National Economic Situation Research Articles

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE AND PUBLIC SAFETY IN LITHUANIA

This article aims to find how government expenditure for the sectors of defense, public order and safety influence the economic situation and national security in Lithuania. The problem how government expenditure for public safety relates to statistics of national security and economic situation in the country is analyzed in the article. The fundamental aspects of the structure of public expenditure and relationship between major defense, public order and economic indicators are analyzed in the article. Analysis is made using self-made figures and counted coefficients that show the strength of the relation of the analyzed factors. Resulting conclusions give an answer how government expenditure affects economic situation and safety of the country.

Mentoring New Faculty

According to an AACN Press Release 9-2010, the faculty vacancy rate continues to climb. Currently at a rate of 6.9%, the nurse faculty vacancies will continue to climb over the next ten years. Greater than 90% of these vacancies either prefer or require a doctoral degree and unfortunately, there are a limited number of doctoral prepared nurses. Along with the lack of doctoral, prepare nurses schools of nursing also have difficulty competing with healthcare and research organizations that can provide a limited pool of doctoral prepared nurses with higher salaries and benefits. Schools of nursing are also facing the impact of the nation's economic situation and with budget cuts and hiring freezes are not able to provide nurse faculty for their increasing enrollments.According to an AACN Press Release 9-2010, the faculty vacancy rate continues to climb. Garbee & Killacky, 2008 article: A recent study investigating the variables for nurse faculty intent to stay employed in academia concluded that years 1-3 are critical for retention methods and interventions. In fact, nurse faculty that were mentored or had “peer- support” and were doctoral prepared were the most committed to working in academia. It has been stated in numerous research Studies regarding nurse faculty, mentoring enables the novice nurse faculty member to balance work and life effectively and remain satisfied in an academic role. Race and Skees article 2010: Race and Skees noted several challenges with mentoring novice faculty; time management, toxic mentoring, mentor-mentee mismatches and variations in learning needs can poorly influence the mentor/mentee relationship and novice faculty intent to stay in academia. In this article, the authors conclude that an individual approach in necessary and that each mentoring relationship needs to be well planned and individualized to be successful. The lack of nurse faculty is directly affecting that demand for RN, and in return, we will be unable to meet the greying nations healthcare needs because of a lack of nurses. Novice nurse faculty face several new stressors when entering academia. First is the change of role and autonomy that is often a new experience for nurses. Students come with all types of challenges: from the student with personal problems to the behaviour of students within the classroom setting. Learning to manage the challenges of students can become extremely stressful. The entire academic environment can be a cultural shock for some novice faculty. For example learning the “academic pace” when one is used to the pace of a hospital environment can become frustrating and challenging for many. A formal mentoring program is the answer to success. Recruitment of qualified nursing professors and retention of these individuals is a hot topic.

Do National Economic and Political Conditions Affect Ideological Media Slant?

Political scientists are interested in the influence of the news media on politics. However, relatively few studies investigate whether or not ideological slant in news coverage changes systematically over time. If it changes systematically, what factors explain the changes? This study argues that external conditions, such as national political and economic situations, influence ideological media slant at the aggregate level. To examine this argument, “macro media bias” is measured quarterly by gauging the relative size of liberal and conservative news stories regarding domestic issues from 1958 through 2004. Utilizing ARIMA models, this study reveals that the news media tend to negatively react to government spending. Also, economic conditions, such as unemployment and inflation, significantly explain changes in the relative number of liberal and conservative news stories. [Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Political Communication for the following free supplemental resource(s): the coding keywords, detailed coding rules, and alternative regression results.]

Government popularity and the economy: first evidence from German microdata

This is one of the first studies to estimate a popularity function at the microlevel. Using German microlevel data for the years 1991, 1992, 1998, and 2008, we show that a positive assessment of the economy significantly improves government popularity, while negative evaluations decrease satisfaction with the government. Voters take the (current and expected) national and personal economic situation into account. We find no evidence for a grievance asymmetry, i.e., voters not only punish the government for a bad economy but also reward them in good times. Finally, we show that popularity functions are only very crude proxies for vote functions, with the latter being mostly driven by party identification.

Economic voting in Hungary, 1998–2008

This study investigates retrospective voting and issue voting, and their change over time in a transitioning country. Sociotropic, as well as egocentric economic evaluations, and policy issues of parties are expected to play an increasing role in party preferences of citizens over time. Data consist of 41 Hungarian cross-sectional surveys, between 1998 and 2008. Results of conditional logistic regression models reveal that voters reward incumbent parties when they see improvements in their personal or the national economic situation, and punish them if the economy deteriorates. Distance from a given party on the left–right scale also decreases the chance of voting for that party. Voting behavior is changing during transition. The evaluations of the national economy and personal situation have an increasing impact on party preferences over time. We found educational heterogeneity in the extent of economic voting.

A Study of a Combining Model to Estimate Quarterly GDP

Various statistical models to Estimate GDP (measured as a nation's economic situation) have been developed. In this paper an autoregressive distributed lag model, factor model, and a Bayesian VAR model estimate quarterly GDP as a single model; the combined estimates were evaluated to compare a single model. Subsequently, we suggest that some combined models are better than a single model to estimate quarterly GDP.

China Economy of Awaiting Urgently Balanced Development: On the Regional Economic Differentiation from the Perspective of Statistical Data

Based on the data of China Statistical Yearbook, this thesis analyzes and compares the economic situation and developmental dynamics of provincial administrative regions. On the basis of the available data, this paper unfolds the national economic situation by the total retail sales of social consuming goods and saving deposits. As the economic situation is largely depends on productivity, the paper further observes the productivity of different regions through local total output value, industrial output value and grain yield. It also observes the production environment from the perspectives of new fixed assets investment on infrastructure, energy consumption, gross import and export commodities, land transportation volume, water transportation volume and passenger cycle. For the convenience of regional comparison, the indicator is acquired by local per capita dividing national per capita. In order to observe the evolution dynamics, all these indicators make use of the data from any available year so as to show the rich information of the systematic regional pattern of the nation's economy. The above 11 indicators form an eleventh dimensional space, which observes the differences in the degree of development between different regions. It also observes the different structures of different economic entities, which shows the main features of China's economy in geographical distribution: Southern agriculture region and northern mining region provide the basic resources and cheap labor forces to support the running of coastal industry;while the products of the coastal industrial zone are exported through coastal port cities.

Sustainable and efficient interurban public road transport in Hungary

Buses are characteristic for Hungarian interurban traffic. This paper has the key objectives of determining the economically feasible point of reselling the buses. The paper is based on Hungarian data. The paper highlights the importance of operation of public transport vehicles and the optimum solution for minimizing their costs. Hungarian operators try to achieve this goal, although this is not easy due to their limited resources. Because of the present national economic situation in Hungary buses are operated much longer than it would be economically beneficial. Unfortunately the acquisition of newer buses is a slow process. All these problems significantly increase the losses of our interurban public transport companies.

Covering the crisis: Media coverage of the economic crisis and citizens’ economic expectations

The 2008-2009 worldwide economic crisis serves as a backdrop to this study of the dynamics of citizens' economic expectations. Economic expectations are identified as crucial for a range of political attitudes. This study is the first to consider how information affects evaluations in times of a severe crisis, as prior research of information effects on economic evaluations took place in more stable economic times. It links citizens' news exposure and the content of economic news coverage with changes in prospective economic assessments. Drawing on a three-wave panel study and on a media content analysis between the panel waves, we thus provide a dynamic assessment of media influences on changes in economic evaluations. The results demonstrate that media exposure strongly affected expectations regarding the future development of the national economic situation, while being largely unrelated to personal economic expectations. We furthermore show that media dependency increases the magnitude of the media effect. We discuss the disconnect between personal and national economic evaluations with regard to mass-mediated economic information. Acta Politica (2011) 46, 353-379. doi:10.1057/ap.2011.18; published online 8 July 2011

Satisfação profissional dos enfermeiros em Cuidados de Saúde Primários: O caso do Centro de Saúde de Barcelos/ Barcelinhos

IntroductionProfessional satisfaction has been seen, in recent decades, as an important condition, if not essential, to achieve the improvement of the functioning of companies and other organizations. This study aimed to know the main determinants of professional satisfaction of nurses who work in Primary Health Care (CSP), namely, in Barcelos/ Barcelinhos Health Centre (CS). MethodsField work was carried out between March and December 2006, based on a quantitative methodological approach and descriptive analysis, through a questionnaire on job satisfaction, designed by Graça1, and validated for the Portuguese Health Centres reality.The target population was composed by 75 nurses working in the aforesaid Health Centre. Data treatment followed the methodological orientations of the questionnaire's author. SPSS® 13.0 was used for statistical analysis, including tests qui-square and ANOVA to explore the relations between the different variables. ResultsThe results show that: (i) nurses working in Barcelos/Barcelinhos Health Centre are satisfied with positive human interplay establish with the patients and dissatisfied with their payment; (ii) nurses, principally those who work in extensions, don’t feel properly protected against physical, chemical, biological, and/or psychosocial risk factors that they are exposed at work in the absence of an effective occupational health and safety management system; (iii) nurses with increased duties, that require them other competences, decision responsibilities and larger specification in their work, present greater professional satisfaction and less disposition to leave their work; (iv) precarious employment in Primary Health Care is another important factor of professional dissatisfaction. ConclusionsIn this specific case, we verify that the factors that positively influence job satisfaction in primary health care nursing are intimately connected to the professional/ client relationship. On the other hand, the factors that negatively influence professional satisfaction index are related with the ongoing labour policy and the present national economic situation, both factors severely limiting National Health Service human resources development.

Who are the Supporters of Croatian Membership in the European Union and NATO? Predictive Value of Personal and National Well-Being

Like many other Central and Eastern European countries Croatia has passed through substantial political changes and transition processes from state to liberal market economy in the last two decades. The next important step is accession to EU and NATO, and public opinion about joining these associations is divided. The aim of this study is to investigate the predictive value of subjective well-being measures in explaining attitudes of Croatian citizens toward accession to NATO and European Union. In particular, the prognostic utility of SWB is tested over and above usefulness of basic socio-demographic variables in explaining those political opinions. The research was conducted on a huge and representative sample (N = 4,000) of Croatian citizens in the spring of 2009. As a measure of subjective well-being, Croatian version of International Well-Being Index (IWI; Cummins in International Wellbeing Index, Version 2 [online]. Available from: http://acqol.deakin.edu.au/inter_wellbeing/Index-CoreItemsDraft2.doc, 2002) was used. IWI includes National and Personal Well-Being scales where each scale consists of several personal or national well-being domains. Socio-demographic variables used in this survey were gender, age, and level of education. Hierarchical logistic regression was applied to test the unique contribution of National and Personal well-being domains in predicting attitudes toward accession. The results show that National well-being index is useful in predicting attitudes toward accession of Croatia to EU and NATO, and has an even higher predictive value than basic socio-demographic variables. National well-being domains that significantly improve prediction were satisfaction with government and satisfaction with national economic situation. Higher satisfaction with national government is related to support of accession to both alliances, whereas higher satisfaction with national economy is associated solely with supporting the EU membership. The personal well-being index and belonging domains were not useful in this political attitude prediction. Possible theoretical explanation of observed relations between NWI and political opinion were further discussed.

Secrets of Successful Writers

Secrets of Successful Writers

Injury mortality in local communities in Sweden and in the three Baltic States: implications for prevention

This study provides a comparative time-trend evaluation of injury mortality in local communities in Sweden and the three Baltic States, considering their national socio-political and economic situations and with analysis of local injury prevention structures and activities. Data for the period from 1990 to 2002 were gathered from national statistical offices for the cities of Borås, Tartu, Jelgava and Kaunas and from WHO databases for national level analyses. The death rates for Borås remained relatively stable over the time period, while the Baltic communities had increasing rates until 1994 and seemed to stabilize after 1997. The differences in injury mortality in the studied communities were highest for the 0 – 19 year age group and especially in the 20 – 64 year age group, but not for the 65+ year age group. Local communities in the Baltic States should consider coordinated safety promotion and injury prevention programmes as a complement to national safety promotion framework.

Portuguese Women in Toronto: Gender, Immigration, and Nationalism

Wenona Giles takes a new look at migration in this innovative study of Portuguese women by examining the gender, class, and race relations of the immigrant Portuguese population from the micro level of personal experience to the macro level of the long-lasting societal repercussions of immigrant status and welfare on their children. Comparing across two generations of Portuguese Canadian women, the book delves into issues such as cultural heterogeneity among Portuguese immigrants, the ambiguity of work and gender politics, the concept of 'home' versus nationalism, and raises concerns about the ways in which global political and economic inequities have affected Portuguese women's citizenship. Drawing on over sixty interviews with Portuguese immigrants and community workers in Toronto, Giles weaves theoretical perspectives around direct quotes to provide a complete picture of the Portuguese immigrant experience. Her case study of Portuguese women sheds new light not only on Portuguese immigrants to Canada, but also on Canadian nationalism, immigration, and multicultural policies, and their connection with national and global economic situations, that affect all immigrants to Canada.

'It's the Economy, Stupid' ‐ But Which Economy? Geographical Scales, Retrospective Economic Evaluations and Voting at the 1997 British General Election

Virtually all studies of retrospective economic voting in the UK look at two sets of economic evaluations only, relating to respondents' perceptions of the national economic situation and their own households' financial position. We argue that a further scale should be added to these models, involving evaluations of each respondent's local area's prosperity - because economic development is spatially uneven. Using data from the 1997 British Election Study, we assess this case and find not only that evaluations of local area prosperity are significantly related to vote but also that, when these are included in the models, evaluations of the national economic situation are largely insignificant - especially when prior vote is held constant. British voters decided whether to reward or punish the incumbent Conservative government in 1997 on the basis of their local and personal situations, much more than their evaluation of the state of the national economy. Au Royaume-Uni, la majoritédes études portant sur les intentions de vote économiques rétrospectives ne considèrent que deux ensembles d'évaluations économiques, qui examinent comment les personnes interrogées perc¸oivent la conjoncture économique du pays et la situation financière de leur propre ménage. On propose une autre échelle qui implique une évaluation de la prospéritéde la zone de résidence de la personne interrogée - parce que le développement économique s'avère irrégulier. A partir des données provenant d'une étude des intentions de vote au moment des l'élections législatives de 1997 en Grande-Bretagne (1997 British Election Study) on évalue la proposition ci-dessus. Il s'avère que les évaluations de la prospéritéde la zone de résidence sont étroitement liées aux intentions de votèace moment-là et, qui plus est, quand celles-làsont comprises dans les modèles, les évaluations de la conjonture économique du pays sont grosso modo négligeables - surtout quand les intentions antérieures restent constantes. L'électorat britannique a décidé ou de récompenser ou de punir le gouvernement conservateur au pouvoir en 1997 en fonction de ses situations personnelle et locale, plutôt que sur la base de son évaluation de la conjoncture économique du pays. Nahezu alle Untersuchungen retrospektiver, wirtschaflich bestimmter Stimmabgabe in Großbritannien beschäftigen sich mit nur zwei Reihen wirtschaftlicher Bewertungen, die sich auf Auffassungen der Angesprochenen hinsichtlich der wirtschaftlichen Lage des Landes und darauf beziehen, wie ihr eigener Haushalt finanziell gestellt ist. Die Autoren verteten den Standpunkt, daß diesen eine weitere Größenordnung zugefügt werden sollte, welche Bewertungen des Wohlstands der Wohngegenden der Korrespondenten einschließt, weil der Vorgang wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung räumlich unterschiedlich ist. Die Autoren benutzen Daten der Untersuchung der britischen Wahl des Jahres 1997 zur Beurteilung des Falles, und stellen nicht nur fest, daß Bewertungen der Wohlhabenheit einer Ortsgegend in signifikanter Beziehung zur Stimmabgabe stehen, sondern auch, daß Bewertungen der Wirtschaftlage des Staates weitgehend belanglos bleiben, wenn man erstere in die Modellbetwertungen letzterer einbezieht - besonders, wenn frühere Stimmergebnisse konstant blieben. Britische Wähler bestimmten im Jahre 1997 mehr auf Grund ihrer örtlichen und persönlichen Verhältnisse, denn ihrer Bewertung des Zustands der überregionalen Wirtschaft des Landes, ob die amtierende konservative Regierung zu belohnen oder zu bestrafen sei.

Apoio popular à integração econômica regional na América Latina

Esquemas de integração econômica regional abundam na América Latina, mas muito pouco se sabe sobre o grau de apoio popular a esses programas. Agora que os regimes democráticos governam quase toda a América Latina, a opinião pública pode ter impacto considerável nas políticas nacionais. Este trabalho examina as atitudes em relação à integração econômica em dezessete países continentais latino-americanos com dados de entrevistas com mais de 18 mil pessoas. Os benefícios percebidos da integração e as percepções sobre a situação econômica pessoal e nacional aparecem como fatores importantes, assim como altos níveis educacionais, o apoio à democracia e o gênero. Dois novos achados são que uma opinião positiva sobre a União Européia e a satisfação com o funcionamento da democracia se ligam a um maior apoio à integração.

Constructing the Electorate during Presidential Campaigns

This study examines how the American electorate has been described by political campaigners between 1948 and 1996. Using a database of some five hundred speeches given on the stump or during national political broadcasts, the authors isolated 898 uses of the phrase “the American people.” By examining these phrases for descriptions of the roles, actions, qualities, and circumstances of the people, and by noting their time orientation and the forces aligned against the electorate, the authors present a picture of the people as described. Generally speaking, the people live in the moment, focus on cognitive and axiological matters, serve as agents of the state, and have an equal number of moral, intellectual, and psychological strengths. The texts also show that the people are bedeviled by government itself, but a number of factors—party, era, incumbency, campaign cycle, and so forth—affect the tenor of those characterizations.

Popular Support for Regional Economic Integration in Latin America

Regional economic integration schemes abound in Latin America, yet very little is known about the degree of popular support for such programmes. Now that democratic regimes rule in almost all of Latin America, public opinion can have an important impact on national policies. This paper examines the attitudes toward economic integration in 17 mainland Latin American countries with interview data from over 18,000 people. Bi-variate and multivariate analyses are conducted on the factors related to support for regional integration. Perceived benefits of integration and perceptions of personal and national economic situation prove to be important factors, as are higher levels of education, support for democracy and gender (males favour integration more than females). Two novel findings are that a positive opinion of the European Union along with satisfaction with the functioning of democracy are both linked to greater support for integration.

The Cooperative Movement in Nicaragua: Empowerment and Accompaniment of Severely Disadvantaged Peasants

This article is based on over seven months of participant observation in an agricultural cooperative in Nicaragua in 1989, a literature review and interviews in other coops. The article presents an overview of the broader grassroots movement of Nicaraguan cooperative formation (over 3300 agricultural coops were formed in the 1980s). This movement was affected by the coop participants, as they struggled for control, and in turn affected the national social and economic situation. The coops and the broader national coop movement are shown to be empowering of the participants. However, while some factors enhanced the possibility of empowerment, other complex interrelated factors impeded its development. Autocratic leadership was prevalent, intermingled with apprehension about leadership and fears of failure. Outside service providers, although seemingly helpful, also impeded empowerment through subtle condescension and distance. The most effective mutual exchange occurred when outsiders integrated as insiders. Lessons are drawn for service to the grassroots coop movement through “accompaniment” or processes of participant action research.

Strengthening Australia's Schools through Corporate Federalism?

The federal policy document, ‘Strengthening Australia's schools’ (SAS), signified a new approach to commonwealth—state relations in schooling policy making—corporate federalism. Corporate federalism extended the application of neocorporatist strategies for managing and responding to crisis (here, in particular, Australia's worsening national and international economic situation) from the private to the public sector This paper documents and evaluates the rationale for corporate federalism in SAS. Some possible future developments within federalism and schooling policy are also considered.