Which States Will Restrict Abortions? Predictions from Votes in the House of Representatives

In response to the Supreme Court's rulings in Webster v. Reproductive Services and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, which increased the ability of states to restrict abortions, many state legislatures have reexamined their abortion policies. Several recent studies use a variety of methods to predict whether states will restrict abortion access. These studies have utilized congressional votes on abortion legislation, past state laws restricting abortions, or current attitudes by state legislators and governors. Each method has its merits and limitations. This paper uses recent votes in the states' House of Representatives pertaining to abortion issues to predict the likelihood of significant abortion restrictions. These results are compared with rankings from other recent studies. Copyright 1994 by The Policy Studies Organization.

House Prices and Regional Real Estate Cycles: Market Adjustments in Houston

Real estate cycles often generate sharp swings in real housing prices, price changes that cannot be adequately described by a single statistic such as median home values. Instead, the entire structure of prices across all quality levels must be examined. This paper analyzes the price impact of the Houston, Texas, real estate bust. It shows that the average price of housing fell, and that the structure of the housing price function itself changed. Changes in the marginal price of housing were probably more significant to the market equilibrating process than the decline in average price alone. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

Ring a Ring o' Roses: Quality Journals and Gamesmanship in Management Studies

A paper in one of the quality journals of Management Studies is much more important as a unit of measurement than as a contribution to knowledge. It measures academic performance and determines much academic funding. There is consequently some pressure to publish in quality journals. But quality journals are defined in terms that are themselves defined in terms of quality journals - a circularity that explains both the paper's title and the frustration of those who do not mix in these circles. We examine the gamesmanship of publishing in quality journals. Findings from a survey of heads of Management Studies departments in UK universities suggest that such gamesmanship is common. Cunning and calculation now support scholarship in Management Studies. Gamesmanship will remain common until the rewards for publishing attach to the content of papers, to "what" is published rather than "where" it is published. We propose a 'Tinkerbell Solution': without belief in the value of a paper in a quality journal, the game is no longer worth playing. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2007.