Attitudes Toward Contraception Among Fourth Wave College-Aged Women

This research examines how college-aged women today view contraception in comparison to the ways it has been viewed by previous generations of women, as well as what they view the future of contraception in the United States to look like. This has been done through a lens of political action and advocacy, which has defined the fight for access to contraception and reproductive justice throughout history. In light of the recent threats on contraception and the corresponding responsive social movements, such as the Women’s March, women in the United States are shifting their views on the matter, but what actions are they taking?Reproductive health is highly politicized, yet college-aged/millennial women are not accustomed to an administration that attacks contraception and their access to it. In response to the current American political climate, we\u27ve seen an embracing of feminism in the mainstream media and feminist organization, such as the Women\u27s March, but have yet to see any policy change. The question this has led me to explore is whether or not attacks on access to contraception will politically mobilize and unite women. This research is based in interviews with women on the Gettysburg College campus and the analysis of data on racial, geographic, and class disparities in health care/access in order to understand the politicization of contraception in women\u27s lives

Plagiarism and new media technologies: Combating 'cut 'n paste' culture

Whilst plagiarism has been around since pen was put to paper, the inextricable relationship that education now enjoys with new media technologies has seen its incidence increase to epidemic proportions. Plagiarism has become a blight on tertiary education, insidiously degrading the quality of degrees, largely thanks to ICTs providing students with ways to seamlessly misappropriate information. Many students are increasingly unsure how to avoid it and are being overseen by educators that cannot agree on what exactly constitutes academic dishonesty and how it should be effectively handled. This paper analyses the issues facing students and academics in light of new media in education and increasing moves to online learning. It considers the issues aggravating the problem; rising financial pressures, ambiguous cultural practices, practices in high school education; and seeks to provide a starting point for consistent, pedagogically sound approaches to the problem

Effects of Compensation Strategy on Job Pay Decisions

Previous research has revealed wide variations in pay for the same job, even within a single locality. To date, however, the sources of such pay differentials are not well understood. The present research investigates how compensation managers from a wide variety of organizations combine infonnation about current job pay rates, market rates, and job evaluation points to arrive at new pay rates for jobs. In addition, it examines the role of two pay strategy variables (pay leadership position and external versus internal orientation) in job pay decisions, controlling for differences in organizational demographic characteristics (e.g., size, industry). Results suggest that pay strategies affect assigned pay levels, with higher pay being assigned by managers from fmns with market-leading strategies and internal pay orientations. In addition, pay strategies appear to influence the relative weights attached to market survey versus job evaluation infonnation in pay-setting for jobs. Specifically, although market survey information consistently explained more variance in assigned pay than did job evaluation, this effect was more pronounced among managers from finns having an external orientation. Organizational demographics also affected assigned pay levels, but to a lesser extent than pay strategies

What constrains Africa's exports?

This paper examines the effects of transit, documentation, and ports and customs delays on Africa’s exports. The authors find that transit delays have the most economically and statically significant effect on exports. A one-day reduction in inland travel times leads to a 7 percent increase in exports. Put another way, a one-day reduction in inland travel times translates to a 1.5 percentage point decrease in all importing-country tariffs. By contrast, longer delays in the other areas have a far smaller impact on trade. The analysis controls for the possibility that greater trade leads to shorter delays in three ways. First, it examines the effect of trade times on exports of new products. Second, it evaluates the effect of delays in a transit country on the exports of landlocked countries. Third, it examines whether delays affect time-sensitive goods relatively more. The authors show that large transit delays are relatively more harmful because of high within-country variation

The Effects of Market Survey Rates, Job Evaluation and Job Gender on Job Pay

The present study investigates the effects of current pay, market surveys, job evaluation points, job gender, and rater sex on pay rates for jobs. 406 compensation administrators assigned new pay rates to nine jobs in one of two matched job sets: either all predominantly female, or all predominantly male. The two sets were matched on all quantitative data (current rate, market rate, and job evaluation points), but varied in terms of job titles and descriptions. Multiple analyses of variance and regression analyses were performed to determine whether job gender had a significant effect on assigned pay rates, holding other factors constant. Regardless of the analysis employed, no evidence of gender bias was found. Limitations and suggestions for future research are offered

Raising household energy prices in Poland : who gains? who loses?

The authors examine the welfare effects of increasing household energy prices in Poland. Their main finding is that the policy of subsidizing household energy prices, common in the transition economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, is regressive. Such programs do help the poor by providing them with lower-cost energy, but they are more useful to the rich, who consume more energy. What is surprising is the extent to which Poland's nonpoor have benefited from lower energy prices. Non only do the wealthy consume more energy in absolute terms than the poor, but they also spend a larger portion of their income on energy. Their analysis allowed the authors to rule out the oft-used social welfare argument for delaying increases in household energy prices, but they do not try to recommend a dynamically efficient pricing path. The first-best response would be to raise energy prices while targeting cash relief to the poor through a social assistance program. This is far more efficient than the present go-slow price adjustment policies, which imply energy subsidies that provide across-the-board relief to all consumers. But if governments want to provide some relief for consumers to ease the adjustment, several options are available: in-kind transfers to the poor, vouchers, cash transfers, and lifeline pricing for a small block of electricity combined with significant price increases. Simulations show that if raising prices to efficient levels for all consumers is not now politically feasible, it may be socially better to use lifeline pricing and a large price increase rather than an overall (but smaller) price increase. Lifeline pricing for electricity in combination with an 80 percent price increase has better distributional effects than a 50 percent across-the-board price increase. Ideally, the public utility would be compensated from the budgtet for any reduced-price sales, rather than having to finance them through internal cross-subsidies. In-kind transfers to poor households are also effective in terms of efficiency, but may be harder to administer in some countries than lifeline pricing.Engineering,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Energy Demand