"Amply documented and methodologically precise, this volume provides a definitive socioeconomic assessment of earnings inequality and racial divisions in Atlanta."
- Choice

"The Atlanta Paradox is among the most important contributions of the past decade to our understanding of racial patterns of economic disadvantage in U.S. metropolitan regions. If we rank metropolitan regions by how much we understand about such matters, Atlanta just moved to the top!"
- RONALD F. FERGUSON, Harvard University

"This is an important and rigorous book. It offers a unique statistical snapshot of the South's leading city in the late 20th century-demonstrating the extent of the Atlanta paradox and offering explanations for its persistence."
- Southeastern Geographer

Despite the rapid creation of jobs in the greater Atlanta region, poverty in the city itself remains surprisingly high, and Atlanta's economic boom has yet to play a significant role in narrowing the gap between the suburban rich and the city poor. This book investigates the key factors underlying this paradox.

The authors show that the legacy of past residential segregation as well as the more recent phenomenon of urban sprawl both work against inner city blacks. Many remain concentrated near traditional black neighborhoods south of the city center and face prohibitive commuting distances now that jobs have migrated to outlying northern suburbs.

The book also presents some promising signs. Few whites still hold overt negative stereotypes of blacks, and both whites and blacks would prefer to live in more integrated neighborhoods. The emergence of a dynamic, black middle class and the success of many black-owned businesses in the area also give the authors reason to hope that racial inequality will not remain entrenched in a city where so much else has changed.

DAVID L. SJOQUIST is professor of economics in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Ronald H. Bayor, Irene Browne, Obie Clayton Jr., Nikki McIntyre Finlay, Christopher R. Geller, Gary Paul Green, Roger B. Hammer, Truman A. Hartshorn, Cynthia Lucas Hewitt, Keith R. Ihlanfeldt, Sahadeo Patram, Travis Patton, David L. Sjoquist, Mark A. Thompson, and Leann M. Tigges

A Volume in the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality

After acts of airline terrorism, air travel tends to drop dramatically—yet Americans routinely pursue the far riskier business of driving cards, where accidents resulting in death or injury are much more likely to occur. Reporting on Risk argues that this selective concern with danger is powerfully shaped by the media, whose coverage of potentially hazardous events is governed more by a need to excite the public than to inform it.

Singer and Endreny survey a wide range of print and electronic media to provide an unprecedented look at how hundreds of different hazards are presented to the public—from toxic waste and food poisoning to cigarette smoking, from transportation accidents to famine, and from experimental surgery to communicable diseases. Their investigations raise thought-provoking questions about what the media tell us about modern risks, which hazards are covered and which ignored, and how the media determine when hazards should be considered risky. Are natural hazards reported differently than man-made hazards? Is greater emphasis placed on the potential benefits or the potential drawbacks of complex new technologies? Are journalists more concerned with reporting on unproven cures or informing the public about preventative measures? Do newspapers differ from magazines and television in their risk reporting practices?

Reporting on Risk investigates how the media place blame for disasters, and looks at how the reporting of risks has changed in the past twenty-five years as such hazards as nuclear power, birth control methods, and industrial by-products have grown in national prominence. The authors demonstrate that the media often fail to report on risks until energized by the occurrence of some disastrous or dramatic event—the Union Carbide pesticide leak in Bhopal, the Challenger explosion, the outbreak of famine in Somalia, or the failed transplant of a baboon heart to "Baby Fae." Sustained attention to these hazards depends less on whether the underlying issues have been resolved than on whether they continue to unfold in newsworthy events.

Reporting on Risk examines the accuracy and the amount of information we receive about our environment. It offers a critical perspective on how our perceptions of risk, as shaped by the media, may contribute to misguided individual and public choices for action and prevention in an increasingly complex world. The authors' probing assessment of how the media report a vast array of risks offers insights useful to journalists, policy analysts, risk specialists, legislators, and concerned citizens.

ELEANOR SINGER is senior research scholar at the Center for the Social Sciences, Columbia University, and social science analyst with the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

PHYLLIS M. ENDRENY is social research consultant in Chicago, and was previously assistant professor of mass communications and mass media at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"This important book reports major findings from a unique study of interethnic perceptions, attitudes, and behavior in an exceptionally diverse university setting. At the time data collection for this project began, UCLA was the most ethnically diverse major university in the country. No single ethnic category constituted a numerical majority–a level of diversity yet to be matched in later times or in other regions of the country, but foreshadowing the demographic makeup of universities of the future. A longitudinal design provided an opportunity to assess the influence of college experiences across a five-year span that is unprecedented in this area of research. The results will be of substantial interest across the social science disciplines and to educational researchers and practitioners. The book is written at a level that will be accessible to an intelligent layperson while at the same time providing enough technical detail to satisfy experts in the field. The Diversity Challenge is a must read for anyone interested in intergroup relations in a multicultural society."
- MARILYNN B. BREWER, Regents Eminent Scholar Professor in Social Psychology, Ohio State University

"This exceptional book summarizes results from the authors' landmark study of intergroup relations on the college campus. Through their extensive and multi-faceted longitudinal analysis. Jim Sidanius, Shana Levin, Colette van Laar, and David O. Sears provide us with compelling new insights regarding the benefits and challenges of diverse academic environments, and how a range of factors–from the psychological to the structural–can impact students' social and political attitudes. Moving beyond common debates about diversity. The Diversity Challenge pushes us to recognize the complex and dynamic nature of intergroup relations, taking into account both the attitudes people bring to diverse contexts, and how their attitudes continue to grow and change through experiences with other groups."
-LINDA R. TROPP, director, Psychology of Peace and Violence Concentration, University of Massacbusetts, Amherst

"This book provides a treasure trove of empirical data that deepen our understanding of issues of ethnic diversity among college students. The authors give readers a detailed and fascinating picture of the dynamics of ethnicity in higher education. Joining particular findings with social scientific theories about social identity and of intergroup relations. The Diversity Challenge can help us improve both our theories and our realities–enhancing the education delivered at the multi-ethnic university, today and in the decades to come."
-FAYE J. CROSBY, professor of psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz

College campuses provide ideal natural settings for studying diversity: they allow us to see what happens when students of all different backgrounds sit side by side in classrooms, live together in residence halls, and interact in one social space. By opening a window onto the experiences and evolving identities of individuals in these exceptionally diverse environments, we can gain a better understanding of the possibilities and challenges we face as a multicultural nation. The Diversity Challenge—the largest and most comprehensive study to date on college campus diversity—synthesizes over five years’ worth of research by an interdisciplinary team of experts to explore how a highly diverse environment and policies that promote cultural diversity affect social relations, identity formation, and a variety of racial and political attitudes. The result is a fascinating case study of the ways in which individuals grow and groups interact in a world where ethnic and racial difference is the norm.

The authors of The Diversity Challenge followed 2,000 UCLA students for five years in order to see how diversity affects identities, attitudes, and group conflicts over time. They found that racial prejudice generally decreased with exposure to the ethnically diverse college environment. Students who were randomly assigned to roommates of a different ethnicity developed more favorable attitudes toward students of different backgrounds, and the same associations held for friendship and dating patterns. By contrast, students who interacted mainly with others of similar backgrounds were more likely to exhibit bias toward others and perceive discrimination against their group. Likewise, the authors found that involvement in ethnically segregated student organizations sharpened perceptions of discrimination and aggravated conflict between groups. The Diversity Challenge also reports compelling new evidence that a strong ethnic identity can coexist with a larger community identity: students from all ethnic groups were equally likely to identify themselves as a part of the broader UCLA community. Overall, the authors note that on many measures, the racial and political attitudes of the students were remarkably consistent throughout the five year study. But the transformations that did take place provide us with a wealth of information on how diversity affects individuals, groups, and the cohesion of a community.

Theoretically informed and empirically grounded, The Diversity Challenge is an illuminating and provocative portrait of one of the most diverse college campuses in the nation. The story of multicultural UCLA has significant and far-reaching implications for our nation, as we face similar challenges—and opportunities—on a much larger scale.

JIM SIDANIUS is professor of psychology and African American Studies at Harvard University.

SHANA LEVIN is associate professor of psychology at Claremont McKenna College.

COLETTE VAN LAAR is professor of social psychology at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

DAVID O. SEARS is distinguished professor of psychology and political science and director of the Institute for Social Science Research at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"All modern nations-even Norway, even Japan-contradict themselves: they contain multitudes. How are such contradictions to be dealt with, such multitudes managed? This series of vivid and circumstantial case studies of everything from group rights in India and religious conflicts in France to customary marriages in South Africa and cultural defenses in American courts reveals the depth of the problems posed to democratic governments by cultural difference, how they are being approached, and what the results have been. A searching discussion of an urgent issue."
-CLIFFORD GEERTZ, INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY

"A lively, deeply insightful discussion of the profound ethical dilemmas posed by the unexpected collision of two of liberalism's favored assumptions."
-JEROME KAGAN, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

"Engaging Cultural Differences provides a fresh analysis on aspects of the challenges facing liberal pluralistic societies as they attempt to accommodate the cultural values and preferences of their new citizens. It includes penetrating perspectives that call for a reevaluation of the dominant theories on the subject. A must read for scholars and policy makers reflecting on the impact of emigration on Western societies and the dynamics of integration and assimilation in the age of globalization."
-YVONNE YABECK HADDAD, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY OF ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM RELATIONS, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

"The question of cultural difference has long been a double- pronged thorn in the side of liberalism. It has dented confident assertions of universal individual rights with allegations of discrimination. And it has punctured claims of broadly based tolerance with accusations of indifference to oppression. This remarkably powerful volume, rich in both empirical detail and theoretical sophistication, confronts these issues head on from a range of different perspectives-legal, psychological, anthropological, historical. It will change the way many people think and become indispensable reading for scholars interested in liberalism, practitioners working within multicultural institutions, and activists involved in human rights."
-JACQUELINE BHABHA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS STUDIES, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

"When a society professes commitment to equal liberties, and also to tolerance of cultural difference, the resulting paradoxes are not merely intellectual. In Engaging Cultural Differences, some two dozen distinguished scholars in law and the social sciences consider the law's confrontations with deep cultural difference in six liberal nations. Some subjects are broad (international human rights, cultural models of identity and equality), and some particular (individual claims to asylum, or to the 'cultural defense' in criminal law). Both general readers and specialists in many disciplines have much to learn from these essays-even readers who find some cultural differences more engaging than others."
-KENNETH L. KARST, DAVID G. PRICE AND DALLAS P. PRICE PROFESSOR OF LAW EMERITUS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

Liberal democracies are based on principles of inclusion and tolerance. But how does the principle of tolerance work in practice in countries such as Germany, France, India, South Africa, and the United States, where an increasingly wide range of cultural groups holds often contradictory beliefs about appropriate social and family life practices? As these democracies expand to include peoples of vastly different cultural backgrounds, the limits of tolerance are being tested as never before. Engaging Cultural Differences explores how liberal democracies respond socially and legally to differences in the cultural and religious practices of their minority groups.

Building on such examples, the contributors examine the role of tolerance in practical encounters between state officials and immigrants, and between members of longstanding majority groups and increasing numbers of minority groups. The volume also considers the theoretical implications of expanding the realm of tolerance. Some contributors are reluctant to broaden the scope of tolerance, while others insist that the notion of "tolerance" is itself potentially confining and demeaning and that modern nations should aspire to celebrate cultural differences.

Coming to terms with ethnic diversity and cultural differences has become a major public policy concern in contemporary liberal democracies, as they struggle to adjust to burgeoning immigrant populations. Engaging Cultural Differences provides a compelling examination of the challenges of multiculturalism and reveals a deep understanding of the challenges democracies face as they seek to accommodate their citizens' diverse beliefs and practices.

RICHARD A. SHWEDER, an anthropologist, is professor of human development at the University of Chicago.

MARTHA MINOW is professor of law at Harvard University.

HAZEL R. MARKUS is professor of psychology at Stanford University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Richard A. Shweder, Martha Minow, Hazel Rose Markus, Caroline Bledsoe, David L. Chambers, Jane Maslow Cohen, Joanna Davidson, Arthur N. Eisenberg, Karen Engle, Katherine Pratt Ewing, Heejung S. Kim, Corinne A. Kratz, Maivân Clech Lâm, Usha Menon, Victoria C. Plaut, Alison Dundes Renteln, Lloyd I. Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, Lawrence G. Sager, Austin Sarat, Claude M. Steele, Dorothy M. Steele, Nomi Stolzenberg, Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, and Unni Wikan.
 

A Generation of Change is an exceptional study of the nation's elderly, a population that has undergone profound changes in the years since World War II. As modern medicine extends the average life span and the baby boom generation begins to approach middle age, the number of older Americans is expected to more than double in the next century. Currently, 75 percent of U.S. health care expenditures go toward the elderly. But as national trends toward early retirement and low birthrate continue, an aging American population could face crises in meeting their financial and physical needs. According to Jacob S. Siegel in A Generation of Change, astute public planning must be informed by an understanding of the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the older population, as it is today and as it will be in the coming years.

Siegel employs census and survey data from 1950 through the mid-1980s to describe a population constantly shifting in its ethnic and gender composition, geographic distribution, marital and living arrangements, health, employment, and economic status. Surprisingly, there is tremendous disparity in the quality of life among the elderly. Although their average poverty rate is below that of the general population, there are dramatic levels of poverty among older women, who are far more likely than men to live alone or in institutions. As the elderly progress from the "young old" to the "aged old"—those over 85—sharp differences emerge as income and employment decrease and degrees of chronic illness increase. In addition, residential location influences the quality of health care and public assistance available to the elderly, an effect that may account for the marked migration of older people to Florida and Arizona.

Siegel analyzes the full range of characteristics for this heterogenous population and, through comparisons with other age groups as well as with the elderly of the previous decades, portrays the crucial influence of social and economic conditions over the life course on the quality of later life. With our elderly population growing more numerous and long lived, accurate information about them is increasingly essential. A Generation of Change will serve as a valuable resource for policymakers seeking more effective solutions in critical areas such as housing, long-term health care, and the funding of Social Security and retirement programs.

JACOB S. SIEGEL is professor of demography at Georgetown University.

A Volume in the RSF Census Series

Capital of the American Century investigates the remarkable influence that New York City has exercised over the economy, politics, and culture of the nation throughout much of the twentieth century. New York's power base of corporations, banks, law firms, labor unions, artists and intellectuals has played a critical role in shaping areas as varied as American popular culture, the nation's political doctrines, and the international capitalist economy. If the city has lost its unique prominence in recent decades, the decline has been largely—and ironically—a result of the successful dispersion of its cosmopolitan values.

The original essays in Capital of the American Century offer objective and intriguing analyses of New York City as a source of innovation in many domains of American life. Postwar liberalism and modernism were advanced by a Jewish and WASP coalition centered in New York's charitable foundations, communications media, and political organizations, while Wall Street lawyers and bankers played a central role in fashioning national security policies. New York's preeminence as a cultural capital was embodied in literary and social criticism by the "New York intellectuals," in the fine arts by the school of Abstract Expressionism, and in popular culture by Broadway musicals. American business was dominated by New York, where the nation's major banks and financial markets and its largest corporations were headquartered.

In exploring New York's influence, the contributors also assess the larger social and economic conditions that made it possible for a single city to exert such power. New York's decline in recent decades stems not only from its own fiscal crisis, but also from the increased diffusion of industrial, cultural, and political hubs throughout the nation. Yet the city has taken on vital new roles that, on the eve of the twenty-first century, reflect an increasingly global era: it is the center of U.S. foreign trade and the international art market: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have emerged as international newspapers; and the city retains a crucial influence in information-intensive sectors such as corporate law, accounting, management consulting, and advertising.

Capital of the American Century provides a fresh link between the study of cities and the analysis of national and international affairs. It is a book that enriches our historical sense of contemporary urban issues and our understanding of modern culture, economy, and politics.

MARTIN SHEFTER is professor of government at Cornell University.

CONTRIBUTORS: James L. Baughman, Paul DiMaggio, Nathan Glazer, Miles Kahler, James R. Kurth, Martin Shefter, David Vogel, and Vera L. Zolberg.

Includes many original contributions by an assembly of distinguished social scientists. They set forth the main features of a changing American society: how its organization for accomplishing major social change has evolved, and how its benefits and deficits are distributed among the various parts of the population. Theoretical developments in the social sciences and the vast impact of current events have contributed to a resurgence of interest in social change; in its causes, measurement, and possible prediction. These essays analyze what we know, and examine what we need to know in the study, prediction, and possible control of social change.

DR. ELEANOR BERNERT SHELDON and DR. WILBERT E. MOORE are both sociologists on the professional staff of the Russell Sage Foundation. They share a common background in demography and a common current interest in the measurement of large-scale structural change. Both have written extensively in various other sociological specialties, and participated in the ongoing activities of their common profession.

CONTRIBUTORS Daniel Bell, N.J. Demerath III, Beverly Duncan, Otis Dudley Duncan, Philip H. Ennis, William J. Goode, Stanley Lebergott, Ida C. Merriam, Joyce M. Mitchell, William C. Mitchell, Wilbert E. Moore, Iwao M. Moriyama, Milton Moss, A.W. Sametz, Conrad Taeuber.

"The authors' concerns resonate with current state and federal policy debates to reinstate more options for education and training. This book should encourage continuing examination of these policies and further research, development, and dissemination of policies that boost education outcomes."
-POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY

"Putting Poor People to Work is the best examination so far of 'work first,' the idea that poor individuals should simply go to work as the most direct way out of poverty .... In the end, their powerful analysis reveals a disturbing duality: at the same time that many policymakers and advocates are trumpeting the value of education, public policy has decided that the poorest among us deserve not education but mere palliatives."
-W. NORTON GRUBB, David Gardner Chair in Higher Education, University of California at Berkeley

"While the Clinton administration was promoting college attendance, welfare reform 'work first' requirements were simultaneously closing off college opportunities for the poor .... This book provides an important contribution to our understanding of this policy and its extensive implications for the poor, for community colleges, and for ideas about who gets educational opportunity in the United States."
-JAMES E. ROSENBAUM, professor of sociology, education, and social policy, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University

"Putting Poor People to Work is an important book that describes in devastating detail how over the past decade, and almost without notice, poor women lost the fragile foothold they had gained onto the first rungs of the education ladder-access to college-that other Americans climb to economic security."
-JULIE STRAWN, senior policy analyst, Center for Law and Social Policy

Today, a college education is increasingly viewed as the gateway to the American Dream—a necessary prerequisite for social mobility. Yet recent policy reforms in the United States effectively steer former welfare recipients away from an education that could further their career prospects, forcing them directly into the workforce where they often find only low-paying jobs with little opportunity for growth. In Putting Poor People to Work, Kathleen Shaw, Sara Goldrick-Rab, Christopher Mazzeo, and Jerry A. Jacobs explore this troubling disconnect between the principles of “work-first” and “college for all.”

Using comprehensive interviews with government officials and sophisticated data from six states over a four year period, Putting Poor People to Work shows how recent changes in public policy have reduced the quantity and quality of education and training available to adults with low incomes. The authors analyze how two policies encouraging work—the federal welfare reform law of 1996 and the Workforce Investment Act of 1998—have made moving people off of public assistance as soon as possible, with little regard to their long-term career prospects, a government priority. Putting Poor People to Work shows that since the passage of these “work-first” laws, not only are fewer low-income individuals pursuing postsecondary education, but when they do, they are increasingly directed towards the most ineffective, short-term forms of training, rather than higher-quality college-level education. Moreover, the schools most able and ready to serve poor adults—the community colleges—are deterred by these policies from doing so.

Having a competitive, agile workforce that can compete with any in the world is a national priority. In a global economy where skills are paramount, that goal requires broad popular access to education and training. Putting Poor People to Work shows how current U.S. policy discourages poor Americans from seeking out a college education, stranding them in jobs with little potential for growth. This important new book makes a powerful argument for a shift in national priorities that would encourage the poor to embrace both work and education, rather than having to choose between the two.

KATHLEEN M. SHAW is chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and associate professor of urban education at Temple University.

SARA GOLDRICK-RAB is assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and faculty affiliate of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education.

CHRISTOPHER MAZZEO is a New York City–based independent consultant.

JERRY A. JACOBS is Merriam Term Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and editor of the American Sociological Review.

An Institute for Research on Poverty Affiliated Book on Poverty and Public Policy

"The collection contains an incredibly rich amount of information, historical background, statistics, and ideas. It provides a significant contribution to our understanding of social reproduction, economic inequality, poverty, and the institutional mechanisms that shape wealth inequality. This book should be of interest to a broad audience."
- CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

"Assets for the Poor makes an important contribution to the debate on how the wealth-creating opportunities available to upper- and middle- class Americans can be extended to low income families. Many critical issues of asset development are discussed in this important book, which will be an essential resource for anyone concerned about the twin problems of poverty and inequality in American society today."
-JAMES MIDGLEY, University of California, Berkeley

"For those already convinced of the importance of assets for poor families, this comprehensive compendium will add breadth and depth. For those wavering as to whether asset-based policies are a useful anti- poverty tool, this book is likely to win you over."
- JARED BERNSTEIN, Economic Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.

'Assets for the Poor is the scholarly treatise on America's 'third revolution,' the movement to democratize capitalism. While the first struggle overcame foreign tyranny and the second defeated slavery to usher in an extended era of civil rights, the coming revolution will be over economic justice... an effort to secure for all families a share in the fruits of our democracy."
-J. LARRY BROWN, Brandeis University

Over the past three decades, average household wealth in the United States has declined among all but the richest families, with a near 80 percent drop among the nation's poorest families. Although the national debate about inequality has focused on income, it is wealth—the private assets amassed and passed on within families—that provides the extra economic cushion needed to move beyond mere day-to-day survival. Assets for the Poor is the first full-scale investigation into the importance of family wealth and the need for policies to encourage asset-building among the poor.

Assets for the Poor shows how institutional mechanisms designed to encourage acquisition of capital and property favor middle-class and high-income families. For example, the aggregate value of home mortgage tax deductions far outweighs the dollar amount of the subsidies provided by Section 8 rental vouchers and public housing. Banking definitions of creditworthiness largely exclude minorities, and welfare rules have made it nearly impossible for single mothers to accumulate savings, let alone stocks or real estate. Due to persistent residential segregation, even those minority families who do own homes are often denied equal access to better schools and public services.

The research in this volume shows that the poor do make use of the assets they have. Cash gifts—although small in size—are frequent within families and often lead to such positive results as homebuying and debt reduction, while tangible assets such as tools and cars help increase employment prospects. Assets for the Poor examines policies such as Individual Development Account tax subsidies to reward financial savings among the poor, and more liberal credit rules to make borrowing easier and less costly. The contributors also offer thoughtful advice for bringing the poor into mainstream savings institutions and warn against developing asset building policies at the expense of existing safety net programs.

Asset-building for low-income families is a powerful idea that offers hope to families searching for a way out of poverty. Assets for the Poor challenges current thinking regarding poverty reduction policies and proposes a major shift in the way we think about families and how they make a better life.

THOMAS M. SHAPIRO is professor of sociology at Northeastern University.

EDWARD N. WOLFF is professor of economics at New York University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Richard V. Burkhauser, John Sibley Butler, Stacie Carney, Dalton Conley, Nancy A. Denton, Kathryn Edin, William G. Gale, Robert Haveman, Lelvin L. Oliver, Laurence S. Seidman, Thomas M. Shapiro, Michael Sherraden, Seymour Spilerman, Mark J. Stern, Robert Weathers, Mark O. Wilhelm, Edward N. Wolff

A Volume in the Ford Foundation Series on Asset Building

Classical economic theory assumes that people in risk situations follow a course of action based on a rational, consistent assessment of likely outcomes. But as Zur Shapira demonstrates in Risk Taking, corporate managers consistently stray from the prescribed path into far more subjective territory. Risk Taking offers a critical assessment of the relationship between theory and action in managerial decision making.

Shapira offers a definitive account of the classical conception of risky decision making, which derives behavioral prescriptions from a calculation of both the value and the likelihood of possible outcomes. He then demonstrates how theories in this vein have been historically at odds with empirical observations. Risk Taking reports the results of an extensive survey of seven hundred managers that probed their attitudes and beliefs about risk and examined how they had actually made decisions in the face of uncertainty. The picture that emerges is of a dynamic, flexible process in which each manager’s personal expertise and perceptions play profound roles.

Managerial strategies are continually modified to suit changing circumstances. Rather than formulating probability estimates, executives create potential scenarios based not only on the possible outcomes but also on the many arbitrary factors inherent in their own situations. As Shapira notes, risk taking propensities vary among managers, and the need to maintain control and avoid particularly dangerous results exercises a powerful influence. Shapira also examines the impact of organizational structure, long-term management objectives, and incentives on decision making.

With perceptive observations of the cognitive, emotional, and organizational dimensions of corporate decision making, Risk Taking propels the study of managerial risk behavior into new directions. This volume signals the way toward improving managerial decision making by revealing the need for more inclusive choice models that augment classical theory with vital behavioral observations.

ZUR SHAPIRA is research professor of management and organizational behavior at the Stern School of Business at New York University.