Free riders or easy riders?: An examination of the voluntary provision of public radio

This paper tests the widely accepted hypothesis that when a pure public good is voluntarily provided incentives to free ride increase with the number of individuals consuming the good. Specifically, I use unique data on the number of listeners and contributors to public radio to test two hypotheses. First I test whether the proportion of contributors falls as group size increases and second I test whether contributions per contributor falls as group size increases. I find that increases in group size result in significantly more free riding. However, I also find that group size has no effect on contributions per contributor.     

The influence of local and national economic conditions on French legislative elections

This article's aim consists in building and estimating a model which explains and forecasts the outcomes of the French legislative elections by department. This model, which constitutes the first attempt for such a geographical level, emphasises the role of the economic and political factors in the explanation of the legislative vote. The model seems to be very accurate in forecasting the elections of the past at the local and national level. Furthermore, its behaviour for the 2002 election was very satisfactory. This model is therefore a reliable alternative to the vote intention polls as an electoral forecasting instrument.     

Book reviews

This paper analyzes recent free trade arrangements from a positive political economy perspective. In contrast to most other literature which fails to take into account geographical factors it is argued here that proximity and transportation costs play an important role in trade arrangements. Another important also largely neglected factor is the degree of social cohesion in terms of labor standards among potential trading partners. A political support maximizing government will consider these factors when balancing political support from free traders and protectionists.     

School-based health services for urban adolescents: Psychosocial characteristics of clinic users vs nonusers

Evaluated psychosocial differences between adolescent users and nonusers of an urban school-based health clinic, considering the influence of gender. As expected, a number of gender differences were found (e.g., girls reported more fear, were rated as more likeable by peers than boys). Examination of differences based purely on clinic use indicated that nonusers were rated as more socially withdrawn by their peers than clinic users; otherwise, these two groups did not differ on psychosocial measures. Gender by clinic-status interaction effects were found for academic measures (e.g., nonusing boys had more absences and lower grades than boys who used the clinic). A group of intensive clinic users (n=14) reported higher levels of emotional distress than other students, and surprisingly, most of these students were not receiving mental health services.Received Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1991. Research interests include evaluation of school mental health services, empirical development of interventions for children, and the impact of violence on urban youth.Received B.A. from Loyola College. Interested in applied work with adolescents and adults.Received B.A. from Cornell University. Interests include stress and coping in children, identification of resilience factors, and evaluation of child mental health systems of care.Received Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 1967. Research interests in psychophysiology, sleep disorders, and biofeedback and instrumentation.Received M.D. from Duke University in 1968. Research interests include training in child and adolescent psychiatry, adolescent psychopathology, and the development of school mental health programs.     

Intergovernmental Complexity in Nuclear Waste Disposal Policy: The Indeterminate Role of Local Government

Local governments play a critical, albeit often overlooked, role in nuclear waste disposal policymaking. The centrality of local governments in the policymaking process rests on the simple fact that impacts will be borne disproportionately by local jurisdictions hosting and immediately adjacent to waste disposal sites. This article focuses on the capacity of local jurisdictions in Southern and rural Nevada to absorb and support an undertaking as large and technically complex as the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository. The article also examines the perceptions of local government officials concerning a number of management and policy issues related to the construction and operation of the proposed waste repository.