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West African borderlands still depict free labour migration that weaves a complex grid of relations and inter-dependences over the 'artificial' borders inherited from colonialism. Migrants consider the sub-region as a single cultural and socio-economic unit within which trade and services are intertwined across countries, and where border crossing is a main part of people's lives and livelihoods. This study reflects on migration and violent resource conflicts in West Africa such as migrant herders-farmers conflict in Nigeria to interrogate the wider security implications of ECOWAS free movement protocols in the sub-region. It links the deepening resource scarcity in the sub-region to the increase in undocumented migration. The study concludes that due to poor enforcement of ECOWAS visa-free regime and competition for scarce resources, the migration-conflict nexus has intensified banditry and violent conflicts in West African borderlands, especially between herders and farmers in Nigeria., Author(s): Ernest Toochi Aniche [sup.1] , Ikenna Mike Alumona [sup.2] , Victor Chidubem Iwuoha [sup.3] , Chris Isike [sup.4] , Rebecca Ginikanwa Nnamani [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.473336.6, 0000 0004 [...]

The question of how socioeconomic situations in and around refugees' settlement in Uganda affect their motivation and attitudes towards integration has not been clearly addressed in the literature. To address this gap, this study explores the integration framework, and uses thematic and content analysis to analyse data collected via in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The study finds that access to socioeconomic factors such as livelihood opportunities and social services, especially education and health, can either motivate and positively affect refugees' attitudes, or demotivate and negatively affect refugees' attitudes towards integration in the host community. Other motivating factors were family history and success stories of refugees who were successfully integrated in the host community. Suggestions for improving refugee integration included empowerment in vocational skills, access to grants and loans, access to land for agriculture, and access to labour market. These require greater cooperation among different stakeholders, including policy makers, nongovernmental organisations, international organisations, and governments, to coalesce resources and buttress integration of refugees in the host society., Author(s): Samuel Opono [sup.1] , Frank Ahimbisibwe [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.33440.30, 0000 0001 0232 6272, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, , Mbarara, Uganda Introduction The recent upsurge of [...]

This article focuses on religious entrepreneurship in a context of displacement, specifically among Congolese refugees in Kampala, where becoming a pastor is one of the few opportunities available for social mobility. I analyze the social trajectories of two Congolese pastors. However different they may be from each other, they highlight ideas of success and prosperity that encourage us to rethink the socioeconomic role of Pentecostalism in Africa, analyzing the entanglements between the religious and the economic spheres from a multidimensional and a relational perspective. The article shows that entrepreneurial trajectories are instruments of mobility, but at the same time they need to be understood in terms of social becoming, the success of the two Congolese pastors being judged by the moral value that other people grant them and in relation to their role within the Congolese community., Introduction A few weeks after I had started my fieldwork on Congolese churches in Kampala, I began to wonder why there was such a large number of these congregations; (1) [...]

South-west Transylvania was an important source of metal and other natural resources for Bronze Age Europe, helping to facilitate the development of increasingly hierarchical societies. The absence of a radiocarbon-based chronology for Transylvania, however, has impeded understanding of the region's role within broader socioeconomic networks. Here, the presentation of the first radiocarbon chronology for the Wietenberg Culture in south-west Transylvania allows the authors to highlight the importance of interregional exchange and reliable access to metal for Bronze Age European societies, and emphasise that resource-procurement zones follow unique trajectories of socioeconomic organisation. Keywords: Romania, Transylvania, Wietenberg Culture, Bronze Age, Bayesian analysis, exchange, Introduction The extraction, production, distribution and consumption of metal resources are considered as the primary mechanisms by which emerging European Bronze Age elites within complex regional polities created and maintained [...]

Elevated proinflammatory cytokines and decreased antiinflammatory cytokines are important in the context of perinatal health, and immune dysregulation has been found among perinatal women with low socioeconomic status (SES). Data examining psychological factors that may contribute to cytokines in pregnancy are lacking. Of importance, these associations may be most evident among women with low SES. This study examined the moderating role of SES on associations among presence of meaning in life and repetitive negative thinking with cytokine levels among 67 pregnant women. A cumulative SES index was calculated using income, education, perceived social class, and receipt of governmental support. Measures included the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire, Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and serum interleukin (IL)-6 as well as IL-4. Using PROCESS, moderation analyses showed significant interactions between psychological factors and SES in predicting serum cytokines. In the context of high SES only, greater repetitive negative thinking was associated with higher levels of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 (p = 0.056) while greater meaning in life was associated with higher levels of the antiinflammatory cytokine IL-4 (p = 0.02). Findings from this study suggest that the benefits of these psychological factors on cytokine levels may be most readily observable among women with greater economic stability. Identifying psychological factors that positively contribute to biological functioning in women experiencing heightened economic distress will be crucial in addressing SES-related disparities in perinatal health., Author(s): Amanda M. Mitchell [sup.1] , Lisa M. Christian [sup.2] [sup.3] [sup.4] [sup.5] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0001 2113 1622, grid.266623.5, Department of Counseling and Human Development, College of Education [...]

Education has demonstrated consistent links with many aspects of physical health and is theorized to relate to a variety of behavioral and psychosocial antecedents of health that may ultimately account for these associations. However, many of these associations and the extent to which they manifest specifically for African Americans have not been thoroughly tested. We examined associations of education-distinct from income-with established behavioral and psychosocial antecedents of health in a national sample of African Americans. Education favorably related to many behavioral (e.g., fruit/vegetable intake, lifetime smoking) and psychosocial (e.g., self-efficacy, personality traits, self-esteem, psychological well-being) antecedents of health, but not to all. Some evidence of stronger salutary relations of education for women was found. Results suggest that, for African Americans, education is generally favorably associated with an array of behavioral and psychosocial antecedents of physical health, partially explaining health disparities and providing a point of intervention moving forward., Author(s): Crystal L. Park [sup.1] , Eddie M. Clark [sup.2] , Emily Schulz [sup.3] , Beverly Rosa Williams [sup.4] , Randi M. Williams [sup.5] , Cheryl L. Holt [sup.5] Author [...]

Objectives To characterize the health and health care experiences of children in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), assess differences by household poverty status, and provide comparisons to the general U.S. child population. Methods Data are from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health, which included 2342 USVI children, aged 0-17 years. Parent-reported measures of health status and health conditions, behavioral characteristics, and health care access and utilization were assessed. Weighted prevalence estimates were calculated and compared by household poverty status using Chi square tests. Results Overall, 31.3% of USVI children lived in households below 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Children in these low-income households were more likely to have public insurance (33.0% vs. 8.4%) and unmet health needs (11.6% vs. 6.3%) as compared to those in households with incomes [greater than or equal to] 100% FPL (all p < 0.01). They were also less likely to have a medical home (22.5% vs. 42.2%), including a usual source of sick care (p < 0.01). Compared with U.S. children in general, USVI children had lower rates of preventive medical visits, preventive dental visits, and care received in a medical home. Conclusions USVI children experience challenges in accessing and utilizing health care services, particularly those in low-income households, and fare worse than U.S. children on many of these measures. These findings will serve as a baseline comparison for an upcoming survey of maternal and child health to be conducted in eight U.S. territories including the USVI., Author(s): Catherine J. Vladutiu [sup.1] , Lydie A. Lebrun-Harris [sup.1] , Maria P. Carlos [sup.2] , Derval N. Petersen [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 0405 7557, grid.454842.b, Office of [...]

What lessons from Latin America's democratization would be helpful in shedding light on the Arab Spring? The authors ran statistical tests on Latin American countries to determine which factors from [...]

This paper examines the consumption-smoothing mechanisms of Thai agricultural households using data from the Thai household socio-economic panel surveys conducted from 2005 to 2007. The study finds that households heavily depend on their saving mechanisms when smoothing their consumption in the face of an income shock. There is little evidence to show that households depend on borrowing and increased work hours to counteract income shocks. The results also show that savings have a positive significant relationship with income variance in every region, whereas households do not respond to future income uncertainty by borrowing or increasing work hours in all regions. Keywords: Consumption-smoothing mechanisms, transitory income, income uncertainty, agriculture., 1. Introduction Households in developing countries, mainly in rural areas, often face immense risk from both idiosyncratic and covariate shocks. Their income stems, either directly or indirectly, from agriculture. Consequently, [...]

Extractivism today shapes a new hegemonic order that is sutured to global capitalism. What might a long-term mapping of its social and economic consequences reveal? Bolivia's high growth rates have [...]

Abstract This study discusses stereotypes of entrepreneurship by looking at the overlapping areas of entrepreneurship, self-employment and professions. Professions are part of the category of self-employment and the study presents [...]

Abstract We examine the effect of nutrient prices and other socio-economic and health factors on the Body Mass Index (BMI) of Canadians using the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). The [...]

The aim of this work is to analyze the situation of disabled people in the labor market in Mexico, taking into account socioeconomic variables and the spatial dimension. The results of our analysis provide guidelines for actions geared at improving the inclusion of disabled people in the labor market, and, as a consequence, in society. We apply cluster analysis to thirty-two Mexican federal states using data of the XII Censo de Poblacion y Vivienda 2000; this allows us to identify spatial correlation processes and therefore spatial clusters. A dual structure emerges in the distribution of disabled people in the Mexican labor market, showing that effective economic policies to encourage the inclusion of disabled people into the labor market must take into account the socioeconomic diversity of different geographical areas. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la situacion de las personas con discapacidades en el mercado laboral en Mexico, tomando en cuenta las variables socioeconomicas y la dimension espacial. Los resultados de nuestro analisis proporcionan directrices para la adopcion de medidas encaminadas a mejorar la integracion de las personas con discapacidades en el mercado laboral y, como consecuencia de ello, en la sociedad. Podemos aplicar el analisis por conglomerados de treinta y dos estados federales de Mexico con los datos del censo para el ano 2000, que nos permite identificar procesos de correlacion espacial y, por lo tanto, conglomerados geograficos. Una doble estructura emerge en la distribucion de las personas con discapacidades en el mercado laboral mexicano, lo que demuestra que para las politicas economicas eficaces favorecer la inclusion de personas con discapacidades en el mercado laboral deben tener en cuenta la diversidad socioeconomica de las distintas zonas geograficas., The issue of disability has grown strongly during the first years of the twenty-first century; it has gained importance among professionals, intellectuals, and society in general. The problems of people [...]

Stealing, shirking, and opportunistic behavior in general can create barriers to the development of markets. The costs associated with such behavior are shared by both firms and individuals and can be large enough to even prevent the initiation of trade. Measurement of these costs is difficult because information is not available for transactions that fail to occur. We use a field experiment to identify opportunistic crime in a task that is important and relevant for trade: the delivery of mail. We subtly manipulate the content and information available in mail sent to households across neighborhoods that vary by income, and detected high levels of shirking and stealing. Eighteen percent of the mail never arrived at its destination, and significantly more was lost if there was even a slight hint of something additional inside the envelope. Our results demonstrate the importance of transaction costs created by crime and that not all populations are equally affected. Middle-income neighborhoods suffer the most. (JEL C93, K42, H41, L87, O21), I. INTRODUCTION Crime and opportunistic behavior, e.g., shirking on the job or pilfering from the office when no one is looking, impose high costs on firms and individuals. Even the [...]

In his classic, The Theory of Economic Progress, C.E. Ayres conjectured that economics must be a science of value (Ayres 1978, 85). While most working economists probably do not think [...]

Dennis Rusche otters a dismissive critique of our 2011 paper on the theme of a prioris in economics. But it is a critique in which he confuses institutionalized religion and [...]

Subjective probabilistic judgments in forecasting are inevitable in many real-life domains. A common way to such judgments is to assess fractiles or confidence intervals. However, these judgments tend to be systematically overconfident. Further, it has proved particularly difficult to debias such forecasts and improve the calibration. This paper proposes a simple process that systematically leads to wider confidence intervals, thus reducing overconfidence. With a series of experiments, including with professionals, we show that unpacking the distal future into intermediate more proximal futures systematically improves calibration. We refer to this phenomenon as the time unpacking effect, find it is robust to different elicitation formats, and address the possible reasons behind it. We further show that this results in better overall forecasting performance when improved calibration is traded off against less sharpness, and that substantive benefits can be obtained even from just one level of time unpacking. Key words: confidence intervals; overconfidence; time unpacking History: Received October 10, 2011; accepted October 5, 2012, by Teck Ho, decision analysis. Published online in Articles in Advance April 4, 2013., 1. Introduction In many real-life situations, especially in the socioeconomic domains, prediction of future events necessarily involves subjective probabilistic judgments since well-defined data-generating processes simply do not exist. For example, [...]

1 L'intégration théorique simple des objectifs économiques et sociaux dans l'appréciation de l'exception d'efficience 1.1 Le cadre analytique d'appréciation de l'exception d'efficience 1.1.1 Le domaine d'appréciation: les fusions et les [...], Si, dans son principe, l&apos;exception d&apos;efficience semble simple, puisqu&apos;elle prévoit une mise en balance entre les effets anticoncurrentiels, d&apos;une part, et les gains en efficience, d&apos;autre part, sa mise en oeuvre présente néanmoins plusieurs difficultés, dont la plus importante consiste en l&apos;équilibrage et en la pondération entre les gains en efficience et les effets anticoncurrentiels. En effet, cet équilibrage des gains en efficience et des effets anticoncurrentiels doit fondamentalement tenir compte de tous les objectifs de nature économique et sociale poursuivis par le droit canadien de la concurrence. Dès lors, la question principale que suscite cette étude est de savoir comment faudrait-il concilier les objectifs de nature économique et sociale dans l&apos;interprétation de l&apos;exception d&apos;efficience? Cette étude explore ainsi la possibilité de la réception de normes de nature sociale au sein du droit de la concurrence qui, par ses objets, est caractérisé par une forte prégnance économique. Elle a pour objet de montrer à travers l&apos;appréciation de l&apos;exception d&apos;efficience qu&apos;une conciliation des objectifs en apparence contradictoires de nature sociale et économique est possible et souhaitable. À cet effet, le critère d&apos;équilibrage des gains en efficience et des effets anticoncurrentiels, qui concilie et intègre le mieux les objectifs économiques et sociaux dans l&apos;appréciation de la balance d&apos;efficience, semble être le critère du surplus modéré du consommateur que nous proposons dans la seconde partie de l&apos;étude. The efficiency exception, when examined from the standpoint of its principle, appears elementary since it provides equilibrium between anticompetitive effects on the one hand and efficiency gains on the other. Yet the implementation of this exception raises several difficulties the most important of which consists in balancing and stabilizing efficiency gains when traded off against anti-competitive effects. Indeed, this balancing of gains and effects must at its very basis take into account all economic and social objectives pursued by Canadian statutes governing competition. From the outset, the primary question that this survey addresses is to know how one should conciliate economic and social objectives when interpreting an efficiency exception. This survey therefore explores the possibility of integrating standards that are social in nature into law governing marketplace competition which, by its very nature, is characterized by forceful economic bearing. Its purpose is to demonstrate via an appreciation of the efficiency exception how a reconciliation of apparently contradictory, social and economic objectives is possible and desirable. In pursuing this end, the criteria of balancing efficiency gains and anti-competitive effects that reconcile and best integrate the economic and social objectives in appreciating the efficiency equilibrium seems to envelop the criterion of moderated consumer surplus that we propose in the second part of this survey.

Besides the common faith in the effect of collective action to change economic institutions and, above all, the distribution of income, the most remarkable similarity between Proudhon's theory and old institutionalism resides in their epistemology. In both cases, we find applications of some sort of classical 'practical reason' approach to social order. The former tends to be centered on the idea of justice, the latter on democracy. The major difference is that law tends to be instrumental for institutionalists, while for Proudhon, the law is based on morals and is an expression of justice. Thus, institutionalism accepts public law as a mechanism of allocation and sees the state as an important factor in the enforcement of rights. On the contrary, Proudhon opposed any form of political control and based his 'revolution' on social law. Keywords: institutionalism, pragmatism, Proudhon, social law JEL Classification Codes: B15, B52, Political Economy as an Instrument of Change The systematic study of the relationships between epistemological foundations and theoretical outcomes is one of the strengths of contemporary institutionalist thinking. It could [...]

This study considers social capital and religious adherence as determinants of child poverty in the United States and finds that both social capital and religious adherence play a role in U.S. child poverty at the county level. The study also disaggregates the total religious adherence variable into Mainline Protestants, Evangelical Protestants, and Catholics and finds that the effects of these denominations on child poverty are mixed. The model is tested for spatial dependence bias and the test results show that without spatial correction, the OLS results may be biased and inefficient. Keywords: child poverty, religion, social capital, U.S. counties JEL Classification Codes: R11, Z12, Z13, This paper investigates the role of social and cultural factors in determining child poverty in the United States. We want to emphasize that this study is not an attempt to [...]

In their book on property rights, Terry Anderson and Fred McChesney (2003: 13) make the following statement: The idea that property rights might themselves be a distinct and explicit area [...]

Over the last thirty years, the United States has experienced rapid growth in the number of operational breweries. The huge increase has been primarily in the form of craft breweries. [...]

In this essay, we outline the provocative argument that in the realm of human affairs there exists an 'entrepreneurial method' analogous to the scientific method spelled out by Francis Bacon [...]

As a modeler I do have an answer to this question, but as I am also a complexity thinker, you will see that the answer is not quite straight forward. [...]

Byline: Sara Hauw (1), Ans Vos (1) Keywords: Millennial generation; Psychological contract; Economic recession; Optimism; Careerism Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of generational, contextual, and individual influences on Millennials' career expectations. Design/methodology/approach Two matched samples of Millennials graduating in 2006 (n = 787) and 2009 (n = 825) filled out a questionnaire regarding their psychological contract expectations, career strategy, and optimism about the labor market in completely different socioeconomic contexts. Findings Recession is related to lower levels of optimism. During times of recession, Millennials lower their expectations regarding the work-life balance and social atmosphere. However, their expectations regarding job content, training, career development, and financial rewards remain high, suggesting that these expectations are largely embedded within the generation. Moreover, Millennials' expectations are significantly influenced by individual variables, careerism, and optimism. Implications This study suggests that managers need to focus their limited resources during times of recession on meeting Millennials' high expectations regarding their development and careers. Because violating these high expectations can have detrimental effects on a number of outcomes, organizations are encouraged to discover creative and inexpensive ways to provide Millennials with meaningful work, plenty of learning opportunities and career development. Originality/value By comparing two matched samples of Millennials in two different situations, this study was able to disentangle generational, contextual, and individual influences on Millennials' psychological contract expectations. Author Affiliation: (1) HRM Centre, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Reep 1, Ghent, 9000, Belgium Article History: Registration Date: 02/02/2010 Online Date: 11/03/2010

The household biogas system has a potential to offer significant health, economic, and environmental benefits to millions of households in rural China. In 1997, the Chinese legislature declared biogas as a national energy development agenda, and the Chinese government subsidies for biogas have been increasing since then. Nevertheless, only about 12 percent of rural households utilize biogas. In poor regions, the figure is much lower. At present, biogas counts for merely 1 percent of energy consumption in rural China. In this article, drawing on my ethnographic fieldwork, I examine the socioeconomic barriers to biogas development in rural Southwest China. My central question is: what are the factors that prevent farmers from utilizing biogas and how can development agencies help remove such barriers? Anchored in anthropological insights on technology adoption, this study first identifies main barriers to biogas adoption through a villagewide survey. Then, I examine such barriers in their socioeconomic contexts by participant observation and interviews with current biogas users in the village. The article concludes with recommendations for policy makers and agencies involved in biogas development in rural China and elsewhere in the world. Key words: biogas, development, technology adoption, China

Social factors such as income, education, race and ethnicity have a significant impact on health, but are largely ignored in the formulation of U.S. health policy. The author recommends that the health consequences of social policies need to be included in the development of health policy to ensure better health outcomes.

This study aims to evaluate the return on investments and its capacity to add value in Third Sector entities, enlarged by the inclusion of aspects of volunteer work. It consists of a descriptive survey of an intentional sample, which identifies multiples that form an integral part of accounting and financial values with social indicators. Investments in volunteer work show that the broader its base, the higher the return by real invested, with a contribution above 43 %, besides the financial values. The value added by this activity at the entities surveyed accounts for 67.6 % of the financial and social value allocated to human resources and for 15.6% of the hours worked. There is economy for society derived from the secondary results of the functional qualification of this labor with training and education, generating a market value 5.6 times the financial value invested in its training. The conclusion presents the preeminent need to value the undisclosed contribution of volunteer work. Key words: Third Sector; volunteer work; social return on investment; value added., 1 INTRODUCTION In Brazil the growth of nonprofit organizations dates back to the crisis established in the State in the 80's. According to Bresser (1998), the State held to be [...]

Servant leadership is an increasingly popular concept that fuses being a servant with being a leader. In this paper, servant leadership--which is characterized by active listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to growth, and community-building--is explored in the context of five selected demographic characteristics--socioeconomic status, level of educational attainment, gender, age, and respondent's domicile. Five research hypotheses are tested in this study, with full support being found for one hypothesis and partial support for the other four hypotheses. Keywords: Demographic Characteristics, Socioeconomic Status, Education, Gender, Age, Domicile, Servant Leadership, 1. INTRODUCTION Robert Greenleaf (1999, p. 1) argued that the characteristics of 'servant' and 'leader' could be fused into one person. Moreover, Greenleaf asserted that this person could be nurtured [...]

The article discusses changes over the course of the 20th century in Iraq's distributive capacity and patterns especially the relations between the Sunni and Shi'i Arabs in Iraq is addressed. It is felt that Iraq can represent the direct unfolding of the transition from developmental to cultural nationalisms that may put an end to nation-state.