Is the Education of Local Children Influenced by Living near a Refugee Camp? Evidence from Host Communities in Rwanda

This article studies the extent to which educational services and schooling outcomes of local children are influenced by the presence of a refugee camp in or near their community. Investigating Congolese refugees in Rwanda and relying on a mixed‐method approach, we examine schooling rates and access to school‐based feeding programmes in communities closer to and further away from three refugee camps. We conduct cohort analyses to compare the schooling outcomes of Rwandans residing at different distances from each of these camps. Our results highlight that children residing closer to the camps have better schooling outcomes and that locals residing closer to the camps have mostly positive views regarding the effects of refugees on local education. These results contribute to the literature on the effects of refugees on host communities and inform policy debates on how refugees need not be a “burden” if a long‐term vision shapes educational investments.     

Introvision in der Arbeitsvermittlung für Fallmanager und Arbeitslose

In the context of a pilot study the effects of the educational-psychological intervention Introvision were tested with older long-term unemployed people. The project was accomplished in the time by 1.4.2010 to 31.12.2010 in co-operation between ARGE Paderborn and the research group Introvision. In the context of the project 16 employees of ARGE Paderborn participated in an advanced training to Introvision, 31 customers of ARGE Paderborn began a coaching to get introduction in Introvision and 20 have also finished. Nine customers decided to participate five individual coachings. The results show, that the offers have a high individual use for the participants. To the central changes belong improved handling of stress, decrease of social isolation, improved (self-) perception as well as a higher self-confidence and a more open co-operation between customers and employees of ARGE Paderborn. Besides four participation began a job on the first labour market and two could be connected to a honorary activity.     

Data-driven Kriging models based on FANOVA-decomposition

Kriging models have been widely used in computer experiments for the analysis of time-consuming computer codes. Based on kernels, they are flexible and can be tuned to many situations. In this paper, we construct kernels that reproduce the computer code complexity by mimicking its interaction structure. While the standard tensor-product kernel implicitly assumes that all interactions are active, the new kernels are suited for a general interaction structure, and will take advantage of the absence of interaction between some inputs. The methodology is twofold. First, the interaction structure is estimated from the data, using a first initial standard Kriging model, and represented by a so-called FANOVA graph. New FANOVA-based sensitivity indices are introduced to detect active interactions. Then this graph is used to derive the form of the kernel, and the corresponding Kriging model is estimated by maximum likelihood. The performance of the overall procedure is illustrated by several 3-dimensional and 6-dimensional simulated and real examples. A substantial improvement is observed when the computer code has a relatively high level of complexity.     

Using Work Values to Predict Post‐Retirement Work Intentions

Work values might be proximal predictors of individuals' late‐career intentions because they serve as guiding principles for the selection, evaluation, and justification of vocational behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between work values and post‐retirement work intentions. The authors investigated individual work values within the structure of 4 higher order values elaborated on by Schwartz et al. ( 2012 ). Relationships between work values and 4 types of post‐retirement work intentions were examined. Data from 1,071 employees of a German logistics company were used to test the hypotheses. The results of a structural equation model indicated that work values were differentially related to the 4 types of post‐retirement work intentions. The identified work value–work type combinations add to the literature on post‐retirement work. Practice implications for promoting positive individual and organizational outcomes are drawn from the results.     

‘There it will be better … ’: Southern Sudanese in Khartoum imagining a new ‘home’ away from ‘home’

At the time of the research, Khartoum was a multi-ethnic and multinational metropolis of 8 million people. A considerable part of the population consists of Southern Sudanese migrants and displaced persons that came during the 20 years plus of civil war in South Sudan to the capital. These people were categorised after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), as displaced people regardless as to whether they come to the capital as labour migrants, students or because of the war to the capital. The notion of displacement assumes that they are people who are ‘out of place’: thereby assuming a former situation of being in place, a place that can be called ‘home’. After the CPA from 2005, this frequently only imagined home became a real place for the IDP’s to which they are supposed to go back. Yet, many migrants and displaced people are reluctant to move to Southern Sudan. Their decision about going to the South or staying in Khartoum depends not only on the opportunities and perspectives in their respective ‘home’ areas but also on the perceptions of belonging and identity. The imaginations and aspirations about the future life in South Sudan, which I analyse in this article, reflect this ambivalent positioning.     

Inference for $$L_2$$L2 -Boosting

We propose a statistical inference framework for the component-wise functional gradient descent algorithm (CFGD) under normality assumption for model errors, also known as $$L_2$$-Boosting. The CFGD is one of the most versatile tools to analyze data, because it scales well to high-dimensional data sets, allows for a very flexible definition of additive regression models and incorporates inbuilt variable selection. Due to the variable selection, we build on recent proposals for post-selection inference. However, the iterative nature of component-wise boosting, which can repeatedly select the same component to update, necessitates adaptations and extensions to existing approaches. We propose tests and confidence intervals for linear, grouped and penalized additive model components selected by $$L_2$$-Boosting. Our concepts also transfer to slow-learning algorithms more generally, and to other selection techniques which restrict the response space to more complex sets than polyhedra. We apply our framework to an additive model for sales prices of residential apartments and investigate the properties of our concepts in simulation studies.     

Good Job,Good Life? Working Conditions and Quality of Life in Europe

Cross-national comparisons generally show large differences in life satisfaction of individuals within and between European countries. This paper addresses the question of whether and how job quality and working conditions contribute to the quality of life of employed populations in nine strategically selected EU countries: Finland, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Using data from the European Quality of Life Survey 2003, we examine relationships between working conditions and satisfaction with life, as well as whether spillover or segmentation mechanisms better explain the link between work domain and overall life satisfaction. Results show that the level of life satisfaction varies significantly across countries, with higher quality of life in more affluent societies. However, the impact of working conditions on life satisfaction is stronger in Southern and Eastern European countries. Our study suggests that the issue of security, such as security of employment and pay which provides economic security, is the key element that in a straightforward manner affects people’s quality of life. Other working conditions, such as autonomy at work, good career prospects and an interesting job seem to translate into high job satisfaction, which in turn increases life satisfaction indirectly. In general, bad-quality jobs tend to be more ‘effective’ in worsening workers’ perception of their life conditions than good jobs are in improving their quality of life. We discuss the differences in job-related determinants of life satisfaction between the countries and consider theoretical and practical implications of these findings.