Weak ties and the core discussion network: Why people regularly discuss important matters with unimportant alters

Researchers have paid increasing attention to the core discussion network, the set of friends and family people turn to when discussing important matters. For nearly thirty years, social network researchers have argued that the network is composed of ego's closest or most important alters. This assumption, however, has not been tested empirically. Using original data on an online representative quota survey of 2000 respondents, I find that 45% of the core discussion network is composed of people whom respondents do not consider important to them. In fact, the core discussion network includes doctors, co-workers, spiritual leaders, and other alters whom ego confides in without feeling emotionally attached to. I examine what respondents consider important matters and why they approach weak ties to discuss these. Placing emphasis on the process through which ego mobilizes alters, I develop two theoretical perspectives, which focus on how people identify those appropriate to a topic and how they respond to opportunities in interactional contexts. Findings suggest that ego discusses important matters with non-close alters at times because they are known to be knowledgeable (targeted mobilization) and at times because they are available when important issues arise (opportune mobilization). Results suggest that recent findings about changes in the core discussion network of Americans are consistent with several different possibilities about the nature of strong ties, including those in which there has been no change at all.     

Alike but not alike: Welfare state and unemployment policies in Southern Europe. Italy and Portugal compared

Although Italy and Portugal are considered to be part of the same welfare state family – the Southern European one – analysis of a key component of the welfare state, namely, unemployment policies and regulations, reveals a different evaluation. A comparative analysis of a series of specific indicators of Italian and Portuguese unemployment regimes shows that they represent two different models. Portugal appears to be a more inclusive system, closer to continental or Northern European countries than it is to Italy, or at least representing a hybrid system that combines characteristics of continental European welfare states with characteristics that are more typical of Southern European welfare states. Italy, on the contrary, is much more clearly a Southern European welfare state.     

Evaluating social assistance reforms under programme heterogeneity and alternative measures of success

This article presents an assessment of welfare reforms under a framework of programme heterogeneity and alternative measures of success. The study focused on a specific programme – Madrid's Ingreso Madrileño de Integración (Madrid Regional Government's Welfare Programme) – which comprises heterogeneous sub‐programmes. We tested whether work‐related sub‐programmes performed better than general activities aimed at improving life skills by analysing the effects on different types of outcomes. We also tried to identify which work‐related sub‐programme worked best. Our results show that intensive employment activities yield remarkably better results than general work‐related schemes or life‐skills activities. However, increasing work participation does not automatically lift participants out of material hardship. Key Practitioner Message: ● Strategies to reduce the dependence of low‐income households on government support by improving employment opportunities; ● Evaluation of alternative work‐related sub‐programmes in welfare policies; ● New evidence on approaches that consider heterogeneous sub‐programmes and different types of outcomes might inform and partially shape the future public policy agenda in the welfare reform debate.     

New partnerships in widowhood in Spain: Realities and desires

ABSTRACT

Widowhood has traditionally been associated with the end of the family cycle; however, social and generational transformations in Spain are providing a new context for the development of new partnerships in widowhood. This study analyzes widowed persons who have found new partners and those who would be willing to do so, focusing on their characteristics and motives and related sociodemographic factors. Research is based on a sample of 306 widows and widowers in Spain taken from the survey Social Networks and Well-Being. The results reveal the importance of sociodemographic factors for both those who wish to have a partner as well as for those who have one. For the former, elements associated with quality of life are very important, while among those with a new partner, the key is not having an extensive family support network. The principal motives for looking for a new relationship are related to enjoying life more and not feeling alone; while those who reject a new relationship do so because of the belief that their lost partner is irreplaceable.     

Estimation of the Hurst parameter in some fractional processes

We propose to estimate the Hurst parameter involved in fractional processes via a method based on the Karhunen–Loève expansion of a Gaussian process. We specifically investigate the cases of the fractional Brownian motion, the fractional Ornstein–Uhlenbeck family and the fractional Brownian bridge. We numerically compare our results with the ones obtained by the maximum-likelihood method, which show the validity of our proposal.     

HYBRID R&D

We develop a model of R&D collaboration in which individual firms carry out in‐house research on core activities and undertake bilateral joint projects on non‐core activities with other firms. We develop conditions on the profit functions of the firm under which R&D investments in different projects of a firm are complementary. We show that this condition is met by standard price and quantity setting oligopoly models. We then study the relation between the number of joint projects and investments and profits. In this context, we identify a second aspect of complementarity: Equilibrium investments in in‐house as well as in each joint project are increasing in the number of projects. However, we find that an increase in number of joint projects of all firms lowers collective profits, suggesting the presence of excessive incentives for conducting research. (JEL: L13, L14, L22, O31, O32)     

Some Asymptotic Properties of Ridge Regression in a System of Seemingly Unrelated Regression Equations

A discussion is made of asymptotic properties of an Operational Ordinary Ridge Regression estimator and comparison is made with the Operational Generalized Least Squares estimator. Also, some simulation experiments are carried showing efficiency gains can be made through the use of de Ridge estimator.     

Properties and Inference on the Skew-Curved-Symmetric Family of Distributions

In this article, we study some results related to a specific class of distributions, called skew-curved-symmetric family of distributions that depends on a parameter controlling the skewness and kurtosis at the same time. Special elements of this family which are studied include symmetric and well-known asymmetric distributions. General results are given for the score function and the observed information matrix. It is shown that the observed information matrix is always singular for some special cases. We illustrate the flexibility of this class of distributions with an application to a real dataset on characteristics of Australian athletes.     

Working life and retirement pensions in Spain: The simulated impact of a parametric reform

This article aims to offer an ex ante evaluation of the impact of a parametric reform of the Spanish pension system that would involve increasing the reference period used to calculate benefits, an approach proposed many times by various actors in the socio‐economic field. Such gradual change may be categorized as a non‐structural reform of the pension system. This contrasts with reforms of a structural nature that have been very popular in Latin America and elsewhere, involving the creation of defined contribution individual account schemes. As regards the parametric reform proposed in this article, the main findings indicate that it would have a small but negative impact on pension income for pensioners and would reduce income distribution.