The informed society: an analysis of the public's information-seeking behavior regarding coastal flood risks

Recent flood risk management puts an increasing emphasis on the public's risk perception and its preferences. It is now widely recognized that a better knowledge of the public's awareness and concern about risks is of vital importance to outline effective risk communication strategies. Models such as Risk Information Seeking and Processing address this evolution by considering the public's needs and its information-seeking behavior with regard to risk information. This study builds upon earlier information-seeking models and focuses on the empirical relationships between information-seeking behavior and the constructs of risk perception, perceived hazard knowledge, response efficacy, and information need in the context of coastal flood risks. Specific focus is given to the mediating role of information need in the model and to the differences in information-seeking behavior between permanent and temporary residents. By means of a structured on-line questionnaire, a cross-sectional survey was carried out in the city of Ostend, one of the most vulnerable places to coastal flooding on the Belgian coast. Three hundred thirteen respondents participated in the survey. Path analysis reveals that information need does not act as a mediator in contrast to risk perception and perceived knowledge. In addition, it is shown that risk perception and perceived hazard knowledge are higher for permanent than temporary residents, leading to increased information-seeking behavior among the former group. Implications for risk communication are discussed.     

A Longitudinal Analysis of Job Satisfaction During a Recession in the Netherlands

Social Indicators Research - Between 2008 and 2013, the Netherlands was confronted by a severe recession. This recession may have affected the job satisfaction of workers. Currently, little is...     

College Education and Social Trust: An Evidence-Based Study on the Causal Mechanisms

This paper examines the influence of college education on social trust at the individual level. Based on the literature of trust and social trust, we hypothesize that life experience/development since adulthood and perceptions of cultural/social structures are two primary channels in the causal linkage between college education and social trust. In the first part of the empirical study econometric techniques are employed to tackle the omitted-variable problem and substantial evidence is found to confirm the positive effect of college education. In the second part contemporary information is used to examine the hypothetical mechanisms in the causal inference. That life experience is a primary channel via which college education promotes social trust fails to find support in our examination, while individual perceptions of cultural and social structures explain up to 77% of the causal effect.     

Welfarism and the multidimensionality of welfare state legitimacy: Evidence from The Netherlands, 2006

Oorschot W van, Meuleman B. Welfarism and the multidimensionality of welfare state legitimacy: evidence from The Netherlands, 2006 Is it possible that citizens who support a substantial role for government in the provision of welfare are, at the same time, critical about specific aspects of such provision? Based on confirmatory factor analyses, and using a 2006 Dutch survey, this study shows that welfare state legitimacy is indeed multidimensional, i.e. that opinions tend to cluster together in several dimensions referring to various aspects of the welfare state. There is partial evidence for the existence of a single, underlying welfarism dimension which consists basically of views regarding the range of governmental responsibility, as well as of the idea that these governmental provisions do not have unfavourable repercussions in economic or moral spheres. However, the separate dimensions cannot be reduced entirely to this overall welfarism dimension. This is illustrated by the finding that the various attitude dimensions are affected differently by socio‐structural position and ideological dispositions.     

Fast,closed-form,and efficient estimators for hierarchical models with AR(1) covariance and unequal cluster sizes

This article is concerned with statistically and computationally efficient estimation in a hierarchical data setting with unequal cluster sizes and an AR(1) covariance structure. Maximum likelihood estimation for AR(1) requires numerical iteration when cluster sizes are unequal. A near optimal non-iterative procedure is proposed. Pseudo-likelihood and split-sample methods are used, resulting in computing weights to combine cluster size specific parameter estimates. Results show that the method is statistically nearly as efficient as maximum likelihood, but shows great savings in computation time.     

GMM inference in spatial autoregressive models

In this study, we investigate the finite sample properties of the optimal generalized method of moments estimator (OGMME) for a spatial econometric model with a first-order spatial autoregressive process in the dependent variable and the disturbance term (for short SARAR(1, 1)). We show that the estimated asymptotic standard errors for spatial autoregressive parameters can be substantially smaller than their empirical counterparts. Hence, we extend the finite sample variance correction methodology of Windmeijer (2005 Windmeijer, F. (2005). A finite sample correction for the variance of linear efficient two-step GMM estimators. Journal of Econometrics 126(1):25–51.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to the OGMME for the SARAR(1, 1) model. Results from simulation studies indicate that the correction method improves the variance estimates in small samples and leads to more accurate inference for the spatial autoregressive parameters. For the same model, we compare the finite sample properties of various test statistics for linear restrictions on autoregressive parameters. These tests include the standard asymptotic Wald test based on various GMMEs, a bootstrapped version of the Wald test, two versions of the C(α) test, the standard Lagrange multiplier (LM) test, the minimum chi-square test (MC), and two versions of the generalized method of moments (GMM) criterion test. Finally, we study the finite sample properties of effects estimators that show how changes in explanatory variables impact the dependent variable.     

Disclosure and Relationship Satisfaction in Families

The present study developed a theoretical framework for understanding the social mechanisms underlying disclosure and its link with relationship satisfaction in a full family design. A study among 262 intact families, consisting of 2 children and 2 adults and involving 1,048 individuals, applied the social relations model. Results showed that disclosure was more important to satisfaction in horizontal relationships than vertical ones. Further, relationship‐specific disclosure was more important to satisfaction than dispositional disclosure. These results have implications for the examination of relationship regulation and maintenance in (non)voluntary relationships and the development of psychosocial problems in parent‐ child relationships.     

Balancing work and welfare: activation and flexicurity policies in The Netherlands, 1980–2000

As a result of the flexibilisation of labour and the trend towards the 'activating welfare state', social policies show an increasing interconnection of work and welfare issues. The Netherlands is no exception. It is generally believed that the Dutch welfare state is successfully activating its unemployed labour potential (often referred to as the 'Dutch Miracle'), and that flexible and part-time work is protected by adequate 'flexicurity'. This article critically reviews Dutch activation and flexicurity policies. It concludes that there is still more unemployment than the miracle-story suggests; that important target groups of activation policies have not profited from 'the miracle'; that part-time workers have sufficient social protection but that social security for flex-workers still needs major improvements, despite favourable adjustments of labour law.