The productivity effects of worker participation: Producer cooperatives in western economies

The paper presents econometric estimates of productivity effects of various forms of worker participation in Western producer cooperatives. While the effects vary across institutional settings, the overall effect is found to be positive. The positive effects are found most uniformly with respect to profit sharing and, to a slightly lesser extent, individual capital (share) ownership and participation in decision-making by workers. The size of individual worker loans to the coop is unrelated to productivity, while collective capital ownership exhibits an insignificant or a negative productivity effect

Homelessness in autistic women: Defining the research agenda

Background: Current evidence suggests that autistic individuals are at high risk for becoming and remaining in a cycle of homelessness. Key risk factors for homelessness disproportionately affect autistic people; however, we have limited understanding of how to best support autistic individuals accessing services. This gap in the evidence base is particularly acute for autistic women. Objective: As a first step to address this gap, we aimed to (1) map gaps in knowledge and practice; (2) identify priority areas for research and (3) develop recommendations for how to implement novel research and practice in this area. Methods: We conducted a collaborative workshop with an interdisciplinary group of 26 stakeholders to address our aims. Stakeholders included autistic women with experience of homelessness, researchers, health professionals, NGO representatives, and service providers. Results and recommendations: Two research priority areas were identified to map the prevalence and demographics of autistic women experiencing homelessness, and to delineate risk and protective factors for homelessness. Priority areas for improving provision of support included staff training to improve communication, awareness of autism and building trust with service providers, and recommendations for practical provision of support by services. Conclusions: Future research is critical to increase our knowledge of the pathways leading to homelessness for autistic women, and barriers to engaging with homelessness and social services. We need to use this knowledge to develop new ways of delivering targeted and inclusive support for autistic women, which could prevent or shorten periods of homelessness

Home-body/Kitchen Table Solo Show (2020 – 23) exhibited in 'Rupture, Rapture: Womxn in Collage'

Home-body/Kitchen Table Solo Show, is a composite installation of a series of works made during the pandemic - from within sixty weeks of shielding: In this context, one type of interior is the shell - a networked container maintained by labour and producing waste, reaching for community and receiving shopping. Another interior is the body within, navigating complex dependencies and desires. These works were all made on the edges of a kitchen table and draw on Mendelson's, often positive, experiences of the home-as-skin. A new, painted platform was produced for this exhibition, allowing the 'kitchen table' itself to fold into the work. ‘Rupture, Rapture: Womxn in Collage’ is a publication, residency and survey exhibition. 25 August - 23 September 2023 Patricia Fleming Gallery, Glasgow 'Rupture, Rapture: Womxn in Collage' brings together new and existing works, alongside special commissions to showcase collage in an expanded field, incorporating multimedia, sculpture, sound and performance art. Displaying over twenty collage works by 14 womxn artists, this exhibition challenges the notion of collage as a fixed category or form—instead revealing collage as a feminist praxis of transformation, rupture, and collision. Commissioned works will be presented by 16NSt resident artists’ Edie Baker, Gabrielle Lockwood Estrin, and Hannan Jones, developed in-situ at Patricia Fleming Gallery, along with a collage installation and performance from Jen DeNike (16th Sep), exhibiting the artist’s work in Scotland for the first time. New and historic work will be shown by Sam Ainsley, Claire Barclay, Barbara F. Kendrick, Janie Nicoll, Kate V. Robertson, and Catherine Street. Significant existing works will be displayed by Louise Hopkins, Zoë Mendelson, Victoria Morton, and Alberta Whittle. Curated by Aga Paulina Młyńczak and Nell Cardozo with support from Kelly Rappleye (16NSt Curatorial Collective), Sam Ainsley (artist and former Head of Glasgow School of Art’s MFA) and artist Janie Nicoll, this survey exhibition hosted by Patricia Fleming Gallery displays a diverse repertoire of over twenty collage works, several of which have never been shown before. By putting multimedia sculptural installations together with paper works, Młyńczak and Cardozo aim to expand the notion of what contemporary collage can do. Displaying work from womxn artists at various stages in their careers who use expanded collage processes, this exhibition aims to create an inter-generational feminist dialogue. 16NSt’s Rupture, Rapture: Womxn in Collage project comprises an emerging artists’ residency and publication alongside this exhibition to trace an alternative, feminist lineage of collage in everyday practices by womxn and queer communities, which have traditionally been refused art historical recognition, from scrapbooking to collage poetry. These homegrown acts of cultural transformation inform the ethos of cross-media experimentation and re-assemblage of everyday material that is shared across the works in this exhibition. PUBLICATION Accompanying the exhibition will launch a limited-release publication ‘RUPTURE, RAPTURE’, featuring rarely-seen collage works by Maud Sulter alongside a critical survey of contemporary womxn’s collage in Scotlan

Estimates of the steady state growth rates for some European countries

This paper estimates the steady state growth rates for the main European countries with an extended version of the Solow (1956) growth model. Total factor productivity is assumed a function of human capital, trade openness and investment ratio. We show that these factors, with some differences, have played an important role to improve the long run growth rates of Italy, Spain, France, UK, and Ireland. A few policies to improve the long-run growth rates for these countries are suggested

To pay or not to pay? Business owners’ tax morale:testing a neo-institutional framework in a transition environment

In order to understand how the environment influences business owner/managers’ attitudes towards tax morale, we build a theoretical model based on a neo-institutionalist framework. Our model combines three complementary perspectives on institutions—normative, cultural–cognitive and regulatory–instrumental. This enables a broader understanding of factors that influence business owner–managers’ attitudes towards tax evasion. We test the resulting hypotheses using regression analysis on survey data on business owner/managers in Latvia—a transition country, which has undergone massive institutional changes since it was part of the Soviet Union over 25 years ago. We find that legitimacy of the tax authorities and the government (normative dimension), feeling of belonging to the nation (cultural–cognitive dimension) and perceptions of the risk and severity of punishment (regulatory–instrumental dimension) are all associated with higher tax morale for business owners and managers

Blood Transfusion Requirements for Patients With Sarcomas Undergoing Combined Radio- and Chemotherapy

Patients with bony and soft tissue sarcomas may require intensive treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which often leads to a fall in haemoglobin levels, requiring blood transfusion. There may be advantages in predicting which patients will require transfusion, partly because anaemia and hypoxia may worsen the response of tumours to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Between 1997 and 2003, a total of 26 patients who received intensive treatment with curative intent were identified. Transfusions were given to maintain the haemoglobin at 10g/dl or above during chemotherapy, and at 12 g/dl or above during radiotherapy. Eighteen (69%) required a transfusion, the majority as a result of both the chemotherapy and RT criteria. There were 78 transfusion episodes, and 181 units of blood given. In the 18 patients who required transfusion, the average number of units was 10.1, but seven patients required more blood than this. The most significant factor influencing blood transfusion was choice of intensive chemotherapy. Intensive chemotherapy and presenting Hb less than 11.6 g/dl identified 13 out of 18 patients who needed transfusion. Adding a drop in haemoglobin of greater than 1.7 g/dl after one cycle of chemotherapy identified 16 out of 18 patients who required transfusion. The seven patients who had heavy transfusion requirements were identified by age 32 or less, intensive chemotherapy and a presenting Hb of 12 g/dl or less. Erythropoietin might be a useful alternative to transfusion in selected patient groups, especially those with heavy transfusion requirements

Prosociality in business: a human empowerment framework

This study introduces a human empowerment framework to better understand why some businesses are more socially oriented than others in their policies and activities. Building on Welzel’s theory of emancipation, we argue that human empowerment—comprised of four components: action resources, emancipative values, social movement activity, and civic entitlements—enables, motivates, and entitles individuals to pursue social goals for their businesses. Using a sample of over 15,000 entrepreneurs from 43 countries, we report strong empirical evidence for two ecological effects of the framework components on prosociality. We find that human empowerment (1) lifts entrepreneurs’ willingness to choose a social orientation for their business, and (2) reinforces the gender effect on prosociality in business activity. We discuss the human empowerment framework’s added value in understanding how modernization processes fully leverage the potential of social business activities for societies

Revisiting globalization challenges and opportunities in the development of cooperatives

Cooperatives have gained prominent attention in recent years as strategic elements to achieve sustainable economic development and greater social cohesion in the context of neoliberal globalization. This article explores, theoretically, the current challenges and opportunities for cooperatives to develop successfully in the globalizing economy. To this end, we provide an analytical, critical review of the key bibliography concerning some fundamental aspects that shape the relationship between economic globalization and cooperatives, an issue that has been generally neglected by previous literature. Three key fields are addressed: 1) the viability of cooperatives, based on their strengths and possible weaknesses, under current globalization; 2) the role of these organizations in promoting the local development and stability of local communities; and 3) the tensions and potentialities that internationalization entails for cooperatives. Based on the analytical review and the organization of the literature, we propose an agenda for further research. This includes some hypotheses and strategies for testing them that would be essential to assess the role of cooperatives in economic globalization, and sheds light on key areas for future research that could provide a better understanding of the complexity surrounding the relationship between globalization and cooperatives