The Effects of Occupational Licensing on Complaints Against Real Estate Agents

Does licensing increase the quality of services? This is a major unresolved question in the economic analysis of occupational licensing. This paper provides the first empirical evidence on the simultaneous relationship between anticompetitive effects and minimal quality standards. Using data on real estate agents, we find that restrictions on entry improve the quality of services (by lowering complaints), but, at the same time, there appear to be significant anticompetitive side-effects.

Natural Office Vacancy Rates: Some Additional Estimates

[Excerpt] In our recent paper (Shilling et al. [2]), we examined the rent adjustment process for 17 U.S. office markets and provided the first estimates of the natural vacancy rates. In his comment, Voith [3] argues that our specification of the rent-vacancy relationship is biased since we introduced an interaction term to capture the effect of risks associated with higher vacancy levels. He suggests that an alternative specification would be to enter a vacancy squared term to capture this risk effect

Price Adjustment Process for Rental Office Space

This paper analyzes the price adjustment process for rental office space in 17 cities across the United States over the time period 1960 to 1975. The results confirm much of what economic theory suggests. Landlords react to fluctuations in demand by building up or drawing down inventories of unlet or vacant office space. Other things equal, higher levels of vacant office space mean that landlords lower their rents and reduce the difference between desired and actual vacancies. Empirical evidence is also presented on the normal vacancy rate across different cities

The Body Dances: Carnival Dance and Organization

Building on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Maurice Merleau-Ponty we seek to open up traditional categories of thought surrounding the relation `body-organization' and elicit a thought experiment: What happens if we move the body from the periphery to the centre? We pass the interlocking theoretical concepts of object-body/subject-body and habitus through the theoretically constructed empirical case of `carnival dance' in order to re-evaluate such key organizational concepts as knowledge and learning. In doing so, we connect with an emerging body of literature on `sensible knowledge'; knowledge that is produced and preserved within bodily practices. The investigation of habitual appropriation in carnival dance also allows us to make links between repetition and experimentation, and reflect on the mechanism through which the principles of social organization, whilst internalized and experienced as natural, are embodied so that humans are capable of spontaneously generating an infinite array of appropriate actions. This perspective on social and organizational life, where change and permanence are intricately interwoven, contrasts sharply with the dominant view in organization studies which juxtaposes change/ creativity and stability

EXPORTS North Atlantic eddy tracking

The EXPORTS North Atlantic field campaign (EXPORTS-NA) of May 2021 used a diverse array of ship-based and autonomous platforms to measure and quantify processes leading to carbon export in the open ocean. The success of this field program relied heavily on the ability to make measurements following a Lagrangian trajectory within a coherent, retentive eddy (Sections 1, 2). Identifying an eddy that would remain coherent and retentive over the course of a monthlong deployment was a significant challenge that the EXPORTS team faced. This report details the processes and procedures used by the primarily shore-based eddy tracking team to locate, track, and sample with autonomous assets such an eddy before and during EXPORTS-NA.This field deployment was funded by the NASA Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry program and the National Science Foundation Biological and Chemical Oceanography programs. Initial gliders deployments were performed by the RRS Discovery and the authors thank the Porcupine Abyssal Plain – Sustained Observatory of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, UK), which is principally funded through the Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS) project supported by NERC National Capability funding (NE/R015953/1) and by IFADO (Innovation in the Framework of the Atlantic Deep Ocean) EAPA_165/2016. Technical assistance with glider deployment was provided by Marine Autonomous Robotic Systems (NOC). The authors thank Inia Soto Ramos for assistance in publishing this manuscript through the NASA Technical Memorandum series. This is PMEL contribution number 5372

Personal goals, group performance and ‘social’ networks: participants’ negotiation of virtual and embodied relationships in the ‘Workplace Challenge’ physical activity programme

County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) epitomise the growing reliance upon building networks and partnerships sports delivery. This study investigated how social networks were created and contested in a CSP-led programme entitled the ‘Workplace Challenge’ (WPC). The WPC used a web-platform to encourage workplace-based teams to engage in physical activity by self-recording their activity over an eight-week period. Points were awarded for activity completed and a peer-challenge facility was promoted via online league tables, prizes and the opportunity to ‘challenge’ other users. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of seventeen participants recruited from one public and one private sector workplace and from a sample of participants registered as individuals. Two programme planners employed by the CSP also took part. A figurational framework was utilised to investigate participants’ negotiation of networks of embodied and virtual relationships within the programme. Findings suggest the messages promoted in the WPC were disseminated and transformed according to the organizational structure of these networks. Embodied social relationships within workplaces reinforced peer support in professional I-we identities, whereas virtual networks sometimes highlighted participants’ isolation. Moreover, emphasis upon competition within and between teams caused some to question their performance. Often, competition motivated engagement. For less active participants, constant comparison could prove discouraging, particularly if participants felt they had let their colleagues down. Planners of similar programmes must be cognizant of the uneven manner of programme dissemination. Contextual differences at the point of delivery including existing organizational structures and power hierarchies have an impact upon participants’ perceptions of a programme

'Sexercise': Working out heterosexuality in Jane Fonda’s fitness books

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Leisure Studies, 30(2), 237 - 255, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02614367.2010.523837.This paper explores the connection between the promotion of heterosexual norms in women’s fitness books written by or in the name of Jane Fonda during the 1980s and the commodification of women’s fitness space in both the public and private spheres. The paper is set in the absence of overt discussions of normative heterosexuality in leisure studies and draws on critical heterosexual scholarship as well as the growing body of work theorising geographies of corporeality and heterosexuality. Using the principles of media discourse analysis, the paper identifies three overlapping characteristics of heterosexuality represented in Jane Fonda’s fitness books, and embodied through the exercise regimes: respectable heterosexual desire, monogamous procreation and domesticity. The paper concludes that the promotion and prescription of exercise for women in the Jane Fonda workout books centred on the reproduction and embodiment of heterosexual corporeality. Set within an emerging commercial landscape of women’s fitness in the 1980s, such exercise practices were significant in the legitimation and institutionalisation of heteronormativity

Changing Bodies: Experiences of Women Who Have Undergone a Surgically Induced Menopause.

We aimed to explore the lived experiences of women who had a surgical menopause as a result of undergoing a hysterectomy with Bilateral Salpingo-Oopherectomy (BSO). We adopted a qualitative interview design using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), and recruited 7 women aged 47 to 59. We conducted synchronous online semistructured interviews using the MSN (Microsoft Network) Messenger program. In the findings, we examine the prominent and underresearched theme of body image change. We discuss the women's journey from a deep internal bodily change, the meaning of this changing body image, through to the thoughts and behaviors involved with self-presentation concerns and coping with body image changes. A woman's perceived attractiveness and appearance investment are important factors to consider regarding adaptation to change over this transition. The findings might have implications for interventions designed to enhance mental well-being and increase health behaviors in women experiencing gynecological illness and/or menopause