Black women in the emerging services economy

In the current debate about low-wage work and poverty, little attention has been paid to causes of basic structural change in the economy with the shift from a manufacturing to a services economy. Black women, a key segment of the low-wage work force, have gained and lost in this change. As the lowest paid, lowest status work force in the economy, black women benefited by a move out of domestic services employment where they had been restricted for more than a century. But static wages, high rates of part-time work, and a continuing overconcentration in new but marginal services job systems have created a crisis for personal income and black family support. The growing feminization of poverty is the product of growth of a subculture of low-wage work. Only through serious attention to the use of collective bargaining and equal opportunity regulation on behalf of this work force are these trends likely to be reversed in the 1990s.Support for this research was provided by grants from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the William Monroe Trotter Institute, The Ford Foundation, and the Woman's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor.     

Culture and the economy

In a sample of 18 industrialized nations, measures of national character did not improve the power of socioeconomic variables in predicting unemployment rates.     

Intrinsic reinforcers in a classroom token economy

An inexpensive, easily managed token economy was used in a normal classroom for one academic year, and data were collected for the entire academic performance in spelling, language, handwriting, and math for that year. During a baseline period, assignment completion was variable. The introduction of a token economy with a point exchange every five days increased assignment completion and decreased variability of performance. An application of a token economy that had a point exchange averaging four days was accompanied by an assignment completion rate that approximated 100%. A reinforcement contingency for which quiet behavior rather than for assignment completion was eased quiet behavior was accompanied by a marked diminution of assignment completion. A reintroduction of the token reinforcement for assignment completion system increased assignment completion again.     

Item preference in a token economy ward store

Token spending by 20 schizophrenic patients was monitored over a six-month period. It was found that: (1) token expenditures for cigarettes and "edibles" far surpassed other store item categories; and (2) percentage increases in token expenditures were greatest for categories of items relating to appearance and grooming, strongly suggesting that store purchasing patterns over time may provide an index of program effectiveness.     

Maintaining patients' improvements in a token economy.

Eighteen long stay male patients (diagnosis chronic schizophrenia) were involved in a six month token economy prior to random assignment to one of three experimental groups to investigate the importance of social reinforcement and other token-related variables in maintaining improvements brought about by the token system. Assessment included standardised psychiatric rating scales, nurse rating scales, and behavioural measures. Analysis of variance suggests the full token economy system produced significant improvements, but that the social factors involved in token exchanges were not demonstrably important sources of reinforcement. and that none of the variables studies at the experimental phase were critical factors. Once patients returned to a complete token system, results indicate that this may have more value in the promotion of work activities rather than social responding. It is argued that the token system provides a necessary clear structure within which nurses can encourage continuous improvements with long stay patients.     

Linguistics and the explanatory economy

I present a novel, collaborative, methodology for linguistics: what I call the ‘explanatory economy’. According to this picture, multiple models/theories are evaluated based on the extent to which they complement one another with respect to data coverage. I show how this model can resolve a long-standing worry about the methodology of generative linguistics: that by creating too much distance between data and theory, the empirical credentials of this research program are tarnished. I provide justifications of such methodologically central distinctions as the competence/performance and core/periphery distinction, and then show how we can understand the push for simplicity in the history of generative grammar in this light.

     

Substitution effects in a generalized token economy with pigeons

Pigeons made repeated choices between earning and exchanging reinforcer‐specific tokens (green tokens exchangeable for food, red tokens exchangeable for water) and reinforcer‐general tokens (white tokens exchangeable for food or water) in a closed token economy. Food and green food tokens could be earned on one panel; water and red water tokens could be earned on a second panel; white generalized tokens could be earned on either panel. Responses on one key produced tokens according to a fixed‐ratio schedule, whereas responses on a second key produced exchange periods, during which all previously earned tokens could be exchanged for the appropriate commodity. Most conditions were conducted in a closed economy, and pigeons distributed their token allocation in ways that permitted food and water consumption. When the price of all tokens was equal and low, most pigeons preferred the generalized tokens. When token‐production prices were manipulated, pigeons reduced production of the tokens that increased in price while increasing production of the generalized tokens that remained at a fixed price. The latter is consistent with a substitution effect: Generalized tokens increased and were exchanged for the more expensive reinforcer. When food and water were made freely available outside the session, token production and exchange was sharply reduced but was not eliminated, even in conditions when it no longer produced tokens. The results join with other recent data in showing sustained generalized functions of token reinforcers, and demonstrate the utility of token‐economic methods for assessing demand for and substitution among multiple commodities in a laboratory context.     

An analysis of a token economy in stuttering therapy

A stuttering therapy program in which adult stutterers were hospitalized and treated in small groups (n = 4) under token economy conditions is described. The Token System reinforced reductions and penalized increases in stuttering during conversation. The therapy program was divided into three stages. Initially, subjects were treated by the token system, which was then integrated with a delayed auditory feedback schedule designed to instate and shape a prolonged speech pattern into normal fluent speech. Finally, subjects passed through a speech situation hierarchy while under token control conditions. Experiments conducted in the first two stages of treatment are described. The first-stage experiments examined the design of the token system; the second-stage experiment assessed the effect of a contingent punishment schedule integrated with the delayed auditory feedback procedure in order to shape rate of speaking as well as fluency.     

Substitution and caloric regulation in a closed economy.

Three experiments were conducted to study the effect of an imperfect substitute for food on demand for food in a closed economy. In Experiments 1 and 2, rats pressed a lever for their entire daily food ration, and a fixed ratio of presses was required for each food pellet. In both experiments, the fixed ratio was held constant during a daily session but was increased between sessions. The fixed ratio was increased over a series of daily sessions once in the absence of concurrently available sucrose and again when sucrose pellets were freely available. For both series, increases in the fixed ratio reduced food intake, but body weight was reduced only in the no-sucrose condition. In the sucrose condition, body weight and total caloric intake (sucrose plus food) were relatively unaffected by increases in the fixed ratio. At all fixed ratios, food intake was proportionally reduced by the intake of sucrose. In Experiment 3, monkeys obtained food or saccharin by pressing keys; the fixed ratio of presses per food pellet was increased once when tap water was each monkey's only source of fluid, again when each monkey's water was sweetened with saccharin, and a third time when each monkey had concurrent access to the saccharin solution and plain water. Increases in the fixed ratio, but not the intake of the saccharin solution, reduced each monkey's food intake. Because neither rats' sucrose nor monkeys' saccharin intakes affected the slope of the respective demand curves for food, monkeys and rats increased their daily output of presses and thereby defended their daily intake of those complementary elements of food. However, sucrose reduced rats' food intake. The relative constancy of body weight and total caloric intake in the sucrose condition is consistent with the possibility that rats tended to regulate caloric intake.     

Creative cities: Breeding places in the knowledge economy

This paper explores the function of cities in the knowledge economy. The knowledge economy asks for “creative cities,” i.e. competitive urban areas that combine concentration, diversity, instability and a positive reputation. For a review of the concept of creative cities from a historical and theoretical perspective, we draw the conclusion that knowledge, creativity and innovation cannot be planned from scratch by local governments. However, creative cities par excellence such as Austin, the Øresund and Barcelona demonstrate that local policymakers in fact can play a part in preparing cities for the requirements of the knowledge economy. We conclude that local governments can increase the chance that urban creativity emerges by providing the appropriate underlying framework conditions.     

Marxist ideology and the Soviet economy

It is very tempting to reduce Soviet economic decisions and structures to pragmatic factors and to discount the influence of ideology. Without overemphasizing the influence of the latter, it seems clear that what happens in the Soviet economy is influenced by Marxism-Leninism, even though there is no question of making concrete predictions.     

Motivating adolescents to reduce their fines in a token economy

Adolescents on a 16-bed token economy ward of a state hospital were subjected to four interventions in a seven-phase experiment to reduce the number of fines they received each day. Phase I was a four-week baseline period. Phases II and III were four- and five-week periods, respectively, in which residents were awarded tickets for a weekly $10 lottery each day they were at or below a changing criterion of daily fines. In Phase IV, residents received coupons, exchangeable for money, for days with zero fines. Phase V was a return to baseline. Phase VI was a one-week period in which daily lotteries for $1 were held, with the criterion for receiving a ticket being zero fines on the previous day. Phase VII was a one-week return to baseline. No significant differences in average fines per day, number of residents meeting criteria, or mean number of zero-fine days per week were found across phases. Results are discussed in terms of amount and immediacy of reinforcement, other opportunities to gain money, possible rebelliousness of the residents against the increased aversiveness of fines, and implications for further research.