The Positive Psychology of Interested Adolescents

Using the experience sampling method (ESM) and a diverse national sample of young people, this study identifies two groups of adolescents: those who experience chronic interest in everyday life experiences and another who experience widespread boredom. These groups are compared against several measures of psychological well-being: global self-esteem, locus of control, and emotions regarding one's future prospects. It is hypothesized that a generalized chronic experience of interest, an innate physiological function, can be used as a signal for a larger measure of psychological health, while chronic boredom is a sign of psychic dysfunction. A strong association between the experience of interest and well-being was found.     

Voting May Be Habit-Forming: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

Habit is a frequently mentioned but understudied cause of political action. This article provides the first direct test of the hypothesis that casting a ballot in one election increases one's propensity to go to the polls in the future. A field experiment involving 25,200 registered voters was conducted prior to the November general election of 1998. Subjects were randomly assigned to treatment conditions in which they were urged to vote through direct mail or face-to-face canvassing. Compared to a control group that received no contact, the treatment groups were significantly more likely to vote in 1998. The treatment groups were also significantly more likely to vote in local elections held in November of 1999. After deriving a statistical estimator to isolate the effect of habit, we find that, ceteris paribus, voting in one election substantially increases the likelihood of voting in the future. Indeed, the influence of past voting exceeds the effects of age and education reported in previous studies.     

Risk and the Outsourcing of Risk Management Services: The Case of Claims Management

Outsourcing of risk management activities is a well-established practice, involving a range of services from actuarial audits to loss control training to risk financing management to claims administration services. Surprisingly, little work has been done to examine the risks associated with outsourcing risk management activities. This article examines the outsourcing of claims management services by reviewing the research on outsourcing risks and by interviewing leading practitioners. In doing so, the authors draw some provisional observations about risks and risk costs associated with outsourcing claims management services—observations that seem generalizable to all risk management outsourcing.     

Legal Constraints and the Choice of Educational Grant Structures

Recent empirical work suggests that legalconstraints are significant in choosingstate educational grant structures. Unfortunately, the literature has not takensuch constraints into account, thus callinginto question particular grant structurerecommendations. This paper studies theconditions under which a legislature, underorder to reform its educational grantstructure, prefers foundation grants overdistrict power equalization grants. Atheoretical model is presented in which thechoice is shown to depend on the legalbasis of the court's decision, and theempirical validity of this conclusion isdemonstrated using Connecticut data and aseparate model of school districtexpenditure choice.     

'Designing Better Health Care in the South': A Case Study of Unsuccessful Transformational Change in Public Sector Health Service Reform

This article presents a case study of a project known as 'Designing Better Health Care in the South' that attempted to transform four separately incorporated health services in southern Adelaide into a single regional health service. The project's efforts are examined using Kotter's (1996) model of the preconditions for transformational change in organisations and the areas in which it met or failed to meet these preconditions are analysed, using results from an evaluation that was commenced during the course of the attempted reform. The article provides valuable insights into an attempted major change by four public sector health organisations and the facilitators and barriers to such change. It also examines the way in which forces beyond the control of individual public sector agencies can significantly impact on attempts to implement organisational change in response to an identified need. This case study offers a rare glimpse into the micro detail of health care reform processes that are so widespread in contemporary health services but which are rarely systematically evaluated.     

North-South Climate Change Negotiations: A Sequential Game with Asymmetric Information

This article determines the conditions under which theSouthern countries should act together, or separately, whilenegotiating with the North about climate change policy andabout the conditions for future Southern engagement. The papermodels the international negotiations with complete and withasymmetric information in a dynamic framework. Results showthat, depending on their characteristics, the differentplayers can obtain benefits delaying the moment of theagreement.     

奥运安全与流动人口犯罪--流动人口犯罪的发展趋势与防控策略

本文预断,受奥运筹办工作的影响,流动人口犯罪的数量将会增长,犯罪的类型也将增多.对流动人口犯罪,我们应冷静对待,理性地分析原因、探讨合理对策;应采取切实有效措施保护流动人口的正当权益;应把犯罪机会的减少、控制作为流动人口犯罪防控的重点.     

Testing Riker's Party-Based Theory of Federalism: The Argentine Case

This study seeks to advance our understanding of the institutionalunderpinnings of federalism by evaluating William H. Riker'sstudy of party causality. Using data from federal funds transfersin Argentina, a federation exhibiting high levels of fiscaldecentralization despite its centralized party system, it isshown that when governorships are held by opposition parties,the overall amount of federal funds transferred to provincesincreases considerably. In addition, changes in the partisancomposition of the national government are also associated withsteep increases in the share of provincial federal funds, whereas,more controversially and challenging prominent recent studiesof decentralization in Latin America, divided government atthe national level leads to centralization of intergovernmentalfunds. These findings support Riker's contention that politicalparties exercise a decisive influence over the distributionof fiscal powers between states and the national government.