Capturing Multidimensionality: What does a Human Wellbeing Conceptual Framework Add to the Analysis of Vulnerability?

Much research to date has tended to view vulnerability by discipline or sector, despite the fact that individuals and households experience multiple, interacting and sometimes compound vulnerabilities. However, cross-disciplinary thinking on vulnerability has emerged. At the same time, also emergent is an alternative to traditional thinking on poverty, which shifts the focus away from poverty as a static set of deprivations towards poverty as a dynamic set of interacting material, relational and subjective aspects of life in a human wellbeing perspective. The contribution of this paper is to bring together these two strands of thinking in order to explore the ways in which a human wellbeing conceptual framework might contribute to the analysis of vulnerability in terms of better capturing the multidimensionality of vulnerability.     

Why does migration decrease fertility? Evidence from the Philippines

We model the impact of past migration on fertility, assessing the separate effects of relative urbanization of the destination, as a proxy for norms, and post-migration employment, as a proxy for opportunity costs. In the Philippines, we find that large fertility declines accompany post-migration employment. If not followed by work for pay, the estimated fertility impact of migration is small. We find little evidence of migrant selectivity in fertility, and offer speculative evidence that fertility disruption accompanying migration may be large enough to account for much of the apparent effect of normative adaptation.     

Women's adjustment to widowhood: does social support matter?

Widowhood is a stressful event for women, often coinciding with health, financial, and relationship losses. Researchers have considered many aspects of women's adjustment to widowhood, typically including social support in analyses. This study analyzed relationships between social support and adjustment from 19 previous widowhood studies. Contrary to intuition and most researchers' assumptions, the majority of relationships did not show that social support positively impacted adjustment. Analyses examined whether type of support or study methods affected the likelihood of finding a significant relationship between support and adjustment. Chi-square statistics indicated that neither of these factors influenced the effect of social support on women's adjustment to widowhood.     

Choosing a contraceptive method: why does it matter?

The use of contraceptives varies widely among Asian countries. Based on the most recent survey data available, the rate varies from nearly 8/10 married women aged 15-44 in Taiwan to fewer than 1/10 in Pakistan and Nepal. Women in East Asian countries are most likely to practice contraception, followed by those in Southeast Asia, with lower contraceptive prevalence rates found in South Asia. The rates of some East Asian nations now match those of the US and other developed nations, while in most South Asian nations contraception is spreading slowly. Contraceptive methods in use vary widely by country. The leading method in the greatest number of countries is sterilization, but in most countries several methods are nearly equal in popularity. Only in India is sterilization used by a majority of those people who practice contraception. Japan is the only country in which a majority of contraceptors use condoms, and only in China do 1/2 use IUDs. The choice of a particular contraceptive method is strongly influenced by 1) methods available through family planning programs, or promoted through the use of target systems; 2) religous and cultural factors; 3) concerns about side effects and safety; 4) ease of access to particular methods; 5) the medical profession; and 6) legality--in Japan the pill is illegal. In most countries the type of contraceptive that people prefer has changed since the introduction and promotion of modern methods of contraception. In general, there has been a shift to more effective methods. An increase in female sterilization at the expense of other methods such as the IUD or pill is the most common pattern. In countries where female sterilization is unpopular, use of such modern methods as the pill, IUD, or condom has increased at the expense of traditional methods.     

Immigrants’ economic performance across Europe – does immigration policy matter?

Drawing on panel data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), we compare the economic performance of immigrants to Great Britain, West Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Austria to that of the respective indigenous population. The unit of analysis is the individual in the household context. This allows us to define immigrants state of integration into the host society at the family level taking into account issues such as immigrant/native intermarriage. Economic performance is measured in terms of the country-specific pre-government income position and change in the relative income position due to redistribution processes within the respective tax and social security systems. Our work is based on the premise that countries may be categorized – similarly to existing categorizations based on the type of welfare regime – according to the nature of their immigration policy. From an economic point of view, a successful and integrative immigration policy should result – at least when controlling for background characteristics such as education – in a non-significant differential between the economic performance of immigrants and that of the indigenous population. At first glance, our results indicate that this ideal is not attained in all of the countries analysed, particularly not in Germany and Denmark, where the economic performance of immigrants is much lower than that of the indigenous population. However, results from GLS random-effects models show that immigrants to these countries improve their economic situation rapidly with increasing duration of stay in the host country. This implies that these countries also do fairly well in fostering in the economic integration of immigrants. Our empirical results further reveal that the substantial cross-country differences in the immigrant/native-born performance differential persist even when controlling in detail for socioeconomic characteristics of the household and for indicators of the state of the immigrants integration, such as years since migration and immigrant/native intermarriage. This suggests that not only the conditions of entry to a country impact on immigrants economic performance, but also country-specific institutional aspects such as restrictions on access to the labour market and parts of the social security system that are related to citizenship or immigrant status. There still is a great deal of heterogeneity across EU member states in this respect. This should be taken into account when working towards the harmonization of national EU immigration policies.This paper benefited substantially from discussions at the EEA 2003 Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, and the EPUNet 2003 Conference in Colchester, UK. We also acknowledge very helpful comments resulting from the reviewing process     

Do all roads lead to Rome? Effect of educational trajectories on educational transitions

“Non-traditional” educational trajectories are increasingly common among American students. This study assesses the implications of this phenomenon for inequality in educational attainment. A proper account of educational trajectories requires simultaneous consideration of qualitatively different types of destinations within educational transitions, of the timing at which different transitions occur, and of the sequence of events within educational levels. To examine “traditional” and “non-traditional” pathways through post-secondary education, this study relies on detailed educational histories from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979–2002. Findings reveal that deviations from a traditional trajectory are widespread, are more frequent among students who enrolled in less selective colleges, and also among socioeconomically and academically disadvantaged students. Results show that following a “non-traditional” pathway reduces students’ chances to enroll in college and to complete a post-secondary degree. In the case of bachelor's degree completion, most of the observed gap among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds is accounted for the different trajectories students follow. This study demonstrates that a fine-grained analysis of students’ trajectories improves our understanding of the persistent socioeconomic disparities in educational attainment.     

The effect of media sexism on women’s political ambition: evidence from a worldwide study

This paper presents results from one of the first global studies on the relationship between media sexism and the share of candidates for the lower chamber of national parliaments who are women. Data on media sexism come from the Global Media Monitoring Project, the most reliable worldwide source for media coverage from a gender perspective. The data on share of female political candidates come from the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The results show that that there is, even when controlling for the number of women in parliament, electoral system, gender quotas, level of human development, level of women’s rights, freedom from corruption, and media access, a significant relationship between media sexism—measured as (i) the share of all news subjects that are women and (ii) the share of all news subjects portrayed in the function of experts who are women—and the share of women candidates for parliament: the higher the level of media sexism, the lower the share of women candidates. The theory discussed zooms in on a bystander effect: We hypothesize that sexist portrayals of women in the media stifle ambition among women who, in a less sexist media environment, would be willing to stand as political candidates.     

How does social security affect economic growth? Evidence from cross-country data

This paper investigates how social security interacts with growth and growth determinants (savings, human capital investment, and fertility). Our empirical investigation finds that the estimated coefficient on social security is significantly negative in the fertility equation, insignificant in the saving equation, and significantly positive in the growth and education equations. By contrast, the estimated coefficient on growth is insignificant in the social security equation. The results suggest that social security may indeed be conducive to growth through tipping the trade-off between the number and quality of children toward the latter.All correspondence to Junsen Zhang. We would like to thank the editor, two anonymous referees, Jim Davies, Frank Denton, Se-Jik Kim, and Mike McAleer for helpful comments and suggestions. Any remaining omissions and errors are the authors responsibility. Responsible editor: Alessandro Cigno.     

Refusal of recommended maternity care: Time to make a pact with women?

Background

The right to refuse medical treatment can be contentious in maternity care. Professional guidance for midwives and obstetricians emphasises informed consent and respect for patient autonomy, but there is little guidance available to clinicians about the appropriate clinical responses when women decline recommended care.

Internal migration: why do Filipinos move?

The rapid movement of Filipinos from 1 part of the Philippines to another is not a new phenomenon, but mobility has been increasing. A study conducted by Peter C. Smith revealed that interprovincial lifetime mobility of the national population increased from 15.8% in 1960 to 17.6% in 1970, while interregional mobility increased from 12.7% to 13.4%. People still disagree as to whether the size and rate of growth of the population are excessive, but there seems to be total consensus as regards its spatial imbalance. Because internal migration appears to be an important factor in national development, a need exists to examine different aspects of internal migration, such as the directions taken by migration flows, the migrants' reasons for moving, the migrants' characteristics, the migrants' success or lack of success at their places of destination, the social problems accompanying internal migration, effforts to deal with the problems caused by internal migration, and the implications of migration trends for policy and for the country's development programs. The most dominant migration trend in the Philippines in recent years has been toward the urban, or more accurately the suburban, areas adjacent to Metropolitan Manila. The city of Manila itself suffered a net outflow, further pointing to the trend toward suburbanization. Migration flows are primarily caused by economic reasons. About one half the sample of a Filipinas Foundation Study moved to provinces other than the province of birth in the pursuit of employment and other economic opportunities. A study of the country's migrant population age 15 and older showed that 53% of migrants were female. For male migrants, age ranges from 20-40; it ranges from 15-35 for females. Where cash income is concerned, migrants in Pernia's study of rural urban migration were better off than nonmigrants. Migrants were, on the average, as well off as native urbanites or metropolitanites. Among the more significant points raised by scholars and researchers are the following: urbanization is an inevitable and irreversible process, and it is wise to plan for it; the problem is not rapid urbanization but unbalanced urbanization, i.e., the concentration of urbanization in Metro Manila; steps to alter national urban patterns might include establishing a migration guidance office; the need exists for an explicit, firm, and consistent population distribution policy; and solutions that anticipate problems having to do with internal migration and prevent these problems from arising will, in the long run, be more effective than curative solutions.     

From Europe to the Americas: a comparative panel-data analysis of migration to Argentina, Brazil, and the United States, 1870–1910

We use annual panel data, 1870–1910, to estimate and compare the determinants of European emigration to Argentina, Brazil, and the USA. The Hausman–Taylor instrumental variable technique we use provides for cross-sectional (country) controls, accounts for variables that are potentially correlated with the unobservables and allows the recovery of the coefficients of temporally invariant variables. In general, migration was from low-wage source countries, from countries with large stocks of immigrants in the destination who were born in the origin, and from countries with relatively much recent migration to the destination. Certain determinants differ considerably for the three countries.     

Parents’ economic support of young-adult children: do socioeconomic circumstances matter?

We assess how the support parents provide to young adults as they leave school and begin working is related to their family’s socioeconomic circumstances. We do this using an innovative Australian data set which merges survey and administrative data. The survey data inform us about intergenerational co-residence and financial gifts and the administrative data about the family’s welfare receipt history. We find that disadvantaged young people are more likely to be economically independent of their parents than are their more advantaged peers. This disparity is larger for financial gifts than for co-residence and increases with age. Moreover, there is a complex relationship between parental support and participation in study and work. We find no evidence, however, that a lack of parental support is the source of the socioeconomic gradient in either studying or employment. These results are important in eliminating one potential pathway through which socioeconomic disadvantage limits young people’s outcomes.     

Why does the need for medication become a barrier to breastfeeding? A narrative review

Problem

The need for medication during lactation can contribute to the early cessation of breastfeeding.

Escape route to dependency? Female migration from Sri Lanka to the Middle East

This article looks at labor migration with the sex component turned upside down, where the woman leaves hearth and home in search of work in distant lands. The sending country is Sri Lanka, and the women migrate as maids to Arab households in the Gulf area. Labor migration must be understood in the context of the economic and social development that has made migration possible, or rather pushed it forward. Today, the export of labor is the 2nd biggest source of foreign earnings for Sri Lanka, and females constitute the largest single group of labor migrants. There is 1 clear aspect of female migration: it is almost without exception the poorest strata of society that send their women to the Gulf as housemaids. 3 factors tend to reduce the value of wages earned in the Middle East: 1) for a majority of the migrants there are high social costs involved, 2) there are high transaction costs just to obtain a Gulf job, and 3) performing paid housework tends to be regarded as a low-status occupation and is less attractive to households that have alternative means of income. Not only are the migrant women themselves exposed to a very different society, with different values and ways of living, but also the whole community at home gets a concept of "abroad." The Sri Lankan government expects the contingent of female migrants to grow, though against this is the fact that Sri Lanka now faces stronger competition in female labor exports from other Asian countries.     

Population forecast accuracy: does the choice of summary measure of error matter?

Population projections are judged primarily by their accuracy. The most commonly used measure for the precision component of accuracy is the mean absolute percent error (MAPE). Recently, the MAPE has been criticized for overstating forecast error and other error measures have been proposed. This study compares the MAPE with two alternative measures of forecast error, the Median APE and an M-estimator. In addition, the paper also investigates forecast bias. The analysis extends previous studies of forecast error by examining a wide range of trend extrapolation techniques using a dataset that spans a century for a large sample of counties in the US. The main objective is to determine whether the choice of summary measure of error makes a difference from a practitioner’s standpoint. The paper finds that the MAPE indeed produces error values that exceed the robust measures. However, except for situations where extreme outliers rendered the MAPE meaningless, and which are rare in real world applications, there was not a single instance where using an alternative summary measure of error would have led to a fundamentally different evaluation of the projections. Moreover, where differences existed, it was not always clear that the values and patterns provided by the robust measures were necessarily more correct than those obtained with the MAPE. While research into refinements and alternatives to the MAPE and mean algebraic percent error are worthwhile, consideration of additional evaluation procedures that go beyond a single criterion might provide more benefits to producers and users of population forecasts.

Older siblings and adolescent risky behavior: does parenting play a role?

Children with older siblings are more likely to engage in risky behavior than their firstborn counterparts. Although the relationship between birth order and risky behavior may reflect the influence of older siblings, it is also possible that parents supervise later-born children less than firstborns. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we examine whether the association between birth order and risky adolescent behavior is driven by differences in the level of parental supervision. Firstborns are supervised more than their later-born siblings, but this difference does not explain the relationship between having an older sibling and risky behavior.     

How does leaving home affect marital timing? An event-history analysis of migration and marriage in Nang Rong, Thailand

This study examines the effects of migration on marital timing in Thailand between 1984 and 2000 using prospective and retrospective survey data from Nang Rong. In contrast to previous results in the literature, event-history analysis of the longitudinal data reveals a positive, not a negative, effect of lagged migration experience on the likelihood of marriage. The findings also indicate gender differences. Migration's positive impact is independent of other life events for women but is completely "explained" by employment for men.     

The use of survey data to study migration–environment relationships in developing countries: alternative approaches to data collection

Growing interest in the environmental aspects of migration is not matched by research on their interrelationships, due partly to the lack of adequate data sets on the two together. Focusing on the microlevel, we describe the data required to effectively investigate these interrelationships. Data sources are discussed, including information that should be collected, focusing on household surveys and remote sensing. The main section of the paper describes three alternative approaches to data collection: (a) using existing population and environmental data from different sources, illustrated by Burkina Faso; (b) adding questions to a survey developed for another purpose, illustrated for Guatemala using a DHS survey; and (c) designing a new survey specifically to collect both migration and environmental data to investigate interrelationships, illustrated by Ecuador. Methods used and summary findings are described, followed by a discussion of their advantages and limitations. We conclude with recommendations as to effective use of each approach as research on migration?Cenvironment linkages moves forward.