies. The results also suggest that variation among nonexprimental estimates of program effects is similar to variation among experimental estimates for men and youth, but not for women (for whom it seems to be larger), although small sample sizes make the estimated differences somewhat imprecise for all three groups. The policy implications of the findings are discussed. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Polarization,Politics and Property Rights: Links Between Inequality and Growth

We argue that social polarization reduces the security ofproperty and contract rights and, through this channel,reduces growth. The first hypothesis is supported by cross-country evidence indicating that polarization in the form ofincome inequality, land inequality, and ethnic tensions isinversely related to a commonly-used index of the security ofcontractual and property rights. When the security of propertyrights is controlled for in cross-country growth regressions,the relationship between inequality and growth diminishesconsiderably. This and other evidence provides support for oursecond hypothesis, that inequality reduces growth in partthrough its effect on the security of property rights.     

Optimization of the separation of organic explosives by capillary electrophoresis with artificial neural networks

The separation of 12 explosives by capillary electrophoresis was optimized with the aid of artificial neural networks (ANNs). The selectivity of the separation was manipulated by varying the concentration of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and the pH of the electrolyte, while maintaining the buffer concentration at 10 mM borate. The concentration of SDS and the electrolyte pH were used as input variables and the mobility of the explosives were used as output variables for the ANN. In total, eight experiments were performed based on a factorial design to train a variety of artificial neural network architectures. A further three experiments were required to train ANN architectures to adequately model the experimental space. A product resolution response surface was constructed based on the predicted mobilities of the best performing ANN. This response surface pointed to two optima; pH 9.0-9.1 and 60-65 mM SDS, and pH 8.4-8.6 and 50-60 mM SDS. Separation of all 12 explosives was achieved at the second optimum. The separation was further improved by changing the capillary to an extended cell detection window and reducing the diameter of the capillary from 75 microm to 50 microm. This provided a more efficient separation without compromising detection sensitivity.     

Homicide-suicide in Hong Kong, 1989-1998

This study provides the first systematic research of homicide-suicide (HS) in a Chinese society. Data were drawn from the HK Homicide Monitoring Data-base computer file derived from investigation and death reports held by the HK Police Force and the Coroner's Court. During the 10-year study period, 56 events involving 133 deaths were identified. The majority of offenders were males (75%) and most victims were female (64%). The mean age of offenders and victims were 41.9 and 32.3 years, respectively. Spouses and lovers comprised the majority of victims (46.4%) followed by child victims (36%). Most HS events were motivated by separation or termination of marital or sexual relations (39%), economic reasons (25%) and other domestic disputes (20%). The most frequent modes of killing were strangulation/suffocation (26%), stabbing/chopping (24%), followed by gassing/poisoning (14%) and falling from a height (14%). The commonest method of suicide was falling from a height (48%). It was followed by gassing/poisoning (22%) and strangulation/suffocation (13%). Depression (18.3%) was found to be the commonest mental disorder. Most offenders were from low-socio-economic background. Two-third were unemployed and 76.6% had 9 or less years of education. HS in HK were distinguished from those reported in the western literature in respect to the high relevance of economic factors, the absence of mercy killing between old couples, a higher percentage of pedicide-suicides and the infrequent use of firearms.     

Reviews

Zhores A. Medvedev, Soviet Agriculture, New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987, xiv + 464 pp. $27.50.

Abel Aganbegyan, The Challenge: Economics of Perestroika, London: Hutchinson, 1988. xxvii + 248 pp. £20.00 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Maurice Friedberg and Heyward Isham eds. Soviet Society Under Gorbachev: Current Trends and the Prospects for Reform. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe Inc. 1987, xiv + 159 pp. $28.50 h/b, $12.95 p/b.

Martin McCauley ed. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev. London: Macmillan Press in association with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1987, 247 pp. £29.50 h/b, £9.95 p/b.

David A. Dyker ed. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev: Prospects for Reform. London: Croom Helm, 1987, 227 pp. £25.00 h/b.

Alexander Yanov, The Russian Challenge and the Year 2000. Translated by Iden J. Rosenthal. Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987, xvi + 302 pp. £19.50.

Margot Light, The Soviet Theory of International Relations. Sussex: Wheatsheaf Books, 1988, 376 pp. £35.00.

James R. Millar, Politics, Work, and Daily Life in the USSR: A Survey of Former Soviet Citizens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, xiv + 423 pp. £12.95.

Thomas G. Hart, Sino‐Soviet Relations: Re‐examining the Prospects for Normalisation. Aldershot: Gower Publishing Company, 1987, xiii + 128 pp., £18.50.

Donna Bahry, Outside Moscow: Power, Politics, and Budgetary Policy in the Soviet Republics. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987, ix + 236 pp. £15.50.

Jerry F. Hough, Opening up the Soviet Economy. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1988, ix + 100 pp. $8.95 p/b.

Padma Desai, The Soviet Economy: Problems and Prospects. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1987, viii + 281 pp. £29.50.

Trevor Buck and John Cole, Modern Soviet Economic Performance. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987, viii + 192 pp., £27.50.

Adam Zwass, Market, Plan, and State: The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Two World Economic Systems. Armonk, New York and London: M. E. Sharpe Inc., 1987, x + 198 pp., $32.50.

Peter Gey, Jiri Kosta and Wolfgang Quaisser, Crisis and Reform in Socialist Economies, Boulder, Colorado and London: Westview Press, 1987, xi + 196 pp., £28.50.

Ian Jeffries and Manfred Melzer eds. The East Germany Economy. London: Croom Helm, 1987, 329 pp., £35.00.

Andras Raba and Karl‐Ernst Schenk eds. Investment System and Foreign Trade Implications in Hungary, Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1987, 260 pp., DM44.00.

Malcolm R. Hill and Richard McKay, Soviet Product Quality, Basingstoke: Macmillan Press in association with Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham, 1988, xv + 205 pp. £29.50.

Carl G. Jacobsen ed. The Soviet Defence Enigma. Estimating Costs and Burden. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, xvii + 189 pp. £25.50.

Jacques Sapir, Le Système militaire soviétique, Paris: Editions la Découverte, 1988, 343 pp, 150 FF.

Genia K. Browning, Women and Politics in the USSR. Consciousness Raising and Soviet Women's Groups. Brighton and New York: Wheatsheaf Books and St. Martin's Press, 1987, ix + 178 pp. £25.00.

George Avis, ed., Soviet Higher and Vocational Education from Khrushchev to Gorbachev. Bradford: the University; Bradford Occasional Papers no. 8, 1987, vi + 136 pp. £5.50.

J. Muckle, A Guide to the Soviet Curriculum: What the Russian Child is Taught in School. London: Croom Helm, 1988, ix + 213 pp. £22.50.

Michael Reiman, The Birth of Stalinism: The USSR on the Eve of the ‘Second Revolution’. Translated by George Saunders. London: I. B. Tauris & Co., 1987, xii + 188 pp. £24.50 h/b. £9.50 p/b.

Alan M. Ball, Russia's Last Capitalists: the NEPmen 1921–1929, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. xvii + 226 pp. $32.50.

Robert M. Slusser, Stalin in October: The Man who Missed the Revolution. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, xiv + 282 pp. £20.25.

Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987, xvi + 351 pp. £30.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b.

Teodor Shanin, Russia, 1905–1907: Revolution as a Moment of Truth. London: Macmillan, 1986, xiv + 378 pp. £9.95.

Jadwiga Koralewicz, Ireneusz Bialecki and Margaret Watson eds. Crisis and Transition: Polish Society in the 1980s. Oxford: Berg, 1987, 184 pp., £21.00

Joni Lovenduski and Jean Woodall, Politics and Society in Eastern Europe. London: Macmillan Education, 1987, xiii + 432 pp, £30.00 h/b. £8.50 p/b.

Ray Taras, Poland, Socialist State, Rebellious Nation. Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 1986, xviii + 200 pp. £27.50.

Geoffrey Hamilton ed. Red Multinationals or Red Herrings? The Activities of Enterprises from Socialist Countries in the West. London: Frances Pinter 1987, 202 pp., £18.50.

Gérard Duchêne, L'Economie de l'URSS, Paris: Editions La Découverte, 1987, 127 pp., No price.

Klaus Ziemer, Polens Weg in die Krise. Eine politische Soziologie der ‘Ära Gierek’. Frankfurt am Main: Athenaum, 1987, 491. DM68.00.

Sandor Szakály, A magyar katonai elit. 1938–1945 (Military Elite in Hungary 1938–1945) Budapest: Magvetö Publishing House, 1987, 275 pp., 28Ft.

Jan A. Pichna Sociologicke Problemy Vynalezcovskeho a Zlepsovatelskeho Hnutia v Priemyselnom Podniku, (Sociological Problems of the Invention and Improvement Movement in the Industrial Enterprise). Bratislava: Praca Vydavatel?tvo a Nakladatel?tvo ROH, 1987, 240 pp., Kcs. 25.

William Chase and J. Arch Getty, The Soviet Data Bank. Version 1.0. 1986, $100.00.     

Reviews

Barrington Moore Jr, Authority and Inequality under Capitalism and Socialism—USA, USSR and China. Oxford: OUP and Clarendon Press, 1987, x + 142 pp. £15.00.

Allen Lynch, The Soviet Study of International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, xii + 197 pp., £25.00 h/b. $34.50.

Frederick C. Barghoorn and Thomas F. Remington, Politics in the USSR. Third Edition. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1986, xiii + 530 pp., £8.95.

Charles E. Ziegler, Environmental Policy in the USSR. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1987, xiii + 195 pp., £18.50. $25.00.

Mary Buckley, ed. Soviet Social Scientists Talking. An Official Debate about Women. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1986, 107 pp. £25.00 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Alex Pravda and Blair A. Ruble eds. Trade Unions in Communist States. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1986, xiii+281 pp. $34.95, £22.50.

Paul R. Rogers, Insurance in the Soviet Union. New York: Praeger, 1986, 211 pp., £31.99.

Charles Gati, Hungary and the Soviet Bloc. Durham: Duke University Press, 1986, 244 pp. £34.00 h/b, £12.70 p/b.

Roman Serbyn and Bohdan Krawchenko eds. Famine in Ukraine 1932–1933. Edmonton: University of Alberta, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1986, 192 pp. No price.

Richard J. Crampton, A Short History of Modern Bulgaria. London, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, 221 pp. £20.00, $34.50 h/b, £7.95, $12.95 p/b.

Alena Heitlinger, Reproduction, medicine and the socialist state. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1987, 318 pp., £29.50.

Vladimir Wozniuk, From Crisis to Crisis. Soviet‐Polish Relations in the 1970s. Iowa State University Press‐Ames, 1987, x + 176 pp., $12.95.