Trust and Reciprocity in the Aftermath of Natural Disasters

Abstract

Beyond all the material and economic losses that natural disasters produce, post-disaster environments can alter the social capital of a community by affecting social norms, attitudes, and people’s behaviour. To analyse this issue, we empirically investigate the effect that the aftermath of a disaster can have on trust and reciprocity of people within communities. We do this by comparing outcomes of trust games conducted in earthquake-affected and non-affected rural villages one year after the 2010 Chilean earthquake. Our findings show that while trust levels do not differ across cases, reciprocity is lower in earthquake-affected areas.     

For Health,Strength, and Daily Food: The Dual Impact of Remittances and Public Health Expenditure on Household Health Spending and Child Health Outcomes

Abstract

Child and infant mortality in developing countries decreased 33.5 per cent and 30.9 per cent, respectively, during 1995–2009, while remittances and public health spending more than doubled. I examine how remittances and government health spending improve these child health outcomes. Neither government health spending nor remittances causally affect household health spending. Public health spending has an insignificant negative impact on mortality. The increase in remittances causally accounts for 32 per cent and 37 per cent of the decline in child and infant mortality, respectively. Remittances reduce mortality through improved living standards from the relaxation of households’ budget constraints.     

Savings at the Periphery of Markets: Evidence from Forager-Farmers in the Bolivian Amazon

Abstract

We used survey and ethnographic data to study savings in a highly autarkic society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane’). We equated savings with the amount of maize and rice in storage, area planted with plantains and manioc, and number of edible domesticated animals owned by a household or an adult. We found no large inter-annual change in savings possibly due to low income, impulsivity and a bundle of institutions and norms, such as borrowing, theft and reciprocity norms. The bundle attenuates the need for household formal savings at the periphery of markets.     

Tax Collection in Developing Countries – New Evidence on Semi-Autonomous Revenue Agencies (SARAs)

Abstract

Over the last two decades, semi-autonomous revenue agencies (SARAs) have become a key element of public administration reform. They are supposed to improve revenue mobilisation and stabilise state–taxpayer relations. But do SARAs really outperform conventional tax administrations? This article argues that they do. Presenting the results of a panel analysis of local tax collection in Peru between 1998 and 2011, it shows that municipalities with SARAs collect more revenue than those with conventional tax administrations. The results also indicate that local revenue is more stable in municipalities with SARAs, which is good for budget policy and planning.     

Catherine Cl ment and Julia Kristeva. The Feminine and the Sacred. Trans. Jane Marie Todd. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001

And the Mirror Cracked: Feminist Cinema and Film Theory, by Anneke Smelik. London: Macmillan Press, 1998.

Simone de Beauvoir: A Critical Reader, edited by Elizabeth Fallaize. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.

Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World, edited by Barbara Newman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Women Preachers and Prophets Through Two Millennia of Christianity, edited by Beverly Mayne Kienzle and Pamela J. Walker. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Margaret Cavendish and the Exiles of the Mind, by Anna Battigelli. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1998.

Cracks in the Pedestal: Ideology and Gender in Hollywood, by Philip Green. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.

The Women and War Reader, edited by Lois Ann Lorentzen and Jennifer Turpin. New York: New York University Press, 1998.

Surrealist Women: An International Anthology, edited by Penelope Rosemont. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.

The Knotted Subjed: Hysteria and its Discontents, by Elisabeth Bronfen. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Ventures into Childland: Victorians, Fairy Tales, and Femininity, by U.C. Knoepfimacher. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998.     

Local-level law enforcement: Muscovites and their uchastkovyy

The uchastkovyy, or beat officer, is at the front lines of Russian police work. This article investigates the general environment in which the uchastkovyy functions, using Moscow as an example. More specifically, this article examines the institutional structure within which the beat cop operates, his/her duties and resources, the quota system used to evaluate his/her performance, and the nature of the interaction between the uchastkovyy and the public. In so doing, the study disaggregates the monolith that is the Russian police, focusing on that component of the force (uchastkovyy) that interacts most directly with the citizenry. It relies on data from a survey of 1500 Muscovites and four focus group encounters organized by the author to elicit a broad range of public attitudes regarding the performance and conduct of uchastkovyy, exploring particularly what measures might be taken to enhance the level of public trust in their local beat officers.     

Sexual Attraction, Sexual Identity, and Psychosocial Wellbeing in a National Sample of Young Women During Emerging Adulthood

Identity-based conceptualizations of sexual orientation may not account adequately for variation in young women’s sexuality. Sexual minorities fare worse in psychosocial markers of wellbeing (i.e., depressive symptoms, anxiety, self esteem, social support) than heterosexual youth; however, it remains unclear whether these health disparities exclusively affect individuals who adopt a sexual minority identity or if they also may be present among heterosexually-identified youth who report same-sex attractions. We examined the relationship between sexual attraction, sexual identity, and psychosocial wellbeing in the female only subsample (weighted, n = 391) of a national sample of emerging adults (age 18–24). Women in this study rated on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely) their degree of sexual attraction to males and females, respectively. From these scores, women were divided into 4 groups (low female/low male attraction, low female/high male attraction, high female/low male attraction, or high female/high male attraction). We explored the relationship between experiences of attraction, reported sexual identity, and psychosocial outcomes using ordinary least squares regression. The results indicated sexual attraction to be predictive of women’s psychosocial wellbeing as much as or more than sexual identity measures. We discuss these findings in terms of the diversity found in young women’s sexuality, and how sexual minority status may be experienced by this group.