Human capital,family structure and religiosity shaping British Muslim women’s labour market participation

Economic activity among Muslim women in the UK remains considerably lower and their unemployment rate significantly higher than among the majority group even after controlling for qualifications and other individual characteristics. This study utilises two data sets to explore possible factors underlying these differences, such as overseas qualifications, language skills and religiosity. It reveals that while religiosity is negatively associated with labour market participation among British Christian-White women, economic activity among Muslim women are not negatively affected by high religiosity. Furthermore, family structure and the presence of dependent children were among the most important factors explaining the latter’s labour market participation, although these relationships were moderated by qualifications. More women with higher qualifications were economically active even if married and with children, although some of them experienced greater unemployment, probably due to discrimination in recruiting practices and choices and preferences on religious grounds.     

A propensity score matching analysis of the relationship between victim sex and capital juror decision-making in North Carolina

A small body of prior research has examined the impact of victim sex on jury death penalty decision-making and the majority of this research has demonstrated some evidence of a “female victim effect” such that cases involving a female victim are more likely to receive the death penalty than similarly situated cases with a male victim. However, within this line of research studies have suggested that victim sex may work in conjunction with other case characteristics. In order to further explore this phenomenon, the current study examines a near-population of death penalty cases from North Carolina (n = 1069) from 1977–2009 using propensity score matching. Results demonstrate that once cases are matched on more than 50 legal and extralegal case characteristics, there is no statistically significant or substantive link between victim sex and death penalty decision-making. Findings suggest that it is concrete differences in the legal and extralegal factors observed in cases with female victims compared to male victims that shape jury death sentence decisions rather than a direct effect of victim sex (before matching: OR = 1.53; 95% CI = 1.20–1.95; p < .001/after matching: OR = 0.90; 95% CI = 0.66–1.24; p = .52). Study limitations and implications are also discussed.     

Gender gaps in STEM in Japanese academia: The impact of research productivity,outside offers,and home life on pay

To understand differences in labor market outcomes between genders, economists must examine a complex array of potentially significant factors, such as institutional context, productivity differences, child-bearing and home production, and bargaining behavior. Many of these factors are not well captured by standard data sources. We use a new survey of academics in Japan to better understand the sources of gender pay differences. We find a 6% pay gap which persists when we control for research productivity, despite an institutional context shaped by explicit salary tables. We do not find a motherhood wage penalty, and the gender salary we document is not affected by differences in outside job offers.     

The role of parenthood in shaping the gender wage gap – A comparative analysis of 26 European countries

We use cross-national data on 26 EU countries to estimate how parenthood contributes to the gender wage gap, and assess how institutional elements affect this relationship. We find that irrespective of cultural norms and policies, fathers receive a wage premium, which increases the gender gap. Motherhood gaps vary across countries. The highest gaps are seen in Eastern European countries, where policies and norms lead to long absences from work. Moderate to small penalties are found in Continental Europe, Anglo-Saxon and Nordic countries, alongside higher maternal employment. No motherhood penalties are found for Southern EU countries, where mothers return to work quickly or exit the labor market indefinitely.     

论量刑事实的证明责任

刑事证明责任内涵应当包含“评价要素”,对于特定事实,证明责任承担者所举证据仅需要达到说服法官相信事实可能成立之程度。分配证明责任应当遵循证据所持、证据距离与诉讼效率等原则。我国刑事诉讼法未将量刑事实的证明责任进行区别对待,对公诉机关和法院的证明责任规定也不尽合理,更未规定证明责任转移规则。为最大程度实现量刑公正,应尝试对我国量刑事实的证明责任进行体系性完善,合理规定控方、被告人与被害人的证明责任,对立功、认罪认罚等量刑事实创设证明责任转移规则。     

西安市装备制造业供应商选择模型构建

供应商与采购商关系是供应链研究中的重要问题。本文以西安市装备制造业为研究对象,建立西安市装备制造业供应商评价指标体系,建立评价模型,在已建立的评价模型得到供应商排序结果的基础上,以采购总成本最小的目标,建立基于多产品的供应商数量选择模型并求解,从而给出企业供应商选择方案,通过具体企业实例检验模型有效可行。结果表明,该模型可有效为采购决策提供支持。     

简论经济犯罪与死刑

我国是世界上对经济犯罪适用死刑的极少数国家之一。随着我国经济的发展,我国的经济犯罪也日益严重,立法机关希望通过死刑的适用来遏制经济犯罪。但事与愿违,死刑的适用并没有收到预期的效果,还违背了刑罚的目的和罪刑均衡原则。因此,我国在立法上应当废除对经济犯罪的死刑,规定经济犯罪的法定最高刑为无期徒刑,并附加适用财产刑。     

Model selection consistency of U-statistics with convex loss and weighted lasso penalty

In the paper we consider minimisation of U-statistics with the weighted Lasso penalty and investigate their asymptotic properties in model selection and estimation. We prove that the use of appropriate weights in the penalty leads to the procedure that behaves like the oracle that knows the true model in advance, i.e. it is model selection consistent and estimates nonzero parameters with the standard rate. For the unweighted Lasso penalty, we obtain sufficient and necessary conditions for model selection consistency of estimators. The obtained results strongly based on the convexity of the loss function that is the main assumption of the paper. Our theorems can be applied to the ranking problem as well as generalised regression models. Thus, using U-statistics we can study more complex models (better describing real problems) than usually investigated linear or generalised linear models.     

Optimal control strategies for dividend payments and capital injections in compound Markov binomial risk model with penalties for deficits

We consider the compound Markov binomial risk model. The company controls the amount of dividends paid to the shareholders as well as the capital injections in order to maximize the cumulative expected discounted dividends minus the discounted capital injections and the discounted penalties for deficits prior to ruin. We show that the optimal value function is the unique solution of an HJB equation, and the optimal control strategy is a two-barriers strategy given the current state of the Markov chain. We obtain some properties of the optimal strategy and the optimal condition for ruining the company. We offer a high-efficiency algorithm for obtaining the optimal strategy and the optimal value function. In addition, we also discuss the optimal control problem under a restriction of bounded dividend rates. Numerical results are provided to illustrate the algorithm and the impact of the penalties.     

A Semiparametric Regression Model for Longitudinal Data with Non‐stationary Errors

Motivated by the need to analyze the National Longitudinal Surveys data, we propose a new semiparametric longitudinal mean‐covariance model in which the effects on dependent variable of some explanatory variables are linear and others are non‐linear, while the within‐subject correlations are modelled by a non‐stationary autoregressive error structure. We develop an estimation machinery based on least squares technique by approximating non‐parametric functions via B‐spline expansions and establish the asymptotic normality of parametric estimators as well as the rate of convergence for the non‐parametric estimators. We further advocate a new model selection strategy in the varying‐coefficient model framework, for distinguishing whether a component is significant and subsequently whether it is linear or non‐linear. Besides, the proposed method can also be employed for identifying the true order of lagged terms consistently. Monte Carlo studies are conducted to examine the finite sample performance of our approach, and an application of real data is also illustrated.