Determinants of Portfolio Efficiency Losses in US Self-directed Pension Accounts

This empirical study evaluates the magnitude of efficiency losses of household portfolio choices in self-directed pension accounts (SDAs). It uses data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). The determinants of the magnitude of efficiency losses across household investors are investigated in detail. The findings of this study lend empirical support to the belief that the magnitude of efficiency losses for household investors differs with the different demographic characteristics and investment propensities. In particular, household investors with long-investment horizons, with more autonomy of choices in their SDAs, or with the tendency to select high levels of portfolio risk in SDAs are more vulnerable to efficiency losses. Factors to predict the levels of portfolio risk maintained by household investors in their SDAs are also explored.     

Maternal Welfare and Employment Experiences and Adolescent Well-Being: Do Mothers' Human Capital Characteristics Matter?

Using a representative sample of over 900 low-income urban families from the Three-City Study, analyses assessed whether maternal human capital characteristics moderate relationships between mothers' welfare and employment experiences and young adolescents' well-being. Results indicate synergistic effects whereby greater maternal education and literacy skills enhanced positive links between mothers' new or sustained employment and improvements in adolescent cognitive and psychosocial functioning. Greater human capital also enhanced the negative links between loss of maternal employment and adolescent functioning. Mothers' entrances onto welfare appeared protective for adolescents of mothers with little education but predicted decreased psychosocial functioning among teens of more educated mothers. Results suggest that maternal human capital characteristics may alter the payback of welfare and work experiences for low-income families.     

When Baby Brings the Blues: Family Therapy and Postnatal Depression

Postnatal depression impacts on a significant number of women and their families. As a topic it is attracting much interest from researchers as we become clearer about its impact on the long‐term mental health of both women and their partners, as well as on the couple's relationship and their children's mental health. This article will provide a brief overview of postnatal depression and the current research associated with it, and consider the usefulness of systemic family therapy interventions. Examples of these are included along with a clinical vignette.     

Public–private wage differential and gender gap in Latin America: Spoiled bureaucrats and exploited women?

This paper uses a rich collection of household surveys to investigate the wage differential between the public and private sectors in 13 Latin American countries. It also studies how the sector of employment affects the gender wage gap. Contrary to what is commonly thought, it is found that, in the majority of Latin American countries, there is a premium associated with working in the public sector. It is also found that the premium is often higher for women than for men but that this difference does not compensate for the wide gender gap.     

Discourses of blame: deconstructing (hetero)sexuality, peer sexual violence and residential children's homes

Little research exists on sexuality and residential care, even less that position gender inequality as a central analytical component. This paper, based on a wider research project that focused on children’s and young people’s experiences of peer violence within residential care, seeks to help redress this disparity. The main aim of this paper is to explore how (hetero)sexuality, discourses of blame and male peer sexual violence are constructed and interrelated in residential child care. Young people’s and staff’s conceptualizations, evaluations and experiences are compared and contrasted to illuminate the range of discourses surrounding sexuality and sexual violence operating within residential settings. Findings relating to female culpability for male violence, normative male violence, female duplicity and challenges to traditional gender roles will be presented, and contextualized, in relation to previous studies. In addition, some broader implications of the research findings for residential practice are explored.     

A capture-recapture survival analysis model for radio-tagged animals

In recent years, survival analysis of radio-tagged animals has developed using methods based on the Kaplan-Meier method used in medical and engineering applications (Pollock et al. , 1989a,b). An important assumption of this approach is that all tagged animals with a functioning radio can be relocated at each sampling time with probability 1. This assumption may not always be reasonable in practice. In this paper, we show how a general capture-recapture model can be derived which allows for some probability (less than one) for animals to be relocated. This model is not simply a Jolly-Seber model because it is possible to relocate both dead and live animals, unlike when traditional tagging is used. The model can also be viewed as a generalization of the Kaplan-Meier procedure, thus linking the Jolly-Seber and Kaplan-Meier approaches to survival estimation. We present maximum likelihood estimators and discuss testing between submodels. We also discuss model assumptions and their validity in practice. An example is presented based on canvasback data collected by G. M. Haramis of Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Maryland, USA.