Patterns of Mobile Phone Use in Developing Countries: Evidence from Africa

According to traditional welfare economics welfare occurs at the point where a good is purchased and some amount of utility is assumed to derive therefrom. According to Sen and others however one needs to look in addition to what use is made of the good after purchase. This paper throws new light on this process by means of a large new data-set that examines use patterns of mobile phones in 11 African countries. The main hypothesis is that this technology will be most widely used in countries lacking in viable alternatives to the use of mobile phones e.g. where public transport is weak or roads are poor. The results tend to support this view though there remains much to be explained.     

Contraceptive Initiation Patterns in Thailand

Data from the Thailand Demographic and Health Survey permit a detailed examination of the pattern of contraceptive initiation in terms both of first post-marital contraceptive use and initiation of use following childbirth. A clear trend towards beginning contraception earlier in the family-building process over the course of the fertility transition is evident. During the earliest stage, contraception was first used mainly after a couple had already achieved their desired family size, but later on couples increasingly began use in order to space births, and most recently it has become common to begin use to delay the start of childbearing. There are two distinctive patterns of contraceptive initiation following childbirth. For women who chose sterilization, initiation occurs during the immediate post partum period, while for those who used other methods, use most commonly began shortly after the return of menses. As a result, few Thai women are at present unprotected against unplanned pregnancies for any substantial period of risk following childbirth. Beginning to use contraception early in the family-building process and rapid adoption of contraception following childbirth are now found in most segments of Thai society, testifying to the maturing of Tailand's fertility transition.     

基于整体网络视角的农民工避孕行为影响因素分析

本文采用2005年“深圳市外来农村流动人口调查”数据,利用社会网络分析方法从整体网络角度定量研究了农民工避孕行为的影响因素。利用p*模型从整体网络结构特征分析表明,不同层次的关系结构变量对农民工是否讨论避孕的影响不同,多数个体层次变量对是否讨论避孕有显著影响;本文从整体网络衍生出个体网络,并从衍生个体网络角度研究表明,网络规模和网络成员的避孕措施会对农民工避孕措施多元化有较为显著影响。     

The Role of Contraceptive Supply and Demand in Mexican Fertility Decline: Evidence from a Microdemographic Study

This paper uses retrospective life history data to assess the impact of family planning services on contraceptive use in a rural Mexican township. Between 1960 and 1990 contraceptive use rose and fertility declined dramatically. Both contraceptive supply and demand factors were influential in these trends. The start of the government-sponsored family planning programme in the late 1970s was associated with a sharp rise in female sterilization and use of the IUD. However, once we controlled for the changing socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the sample, the presence of family planning services had no significant effect on the likelihood that women used modern reversible methods compared to traditional methods. Men and women expressed concerns about the safety of modern methods such as the pill and the IUD. Efforts to increase modern contraceptive use should place greater emphasis on communicating the safety of these methods and improving the quality of services.     

Modelling the Inverse Association between Breastfeeding and Contraceptive Use

Previous studies of the inverse association between breastfeeding and contraceptive use have relied on current status data on at least one of the variables. In this paper we suggest a new way of modelling the joint temporal association of the adoption of contraception and the termination of breastfeeding over the course of a birth interval. The approach is implemented with survey data from rural Mexico. It involves first estimating a competing-risks model in which both hazards are considered simultaneous, together with a set of relevant covariates. Conditional analyses are then carried out to estimate the hazards of each event conditional on the timing of the other. By comparing the covariates, we gauge the extent to which the occurrence of one event raises or lowers the hazard of the other. The results show that, in rural Mexico, the timing of the termination of breastfeeding and that of starting contraceptive use are closely related, and that there exists a surprisingly neat interval of 120 days in which the action takes place.     

Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Discontinuation Because of Dissatisfaction: Differences by Race and Education

The unintended pregnancy rate in the United States remains high, and there are large race and education differences in unintended pregnancy and fertility. These differences make it important to study race and education differences in contraceptive behavior. Using nationally representative data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, this study examines the effects of race and education on the likelihood that women have ever used particular types of hormonal contraception and have ever discontinued hormonal contraception because of dissatisfaction. The results show that blacks and Latinas were more likely to have used injectable contraceptives (??the shot??) and less likely to have used oral contraceptives (??the pill??) than were white women. Women with less education were more likely than college-educated women to have used the shot but there were no significant education differences in use of the pill. Among women who had ever used hormonal birth control, those with less than a college degree were more likely than college-educated women to discontinue the birth control because of dissatisfaction. However, net of education, this study found no significant racial/ethnic differences in discontinuation. The most commonly stated reason for discontinuation because of dissatisfaction was side effects.     

Long-term Mortality Patterns in Chinese History: Evidence from a Recorded Clan Population

This paper addresses the emerging interest in the relationship between homeostatic models and demographic transition theory. Firstly, it considers the nature of fertility measurement and concepts. The paper then goes on to examine evidence from pre-transitional societies in which demographic regimes have been most thoroughly studied, summarizing what is known about their character. The nature and current status of homeostatic theories in demography and the institutional supports of pre-transitional regimes are considered. The implications of the findings on pre-transitional populations for transition theory are then discussed. The paper concludes with suggestions for ways in which studies of transition within a framework of homeostatic regimes could be developed.     

Environmentalism and Contraceptive Use: How people in less developed settings approach environmental issues

The rise in environmental concerns around the globe has prompted increasing research on the links between such concerns and behavior. However, most studies have focused on pro-environmental behaviors in affluent western societies, such as willingness to pay for environmental protection, pro-environmental political actions, and consumption patterns. Using multiple data sets from the Chitwan Valley Family Study in Nepal, this paper examines the impact of environmental perceptions on contraceptive use in a rural agricultural setting. The results of our analyses show that perceptions about certain aspects of the environment are related to individuals' subsequent use of contraceptives. Specifically, those individuals who think that their environment—agricultural productivity—has deteriorated are more likely to use contraceptives than those who think that their environment has improved or has remained about the same. This study thus provides a first step in our understanding of the relationships between environmental perceptions and fertility behavior in a less developed setting. Paul Mohai is Professor in The School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan.     

Cohabitation and Contraceptive Use in the United States: A Focus on Race and Ethnicity

Population Research and Policy Review - While cohabitation has been increasing and a growing context to have and raise children, there has been little attention to one of the key determinants of...     

Microcredit,Family Planning Programs,and Contraceptive Behavior: Evidence From a Field Experiment in Ethiopia

The impact of community-based family planning programs and access to credit on contraceptive use, fertility, and family size preferences has not been established conclusively in the literature. We provide additional evidence on the possible effect of such programs by describing the results of a randomized field experiment whose main purpose was to increase the use of contraceptive methods in rural areas of Ethiopia. In the experiment, administrative areas were randomly allocated to one of three intervention groups or to a fourth control group. In the first intervention group, both credit and family planning services were provided and the credit officers also provided information on family planning. Only credit or family planning services, but not both, were provided in the other two intervention groups, while areas in the control group received neither type of service. Using pre- and post-intervention surveys, we find that neither type of program, combined or in isolation, led to an increase in contraceptive use that is significantly greater than that observed in the control group. We conjecture that the lack of impact has much to do with the mismatch between women’s preferred contraceptive method (injectibles) and the contraceptives provided by community-based agents (pills and condoms).     

Mobile Internet Use and Multidimensional Poverty: Evidence from A Household Survey in Rural China

The impact of specific living conditions on the population of geographically and socially segregated Roma settlements in Eastern Slovakia is considerable. They are characterized by high unemployment, lower education, poor housing and sanitary conditions, a poor quality of life, which all affects significantly their higher mortality rates and worse health status. In this paper we try to approach the problem of adverse mortality conditions and health with a deeper demographic insight. The fundamental goal of the paper is to analyse mortality in the population from Roma settlements over the past two decades using complex demographic methods such as life tables, direct standardization with the objective of eliminating differences in the age structure, single and multi-dimensional decomposition of age, sex and causes of death. We also analyse mortality using the concept of avoidable mortality. The results obtained from Roma settlements confirmed significantly worse mortality rates for both sexes. In addition, it appears that the disparities between them and the majority population are growing over time. The primary reason is the higher mortality of the youngest children and persons at post-reproductive age. Basically, all main chapters of the causes of death shorten the life expectancy of persons from Roma settlements, but cardiovascular diseases have the greatest negative impact. Conclusions obtained from the avoidable mortality analysis point to problems related to the accessibility and quality of health care, as well as the lack of interest of population from Roma settlements in their own health, along with the need for more targeted prevention and screening campaigns in this environment. Although the answers of respondents from Roma settlements to their own health confirm the deteriorating quality of health, increasing morbidity and the degree of restriction of normal daily activities with increasing age, they also point to some problems associated with the use of this approach.

     

Exercise,Eating Patterns,and Obesity: Evidence from the ATUS and Its Eating &; Health Module

Time spent eating and exercising can impact quality of life measures such as general health and risk for obesity. This article links data from the American Time Use Study and the Eating and Health Module to explore exercise and eating patterns for varying age groups, over different times of day, and by self-reported health status. Younger Americans who did some exercise were more likely to engage in higher impact sports. Older Americans who exercised were more likely to do so in the morning. Americans who reported being in excellent health spent more time exercising than other self-reported health groups, regardless of their sex or age.     

Model-based Clustering of Sequential Data with an Application to Contraceptive Use Dynamics

ABSTRACT

Multi-state models describe the transitions people experience as life unfolds. The transition probabilities depend on sex, age, and attributes of the person and the context. Empirical evidence suggests that attributes that cannot be measured directly may at most be inferred from a long list of observable characteristics. A cluster-based, discrete-time multi-state model is presented, where transition probabilities are estimated simultaneously for several subpopulations of a heterogeneous population. The subpopulations are not defined a priori but are determined on the basis of similarities in behavior in order to determine which women exhibit similar characteristics with respect to method choice, method switch, discontinuation and subsequent resumption of contraceptive use. The data are from the life history calendar based on the Brazilian Demographic and Health Survey 1996. The parameters of the model are estimated using the EM algorithm. Seven subpopulations with heterogeneous transition probabilities are identified.     

计算机使用对青年人工资率的影响:来自云南的经验证据

文章基于云南省青年调查的微观数据,利用Hierachy模型测算了计算机使用对于青年人小时工资的影响.经验研究发现,青年人在工作和生活中利用计算机确实能够有效提高劳动生产率,平均来说使得小时工资增加33%～76%;青年人利用计算机增加小时工资的效应是和本人的异质性及与使用计算机有关的异质性紧密联系的,在生活中根本不用计算机的青年,即使在工作中经常使用计算机,小时工资的增加也仅有33%左右;如果仅仅是在工作中偶尔使用计算机,则对于小时工资没有影响;在工作中使用计算机程度相同.的青年人,在生活中使用计算机程度越高,平均小时工资越高,这可能体现了善于学习和掌握新技术的个人特征对于劳动效率的影响.     

The Effect of Child Mortality on Contraceptive Use and Fertility in Colombia,Costa Rica and Korea

In this paper the question whether reproductive behaviour is consciously altered by the death of a child is answered by using World Fertility Survey data from Colombia, Costa Rica, and Korea. Alternative strategies are proposed by which women replace children who have died. They may choose to contracept for a shorter period following the death of a child, or they may cease using contraception. Each strategy is analysed separately for selected birth intervals and its effect estimated with loglinear techniques. It is found that the timing and nature of the response to child mortality appear to depend on the stage reached in a country's fertility transition.     

Happiness and Comparison Income: Evidence from Canada

During the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in the link between urban street design principles and the built environment in the field of urban studies. This interest is motivated by the possibility that design principles associated with the built environment can be used to manage individual activities and improve the quality of urban life. This paper proposes an approach which can be used to generate and prioritize important social indicators for designing urban street environment. The proposed approach integrates both analytic network process and zero-one goal programming methods into a quality function deployment planning in order to translate end-user needs into technical design requirements. User needs and technical requirements are explored, and the modeling result uncovers five important urban street environment design principles on quality of life’s satisfaction: transportation planning and parking development, guidelines for public transit and bus stops, landscape and open space design guidelines, pedestrian network planning and facility design guide, and street landscape. Overall, these important principles (five quality of life indicators) show future directions for the street environment improvements in Taipei City, Taiwan.     

Environmental Change and Out-Migration: Evidence from Nepal

Scholars and activists have hypothesized a connection between environmental change and out-migration. In this paper we test this hypothesis using data from Nepal. We operationalize environmental change in terms of declining land cover, rising times required to gather organic inputs, increasing population density, and perceived declines in agricultural productivity. In general, environmental change is more strongly related to short- than long-distance moves. Holding constant the effects of other social and economic variables, we find that local moves are predicted by perceived declines in productivity, declining land cover, and increasing time required to gather firewood. Long-distance moves are predicted by perceived declines in productivity, but the effect is weaker than in the model of short-distance mobility. We also show that effects of environmental change vary by gender and ethnicity, with women being more affected by changes in the time required to gather fodder and men by changes in the time to gather firewood, and high caste Hindus generally being less affect than others by environmental change.     

Gay and lesbian partnership: Evidence from California

Much recent research on sexual minorities has used couples-based samples, which--by construction--provide no information on nonpartnered individuals. We present the first systematic empirical analysis of partnership and cohabitation among self-identified gay men and lesbians using two independent, large, population-wwbased data sources from California. These data indicate that 37%-46% of gay men and 51%-62% of lesbians aged 18-59 are in cohabiting partnerships (compared with 62% of heterosexual individuals in coresidential unions at comparable ages). Unlike previous research, we find that white and highly educated gay men and lesbians are more likely to be partnered, and we confirm that same-sex cohabiting partners in our data have demographic characteristics that are similar to California same-sex couples from Census 2000. We also present the first detailed analysis of officially registered domestic partnerships in California. We find that almost half of partnered lesbians are officially registered with the local or state government, while less than a quarter of partnered gay men are officially registered. We conclude with implications of our findings for couples-based research on gay men and lesbians, as well as recommendations for survey data collection.     

An Imperfect Contraceptive Society: Fertility and Contraception in Italy

Italy represents an unexpected and in some ways paradoxical outcome in terms of fertility control: a drop to one of the lowest birth rates in the world has been accompanied by continuing extensive use of traditional methods despite the availability of modern contraception. Using data from 349 interviews conducted in 2005–06 in four Italian cities, we argue that Italian women commonly achieve “unplanned” and desired conceptions through the use of withdrawal and natural methods. While data from other countries reveal similar notions of ambivalence surrounding pregnancy intentions and contraceptive use, Italy stands out for the surprising correlation between highly “managing” the conditions under which children are born and the socially commended approach of “letting births happen.” Such results suggest the need to rethink theoretical understandings of low fertility. Through the use of non‐technological methods, individuals manipulate culturally produced norms and beliefs about the appropriate time to have a child; simultaneously, their actions are embedded in larger cultural, economic, and political processes.