Fertility Behaviour and Wealth Situation in Nigeria: Evidence from 2013 Demographic and Health Survey

With the growing interest in evaluation of quality of life, emerging number of methods are presented. Each contribution varies depending on the matter of interest, and all of them address the issue of subjective weighting factors. The objective of this paper is to explore possibilities to enhance Better Life ranking methodology, available from the Better Life initiative website, using I-distance method. The result was twofold: firstly, we pointed out potential shortcomings of subjectively chosen weights of Better Life ranking methodology by employing our I-distance approach. Secondly, we provided detailed information on how each Better Life indicator contributes to the final position and emphasize the essential indicators in the process of ranking. We have collected the latest available data for 2014, including all 24 indicators of the Better Life composite index. After that we have compared the two ways of rankings, i.e. the I-distance ranking and the Better Life ranking, emphasizing the improvement offered by the I-distance methodology. Further, through iterative exclusion of indicators based on the level of their significance, we have reached the highest quality of the model. That model includes the following six indicators: personal earnings, water quality, life satisfaction, household net adjusted disposable income, employment rate, rooms per person. Hereby, we have compared and presented ranking changes at each iteration for the top 10 countries, which offer a level of consistency in their rank. In addition, one of the objectives is to help policymakers focus on the key indicators in order to improve the ranking of the country, showing governments and administrations which indicators are the most important to invest into. Moreover, our approach could be the foundation for impartial framework of the quality of life’s assessment, independent of subjectively formed weighting factors.     

The Network Survival Method for Estimating Adult Mortality: Evidence From a Survey Experiment in Rwanda

Adult death rates are a critical indicator of population health and well-being. Wealthy countries have high-quality vital registration systems, but poor countries lack this infrastructure and must rely on estimates that are often problematic. In this article, we introduce the network survival method, a new approach for estimating adult death rates. We derive the precise conditions under which it produces consistent and unbiased estimates. Further, we develop an analytical framework for sensitivity analysis. To assess the performance of the network survival method in a realistic setting, we conducted a nationally representative survey experiment in Rwanda (n = 4,669). Network survival estimates were similar to estimates from other methods, even though the network survival estimates were made with substantially smaller samples and are based entirely on data from Rwanda, with no need for model life tables or pooling of data from other countries. Our analytic results demonstrate that the network survival method has attractive properties, and our empirical results show that this method can be used in countries where reliable estimates of adult death rates are sorely needed.     

Modeling Comprehensive Dispersion of the Administrative Villages and Its Association with Economic Poverty: A Case Study from Poverty-Stricken Mountainous County,China

Identifying the dispersion of the administrative villages is one of prerequisites for the rational allocation of sources and services during implementing “Entire-Village Advancement” poverty alleviation strategy of China. From the perspective of an administrative village scale, this paper develops a methodology serving the construction of a comprehensive dispersion evaluation model and the examination of the relationship between dispersion and economic poverty. Specially, we develops an village-level comprehensive dispersion evaluation model that is presented in two forms of Euclidean Dispersion Index (EDI) versus Dispersion Composite Index (DCI), using spatial statistical analysis to examine the comprehensive dispersion of the administrative village and its association with the Net Income of Village Residents (NIVR) under different geographic and socioeconomic conditions. The case study in Neixiang County of China shows that, DCI is more rational and objective than EDI for scoring details of the village’s dispersion, especially in the mountainous area; DCI has a more significant spatial autocorrelation and a more significantly negative relationship to NIVR than EDI; the negative correlation between DCI and NIVR is obviously stronger in mountainous area than that in the hill and plain area; The closer to the economic circle, the higher NIVR vs. the lower DCI. Which not only provides new perspective and way to deal with dispersion, but also helps guide policies for effective poverty interventions.     

Aspirations of Migrants and Returns to Human Capital Investment

Although there is adequate literature on the topic of state-employer collusion, this literature is barely underpinned in any theoretical framework. This article attempts to fill this theoretical lacuna by revisiting Gouldner’s (Patterns of industrial bureaucracy: a case study of modern factory administration, The Free Press, New York, 1954a) pioneering theoretical framework on patterns of bureaucracy, and extends his concept of mock bureaucracy to develop a new concept called ‘mock state bureaucracy’ to illustrate state-employer collusion in controlling workers in plants in developing third world economies. The article revisits and extends Gouldner’s (1954a) unit of analysis from the ‘firm’ level to the ‘state’ level and argues that the new concept mock state bureaucracy provides a better illustration of the state-employer collusion. The article argues that both ‘state’ and ‘employer’ are important units of analysis and they should be brought back to the centre stage of any discourse on employment relations of developing countries.     

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.     

Twenty Years of Research on the Relationship Between Economic and Social Performance: A Meta-analysis Approach

This study examines the role of political efficacy and social networks in rural China to understand the social characteristics that might affect an individual’s disposition to join in public deliberations. A model is developed and empirically tested by Partial Least Squares analysis. This shows active involvement in public deliberation to be positively influenced by political efficacy (with external political efficacy being a partial mediator), high internal or external political efficacy, and a high internal efficacy leading to high external political efficacy. Social networks have a moderating effect, individuals with a high social network status having an enhanced positive internal political efficacy-public deliberation involvement but weakened positive external political efficacy-public deliberation involvement. The research advances the theoretical understanding of complex political psycho-behavior relationships and provided insights into the role of social settings. The findings could also help boost deliberative democracy in such limited democratic societies as China.     

Quality of Life in Intentional Communities

The present study was initiated to investigate levels and predictors of wellbeing among inhabitants of intentional communities (ICs). An anonymous, Internet-based questionnaire was distributed to US and Canadian ICs. Responses were obtained from 913 members. Wellbeing was measured by the widely used satisfaction with life scale (SWLS). Hierarchical linear regression analyses were run to test the predictive validity of Social support, Identity fusion, Meaning in life, Community satisfaction and Life change, and Religious activity above and beyond demographic variables and personality traits. Mean scores on the SWLS were estimated to 5.27 and 5.47 (1–7 scale) for men and women, respectively. The full model explained 41.4% of the variance for men and 38.2% for women. Personality explained 13.4 (men) and 14.4% (women) of the variation, while demographic variables only had a minor impact. Overall, presence of Meaning in life and Social support were the most important predictors. The IC inhabitants reported wellbeing on par with the highest scores previously published. The findings support the contention that sustainability, in the form of a communal lifestyle of low ecological footprint, may be promoted without forfeiting wellbeing.     

Religion and Gender Equality Worldwide: A Country-Level Analysis

Conceptually, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al. in J Pers Assess 49(1):71–75, 1985) emphasizes evaluations comparing actual and expected life circumstances. Contrastingly we developed the Harmony in Life Scale (HILS) emphasizing psychological balance and flexibility in life. Study 1 (476 participants) developed the HILS. In Study 2 participants (N = 787, T1; N = 545, T2) answered well-being related questionnaires and generated words/texts related to HIL/SWL. The HILS yields satisfactory statistical properties, correlates as expected to well-being related scales, whilst HIL/SWL form a two-factor model. Hierarchical regressions reveal that HILS explains considerably more unique variance than SWLS in most included measures. Quantitative semantic analyses (employing latent semantic analyses) on words related to HIL/SWL reveal that they differ significantly in their semantic content. Word frequency analyses show that harmony significantly relate to peace, balance, etc. and satisfaction with job, money, etc. The HILS demonstrates validity, reliability, and uniqueness complementing the SWLS in forming a more holistic understanding of subjective well-being.     

Arts and the quality of life: an Exploratory study

The aim of this investigation was to measure the impact of the arts broadly construed on the quality of life. A randomly drawn household sample of 315 adult residents of Prince George, British Columbia served as the working data-set. Examining zero-order correlations, among other things, it was found that playing a musical instrument a number of times per year was positively associated with general health (r = 0.37), while singing alone a number of hours per week was negatively associated with general health (r = ?0.19). The strongest positive associations with life satisfaction are satisfaction obtained from gourmet cooking and embroidery, needlepoint or cross-stitching, at r = 0.39 andr = 0.32, respectively. The satisfaction obtained from gourmet cooking (r = 0.35) and buying works of art (r = 0.32) were the most positive influences on happiness. The strongest associations with the Index of Subjective Well-Being are the satisfaction obtained from gourmet cooking (r = 0.37) and the satisfaction obtained from knitting or crocheting (r = 0.34). Examining multivariate relations, it was found that eight predictors combined to explain 59% of the variance in life satisfaction scores, with self-esteem satisfaction (β = 0.35) and friendship satisfaction (β = 0.27) most influential. Among the arts-related predictors in the eight, singing alone was fairly influential and negative (β = ?0.18), while the satisfaction obtained from reading to others (β=0.08) and the Index of Arts as Self-Health Enhancers (β = 0.11) were somewhat less influential. When the arts-related predictors were combined with a set of domain satisfaction predictors, total explanatory power was increased by only 3 percentage points. Seven predictors could explain 58% of the variance in satisfaction with the overall quality of life scores. Of the arts-related predictors, only time spent going to non-art museums was significant (β = 0.07). Arts-related predictors did not increase explanatory power at all beyond that obtained from domain satisfaction variables alone. Eight predictors explained 42% of the variance in happiness scores, with the most influential predictors including satisfaction with self-esteem (β = 0.37) and financial security (β = 0.21), followed by the Index of Arts as Self-Developing Activities (β = 0.18). Arts-related predictors added 3 percentage points of explanatory power to that obtained from domain satisfaction scores. Seven predictors could explain 65% of the variance in scores on the Index of Subjective Well-Being, led by self-esteem satisfaction (β = 0.35) and financial security satisfaction (β = 0.30). The Index of Arts as Community Builders had a modest influence (β = 0.11), but all together, arts-related predictors increased our total explanatory power by a single percentage point. Summarizing these multivariate results, it seems fair to say that, relative to the satisfaction obtained from other domains of life, the arts had a very small impact on the quality of life (measured in four somewhat different ways) of a sample of residents of Prince George who generally cared about the arts. Even in absolute terms, arts-related activities could only explain from 5% to 11% of the variance in four plausible measures of the self-perceived quality of respondents’ lives. By comparing the composition of our sample with census data from 2001, it was demonstrated that the sample was not representative of residents of our city. It would, therefore, be wrong to generalize our findings to the whole population of Prince George or to any larger population.     

Ability drain: size,impact, and comparison with brain drain under alternative immigration policies

Ability drain’s (AD) impact seems economically significant, with 30% of US Nobel laureates since 1906 being immigrants, and immigrants or their children founding 40% of Fortune 500 companies. Nonetheless, while brain drain (BD) and gain (BG) have been studied extensively, AD has not. I examine migration’s impact on ability (a), education (h), and productive human capital or “skill” s =s(a,?h), for source country residents and migrants under (a) the points system (PS) which accounts for h and (b) the “vetting” system (VS) which accounts for s (e.g., US H-1B program). The findings are as follows: (i) Migration reduces (raises) residents’ (migrants’) average ability, with an ambiguous (positive) impact on average education and skill, and net skill drain, SD, likelier than net BD; (ii) these effects increase with ability’s inequality or variance, are greater under VS than PS, and hurt source countries; (iii) the model and two empirical studies suggest average AD?≥?BD for educated US immigrants, with real income about twice the home country income; and (iv) SD holds for any BD and for a very small AD (7.4% of our estimate). Policy implications are provided.     

Ecological Instability and Children’s Classroom Behavior in Kindergarten

We engage the concept of ecological instability to assess whether children’s exposure to frequent change in multiple contexts is associated with teacher reports of students’ overall behavior, externalizing behavior, and approach to learning during kindergarten. We operationalize multiple dimensions of children’s exposure to repeated change—including the frequency, concurrency, chronicity, timing, and types of changes children experience—in a nationally representative longitudinal cohort of U.S.-born children (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, N ~ 4,750). We focus on early childhood, a period of substantial flux in children’s family and neighborhood contexts. Predicted behavior scores differ by approximately one-fifth of a standard deviation for children who experienced high or chronic exposure to ecological change compared with those who experienced little or no change. These findings emphasize the distinctiveness of multidomain ecological instability as a risk factor for healthy development that should be conceptualized differently from the broader concept of normative levels of change in early childhood environments.     

The Relation Between Life Satisfaction and the Material Situation: A Re-Evaluation Using Alternative Measures

Asking clients to document their perceived quality of life during and after intervention is a popular approach employed by helping professionals to evaluate intervention programs. In the Project Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes (P.A.T.H.S.), students participating in the Experimental Implementation Phase and Full Implementation Phase were invited to write reflective journals in the form of weekly diaries to reveal their perceptions and feelings regarding the program and the perceived benefits of the program. Based on multiple studies, results showed that the respondents generally (a) had positive views on the program, (b) had positive views on the instructors, and (c) perceived that they had acquired competencies at the societal, familial, interpersonal and personal levels and their quality of life was promoted after joining the program. Acknowledging the limitations of diaries, the present qualitative findings provide support for the effectiveness of the Tier 1 Program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong.     

A Decade of Sub-national Pro-poor Growth in Pakistan

The literature on subjective well-being has highlighted the negative effects associated with the restrictions and inequality imposed by the hukou system on China’s rural population. However, quantifying the cost of holding a rural hukou has generally been challenging because it can reflect unobserved individual characteristics related to educational and occupational choices. Thanks to RUMiC, a new longitudinal database on China, this limitation can be overcome by exploiting exogenous changes in hukou status due to land expropriation. The results support that receiving an urban hukou substantially enhances subjective well-being within the household, especially for males. The results complement a growing literature on subjective well-being focusing on China.     

Dimensions Of Well-Being And Their Measurement: The Spf-Il Scale

What are the dimensions of well-being? That is, what universal goals need to be realized by individuals in order to enhance their well-being? Social production function (SPF) theory asserts that the universal goals affection, behavioral confirmation, status, comfort and stimulation are the relevant dimensions of subjective well-being. Realization of these substantive goals and the perspective on opportunities to realize these goals in the future contributes to the affective and cognitive component of well-being. The theoretical elaboration of this theory has been published elsewhere. This paper provides a measurement instrument for the dimensions of well-being. To measure levels of affection, behavioral confirmation, status, comfort and stimulation and empirically validate the dimensions of well-being, the SPF-IL scale was developed. This paper presents findings from a pilot study (n=145), the main study (n=1094), a test–retest examination (n=163), and a validation study (n=725). The measurement model was tested by means of structural equation modeling. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the dimensional structure of well-being indicating construct validity. The overall fit of the model was sufficient, in spite of the somewhat problematic measurement of status, and the test–retest study showed an acceptable level of stability. As for the content validity of the dimensions and their measurement, various sub-studies showed that the SPF-IL scale is a valid instrument, doing at least as well as popular measures of overall well-being but also specifying its dimensions.     

On the Output Orientation of the Benefit-of-the-Doubt-Model

While Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) models, as used in the context of composite indicator construction, seek to aggregate outputs only, they are formally equivalent to an input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model in multiplier form. Strictly read, this introduces conceptually ambiguous results, as input adjustments have no real significance in the context at hand. At heart of this ambiguity lies a double interpretation of what is essentially a binding constraint in BoD’s underlying linear-fractional program. Moreover, there is a direct, reciprocal relation between the BoD-model and an earlier output-oriented DEA model introduced by Lovell et al. (Eur J Oper Res 87:507–518, 1995) for similar purposes. Although these models are essentially similar, I also show that there are instances (i.e. when adding additional weight restrictions) in which the results of one alternative are easier to communicate. The models surveyed in this paper are complemented with a short application on human development data for females living in Brussels municipalities.     

Tenure and Spending Within UK Households at the End of the Recent Recession

Housing costs form a substantial share of aggregate demand in the UK. This study examines the distribution of total expenditure-to-income by homeownership status at the end of the recent recession in 2010. Multivariate quantile regressions uncover four important points. First, owner-occupiers in England have considerably higher mean spending ratios than their peers in other parts of the UK; an indication of their wealthier status. Second, the average spending ratio for residential-occupiers in all UK regions, with the exception of Northern Ireland, is significantly higher than the mean ratio for tenants in both private and public properties. In this last region, the spending rate for private tenants is more prominent. Third, the disparity in the expenditure ratio between owner-occupiers and tenants is significantly more pronounced in England. Fourth, renters in public housing in Scotland and Wales have much higher spending ratios than their counterparts in private properties, reflecting a greater overall social security provided by the devolved government there. Policy implications allied with heterogeneity in the consumption effect of housing wealth across the different homeownership cohorts is discussed.     

The Role of Financial Development and Economic Misery on Life Expectancy: Evidence from Post Financial Reforms in India

Several survey studies have found that internal migrants report lower levels of happiness than locals, even after accounting for socio-economic factors. Traditional global self-ratings reveal that the migrant–local happiness-gap is also present in the data we present. The reasons for the migrant–local happiness-gap are as yet unclear. This paper aims to open this ‘black box’ by exploring the role of daily activities among a population that has generally been overlooked despite their high migration frequency: young adults. An innovative smartphone application is used that combines two techniques for multiple moment assessment: the experience sampling method and the day reconstruction method. Based on the application data, we examine whether internal migrants spend their time differently than locals and in which situations they feel noticeably less happy than locals. The data reveal that internal migrants distribute less time to happiness-producing activities such as active leisure, social drinking/parties, and activities outside home/work/transit. Internal migrants feel less happy than locals when spending time with friends and while eating. Possible explanations focusing on the role of social capital are discussed. Further analyses reveal that daily life experiences greatly enhance the explanation of the migrant–local happiness-gap. This paper demonstrates the potential value of real-time data and phone applications in solving happiness puzzles.     

The Determinants of Life Satisfaction Among Adolescents: The Role of Metacognitive Awareness and Self-Efficacy

This study investigated the associations among the life satisfaction, metacognitive awareness and perceived self-efficacy. It also investigated whether life satisfaction, metacognitive awareness and perceived self-efficacy vary according to gender. The study was performed with 492 students attending high schools. The Life Satisfaction Scale, Cognitive Awareness Scale, Self-Efficacy Scale and an Individual Data Form were used for data collection. Pearson correlation coefficient results revealed that life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with metacognitive awareness (r = .36, p < .001) and self-efficacy (r = .28, p < .001). Multiple regression analysis revealed that metacognitive awareness and self-efficacy accounted for 15 % of life satisfaction (F_(2,489) = 45.25, p < .001). Metacognitive awareness (ß = .29, p < .001) and self-efficacy (ß = .16, p < .001) make a significant original contribution to the model. In addition, the results show that adolescents do not vary according to life satisfaction (F = .10, p = .74, η²= .00), metacognitive awareness (F = .01, p = .91, η² = .00) or self-efficacy (F = 2.21, p = .13, η² = .00). The study results show that metacognitive awareness and self-efficacy are significant predictors of life satisfaction in adolescents.     

How We Fall Apart: Similarities of Human Aging in 10 European Countries

We analyze human aging—understood as health deficit accumulation—for a panel of European individuals, using four waves of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE data set) and constructing a health deficit index. Results from log-linear regressions suggest that, on average, elderly European men and women develop approximately 2.5 % more health deficits from one birthday to the next. In nonlinear regressions (akin to the Gompertz-Makeham model), however, we find much greater rates of aging and large differences between men and women as well as between countries. Interestingly, these differences follow a particular regularity (akin to the compensation effect of mortality) and suggest an age at which average health deficits converge for men and women and across countries. This age, which may be associated with human life span, is estimated as 102 ± 2.6 years.     

Towards a Theory of Medium Term Life Satisfaction: Similar Results for Australia,Britain and Germany

We analyse the Life Satisfaction trajectories of respondents in three long-running, national panel surveys: the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Australia Survey (HILDA), the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Previous research has shown that substantial minorities of respondents in all three countries recorded long term changes in LS (Fujita and Diener in J Personal Soc Psychol 88:158–64, 2005; Headey in Soc Indic Res 76:312–317, 2006; Headey et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci 107:17922–7926, 2010; Headey et al. Soc Indic Res 112:725–48, 2013). In a recent SIR paper based on the German data (Headey and Muffels in Soc Indic Res, 2015. doi: 10.1007/s11205-015-1146-8), we showed graphs of LS trajectories which suggested—and subsequent statistical analysis confirmed—that respondents typically spend multiple consecutive years above and, in other periods, below their own long term mean level of LS. Here we extend the analysis to Australia and Britain, showing that results replicate in two more Western countries. It appears that most people go through relatively happy periods of life, and relatively unhappy periods. The evidence runs counter to set-point theory which views adult LS as stable, except for short term fluctuations due to life events. In the second half of the paper we try to contribute to a theory of medium term life satisfaction. We estimate structural equation models with two-way causation between LS and variables usually treated as causes of LS, including health, social support, frequency of social activities, and satisfaction with one’s work, partner and family life. In all three countries we find that there are positive feedback loops between these variables and LS, which partly account for extended periods of high or low LS. The two-way causation models are based on a modified concept of ‘Granger-causation’ (Granger in Econometrica 37(3):424–38, 1969). The main intuition behind Granger-causation is that if x can be shown to be statistically significantly related to y in a model which includes multiple lags of y, then it can be inferred that x is one cause of y.