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Human resources and economic welfare: Essays in honor of Eli Ginzberg
Book Reviews cent of the non-prescribed and 22 per cent of the prescribed drugs, indicting that non-prehend medicines are “hoarded” longer. Overall, there was no significant difference by social class in number of prescribed drugs in the home. However, for non-prescribed drugs, there was a positive correlation between number and social class The data also showed that apparently social class is not correlated with medicine use for either adults or children. The reviewers have been engaged in research on the same general topic area as Dunnell and Cartwright. As part of a longitudinal study of decision-making and self-medication. we obtained data on 234 randomly recruited households in Columbus, Ohio. over an average of 37 weeks. The respondents. usually housewives, kept diaries on their health, illness or injury, and drug-procurement behaviors. This study is described in detail in the, December, 1972, issue of the American Journal of Hospitaf Pharmacy. Preliminary results from our panel that are relevant to the book’s topics are presented below. However, because of differing methodologies. units of observation, populations, and health care systems. inferences made from any comparisons are quite tenuous at best and left to the reader. Ill
health and medication
The most frequently reported illness was the common cold; headache was second. We have not yet separated the data for children and adults. At least one drug product was used in over 90 per cent of the illnesses or injuries Seventytwo per cent of the reported illnesses or injuries involved drug use without physician contact. Twenty-one per cent of the illness or injury conditions was reported as having physician contact. Non-prescribed drug usage outnumbered prescribed by about 3: 1. Nature
of medication
Our analysis contrasting the usage of prescribed and nonprescribed drugs is as follows: 59 per cent of the illnesses or injuries were treated using non-prescribed drugs only; 19 per cent using only prescribed; and 12 per cent using both. Thus. the majority of drugs used were non-prescribed. rrredicincs Using the Hollingshead-Redlich two-factor index of social class. we classified our households into upper, middle, or lower classes. The only social class trend of note was that households of a lower social class were more likely to treat an illness or injury using only non-prescribed drugs (no doctor contact or prescribed drugs) than those of a higher class. Who takes
~edicil?es
in the hame
We inv~toried all the drugs in each ~rti~pating household at the beginning and end of the panel oeriod. Using data from the beginning inventory. the- average number cf drugs was 225; 5.3 prescribed and 17.2 non-prescribed. Number of both prescribed and non-prescribe.d drugs was positively correlated with social class. as contrasted with Dunnell and Cartwright. who found this trend only for nonv prescribed drugs. probably due to a health system difference. Ten to fifteen per cent of all dated prescribed drugs were over 3 yr old. Although the study has certain methodological limitations. which the authors carefully detail. they speak directly to their original questions and provide a wealth of
123
empirical data in an area lacking such information. To summarize, this hook is an excellent reference on the use of medicines in Great Britain. DEANNEE. KNAPP DAMD A. KNAPP department University Baltimore.
of Pharmacy of Maryland, Maryland.
Administration.
Human Resn~wes and Economic Welfare: Essays in Honor of El? Gin&erg, edited by IVAR BERG.Columbia University Press, New York, 1972. 366 pp. S12.50. Eli Ginzberg, over a span of 40 yr, has made many distinctive and distingui~ed ~nt~butions to scholarship and to society. His career has been a model of the creative fusion of the academician and the policy maker. It is a career characterized by a great breadth of view on the problems of society and the ways in which di~piined knowledge can contribute to their solution. Given a career that has touched so many fields, it is entirely appropriate that close associates of Eli Gin&erg should have thought of producing a Festschrift on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The impulse was an admirable one and offered the potential for a major volume in the fields of policy with which Eli Gin&erg has been associated. This labor of love was undertaken by Ivar Berg with obvious pleasure and devotion. One would like very much to say that the outcome is a success a%tdworthy of the man being honored Unhappily, this reviewer finds the volume, though laudable in intent, at best uneven and at worst a considerable ~~p~intrn~~ Unfort~ateiy, that seems to be the cast with many Festschrifts. Yet the book is not entirely without merit It does fulfill at least one of its purposes, which is to refiect the extraordinarily wide range of Eli Gin&erg’s interests and professional activities Thus, there are several articles that deal with the field of manpower as an area of study and more specifically with some of the problems of economic analysis that are related to that field Several articles are concerned with the special problems of developing countries, while others range widely over such topics as professions, women, the family and education. One article even goes way back to the beginning of Ginzberg’s career, reporting on the current condition of South Wales set against the background of Ginzberg’s early book on Welsh miners published in 1942. It is this very wide range of subjects, however, that also represents one of the weaknesses of the volume. Some topics are treated well and whet’the appetite for further develop ment so that the important points rajsed might be carried forward on a more profound and technical level. This is the case, for example, in regard to several articles that deaf with the field of manpower research and planning. These are, as a group. the best articles in the book. Richard Lester opens the discussion with a catalog of issues in the field, outlines the various approaches that have been followed, and categorizes their strengths and weaknesses Kenneth Boulding provides a penetrating and subtle discussion of “man as a commodity”. stressing the dangers of a manpower approach that places excessive emphasis on the contributions that improvement of the manpower pool can make toward the
1’4
Book Reviews
society rather than toward the individuals involved. Articles by Moses Abramovitz and E. Wight Bakke map out very well the complex interrelationships that exist between investments in human resources and the functioning of the economy, as welt as some of the dilemmas of choice that are embedded in these relationships. Articles by Frederick H. Harbison and Philip M. Hauser deal with technical problems of measurement that are crucial to the further development of both research and effective planning in the manpower field. These articles are at a sufficiently high level to make this reviewer wish that the book had had a more limited scope concentrated on this central subject. The limitation of the articles, although they are on the whole very competent, is that they pose rather broad issues but fall short of making a systematic analysis of the present state of knowledge and the directions for future devetopment. Important topics such as forecasting, primary and secondary labor markets, and the impact of training programs, to mention but a few, receive cursory treatment. When we move from the articles that are specific to the manpower field, the general quality declines considerably. Without singling out specific articles, it seems fair to say
they suffer generally from being foe broad and lucking III documentation. and or from repeating material rhat ii reasonably familiar and easil) available rlsru here. Much of the material is so familiar that it has a rather worn qualit! To take an admittedly extreme example. one wonders ho\\ the editor allowed. in 1973. the following ~~nachronistic “Clear-cut role reversals in parents c;m statement: obviously distort the child’s development. as when the father does thecooking and housekeeping. leading the child to aberrant concepts of masculinity and femininity”. The book closes with several personal tributes to Eli Ginzberg by Theodore Hesburgh. Robert M. Maclvrr and George P. Shultz. They are well deserved statements of appreciation to Ginzberg and have a proper place in such a book. Here again. however. this revlewrr would hate appreciated a more scholarly and critical appraisal of Ginzberg’s work. His accomplishments and stature merit such an analysis.
health and medication
The most frequently reported illness was the common cold; headache was second. We have not yet separated the data for children and adults. At least one drug product was used in over 90 per cent of the illnesses or injuries Seventytwo per cent of the reported illnesses or injuries involved drug use without physician contact. Twenty-one per cent of the illness or injury conditions was reported as having physician contact. Non-prescribed drug usage outnumbered prescribed by about 3: 1. Nature
of medication
Our analysis contrasting the usage of prescribed and nonprescribed drugs is as follows: 59 per cent of the illnesses or injuries were treated using non-prescribed drugs only; 19 per cent using only prescribed; and 12 per cent using both. Thus. the majority of drugs used were non-prescribed. rrredicincs Using the Hollingshead-Redlich two-factor index of social class. we classified our households into upper, middle, or lower classes. The only social class trend of note was that households of a lower social class were more likely to treat an illness or injury using only non-prescribed drugs (no doctor contact or prescribed drugs) than those of a higher class. Who takes
~edicil?es
in the hame
We inv~toried all the drugs in each ~rti~pating household at the beginning and end of the panel oeriod. Using data from the beginning inventory. the- average number cf drugs was 225; 5.3 prescribed and 17.2 non-prescribed. Number of both prescribed and non-prescribe.d drugs was positively correlated with social class. as contrasted with Dunnell and Cartwright. who found this trend only for nonv prescribed drugs. probably due to a health system difference. Ten to fifteen per cent of all dated prescribed drugs were over 3 yr old. Although the study has certain methodological limitations. which the authors carefully detail. they speak directly to their original questions and provide a wealth of
123
empirical data in an area lacking such information. To summarize, this hook is an excellent reference on the use of medicines in Great Britain. DEANNEE. KNAPP DAMD A. KNAPP department University Baltimore.
of Pharmacy of Maryland, Maryland.
Administration.
Human Resn~wes and Economic Welfare: Essays in Honor of El? Gin&erg, edited by IVAR BERG.Columbia University Press, New York, 1972. 366 pp. S12.50. Eli Ginzberg, over a span of 40 yr, has made many distinctive and distingui~ed ~nt~butions to scholarship and to society. His career has been a model of the creative fusion of the academician and the policy maker. It is a career characterized by a great breadth of view on the problems of society and the ways in which di~piined knowledge can contribute to their solution. Given a career that has touched so many fields, it is entirely appropriate that close associates of Eli Gin&erg should have thought of producing a Festschrift on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The impulse was an admirable one and offered the potential for a major volume in the fields of policy with which Eli Gin&erg has been associated. This labor of love was undertaken by Ivar Berg with obvious pleasure and devotion. One would like very much to say that the outcome is a success a%tdworthy of the man being honored Unhappily, this reviewer finds the volume, though laudable in intent, at best uneven and at worst a considerable ~~p~intrn~~ Unfort~ateiy, that seems to be the cast with many Festschrifts. Yet the book is not entirely without merit It does fulfill at least one of its purposes, which is to refiect the extraordinarily wide range of Eli Gin&erg’s interests and professional activities Thus, there are several articles that deal with the field of manpower as an area of study and more specifically with some of the problems of economic analysis that are related to that field Several articles are concerned with the special problems of developing countries, while others range widely over such topics as professions, women, the family and education. One article even goes way back to the beginning of Ginzberg’s career, reporting on the current condition of South Wales set against the background of Ginzberg’s early book on Welsh miners published in 1942. It is this very wide range of subjects, however, that also represents one of the weaknesses of the volume. Some topics are treated well and whet’the appetite for further develop ment so that the important points rajsed might be carried forward on a more profound and technical level. This is the case, for example, in regard to several articles that deaf with the field of manpower research and planning. These are, as a group. the best articles in the book. Richard Lester opens the discussion with a catalog of issues in the field, outlines the various approaches that have been followed, and categorizes their strengths and weaknesses Kenneth Boulding provides a penetrating and subtle discussion of “man as a commodity”. stressing the dangers of a manpower approach that places excessive emphasis on the contributions that improvement of the manpower pool can make toward the
1’4
Book Reviews
society rather than toward the individuals involved. Articles by Moses Abramovitz and E. Wight Bakke map out very well the complex interrelationships that exist between investments in human resources and the functioning of the economy, as welt as some of the dilemmas of choice that are embedded in these relationships. Articles by Frederick H. Harbison and Philip M. Hauser deal with technical problems of measurement that are crucial to the further development of both research and effective planning in the manpower field. These articles are at a sufficiently high level to make this reviewer wish that the book had had a more limited scope concentrated on this central subject. The limitation of the articles, although they are on the whole very competent, is that they pose rather broad issues but fall short of making a systematic analysis of the present state of knowledge and the directions for future devetopment. Important topics such as forecasting, primary and secondary labor markets, and the impact of training programs, to mention but a few, receive cursory treatment. When we move from the articles that are specific to the manpower field, the general quality declines considerably. Without singling out specific articles, it seems fair to say
they suffer generally from being foe broad and lucking III documentation. and or from repeating material rhat ii reasonably familiar and easil) available rlsru here. Much of the material is so familiar that it has a rather worn qualit! To take an admittedly extreme example. one wonders ho\\ the editor allowed. in 1973. the following ~~nachronistic “Clear-cut role reversals in parents c;m statement: obviously distort the child’s development. as when the father does thecooking and housekeeping. leading the child to aberrant concepts of masculinity and femininity”. The book closes with several personal tributes to Eli Ginzberg by Theodore Hesburgh. Robert M. Maclvrr and George P. Shultz. They are well deserved statements of appreciation to Ginzberg and have a proper place in such a book. Here again. however. this revlewrr would hate appreciated a more scholarly and critical appraisal of Ginzberg’s work. His accomplishments and stature merit such an analysis.