Changes in durable stocks, portfolio allocation, and consumption expenditure in the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake

To understand the household recovery process from unexpected serious damage caused by a natural disaster, we analyze household data from the Kobe earthquake in 1995. We address three questions—how damaged stocks of durable wealth are reinvested, how an ex post portfolio of borrowing or dissaving is reallocated to diversify the asset shocks caused by the disaster, and how formal and informal consumption insurance mechanisms are effective for amending home damage—all of which have been largely unanswered. We obtain three findings. First, people respond to negative income changes and housing damage by reinvesting damaged wealth. Second, households borrow extensively to amend the large housing damage caused by the earthquake. However, they dissave only for minor household asset damage. Third, consumption smoothing is not achieved for nondurable goods that are significantly affected by negative income changes and household asset damage. These findings suggest that asset shocks caused by a large natural disaster are not sufficiently diversified for households, indicating a large gap in designing effective insurance mechanisms.     

A semiparametric analysis of the rising breadwinner role of women in the UK

This paper describes the changes in the relative position of women in the family—as measured by their share of household labour income—in the UK between 1994 and 2004. Using a methodology that borrows from DiNardo et al. (Econometrica 64:1001–44, 1996), it assesses the contribution of changes in men’s and women’s characteristics, the market returns to these characteristics and the role of assortative mating. The main factor which accounts for the increase in the relative female earnings share is the rising female labour force participation across the whole distribution of the female breadwinner index. Changes in assortative mating have a modest positive impact on the index at the mean, 25th and 75th percentiles of the distribution. This is explained by increasing positive assortative mating between 1994 and 2004.     

Comparing Thistles and Roses: The Application of Governmental–Voluntary Sector Relations Theory to Scotland and England

Typologies of government–voluntary sector relations mostly categorize nation-level situations, and omit consideration of intra-national differences. They are also rarely subject to empirical testing and subsequent theoretical development. This paper reports on research to apply Kuhnle and Selle's (2002) relational typology, which characterizes the experience of “Britain,” to a study of Scottish and English voluntary organizations' relations with government. Contrary to Kuhnle and Selle, the paper demonstrates — through survey data — a divergence between Scotland and England, within the “British” context, and advances the case for further testing of such conceptual typologies. The methodological challenges in moving from a theoretical framework to a research design capable of field application, using survey methods, are illustrated and discussed. Further directions for theoretically led work are suggested.     

LITTLE WHITE LIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE MODELS CORRELATED RESPONSE ERRORS IN A PANEL STUDY OF VOTING

One interpretation for the common survey finding that the backgroundcharacteristics of vote overreporters resemble those of actualvoters is that misreporters usually vote. This hypothesis—thatmisreporters regularly voted in earlier elections—is testedwith data from the 1972–74–76 Michigan ElectionPanel. It receives no support: the 1972 and 1974 validated turnoutof the 1976 misreporters was very low. Moreover, misreportingwas a fairly stable respondent characteristic: misreportingabout an election in one interview was correlated with misreportingabout the remaining elections in each of the other two interviews.A comparison of regressions predicting turnout using the validatedreports versus the self-reports shows that the respondent errorscan distort conclusions about the correlates of voting. Forexample, controlling for three other variables, education wasrelated to self-reported voting but not to validated voting.Here, as well as in surveys of other socially desirable or undesirableissues, respondent self-reports may bias survey data in favorof commonsense models of the world.     

PLURALISTIC IGNORANCE AND WHITE ESTIMATES OF WHITE SUPPORT FOR RACIAL SEGREGATION

This article presents data, taken from a secondary analysisof a national survey, indicating that in 1968 most white Americanadults grossly exaggerated the support among other whites forracial segregation. Several correlates of this pattern of pluralisticignorance—the extent to which the respondents led segregatedlives, their racial attitudes, and their racial values—areexamined. Finally, the relationship between this form of pluralisticignorance and the willingness of these white respondents toendorse racially restricted housing is discussed.     

Construct Validity and Error Components of Survey Measures: A Structural Modeling Approach

Measurement errors can have profound effects on statisticalrelationships, and better information on the quality of measuresseems needed. This study uses a new technology—structuralmodeling of data from special supplements to regular surveys—togenerate estimates of construct validity, method effects (amajor source of correlated error), and residual error (mainlyrandom error) for a broad set of measures obtained from fivenational surveys and an organizational survey (total respondents= 7,706). Analysis of these estimates suggested that a typicalsurvey item, when administered by a respected survey organizationto a general population sample, can be expected to yield 50–83percent valid variance, 0–7 percent method effects variance,and 14–48 percent residual variance. Multivariate analysisshowed that over two-thirds of the variation in measurementquality could be explained by 13 survey design characteristics;characteristics of respondents explained a small additionalportion. Results provide: (a) information on design conditionsassociated with better (or worse) measurement quality, (b) empiricallybased suggestions for improving measurement quality in futuresurveys, and (c) a set of coefficients for predicting the qualityof measures not studied here.     

THE EFFECTS OF PRESTIGE NAMES IN QUESTION WORDING

Although survey researchers are often warned against using prestigenames in questions (e.g., identifying Contra aid as "PresidentReagan's policy"), prestige names are still commonly used. Tolearn more about the effects of using prestige names, we analyzetwo sets of experiments—on judicial confirmation electionsand on an initiative on tax indexing. The results indicate thatprestige names do more than shift responses in one direction—they eliminate the effect of education on DKs and provide moreof a political basis for the responses.     

Family structure, time constraints, and sport participation

Recent research emphasizes the importance of economic factors on sport participation. We extend this by examining the role played by time constraints and family structure in survey data from Rheinberg, Germany. Based on empirical models that account for the two-part decision—the decision to participate and the decision about how long to participate—involved, we find that time constraints in the form of time spent caring for children and relatives and family structure in the form of the presence of children reduce both the likelihood that individuals participate and the time spent taking part in sports.     

Is Pollution 'A White Thing'? Racial Differences in Preadults' Attitudes

Clear and consistent differences between blacks‘ and whites’attitudes toward environmental issues were found in a stratifiedrandom sample survey of 2,012 Florida preadults. Blacks weremuch less likely than whites to consider environmental qualitya serious problem worthy of community concern, to favor environmentalgoals, and to define pollution in complex terms; regressionanalysis showed that these differences persisted even when factorsthought to explain racial differences in attitudes—SES,years of education, exposure to information, actual and perceivedpollution levels, sense of efficacy—were taken into account.Evidence suggests that even among children, racial differencesin attitudes are not spurious, but indicate a divergence betweenthe black and white subcultures in interpretations of publicissues     

Respondent Burden: A Test of Some Common Assumptions

With an experimental design, the correlates of respondent burdenwere measured in 500 households in the suburban portion of thePhiladelphia SMSA. The research design provided for variationin the length of the instrument, the effort required to answersome of the questions, and the administration of a second interviewapproximately one year after the first. Respondent burden wasmeasured using behavioral indicators and responses to a self-administeredreaction form. Instrument length was the only experimental variablewhich yielded statistically significant (although generallysmall) differences in burden perception. Two attitudinal factors—beliefin the usefulness of surveys and denial of the privacy-invadingcharacter of survey questions—were strongly associatedwith low burden perception.     

Comparative studies and sociological theory: Autobiographical notes

The following article presents a brief survey on the development of the author's sociological studies and research, especially on the ways in which he has explored in these studies the relations between comparative studies and major problems and developments in sociological theory. The article analyzes how the central focus of his interest has been the problem of human creativity and its limitations, especially as it related to the social arena, the construction of different social formations—ranging from the so-called microsituations to the more formalized institutional and macroinstitutional formations—the problem of charisma and its routinization.     

A model based approach for predicting annual poverty rates without expenditure data

The primus inter pares of the UN-approved Millennium Development Goals is to reduce poverty. The only internationally accepted method of estimating poverty requires a measurement of total consumption based on a time-consuming and resource-demanding measure of household expenditure in an integrated survey over 12 months. Rather than measuring poverty, say, only every fifth year, a model is presented to predict poverty based on a small set of household variables to be collected annually between two 12-monthly household surveys. Information obtained from these “light” surveys might then be used to predict poverty rates. The key question is whether the inaccuracy in these predictions is acceptable. It is recommended that these models be tested at a country level and if the test results are similar to those found here, that this approach be adopted.      

New evidence on the role of remittances on healthcare expenditures by Mexican households

Using Mexico’s 2002 wave of the Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares (ENIGH), we find that international remittances raise health care expenditures. Approximately 6 pesos of every 100 peso increment in remittance income are spent on health. The sensitivity of health care expenditures to variations in the level of international remittances is almost three times greater than their sensitivity to changes in other sources of household income. Furthermore, health care expenditures are less responsive to remittance income among lower-income households. Since the lower responsiveness may be partially due to participation of lower-income households in public programs like PROGRESA (now called Oportunidades), we also analyze the impact of remittances by health care coverage. As expected, we find that households with some kind of health care coverage—either through their jobs or via participation in PROGRESA—spend less of remittance income increments on health care than households lacking any health care coverage. Hence, remittances may help equalize health care expenditures across households with and without health care coverage.     

Anticipated Regret,Risk Perception,or Both: Which is Most Likely Responsible for Our Intention to Gamble?

The current study investigated whether risk aversion or regret aversion could be related to a lower intention to gamble, and whether the type of gambling was a moderator of this relationship. The study took place in Macau, often called “the Las Vegas of East Asia.” A total of 373 Macau residents completed a questionnaire survey dealing with thirteen types of gambling. The results showed that risk perception and anticipated regret had a significant negative effect on the intention to gamble. This negative effect was domain-specific, varying with the type of gambling. Our findings indicated that neither risk aversion nor regret aversion can uniquely explain an individual’s risk-taking tendency consistently. Instead, which factor plays a greater role in lowering the intention to gamble—regret aversion, risk aversion, or both—is itself dependent on the type of gambling involved. The finding that not all gambles are created equal could be useful in gambling prevention and advertising appeal by providing a basis for understanding the role that cognitive and emotional factors play in different types of gambling.     

From Cowboys to Diplomats: Challenges for Social Entrepreneurship in The Netherlands

Social entrepreneurship—a new business model that combines a social goal with a business mentality—is in a transitional phase, from a rough cowboy market to a more established market niche. This process results in two interconnected dilemmas for the social entrepreneur. First, how it can capture market share despite its role as an antagonist to current market values. Second, how it can prevent the loss of its own core values in the course of greater interaction with the incumbent regimes. Using a tool known from innovation sciences to analyse radical innovations, namely strategic niche management, and both survey data and interviews from actors in the Netherlands, this article shows that social entrepreneurs have an attitude that is still more in line with the cowboy market than with the new diplomatic role they are expected to take on. Subsequently, it provides recommendations on how to achieve this new attitude.     

Breaking silence: Some fieldwork strategies in cloistered and non-cloistered communities

This paper deals with some of the linguistic difficulties I encountered during fieldwork conducted among cloistered and non-cloistered communities of Roman Catholic nuns. I illustrate here the necessity for taking both active and passive research modes—that is, moving from observer to participant and back—in order to counteract problems related to interaction styles, lack of language, meaning inversions, and silence as a mode of communication. These problems represent a continuum—a progression from least to most problematical in terms of the connection between researcher and researched. I argue that by adopting a stance appropriate to the groups being studied—that is, by using both active and passive research strategies with equal rigor—many linguistic barriers can not only be overcome, but usedas sources of important data.     

Response Styles in Telephone and Household Interviewing: A Field Experiment

Two independent groups from the Los Angeles metropolitan areawere sampled and interviewed—one was sampled by a formof random digit dialing and interviewed by telephone; the otherwas sampled on an area probability basis and interviewed face-to-facein households. Few sociodemographic differences were found betweenthe telephone and household samples, suggesting that the twomethods sampled essentially the same population. There weredifferences in the quantity and quality of the data obtained,however, and the telephone sample had more missing data forfamily income, more acquiescence, evasiveness, and extremenessresponse bias on attitude questions, and more responses to checklists.     

“Parents and Children Talk: English Language Proficiency within Immigrant Families”

This paper extends the analysis of the acquisition of destination language proficiency among immigrants by explicitly incorporating interactions among family members—mother, father and children. Single equation, bivariate, and four-equation (multivariate) probit analyses are employed. Immigrant English language skills are greater the younger the age at migration, the longer the duration of residence, the higher the level of education, and for immigrants not from Asia. Large positive correlations in the unmeasured determinants of proficiency exist between spouses, between siblings, and between parents and children, although the latter relationship is stronger for the mother. The findings imply that learning takes place within the household.     

Campaign Activities and Electoral Outcomes in Britain 1979 and 1983

Political broadcasting through the electronic media has largelydisplaced two older methods of influencing voters—canvassingand advertising in the press—as the dominant party campaignactivity during elections. This article utilizes survey datacollected during the 1979 and 1983 British general electionsto estimate the reported effects of these three types of campaignactivity on electoral outcomes. The results show that few votersreport being influenced by canvassing and advertising, and thenet effect on the vote is either small or nonexistent. By contrast,around 1 in 6 report being influenced by a party political broadcast,and those most influenced are eventual Liberal-Alliance voters.The net electoral effect of political broadcasting can rangeas high as 3.4 percent, but gains for the Conservatives andLabour are offset by the political broadcasting of competitors.The main exceptions are the Liberals in 1979 and the Alliancein 1983, who made a net gain of 1.5 percent and 3.3 percentof the vote, respectively.     

The Impact of Europeanization upon Party Systems in Slovakia and Romania

Usually the concept of Europeanization refers to processes that download the European Union (the EU) regulations and institutional structures to the domestic level. Moreover, in the last few years the specialized literature has become increasingly preoccupied by the development of national patterns of government through the impact of European policies, processes and institutions. The developments and changes in domestic systems—much more visible in the new member states—suggest that the EU has enormous political and institutional influence. In line with this view, the paper examines the different degrees in which Europeanization has become a transforming political process, particularly in two new post-Communist democracies: Slovakia and Romania. More specifically, the interest is to survey the impact and the way in which Europeanization was incorporated in the rationale of party discourse, identity and policies in the Central-Eastern countries in the pre-accession period.