Policy transfer routes: an evidence-based conceptual model to explain policy adoption

Although studies on policy transfer have expanded, a general and comprehensive understanding of policy transfer is lacking. This study offers an evidence-based explanation of policy transfer processes. We extracted constraining and facilitating factors from 180 empirical studies using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis) and aggregated these factors into a conceptual framework. We synthesize our findings in four “transfer routes”. We conclude that actors could shape a subset of those factors by taking certain decisions regarding transferability, adoptability and process design, albeit within the boundaries of the environment.     

The strength of sensitivity to ambiguity

We report an experiment where each subject’s ambiguity sensitivity is measured by an ambiguity premium, a concept analogous to and comparable with a risk premium. In our design, some tasks feature known objective risks and others uncertainty about which subjects have imperfect, heterogeneous, information (“ambiguous tasks”). We show how the smooth ambiguity model can be used to calculate ambiguity premia. A distinctive feature of our approach is estimation of each subject’s subjective beliefs about the uncertainty in ambiguous tasks. We find considerable heterogeneity among subjects in beliefs and ambiguity premia; and that, on average, ambiguity sensitivity is about as strong as risk sensitivity.     

Research review: Aging out of residential care in South Africa

Approximately 21,000 children were accommodated in residential care in South Africa in 2011/2012. Despite this large number, and the state's substantial financial investment in residential care, there has, until recently, been little research on care‐leaving: the transition out of care due to reaching adulthood. Furthermore, much of the research available has not been published in international journals. This article reports on a systematic review of research on residential care‐leaving in South Africa, from 2003 to 2016. A thematic analysis of the resulting 40 research outputs maps the scope of findings from South African research, in relation to theory of leaving care, measurement tools developed, young people's experiences of leaving care, transitional outcomes, processes of leaving care, facilitators of improved outcomes, care‐leaving services, and policy on leaving care. Critical gaps in the current research opus are identified, with a view to refining future research on young people aging out of care in South Africa.     

On the Analysis of Negative Freedom

This paper presents a non-preference-based approach to the analysis of negative freedom. It is argued that a proper understanding of (different conceptions of) negative freedom necessitates an examination of the consequences of changes in the set of feasible alternatives. For this reason the paper does not focus on freedom rankings of opportunity sets but on freedom rankings of opportunity situations, i.e., pairs consisting of a feasible set and an opportunity set. Three different freedom rankings of opportunity situations are axiomatically characterised. Each of the three rankings forms a generalisation of the purely cardinality-based freedom ranking of opportunity sets presented by Pattanaik and Xu (1990).     

Signals and closure by degrees: The education effect across 15 European countries

Stratification research has extensively studied country-differences in the strength of the relationship between education and labor market outcomes. This research has mostly neglected the different mechanisms that could explain why education is rewarded. In this paper we argue that not only the strength of the relationship, but also the mechanisms explaining why education is rewarded differ between countries. National institutions affect how employers see education, what it brings to the organization, and how workers signal their potential productivity. Empirically we focus on the partial effects of qualifications on top of years of education in 15 European countries. We find that strongly vocationally oriented and differentiated schooling systems have relatively strong net effects of qualifications on occupational status, which is explained by stronger signalling by qualification levels in those countries. Furthermore, in coordinated market economies we find that vocational education leads to higher status jobs relative to liberal market economies, which is explained by higher levels of closure implemented by coordination institutions.     

Being Born Under Adverse Economic Conditions Leads to a Higher Cardiovascular Mortality Rate Later in Life: Evidence Based on Individuals Born at Different Stages of the Business Cycle

We connect the recent medical and economic literatures on the long-run effects of early-life conditions by analyzing the effects of economic conditions on the individual cardiovascular (CV) mortality rate later in life, using individual data records from the Danish Twin Registry covering births since the 1870s and including the cause of death. To capture exogenous variation of conditions early in life, we use the state of the business cycle around birth. We find significant negative effects of economic conditions around birth on the individual CV mortality rate at higher ages. There is no effect on the cancer-specific mortality rate. From variation within and between monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs born under different conditions, we conclude that the fate of an individual is more strongly determined by genetic and household-environmental factors if early-life conditions are poor. Individual-specific qualities come more to fruition if the starting position in life is better.     

Identification in organizational contexts: linking theory and research from social and organizational psychology

Research in organizational psychology has shown that commitment to the organization correlates with different criteria of work effectiveness. This paper argues that social psychology and, particularly, the Social Identity Approach to intergroup relations extend the concept of commitment theoretically. Above that, it provides a broader conceptual framework for the understanding of underlying processes in the relation between organizational identification and job-related attitudes and behaviours. This theoretical analysis is completed with a review of empirical findings in different fields of application (group performance, work-related attitudes, group norms).     

Variation of Consumer Contact with Household Products: A Preliminary Investigation

Little information is available on product use by consumers, which severely hampers exposure estimation for consumer products. This article describes actual contact with several consumer products, specifically dishwashing detergents, cleaning products, and hair styling products. How and where products are handled, as well as the duration, frequency, and amount of use were studied by means of diaries, in‐home observations, and measurements. This study addressed the question, “To what extent are frequency, duration, and amount of use associated?” Findings showed that there was a large intra‐ as well as interindividual variation in frequency, duration, and amount of use, with the interindividual variation being considerably larger. At the same time, results showed that, for a given activity, users tended to follow their own routine. Few relations were found among frequency, duration, and amount of use. It was concluded that among persons, frequency, duration, and amount of product act in practice as independent parameters. Diaries appear to be quite suitable for gaining insight into frequently used products. Observations of usage, recorded on video, were indispensable for obtaining particular information on product use. In addition, home visits enabled the collection of specific measurements. Although diaries and home visits are time‐consuming, the combination provided insight into variation as well as relations among frequency, duration, and amount of use.     

Acculturation and Prejudice in Germany: Majority and Minority Perspectives

This article explores the connections between prejudice and specific attitudes toward acculturation in Germany. Results of surveys confirm the hypothesis that prejudice is related to ideologies of assimilation and segregation among majority- group members. Moreover, experimental and correlational studies indicate that these attitudes are linked to discriminatory behavior. Further analyses of studies with ethnic minorities prove that prejudice and acculturation are linked within minority groups as well. Additionally it is shown that prejudice is functional in order for minorities to acculturate. These studies confirm the impression that there is a close link between macrosocial and microsocial levels of coping with migration.