The American Journal of Economics and Sociology

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, July, 2004

Our issue includes several papers that straddle the fields of economics and sociology. Professor Steve J. Shone revisits the writings of William Graham Sumner, who is a favorite of historians of sociology. In one history of sociology text, Sumner is remembered for formulating the important distinction between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. In another circle, Sumner is cited for his uncompromising social Darwinism and claimed by libertarians as one of their own, taking up the cause of liberty against the annoying hands of the government bureaucracy. Which Sumner is real, and how do we reconcile the two faces of this fascinating writer? Professor Shone takes a stab at this reconciliation.

As is our custom, we include several interesting empirical studies. The first, by the research team of Kent Bausman of Maryville University of Saint Louis and Richard Goe of Kansas State University, examines the link between employment volatility and the spatial distribution of property crime. It is increasingly apparent that more attention must be paid to the regional variations sometimes camouflaged by aggregative measures. This paper suggests how important it is to disaggregate by metropolitan counties in order to understand the important impact that employment volatility actually has on property crimes.

Professor Maurice J. Mazerolle of Ryerson University and Gangaram Singh of San Diego State University offer a simple and straightforward regression exercise to bring out the overlaps and interrelationships between the fields of economics and sociology. These authors address the question of what factors statistically increase the likelihood of becoming reemployed after losing a job. That likelihood increases the more use is made of social networks and the greater economic need. Their most unorthodox finding is that the amount of human capital accumulated by a worker (presumably non-job-specific human capital) does not affect the likelihood of reemployment. Their study was based on a group of 247 Canadian workers in Ontario who were victims of local plant closing during the 1980s.

The last article in this issue is by Professor Warren B. Hrung of the Office of Tax Analysis of the U.S. Department of Treasury. His access to novel data sources has allowed him to advance the hypothesis that, by aggregating charitable contributions, economists have overlooked the peculiar nature of donations to religious organizations. This type of charity increases with age, suggesting a demand for "after-life consumption" that becomes more compelling as donors enter their retirement years. Most interesting is how religious contributions decline with income, suggesting that the demand for religious services may not be a "normal good" at all in the traditional economic sense.

We conclude this issue with two fine book reviews, the first by Andrew Savchenko, of Alex Callinicos's critique of capitalism and recommendation for some (pseudo) third way is skeptical, if not downright antagonistic. According to Savchenko, Callinicos is sounding the old out-of-tune Marxist stuff in a new century that would do better to leave this ideology behind. Savchenko's rhetoric is intentionally controversial.