Are mothers of young children more likely to be self-employed? The case of Sweden

Previous studies, mostly from Anglo-Saxon countries, find a positive correlation between the presence of young children in the household and self-employment probabilities among women. This has been seen as an indication of women with young children choosing self-employment as a way of balancing work and family commitments. This paper studies the relationship between children and female self-employment in a country with family friendly policies and a generous welfare system: Sweden. The initial hypothesis is that we will not find evidence of a positive effect of children on self-employment among Swedish women since there are other institutions in place aiming at facilitating the combination of work and family. Using Swedish register data for the period 2004–2008 we do, however, find that the presence of young children increases the probability of choosing self-employment also among Swedish women. The effect is strongest for women with very young children, 0–3 years of age. These results also hold in a panel data model that takes individual unobserved heterogeneity into account. We also analyze time-use data and find, contrary to what has been found in many other countries, that self-employed women spend more, or as much, time on market work than wage-earning women. This raises doubts about whether women in Sweden chose self-employment as a way of balancing work and family commitments.     

Are nurses more altruistic than real estate brokers?

We report results from a dictator game experiment with nurse students and real estate broker students as dictators, and Amnesty International as the recipient. Although brokers contributed substantial amounts, nurses contributed significantly more, on average 76% of their endowment. In a second part, subjects chose between a certain repetition of the experiment and a 50-50 chance of costly exit. About one third of the brokers and half of the nurses chose the exit option. While generosity was indeed higher among nurses, even when taking exits into account, the difference cannot readily be attributed to different degrees of altruism.     

Multicultural desires? Parental negotiation of multiculture and difference in choosing secondary schools for their children

This paper considers the ways in which parents talk about choosing secondary schools in three areas of Greater Manchester. It argues that this can be a moment when parents are considering their own attitudes to, and shaping their children's experiences of, multiculture. Multiculture is taken as the everyday experience of living with difference. The paper argues that multiculture needs to be understood as shaped not only by racialized, ethnic or religious difference (as it is commonly understood) but also by other differences which parents may consider important, particularly class and approaches to parenting. We stress the need to examine what parents say about schooling in the context in which they are talking, which is shaped by local areas and the experiences of their children in primary schools. Based on interviews with an ethnically mixed groups of parents from different schools, we show how perceptions of the racialized and class demographics of schools can influence parents' choice of secondary schools. The paper also argues that attention needs to be paid to the ways in which terms such as ‘multicultural’ and ‘mix’ are applied uniformly to very different contexts, be they particular schools or local areas, suggesting there is a paucity of language in Britain when talking about multiculture.     

Are children better witnesses than adolescents? Developmental trends in different false memory paradigms

Abstract

The current study compared older children’s (11/12-year-olds) and adolescents’ (14/15-year-olds) vulnerability to false memory creation using two different methods (i.e., the Deese/Roediger-McDermott [DRM] and memory conformity paradigms) involving neutral and negative stimuli. In line with previous research, a developmental reversal effect was found for the DRM paradigm, which means that when employing this method children displayed lower false memory levels than adolescents. However, when using the memory conformity paradigm, the opposite pattern was found, with adolescents forming fewer false memories than children. This indicates that in a co-witness context, adolescents are less prone to memory errors than children. The emotional valence of the stimuli used in both paradigms did not notably affect the production of false memories. There was no statistically significant correlation between false memories as measured by the DRM and the memory conformity paradigms. Altogether, the current study indicates that there is no single type of false memory as different experimental paradigms evoke different types of erroneous recollections. Additionally, our study corroborates past findings in the literature concerning the issue of developmental reversal, strengthening the idea that under certain circumstances children might indeed be better witnesses than adolescents.     

Are male managers better than female managers?

This essay studies gender differences in leadership from two perspectives: social system and leadership styles. The rising of female's superiority on leadership has increasingly been recognized by the society. The discrimination problem and ‘glass ceiling'upon females arouse a more human, more mature and more efficient leadership style than male. This study concludes that female leaders are not weaker than male leaders and they have working enthusiasm and abilities just as male. As long as the opportunities are fair provided, female leaders can do even better than male leaders.     

Does the Borda rule provide more than a ranking?

Consider the following problem: a set of candidates {x, y, z} has to be ranked from best to worse by a committee. Each member of the committee provides his own ranking of the three candidates and you decide to use the Borda method to aggregate the rankings. The resulting scores are as follows: 107 for x, 106 for y and 51 for z. Would you conclude that x is better than y? Probably not, because the difference between the scores of x and y is small. The only conclusion you would draw is that z definitely is the worst candidate. But, is it meaningful to consider differences of Borda scores? We characterize the Borda method in this new framework and find conditions that are very close to those characterizing the classical Borda method. Throughout our paper, we consider a generalization of the Borda method designed to aggregate fuzzy relations. Received: 2 March 1998/Accepted: 5 May 1999     

Are some disabilities more equal than others? Conceptualising fluctuating or recurring impairments within contemporary legislation and practice

In recent years, the concept of fluctuating or recurring impairments has grown both in the public consciousness as well as in frequency of note within policy documentation and legislation. However, contention still surrounds the perceived legitimacy of such impairments, including chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis, epilepsy and diabetes, which have the potential to vary in intensity over time, versus more ‘traditional’ and accepted forms of disability. By drawing on current conceptual discussion and research activities in Canada around what have been termed episodic disabilities, as well as legislative developments in the United Kingdom, this paper will provide an overview of how fluctuating or recurring impairments have to date been conceptualised, contested, and the central issue of competing definitions within this context     

Do people think about absolute or relative price differences when choosing between substitute goods?

The article presents experimental evidence that shows that people often consider relative price differences in addition to absolute differences when choosing between substitute goods. Because the choice between substitute goods is a very common one, this is an important finding. The experiment uses scenarios in various consumption categories: hotel rooms, flights, and books. Subjects were either students or participants in an economics conference. The data allow to reject the hypothesis that people think only about relative price differences in favor of the hypothesis that people think about both relative and absolute price differences. Whether the price given to the subjects is that of the high-quality good or of the low-quality good makes a large difference, a result that is related to the endowment effect and the status quo bias. Implications of the results for business strategy and other areas are also discussed.     

The tournament careers of top-ranked men and women tennis professionals: Are the gentlemen more committed than the ladies?

We ask whether top-ranked male tennis professionals are more dedicated or commit-ted to their careers than the top-ranked female professionals. We find no evidence that this is the case in the 1979–1994 period. Despite substantially lower real earnings, the women pros competed for as many years as did the men and just as intensely in terms of annual number of tournaments played.     

Are Americans and Indians more altruistic than the Japanese and Chinese? Evidence from a new international survey of bequest plans

This paper discusses three alternative assumptions concerning household preferences (altruism, self-interest, and a desire for dynasty building) and shows that these assumptions have very different implications for bequest motives and bequest division. After reviewing some of the literature on actual bequests, bequest motives, and bequest division, the paper presents data on the strength of bequest motives, stated bequest motives, and bequest division plans from a new international survey conducted in China, India, Japan, and the United States. It finds striking inter-country differences in bequest plans, with the bequest plans of Americans and Indians appearing to be much more consistent with altruistic preferences than those of the Japanese and Chinese and the bequest plans of the Japanese and Chinese appearing to be much more consistent with selfish preferences than those of Americans and Indians. These findings have important implications for the efficacy and desirability of stimulative fiscal policies, public pensions, and inheritance taxes.     

Why do men get more heart disease than women? An international perspective

Biological, behavioral, and psychosocial contributions to the gender gap in coronary heart disease (CHD) are discussed. Although CHD is the Number 1 cause of death for both sexes in the industrialized world, CHD mortality rates between these countries are larger than those between men and women, suggesting that biological factors are not the sole influences on the gender gap in CHD. Traditional coronary risk factors cannot explain the rapid increase in CHD mortality among middle-aged men in many of the newly independent states of eastern Europe. However, eastern European men score higher on stress-related psychosocial coronary risk factors (e.g., social isolation, vital exhaustion) than men living in the West. Comparisons between the sexes also reveal gender differences in psychosocial and behavioral coronary risk factors, including excessive alcohol consumption and smoking, favoring women. Overall, it appears that men's coping with stressful events may be less adaptive physiologically, behaviorally, and emotionally, contributing to their increased risk for CHD.     

Financial forecasts during the crisis: Were experts more accurate than laypeople?

The main goal of this paper was to examine the accuracy and confidence of financial forecasts during the 2009/2010 crisis. The study was carried out in February 2009 in Poland. The participants represented two groups: financial analysts and laypeople (people without knowledge or skills in finance). All participants were asked to forecast future stock market performance and foreign exchange rates. Additionally, they marked their confidence on a 100-point scale. The results showed that the forecasts significantly differed from the real values. In forecasting both the stock market and the currency exchange market, the prediction error significantly differed from zero. Even if the participants were optimistic in making the directional stock market forecasts, they were pessimistic when making point index predictions, which suggests a judgmental paradox. The experts were slightly better than the non-experts in predicting the stock market. However, their accuracy was generally not better in the exchange market forecasts. The next step of the analysis focused on the confidence factor. The results of this part of the research showed that the laypeople were less confident than the experts in all the judgments.     

Are invasive House Sparrows a nuisance for native avifauna when scarce?

Biological invasions are the second most important cause of species extinction. Aided by processes such as transportation and urbanization, exotic species can establish and spread to new locations, causing changes in the function and structure of ecosystems. The House Sparrow is a widespread and highly abundant landbird associated to human presence. Previous studies performed in urban landscapes have suggested that this species could be acting, in synergy with urbanization, as a potential threat to native urban avian assemblages. In this study we assessed the relationship between House Sparrow density and native bird species richness in a region where the sparrows are scarce and sparsely distributed. We surveyed bird assemblages in and around four small-sized human settlements, considering three conditions in relation to House Sparrow presence: urban invaded, urban non-invaded, and non-urban non-invaded. To assess the potential detrimental role of House Sparrows on native bird species richness, we measured, additionally to sparrow densities, 20 predictor variables that describe vegetation structure and complexity, as well as urban infrastructure and human activities across four seasons of 1 year. Our results show that maximum shrub height was positively related to bird species richness, built cover was negatively associated with it, and House Sparrow invaded sites were related to a significant decrease of bird species richness, with increasing richness loss when more sparrows were present. Thus, we here provide evidence that urban areas can act in synergy with the presence of House Sparrows (even in low densities) in the urban-related species richness decline pattern.

     

Why do children transfer to their parents? Evidence from South Korea

I examine motives behind interhousehold upstream transfers using a sample of child-parent pairs in South Korea. The estimation results indicate that upstream transfers in Korea cannot be explained by just one motive. I find evidence that altruism is the dominant motive at the margin if parental income is low, but not so if parental income is high. I also find that upstream transfers are given, at least in part, in exchange for child care service and in lieu of personal visits. There is little evidence that upstream transfers are used by children to win parental favor for future gains such as an inheritance or to repay implicit parental loans used for education. Additional evidence is provided from the analysis of the frequency of personal visits and semiparametric regressions. Determinants of downstream transfer amounts are also examined.     

Do bullied children have poor relationships with their parents and teachers? A cross-sectional study of Swedish children

Parents and teachers play an important role in helping victims of bullying to prevent, cope with and end bullying. Despite that, victims' relationships with adults have often been overlooked in previous research. The aim of this study was to investigate bullied and not bullied children's perception of the quality of their relationship with teachers and parents and to examine if there were any differences in the perception associated with bullying frequency or type of victimization. Data came from the Swedish Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey from 2013/14, which included 7867 students aged 11, 13 and 15. A multi-level multinomial logistic regression model was created to estimate association between the type of bullying victimization and the quality of relationships with parents and teachers. The result showed that bullied children had poorer relationships with parents and teachers than nonvictims. Victims had higher odds of finding it difficult to talk to parents about things bothering them, of feeling that the family was not listening to what they had to say, and of having low confidence in their teacher. Frequent cyber victims had the highest AdjOR (2.09–3.37) compared with non-victims to have poor quality relationships with teachers and parents.     

Evil Tidings: Are Reorganizations more Successful if Employees are Informed Early?

Organizations represent deliberately designed social contexts that are characterized by multi-level hierarchies. Interests and opportunity structures at each level usually do not overlap. We suggest that one of the reasons why intentional change efforts often fail to reach their objectives is because they are likely to trigger competing social mechanisms at different levels of the hierarchy. In order to illustrate this argument, we analyze the consequences of timely communication of planned organizational changes on perceived success of reorganizations. Two competing mechanisms are derived and tested with data from a telephone survey (carried out in 2003), among a sample of n = 412 Dutch business organizations that performed a reorganization. The commitment perspective predicts that early announcement of reorganization plans to middle management increases the likelihood of reorganization success, since it increases commitment and empowers middle management. The influence mechanism predicts that early information of non-managerial employees decreases the likelihood of reorganization success, because it enables employees to use the information to their own advantage, anticipate on the strategies of management, and organize opposition against the plans. We found that timely communication with middle management indeed increases chances for success, whereas timely communication with employees correlates with reorganization failure. However, not communicating with employees has an even stronger negative effect on reorganization success. No evidence could be found for our argument that the severity of the reorganization’s expected negative effects on the workforce moderates both mechanisms.     

Why should they live more with one of us when they are children to us both?: Parents' motives for practicing equal joint physical custody for children aged 0–4

Joint physical custody, i.e., children spending an equal amount of time in both parents' home after a separation or divorce, is increasing in many countries. In line with the national policy to promote paternal involvement in parenting, two-thirds of Swedish preschoolers with non-cohabiting parents live in two homes. Internationally, there has been a debate regarding the benefits or risks with joint physical custody for infants and toddlers. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the reasons given by divorced parents for sharing joint physical custody of children 0–4 years of age. Interviews were conducted with 46 parents (18 fathers and 28 mothers) and analyzed using systematic text condensation. Two themes emerged in response to the research question. In the theme Same rights and responsibilities, parents described that joint physical custody was ‘a given’ as both parents were seen to have equal rights to and responsibility for the children. Both men and women described involved fatherhood as an ideal goal. In the theme For the sake of the child, parents emphasized that joint physical custody was in the best interest of the child. Some parents had conflicts with their ex-spouses, but were still convinced of the benefits of joint physical custody and strove to make it work.     

Are baby boomers who care for their older parents planning for their own future long-term care needs?

A rapidly expanding number of baby boomers provide care to aging parents. This study examines associations between caregiver status and outcomes related to awareness and anticipation of future long-term care (LTC) needs using 2007 Connecticut Long-Term Care Needs Assessment survey data. Baby boomers who were adult child caregivers (n = 353) versus baby boomers who were not (n = 1242) were more likely to anticipate some future LTC needs and to have considered certain financing strategies. Although baby boomer adult child caregivers more readily anticipate some future LTC needs, they are not taking specific actions. It is important to address the need for public education directed toward those who are currently (or have recently completed) caring for aging parents.