An experimental evaluation of teen courts

Teen Court (TC) is a juvenile diversion program designed to prevent the formal processing of first-time juvenile offenders within the juvenile justice system. TC instead utilizes informal processing and sanctions in order to prevent future offending. Despite its widespread popularity throughout the United States of America, little rigorous research has been conducted on the effectiveness of the TC model for reducing recidivism. Using an experimental design, this study examined the effectiveness of TC in reducing recidivism and improving the attitudes and opinions of juvenile offenders in comparison with a control group of youth who were formally processed. Self-reported delinquency was higher for those youth who participated in TC. TC youth were also found to have significantly lower scores on a scale of belief in conventional rules than had youth who were processed in the Department of Juveniles Services. Implications of these findings are discussed.

完善我国反腐败立法的经济学解说

从经济学角度看,理性经济人的假设和寻租理论的制度揭示,说明了腐败产生的可能性,而当腐败收益大于成本时,腐败便成为现实。因此,要成功治理腐败,必须通过弱化人的自利本性、遏止寻租行为、大幅度提高腐败成本等来完善我国的反腐败立法。     

A Selection of Empirical Socio-Economic Research with Respect to the Functioning of Legal Rules and Institutions in Belgium and the Netherlands

In this paper some studies with respect to empirical socio-economic research which has been undertaken in Belgium and the Netherlands concerning the functioning of legal rules and institutions are discussed. The paper focuses on the domains of criminal law, civil procedure, liability and insurance. The paper argues that contrary to the overwhelming economic literature on liability and insurance, the empirical results in that domain are poor. More research is undertaken in the area of criminal law and apparently it is overwhelming in the area of civil procedure. The latter studies are, however, mainly undertaken by socio-legal scholars and less by economists. The general conclusion of the empirical studies discussed seems to be that while the empirical literature on the effect of changes in the decision making environment on rational actions in the legal system is rich and provocative, there is much less empirical testing of the effects of legal rules as such on allocational outcomes. The paper argues that much more effort should be devoted to the latter issue.     

The Multifaceted Balance of the Concept of Staatswissenschaften in the Tradition of the Historical School

The article critcizes recent contributions which argue that the historical school was neither German, nor historical, nor a school. Instead, the historical school has a pronounced multifaceted basis which is mostly ignored in the recent literature. Some of these multifaceted dimensions are briefly highlighted. Finally, the practical relevance of the approach is discussed by referring to some recent economic policy issues.     

Institutions and Economic Performance: The Use and Abuse of Culture in New Institutional Economics

Important research programs within New Institutional Economics advance culturalist arguments to explain failures of economic development. Focusing on the work of Douglass C. North and Avner Greif, this article argues that such arguments rely on an essentialist conception of culture that is both historically inaccurate and analytically misleading. Greif’s work in particular rests on a selective use of empirical data that ultimately distorts the deductive models that are at the core of his work. As a result, both scholars use culture to account for outcomes that are more adequately explained as the product of social conflict and political struggles—struggles in which culture plays a far more contingent and destabilizing role than the one they attribute to it. What is needed, I argue, is to link arguments about the persistence of inefficient institutions with a sociologically informed conception of culture as an ensemble of resources that enhance rather than constrain the scope of individual agency. To come to terms with the effects of culture on institutional formation and change it is necessary to replace the essentialism articulated by North and Greif with a strategic-instrumentalist view in which culture is compatible with a wide spectrum of economic behaviors, individual actions, and thus institutional trajectories.

Lessons of Russian in Afghanistan

The experience of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan (1979–1989) is considered through the prism of institutional transfers. Afghanistan has a long history of attempts to implement Muslim, Soviet and Anglo-Saxon institutional designs. Most of them have failed. This failure can be attributed to the lack of ‘elective affinity’ between traditional and new institutions imported from more developed countries. It is argued that a careful examination of the degree of elective affinity must precede any attempt of institutional transfers. An analysis of Ph.D. dissertations defended by Afghan students at Soviet and Russian universities complements logical arguments and references to historical facts.

现代经济学的方法论特征

注重研究方法的科学性和自洽性;突出模型分析和数学方法及数理逻辑的应用,并把对经济现象和经济活动的研究过程纳入一个可控制的系统中,这不仅增强了理论本身的可靠性,同时又使之获得了广阔的发展空间.     

男炎消对大鼠实验性前列腺炎影响的病理学观察

目的 :观察男炎消对大鼠实验性前列腺炎的组织病理学影响。方法 :采用向大鼠前列腺组织内注入角叉菜胶的方法复制大鼠前列腺炎模型 ,并分别对模型组及口服男炎消冲剂后的大鼠组进行前列腺组织病理学检查。结果 :口服男炎消冲剂后的大鼠前列腺湿质量均比模型组明显要轻 ,两者比较有统计学差异 (P <0 .0 5) ,且镜下炎症改变亦比模型组明显轻。结论 :口服男炎消冲剂对角叉菜胶所致大鼠实验性前列腺炎具有较好的抑制炎症发生作用。     

信息经济学视角下的商标制度

为克服信息不对称对交易的负面影响,人们采取了信息、信誉与法律三种应对机制。无论何种机制,其作用的充分发挥都有赖于法律制度的有效保障。在信息经济学语境下,商标的功能就在于标示和区分商品出处,在降低信息成本的同时,激励企业保证商品质量,但激励不等于义务,企业并不因为使用商标而承担额外的品质保证义务。而商标法则通过规定商标确权条件、制止混淆和淡化,确保市场上商标的相互区分,为信息与信誉机制的建立和运行提供法律保障。尽管如此,离开相关法律的协同作用,商标法也难以有效运行。这就决定了只有合理划分商标法与相关法律的调整对象与适用边界,才能完善我国商标法乃至整个市场法制。     

家政哲学的学术解析

当代中国家政学的研究,是对传统儒家家庭思想中的思维原则及方法的认识与反思,是对传统儒家家庭思想向现代家庭思想转变中出现的问题之哲学层面的认识与反思。