Economic Parity Research Articles

Race, Place and Historic Moment Black and Japanese American World War II Veterans: The G.I. Bill of Rights and the Model Minority Myth

The most commonly touted social change in the United States following the end of World War II is the expansion of the American middle class. The more frequently invoked narrative holds that the G.I. Bill, by providing veterans previously unavailable educational opportunities, elevated the socioeconomic status of a substantial segment of the American population as they entered their most productive working years. Black and Japanese American soldiers who fought abroad in racially segregated units to “make the world safe for democracy,” returned to fight, with others, for full citizenship rights at home in the civil rights movements of the mid twentieth century. During this period second generation Japanese Americans (Nisei), but not blacks, achieved near economic parity with whites causing some to characterize them as a “model minority.” Historian Roger Daniels, writing that “the transformation [of Japanese Americans] from ‘pariah to paragon’ [was not] merely a mechanical adjustment of market forces,” urged historians to more closely examine the factors contributing to the relative post-war economic success of Japanese Americans. This chapter takes on an aspect of Daniels’ challenge. It asks whether the advantages allegedly conferred on WWII veterans who received G.I. Bill benefits explains the current socio-economic status of Japanese Americans, or whether other factors better explain their relative postwar success.

Misuse of Islamic Banking for Tax Evasion - Modaraba in Pakistan

Modern Islamic finance emerged from a belief that conventional forms of financing may contain elements prohibited by Sharia, since the Quran forbids taking interest. As an alternative, a myriad of Islamic financial transactions have been innovated based on a combination of classical trade-based contracts and other accompanying arrangements. These products are deemed to be in compliance with Sharia precepts, yet provide some level of economic parity with comparable forms of conventional financing

Degrees of closure and economic success in the Norwegian labour market: field of study and non-Western immigrant performance

This article compares outcomes in the Norwegian labour market for non-Western immigrants and majority colleagues with professional or master’s degrees within three different fields of study: health science, social science and natural science. Professions have a higher degree of occupational closure, which may entail that non-Western immigrants with relevant educations achieve economic parity with the majority. Comparing employment rates and income equality among professionals and others with a master’s degree tests whether the professions in each field yield more egalitarian outcomes. The fields are analysed separately and the results show that a professional degree in natural science or social science has no equalising effect. Education leading to a health profession provides immigrants with a ‘labour market shelter’.

Mexican American Mobility: Early Life Processes and Adult Wealth Ownership

Mexican Americans are a large group whose mobility patterns can provide important insight into immigrant assimilation processes. It is well known that Mexicans have not attained economic parity with whites, but there is considerable debate about the degree to which Mexican immigrants and their American-born children experience mobility over their lives. We contribute to this literature by studying Mexican American wealth ownership, focusing on three interrelated processes. First, we examine childhood poverty and inheritances to establish financial starting points and to identify the degree to which resources from prior generations affect wealth ownership. Second, we study impediments to mobility in young adulthood to understand how childhood conditions create early adult obstacles to wellbeing. Third, we study midlife net worth and homeownership to better understand whether childhood and young adult impediments necessarily reduce adult wealth ownership. We find high levels of early life disadvantage among Mexican Americans, but these disadvantages are least pronounced in the second and third generations compared to the first generation. Consistent with prior research, we also find high levels of young adult impediments to mobility for Mexican Americans. However, we find that these early roadblocks do not necessarily translate into lower adult wealth: we show that Mexican Americans have less total wealth than whites but more than African Americans, even when early life impediments are controlled. Our results suggest that Mexican Americans are establishing a solid financial foundation that is likely to lead to long-term class stability.

Beyond the Color Line: Intersectional Considerations in Chuah Guat Eng's Fiction

This essay argues that the work of Malaysian-Chinese author Chuah Guat Enggives pause to the culturalism that dominates literary analysis. Articulatedprimarily through identity politics (the politics of recognition), culturalism’s selfunderstandingkeeps at a distance other forms of social justice commitmentsincluding class struggle. However, Chuah spotlights their intersectionality inMalaysia and enjoins us to combine the two – to see the native population’s demandfor economic parity and rural development as coterminous in some respects withthe demands for recognition made by settler communities. In particular, Chuah’sEchoes of Silence (1994) points to the commensurability between socialist principlesthat underpinned the left-insurgent activities many Malaysian-Chinese joinedor supported during the war and immediate post-war, and the social protectionprinciples that underpin post-independence programmes aimed at alleviatingpoverty. Chuah’s second novel, Days of Change (2010), in turn suggests that sharedecological conservation ideals provide an arena for redistribution and recognitioninterests to come together in Malaysia, and this again counters the prevailingtendency to prioritize the claims of cultural otherness. To use terms provided byEmile Durkheim, Chuah highlights organic solidarity and downplays mechanicalsolidarity. In this regard, her fiction rehearses the theoretical insights of NancyFraser, who argues cogently that the framing of redistribution and recognitioninterests as unrelated or dichotomous commitments is problematic. Like Fraser,Chuah urges an expanded interpretive paradigm unsettling that assumed dichotomy.To the extent that postcolonial literary studies lacks such a focus, a new conceptualvocabulary that extends its horizons is needed.

Advances in microalgae engineering and synthetic biology applications for biofuel production

Among the technologies being examined to produce renewable fuels, microalgae are viewed by many in the scientific community as having the greatest potential to become economically viable. Algae are capable of producing greater than 50,000 kg/acre/year of biomass [1]. Additionally, most algae naturally accumulate energy-dense oils that can easily be converted into transportation fuels. To reach economic parity with fossil fuels there are still several challenges. These include identifying crop protection strategies, improving harvesting and oil extraction processes, and increasing biomass productivity and oil content. All of these challenges can be impacted by genetic, molecular, and ultimately synthetic biology techniques, and all of these technologies are being deployed to enable algal biofuels to become economically competitive with fossil fuels.

New evidence for gender disparities in cardiac interventions: ‘CREATE’-ing some clarity

Globally, the burden of cardiovascular disease, especially coronary artery disease (CAD), is increasing in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs). In addition, mortality from CAD in these nations in epidemiological transition strikes relatively younger people [1]. CAD has seen a disturbing rise in its incidence among women and has become the leading cause of mortality. The WHO states that nearly one-third of all deaths among women are caused by cardiovascular disease [2]. Despite this, women in even developed nations are treated less well than men [3]. There are no data from LMICs, from representative studies, on gender disparities in the treatment of CAD. This editorial focuses on gender disparities in treatments and outcomes following an acute coronary event based on findings from a multicenter hospital-based registry in India; the CREATE Registry [4]. Gender-based societal and health disparities have been reported [5]. This is illustrated by a skewed sex ratio (940 women per 1000 men) and by the country’s high maternal mortality rate (212 per 100,000 live births) [101,102]. The 2011 Global Gender Gap report used an index, introduced by the Global Economic Forum in 2006, to benchmark national gender gaps in four critical areas: economic parity, political empowerment, education and health. Even though India has seen an explosive economic growth and efforts are being made to increase women’s political participation, it is ranked below several sub-Saharan African countries. India ranked 105 overall among 135 countries. This low ranking is due to poor health indicators amongst women [103].

Distributed biochar and bioenergy coproduction: a regionally specific case study of environmental benefits and economic impacts

AbstractBiochar has been advocated as a method of sequestering carbon while simultaneously improving crop yields and agro‐ecosystem sustainability. It can be produced from a wide variety of biomass feedstocks using different thermochemical conversion technologies with or without the recovery of energy coproducts, resulting in chars of differing quality and a range of overall system greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation outcomes. This analysis expands on previous sustainability studies by proposing a mechanistic life cycle GHG and economic operating cost assessment model for the coproduction of biochar and bioenergy from biomass residue feedstocks, with a case study for north‐central Colorado presented. Production is modeled as a continuous function of temperature for slow pyrolysis, fast pyrolysis, and gasification systems. Biochar environmental benefits (C sequestration, N2O suppression, crop yield improvements) are predicted in terms of expected liming value and recalcitrance. System‐level net GHG mitigation is computed, and net returns are estimated that reflect the variable economic costs of production, the agronomic value of biochar based on agricultural limestone or fertilizer displacement, and the value of GHG mitigation, with results compared to the alternate use of char for energy production. Case study results indicate that slow pyrolysis systems can mitigate up to 1.4 Mg CO2eq/Mg feedstock consumed, provided a favorable feedstock is utilized, production air pollutant emissions are mitigated, and energy coproducts are recovered. The model suggests that while financial returns are generally greater when char is consumed for energy (biocoal) than when used as a soil amendment (biochar), chars produced through high‐temperature conversion processes will have greater GHG‐mitigation value as biochar. The biochar scenario reaches economic parity at carbon prices as low as $50/Mg CO2eq for optimal scenarios, despite conservative modeling assumptions. This model is a step toward spatially explicit assessment and optimization of biochar system design across different feedstocks, conversion technologies, and agricultural soils.

Actually Existing Israel

In Perils of Prosperity: 1914-32, published in 1958, historian William E. Leuchtenburg observes that the woman of the 1920s wanted the same freedom of movement that men had and the same economic and political rights, and, he concludes, by the end of the 1920s she had come a long way toward reaching these goals. More recently, historians have begun to question just how far Twenties women did come and to discover that their progress fell far short of previous estimates. Far from achieving economic parity with men, William H. Chafe writes, female workers were poorly paid, most were denied the opportunity to participate in occupations not already defined as 'women's work,' and most were treated as 'temporary employees.' Far from voting as a 'bloc' to win passage of legislation which served their interests, most women voted as their husbands or fathers did—if they voted at all. Even if historians have been forced to accept the notion that women made relatively modest political and economic strides during the decade, many scholars still maintain that women gained substantially greater personal freedom. Historians have spoken of the Twenties as a decade in which there was a in morals. Our image of the Twenties woman is that of the flapper, who has thrown off the conventions of her Victorian predecessors to crop her hair, shorten her skirt, and dance the Charleston. But how far did this revolution actually go? If the young women of the period thought of themselves as flappers, what did

Micro-algae come of age as a platform for recombinant protein production.

A complete set of genetic tools is still being developed for the micro-alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Yet even with this incomplete set, this photosynthetic single-celled plant has demonstrated significant promise as a platform for recombinant protein expression. In recent years, techniques have been developed that allow for robust expression of genes from both the nuclear and plastid genome. With these advances, many research groups have examined the pliability of this and other micro-algae as biological machines capable of producing recombinant peptides and proteins. This review describes recent successes in recombinant protein production in Chlamydomonas, including production of complex mammalian therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies at levels sufficient for production at economic parity with existing production platforms. These advances have also shed light on the details of algal protein production at the molecular level, and provide insight into the next steps for optimizing micro-algae as a useful platform for the production of therapeutic and industrially relevant recombinant proteins.

Can North Korea Develop? Developmental Dictatorship versus the China Reform Model

Assuming that economic development in North Korea is possible and a priority among the elite, this study compares Chinese and South Korean development strategies the DPRK could implement. While perfect application of another state's development strategy is impossible, historical, demographic, and ideological affinities with South Korea make for a better fit. However, such developmental prospects are largely reliant on international cooperation and acceptance. Applying the South Korean experience to North Korea's developmental prospects is fruitful and opens up a new debate about how the DPRK might achieve some economic parity to its East Asian neighbors.

Does convergence matter if it takes 100 years? Different scenarios of convergence

This paper attempts to show that the income gap between rich and poor countries cannot be eliminated with the current international policies. Different scenarios are discussed. It would take 130 years for the Congo, 203 years for Eritrea and 103 years for low-income countries to reach to the current average per capita income of Norway. To equalize the overall per capita income levels of high and low-income countries from now until the year 2020, the latter group would have to grow 20 percent. These values show that current economic policies are insufficient to create economic parity among the world's nations. To do so would require radical changes in current domestic and international economic policy.

The Fourth Wave of Feminism: Psychoanalytic Perspectives Introductory Remarks

This introductory paper traces a century of 4 waves of feminism from a psychoanalytic perspective. The first phase focused on political change as the suffragette movement was undertaken at the turn of the 20th century by feminist activists who lobbied successfully for women's right to vote; the second phase, a broad sociopolitical-cultural movement located in the 1960s and 1970s, focused on consciousness-raising around gender issues, women's liberation (Betty Friedan, Kate Millet, Simone de Beauvoir, Bela Abzug, Gloria Steinem), and job and economic parity. With sexual freedom and job opportunities more established for women, the third phase evolved in the 1980s and 1990s, emphasizing women exploring gender pluralities; “having it all”; and juggling career, sex, and motherhood. The fourth wave moved into the 21st century as women turned toward spiritual concerns about the planet and all its beings, putting themselves in the service of the world, ecology, and the downtrodden.

Metro-nonmetro Economic Growth and Convergence in the Plains States - Rethinking the Rural-Urban Relationship in a Global Economy

This paper tests for conditional b-convergence, and for s-, or unconditional convergence of the metro- and non-metro portions of per capita incomes of the Plains states as classified by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and calculates metro- non-metro income inequality. We find evidence of b-convergence only for the state of Missouri, and divergence for Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, indicating slower economic growth, and lack of economic parity for Plains states’ non-metro counties, and heterogeneity rather than homogeneity in terms of factor endowments. Metro non-metro income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient, increased for all states except Missouri. In terms of policy implications, we suggest a shift of Federal policy from subsidy based support of traditional agricultural commodity production to a multi-sectoral economic development approach, using the existing Northern Great Plains Regional Authority as an institutional structure to coordinate development efforts across the Region.

Evaluating Management Efficiency of Korean Professional Baseball Teams using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

At the outset, the groundwork for this study began with the work by Kang, Lee, and Kwon (2007). Specifically, the researchers evaluated management efficiency of professional baseball teams in Korea using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. Kang, Lee, and Kwon (2007) intended to raise the issue that professional teams in the baseball league must undergo management evaluation each year in order to improve operation efficiency and find ways to generate profit. In the meantime, all major sports leagues in Korea are having difficulties due to same financial and management problems as the baseball league. Therefore, the purpose of this study is twofold. First, evaluate management efficiency for each of the three major sports leagues in Korea. Naturally, this will help to understand the relative management efficiency of each team and provide managers an idea which categories need to be improved for higher efficiency when comes new season. These issues are addressed separately for each of the three major sports leagues: Korea Football Association (KFA), Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), and Korean Basketball League (KBL). Second, compare the management efficiency of the three leagues collectively and discover the common trend across each league. According to the evaluation, individual leagues displayed a common trend that wealthier teams performed poorly in the evaluation being ranked in the bottom of each leagues. Comparing the three leagues’ management efficiency collectively, the KBL (74.9%) scored the highest while KBO scored 70.7%, and KFA scored only 53.6%. This result indicates that the salary cap system applied to the KBL has contributed in a positive way to encourage economic parity within the league and promote overall high management efficiency. The study suggests that a certain extent of institutional control is required over the leagues to control cost and improve fan base via implementing various marketing activities. 1)

“The Right Achieved and the Wrong Way Conquered”: J. H. Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Conflict over Civil Rights

AbstractThe infamous conflict between Joseph Harrison Jackson, longtime president of the National Baptist Convention, Inc. (NBC), and Martin Luther King, Jr., has attracted considerable scholarly attention. For nearly a decade, the two Baptist clerics fought for control of the largest African American religious organization in the country as King sought to use it as the “institutional basis for the Civil Rights Movement.” Treated as a simple confrontation between the “radicalism” of King and the”conservatism” of Jackson, however, the conflict has been misinterpreted and, therefore, undervalued by scholars. It was not a struggle between conservative and progressive forces within the NBC, and Jackson and King were not ideological polar opposites. Their conflict was essentially religious in nature and was predicated on questions regarding what constituted church work among black Baptists. In retaining control of the NBC, Jackson wanted to make sure that the answers to those questions would reflect what he perceived to be the “vital center” of American culture. He was convinced that his commitment to “correct” the social ills of society through national and religious unity would achieve that which was right while conquering that which was wrong. Faced also with the challenges of an increasingly global context within which black religious leaders were compelled to operate, Jackson envisioned the NBC as an organization involved with efforts to bring peace and economic parity around the world. In Jackson's view, King's aim to use the NBC as the “institutional basis for the Civil Rights Movement” was both “anti-American” and limited in scope. Jackson's “gradual” stance on civil rights and his confidence in the democratic process to bring about social change reveal one of the many options employed in post -WWII African American religious and political culture.

Holding a Four-Year College Degree Brings Blacks Close to Economic Parity with Whites

Holding a Four-Year College Degree Brings Blacks Close to Economic Parity with Whites

Social capital and gender in the workplace

PurposeSocial capital has been widely accepted as an important asset for creating and maintaining healthy communities, robust organizations and vibrant civil societies. This paper explores the relevance of social capital to management development in the workplace and, more specifically, the importance of gender in the formation of social capital and the distribution of its benefits.Design/methodology/approachThe pertinent scholarly literature is reviewed to explore the role of social capital in organizational behavior and its relationship to gender.FindingsAlthough the numbers of women entering the workplace have risen steadily in the last half century and strides have been made in attaining economic parity with men, statistics reveal that women continue to lag behind men in career advancement and in levels of compensation and achieved status. It is argued in the literature that women are hindered in their efforts to achieve career advancement and its associated benefits due to their inability to access social capital, a valuable organizational commodity and source of the knowledge, resources, and networks that are essential for career development and maturation.Originality/valueThis review reveals that untold benefits and rewards may be generated once workplaces are democratized and equalized so that women – and men – may contribute equally to the growth and development of private and public sector organizations. However, few practical solutions are included, as the available literature only cursorily addresses possible remedies.

Is the Revolution Over? Gender, Economic, and Professional Parity in Academic Library Leadership Positions

This article examines recent statistics provided by the government and the library profession concerning gender, professional, and economic parity among academic library directors. The results revealed that women now hold the majority of library directorships and that women’s economic compensation in some cases exceeds that of their male counterparts. The author conducted a two-part survey that looked at the gender of chief administrators at Carnegie doctoral/research extensive university libraries, these institutions’ geographical location and funding mechanism, and the libraries’ mission/vision statements and organizational hierarchies. Little difference was found between men and women in almost all areas examined. The findings of Hernon, Powell, and Young, which were published in the January 2002 issue of College & Research Libraries, also were examined. The author asks whether the revolution is indeed over and what it might signify for the profession.

A holistic approach for construction with respect to environmental law

AbstractThe impetus for widespread change within the private‐sector building industry is about no single owner retaining a constructed project during its entire life cycle. This impetus will be difficult to establish as statutory relief because of changes in private‐sector ownership. This is not true in most cases for federal agencies. However, with the advent of sustainability in construction and bioremediation in environmental construction, federal agencies also need to address the problem in an integrated fashion by improving their project management, planning, and implementation strategies. Thus, federal agencies have a responsibility and duty to take the lead in developing processes to ensure environmentally friendly construction. Currently the motivations are only voluntary, not regulatory. The divided nature of the construction industry complicates the problem further. Construction will become substantially more environmentally friendly if private‐sector owners are motivated through rewards and federal agencies through more integrated life‐cycle planning and programming, built within the socioeconomic and regulatory framework. In this article, the building industry, which currently stands fragmented, is analyzed in the context of the incentives and structural changes it needs to implement environmental laws fully. This article presents the motivation for adopting a holistic approach toward environmental compliance by modeling the strategic interventions required. These interventions, within and outside the construction industry, are also used to compare economic parity issues between existing building stock and future environmentally compliant buildings. Fundamental internal and external changes have been identified in the manner business is presently conducted to reward and benefit those who comply with the environmental laws and regulations. The authors further encourage federal agencies to take the lead role, through both voluntary and required processes, in changing the construction industry to be environmentally compliant in an integrated approach. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.