Demography of brideprice and dowry: Causes and consequences of the Indian marriage squeeze

The paper investigates whether past declines in mortality could have created a huge deficit of eligible men in the marriage market, and whether the ensuing competition for mates could be responsible for the coercive character the dowry system of marriage has assumed in India. New indices have been developed to measure the trends in bridegroom availability that aid in the inquiry into the demographic origins of marriage squeeze. It is contended that the marriage squeeze against women was particularly intense in India because mortality decline, in addition to age structural changes, drastically reduced the number of widowers in the population who once accounted for about one-fifth of the annual supply of bridegrooms. Our projections indicate that, as a result of recent declines in fertility, the marriage squeeze against females will ease substantially by the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, and that marriages of men will begin to be delayed more than those of women.     

The impact of early-life economic conditionson cause-specific mortality during adulthood

The aim of this study is to assess the effects of economic conditions in early life on cause-specific mortality during adulthood. The analyses are performed on a unique historical sample of 14,520 Dutch individuals born in 1880–1918, who are followed throughout life. The economic conditions in early life are characterized using cyclical variations in annual real per capital gross domestic product during pregnancy and the first year of life. Exposure to recessions in early life appears to significantly increase cancer mortality risks of older males and females. It also significantly increases other mortality risks especially for older females. The residual life expectancies are up to about 8 and 6 % lower for male and female cancer mortality, respectively, and up to about 5 % lower for female cardiovascular mortality. Our analyses show that cardiovascular and cancer mortality risks are related and that not taking this association into account leads to biased inference.     

Effects of early-life conditions on adult mortality: a review

"This paper considers the effects of health conditions in childhood on an individual's mortality risks as an adult. It examines epidemiologic evidence on some of the major mechanisms expected to create a linkage between childhood and adult mortality and reviews demographic and epidemiologic studies for evidence of the hypothesized linkages....Many empirical studies support the notion that childhood conditions play a major role in adult mortality, but only in the case of respiratory tuberculosis has the demographic importance of a specific mechanism been established by cohort studies. One's date and place of birth also appear to be persistently associated with risks of adult death in a wide variety of circumstances. An individual's height, perhaps the single best indicator of nutritional and disease environment in childhood, has recently been linked to adult mortality, especially from cardiovascular diseases. Further research is needed, however, before causal mechanisms can be identified."     

Parity and the expected consequences of childbearing

In this study 163 young married women with 0, 1, or 2 children described the advantages and disadvantages of having a (another) child in the next three years and the expectations of significant others regarding their childbearing behavior. Childless women were more likely than women at first and second parity to mention self-fulfillment, pleasing parents, strengthening their marriage, less time and freedom, interference with career and education, being emotionally unprepared, and creating friction in their marriage. Women with one child were most likely to mention companionship and achieving family size goals. For women with two children gender preference and less time for present children were particularly salient consequences. Women with one child report experiencing the strongest pronatalist normative pressures but the perceived preferences of significant others were most closely related to own childbearing plans for childless women. The results are discussed in terms of a parity specific approach to the study of motivations for parenthood.The research reported here was supported by Grant HD 10391-01, Center for Population Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Robyn Boyer is now an independent research consultant in Sacramento, California. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Thomas J. Crawford, Program in Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, California, 92717.     

The consequences of being clever

The consequences of being clever     

Causes and indicators of housing quality

This paper examines the feasibility and validity of one method for combining measures of different dimensions of the quality of a household's housing situation into a summary index value. Housing quality is treated as an unobservable variable for which there are multiple observable causes and indicators. Alternative mathematical models are specified, and their parameters are estimated using data from a sample of low-income renter households in a major U.S. metropolitan area.     

Evolution and physiological consequences of de-alation in crickets

Wing shedding or de-alation is a common phenomenon among crickets. Its significance and effects on other traits were examined based on the results from experiments using artifical or natural de-alation. Artificial de-alation at adult emergence induces rapid egg production and flight muscle histolysis in several species examined. However, natural de-alation does not always shorten the pre-ovipositional period because it does not occur immediately after adult emergence and because oviposition starts before de-alation. In some cases, naturally de-alated females produce more eggs than to intact females during early adult life, but peak ovipositing activity occurs before de-alation. Therefore, retention of the hindwings does not suppress high ovipositing activity in such cases. It appears that de-alation is a result rather than a causal factor in ending migration. Ovarian development and flight muscle histolysis, which can be stimulated by de-alation, are controlled by the jevenile hormone, but the mechanism inducing de-alation remains unknown. The possible factors leading to the evolution of de-alation are discussed.     

Speciation, its ecological and biogeographical consequences

I studied the effect of treehole (microhabitat) size distribution in local habitats on geographic difference in aquatic metazoan community structure by comparing differences between two sites on Iriomote Island, and between Iriomote Island (subtropical) and Tsushima Island (temperate), in southwestern Japan. In treeholes at each local site, the amount of litter, the species richness and total biomass of metazoa were positively correlated with treehole capacity. Between the two sites on Iriomote Island (Shirahama and Komi), the amount of litter, biomass and species number per treehole was greater at Komi where the mean and variance of treehole size were greater, while the dependencies of these parameters on treehole capacity were common to both sites. Total species number was larger at Komi (2 predators and 20 saprophages) than at Shirahama (1 predator and 19 saprophages). Most of the dominant taxa colonized larger treeholes with higher probabilities, although one taxa showed the opposite trend. Treeholes on Tsushima were smaller than those on Iriomote. The metazoan fauna in treeholes consisted of 15 saprophages on Tsushima, being less richer than that on Iriomote Island which had 2 predators and 21 saprophages. However, the dependencies of litter amount and biomass on treehole capacity did not differ significantly between the islands, although treeholes on Iriomote harbored a greater number of species per treehole than those on Tsushima. This study indicated that there are general correlates between community structure within individual treeholes (infracommunity structure) and treehole capacity (microhabitat size). Therefore, microhabitat-size distribution is potentially a significant constraint of local community structure, and its variation may contribute to the variation in local and regional species richness.     

城市贫困:原因分析及治理对策

城市贫困问题已成为中国改革和发展中急需解决的重要问题 ,治理城市贫困关系到稳定大局 ,实现“共同富裕”的发展目标 ,也是全面建设小康社会的必然要求。本文分析了城市贫困现状及其产生的原因 ,并提出扶贫解困的政策措施。     

Unintended consequences of Immigration Reform: Discrimination and hispanic employment

The record-keeping requirements of the Immigration Reform and Control Act(IRCA), and fines for illegal employment, may induce employers to discriminate against foreign-appearing workers. The General Accounting Office (GAO) reported widespread IRCA-related discrimination but did not link reported discriminatory practices to discriminatory employment behavior. We analyze the GAO’s random survey and, controlling for selectivity effects, demonstrate that employers who report discriminatory practices actually employ fewer Hispanics. Although the measured reduction of Hispanic employment due to IRCA is fairly small, this finding parallels research alerting us to adverse consequences of a law that so far has achieved few of its intended effects.     

Volume,characteristics and consequences of internal migration in Colombia

More than one-third of the Colombian population can be classified as migrants. The prevailing direction of movements is urbanwards, yet it is significant that better than a third of all movements are to rural destinations. Nationwide comparisons of migrants and residents on demographic characteristics would indicate that all streams are selective of the younger and unmarried population, with women predominating in urbanwards movements and men in those to rural areas. However, when compared in terms of socioeconomic characteristics, migrants are more sharply differentiated among themselves than they are from the resident population at each of their respective destinations. Within the migrant population, a natural funneling of the more able migrants to the largest centers suggests itself. Migrants have consistently higher activity rates than the remainder of the population and, in the case of men at least, appear capable of competing for jobs on an equal basis with residents at their respective destinations. Female migrants, however, are consistently overrepresented in lower-status activities, particularly in domestic services.     

Health consequences of forest fires in Indonesia

We combined data from a population-based longitudinal survey with satellite measures of aerosol levels to assess the impact of smoke from forest fires that blanketed the Indonesian islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra in late 1997 on adult health. To account for unobserved differences between haze and nonhaze areas, we compared changes in the health of individual respondents. Between 1993 and 1997, individuals who were exposed to haze experienced greater increases in difficulty with activities of daily living than did their counterparts in nonhaze areas. The results for respiratory and general health, although more complicated to interpret, suggest that haze had a negative impact on these dimensions of health.     

Long-term consequences for children of teenage parents

Data from Project TALENT were analyzed to investigate whether any long-term consequences exist for children of teenage parents. TALENT is a longitudinal national survey of 375,000 individuals who were in grades 9-12 in 1960. TALENT participants born when their mother and/or father was a teenager were compared with their classmates born when both parents were older on a variety of educational, occupational, and social dimensions. Many differences were found, owing primarily to the different social and economic background characteristics of the two groups. Even with the background factors controlled, the children of teenage parents, in comparison to their classmates: (a) showed decrements in terms of academic achievement; (b) were more likely to live in one-parent or stepparent homes; and (c)showed a slight tendency to repeat the early marriage, early parenthood, and higher fertility cycle of their parent(s).     

The Lonely and Homeless: Causes and Consequences

Both, homelessness and loneliness are quite pervasive in North America. This study compared the causes of the loneliness experienced by the homeless to that of the general population. Two hundred and sixty six homeless and five hundred and ninety five men and women from the general population answered a 30 item yes/no questionnaire. The causes of loneliness were composed of the following five factors: Personal inadequacy, Developmental deficits, Unfulfilling intimate relationships, Relocation/significant separations, and Social marginality. The present results indicated that the causes of homeless loneliness are significantly different from those of the general population.     

Son targeting fertility behavior: Some consequences and determinants

This article draws out some implications of son targeting fertility behavior and studies its determinants. We demonstrate that such behavior has two notable implications at the aggregate level: (a) girls have a larger number of siblings (sibling effect), and (b) girls are born at relatively earlier parities within families (birth-order effect). Empirically testing for these effects, we find that both are present in many countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and North Africa but are absent in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Using maximum likelihood estimation, we study the effect of covariates on son targeting fertility behavior in India, a country that displays significant sibling and birth-order effects. We find that income and geographic location of families significantly affect son targeting behavior.     

生殖健康与男性保健

维护与促进男性生殖健康,不仅将使男性受益、妇女及家庭受益,而且有利于社会乃至整个民族的利益。     

Understanding educational sequences and their consequences on the timing of marriage

"This study examines educational sequences and their consequences on the timing of marriage using the life history data from the 1983 Korean National Migration Survey....I find that the educational process in Korea becomes stabilized and institutionalized during middle and high schooling as middle and high school education becomes a mass experience. However, both men and women are likely to undergo a disorderly sequence during the transition period from high school to college due to the very fierce college entrance examination. Men are also likely to experience a disorderly sequence before or after military service. Both men and women who experience an interruption in their schooling after graduation from high school have lesser odds of getting married than those who keep their educational process orderly."     

What are the economic consequences of divorce?

Our analysis suggests that Weitzman's finding concerning the precipitous decline in the economic status of women following divorce is likely to be incorrect. Her findings not only imply improbably large changes in income but are also inconsistent with the information she reports on changes in income and in income per capita. Corrected estimates suggest a decline in economic status of about one-third, rather than the widely cited 73 percent figure. It remains the case that the economic status of men and women diverge substantially in the years after divorce. That difference, however, is not nearly as dramatic as suggested by Weitzman's findings.