London School of Economics and Political Science

About: London School of Economics and Political Science is a education organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Politics & Population. The organization has 8759 authors who have published 35017 publications receiving 1436302 citations.

Income Distribution and Differences in Needs

Abstract: The treatment of needs in assessing economic equity is a subject that arouses strong feelings. Very different approaches have been adopted in the study of this subject. There are those who regard differences in needs as sufficient grounds for rejecting any analysis of income inequality. For them to try to compare one distribution of income, Y1,…, Y h with another, Y1*,…, Y h *, is without meaning, since the people concerned may have quite different needs. ‘Welfare’ depends not just on income but also on other dimensions. Precisely what other dimensions we should take into account is open to debate, but most people would agree on certain factors such as health, handicap, age or family size. Arrow gives the example of ‘the haemophiliac who needs about $4,000 worth per annum of coagulant therapy to arrive at a state of security from bleeding at all comparable to that of the normal person’, an example he contrasts with the ‘facetious’ one of a person who is ‘desperate without pre-phylloxera clarets and plovers’ eggs’ (1973, p. 254).

Does the fear of debt deter students from higher education

Abstract: Concerns over the impact of debt on participation in higher education (HE) have dominated much of the debate surrounding the most recent reforms of financial support for full-time students in England, including the introduction of variable tuition fees. Yet few studies have attempted to explore this issue in a statistically robust manner. This article attempts to fill that gap. It examines the relationship between prospective HE students' attitudes to debt, and their decisions about whether or not to enter HE. Using data derived from a survey of just under 2,000 prospective students, it shows how those from low social classes are more debt averse than those from other social classes, and are far more likely to be deterred from going to university because of their fear of debt, even after controlling for a wide range of other factors. The article concludes that these findings pose a serious policy dilemma for the Westminster government. Their student funding policies are predicated on the accumulation of debt and thus are in danger of deterring the very students at the heart of their widening participation policies.

Constraints on conceptual development: a case study of the acquisition of folkbiological and folksociological knowledge in Madagascar.

Abstract: How different are the concepts held by children who grow up in a North American middle class neighborhood and by children who grow up in a rural Malagasy fishing village? By probing Malagasy children’s and adults’ conceptual representations of human and animal kind, biological inheritance, innate potential and family relations, the studies presented in this Monograph address current debates about the acquisition and the nature of concepts in the domains of folkbiology and folksociology. Cross-cultural and developmental studies of this kind bear on the hypothesis that conceptual development in these domains is supported and constrained by innate conceptual content. If so, one would expect cross-cultural universality in the relevant adult concepts and their early emergence in childhood regardless of widely different input conditions. We chose to conduct these studies among the Vezo of Madagascar because the ethnographic literature has attributed to them folkbiological and folksociological theories that are radically different, even incommensurable, with those of North American adults. Vezo therefore provide a challenging test for the innate conceptual constraints hypothesis. Four studies probed aspects of biological and sociological reasoning of Vezo children, adolescents and adults through a number of adoption scenarios. Despite ethnographic reports to the contrary, we found cross-cultural convergence in adult concepts of biological inheritance, but the pattern of development of this concept differed greatly from that seen in North America. Moreover, in agreement with the ethnographic literature, we found that Vezo adults have constructed a distinctive theory of social group identity. However, we found that children’s reasoning in this domain is under the influence of endogenous constraints that are overturned in the course of development. Finally, we found cross-cultural convergence in adults’ concept of species kind, as well as evidence for the early emergence of this concept. In light of these findings, we discuss the nature of the constraints on children’s conceptual representations, the developmental process through which the adults’ concepts are constructed, and relations between Vezo theories of folkbiology and folksociology.

Nationalism and international society

Abstract: What is meant by international society? On what principles is the notion of international society based? How has the notion of nationalism influenced its evolution? In this book James Mayall addresses these questions and sheds important new light on the issues of nation and international society by bringing together subjects that have hitherto been examined separately. Three central themes run throughout the study. First, the challenge posed to previous conceptions of international society and order by the principle of national self-determination. Secondly, the relationship between national and liberal ideas about the organization of political and economic relations between states. And thirdly, the merging of the economic and political aspects of nationalist thought in recent claims by Third World states on the international community.

Exploring Organizationally Directed Citizenship Behaviour: Reciprocity or 'It's my Job'?

Abstract: This study sets out to examine two explanations for why employees engage in organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The first explanation views OCB as a form of reciprocation where employees engage in OCB to reciprocate fair or good treatment from the organization. The second view is that employees engage in OCB because they define those behaviours as part of their job. The research methodology consisted of survey data from 387 hospital employees on their perceptions of procedural and interactional justice, mutual commitment, job breadth and OCB. The results suggest that procedural and interactional justice are positively associated with mutual commitment that in turn, is related directly to OCB and indirectly through expanding the boundaries of an individual's job. These findings suggest that together the reciprocation thesis and 'it's my job' argument complement each other and provide a more complete foundation for our understanding of OCB. The difference between the two perspectives lies in the process by which individuals respond; that is, role enlargement and role maintenance. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.