Do the Privileged Always Win? Economic Consequences of Divorce by Income and Gender Groups

Social Indicators Research - The heterogeneous economic results of divorce have received limited attention. The current study analyzes such consequences from an intersectionality perspective, where...     

Simultaneous edit-imputation and disclosure limitation for business establishment data

Business establishment microdata typically are required to satisfy agency-specified edit rules, such as balance equations and linear inequalities. Inevitably some establishments' reported data violate the edit rules. Statistical agencies correct faulty values using a process known as edit-imputation. Business establishment data also must be heavily redacted before being shared with the public; indeed, confidentiality concerns lead many agencies not to share establishment microdata as unrestricted access files. When microdata must be heavily redacted, one approach is to create synthetic data, as done in the U.S. Longitudinal Business Database and the German IAB Establishment Panel. This article presents the first implementation of a fully integrated approach to edit-imputation and data synthesis. We illustrate the approach on data from the U.S. Census of Manufactures and present a variety of evaluations of the utility of the synthetic data. The paper also presents assessments of disclosure risks for several intruder attacks. We find that the synthetic data preserve important distributional features from the post-editing confidential microdata, and have low risks for the various attacks.     

Measuring Civil Society: Perspectives on Afro-Centrism

International comparative research on civil society has subordinated Africa’s diversity and specificities to other geographies and histories. Results are prejudiced global conceptualisations, questionable enumeration, problematic theory formulation and ill-conceived approaches to development initiatives intended to make African civil society ‘stronger’ and states more democratic. This article sets out a case for an endogenous approach to civil society enquiry as a political category sensitive to the continent’s particularisms. In order to locate discussion about meanings, measures and measuring, a conceptual framework for research is described which avoids conflation with other epistemologies. Such a contribution will assist in sharpening thinking and discussion about the boundary characteristics of what is to be investigated.     

Improving Weight of Evidence Approaches to Chemical Evaluations

Federal and other regulatory agencies often use or claim to use a weight of evidence (WoE) approach in chemical evaluation. Their approaches to the use of WoE, however, differ significantly, rely heavily on subjective professional judgment, and merit improvement. We review uses of WoE approaches in key articles in the peer‐reviewed scientific literature, and find significant variations. We find that a hypothesis‐based WoE approach, developed by Lorenz Rhomberg et al., can provide a stronger scientific basis for chemical assessment while improving transparency and preserving the appropriate scope of professional judgment. Their approach, while still evolving, relies on the explicit specification of the hypothesized basis for using the information at hand to infer the ability of an agent to cause human health impacts or, more broadly, affect other endpoints of concern. We describe and endorse such a hypothesis‐based WoE approach to chemical evaluation.     

Production functions and population theory

The persistence of the population problem in many developing countries' especially in Asia, must mean that the relation between population trends and productivity has to be kept continually under review. In recent years the economists' interest in this relation has shifted away from the Keynesian stagnation analysis, with its emphasis on the influence of population trends on the level and composition of consumption and investment, to a reconsideration of their influence on production. It is a striking testimony to the influence of Malthus that his theory is still under active consideration and that it frequently serves as starting point, as it does for Professor Belshaw, for an analysis of the economics of population. Divorced from its particular context, in which value judgements particularly distasteful to many commentators abound, and reformulated in terms of modern production theory, it clarifies the main issues, by showing what facts are required and what logic demands in order to provide a useful answer to practical problems of policy. Readers of the first two chapters of Professor Buquet's book will find ample confirmation of the sterility of much of the debate regarding optimum populations which developed largely from differences of opinion about definitions of “good” and “bad” economic criteria for policy than from faults in logic. The debate continues and the posthumous career of Parson Malthus still occasions even personal abuse! It would be difficult, however, to accuse Professor Belshaw of taking sides in the Malthusian debate. He takes the Malthusian analysis for what it is worth, shows where it fits the facts and where it does not, provides convincing evidence of a Malthusian problem in Asia by a skilful round-up of well presented statistics, and then, instead of committing himself to a forecast of what is likely to happen in Asia, he illustrates through the modern theory of production what are the pre-conditions for a removal of the population problem. This is surely a sensible procedure and contrasts favourably with the sibylline utterances of a number of distinguished amateur social scientists.     

The Eating Disorders NOS Diagnostic Profile Among College Women

Abstract

The authors examined a proposed profile of eating-related behaviors, associated features, developmental issues, and help-seeking behavior among college women, using an eating disorder response program. The most common symptom scenario was a pattern of regular binge eating, together with daily exercise and occasional purging. The most common associated features were distressing or dysfunctional overconcern about body image and self-esteem, usually with day-to-day stress and intermittent depression. The women who fit this pattern also presented developmental issues of perfectionism, conflictual relationships with parents, and struggles for independence; and they tended to be ambivalent about seeking services. Implications for practice, including the need to develop a framework for eating disorder responses on campus that includes preventive programs and developmental interventions to target emerging and moderate concerns are discussed; limitations and the preliminary nature of the findings are explicated.     

Complex Thinking and Computing Organization Facing Contingent Problems

Public Organization Review - Facing the reflexive modernity, social wealth production is systematically correlated with the production of social and technical problems. Due to the complexity...