Birth order effects on young students’ academic achievement

We examine birth order effects on academic achievement for ten-year-old students using data for the entire population of fifth graders in Norway 2007/2008. The analysis thus adds to a thin empirical literature focusing on birth order effects among young children. We find that being firstborn confers a significant advantage in families with two, three and four children. The analysis makes two other contributions. First, we provide evidence that unless mother's age at childbirth is included among the control variables, only small and imprecise birth order effects are revealed in families with low socioeconomic status. Second, we provide some evidence that the birth order effects differ across families with highly educated and less educated mothers, which lend support to the resource dilution model over the confluence model.     

Bayesian variable selection with spherically symmetric priors

We propose that Bayesian variable selection for linear parametrizations with Gaussian iid likelihoods should be based on the spherical symmetry of the diagonalized parameter space. Our r-prior results in closed forms for the evidence for four examples, including the hyper-g prior and the Zellner–Siow prior, which are shown to be special cases. Scenarios of a single-variable dispersion parameter and of fixed dispersion are studied, and asymptotic forms comparable to the traditional information criteria are derived. A simulation exercise shows that model comparison based on our r-prior gives good results comparable to or better than current model comparison schemes.     

Fertility Changes Among Immigrants: Generations,Neighborhoods, and Personal Characteristics*

Objective. To understand how adaptation/assimilation, disruption, and diffusion interact to produce changes in fertility levels among successive generations of Mexicans and Central Americans in the United States. Method. Using restricted access data that link individual data (CPS) to neighborhood data (census tracts), we examine the role of generation, personal characteristics, and neighborhood characteristics in determining children ever born (CEB). Results. There are significant differences in fertility across generations and, to a lesser extent, between women who live in ethnic enclaves and those who do not. Once personal characteristics are considered, the independent effect of generation on fertility is nearly eliminated. Personal characteristics dominate neighborhood characteristics in their ability to predict fertility. The most consistent predictor of CEB at the neighborhood level is the percentage of Hispanic adults. Conclusions. Personal characteristics dominate fertility change across generation, and were it not for increases in educational attainment, fertility might be higher in successive generations rather than lower or unchanged.     

Privatization—A cure for all ills?

Before a troubled State-owned company can be privatized, the management dimension must be examined. The privatization strategy must be closely linked with the overall business strategy to ensure that the opportunities afforded by the operation provide for long-term profit enhancement. The logic behind the state-owned enterprise is described and the objectives of privatization, the pros and cons, are analysed.     

批判恩斯特·布洛赫的"马克思主义"乌托邦

乌托邦社会的物质产品最大化必然要无限制地掠夺自然资源和能源,然而资源是有限的,对能源的无尽开采又会产生无法消除的污染.这些都会加速人类和地球的毁灭,因而恩斯特·布洛赫武的乌托邦是不可能的.与布洛赫勾勒的"积极闲暇的人间天堂"相反,人类自古就已达到了人性可能达到的高度,人性从来都是具有两面性的.     

Rota-Risk-Profile-Analysis

In this article an update of the Rota-Risk-Profile-Analysis (RRPA) is presented. This RRPA is based on 9 rota-risk criteria that are central to a more encompassing rota theory. The RRPA allows coherent assessment of the physical and social risks of a working-time schedule (rota). comparison of schedules with one another in quantitative terms and interpretations of possible differential effects more adequately. First, a closer look at the instrument-a computer program-is taken. Afterwards the criteria and their way of implementation are discussed briefly. To get an impression of the way that RRPA functions an example will be given by applying the instrument to the working rotas from a study on shiftwork in the Netherlands.     

The child's entry into the symbolic order: a developmental-societal interpretation of Jacques Lacan

Lacan's psychoanalytic insights, as found primarily in his 1964 seminar “The four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis” are interpreted within a social-developmental framework. Using Piaget's theory of a structural transition from action logic to object logic I recast (1) Lacan's signifying function as a new competence emerging around age two and (2) the “Other” as the general content/context of this newness, namely the child's grasp of a societal-symbolic order. The child's entry into that order is described as inherently linked to sexuality, desire and the unconscious and as accompanied by feelings of alienation and separation. Insofar as the desire of the unconscious is toward the “Other” Lacan seems to support my claim of an endogenous origin of the societal order.