Bequests and family traditions: the case of nineteenth century France

Like father, like son: is the bequest behavior of children “inherited” from that of their parents? Most economic models (altruistic, paternalistic or exchange models) postulate that bequest behavior does not depend per se on parents’ behavior. Yet because of data limitations, few empirical studies have analyzed the link between bequests left and inheritances received. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of inheritance relative to lifetime income on the amount that individuals bequeath, in the case of France. This study uses original historical data including wealth genealogies covering the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries for the Loire Inférieure département. Empirical evidence suggests that the propensity to bequeath is much greater for inheritance than for human resources: a deceased having inherited twice the average wealth leaves 35–60 % more to his own heirs that the average for his generation. In nineteenth century France, bequests are explained more by inheritance received than by personal savings per se.     

Ethnic penalties? The role of human capital and social origins in labour market outcomes of second-generation Moroccans and Turks in the Netherlands

In Western Europe, the children of Moroccan and Turkish migrants were found to be significantly disadvantaged in the labour market. This ethnic gap was found to persist after considering differences in schooling, which was argued to reflect ‘ethnic penalties’ driven by cultural, religious, or racial factors. This study uses data from the 1st Wave of the ‘Netherlands Longitudinal Life-Course Study’ (2009–2010) to revisit the analysis of ‘ethnic penalties’ for second-generation Moroccans and Turks. Unlike in previous research, empirical analyses not only consider differences in schooling, but also skills and social origins. Results show substantial ethnic inequalities in the labour market, with the exception of women from Moroccan origins. For men, these ethnic inequalities do not disappear when human capital factors are considered, but they do when accounting for the unprivileged social origins of ethnic minorities. For women, the disadvantage of second-generation Turks in achieving privileged occupations clearly disappears when human capital and social origins are considered. Yet, the chances of being unemployed among women of Turkish origins persist after controlling for education, skills, and social origins. Overall, this study has global academic and public policy implications to understand the socioeconomic integration of the Moroccan and Turkish second generation in Western Europe.     

Is the Pendulum Swinging Back? Patterns of Skill Change in the Machine-Tool Industry

In this paper, we focus on the results of the Belgian Trend Study. The intention of this study was to examine the prevalence of new production concepts within the widest possible range of Belgian companies in the automobile, machine tool, chemical and clothing industries. The Trend-study aimed to answer the following questions: is the Taylorist division of labour a thing of the past ? What are the alternatives? Are shifts in the division of labour accompanied by another type of personnel policy, and do traditional industrial relations have to make way for this new approach? The methodological concept used had to guarantee that the findings at the level of each industry could be generalized. In this paper, we examine the penetration of new production concepts in the main processing fields of the machine tool industry.     

Transmission and inequality of wealth: An empirical study of wealth mobility from 1800 to 1938 in France

This paper endeavors to measure the intergenerational transmission of wealth inequalities over the 1800–1938 period. For this purpose, we have consulted historical data composed of wealth genealogies covering the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. The database was created from families included in the “3,000 families” survey of those individuals residing in the Loire-Inférieure département. The empirical study reveals a relatively large degree of intergenerational immobility: those whose father had twice the average level of wealth themselves upon death leave behind 1.45 times the average wealth of their generation.     

LTD and RTI dependence orderings

The authors show how the approach of Capéra à & Genest (The Canadian Journal of Statistics, 1990) can be used to order bivariate distributions with arbitrary marginals by their degree of dependence in the LTD (left‐tail decreasing) or RTI (right‐tail increasing) sense. Some properties of these new orderings are given, along with applications to Archimedean copulas, order statistics and compound random variables.     

Penalized multidimensional fitting for protein movement detection

The three-dimensional structure of a given protein can take different conformations depending upon the reaction it undergoes and its substrate/cofactor/partners binding state. Various methods exist to study these conformational changes but only one, called DynDom, is clearly focused on movement detection. An alternative method is proposed, making use of multivariate data analysis, called ‘penalized Multidimensional Fitting (penalized MDF)’ based on penalized movements of points in order to approach the distances between points after movement to the distances given by the reference matrix. The objective is to detect the amino acids that undergo an important movement by fitting the distances of one conformation to the distances of the second one by modifying only the coordinates of the first one. This method is applied to three different proteins.     

Small area estimation-based prediction methods to track poverty: validation and applications

Tracking poverty is predicated on the availability of comparable consumption data and reliable price deflators. However, regular series of strictly comparable data are only rarely available. Price deflators are also often missing or disputed. In response, poverty prediction methods that track consumption correlates as opposed to consumption itself have been developed. These methods typically assume that the estimated relation between consumption and its predictors is stable over time??assumptions that cannot usually be tested directly. This study analyzes the performance of poverty prediction models based on small area estimation (SAE) techniques. Predicted poverty estimates are compared with directly observed levels in two country settings where data comparability over time is not a problem. Prediction models that employ either non-staple food or non-food expenditures or a full set of assets as predictors are found to yield poverty estimates that match observed poverty well. This offers some support to the use of such methods to approximate the evolution of poverty. Two further country examples illustrate how an application of the method employing models based on household assets can help to adjudicate between alternative price deflators.     

Longitudinal Change in Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Symptoms from before to during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of 1,339 adolescents (9–18 years old, 59% female) from three countries. We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in symptoms. Data from 12 longitudinal studies (10 U.S., 1 Netherlands, 1 Peru) were combined. Linear mixed effect models showed that depression, but not anxiety, symptoms increased significantly (median increase = 28%). The most negative mental health impacts were reported by multiracial adolescents and those under ‘lockdown’ restrictions. Policy makers need to consider these impacts by investing in ways to support adolescents’ mental health during the pandemic.     

With a focus on well-being and capabilities

Most of the applied research on capabilities and well-being makes use of quantitative data and research techniques. This paper examines the possibilities of qualitative data gathering to explore the theoretical richness (and complexity) of the capabilities framework. With this objective, the capabilities theory is translated into a framework that enables focus group discussions on well-being. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to discus issues related to the theory of capabilities, as the concepts are recognizable for the focus participants.Being able to choose and making trade offs is related to the concepts of well-being of the participants. Provided one has ‘the basic capability to cope with capabilities’, possibilities and choices increases well-being. These findings show that the capability framework can be fruitfully used for applied research on well-being and that qualitative data gathering creates opportunities that are complementary to quantitative techniques.