Nelson, M. A. (1990). Decentralization of the subnational public sector: An empirical analysis of the determinants of local government structure in metropolitan areas in the US.

The objectives of this research are twofold. The first involves addressing the following question: To what extent can the degree of homogeneity of citizen preferences for locally-provided public services explain the considerable differences that exist in local government organization among major metropolitan areas in the U.S.? Despite the substantial theoretical literature on this topic, there has been surprisingly little in the way of empirical research that has applied the theory to explain actual patterns of governmental structure. The second objective is to investigate the role that widely-varying state regulations on local government structure play in the determination of actual local government patterns. Of specific interest is to identify which particular state rules, if any, effectively constrain local decisions on governmental organization, and to understand how each constraint alters the structure of local governments over what would otherwise exist. Although the level of self-insurance activity is monotonically increasing in the individual’s degree of risk aversion, the same cannot be said for self-protection and it is possible for a more risk-averse individual to utilize a lower level of self-protection. The use of self-protection actually increases the downside risk of the wealth distribution in the sense of transforming the wealth distribution via both a mean-preserving contraction at higher wealth levels and a mean-preserving spread at lower wealth levels. However, since the variance of final wealth does not usually remain constant, and might even increase through the use of self-protection, we generally cannot rank distributions based on the downside risk measures set forth in Menezes, Geiss, and Tressler. For the special case where an (infinitely) small addition to self-protection maintains the variance of the final-wealth prospect, self-protection would actually decrease welfare and the optimal level would be zero. The main conclusion one can…

 

Nelson, M. A. (1990). Decentralization of the subnational public sector: An empirical analysis of the determinants of local government structure in metropolitan areas in the US. Southern Economic Journal, 443-457.

DOI: 10.2307/1060622

 

D Thomas, J. (1981). Special districts and local public services. Public Finance Quarterly, 9, 353-367.

This article examines the role of special districts in the efficient provision of local public services. Many public administrators, political scientists, and urban planners have long held that the proliferatian of special districts in urban areas leads to an increase in the cost ofproviding local public services and a decline in the degree to which service provision is responsive to the demands of consumer-taxpayers. In contrast, this article evaluates special districts on the basis of economic theory and deduces that they can be conducive to both production and consumption efficiency. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that restrictions on the growth of special districts diminish competition in the provision of local public services and lead to rising costs. This hypothesis is tested using data from California and Oregon, two states which have severely restricted the growth of special districts. It is found that, ceteris paribus, such restrictions are likely to have increased the cost of providing local public services.

 

D Thomas, J. (1981). Special districts and local public services. Public Finance Quarterly, 9, 353-367.

 

 

Kyriacou, A. P. (2006). Functional, Overlapping, Competing, Jurisdictions and Ethnic Conflict Management. Kyklos, 59(1), 63-83.

By allowing ethnic groups to organize areas important to them regardless of their geographic distribution, functional, overlapping and competing jurisdictions (FOCJ) have an important role to play in the management of ethnic conflict in plural societies. The functional devolution of powers which is intrinsic to FOCJ may be preferable to territorial devolution when minority groups are spatially dispersed or, when they are geographically concentrated but are in a numerical minority in their region. Even when minority groups are in a majority in their region functional rather than territorial devolution may dampen secessionist fears among members of the majority. A case can also be made for a degree of functional devolution to complement territorial devolution when territorial devolution to protect one minority leaves other ethnic groups in a minority situation. The application of FOCJ to the area of ethnic conflict management calls for institutional structures which take into account the possible efficiency of the monopoly supply of some public goods, the need to maintain ‘competitive equality’ among jurisdictions and the danger that the functional devolution which is inherent to FOCJ may harden group boundaries over time.

 

Kyriacou, A. P. (2006). Functional, Overlapping, Competing, Jurisdictions and Ethnic Conflict Management. Kyklos, 59(1), 63-83.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6435.2006.00320.x

Chrousos, G. P. (2009). Stress and disorders of the stress system. Nature reviews endocrinology, 5(7), 374.

All organisms must maintain a complex dynamic equilibrium, or homeostasis, which is constantly challenged by internal or external adverse forces termed stressors. Stress occurs when homeostasis is threatened or perceived to be so; homeostasis is re-established by various physiological and behavioral adaptive responses. Neuroendocrine hormones have major roles in the regulation of both basal homeostasis and responses to threats, and are involved in the pathogenesis of diseases characterized by dyshomeostasis or cacostasis. The stress response is mediated by the stress system, partly located in the central nervous system and partly in peripheral organs. The central, greatly interconnected effectors of this system include the hypothalamic hormones arginine vasopressin, corticotropin-releasing hormone and pro-opiomelanocortin-derived peptides, and the locus ceruleus and autonomic norepinephrine centers in the brainstem. Targets of these effectors include the executive and/or cognitive, reward and fear systems, the wake–sleep centers of the brain, the growth, reproductive and thyroid hormone axes, and the gastrointestinal, cardiorespiratory, metabolic, and immune systems. Optimal basal activity and responsiveness of the stress system is essential for a sense of well-being, successful performance of tasks, and appropriate social interactions. By contrast, excessive or inadequate basal activity and responsiveness of this system might impair development, growth and body composition, and lead to a host of behavioral and somatic pathological conditions.

 

 

Chrousos, G. P. (2009). Stress and disorders of the stress system. Nature reviews endocrinology, 5(7), 374.

https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2009.106

 

Cahill, L., Gorski, L., &Le, K. (2003). Enhanced human memory consolidation with post-learning stress: interaction with the degree of arousal at encoding.

Abundant evidence indicates that endogenous stress hormones such as epinephrine and corticosterone modulate memory consolidation in animals. We recently provided the first demonstration that an endogenous stress hormone (epinephrine) can enhance human memory consolidation. However, these findings also suggested that post-learning stress hormone activation does not uniformly enhance memory for all recently acquired information; rather, that it interacts with the degree of arousal at initial encoding of material in modulating memory for the material. Here we tested this hypothesis by administering cold pressor stress (CPS) or a control procedure to subjects after they viewed slides of varying emotional content, and assessing memory for the slides 1 wk later. CPS, which significantly elevated salivary cortisol levels, enhanced memory for emotionally arousing slides compared with the controls, but did not affect memory for relatively neutral slides. These findings further support the view that post-learning stress hormone-related activity interacts with arousal at initial encoding to modulate memory consolidation.

 

 

Cahill, L., Gorski, L., &Le, K. (2003). Enhanced human memory consolidation with post-learning stress: interaction with the degree of arousal at encoding. Learning &memory, 10(4), 270-274.

http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.62403

 

Glazer, S. (2006). Social support across cultures. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30(5), 605-622.

This study investigates subjective perceptions of supervisor emotional support and co-worker instrumental support among 15,606 employees located within five geographic and/or social regions of a multinational firm. Beehr and Glazer’s (2001. A cultural perspective of social support in relation to occupational stress. In P. Perrewé, D. C. Ganster, & J. Moran (Eds.), Research in occupational stress and well-being (pp. 97–142). Greenwich, CO: JAI Press) propositions regarding the relationship between social support and culture suggest that people in Anglo and Western European nations would perceive greater supervisor emotional support than people in Latin and Eastern European nations, followed by people in Asian nations. In addition, Eastern and Western Europeans are expected to perceive greater co-worker instrumental support than Latinos and Anglos, who are expected to perceive greater support than Asians. This study provides partial support to the hypotheses. Schwartz’s (1994. Beyond individualism/collectivism: New cultural dimensions of values. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, Ç. Kâgitçibasi, S. Choi, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method, and applications (pp. 85–119). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1999. A theory of cultural values and some implications for work. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 48, 23–47) Conservatism vs. Autonomy culture values likely explain variations in social support mean scores. People in Autonomous cultures reported greater supervisor emotional support and less co-worker instrumental support than people in Conservative cultures. Implications of findings are discussed.

 

 

Glazer, S. (2006). Social support across cultures. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30(5), 605-622.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.01.013

 

Walker, M. P. (2009). The role of sleep in cognition and emotion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156(1), 168-197.

As critical as waking brain function is to cognition, an extensive literature now indicates that sleep supports equally important, different yet complementary operations. This review will consider recent and emerging findings implicating sleep and specific sleep‐stage physiologies in the modulation, regulation, and even preparation of cognitive and emotional brain processes. First, evidence for the role of sleep in memory processing will be discussed, principally focusing on declarative memory. Second, at a neural level several mechanistic models of sleep‐dependent plasticity underlying these effects will be reviewed, with a synthesis of these features offered that may explain the ordered structure of sleep, and the orderly evolution of memory stages. Third, accumulating evidence for the role of sleep in associative memory processing will be discussed, suggesting that the long‐term goal of sleep may not be the strengthening of individual memory items, but, instead, their abstracted assimilation into a schema of generalized knowledge. Fourth, the newly emerging benefit of sleep in regulating emotional brain reactivity will be considered. Finally, and building on this latter topic, a novel hypothesis and framework of sleep‐dependent affective brain processing will be proposed, culminating in testable predictions and translational implications for mood disorders.

 

 

Walker, M. P. (2009). The role of sleep in cognition and emotion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156(1), 168-197.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04416.x

 

Danziger, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L. (2011). Extraneous factors in judicial decisions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(17), 6889-6892.

Are judicial rulings based solely on laws and facts? Legal formalism holds that judges apply legal reasons to the facts of a case in a rational, mechanical, and deliberative manner. In contrast, legal realists argue that the rational application of legal reasons does not sufficiently explain the decisions of judges and that psychological, political, and social factors influence judicial rulings. We test the common caricature of realism that justice is “what the judge ate for breakfast” in sequential parole decisions made by experienced judges. We record the judges’ two daily food breaks, which result in segmenting the deliberations of the day into three distinct “decision sessions.” We find that the percentage of favorable rulings drops gradually from ≈65% to nearly zero within each decision session and returns abruptly to ≈65% after a break. Our findings suggest that judicial rulings can be swayed by extraneous variables that should have no bearing on legal decisions.

 

 

Danziger, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L. (2011). Extraneous factors in judicial decisions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(17), 6889-6892.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1018033108  

Innstrand, S. T., Langballe, E. M., &Falkum, E. (2012). A longitudinal study of the relationship between work engagement and symptoms of anxiety and depression.

This longitudinal study examined the dynamic relationship between work engagement (vigour and dedication) and symptoms of anxiety and depression. A sample of 3475 respondents from eight different occupational groups (lawyers, physicians, nurses, teachers, church ministers, bus drivers, people working in advertising and people working in information technology) in Norway supplied data at two points in time with a 2‐year time interval. The advantages of longitudinal design were utilized, including testing of reversed causation and controlling for unmeasured third variables. In general, the results showed that the hypothesized normal causal relationship was superior to a reversed causation model. In other words, this study supported the assumption that work engagement is more likely to be the antecedent for symptoms of depression and anxiety than the outcome. In particular, the vigour facet of work engagement provides lower levels of depression and anxiety 2 years later. However, additional analyses modelling unmeasured third variables indicate that unknown third variables may have created some spurious effects on the pattern of the observed relationship. Implications of the findings are discussed in the paper.

 

 

Innstrand, S. T., Langballe, E. M., &Falkum, E. (2012). A longitudinal study of the relationship between work engagement and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Stress and health, 28(1), 1-10.

https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.1395

 

Shelton, A. L., &McNamara, T. P. (2001). Systems of spatial reference in human memory. Cognitive psychology, 43(4), 274-310.

Seven experiments examined the spatial reference systems used in memory to represent the locations of objects in the environment. Participants learned the locations of common objects in a room and then made judgments of relative direction using their memories of the layout (e.g., “Imagine you are standing at the shoe, facing the lamp; point to the clock”). The experiments manipulated the number of views that observers were allowed to experience, the presence or absence of local and global reference systems (e.g., a rectangular mat on which objects were placed and the walls of the room, respectively), and the congruence of local and global reference systems. Judgments of relative direction were more accurate for imagined headings parallel to study views than for imagined headings parallel to novel views, even with up to three study views. However, study views misaligned with salient reference systems in the environment were not strongly represented if they were experienced in the context of aligned views. Novel views aligned with a local reference system were, under certain conditions, easier to imagine than were novel views misaligned with the local reference system. We propose that learning and remembering the spatial structure of the surrounding environment involves interpreting the layout in terms of a spatial reference system. This reference system is imposed on the environment but defined by egocentric experience.

 

 

Shelton, A. L., &McNamara, T. P. (2001). Systems of spatial reference in human memory. Cognitive psychology, 43(4), 274-310.

https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.2001.0758