Publication Type: Paper/Poster Proposal
Abstract: This paper has two goals: first, to present new findings on workweek differences among a particularly interesting segment of the U.S. labor force, doctoral scientists and engineers; and, second, to provide a critical review of the methodological literature on measuring the number of hours that individuals devote to work. The data analyzed are drawn from the 2003 Survey of Doctorate Recipients, a biennial panel survey of doctoral scientists and engineers in the U.S. sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Descriptive findings show substantial differences within the doctoral labor force along the lines of employment sector, time since doctorate and (for those employed in academe) tenure status, marital status, and number of children. The methodological review argues that while self-reports to standard survey questions about hours worked per week may well be problematic for some segments of the labor force, they are likely to provide valid and reliable data for professional workers with established work routines. This criterion is met by the vast majority of doctoral-level workers and, while we are not able to directly validate them, the self-reports are likely to prove valid and reliable.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Recent research examining judicial sentencing decisions has shown the need to further define the incarceration decision and expand the definition of judicial options when sentencing felony offenders (Holleran and Spohn, 2004; Harrington and Spohn, 2005). These prior findings suggest that the legal and extra-legal factors judges use to sentence felony offenders differ for the decision to incarcerate in jail versus prison. The present research extends this examination to the factors that influence sentence length with the more detailed definition of sentencing options. Our research examines the sentence length imposed for felony offenders sentenced to jail and prison separately, in a jurisdiction, Midwestern County, with an indeterminate sentencing system.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: There have been numerous studies of Japanese legal language. Most, if not all, of them condemn the use of legalese and unreasonably lengthy sentences of statutory texts. However, such a view is too simplistic, naïve, ungrounded, and hard to accept, because not all sentences involving legalese or long sentences are incomprehensible. The existing literature all fails to recognize such facts and wrongfully convicts the choice of vocabulary and length of sentences of the cause of incomprehensibility of legal texts. In this presentation, legal language that appears in statutory texts and various legal settings in Japan will be examined in terms of “syntactic structure unique to Japanese language” and “sentence-processing,” and the true culprit of the incomprehensibility will be investigated and indicted. This study will add to the scholarship of language and law in that it identifies the real cause of incomprehensibility of Japanese legal language which no previous studies have addressed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: We are analyzing whether the length of planning needed to establish a country’s poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) has an influence on the time a country needs to repay its debt to the international monetary fund (IMF). The argument is that a longer time needed to establish a country’s poverty reduction plan results in a more thoroughly tailored plan fitting a country’s situation better. Therefore, it should enable the country to regain financial stability faster and thus repay its debt earlier than a country with an inappropriately tailored PRSP. We advance upon the literature by including political factors in the repayment process that are often neglected but which we deem necessary to include. Using a two step duration model, we are able to simultaneously estimate both the influence of the underlying bargaining process as well as the effect of macroeconomic and political variables on a country’s repayment performance. This method allows us to disentangle the interdependencies between the two duration processes – the length of PRSP tailoring and the repayment performance. Our approach therefore improves on standard duration analyses and models often neglected political driving forces behind countries repayment decisions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Criminology has long been interested in how official sanctions imposed on criminal offenders affect their subsequent recidivism patterns, including the question of how length of incarceration affects subsequent offending. In addition to the policy implications of this question, it is also theoretically important given the conflicting expectations made by different theories about the effect of length of time served on subsequent criminal behavior. For example, specific deterrence theory expects length of stay should be negatively associated with recidivism, whereas defiance theory posits it should be positively associated. Further, it could be argued that the effect of time served may be conditional on criminal propensity at the time of incarceration, or that it may even be irrelevant to recidivism. In this paper, we examine these theoretical expectations by analyzing longitudinal data on youth offenders released from the CYA in 1981-82. After separating offenders into distinct latent classes as of the time of incarceration, we subsequently use the Cox proportional hazards model to examine the time to first re-arrest to examine whether time served has “deterrent, defiant, or irrelevant” effects. The results of this study are interpreted in terms of their implications for policy, theory, and future research.