Child labor versus educational attainment: some evidence from Latin America

The paper addresses the issue of child labor in relation to the educational attainment of working children. The empirical analysis is based on household surveys in Bolivia and Venezuela. It was found that labor force participation is non-trivial among those below the legal working age or supposed to be in school. Working children contribute significantly to total household income. The fact that a child is working reduces his or her educational attainment by about 2 years of schooling relative to the control group of non-working children. Grade repetition, a common phenomenon in Latin America, is closely associated with child labor. JEL classification: J13, J21, I21 Received May 2, 1996/Accepted August 14, 1996     

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 educational attainment of second-generation mainland Chinese immigrants in Taiwan

The social status and well-being of political immigrants’ children are seldom touched upon in literature. This paper focuses on the impact of refugee experience on the relative educational attainment of second-generation immigrants in Taiwan. In contrast with the results in van Ours and Veenman (J Popul Econ 16(4):739–753, 2003) and Riphahn (J Popul Econ 16(4):711–737, 2003) who showed that second-generation immigrants lag behind their native counterparts, this paper’s principle finding is that the father’s immigration status can help his children achieve a higher educational qualification than native Taiwanese after controlling the relevant determinants of educational attainment, including parental background and the neighborhood where the interviewee grows up. In addition, women born in the earlier cohort benefit more by their fathers’ immigration status than their male counterparts do. However, Taiwanese schooling advances across generations are impressive, whereby the gap in schooling attainment between second-generation immigrants and native Taiwanese is found to decline over time.

Birth order matters: the effect of family size and birth order on educational attainment

Using the British Household Panel Survey, we investigate if family size and birth order affect children’s subsequent educational attainment. Theory suggests a trade-off between child quantity and “quality” and that siblings are unlikely to receive equal shares of parental resources devoted to children’s education. We construct a new birth order index that effectively purges family size from birth order and use this to test if siblings are assigned equal shares in the family’s educational resources. We find that the shares are decreasing with birth order. Ceteris paribus, children from larger families have less education, and the family size effect does not vanish when we control for birth order. These findings are robust to numerous specification checks.

死亡人口受教育水平的预测模型和效果研究——对中国1990～2010年省级面板数据的估计

由于缺乏健全的死亡民事登记和医疗登记制度,中国死亡人口的受教育水平只能获得人口普查年份的数据,非普查年份数据只能用普查年份数据代替,这种替代法在使用中存在诸多不足,构建模型对非普查年数据进行估计是另一种可行的方法。本研究利用经过识别和有效性检验的模型,以社会经济发展水平、人口结构水平、医疗卫生水平和存活人口受教育水平作为解释变量,利用可得资料对1990²010年期间非普查年份数据进行估计,得到更为有效的省级死亡人口受教育水平逐年数据。     

Foster care and the educational attainment of Jamaican children

Though informal fostering, the placement of children in the care of relatives or friends, is common in developing countries little research has been performed to ascertain its implications for the welfare of foster children. Previous studies on fostering are generally concerned with the circumstances that result in fostering. We investigate the relationship between foster care and educational opportunities and achievement. The relationship between fostering and a childs educational achievement is crucial because education has a strong influence on the long-term welfare of the individual. Our findings are unique in that we redefine foster care to exclude children living with their biological father. This redefinition results in significantly different findings on the effect of foster care on the educational investment of the household towards foster boys. Under the new definition foster boys are significantly more likely to be educationally disadvantaged.     

Family structure,economic status,and educational attainment

This study examines the effect of family structure on high school graduation by race and gender using data from the first twenty-one waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and recently available retrospective marital histories. The nature of the data allows for a more complete specification of family structure than has been heretofore possible. The analysis tests the hypothesis that the negative effect on educational attainment often associated with living in a mother-only or stepfather family stems primarily from the reduced level of economic resources available to these households. Empirical findings indicate that living with a widowed, divorced, or separated mother has little or no effect on educational attainment once we control for economic status. However, living in a stepfather family appears to have a persistent negative effect on high school graduation rates. Received: 24 July 1995 / Accepted: 9 September 1997     

Heterogeneity in the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment: evidence from Switzerland on natives and second-generation immigrants

This study applies rich data from the 2000 Swiss census to investigate the patterns of intergenerational education transmission for natives and second-generation immigrants. The level of secondary schooling attained by youth aged 17 is related to their parents’ educational outcomes based on data on the entire Swiss population. Extending economic theories of child educational attainment, we derive hypotheses regarding the patterns of intergenerational education transmission. The data yield substantial heterogeneity in intergenerational transmission across population groups. Only a small share of this heterogeneity is explained by the predictions of economic theory.

同胞数量与教育获得的性别差异

同胞数量对教育获得的影响存在性别差异，对女性影响较大，对男性没有统计上的影响。在国家强调教育公平的时期，同胞效应的性别差异较小；在强调效率的时期，性别差异较大。在农村，同胞效应的性别差异要高于城镇。从同胞构成来看，对女性教育获得影响最大的是弟的数量。研究表明，同胞效应产生的主要原因是家庭预算约束和性别偏好。     

人口流动家庭化及其影响因素——以北京市为例

文章基于2006年北京市1‰流动人口抽样调查,考察北京市流动人口的家庭模式及其流动家庭化的影响因素。调查结果显示,北京市流动人口的家庭化率已达到60%。流动人口家庭模式是以一对夫妻户和一对夫妻加孩子户为主的核心家庭为主导,以一代户和二代户为主。3/4的已婚流动人口携带了配偶,有孩子的流动人口中有一半携带了孩子,这些孩子中有近20%是在北京出生的。流动人口的平均家庭规模为2人,明显小于全国农村的平均家庭规模(3.4人)。流动人口的个人特征及在京居住地显著影响人口流动家庭化,同时还发现非经济因素成为比经济因素更为重要的人口流动家庭化影响因素。     

Nominal comparability is not enough: (In-)equivalence of construct validity of cross-national measures of educational attainment in the European Social Survey

Educational attainment is a core social background variable covered in each and every survey of individuals. Since educational institutions and qualifications are difficult to compare across countries, cross-national surveys pose a particular challenge to the measurement of educational attainment. This study performs a comparative construct validation of a number of cross-national measures of education using the European Social Survey. The measures comprise two versions of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), the education scheme developed in the project ‘Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations’ (CASMIN) and hypothetical as well as actual years of education. The first ISCED measure corresponds to the well-known main ISCED levels. The second one, the European Survey Version of ISCED (ES-ISCED) developed for this study, represents an effort to reflect different types of education within levels of education by considering ISCED sub-dimensions, most importantly ‘programme orientation’. Using linear regression models, it is shown how much explanatory power educational attainment loses when different cross-national variables are used, as compared to country-specific educational attainment variables (CSEVs), and how these losses vary across measures and countries. The dependent variable used for the construct validation is social status as measured by the International Socio-Economic Index (ISEI). Results suggest that harmonisation always entails some loss of explanatory power for at least a few countries. However, there are clear performance differences between the comparable measures in terms of both the average amount of losses as well as the distribution of losses across countries. The use of actual years of education as well as the levels-only ISCED strongly attenuates the education-social status association on average, but also to very different degrees across countries. CASMIN and ES-ISCED fare considerably better: they show the lowest losses of explanatory power and the lowest variation of losses across countries. Hypothetical years of education lie in between. Some practical implications are then proposed, e.g. on how to implement cross-national measures of educational attainment in international surveys.     

家庭规模缩小对家庭经济保障能力的影响:苏南实例

本文通过实验设计方法 ,并利用苏南农村居民的数据资料 ,分析实证了在有收入积累的前提下 ,家庭规模缩小不仅不会弱化家庭保障能力 ,而且会强化家庭保障能力。不同规模家庭保障能力差别 ,随时间推移和在家庭生命周期的不同阶段具有波动性。家庭保障能力会因家庭规模的大小、消费和积累模式的差异和在家庭生命周期中的不同阶段而不同 ,并可能发生相互转换。     

Family structure and and fertility behavior in Taiwan

The present analysis is based on the 1990 Taiwan Human Resources Survey to study the relationships between family structure, women's complete fertility and birth spacing. Imputed family size, as measured by either the ideal number of children expressed by a married woman or the number of actual surviving children whichever is larger, is used as a proxy of a woman's complete fertility. The results indicate a majority of married couples in Taiwan begin married life living with the husband's parents and later move out to establish a nuclear unit. This limited experience in the extended family exerts an upward pressure on imputed family size even when other relevant variables are statistically controlled. Further, the effect of living with the husband's parents on shorter duration of birth spacing is only limited to the time when the parents provide free child- care for married couples.     

Family structure and child outcomes in the USA and Sweden

Previous research shows that living in a non-intact family is associated with educational disadvantages. This paper compares the relationships between childhood family structure, schooling, and earnings in Sweden and the USA. This comparison is interesting because both family structure and public policies differ significantly. We find a negative relationship between living in a non-intact family and child outcomes, and the estimates are remarkably similar in both countries. After using sibling-difference models, the correlation with family structure is no longer significant. These results cast doubt on the causal interpretation of the negative relationship between non-intact family structures and child outcomes.     

家庭养老需求与家庭养老功能弱化的张力及其弥合

人口老龄化是当前中国社会所面临的重要挑战之一。一方面,老年人的特征和人性本能共同决定了人们对家庭养老需求十分强烈;另一方面,家庭结构变迁和人们生活方式的变化导致家庭养老功能逐步弱化。两者之间的张力造就了当前中国社会所特有的家庭养老困境。如何弥合二者之间的张力需要建构家庭和社会联动性的居家养老模式,应发挥各方优势,整合资源,破解家庭养老困境。     

广东家庭户规模与家庭生命周期变化特点

本文分析广东省家庭户的规模和结构变化 ,以及广东家庭生命周期的形成、扩展、稳定、收缩、空巢和解体等六个阶段的新特点。这些变化和特点将对广东的经济发展产生深远的影响。     

The transmission of social inequality: Examination of the linkages between family socioeconomic status in childhood and educational achievement in young adulthood

The present study examines the linkages between family socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood and educational achievement in young adulthood using data from a 25-year longitudinal study of a birth cohort of over 1000 New Zealand children. Structural equation modeling of the association between latent SES at birth and educational achievement by age 25 years showed evidence of a strong association between latent SES and later educational achievement. Much of this association was mediated via two pathways relating to child cognitive ability and family educational aspirations; family economic resources and school factors did not mediate the association. However, even when the major theoretical pathways were taken into account, a substantial component of the latent SES/educational achievement correlation remained unexplained.     

农村分家类型与三代直系家庭的变动趋势——基于对全国人口普查数据的分析

本研究基于全国人口普查数据,以及笔者已有关于农村分家类型数量模型的分析,对家庭结构再生产过程中的分化因素与组合因素进行了归纳,揭示了家庭结构再生产的内在逻辑,构建分家类型对家庭类型的微观作用机制．进而据此解释1990—2000年三代直系家庭的历史变动,并预测未来独子家庭结构再生产的变动趋势。结论是：（1）家庭结构再生产的过程中,家庭结构的分裂因素对组合因素的优势日益明显,无论是在独子家庭还是在多子家庭都是这样。（2）自1990年以来三代直系家庭比重上升的内在原因是多子分家类型的急剧减少．由此而减少了大量核心家庭,而相对提升了三代直系家庭的比例．三代直系家庭本身的演变趋势是走向日益瓦解,特别是在日益增加的独子家庭中,分裂因素日渐强势并占据主导地位,三代直系家庭在未来将会顽强坚持的判断可能是靠不住的。文章最后回应了学界关于中国家庭结构问题的争论。     

家庭结构、代际关系与老年人赡养——以安徽薛村为个案的考察

本文以薛村为个案。认为当代中国农村家庭结构的核心化、小型化特别是老年空巢家庭或者单身老人家庭的核心化带来了家庭养老的困境,家庭结构核心化趋势是代际关系变迁的某种外在表现形式。原有家庭内部的代际关系变迁成为家庭结构与老年赡养变化的主要原因。短时间的理性的代际平衡并不是建立在代际双方共有认同基础之上的．老年人仍然以长时间的道德与感情的互惠模式考虑与子辈之间的关系。但是子辈却愈发用现代的理性方式考量代际关系。赡莽老人的动力不是来自于生我养我的父子之恩情。而是一种与市场交换形式相类似的有来有往的给予方式。家庭养老模式的内涵和原则产生的变化使得农村老年人生存状况下降．在此之中国家成为老年人所期盼的救济对象,但国家的有限资源无法对老年人实施全面的救济。改善老年人生活仍然应以原来的家庭养老模式为基础。并且对之加以外部制度建设和内部社会化机制的完善。     

The measurement of historical trends in fetal mortality in England and Wales

This paper critically discusses recent attempts to estimate long-term trends in the stillbirth rate for England and Wales. It assesses the available historical evidence for the level of late-fetal mortality, drawing especially on examples from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. A theoretical fetal–infant life table for a high-mortality population is also outlined as a means of analysing the relationship between segments of the conception-to-first-birthday mortality curve. Finally, new estimates of the stillbirth rate for England and Wales are proposed, based on variations in the early neonatal and maternal mortality rates during the 1930s. These estimates are substantially lower than the earlier estimates and are more in keeping with the available evidence from northern Europe. The implications of the revised estimates for interpretations of historical changes in mortality patterns are also considered.