Risk, Gender, and Development in the 21st Century

Globalization creates wealth but also financial crises. Although these systemic risks are generated by all participants in the world economy, their costs are disproportionately borne by the poor, especially women, who live in developing nations, with irrevocable damage to their capabilities. Since current reform proposals do not address inequities in the distribution of the costs of financial crises, we suggest changes in the design, implementation, content, and funding of policies that could provide security to women during crises. We argue that our suggestions will not succeed without women's participation in the debate on the reform of international financial architecture.     

Agricultural trade liberalization and the APEC process

The liberalization of agricultural trade in the Asia-Pacific region is important to the relatively efficient, low-cost exporters of farm commodities that are participating in the APEC process. While the Uruguay Round negotiations succeeded, for the first time, in extending the GATT trade liberalizing process to agriculture, the agreement was modest. Japan and Korea were allowed more time in which to prepare for the opening of their markets. But the farm-support policies of both are destroying their agricultures. The sooner they are changed, as those of Taiwan have been changed, the better it will be for the Japanese and Korean economies—for consumers, public finances, land prices, and the farmers who remain. Among his many writings on agricultural policy, he is author of the seminal wookWorld Agriculture in Disarray (Macmillan and St. Martin’s Press, 1973 and 1992).     

Using Student Risk Factors in School Violence Surveillance Reports: Illustrative Examples for Enhanced Policy Formation, Implementation, and Evaluation

This article presents information about the range and type of violent and associated behaviors that occur on American school campuses. We argue that the prevailing practice of reporting single‐item population estimate trends from school violence surveillance surveys provides an incomplete basis upon which to form and evaluate public policy related to school violence. The presentation draws upon information derived from the 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999 Centers for Disease Control's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (YRBS) surveys (CDC 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000) and the 1997–1998 California Student Survey (CSS) (Austin et al. 2001). Secondary analyses using the YRBS and the CSS are used to illustrate the importance of considering risk and school adjustment patterns when examining school violence trends to formulate public policy agendas.     

Doing Justice: Perceptions of Gender Neutrality in the Jury Selection Process

There is a paucity of research on juries in general including the jury selection process. Very little of it examines the effect of gender. This study surveyed 138 potential jurors to determine whether jurors believed they were excluded from jury service due to gender. Additionally the study assessed whether gender affected attitudes about women serving on juries and whether perceptions about women and jury service were associated with general views about the fairness of the justice system. Findings suggest that gender had little effect on jury service or views about women serving on juries, but views about women and their role in jury service was associated with perceptions of general fairness in the system, regardless of the respondent’s gender. These findings point to the need for a more complex understanding of gender when examining the jury selection process.     

Rent dissipation when rent seekers are budget constrained

In the original Tullock (1975, 1980) game, an individual bidder's probability of winning with a bid b is proportional to b^R, where the exponent reflects economies of scale in rent seeking. Different interpretations can be given to these probabilities. First, one may view R as a reflection of the political culture. Alternatively, one may view R as a choice variable for a politician. Intuition suggests that a society with a high tolerance for the selling of political favors and politicians who are receptive to rent seeking would both induce greater rent-seeking expenditures than other societies, all else equal. This paper shows that a lower value of R can actually lead to more rent dissipation than a higher value. This paper also reinforces two points concerning rent seeking. First, the analysis confirms the robustness of under-dissipation of rents, even in the face of entry. Second, it points out the importance of distinguishing between rent-seeking expenditures and rent dissipation. When bidders must borrow, for example, total expenditure may understate rent dissipation.