R&D, human capital, fertility, and growth

This paper analyzes how the decisions of individuals to have children and acquire skills affect long-term growth. We investigate a model in which technical progress, human capital, and population arise endogenously. In such an economy, the presence of distortions (such as monopolistic competition, knowledge spillover, and duplication effects) leads the decentralized long-run growth to be either insufficient or excessive. We show that this result depends on the relative contribution of population and human capital in the determination of long-term growth, i.e., on how the distortions affect the trade-off between the quantity of offsprings and the quality of the family members.     

“Difficult,Messy, Nasty,and Sensational”

Feminist publishing played an important role in the feminist art movement of the 1970s and into the 1980s, and Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics was a key journal in this landscape. This paper argues that Heresies is important not only because it was a forum for some of the most influential feminist art women of the period, but because it experimented with an editorial structure that required participants to reckon with the discomforts of difference. Editors of the periodical took seriously the feminist critique of hierarchically structured organizational cultures and both promoted and practiced collective publishing. Moreover, through an emphasis on editorial statements, I consider how Heresies gives expression to the affective entanglements of the women involved in Heresies' specific form of collaboration and collective feminist politics. An examination of the editorials as sites of affective intensity helps to come to an understanding not of what women were thinking, writing, and making, but how they may have felt about their work and their relationships with women with whom they worked.     

Pills,Periods, and Postfeminism

Since the English translation of Elsimar Coutinho's Is Menstruation Obsolete? in 1999 and the introduction of cycle-stopping birth control pills in 2003, US women are increasingly advised that menstruation is not necessary for good health. The most widely distributed source of such messages is direct-to-consumer advertisements for birth control pills. The most recent television ads for Seasonique, the leading brand of cycle-stopping contraceptive in the US, minimize the pill's contraceptive function and focus instead on their effectiveness in reducing the frequency of menstruation. A close reading of these commercials reveals them to be an integral part of an emerging postfeminist media culture that attempts to solidify a new, neoliberal subjectivity for women. This subjectivity imposes an idealized, docile, non-menstruating feminine body, ready for full-time participation in the neoliberal economy.     

Stereotypes,Emotions, and Behaviors Toward Lesbians,Gay Men,Bisexual Women,and Bisexual Men

The utility of the Stereotype Content Model (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002) and the Behaviors from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes map (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2007) were examined in the context of heterosexuals’ attitudes toward sexual minorities. Heterosexual adults completed a survey measuring stereotypes, emotions, and behavioral tendencies toward lesbians, gay men, bisexual women, and bisexual men. Stereotype content differed across groups and showed “gendered” and “valenced” effects on emotions and behavioral tendencies. Competence predicted behaviors for men, whereas warmth and competence predicted behaviors for women, and, for the most part, more was better. Admiration and contempt mediated most of these relationships across most subgroups, but pity and envy played smaller roles for some subgroups. Across all groups, competence played a more predictive role than warmth.     

Urbanization, non-familial work, education, and fertility in Taiwan

Abstract It is well known, that there is a relationship between the level of development of a society and its level offertility.(1) However, it is not clear which of the complex ofvariables associated with development are primarily associated with the reduction of fertility. Urbanization, female labour force participation and education are three of the variables most commonly cited as bearing a causal relationship to fertility. Urbanization implies a change of environment of a substantial portion of the population which may result in a change in the value placed on large families. This is particularly true when urban mortality is lower than rural, so that more children survive.(2) However, it has also been argued that urbanization results in a change in family structure from the extended to the nuclear family with a concomitant reduction in the value placed on having many children.(3) Additional changes in family patterns which are sometimes said to explain fertility reduction due to urbanization are increases in the proportion of women never marrying and increases in the age at marriage.     

Urbanization,non-familial work,education, and fertility in Taiwan

It is well known, that there is a relationship between the level of development of a society and its level offertility.¹ However, it is not clear which of the complex ofvariables associated with development are primarily associated with the reduction of fertility. Urbanization, female labour force participation and education are three of the variables most commonly cited as bearing a causal relationship to fertility. Urbanization implies a change of environment of a substantial portion of the population which may result in a change in the value placed on large families. This is particularly true when urban mortality is lower than rural, so that more children survive.² However, it has also been argued that urbanization results in a change in family structure from the extended to the nuclear family with a concomitant reduction in the value placed on having many children.³ Additional changes in family patterns which are sometimes said to explain fertility reduction due to urbanization are increases in the proportion of women never marrying and increases in the age at marriage.     

Media,State, and Patriarchy

This paper examines one of the dominant discourses that Jordanian media circulate on female virginity, which emphasises the state's various roles in relation to it. Relying on an analysis of virginity in online Jordanian media in the years 2008–2010, I argue that the Jordanian state is portrayed as having three main roles: that of the inspector, certifying the presence and/or authenticity of female virginity; that of the guard, protecting it from any measures or products that may disrupt the status quo; and sometimes, the state is portrayed as an ambivalent observer, flexibly but ambiguously, allowing some room for subversion. The media's portrayal of the state as a paternalistic authority over women's bodies betrays their own complicity in perpetuating the dominant virginity discourse at the expense of more progressive viewpoints.     

Women, aging, and schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder of unknown etiology that typically has an onset in early adulthood and persists for the remainder of the lifespan. For most affected individuals, the illness is recurrent with psychotic symptoms that tend to be episodic in nature. The illness has pervasive and disruptive effects on many life domains; for example, women with schizophrenia are less likely to marry, bear children, and raise their own children than are women in the general population. The age of onset of schizophrenia is later on average in women then men, and women are over-represented among those who develop the illness after the age of 45. Among younger patients with schizophrenia, women tend to have less severe symptoms than men and better outcomes; however, there are fewer gender differences among older patients with schizophrenia. Older women with schizophrenia are vulnerable to problems of both schizophrenia and aging. Schizophrenia symptoms typically continue in later years and include ongoing psychotic symptoms. Problems of aging such as cognitive decline and chronic medical conditions may be exacerbated by schizophrenia and the disorder is associated with premature mortality. Older women with schizophrenia are at risk for neglect of psychiatric and other health needs that are further compounded by limited social support and low socioeconomic status. More research and clinical attention is needed to the problems of older women with schizophrenia.     

Women,Aging, and Schizophrenia

SUMMARY

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder of unknown etiology that typically has an onset in early adulthood and persists for the remainder of the life span. For most affected individuals, the illness is recurrent with psychotic symptoms that tend to be episodic in nature. The illness has pervasive and disruptive effects on many life domains; for example, women with schizophrenia are less likely to marry, bear children, and raise their own children than are women in the general population. The age of onset of schizophrenia is later on average in women than men, and women are overrepresented among those who develop the illness after the age of 45. Among younger patients with schizophrenia, women tend to have less severe symptoms than men and better outcomes; however, there are fewer gender differences among older patients with schizophrenia. Older women with schizophrenia are vulnerable to problems of both schizophrenia and aging. Schizophrenia symptoms typically continue in later years and include ongoing psychotic symptoms. Problems of aging such as cognitive decline and chronic medical conditions may be exacerbated by schizophrenia and the disorder is associated with premature mortality. Older women with schizophrenia are at risk for neglect of psychiatric and other health needs that are further compounded by limited social support and low socioeconomic status. More research and clinical attention is needed for the problems of older women with schizophrenia.     

Women,Aging, and Cancer

Women over 65 bear high risk for developing cancer. The risk for developing most cancers grows'with increasing age. Of the 1.13 million people estimated to develop cancer in 1992,362,000 (32 percent) will be women over 65 years old (American Cancer Society, 1992). The few early detection and prevention programs that have focused on this age group have found that the women often have problems with utilization, misconceptions, and plain lack of correct information. Treatment for women over 65 with cancer may differ from that for younger women because of age bias, comorbidity, stage of disease at time of diagnosis, and a lack of research on women of this age. Even quality of life and survivorship for the woman over 65 become issues due to the lack of knowledge about how women over 65 view these concepts. The Healthy People 2000 Report has developed goals for a healthier society by the year 2000. The priority areas in relation to cancer include reduction in cigarette smoking, dietary changes, greater utilization of early detection mechanisms, and decreasing exposure to occupational and environmental carcinogens. Implementation of these goals should affect future generations in terms of healthy aging: however, specific programs do need to focus on the woman over 65 and her present needs which will impact current and future health status.     

The Politician,The Wife,The Citizen,and her Newspaper

Recent dramatic rises in the number of women elected to British parliaments have renewed critical interest in the significance of gender, and ways of theorising and researching women's political representation. However, the central role played by the media in contemporary politics is often neglected in feminist political scholarship. At the same time, the spaces occupied by women in political news journalism and the body politic remain under-explored by media theorists. This article argues that if we are to fully understand the politics of representation and what fairer representation for women might mean, we need to address these neglected dimensions. To make the case, I present an analysis of press coverage of the 1997 British General Election campaign. This seeks to draw together conventionally disparate strands of feminist, political and media theorising in order to highlight the gendered politics of newspaper imag(in)ing, storytelling, and commentary. Improving women's presence in media(ted) political discourse, I conclude, might be one means of strengthening women's symbolic and substantive representation.     

Weather,nutrition, and the economy: Short-run fluctuations in births,deaths, and marriages,France 1740–1909

This paper analyzes short-run fluctuations in national time series of vital events for France in the period 1740 to 1909. Fertility, mortality, and nuptiality form a simultaneous system which interacts with economic and meteorological conditions. In the short run, the demographic variables are endogenous. Economic and meteorological conditions are exogenous. Our indicator of economic conditions is the price of wheat, the principal food crop. Biometric models of fertility and empirical research on the biologically-based interrelations of fertility and mortality provide insight into the expected timing of events. We combine these results with empirical research on the effects of nutrition on fertility and mortality, research in medical biometeorology, and French historical demographic and economic research to formulate our model. The resultant distributed lag system is estimated. We find that the economic/nutritional effects are more likely to be statistically significant in predicting the time path of vital events than are the demographic variables or the effects of meteorological conditions.     

Chicks,Dicks, and Contradictions

This essay examines Playgirl as a rich, yet overlooked, archive in the history of American pornography. Although the magazine often is dismissed as the token attempt of a masculinist industry to equalize its representational politics, I argue instead that a significant synergy exists between Playgirl and entwined debates over pornography, gender, and commercialized sexuality in 1970s America. Employing established conventions of the women's magazine, Playgirl utilized that form toward granting women access to explicit images. Yet given its “better lifestyling” advice on how the sexually liberated woman might find empowerment by viewing male nudes, Playgirl's reluctance to display full-frontal nudity until the midpoint of its first year fashioned an initially compromised aesthetic. Not only were women interpolated as untutored viewers within this regime of genital obstruction, but models also were all but emasculated. Consequently, the degree of male exposure that could be handled by both viewers and models was questioned, critiqued, and debated across Playgirl's letters to the editor section, aptly entitled “In-ter-course.” As an artifact of sexual media history, Playgirl is invaluable because readers are able to trace throughout its pages the ways in which changing tides of gendered power began to problematize pornography's routine dichotomy between masculine subjectivity and female objectification.     

Geography, demography, and early development

This paper explores the role of geography in early development. It presents a model where the odds of survival are higher in geographically favorable regions. In such regions, higher life expectancy prompts parents to devote more of their resources to old-age consumption and enables them to invest relatively more in the quantity and quality of their offspring. Investment in education, together with population growth, helps geographically-favorable economies to attain high levels of a more educated population that is necessary for sustained economic growth. The empirical evidence is generally supportive of the view that geographic attributes influenced regional population levels in Europe and its colonial offshoots around 1500 A.D. and that they affected population levels and educational attainment in low-income countries of the 1990s. For useful comments and suggestions I thank the editor, two anonymous referees, Daron Acemoglu, Ann Carlos, Phil Graves, Naci Mocan, Oded Stark, seminar participants at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Colorado at Denver, and the 2002 Royal Economic Society Annual Conference. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my advisor Herschel Grossman who passed away in October 2004 after leaving his mark on many of us in the profession. The standard disclaimer applies. Responsible editor: Alessandro Cigno.     

Migration, fertility, and state policy in Hubei Province, China

Despite China s one-child family planning policy, the nation experienced a slight rise in the birth rate in the mid-1980s. Many observers attributed this rise to the heightened fertility of those rural-to-urban migrants who moved without a change in registration (temporary migrants), presumably to avoid the surveillance of family planning programs at origin and destination. Using a sequential logit analysis with life-history data from a 1988 survey of Hubei Province, we test this possibility by comparing nonmigrants, permanent migrants, and temporary migrants. While changing family planning policies have a strong impact on timing of first birth and on the likelihood of higher-order births, migrants generally do not have more children than nonmigrants. In fact, migration tends to lower the propensity to have a child. More specifically, the fertility of temporary migrants does not differ significantly from that of other women.     

Women's Responsibilities,Freedoms, and Pleasures

In the building of the Swedish welfare state, men and women have been seen as equal in their roles as parents, breadwinners, and citizens. This conception is not confirmed by the images produced by advertising. The article presents an analysis of alcohol-related advertisements published in Swedish women's magazines from the 1960s to the 2000s. The advertisements are approached as representations of gendered performances in which gender is made visible “here and now” by placing women in particular subject positions that are related to private or public spheres and associated with specific kinds of gender norms reflecting women's shifting responsibilities, freedoms, and pleasures. The article asks what kind of drinking-related subject positions have been portrayed as desirable in women's magazine advertisements over the past few decades and how those positions have changed as we move closer to the present day. The analysis reveals both continuity and variability in alcohol-related subject positions in Swedish women's magazine advertisements. It shows how women's responsibilities, freedoms, and pleasures have expanded from the traditional domain of the private sphere to multiple new areas as Sweden has developed from a modern welfare state to a late-modern competition state. However, this does not mean that the traditional gender norms have disintegrated and been replaced by equal gender norms. Rather, it seems that traditional gender norms continue to be reproduced in alcohol-related advertising.     

Empowerment von chirurgischen PatientInnen — Modelle, Interventionen, Effekte, Erfolgsbedingungen

Empowerment of patients is an important strategy in Health Promotion. Recent discussions within this context stress the relevance of the improvement of health literacy and health behaviour of patients for the improvement of health status. Communication between patients and professionals is emphasised as a main tool and quality factor. In the framework of a model project subsidised by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Social Security and Generations three Austrian Hospitals implemented and evaluated interventions to improve the quality of communication between hospital staff and patients for the improvement of patient information and co-production of health in the care process. Effects of interventions were evaluated in a before-and-after study (baseline n = 257 patients: 113 general surgery, 100 cardiac surgery, 44 thorax surgery; evaluation n = 208 patients: 63 general surgery, 99 cardiac surgery, 46 thorax surgery) with data from a patient questionnaire (satisfaction with care and communication, self reported health status) and documentation of post-surgical health outcome (complications, length of stay in hospital) and by measuring self reported improvement of health literacy and health behaviour of patients after the intervention. Results show that improvement of communication has effects on patient satisfaction as well as on postsurgical health outcome. Especially in cardiac surgery, where communication with patients was improved by interventions covering the whole inpatient care process from admission to discharge, a considerable increase of patient satisfaction and a decrease of postsurgical complications can be reported.     

AIDS, sexuality, and sexual control

The AIDS epidemic is discussed in terms of its effect on general sexual attitudes and behavior of homosexual and bisexual men, then, in particular, on the issue of control over one's sexual behavior. Problems encountered in the formulation of the concept of sexual control are discussed along with relevant theoretical constructs. A group treatment program for homosexual and bisexual men with problems of sexual control is described, along with findings and discussions regarding the effect of such treatment on sexual behavior.     

Sexual identity distress, social support, and the health of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth

Sex researchers and mental health clinicians have long recognized that the stigma surrounding homosexuality plays an important role in shaping the social psychological adjustment of gay, lesbian, and bisexual (g/l/b) people. In recent years, researchers have suggested that sexual identity- related distress may influence the physical health status of g/l/b people, primarily because of the ways these self-related feelings and beliefs impact patterns of health-related behavior. This study examines the influence of sexual identity distress and social support on g/l/b youth's drug and alcohol use, psychological distress, and risky sexual behavior. The data come from a services research demonstration program conducted at the Indiana Youth Group, Inc., a g/l/b youth development agency based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Results indicate that sexual identity distress is strongly associated with psychological distress, less frequent use of alcohol, and using fewer types of illegal drugs. Being out to more people in one's support network, however, attenuates the severity of youth's sexual identity-related distress. Youth who report more support ties to g/l/b people indicate engaging in more frequent risky sexual behavior. The implications of these findings for theories of g/l/b youth's sexual identity development are discussed.     

Culture,Cohort, and Cosmetic Surgery

ABSTRACT

This paper theorizes a parallel between idealized images of women in the media and the mainstreaming of cosmetic surgery as commonplace in our culture. The paper tracks images of women in film, television, and advertising from 1940 to the present and uses them as guides to understanding and interpreting appraisals contemporary women make of their bodies. Data are presented from 24 women, ages 29 to 75, who participated in a pilot study examining social, psychological, and developmental factors that precipitated cosmetic surgery. Women's self-evaluations were consistent with media depictions of women during subjects' adolescent and early-adult years. Age, or more specifically, cohort membership, determined assessments of body-image. The fact that body-satisfaction decreased proportionately with age in the women sampled is credited to the progressive license taken by the media in depicting female nudity, graphic sex, and violence against women.