Inflectional morphology refers to the mapping from grammatical information to surface forms, which are typically realized as morphemes. This mapping often exhibits fusion, where several abstract features are expressed in a single morpheme that cannot be decomposed into meaningful parts. Here, we discuss crosslinguistic generalizations of morphological fusion. We argue that fusion reflects principles of efficient processing, as formalized by the memory–surprisal tradeoff (Hahn, Degen, & Futrell 2021), which is based on information-theoretic models of language processing from psycholinguistics. We first show that the existence of fusion itself can, in some situations, lead communicative codes to be more efficient under our processing model. Particularly, we reveal via simulation that the fusion of highly correlated features is more efficient for processing, whereas agglutination is more efficient when features are less correlated. We next discuss crosslinguistic patterns of fusion in real languages. First, we analyze well-known generalizations about features that are commonly fused across languages (e.g. tense, aspect, and mood), as well as a typological pattern regarding suppletion. In both cases, we find that the universals we study tend to reflect a tendency toward more efficient structure under our model of language processing. Finally, we use paradigm and frequency data from four languages to study informational fusion, a gradable measure of fusion defined in Rathi et al. 2021. We find that informational fusion is higher when features are highly correlated, which suggests that gradable fusion is also influenced by optimization for the memory–surprisal tradeoff.

This paper examines the performance of smallholder crop farmers across different land ownership categories in Ghana. Using a metafrontier model, the study estimates technical efficiencies and productivity levels among farmers with formal land deeds, those without deeds, and non-landowners. The results show that land, labor, and capital significantly impact crop production across ownership categories, while social capital, income, and demographics influence managerial performance. Farmers with formal land deeds and those cultivating family-owned land exhibited superior production technologies. Enhancing access to extension services, credit, and farmer-based organizations, alongside collaboration with traditional chiefs and family heads, can improve land tenure security and productivity.

This article distinguishes isolationist and integrationist accounts of the legal-economic nexus. Isolationists deny the possibility of integrating different theoretical perspectives, while integrationists try to unify different accounts. Leading legal theorists have recently presented isolationist efficiency-, liberty-, and democracy-centred accounts of the market. It is argued that the legal–economic nexus is an integrationist concept, requiring an integrationist understanding of the constitutive role of law in the economy – a common view within the Law and Political Economy movement. Two integrationist strategies are presented: structural integrations and epistemic translations. Using them, an integrated consumer-centric account of the market is offered: consumers are not mere instruments; they are the lead actor, with all the entitlements in terms of powers, rights, and responsibilities that this position of authority entails.

Private sector entities can invest in and own the means of healthcare provision, creating opportunities and risks for health systems. While private investment can enhance access to capital, promote competition, and foster innovation, it can also exacerbate incentives for providers to engage in supplier-induced demand, undue price increases, quality compromises, and ‘cherry-picking’ of the most profitable patients and services. Despite the growing presence of private investors in the healthcare sector, heterogeneity in investor types remains poorly understood. This limits the ability of policymakers to consider whether, and to what extent, regulatory intervention is called for in relation to different forms of investor-ownership. By drawing on principal-agent theory, this article begins to address this gap by presenting a typology of investor-ownership in health services provision. Examining the policy relevance of such a typology, we present a case study analysis of current regulations directed at ownership across five countries, representing different health system models. We find that regulatory frameworks that differentiate between types of for-profit investor-ownership are largely absent in Europe, but more developed in the US. We argue that growing private investments require a combination of entry regulation and behavioural oversight to better align the incentives of investor-owners with public health objectives.

This work focuses on explaining both grammatical universals of word order and quantitative word-order preferences in usage by means of a simple efficiency principle: dependency locality. In its simplest form, dependency locality holds that words linked in a syntactic dependency (any head–dependent relationship) should be close in linear order. We give large-scale corpus evidence that dependency locality predicts word order in both grammar and usage, beyond what would be expected from independently motivated principles, and demonstrate a means for dissociating grammar and usage in corpus studies. Finally, we discuss previously undocumented variation in dependency length and how it correlates with other linguistic features such as head direction, providing a rich set of explananda for future linguistic theories.

We study how donors decide about which charity to give to. To this end, we construct a theoretical model that clarifies the conditions under which the stand-alone benefit from giving, the charity price (i.e. the fundraising expenditure and overhead costs claimed by the charity providing services), and the information cost (i.e. the cost of information acquisition) inform giving decisions. We define the price of giving as the sum total of charity price and information cost. The model shows that giving decisions might be affected by a price–information trade-off—a condition where donors care about the charity price because they want their donations to maximise charitable output, but dislike searching for the charity price because it is costly. The literature is then reviewed to test the explanatory power of the theoretical model. The review provides evidence in favour of a price–information trade-off.

“Resilience and the Management of Nonprofit Organizations” is a book that explores the concept of resilience management for nonprofit organizations. The authors, Dennis Young and Elizabeth Searing, argue that the current paradigm of nonprofit management, which focuses on trustworthiness and efficiency, needs to be revised to adequately address the challenges facing nonprofit organizations. They propose a new paradigm based on resilience, which they define as the ability of organizations to adapt to changing circumstances and continue serving their missions effectively. The book provides strategies for anticipating and preparing for crises, explores the various dimensions of organizational resilience, and offers management strategies for achieving organizational resilience. It also discusses the need for “organizational slack” in order to be flexible and adaptable in the face of challenges.

Over the last two decades, nonprofit organizations in the United Kingdom (UK) have faced increased pressure to measure their activities in order to demonstrate their competency, to achieve legitimacy, and to obtain funding. This paper draws from recent literature in the sociology of science to examine quantification in the British voluntary sector as a historically situated and socially constructed process. Using archival and secondary documents, I find that quantification is not a new practice for charities in the UK; moreover, while they have employed metrication in the past, what activities nonprofits have measured, and the importance of measurement for their organizational success, has altered over the course of the century.

This article begins by describing the major characteristics and the origins of multi-level governance (MLG). It then discusses the alleged novelty of MLG practices, whether MLG achieves its goals in terms of policy efficiency and acceptance, and the possible consequences of governance networks for the democratic quality of political decisions. In relation to these matters, it concludes that there is a gap between the intensity of theoretical debate and a lack of systematic empirical research. It thus seeks to provide some indications about promising avenues for ‘second generation’ research that would allow us to give more substantial answers to controversial questions concerning MLG.

Key stakeholders in the UK charity sector have, in recent years, advocated greater accountability for charity performance. Part of that debate has focussed on the use of conversion ratios as indicators of efficiency, with importance to stakeholders being contrasted with charities’ apparent reluctance to report such measures. Whilst, before 2005, conversion ratios could have been computed from financial statements, changes in the UK charity SORP have radically altered the ability of users to do this. This article explores the impact on the visibility of such information through an analysis of the financial statements of large UK charities before and after the 2005 changes. Overall, the findings suggest that, despite the stated intention of increasing transparency in respect of charity costs, the application of the changes has resulted in charities ‘managing’ the numbers and limiting their disclosures, possibly to the detriment of external stakeholders.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Europe are daily receiving food, thanks to local food banks, run basically by volunteers who collect donations and distribute them to organizations. In this paper, data from a sample of food banks working in 13 European countries are analysed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), trying to learn about their profiles and find some clues about the efficiency of their operations, comparing them according to variables such as the number of volunteers and permanent staff, the tonnage of food delivered and the number of people served. Significant inefficiencies were found in the sector as a result of high performance of some food banks, thus setting a high level standard of operational efficiency. Some additional results regarding food bank sizes and performance are presented.

What should mostly matter is how successful environmental policies are at satisfying citizens’ policy preferences (e.g., reducing carbon emissions), relative to the policies’ cost. Yet, across 6 studies (N = 2759, 2 pre-registered), we found that French citizens tended to be rather insensitive to policy efficiency. In Experiments 1a–d (N = 854), citizens regarded an environmental policy driven by an altruistic intention that turned out to be inefficient as being more commendable than a policy motivated by selfishness that dramatically reduced carbon emissions. In Experiment 2 (N = 1105), altruistic but low efficiency policies were supported only slightly less than selfish but highly efficient policies. Independent manipulation of intent and efficiency indicated low sensitivity to large differences in efficiency expressed numerically, and substantial sensitivity to actors’ intentions. Moreover, moral commitment predicted stronger support for any environmental policy addressing the issue, regardless of its efficiency. Finally, Experiment 3 (N = 800) found that introducing reference points and qualitative appraisals of a policy’s impact and financial cost can nudge participants towards greater attention to its efficiency. Our paper highlights the importance of using contextual and qualitative (vs. numeric) descriptions of policies to make citizens more focused on their efficiency.