Natal Family Disruptions and Lives in Non-Parental Care:Impacts on Children’s Emotional Health and Academic Success

This research used a mixed methods design to evaluate the negative impacts of strains in children’s natal family environment, on their emotional and academic core self-concept, as well as how healthy non-parental relationships can help repair the damaged self-concept. Analyses of National Survey of Children in Non-parental Care (2013) survey data, supplemented with interviews with five experts in the field, revealed the following: strains generated by disruptions in the child’s natal family negatively affected the emotional health of the children in non-parental care and indirectly their academic success; and living in non-parental care homes, particularly having healthy relationships with the caregiver, was positive for both the emotional and academic self-concept of children. Contrary to conventional wisdom, continued involvement of birthparents, after the children were removed from their care, neither benefitted nor harmed the children. These findings were theoretically explained using insights from the Strain (Agnews 1992) and Social Bond perspectives (Hirschi 1969) on the development of core and fluid self-concepts (Blumer 1969; Kuhn 1964), and added to current literature on the needs and well-being of children in non-parental care

Necessary and Not Sufficient: the State of Evaluation Use in Foundations

Over the last decade "strategic philanthropy" has dominated the thinking of many big and ambitious foundations. Theoretically, foundations of this kind not only provide grant support to nonprofits, but importantly, assess social problems, develop strategies to solve them, and track the results of their efforts over time

On the Convergence of Adaptive Iterative Linearized Galerkin Methods

A wide variety of different (fixed-point) iterative methods for the solution of nonlinear equations exists. In this work we will revisit a unified iteration scheme in Hilbert spaces from our previous work that covers some prominent procedures (including the Zarantonello, Ka\v{c}anov and Newton iteration methods). In combination with appropriate discretization methods so-called (adaptive) iterative linearized Galerkin (ILG) schemes are obtained. The main purpose of this paper is the derivation of an abstract convergence theory for the unified ILG approach (based on general adaptive Galerkin discretization methods) proposed in our previous work. The theoretical results will be tested and compared for the aforementioned three iterative linearization schemes in the context of adaptive finite element discretizations of strongly monotone stationary conservation laws

Beyond the Veneer of Strategic Philanthropy

· “Strategic philanthropy” has become a dominant theme among foundations in the past few decades. · While many foundations have developed strategic plans, few have made the internal changes necessary to actually behave strategically. · Four challenges to strategic philanthropy are identified, including strategies developed in isolation from grantees that execute them and misaligned foundation structures, processes, and cultures that do not support strategic endeavors. · In order to get beyond the veneer of strategic philanthropy, foundation leaders need to be clearer about their own role in creating change, develop the strategic capacities to do so, and then apply those capacities, learn from them, and improve them over time

The success of bank mergers revisited: an assessment based on a matching strategy

The question of whether or not mergers and acquisitions have helped to enhance banks' efficiency and profitability has not yet been conclusively resolved in the literature. We argue that this is partly due to the severe methodological problems involved. In this study, we analyze the effect of German bank mergers in the period 1995-2000 on banks' profitability and cost efficiency. We suggest a new matching strategy to control for the selection effects arising from the fact that predominantly under-performing banks engage in mergers. Our results indicate a neutral effect of mergers on profitability and a positive effect on cost efficiency. Comparing our results with those obtained from a naive performance comparison of merging and non-merging banks indicates a severe negative selection bias with regard to the former. --Bank mergers,performance measurement,propensity score matching

Migration, Trade and Unemployment

A source of anxiety of policy makers and the public in general is the detrimental impactof globalization and immigration on unemployment. The transitory restrictions forworker migration after the EU enlargements of 2004 and 2007 exemplify the supposednegative effect of immigration on labor markets. This paper aims to identify the effectsof immigration alongside trade on unemployment taking into account the substitutabilityof worker and goods flows. We use data from 24 OECD countries over the periodfrom 1997 to 2007 and employ instrumental variables fixed effects and dynamic panelestimators in order to account for unobserved heterogeneity as well as the potentialendogeneity of migration flows and the high persistence of unemployment. We find asignificant negative effect of immigration on unemployment on average.Migration, unemployment, international trade, fixed effects instrumental variable panel estimators, dynamic panel estimators

Do capital buffers mitigate volatility of bank lending? A simulation study

Critics claim that capital requirements can exacerbate credit cycles by restricting lending in an economic downturn. The introduction of Basel 2, in particular, has led to concerns that risksensitive capital charges are highly correlated with the business cycle. The Basel Committee is contemplating a revision of the Basel Accord by introducing counter-cyclical capital buffers. Others claim that capital buffers are already large enough to absorb fluctuations in credit risk. We address the question of the pro-cyclical effects of capital requirements in a general framework which takes into account banks' potential adjustment strategies. We develop a dynamic model of bank lending behavior and simulate different regulatory frameworks and macroeconomic scenarios. In particular, we address two related questions in our simulation study: How do business fluctuations affect capital requirements and bank lending? To what extent does the capital buffer absorb fluctuations in the level of mimimum required capital? --Minimum capital requirements,regulatory capital,capital buffer,cyclical lending,pro-cyclicality

Study of double exposure holography of the 3-dimensional character of the flow around an airfoil profile in a wind tunnel

The tridimensional character of the flow around a profile placed between walls is demonstrated and the incidence induced with the assistance of measurements of velocities by double exposure holography is evaluated. The values obtained by the theory of Menard are compared satisfactorily to the values obtained by this experiment

Does capital regulation matter for bank behaviour? Evidence for German savings banks

The aim of this paper is to assess how German savings banks adjust capital and risk under capital regulation. We estimate a modified version of the model developed by Shrieves and Dahl (1992). This paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, we test the capital buffer theory (Marcus 1984, Milne and Whalley 2002). Second, we use dynamic panel data techniques that explicitly take unobserved heterogeneity into account. And third, we provide new evidence for non-US banks by using a new dataset of supervisory data collected by the Deutsche Bundesbank. We find evidence that the coordination of capital and risk adjustments depends on the amount of capital the bank holds in excess of the regulatory minimum (the "capital buffer"). Banks with low capital buffers try to rebuild an appropriate capital buffer by raising capital while simultaneously lowering risk. In contrast, banks with high capital buffers try to maintain their capital buffer by increasing risk when capital increases. These findings support the capital buffer theory. --bank regulation,risk taking,bank capital