Institutions and policies for growth and poverty reduction: the role of private sector development

This paper goes over some of the recent discussions on the effects on growth and poverty of institutions and policies, especially those that relate to the functioning of the private sector. It examines the empirical relationship between various measures of institutional quality and regulatory policies, and economic growth and poverty. The results suggest that good governance, as measured by a strong commitment to the rule of law, among other things, matters for poverty reduction largely through its effect on economic growth. In terms of business regulations, the paper finds that less restrictive regulations pertaining to starting a business are associated with higher economic growth as well as lower rates of $2-a-day poverty. Political freedom is not associated with either higher growth or lower poverty. Taken together, the evidence here seems to suggest that the delivery of good governance and policies that facilitate the creation of new enterprises are more relevant for growth and poverty reduction than the nature of the political system per se.

Hierarchical relationship between values, lifestyles, possessions and food consumption among Beijing adult population

A representative sample (N=801) of the Beijing adult population was used to empirically test and validate a proposed hierarchical model of relationships between values, lifestyles, possessions and food consumption. The theoretical contribution of the present study is the development and an empirically supported paradigm, which explains consumers' consumption behaviour. A further outcome is the substantiation of a pathway model involving hierarchical relationship between values, lifestyle, and demographic variables on material possessions and food consumption.

Civic responsibility among Australian adolescents: testing two competing models

The development of civic responsibilitv is considered to be an important
component of healthy adolescent development. However, the study of its
development has been relatively neglected and few studies have attempted to ground understanding of its development in a theoretical framework. The present study operationalized civic responsibility as attitudes and behaviors relating to political and community issues that are beneficial to society and compared two theoretical causal models, the social development model (SDM) and a coping-competency model for their predictive value. Gender differences were also assessed. A total of 500 subjects, drawn from a longitudinal study (the Australian Temperament Project), participated in the study, using questionnaire and interview data. Approximately 1 in 5 adolescents actively engaged in behaviors reflecting community civic responsibility and less than 1 in 10 actively participated in the political arena. However, positive levels of social awareness were evident.

Biography : an interdisciplinary quarterly

The article presents information about the December 2005 issue of the journal "Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly." The Annual Bibliography for 2004-05, while containing few surprises, is nevertheless rather overwhelming. The numbers are very suggestive. Almost 1,000 individual entries appear: 127 Books, 451 Articles in 63 Collections or Special issues, 298 articles in Periodicals, and 104 Doctoral Dissertations. Publication advertisements appear in this issue for Miriam Fuchs's "The Text is Myself: Women's Life Writing and Catastrophe," and William Todd Schultz's "Handbook of Psychobiography."

Made which to measure? Nineteenth century science and sporting bodies

The modification of bodies to enhance performance for competitive sporting purposes originated in the mid eighteenth century. Since then, ‘science’ has informed the discourses of sports training practices, but its influence has changed significantly, now being directive rather than merely being addressed in the ethos of training. Today, sports training practices often are associated with scientific research focussed on understanding the biological processes underpinning physical achievements. However, in the first two centuries of modern sport, science, rather than directing practice, was used as a legitimating, justifying discourse that served to empower training practices.

This paper, an exercise in historical anthropology, replaces conventional ethnographic data with the texts of sports training manuals, sports periodicals and medical journals to examine how these discourses represented the influence of science on the preparation of the body for competition. The focus on the nineteenth century is instructive because, first, physiological models at the century’s start were influenced by Galenic theory, but were underpinned by modern empirical science at its end. Second, from the 1860s, amateurism inspired a major rethinking of training; the ensuing contrast with the preparation of professional athletes illustrates how science was deployed in the making of nineteenth century sporting bodies.