Assessing recall bias and measurement error in high-frequency social data collection for human-environment research

Population and Environment - A major impediment to understanding human-environment interactions is that data on social systems are not collected in a way that is easily comparable to natural...     

Correction to: Investigating demographic processesusing innovative combinations of remotelysensed and demographic data

Population and Environment - The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The name “Kluger” in the second paragraph should be changed to “Kugler”.     

Unequal transitions: Selection bias and the compensatory effect of social background in educational careers

Previous studies have shown that social background inequality differs among educational transitions and it is stronger for those transitions that involve a higher risk of social demotion. This paper focuses on two processes that may account for part of the observed differences in social background inequality across educational transitions. First, it studies how the family of origin might compensate for a ‘false step’ in the early stage of young people's educational careers. This compensatory effect of social background can be described as the likelihood of having ‘a second chance’ for unsuccessful educational transitions. Second, it focuses on two unobserved factors that might potentially bias the effect of social background across educational transitions. These are the students’ unobserved cognitive and non-cognitive skills and their unobserved anticipated choices of dropping out of the education system. Two issues – the compensatory effect of social background and selection bias in educational transitions – are addressed by estimating a probit model with sample selection for the transition to post-compulsory education in Spain.     

Systematic error in behavioural measurement: Comparing results from interview and time budget studies

Data collected by survey methodology are sensitive to measurement errors. Factors of memory, understanding, and willingness to respond truthfully, distort the quality of results. In this paper, time diaries were used as a quality check for results obtained by direct interviews and questionnaires. Data is based on surveys carried out by Statistics Finland. Comparison showed that measurement error varied considerably between population groups, influencing dependencies and interpretations of the results. Activities clearly distinctive from other activities, such as gainful employment outside the home, produced the most accurate data in direct survey questions. Everyday activities that don't clearly stand out from other uses of time, such as home based employment, are difficult to recall and produce a lot of biasing measurement errors.     

The hidden component in census-derived migration data: Assessing its size and distribution

Comparison of Norwegian "linked" decennial census data with statistics compiled from 10 years' migration registrations showed that the amount of movement omitted by census data was considerable. This hidden movement was of a similar order at every administrative level, but only when total movement was considered. There was wide variation between regions, migration directions, and streams. In some cases census data misrepresented the direction of net movement. Available evidence suggests that these patterns are not confined to Norway, raising the possibility that research findings based on census-derived migration data may merely be artifacts of the data.     

Welfare states and social inequality: Key issues in contemporary cross-national research on social stratification and mobility

Research on welfare states and research on social stratification and mobility share a common concern for social inequality. Research on welfare states is usually comparatively designed, looking for similarities and variation across countries in a number of aspects related to social structure and social institutions. On the other hand, the basic model of social stratification, utilized in most cross-national research on social stratification and mobility, is an abstract model which does not specify why and how we are to understand cross-national differences. Yet for about 20 years or so, researchers within the social stratification community have undertaken several cross-national studies. This paper reviews a few selected studies within each area and summarizes their conclusions with regard to similarities versus differences between countries. In the final section of the paper, I discuss key issues for future work within cross-national research on social stratification.     

Studying children in armed conflict: data production,social indicators and analysis

The authors seek to give an overview of ways in which social indicators relevant to research on children affected by armed conflict can be developed, and how such research can be carried out. Technical and methodological challenges involved in this pursuit are discussed. It is argued that data production must consider issues of definition and delineation of the phenomenon of war-affected children more actively than it does currently. An analytical approach is proposed, in which children’s characteristics in different situations, or in different stages of conflict, may be used as intakes to understanding how the social processes pertaining to life histories of children in armed conflict are created and reproduced.

Emerging issues in urban ecology: implications for research,social justice,human health,and well-being

Urbanization affects landscape structure and the overall human condition in numerous ways. Green spaces include vegetated land cover (e.g., urban forests, trees, riparian zones, parks) which play a distinctive role in urban ecology. This article reviews emergent literature on the linkages between urban green spaces, social justice, and human health. We explore this subject in the context of landscape structure, ecosystem services, and distributional equity as it relates to various health outcomes. Finally, we conclude by identifying gaps in the scholarship and potential areas of future research.     

Correction to: Patronage and Public Goods Provisioning in an Unequal Land

Social Indicators Research - The article Patronage and Public Goods Provisioning in an Unequal Land, written by Hadia Majid and Rashid Memon, was originally published electronically on the...     

Correction to: Inequality in Education and Wealth in Tanzania: A 25-Year Perspective

Social Indicators Research - The article Inequality in Education and Wealth in Tanzania: A 25-Year Perspective, written Emmanuel Maliti, was originally published electronically on the...     

Correction to: Vertical and Horizontal Inequality in Ecuador: The Lack of Sustainability

Social Indicators Research - The article Vertical and Horizontal Inequality in Ecuador: The Lack of Sustainability, written Ivan Gachet, Diego F. Grijalva, Paúl A. Ponce and Damián...     

Wives and ex-wives: A new test for homogamy bias in the widowhood effect

Increased mortality following the death of a spouse (the “widowhood effect”) may be due to (1) causation, (2) bias from spousal similarity (homogamy), or (3) bias from shared environmental exposures. This article proposes new tests for bias in the widowhood effect by examining husbands, wives, and ex-wives in a longitudinal sample of over 1 million elderly Americans. If the death of an ex-wife has no causal effect on the mortality of her husband, then an observed association between the mortality of an ex-wife and her husband may indicate bias, while the absence of an effect of an ex-wife’s death on her husband’s mortality would discount the possibility of homogamy bias (and also of one type of shared-exposure bias). Results from three empirical tests provide strong evidence for an effect of a current wife’s death on her husband’s mortality yet no statistically signifi cant evidence for an effect of an ex-wife’s death on her husband’s mortality. These results strengthen the causal interpretation of the widowhood effect by suggesting that the widowhood effect is not due to homogamy bias to any substantial degree.     

The role of fertility and population in economic growth: empirical research from aggregate cross-national data

Two recently improved sets of cross-country panel data are combined in order to re-examine the effects of population growth and fertility on economic growth. Using a 107 country panel data set covering 1960-85, we find that high birth rates appear to reduce economic growth through investment effects and possibly through capital dilution, although classic resource dilution is not evident in the data. Most significantly, however, birth rate declines have a strong medium-term positive impact on per capita income growth through labour supply or dependency effects.We are very grateful to Allen Kelley for his careful and thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this paper (Brander and Dowrick 1991) which led to a complete re-estimation of our models using updated primary data and reconstructed secondary data sets. We are also grateful to three anonymous referees for very helpful comments. This research was begun while Brander was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Economics, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. Revisions were carried out while Dowrick was visiting the Department of Economics, University of Warwick. Research assistance was provided by Tracy Tiong. Financial support from the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada and UBC Centre for International Business Studies is gratefully acknowledged.     

Erratum to: Mapping the Regional Divide in Europe: A Measure for Assessing Quality of Government in 206 European Regions

Social Indicators Research -     

Rural-urban migration and the social mobility of individuals in the Republic of Korea: an analysis of life history data

The paper explores the impact of rural-to-urban migration on the social mobility of individuals, comparing rural-to-urban migrants with rural and urban natives. Using life history data from the 1983 Korean National Migration Survey, the authors examined the pattern of migrant adjustment by estimating the 1st difference form of the autoregressive equation. They found a disruptive effect of rural-to-urban migration that disappears gradually after migration. This study provides strong evidence that most rural-to-urban migrants successfully adapt to urban life through upward occupational mobility relative to both rural and urban natives. This finding sharply contrasts with previous studies on the urban informal sector, which emphasize selective rural-to-urban migration or the inability of migrating individuals to adapt to city life. Moreover, this study showed that a principle cause of the rapid expansion of Seoul is that migrants are more likely to be upwardly mobile when they are destined for Seoul rather than other cities.