Micro-level Consequences Research Articles

Forces to Be Reckoned with: Countervailing Powers and Physician Emotional Distress during COVID-19.

The "countervailing powers" framework conceptualizes health care as an arena for power contests among key stakeholders, drawing attention to the moves, countermoves, and alliances that have challenged physicians' dominance since the 1970s. Here, we focus on one of the lesser known micro-level consequences of such forces for physicians: emotional distress. We draw on 145 interviews with frontline physicians across four U.S. cities during the COVID-19 pandemic to trace physicians' experiences with three countervailing forces: the state, health care organizations, and patients. We find that threats to physician dominance eroded physicians' sense of mastery (perceived personal control) at work, thereby prompting emotional distress, including anger and moral conflict. Conversely, in certain cases, acts of resistance may have helped increase mastery, thus moderating distress. Our findings advance the countervailing powers framework by elucidating some of the micro-level, personal consequences of macro-level power struggles and offer practical implications for understanding contemporary threats to physician dominance.

Encompassing the everyday: Grounded responses to the geoeconomic

Everyday geoeconomics explores the often overlooked yet prevalent influence of geoeconomic forces on the daily lives of individuals and communities. This essay examines how economic strategies made at national and transnational levels resonate within local contexts, shaping consumption patterns, labour markets and socio-cultural dynamics. This reveals the intricate interplay between macroeconomic policies and their micro-level consequences on households and businesses, as well as ways in which actors manage their interests upwards within the context of an increasingly strategic global economy. Foregrounding local responses not only acknowledges geoeconomics’ tangible impacts, but also re-examines the methods in research on geoeconomics. Recognizing the significance of an everyday geoeconomics is essential for crafting inclusive policies that address the needs and aspirations of diverse populations.

Long-term impacts of an early childhood shock on human capital: Evidence from the 1999 economic crisis in Ecuador.

This paper provides evidence on the lasting effects of the 1999 economic crisis in Ecuador on human capital formation. We show for children born during the crisis that the negative repercussions are still observable more than 10years after macroeconomic recovery. Taking advantage of micro-level data collected in 2012 and 2014, we assess long-term impacts on health and education. After controlling for age-in-months and survey effects as well as a linear birth year-cohort trend that varies by region, we find that after 12-16years, the cohorts born during the recession report height-for-age Z-scores that are 0.003 standard deviations (SDs) lower for each month of exposure and have 0.002 fewer years of schooling per month exposed compared to the cohorts born outside the recession years. Children exposed to the entire crisis are 0.063 SDs smaller and have 0.042years less of schooling. Girls have lower health outcomes than boys. Concomitantly, we show that selective childbearing or excess infant mortality are unlikely to drive our results. The persistence of the negative effects points to the existence of a poverty trap suggesting that policy interventions in response to (economic) crizes should be extended beyond macroeconomic recovery to counteract long-term, micro-level consequences.

Grading Teacher Performance Appraisal Systems: Understanding the Implications of Student Test Scores and Performance Information Use

Accountability and performance management scholars have called for more attention to the micro-level consequences of performance regimes, including the effects of performance information use. Reflecting these themes, this study considers the degree to which accountability regimes in schools, imposed by U.S. states, and encouraged by the federal government, relate to teachers’ job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Using data from the 2015 to 2016 National Teacher and Principal Survey, we consider the degree to which the following relate to teacher attitudes: (1) the inclusion of student achievement growth on standardized tests in teacher performance appraisals, (2) using additional sources of performance information in the appraisal beyond the student achievement scores, and (3) the differential effects of developmental and administrative uses of appraisal ratings. Our results show that when schools include student growth on standardized tests in appraisals, teachers report lower satisfaction and a higher turnover intention. Using additional sources of performance information, however, relates to improved satisfaction and decreased turnover intentions. Using student standardized test information to inform both positive and negative administrative consequences is associated with lower satisfaction but is not associated with turnover intentions.

South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War

The dominant narratives of slavery in the United States depict a runaway's route to freedom as a constant movement to the northern United States or Canada via the Underground Railroad. Alice Baumgartner details the importance of the less-explored phenomenon of enslaved people in the United States who opted to flee south to Mexico. In South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War, Baumgartner goes beyond just offering a narrative of the alternate direction to freedom and argues that enslaved African Americans who took the southern route played a critical role in sectional conflicts over slavery in the United States. The book begins in the early nineteenth century and ends in 1867, after the United States abolished slavery. In this time frame Baumgartner illustrates how as slavery expanded across the southern United States, Mexican leaders began restricting and abolishing slavery in their territories, which had consequences for the United States.Baumgartner states that, based on her research, roughly 3,000 to 5,000 people fled to Mexico for freedom, which is a fraction of those estimated to have fled to the north (p. 4). The thorough analysis of consular records, correspondence, court cases, and newspapers paints a vivid picture of the complexities of this period. In 12 chapters the book seamlessly moves between slavery in Mexico and the United States and displays the overlaps that resulted in political, legal, military, and moral conflicts. The first three chapters provide a brief overview of the history of slavery in the United States and Mexico. These chapters narrate the central role that US settlement in the Mexican region of Téjas would play in the 1830s and detail reactions to Mexico's calls for slavery's abolition, ultimately accomplished by 1837. Baumgartner's work forces us to seriously consider the macro- and microlevel consequences of shifting borders. Chapters 4 and 5 engage the responses of officials in both Mexico and the United States to abolition and the complicated position of Téjas as US settlers moved to this Mexican region with the idea of expanding slavery there. Chapters 6 and 7 emphasize the central role of slavery in the Texas Revolution (1835–36) and in the United States' 1845 annexation of Texas. Chapter 8 explains the US-Mexican War (1846–48) and the increased hostilities regarding slavery after the United States took over more than half of Mexico's territory and newly incorporated western states like California and New Mexico drafted constitutions to prohibit slavery against Southern slaveholding state politicians' wishes.Throughout the book Baumgartner includes the actions that runaways took, yet the later chapters provide more thorough analyses of the broader consequences of these actions. Chapter 9 focuses on the agency and ingenuity of runaways who fled to Mexico for freedom as they joined military colonies, moved to cities, or hired themselves out as labor on haciendas. Enslaved people knew of the abolition of slavery in Mexico and took advantage of that knowledge to flee, whether on foot or hiding on ships as stowaways. Chapter 10 addresses US settlement of former Mexican territories after the US-Mexican War and the on-the-ground consequences of competing national and regional laws regarding slavery. Chapter 11 addresses African Americans in Mexico seeking US citizenship. Chapter 12 focuses on the American Civil War and ends with the role of Maximilian, installed by the French as emperor of Mexico, to demonstrate how slavery wove the national contexts of the United States and Mexico together.A boon for future researchers is how Baumgartner details a wide range of special collections and city, state, and national archives across Mexico and the United States that hold information on runaway African Americans fleeing to Mexico. This work also pushes us to ask further questions. What African-descended communities already existed in Mexico during the nineteenth century? What happened to people years after they arrived in Mexico? What happened to runaways' descendants in Mexico? These questions do not suggest oversights in the work under review. Instead, they highlight the significance of this work in getting us to ask more questions about this crucial topic and time.Through well-sourced accounts, Baumgartner demonstrates the similarities between the southern and northern routes to freedom in terms of the types of actors assisting in escapes, the potential exploitation of runaways, the possibility of capture, and limited employment opportunities once runaways arrived to free spaces. The individual circumstances collectively tied together the broader regional and national contexts of the United States and Mexico and played a crucial role in the sectional conflicts that would lead to the American Civil War. South to Freedom will be insightful for the general reader and informative for students of comparative slavery and freedom; it also adds intriguing angles of query for historians of the United States and Mexico.

How Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility Raises Employees' Creative Behaviors Based on Appraisal Theory of Emotion: The Serial Mediation Model.

This study examines the micro-level consequences of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and hypothesizes that perceived CSR affects the perception-emotion-attitude-behavior sequence. We hypothesized that perceived CSR affects organizational pride (OP) (emotion), affects affective commitment (AC) (attitude), and enhances the employees’ creative behaviors (behavior) by using the lens of appraisal theory of emotion (ATE). This study also hypothesizes that the association of perceived CSR and employee creative behaviors (ECBs) is serially mediated by OP and AC. The time-lagged data were collected from employees of only those companies participating in CSR activities to analyze the sequential mediation effect. We have tested the hypotheses of this study through Hayes approach. Results showed that perceived CSR kindles the employees’ creative behaviors. Furthermore, “organizational pride” and “affective commitment” serially mediate the association of perceived CSR and ECB. Hence, the hypothesized perception-emotion-attitude-behavior model received a significant support and demonstrated that micro-level positive consequences of CSR could be created through emotional, attitude, and behavioral mechanisms. The organization should promote their CSR activities using documentaries and contents to improve their perception of environmental and social issues, and it enhances employees’ pride and creativity.

Economic Disruption and Language Shift – Some Ethnographic Data from Ireland After the 2008 Crash

AbstractThis paper discusses some of the ways in which the “Great Recession” which followed the 2008 economic crash affected the vitality of Irish-speaking (“Gaeltacht”) areas. In addition to a brief discussion of the nature of neoliberalism – the cause of the 2008 crash – and some of the ways in which this ideology stands in contradiction to the requirements of language revitalisation, examples are given to illustrate the way in which the recession affected state language policy. Various microlevel consequences of these macro-level economic and policy developments are then discussed by reference to ethnographic data gathered in the Gaeltacht. Issues such as deindustrialisation, unemployment and the problematic nature of tourism in minoritised language communities are discussed, as is language use amongst young people and the way in which technology can contribute to language shift. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential for anti-systemic movements and policy proposals such as the “Green New Deal” to create, coincidentally, a macroeconomic regime that would be more favourable to linguistic minorities than that of neoliberalism.

Entrepreneurial intentions in the context of a natural disaster

PurposeThis research aims to explore the moderating effect of a natural disaster on the well-studied relationship between entrepreneurship-oriented beliefs (behavioral, normative, and control beliefs) and entrepreneurial intentions.Design/methodology/approachThis study relies on data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor before and after the earthquake that took place in Chile on February 27, 2010. The study was performed by applying a multilevel hierarchical logit regression over a sample of 14,724 individuals from the six more affected regions.FindingsThe results indicate that a natural disasters shape the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and all its three motivational antecedents, however in opposing directions. The results also suggest that a natural disaster strengthens the relationship between entrepreneurial attitudes and entrepreneurial intentions; nevertheless the effect of subjective norms becomes less relevant in shaping entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, the authors found that the earthquake had a positive effect on the relationship between perceived behavioral control and entrepreneurial intentions.Originality/valueThis study advances the emerging stream of research on the micro-level consequences of exogenous shocks and how they shape individual functioning. A key implication for policymakers wishing to facilitate the recovery phase after a natural disaster is that it is important to focus on fostering entrepreneurship by developing individuals' personal attitude and perceived control over the firm-creation behavior, rather than relying on the perceived social pressure to become an entrepreneur.

Neoliberal globalisation and language minoritisation: Lessons from Ireland 2008-18

The propensity for macro-economic developments to affect the vitality of endangered languages is often alluded to in relevant literature, but rarely explicated in any great detail. Attempting to help rectify this, the case of Irish in the wake of the 2008 economic crash and “Great Recession” which followed is discussed. In addition to examining the effects of austerity on Irish-language institutions and policies, ethnographic data from some of the strongest remaining Irish-speaking communities – collectively known as the “Gaeltacht” – are presented, illustrating some micro-level consequences of macro-level developments. The effects of the recession on the Gaeltacht labour market are discussed, as are issues of migration and community resistance. It is argued that neoliberalism fundamentally conflicts with revitalising minoritised languages.

Does Differentiated Integration Strengthen the Democratic Legitimacy of the EU? Evidence from the 2015 Danish Opt-Out Referendum

Since the 1990s, European integration has been characterized by a combination of politicization and differentiation. Starting with the Danish referendum on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, which has led to a series of Danish opt-outs from the Treaty on European Union, domestic politicization has been one of the major drivers of differentiated integration in the EU. Whereas recent theorizing and research has covered the causes and conditions of differentiated integration extensively and has also addressed some of its institutional effects and dynamics, we lack any empirically based understanding of its micro-level consequences. Does differentiated integration improve the democratic quality of the EU and strengthen citizens’ support – or does it promote political divides and foster citizens’ alienation from European integration? This paper develops a theoretical argument on the positive attitudinal effects of differentiated integration, contending that differentiation accommodates heterogeneous preferences in a diverse EU and strengthens citizens’ ownership of European integration. A quasi-experimental analysis of public opinion of the 2015 Danish Justice and Home Affairs opt-out referendum demonstrates that the public vote increased citizens’ internal EU efficacy, indeed. Eurosceptic voters in particular strengthen their belief that their individual voice counts in EU politics, suggesting that differentiation can have a positive effect on the perceived democratic quality of the EU.

Family Planning Program Effects: A Review of Evidence from Microdata

This paper reviews empirical evidence on the micro-level consequences of family planning programs in middle- and low-income countries. In doing so, it focuses on fertility outcomes (the number and timing of births), women’s health and socio-economic outcomes (mortality, human capital, and labor force participation), and children’s health and socio-economic outcomes throughout the life cycle. Although effect sizes are heterogeneous, long-term studies imply that in practice, family planning programs may only explain a modest share of fertility decline in real-world settings (explaining 4-20% of fertility decline among studies finding significant effects). Family planning programs may also have quantitatively modest - but practically meaningful - effects on the socio-economic welfare of individuals and families.

The Medicalization of Bereavement: (Ab)normal Grief in the DSM-5

ABSTRACTThis article examines the recently published changes to eliminate the bereavement exclusion (BE) from the criteria for the diagnosis of major depression in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5). Numerous scholars and critics have expressed concerns by calling these changes a “medicalization” of grief. This article first considers the removal of the BE and then examines the macrolevel and microlevel consequences of this medicalization of grief, including overdiagnosis and overtreatment, a potential expanded market for pharmaceutical companies, and the loss of traditional and cultural methods of adapting to the loss of a loved one.

The ties that bind: Linking religious organizational segregation to the individual level closure of close friendship network's

Understanding the consequences of organizational membership has long been of concern to social scientists and the degree to which these belongings affect individual behaviors is often at the heart of this concernment. This study introduces a conceptual framework through which structural conditions associated with religious segregation is examined in relation to its manifestation as micro-level consequences. The literature is spattered with acknowledgements of segregation in religion at the organizational level through the proclamation that religion is “Divided by Faith” and that it creates “Closed Communities”. Drawing on data from the Panel Study on American Race and Ethnicity (PS-ARE), these conditions are linked to variations in the diversity of individual-level small group social networks, nested within a multidimensional, and newly developed, measurement of religiosity as an indicator of the strength of the tie the individual has to the organization to which they belong. The results suggest that the strength of the tie one feels with their religious organization is both multidimensional and denominationally specific in its explanation of variations in the diversity of close friendship networks. At a broader level these results suggest a linkage of micro behaviors to macro conditions that exists in a top-down hierarchy in which individual behaviors are shaped by structural conditions, but to what degree depends on the strength of the relationship between person and organization.

Impact of Out-Migration to Korea: Macro- and Micro-Level Consequences in Mongolia

The main objectives of the study were to examine the effects of emigration, to explore the contributions to the Mongolian economy, and to describe the patterns of labor migration. The dataset was collected among 800 Mongolian migrants between November 2011 and January 2012 in six South Korean cities.<BR> The study findings show that most of the positive aspects of migration are related to economic terms; socio-demographic issues were found as the most negative consequences of migration. The migrants’ remittances are usually employed to cover living, health, and education expenses, improving household living standards instead of being invested in housing and/or private business in Mongolia. As the decision to migrate to South Korea shows, there is clearly a matching skills challenge for all sectors of the Mongolian society that the country should resolve. Both the positive and negative consequences of migration raised by the surveyed migrants should serve to assist the achievement of this goal.

Boxers, Briefs or Bras? Bodies, Gender and Change in the Boxing Gym

In this ethnography of Full Contact, a San Francisco Bay Area boxing gym, I use Bourdieu’s theory of practice to illustrate how ‘rules of the game’ shape people’s perceptions, interactions and positions ( capital). First, I show how the unwritten, unspoken rules of boxing as a field (its doxa) impact readings of bodies and bodily capital, readings that then have an impact on micro-level interactions and hierarchies at Full Contact. Second, I show the micro-level consequences of hysteresis – delays in the realignment of habitus and field that result from change at the field level – on social interactions and hierarchies. Gender is at the core of my analysis, for it is both a fundamental part of my and others’ habitus, and a symbolic trait of significance in the hypermasculine doxa of boxing as a field.

Macro-Level Social Forces and Micro-Level Consequences: Poverty, Alternate Occupations, and Drug Dealing

This article is an empirical examination of the ways in which macro-level social forces have had micro-level consequences in the New Orleans drug market. The article illustrates a clear connection between poverty and entrance into the drug market, as mitigated by race, lack of societal opportunity, lack of social capital, distressed families, and closed neighborhoods. Specifically, the research illustrates the mechanisms by which macro-level social forces intersect to legitimize drug dealing as a viable alternative method of acquiring money and social capital. These intersecting macro-level social forces, such as poverty, race, family structure, and neighborhood characteristics, ultimately constrain the life chances of those living in the inner city irrespective of personal traits, individual motivations, or private achievements.

The impact of low- and moderate-wealth homeownership on parental attitudes and behavior: Evidence from the community advantage panel

Considerable research has suggested that homeownership imparts a variety of positive individual, family, neighborhood, and community effects. Yet, much of the research to date has failed to examine such effects by level of income [Dietz, R.D., & Haurin, D.R. (2003). The social and private micro-level consequences of homeownership. Journal of Urban Economics, 54(3), 401–450.]. This study adds to the limited research on the impact of assets on parental attitude and behavior among low- and moderate-income (LMI) families. Data used in this study are from the evaluation of Self-Help's Community Advantage Home Loan Secondary Market Program. Specifically, we focus on the differences in the demographic and financial backgrounds, and parental attitudes and behavior between LMI homeowners and a comparison group of renters ( n = 815 owners; n = 333 renters). Logistic regression analyses are used to model parental attitude and behavior outcomes on tenure, controlling for a variety of household characteristics. Results show that the overall differences between homeowners and renters on parental outcomes are statistically nonsignificant. This finding implies that tenure per se is not associated with parental attitudes and behavior. Explanations for the possible reasons for the lack of a tenure effect are discussed. Policy implications are forwarded.

Post-Communist Cross-Border Migration in South-Eastern Albania: Who Leaves? Who Stays Behind?

The opening-up of Albania to the outside world in the early 1990s brought about changes that have had a dramatic effect on society. Emigration has been a major consequence of the fall of communism. An estimated 600,000 or so Albanians are believed to have left the country, many of them permanently. Useful as such a piece of information is, it falls short of the data required to understand the motivations and micro-level consequences of cross-border migration, whether temporary or of a more permanent nature. Why do Albanians leave? Who leaves—and who stays behind? Are there any identifiable trends in the propensity to move, type of movement or the reason why people leave? Several studies have addressed issues such as these, but few (if any) have had the privilege of using survey data that are based on a statistically sound sampling frame. This paper, which is based on a survey conducted in the Korçë district in south-eastern Albania in late 2002 with regional planning ends in mind, adopts the perspective of the sending country and sets out to profile the emigrant from this particular part of the country. Covering 1,315 urban and rural households, a major feature of this survey is that it covers both migrant and non-migrant households. The data are analysed with a view to identifying the correlates of migration. As such, it also serves as a starting point for further work on other aspects of emigration.

The social and private micro-level consequences of homeownership

This paper reviews the literature that describes the micro-level economic and social consequences of homeownership. We adopt an interdisciplinary approach and include studies from economics, sociology, geography, political science, psychology, and other disciplines. Our focus is on the set of consequences of homeownership in developed countries. Our list of potential outcomes of homeownership includes the impact on household wealth and portfolio choice, mobility, labor force participation, urban structure and segregation, home maintenance, political and social activities, health, demographics, self-esteem, and child outcomes. There is substantial evidence that homeownership has important effects on some household behaviors and outcomes. However, we find that much of the past 30-year's literature on consequences of homeowning is deficient from a theoretical or econometric perspective. We suggest solutions and identify research gaps present in the literature.