Fertility change in five Latin American countries: A covariance analysis of birth intervals

This paper analyzes patterns of childbearing throughout the reproductive career of Latin American women, using a hazards model of birth interval life tables. Data come from five fertility surveys of the World Fertility Survey Programme. The analysis, within each country and across time, assesses how demographic factors of reproduction influence the fertility history of women throughout their reproductive lives.     

Do Sons Prevent Marital Disruption More Than Daughters? Evidence From Italy

In a well-known study Morgan, Lye, and Condran (1988 Morgan, S. P., Lye, D. N. and Condran, G. A. 1988. Sons, daughters and the risk of marital disruption. American Journal of Sociology, 94(1): 110–129. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) stated that sons prevent the risk of divorce more than daughters do. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the sex composition of children on the stability of the parental marriage in Italy, a country where this research question is particularly interesting because of conservative gender roles within the family. The relative risk of marital dissolution is estimated for individuals with different numbers and sexes of children using a discrete time event-history model. The findings do not support either the hypothesis that sons contribute more to marital stability than daughters or the hypothesis that the effect of the sex composition of children has changed over time.     

An Assessment of the Italian 2007 Complementary Social Security Reform: A Simulation Approach

In this paper we aim at assessing the outcomes of the 2007 Italian reform of the complementary social security scheme and at identifying the determinants behind them. The reform provided workers with relevant incentives to switch the investment of about 7 per cent of their gross yearly wages from a firm‐managed scheme (which took the form of a termination indemnity payment, the Trattamento di Fine Rapporto scheme) to an external pension fund. We provide a theoretical framework to model the workers' problem of choosing between these two different forms of complementary social security schemes and we then perform an agent‐based simulation taking into account all the details of the reform. Differently from previous contributions, we stress the impact that the investment decision has on the financial health of firms and, consequently, on workers' employment stability. Our simulations are able to replicate the Italian data in terms of adhesion rates to complementary social security and also to identify some of the key determinants of that outcome, such as fiscal incentives, individual preferences, the working of both the Italian labour and the financial markets and the productive structure of the Italian economy.     

Robustness of Bootstrap in Instrumental Variable Regression

This paper studies robustness of bootstrap inference methods for instrumental variable (IV) regression models. We consider test statistics for parameter hypotheses based on the IV estimator and generalized method of trimmed moments (GMTM) estimator introduced by ?í?ek (2008 ?í?ek's , P. ( 2008 ). General trimmed estimation: Robust approach to nonlinear and limited dependent variable models . Econometric Theory 24 : 1500 – 1529 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2009 ?í?ek's , P. ( 2009 ). Generalized method of trimmed moments. Working paper, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands . [Google Scholar]), and compare the pairs and implied probability bootstrap approximations for these statistics by applying the finite sample breakdown point theory. In particular, we study limiting behaviors of the bootstrap quantiles when the values of outliers diverge to infinity but the sample size is held fixed. The outliers are defined as anomalous observations that can arbitrarily change the value of the statistic of interest. We analyze both just- and overidentified cases and discuss implications of the breakdown point analysis to the size and power properties of bootstrap tests. We conclude that the implied probability bootstrap test using the statistic based on the GMTM estimator shows desirable robustness properties. Simulation studies endorse this conclusion. An empirical example based on Romer's (1993 Romer , D. ( 1993 ). Openness and inflation: Theory and evidence . The Quarterly Journal of Economics 108 : 869 – 903 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) study on the effect of openness of countries to inflation rates is presented. Several extensions including the analysis for the residual bootstrap are provided.     

Testing the Parent–Adolescent Acculturation Discrepancy Hypothesis: A Five‐Wave Longitudinal Study

This 2½‐year, 5‐wave longitudinal study tests the hypothesis that acculturation discrepancies between Hispanic immigrant parents and adolescents would lead to compromised family functioning, which would then lead to problematic adolescent outcomes. Recent‐immigrant Hispanic parent–adolescent dyads (N = 302) completed measures of acculturation and family functioning. Adolescents completed measures of positive youth development, depressive symptoms, problem behavior, and substance use. Results indicated that Time 1 discrepancies in Hispanic culture retention, and linear trajectories in some of these discrepancies, negatively predicted adolescent positive youth development, and positively predicted adolescent depressive symptoms and binge drinking, indirectly through adolescent‐reported family functioning. The vast majority of effects were mediated rather than direct, supporting the acculturation discrepancy hypothesis. Implications for further research and intervention are discussed.     

Gender differences in young adults’ inclination to sacrifice career opportunities in the future for family reasons: comparative study with university students from Nairobi,Madrid, and Reykjavik

This article addresses the question of to what extent young people show an inclination to accept some sacrifice in their career progression in the future in order to reach a better work–family balance. Data come from a survey conducted among a sample of 2383 university students who attended three universities: University of Nairobi, University of Iceland, and Complutense University of Madrid. After building a set of indicators about career and family involvement aspirations of respondents, and after conducting a statistical and regression analysis, this research shows that young women (on average) still have a greater predisposition than young men to make sacrifices in the future in their working careers in order to achieve a better work–family balance. Moreover, having a high degree of leadership aspirations and belonging to an egalitarian household tend to reduce the inclination to sacrifice career opportunities, whereas having a high inclination to be involved in childcare in the future and having the perception of a future work–family conflict tend to increase it. Gender attitudes have a differential effect on female and male students: having traditional gender attitudes tends to increase the inclination to sacrifice career opportunities in the case of female students and reduce it in the case of male students.     

Old and novel methods for estimating Feral Pigeons (Columba livia f. domestica) population size: a reply to Amoruso et al. (2013)

In a recent paper Amoruso et al. (2013) proposed a novel method for estimating population size of Feral Pigeons, the Superimposed Urban Strata (SUS) method. In our reply we firstly comment on the lack of a complete review of the available literature. Secondly we point out that the SUS method does not account for birds detection probability and thus it is just a simple index of abundance as many others proposed in recent years. Thirdly, we question the approach used by the authors to evaluate the reliability of their method. To conclude, we believe that the SUS method is not truly innovative and that further investigations are needed before considering it as a reliable way for estimating Feral Pigeons populations size.     

Social Confidence in Unions: A U.S.‐Canada Comparison

Cet article examine l’évolution des niveaux de confiance sociale envers les organisations syndicales au Canada et aux États‐Unis entre 1982 et 2006 en s'appuyant sur les données de la World Value Survey (WVS). Partant du constat que ces taux de confiance sont relativement similaires au sein de ces deux pays, nous appliquons un modèle de régression logistique sur les deux vagues de données les plus récentes du WVS (soit celle de 2000 et 2006) afin de mieux comprendre la propension des individus à faire confiance aux syndicats dans chaque contexte national en fonction de certaines de leurs caractéristiques sociales et politiques. Les résultats montrent des similitudes entre les deux pays (par exemple, les citoyens les plus progressistes et les plus jeunes ont généralement une plus grande confiance envers les syndicats), mais également des distinctions importantes (à titre d'exemple, seul au Canada les individus répondant à un profil de “classe ouvrière” manifestent une plus grande confiance envers les syndicats). This article examines changes in levels of social confidence in unions in Canada and the United States between 1982 and 2006 based on an analysis of the World Value Survey (WVS) data set. It considers why confidence rates are similar in the two countries, applying a logistic regression model to the two most recent WVS waves (i.e., 2000 and 2006) so as to bring out the effects of political and social differences on the propensity of individuals to trust unions in each national context. The results show similarities between the two countries (e.g., more progressive and younger citizens generally have greater confidence in unions), but also important distinctions (e.g., only in Canada do individuals with a working class profile appear to have greater confidence in unions).     

An exploratory analysis of community-based disability workers’ potential to alleviate poverty and promote social inclusion of people with disabilities in three Southern African countries

This article draws on accounts by community-based disability workers (CDWs) of their life and work experiences in resource-limited rural communities in Botswana, Malawi and South Africa. Using the World Health Organisation’s community-based rehabilitation (CBR) matrix and the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals as analytic frameworks, the article explores CDWs’ potential to contribute to improving the lives and increasing the levels of social, economic and political inclusion of people with disabilities, their families and communities. The article argues that CDWs’ knowledge, experience and understanding of disability in resource-limited communities may constitute an important local resource for helping to address the inter-related effects of poverty and disability in developing countries.     

Patterns of consent: evidence from a general household survey

Summary.  We analyse patterns of consent and consent bias in the context of a large general household survey, the 'Improving survey measurement of income and employment' survey, also addressing issues that arise when there are multiple consent questions. A multivariate probit regression model for four binary outcomes with two incidental truncations is used. We show that there are biases in consent to data linkage with benefit and tax credit administrative records that are held by the Department for Work and Pensions, and with wage and employment data held by employers. There are also biases in respondents' willingness and ability to supply their national insurance number. The biases differ according to the question that is considered. We also show that modelling questions on consent independently rather than jointly may lead to misleading inferences about consent bias. A positive correlation between unobservable individual factors affecting consent to Department for Work and Pensions record linkage and consent to employer record linkage is suggestive of a latent individual consent propensity.