Temporary Employment and Social Inequality in Canada: Exploring Intersections of Gender, Race and Immigration Status

Using data from the 2002–2004 waves of Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, this article investigates the consequences of different types of temporary employment—fixed-term or contract, casual, agency and seasonal employment—for differently situated workers in Canada. Attention to intersecting social locations of gender, race and immigrant status helps capture the complex implications of temporary work for inequality. In particular, it highlights the salience of gender relations in shaping workers’ experience of insecurity in different types of temporary employment.

Health,Wealth and Wisdom: Exploring Multidimensional Inequality in a Developing Country

Despite a broad theoretical literature on multidimensional inequality and a widespread belief that welfare is not synonymous to income—not the least in a developing context—empirical inequality examinations rarely includes several welfare attributes. We explore three techniques on how to evaluate multidimensional inequality using Zambian household data on consumption, education, health and land. The examination indicates that level and changes in non-monetary inequality are at odds with consumption inequality. Moreover, assessment of a multidimensional index shows evidence of that dimensions of wellbeing compensate and reinforce each other with respect to inequality. However, a majority of the results using this technique are sensitive to the degree of substitution between attributes. In applying a stochastic dominance method few combinations fulfill the required dominance conditions. Accordingly, less imposed structure come at a cost. Clearly, sensitivity analyzes, explicitness and analyzes involving more than one technique are constructive in portraying multidimensional inequality.     

Occupational Social Class and Earnings Inequality in Europe: A Comparative Assessment

Social Indicators Research - While there is renewed interest in earnings differentials between social classes, the contribution of social class to overall earnings inequality across countries and...     

Public Sector Employment Inequality in the United States and the Great Recession

Historically in the United States, the public sector has served as an equalizing institution through the expansion of job opportunities for minority workers. This study examines whether the public sector continues to serve as an equalizing institution in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Using data from the Current Population Survey, I investigate changes in public sector employment between 2003 and 2013. My results point to a post-recession double disadvantage for black public sector workers: they are concentrated in a shrinking sector of the economy, and they are more likely than white and Hispanic public sector workers to experience job loss. These two trends are a historical break for the public sector labor market. I find that race and ethnicity gaps in public sector employment cannot be explained by differences in education, occupation, or any of the other measurable factors that are typically associated with employment. Among unemployed workers who most recently worked for the public sector, black women are the least likely to transition into private sector employment.     

Comparing Precarious Employment Across Countries: Measurement Invariance of the Employment Precariousness Scale for Europe (EPRES-E)

Social Indicators Research - Comparing precarious employment (PE) across countries is essential to deepen the understanding of the phenomenon and to learn from country-specific experiences....     

Multidimensionality of Longitudinal Data: Unlocking the Age-Happiness Puzzle

In social economic data analysis, sometimes the explanatory variables that are statistically significant in OLS regressions in cross-section or pooled data become insignificant after controlling for individual fixed effects. This phenomenon was observed in the study of the relationship between age and happiness. The discrepancy in estimates between regressions with and without controlling for individual fixed effects was known as the age-happiness mystery. This paper points out that OLS regressions based on cross-section data reflect the difference in average happiness across birth cohorts. In contrast, regressions controlling for individual fixed effects reflect the change in happiness over life cycle within individuals. For the first time in the literature, the co-existence of a cross-section U shape and a longitudinally declining pattern in the relationship between age and happiness is established. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, this paper explains the exact meaning of fixed-effects regressions of happiness on age, gives insight into the age-happiness puzzle, and raises the awareness of multidimensionality of longitudinal data.     

Wealth Inequality Among Immigrants: Consistent Racial/Ethnic Inequality in the United States

Wealth is a strong indicator of immigrant integration in U.S. society. Drawing on new assimilation theory, we highlight the importance of racial/ethnic group boundaries and propose different paths of wealth integration among U.S. immigrants. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and quantile regression, we show that race/ethnicity shapes immigrant wealth inequality across the entire distribution of net worth, along with immigrants’ U.S. experience, such as immigrant status, U.S. education, English language proficiency, and time spent in the United States. Our results document consistent racial/ethnic inequality among immigrants, also evidenced among the U.S. born, revealing that even when accounting for key aspects of U.S. experience, wealth inequality with whites for Latino and black immigrants is strong.     

Asylum seekers in Europe: the warm glow of a hot potato

The Common European Asylum System calls for increased coordination of the European Union (EU) countries’ policies towards asylum seekers and refugees. In this paper, we provide a formal analysis of the effects of coordination, explicitly modelling the democratic process through which policy is determined. In a symmetric, two-country citizen-candidate setup, in which accepting asylum seekers in one country generates a cross-border externality in the other, we show that coordination is desirable. Internalizing the externality leads to a welfare improvement over the non-cooperative outcome. However, contrary to suggestions by many observers, we show that allowing for cross-country transfers in the cooperative outcome leads to a welfare inferior outcome because the possibility of compensation exacerbates strategic delegation effects.

Exploring Perceived Discrimination Among LGBT Individuals in Turkey in Education,Employment, and Health Care: Results of an Online Survey

This article explores the discrimination practices encountered by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in education, income, employment, and health care in Turkey. Limited quantitative data on LGBT individuals are available in Turkey. This study collected data from 2,875 LGBT individuals through a Web-based survey. The findings suggest that LGBT individuals report perceived direct and indirect discrimination in accessing education, employment, and health care. In a country where LGBT rights are not yet recognized and antidiscrimination legislation covering sexual orientation and gender identity is still nonexistent, findings demonstrate perceived discrimination of LGBTs rarely turns into a legal complaint. Even when they do, most LGBTs in our sample report that they did not feel that the justice system addressed their grievances.     

Missing time with parents: son preference among Asians in the USA

We study prevalence of son preference in families of East and South Asian origin living in the USA by investigating parental time investments in children using American Time Use Surveys. Estimates show that East and South Asian mothers spend an additional hour of quality time per day with their young (aged 0–2 years) sons than with young daughters; son preference in mothers’ time allocation declines as children get older. East and South Asian fathers’ time with young children is gender neutral. We find gender specialization in time with children aged 6–17 with fathers spending more time with sons and mothers spending more time with daughters.     

社区就业与城市发展:城市社区就业状况与对策研究

20世纪90年代以来,在体制转轨和企业改制深化的背景下,我国城市下岗、失业人员逐年递增,城市社区在发展过程中创造了大量的就业机会和就业岗位,社区就业已成为劳动力市场的重要组成部分和新增就业的重要来源。对促进我国城市就业和城市发展具有重要意义。     

韩国青年就业非均衡研究——基于非均衡态势的就业促进政策

从韩国的失业率和青年就业的现状来看,韩国青年失业率一直明显高于平均失业率,青年就业态势中也存在着劳动力市场供需不均衡、劳动参与率性别分布、产业、行业就业分布以及雇佣形态、薪金分布的不均衡问题。面对青年失业、半失业问题以及青年就业非均衡态势,韩国各界联合采取各种措施,从法律法规的制定与实施、教育制度的改革以及战略策略的制定等方面,促进雇佣的灵活化和青年的就业,确保社会统和。     

Measures of Inequality: Application to Happiness in Nations

What is a good measure for happiness inequality? In the context of this question, we have developed an approach in which individual happiness values in a sample are considered as elements of a set and inequality as a binary relation on that set. The total number of inequality relations, each weighed by the distance on the scale of measurement between the pair partners, has been adopted as an indicator for the inequality of the distribution as a whole. For models in which the happiness occurs as a continuous latent variable, an analogous approach has been developed on the basis of differentials. In principle, this fundamental approach results in a (zero) minimum value, and, more importantly, also in a maximum value. In the case where happiness is measured using a k-points scale, the maximum inequality is obtained if all ½N sample members select the lowest possible rating (Eq. 1) and the other ½N the highest possible one (k). This finding even applies to the truly ordinal case, i.e., if the distances between the successive ratings on the scale are unknown. It is, however, impossible to quantify the inequality of some measured sample distribution, unless all distances of the k categories of the scale of measurement are known or at least estimated, either on an empirical basis or on the basis of assumptions. In general, the numerical application of the method to continuous distributions is very complicated. An exploration on the basis of a relatively simple model with a linear probability density function suggests that the inequality of a beta probability distribution with shape parameters a and b increases as the value of these parameters decreases. A contour plot, obtained by numerical integration, demonstrates this relationship in a quantitative way. This approach is applicable to judge the aptness of common statistics of dispersion, among which the standard deviation and the Gini coefficient. The former is shown to be more appropriate than the latter for measuring inequality of happiness within nations.     

The Measurement of Multidimensional Gender Inequality: Continuing the Debate

The measurement of multidimensional gender inequality is an increasingly important topic that has very relevant policy applications and implications but which has not received much attention from the academic literature. In this paper I make a comprehensive and critical review of the indices proposed in recent years in order to systematise the different underlying ideas. I also present new gender inequality indices that overcome some limitations of the preceding ones. Using United Nations data, empirical results for the new indicators are provided, suggesting that the choice of one indicator or another can make an important difference for the ranking of those countries that have achieved high levels of gender equality.     

Exploring spatial patterns of carbon emissions in the USA: a geographically weighted regression approach

This paper uses US county-level data and the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology framework to explore the extent of geographical variability in the process that links total emissions of carbon dioxide to measures of population, affluence, and technology. Geographically weighted regression models show that there is strong evidence of spatial heterogeneity in the estimated elasticities of emissions. While this research cannot explain these regional patterns, it may provide a useful starting point to examine in detail the nature of regional variation.     

20世纪中国"失踪女性"数量的估计

20世纪80年代以来,中国持续升高的人口出生性别比和历史上长期存在的女孩死亡水平偏高导致失踪女性现象严重,使人口性别结构失衡.文章使用全国5次人口普查数据,在对普查数据修正的基础上,分时期估计了1900～2000年中国失踪女性的数量和比例,研究各时期失踪女性的特征和主要原因,并讨论了估计结果与其他学者研究结果的不同之处及其原因.     

Erratum to: Measuring Multidimensional Inequality in the OECD Member Countries with a Distribution-Sensitive Better Life Index

Social Indicators Research -     

Social Development Trends in Europe, 1970–1994: Development Prospects for the New Europe

The European region is undergoing dramatic social change. Among other regional and international forces, these changes are rooted in: the collapse of the former Soviet Union; the sudden appearance of a large number of “new” – mostly poor and politically unstable – European nations; and, the emergence of economic trading blocs in North America and Asia. At the same time, the majority of “established” European nations are experiencing sluggish rates of economic growth, moderate to high levels of inflation, high unemployment, escalating demands on public social services, and low fertility in combination with high rates of population aging and immigration from developing countries. Despite the seriousness of the dilemmas confronting the region, European development accomplishments of the past 25 years suggest that the region's leaders already possesses the resources required to solve its complex, social, political, and economic challenges.