The relative risk aversion hypothesis of educational choice

Analysing young people's educational choices, we derive and test implications of a relative risk aversion hypothesis: that educational choices are made so as to minimize the risk of ending up with a lower level of education than one's parents. These implications are in general different from what one would expect from human capital theory. We use a unique data set which combines data from administrative registers on young people's pathways through the educational system and their family background with survey data on their academic abilities at lower secondary school. The evidence is partly in favour of the relative risk aversion hypothesis. Received: 19 August 1999/Accepted: 10 January 2001 All correspondence to Eskil Heinesen. We are grateful to Karin Blix Mogensen and Martin B?g for excellent research assistance, and to two anonymous referees, John F. Ermisch, Martin Browning, Michael Rosholm, Paul Bingley, and participants at the conference of the European Society for Population Economics in Turin, 1999, for valuable comments and suggestions. Responsible editor: John F. Ermisch.     

Making it in America: High school completion by immigrant and native youth

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we find that first-generation youth of Hispanic, Asian, and African heritage obtain more education than their parents, but the second generation and third or higher generations lose ground. Differences in dropout rates by race-ethnicity and immigrant generation are driven by differences in human, cultural, and social capital. Low levels of family human capital, school social capital, and community social capital place the children of immigrants at risk of dropping out. However, cultural capital and immigrant optimism buffer first-generation Hispanic youth and the children of Asian immigrants from the risk of dropping out of high school. While human and social capital resources improve with immigrant generation, cultural capital diminishes.     

Social indicators of youth development and educational performance: A programmatic statement

This paper argues for the use of social indicators, in conjunction with the traditional norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests, to assess the effects of local educational systems. A conceptual framework for the study of educational performance is presented, interrelating (1) personal resources invested by youth, (2) opportunities for development, (3) developmental behaviors, (4) educational system impacts, and (5) other contextual variables, which together affect (6) progress toward adulthood. Four types of variables and 15 content areas that should be monitored are described, with examples of social indicators for each. Procedures are presented for selecting variables, collecting time-series data, and analyzing and reporting the indicators, relying entirely on existing data sources. Appendices include a data base screening form, a statistic screening form, and a list of United States national, state, county, and city sources of time-series data relevant to youth development and educational performance.     

The effect of immigrant admission criteria on immigrant labour-market characteristics

The skill levels of immigrants entering the USA has declined in recent decades; however, most immigrants to the USA continue to be admitted on the basis of family contacts, without reference to labour-market characteristics. This situation has given rise to a debate about the criteria on which immigrants are admitted or excluded. I examine how the relative skill levels of immigrants admitted under different criteria vary by country of origin, those criteria being the possession of highly-valued skills and family connections. Using data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Borjas' 1987 model is tested. The results show (a) that the relative skill levels of the two groups do indeed differ by country of origin, and (b) the pattern by country of origin is consistent with the Borjas predictions. The policy implication is that the effects of changing admission criteria will differ by country of origin, but in a predictable way.     

The size-density hypothesis in Great Britain: Analysis of a deviant case

Recent studies have found size of territorial units to vary inversely with population density, the only exception to this regularity being Great Britain, where size and density were found to be unrelated. The present research accounts for this anomaly by demonstrating Britain's historical conformity to the size-density relation. The size-density hypothesis is further supported by direct test, made possible by a recent reorganization of british counties. Results show that reorganization has restored the expected inverse relation between size and density and has restructured the size and density of counties in a manner precisely specified by underlying theory.     

Attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge of pre-service teachers regarding the educational isolation of sexual minority youth

Sexual minority youth (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Questioning youth) must function in a society that condones homophobia. Rendered invisible through the stigma attached to their identification as sexual minorities, they are conveniently forgotten by the institutions charged with facilitating their education. Results from a research study conducted by Sears (1991), indicated that teachers often expressed that they should be more proactive and supportive and committed to the welfare of all of their students. However, the realities of their professional intervention and support were negligible. The purpose of this research study was to examine the personal beliefs of pre-service educators from the Midwest about homosexuality, and how these attitudes and feelings are actualized in the schools. Findings suggest that the results of the current sample had little variation from the sample reported by Sears. While Black pre-service educators as well as early childhood pre-service educators obtained higher mean scores on both attitudinal measures (Attitudes Toward Homosexuality and Index of Homophobia), race was the only variable which proved to be statistically significant. Implications for future research are also discussed as a result of this study.     

The decisions of Spanish youth: A cross-section study

This paper presents a simultaneous model for the joint decisions of working, studying and leaving the parental household by young people in Spain. Using cross-section data from the 1990–1991 Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares, the model is estimated by a two stage estimation method. Endogeneity of the three decisions proves to be important in order to understand the dynamics of household formation. Our results also confirm a number of plausible intuitions about the effect of individual characteristics and economic variables on these decisions, and provide some new insights into the reasons for young people in Spain remaining in large numbers in the parental home. Most of the results are gender independent. Received: 18 September 1998/Accepted: 24 October 2000     

The demography of disability and the effects of immigrant history: Older Asians in the United States

Using data from the 2000 U.S. census, we compare the older Asian population with U.S.-born, non-Hispanic whites with respect to three indicators of disability. Insofar as any Asian "advantage" in health vis-a-vis whites exists among the population aged 65 and over, our evidence suggests that it occurs primarily among the U.S.-born segments of this population. We also investigate how differences in disability levels among Asian immigrant groups are influenced by country of birth and by the combined effects of duration of residence in the United States and life cycle stage at entry. These results highlight the diversity of the older Asian population with respect to the ways in which immigration and origin history are linked to disability outcomes. We conclude that in later life, immigrant status confers few disability advantages among the Asian population in the United States.     

The missing bridge: How immigrant networks keep Americans out of dirty jobs

Immigrants are over half of the new entrants in occupations in southwestern labor markets that range from farmworker to janitor to engineering professor. This paper explains how the availability of immigrant workers changes employment practices in ways that push and pull Americans out of jobs which remain "dirty" or unattractive to U.S. workers. An immigrant network that eventually takes over an enterprise's jobs can begin by accident or design. Accidental immigrant takeovers begin with pioneer workers who persist in high turnover jobs such as seasonal farmworker. These workers offer to bring their friends and relatives to fill vacancies as they occur. Takeovers by design sometimes follow a strike in which immigrants are recruited to be strikebreakers. After immigrants dominate the workforce, the language and culture of the workplace change in ways that make American workers feel out-of-place. Employers feel under no compulsion to upgrade dirty jobs as long as immigrant workers are available, so the technology and productivity of immigrant-enclave jobs tend to be frozen, guaranteeing that dirty jobs get less and less attractive to Americans. Indeed, industries dependent on immigrant workers often turn protectionist when they realize that even low immigrant wages are not sufficient to ensure their survival in the global marketplace. In this way, Americans lose out in several ways: They must compete directly with immigrant workers in the labor market, and then pay higher prices for the goods produced by immigrant workers because the industries preserved by them demand protection from imports. This paper will explore the manner in which immigrant networks displace Americans from dirty jobs and how the availability of immigrant workers can preserve sunset industries which turn protectionist. Examples from fruit and vegetable agriculture, garments, and shoes will be discussed.     

Widening circles: an ethnographic profile of a youth group

This article introduces work-in-progress on the ethnography of a gay and lesbian youth group in Chicago. The surrounding neighborhood is sketched and aspects of the supporting agency, within which the group functions, are described. Both are seen as contributing contexts for the "coming out" process here. The youth group is described in part, including the age, ethnicity, and related factors of its composition. Youth are found to be involved in a process of dual socialization entailing roles and knowledge in the gay and straight normative communities.     

Gay youth in four cultures: a comparative study

Young and older homosexual men in four countries (Sweden, Finland, Ireland, and Australia) were compared on a number of psychological, social, and psychometric indices to determine what differences existed between them, and the effect of culture on any such differences. Data show that there are greater differences between younger and older homosexual men as the culture appears more antihomosexual, and that younger homosexual men are less likely to accept their sexual orientation and more likely to accept myths surrounding homosexuality. Younger homosexual men were also more likely to have had gonorrhea (regardless of their number of sexual partners), to prefer receptive anal intercourse, and to have contacted partners by cruising. These data confirm that mental health consequences of antihomosexual environments are most negative where homosexuality is most severely stigmatized.     

The dynamics of immigrant welfare and labor market behavior

This paper analyzes transitions into and out of social assistance, unemployment, and employment. We estimate a dynamic multinomial logit model, controlling for endogenous initial condition and unobserved heterogeneity, using a large representative Swedish panel data set. The empirical results suggest that particularly refugee immigrants display a greater degree of “structural” state dependence than natives. The high welfare participation rates among refugee immigrants may be due to the existence of a “welfare trap”, while participation among natives and non-refugee immigrants is largely due to permanent unobserved characteristics. These results suggest that welfare reforms may have differential effects on refugee immigrants and natives.

Social structure and the defensive role of soldiers in a eusocial bamboo aphid,Pseudoregma bambucicola (Homoptera: Aphididae): A test of the defence-optimization hypothesis

A complete understanding of the evolution of sociality in aphids requires a detailed knowledge of the patterns of soldier investment in their ecology. The eusocial bamboo aphidPseudoregma bambucicola has a morphologically specialized first-instar soldier caste. The proportion of soldiers was positively correlated with colony size. Within a colony, soldiers were evenly distributed among subcolonies; within each subcolony, however, their distribution was biased toward peripheries which were exposed to many predators. Field experiments introducing natural enemies such asEupeodes confrater (Diptera: Syrphidae) andSynonycha grandis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) revealed that the survival rate of these predators was negatively correlated with the density of soldiers, suggesting that soldiers can more or less defend their colonies by killing or removing a range of natural enemies. Observations suggest that large mature colonies attract more predators than newly established small colonies and that, within a colony, the predators attack each subcolony regardless of its position on bamboo shoots. This implies the presence of a positive correlation between colony size and predation risk. Thus, the investment in soldiers seems to reflect the attacking pattern of predators within a colony. These results agree with the defence-optimization hypothesis in soldier investment ofP. bambucicola colonies.     

A test and modification of zipf’s hypothesis for predicting interstate migration

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the accuracy of Zipf’s hypothesis in estimating interstate migration streams in the United States, and then to determine whether the predictive power of Zipf’s hypothesis can be improved by adding additional variables. The three independent variables in Zipf’s hypothesis accounted for 57 percent of the variation in interstate migration streams in 1935–1940, 61 percent in 1949–1950, and 68 percent in 1955–1960. The addition of per capita personal income of the states of origin and of destination increased the explained variance by only four percentage points in 1935–1940 and by less than one percentage point in 1949–1950 and 1955–1960. Then, the Petersen-Greenwood hypothesis that interstate migration streams in any period are a function of previous flows was tested by adding cumulative lifetime migration as an independent variable. Over 80 percent of the variation in interstate migration streams was explained by cumulative lifetime mobility, as reflected by state of birth data. The conclusion of the study is that the Petersen-Greenwood hypothesis provides a better estimate of interstate migration streams than does Zipf’s hypothesis. Nevertheless, the Petersen Greenwood hypothesis requires further evaluation to determine whether cumulative lifetime mobility is simply a proxy for some other underlying variable and whether it provides accurate estimates of migration streams for other geographic areas.     

The black box within a black box: Solitary confinement practices in a subset of U.S. immigrant detention facilities

Journal of Population Research - In September 2013, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a directive regarding the use of solitary confinement for ICE detainees. Among...     

The integrative potential of a fertility model: An analytical test

Abstract In an earlier paper a working model of marital fertility was presented.(1) That model grew out of a close study of Becker's economic model for fertility analysis.(2) Becker's model was modified in several respects in order to meet a number of major objections levelled against it by Judith Blake, Deborah Freedman, and others.(3) The purpose of the present paper is to examine how far the model presented earlier can serve as a 'binder' for the interpretative schemes now available in the literature on fertility differentials. More specifically, the objective is to identify the underlying explanatory factors of a number of analytical hypotheses concerning fertility differentials, and to examine whether the factors thus identified can be located in the fertility model presented in the earlier paper.(4) Little attention will be paid to the causal directions, if any, recognized in the hypotheses studied, nor will we attempt to provide a systematic review of empirical findings.     

The incidence of subminimum pay among native and immigrant workers

This paper econometrically compares the subminimum wage propensities of immigrants and US natives using 1989 microdata. A conventional expectation is that immigrants are more likely to earn subminimum wages because of their lesser education and knowledge of labor rights. However, immigrants also tend to participate full time in the labor market and field studies suggest they provide employers an 'experienced' labor pool. Indeed, our findings indicate that immigrants by age, sex, and race/ethnic group are less likely than natives to receive subminimum wages. These findings imply that the foreign born do not contribute disproportionately to the informal economy.     

Sibship size and educational attainment. A joint test of the Confluence Model and the Resource Dilution Hypothesis

Studies on family background often explain the negative effect of sibship size on educational attainment by one of two theories: the Confluence Model (CM) or the Resource Dilution Hypothesis (RDH). However, as both theories - for substantively different reasons - predict that sibship size should have a negative effect on educational attainment most studies cannot distinguish empirically between the CM and the RDH. In this paper, I use the different theoretical predictions in the CM and RDH on the role of cognitive ability as a partial or complete mediator of the effect of sibship size to distinguish the two theories and to identify a unique RDH effect on educational attainment. Using sibling data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) and a random effect Instrumental Variable model I find that, in addition to a negative effect on cognitive ability, sibship size also has a strong negative effect on educational attainment which is uniquely explained by the RDH.     

The effectiveness of a group-based educational program on the self-efficacy and self-acceptance of menopausal women: A randomized controlled trial

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a group-based educational training on the self-efficacy and self-acceptance of Iranian menopausal women using the PRECEDE–PROCEED model. This Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) was conducted on 80 menopausal women in the age range of 47–55 years residing in the northeast of Iran. The participants were divided randomly into a test group (n = 40) and a control group (n = 40). We found that designing and implementation of a group-based educational training according to the PRECEDE–PROCEED model can significantly enhance the knowledge and performance of the test group with regard to self-efficacy and self-acceptance.