Increasing social mobility: an effective policy to reduce health inequalities

Summary.  Data from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study are used to investigate the effect of mobility between occupationally defined social classes between 1991 and 2001 on health inequality in men and women. Logistic regression models related movement into more or less advantaged employment conditions to limiting long-term illness in 2001, controlling for social class in 1991 and 2001. When class in 1991 was controlled ('class of origin') those who moved into more advantaged social classes were least likely and those moving into less advantaged classes most likely to report a limiting illness. However, when social class in 2001 ('class of destination') was controlled, those moving from less to more advantaged positions were most likely to report limiting illness. The same patterns were seen in women. This means that social mobility did not increase the extent of health inequality over the time period that was observed, but rather served to constrain or dilute it. The results are interpreted in terms of an accumulation model of health inequality, and the policy implications are discussed.     

Household debt and financial assets: evidence from Germany, Great Britain and the USA

Summary.  We explore the determinants of debt, financial assets and net worth at the household level by using survey data for Germany, Great Britain and the USA. To identify which households are potentially vulnerable to adverse changes in the economic environment, we also explore the determinants of a range of measures of financial pressure: the probability that a household has negative net worth; the debt-to-income ratio; mortgage income gearing; the saving-to-income ratio. Our empirical findings suggest that the poorest and the youngest households are the most vulnerable to adverse changes in their financial circumstances.     

On square ordinal contingency tables: a comparison of social class and income mobility for the same individuals

Summary.  Square contingency tables with matching ordinal rows and columns arise in particular as empirical transition matrices and the paper considers these in the context of social class and income mobility tables. Such tables relate the socio-economic position of parents to the socio-economic position of their child in adulthood. The level of association between parental and child socio-economic position is taken as a measure of mobility. Several approaches to analysis are described and illustrated by UK data in which interest focuses on comparisons of social class and income mobility tables that are derived from the same individuals. Account is taken of the use of the same individuals in the two tables. Additionally comparisons over time are considered.     

Working time in Great Britain, 1975–1994: evidence from the New Earnings Survey panel data

Using individual-based panel data from the New Earnings Survey, this paper provides a detailed analysis of the working time behaviour of British full-time male and female workers as well as part-time female workers. We investigate the following: male–female differences in basic and overtime working patterns; extensive overtime working; age-related patterns of weekly basic and overtime hours; the effects of collective bargaining on hours of work; industrial, public–private sector and occupational breakdowns of basic and total hours. The results for the last three topics are based on estimates from fixed effect regressions with time-varying parameters.     

Item nonresponse on income questions in panel surveys: Incidence, imputation and the impact on inequality and mobility

Summary: This paper deals with item nonresponse on income questions in panel surveys and with longitudinal and cross–sectional imputation strategies to cope with this phenomenon. Using data from the German SOEP, we compare income inequality and mobility indicators based only on truly observed information to those derived from observed and imputed observations. First, we find a positive correlation between inequality and imputation. Secondly, income mobility appears to be significantly understated using observed information only. Finally, longitudinal analyses provide evidence for a positive inter–temporal correlation between item nonresponse and any kind of subsequent nonresponse.* We are grateful to two anonymous referees and to Jan Goebel for very helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. The paper also benefited from discussions with seminar participants at the Workshop on Item Nonresponse and Data Quality in Large Social Surveys, Basel/CH, October 9–11, 2003.     

Census data issues for epidemiology and health risk assessment: experiences from the Small Area Health Statistics Unit

Summary.  Census data are vital components of epidemiological studies, but the issues that are involved in using these data in such studies are often not fully appreciated. The paper describes some of the problems and uncertainties that arise, and some of the approaches that can be used to address them, based on experience in the Small Area Health Statistics Unit at Imperial College London. Issues considered include the geography of census data (zone design systems, recasting and the role of postcodes), temporal aspects of census data (especially in relation to migration and population change) and information content (especially in relation to characterization of socio-economic status). In the light of these issues, opportunities to improve the resolution and utility of census data for epidemiological studies are discussed.     

Inflation uncertainty and economic growth: evidence from the LAD ARCH model

In this paper, we combined the panel data and least absolute deviation autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (ARCH) (L ₁-ARCH) model to infer on the relationship between inflation uncertainty and economic growth in five emerging market economies. Two interesting findings emerged from the analysis; first, we confirmed that the inflation uncertainty has a significant and negative effect on economic growth. Second, inflation is also an important variable and it is detrimental to economic prospects in the fast-growing Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economies. All in all, the empirical findings suggest that greater stability in the economy may be desirable in order to stimulate economic growth in the region.     

Female athletic participation and income: evidence from a latent class model

This paper introduces and applies an EM algorithm for the maximum-likelihood estimation of a latent class version of the grouped-data regression model. This new model is applied to examine the effects of college athletic participation of females on incomes. No evidence for an “athlete” effect in the case of females has been found in the previous work by Long and Caudill [12], Henderson et al. [10], and Caudill and Long [5]. Our study is the first to find evidence of a lower wage for female athletes. This effect is present in a regime characterizing 42% of the sample. Further analysis indicates that female athletes in many otherwise low-paying jobs actually get paid less than non-athletes.     

Violent crime and incentives in the long-run: evidence from England and Wales

This study uses recent advances in time-series econometrics to investigate the non-stationarity and co-integration properties of violent crime series in England and Wales. In particular, we estimate the long-run impact of economic conditions, beer consumption and various deterrents on different categories of recorded violent crime. The results suggest that a long-run causal model exists for only minor crimes of violence, with beer consumption being a predominant factor.     

Survey response and survey characteristics: microlevel evidence from the European Community Household Panel

Summary.  The paper presents microlevel evidence on the role of the sociodemographic characteristics of a population and the characteristics of the data collection process as predictors of survey response. Our evidence is based on the public use files of the European Community Household Panel, a longitudinal household survey covering the countries of the European Union, whose attractive feature is the high level of comparability across countries and over time. We model the response process as the outcome of two sequential events: contact between the interviewer and an eligible interviewee, and co-operation by the interviewee. Our model allows for dependence between the ease of contact and the propensity to co-operate, taking into account the censoring problem caused by the fact that we observe whether a person is a respondent only if she has been contacted.     

Multilevel modelling of refusal and non-contact in household surveys: evidence from six UK Government surveys

Summary.  We analyse household unit non-response in six major UK Government surveys by using a multilevel multinomial modelling approach. The models are guided by current conceptual frameworks and theories of survey participation. One key feature of the analysis is the investigation of the extent to which effects of household characteristics are survey specific. The analysis is based on the 2001 UK Census Link Study, which is a unique source of data containing an unusually rich set of auxiliary variables. The study contains the response outcome of six surveys, linked to census data and interviewer observations for both respondents and non-respondents.     

Critical appraisal of jointness concepts in Bayesian model averaging: evidence from life sciences,sociology, and other scientific fields

Jointness is a Bayesian approach to capturing dependence among regressors in multivariate data. It addresses the general issue of whether explanatory factors for a given empirical phenomenon are complements or substitutes. I ask a number of questions about existing jointness concepts: Are the patterns revealed stable across datasets? Are results robust to prior choice and do data characteristics affect results? And importantly: What do the answers imply from a practical vista? The present study takes an applied, interdisciplinary and comparative perspective, validating jointness concepts on datasets across scientific fields with focus on life sciences (Parkinson's disease) and sociology. Simulations complement the study of real-world data. My findings suggest that results depend on which jointness concept is used: Some concepts deliver jointness patterns remarkably uniform across datasets, while all concepts are fairly robust to the choice of prior structure. This can be interpreted as critique of jointness from a practical perspective, given that the patterns revealed are at times very different and no concept emerges as overall advantageous. The composite indicators approach to combining information across jointness concepts is also explored, suggesting an avenue to facilitate the application of the concepts in future research.