Cost Benefit Study of the New Covent Garden Market

The Hon. Editor has received the following letter commenting on Professor Kirk's and Mr. Sloyan's article on the New Covent Garden Market (Vol. 56 Spring 1978). The author is lecturer in applied economics in the Department of Social and Economic Research, University of Glasgow. Mr. Heald's letter is followed by a reply by Professor Kirk on behalf of Mr. Sloyan and himself.     

Social welfare functions when preferences are convex,strictly monotonic,and continuous

The paper shows that if the class of admissible preference orderings is restricted in a manner appropriate for economic and political models, then Arrow's impossibility theorem for social welfare functions continues to be valid. Specifically if the space of alternatives is R ₊ ⁿ , n ≥ 3, where each dimension represents a different public good and if each person's preferences are restricted to be convex, continuous, and strictly monotonic, then no social welfare function exists that satisfies unanimity, independence of irrelevant alternatives, and nondictatorship.     

Political variables in political socialization: Reply to “the dynamics of interpersonal attitudinal influence”

In this paper two arguments are advanced with regard to parental influence on adolescent political attitudes. First, variables like parental affect, which are of considerable theoretical interest to social psychologists, are of relatively little interest to the system-level concerns of political scientists because of their lack of variance. Second, the additive issue salience/perceptual accuracy model I proposed (1974) is a better fit to the data than a multiplicative cue-giving/parental affect model proposed in this journal by Cundy (1979). The fit of the two models is tested with the Jennings (1965) socialization data.Cundy, D. T. The dynamics of interpersonal attitudinal influence.Political Behavior, 1979,1, 269–284.     

Assessing the results of public expenditure: program evaluation in the Canadian federal government

Abstract. In an attempt to tighten up its financial systems and improve control of expenditures, the Canadian federal government has set up a new office, that of the Comptroller General. One of this Office's responsibilities is to administer the Treasury Board's policy on program evaluation, which says that all government programs should be periodically reviewed for their effectiveness in meeting goals and for the efficiency with which they are managed. The paper describes the Office's approach to program evaluation, reviews program evaluation policy in three other countries and discusses the principles and practical problems which limit the application of evaluation research. Evaluation activity in Canada is endangered in its cradle by two threats: the tendency of proponents to over-exuberance; and the cynics' view that the activity is of such limited applicability that potential savings are negligible. A third problem is a tendency to fuse together policy-related and management-related assessment activity. Evaluation activity conducted from the operational management point of view which takes program goals for granted will surely result in sequences of small victories and economies. This is worth doing well. But the dramatic import of effectiveness evaluation as a ‘bottom line’ for judging the worth of whole programs — that is, as a policy tool — should not be allowed to generate false expectations about the scope for improvement in routine management of the public service. Sommaire. En vue de fortifier ses systèmes financiers et d'améliorer le contrôle exercé sur ses dépenses, le gouvemement fédéral canadien a créé un nouveau poste, celui du Contrôleur général. Une des responsabilités de cette function est d'administrer la politique du Conseil du trésor en matière d'évaluation de programmes. Cette politique exige que les programmes gouvernementaux soient évalués périodiquement afin de déterminer leur efficacitéà rencontrer leurs objectifs ainsi que la capacité de rendement de leur gestion. Ce document décrit l'approche du Bureau du Contrôleur général en matière d'évaluation de programmes; examine les politiques correspondantes dans trois autres pays; et discute des principes et des problèmes pratiques qui limitent l'applicabilité de l'évaluation en recherche.     

High bridewealth,migrant labour and the position of women in Lesotho

An attempt is made to explain the persistence of high bridewealth in Lesotho. It is argued that the structural conditions of its persistence have changed over time, and a macroeconomic perspective is developed in which to comprehend its contemporary significance. Bridewealth (Bohali) transfers in Lesotho at this time, at least in the Lowlands, are derived largely from the cash earnings of migrants and are no longer provided in livestock by a variety of agnatic and matrilateral kin on the side of the husband and distributed among a similar variety of kin on the wife's side. They are drawn from and contribute to a general subsistence fund concentrated largely within the household. To the extent that bohali transfers constitute items of expenditures for migrants and items of income for the heads of women's natal households, they effect a redistribution of income in favor of the senior generation, which thus has a clear interest incontinuing to demand high bohali. In addition migrants have an interest in substantially fulfilling their bohali obligations. Their own longterm security is best assured by establishing access to legitimate dependents within a rural household. Given a high rate of conjugal dissociation, a consequence of oscillating migration, the migrant must balance 2 considerations: the rationality of investment in the next generation, of the sort that bohali transfers represent, is qualified by an initially tenuous attachment to the rural household where his dependents reside; and so long as bohali remains the idiom in which interhousehold competition for the earning capacity of the next generation is rationalized and resolved, such investments continues to be the only way in which he can legitimately assert his own interests against those of his affines. The household viability in Lesotho depends on control over the earning capacity of migrants and over the productive and reproductive capacities of relict women. These are the structural conditions for the persistence of high bridewealth. Bohali is sustained by the realities of housekeeping, not merely by the ideology of keeping house. 3 detailed household profiles presented in an appendix give ethnographic sustenance to propositions concerning high bridewealth, migrant labor, and the position of women.     

Metabolite sensitivity in the methaqualone radioimmunoassay.

Recent literature reflects the increased use of RIA as a qualitative and quantitative tool. This study exemplifies the problems that may arise when this technique is used for quantitation. Caution must be exercised, and a physiological and toxicological understanding of each particular drug is essential to provide credible results. It is evident that the sensitivity and ease of the RIA method for methaqualone makes it invaluable as a screening test, but confirmation and quantitation of this drug must remain with those methods that can quantitate each metabolite.