SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL POLICY: ROLES OF THE APPLIED RESEARCHER*

Research on policy impact has increasingly focused on the practical application of social science research. This paper outlines four roles—substantive expert, information processor, change agent, and scholar—which have helped to increase the potential usefulness of our research while maintaining linkages to the academic community. This paper suggests the general nature of these roles and suggests specific implementation strategies, which need to be pursued as an early and continuing aspect of the research enterprise. Balancing these multiple roles presents several analytical and ethical difficulties, but helps to establish credibility in both the scientific and policymaking communities.     

MEASURING THE LOCALIZATION OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY: A PARAMETRIC APPROACH*

ABSTRACT The index proposed by Ellison and Glaeser (1997) is now well established as the preferred method for measuring the localization of economic activity. In this paper we develop an alternative localization measure that is consistent with the theoretical framework originally proposed by Ellison and Glaeser. Our measure follows directly from the Random Utility (Profit) Maximization (RUM) location decision model. Because the distributional assumptions in our model are fully compatible with RUM, we are able to offer a more efficient measure of industry clustering.     

REVIEWING CHILD ABUSE POLICY IN AMERICA: A SOCIAL SERVICE APPROACH

For all the recent attention to the problems of child abuse and neglect, this specific policy area has rarely been examined as belonging to the more general area of social service policy. This article begins to remedy this omission. First, the article examines child abuse policy in terms of the conflicts of value faced in the formation of social service policy. Next, the relationship between child abuse and other recent social service issues responding to familial violence or childhood dependency is discussed. Here the article shows that governmental response to child abuse has been used to encourage governmental interest in adoption reform, sexual exploitation of children, domestic violence, and day care.     

THE ECONOMICS OF SOCIAL SECURITY POLICY

Books reviewed in this articles:
Henry J. Aaron, Economic Effects of Social Security
Peter J. Ferrara, Social Security; Adverting the Crisis
Carolyn L. Weaver, The Crisis in Social Security; Economic and Political Origins     

SPATIAL CONVERGENCE OF REGIONS REVISITED: A SPATIAL MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD PANEL APPROACH*

ABSTRACT This paper argues that one should account for the endogeneity of important explanatory variables and the initial differences in technological efficiency when analyzing spatial income convergence among regions. In addition, the approach of Wooldridge (2005), who proposes a convenient solution to the initial condition problem in dynamic panels, proves to be fruitful. In a panel of 211 European regions observed from 1980 to 2005, the estimated speed of convergence is substantially higher, on average, than the legendary 2 percent found in many cross‐section studies. Moreover, it exhibits pronounced variation across regions due to factor mobility and knowledge spillovers.     

VALUES DUALISM AND SOCIAL POLICY AFFECTING THE ELDERLY*

The impact of American values on social policy for and affecting older people is a little explored and complex area. A conceptual framework is developed which reveals the dual and often contradictory nature of the American value system. This framework sets forth the interrelationships of fundamental value-laden issues such as adequacy/equity, work/leisure and religious/secular.     

基于社会交换理论的西递古村落私人空间转化机制研究

古村落具有双重性质,即具有一般农村社区的特征,同时也具有旅游社区的特性,这种双重性质使得有限的村落空间成为游客与居民争先占有的场所。本文尝试以空间为观察视角,理解和认识古村落内部私人空间转化现象发生的作用机制,并引入社会交换理论来阐述和解释转化动机这一重要的转化前提。通过对西递案例的研究发现:私人空间转化动机包括微观层面上的经济利益、荣誉感和宏观层面上的集体决定、示范效应、共同价值观,并且(1)私人空间转化为游客空间并不是单向发生的过程;(2)当空间转化结果不如行为主体预期时,转化后的空间有可能重新变为纯粹的私人空间;(3)私人空间转化为景点能够延续的前提就在于空间所有者能够从这种转化中获取相对应的收益。     

A QUANTITATIVE FABRIC ANALYSIS APPROACH TO THE DISCRIMINATION OF WHITE MARBLES*

Quantitative fabric analysis was applied in order to discriminate better among white marbles from various quarries of archaeological interest. This method provides an effective complementary tool to a characterization based upon petrography, cathodoluminescence microscopy and stable isotopes. Very good discrimination of marbles is achieved with the help of simple variables such as major axis and the shape-specific PARlS-factor. Using quantitative fabric analysis, marbles with similar cathodomicrofacies, as, for example, the Naxian quarries of Apiranthos, Koronos, Flerio and Kinidaros and the quarry of St. Beat (French Pyrenees), can be distinguished from each other. Marbles collected within one quarry may display dissimilar cathodomicrofacies. The common origin of such specimens can be determined with the aid of quantitative fabric analysis, as shown for the quarries of Kinidaros as well as St. Béat.