A note on the asymptotic behaviour of empirical likelihood statistics

This paper develops some theoretical results about the asymptotic behaviour of the empirical likelihood and the empirical profile likelihood statistics, which originate from fairly general estimating functions. The results accommodate, within a unified framework, various situations potentially occurring in a wide range of applications. For this reason, they are potentially useful in several contexts, such as, for example, in inference for dependent data. We provide examples showing that known findings in literature about the asymptotic behaviour of some empirical likelihood statistics in time series models can be derived as particular cases of our results.     

Financial literacy and retirement planning in the Netherlands

The complexity of financial decisions that households now face has increased to unprecedented levels. At the same time, households seem to lack the financial knowledge to cope with these decisions, including how to save and invest adequately for retirement. In this paper, we examine the relationship between financial knowledge and retirement planning in the Netherlands. For this purpose, we have designed a module on financial literacy and planning for the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) Household Survey. We find a strong and positive relationship between financial knowledge and retirement planning; those who are more financially knowledgeable are more likely to plan for retirement. Using information on economics education acquired in school, we show that the nexus of causality goes from financial literacy to planning rather than the other way around.     

Individual Preferences and Job Characteristics: An Analysis of Cooperative Credit Banks

The aim of this paper is to analyse individual preferences in relation to different job characteristics. More specifically, this work focuses on the case of employees of cooperative credit banks (CCBs) in Campania and accounts for certain fundamental institutional features: CCBs are designed to pursue specific member interests rather than profit maximization, and most employees are both owners and consumers. The research is conducted by applying a conjoint analysis approach with stated preference data. Novel features of the analysis include the application of this approach to empirical research on worker incentives and the use of a mixed logit model.     

Life tables in actuarial models: from the deterministic setting to a Bayesian approach

The mortality dynamics experienced in the latest decades, especially at adult and old ages, has motivated the introduction of major innovations in the modeling of mortality for actuarial applications; such innovations concern, in particular, the representation of the uncertainty relating to aggregate mortality.     

Elmar Lange: Jugendkonsum im 21. Jahrhundert. Eine Untersuchung der Einkommens-, Konsum-und Verschuldungsmuster der Jugendlichen in Deutschland. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften/GWV Fachverlage GmbH, Wiesbaden 2004. ISBN 3-8100-3941-1. 183 Seiten. € 22,90

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Fear of childbirth in primiparous Italian pregnant women: The role of anxiety,depression, and couple adjustment

Background

The prevalence of fear of childbirth in pregnant women is described to be about 20–25%, while 6–10% of expectant mothers report a severe fear that impairs their daily activities as well as their ability to cope with labour and childbirth. Research on fear of childbirth risk factors has produced heterogeneous results while being mostly done with expectant mothers from northern Europe, northern America, and Australia.

Representativeness in panel surveys

ABSTRACT

A panel is a set of units recruited and used in successive surveys. When the sample unit is the household, so-called R-indicators together with the comparison of distributions of certain variables to those known in the total population help to measure the representativeness of the panel. The method is applied to Understanding Society, a U.K. household longitudinal study. At each wave, under- and over-represented groups of individuals are identified. This allows the implementation of better survey designs and procedures to reduce the bias of nonresponse.     

Pregnancy Acceptance,Parenting Stress,and Toddler Attachment in Low‐Income Black Families

Questionnaire items tapping feelings about pregnancy were administered to 173 young, low‐income primiparous Black mothers who either were pregnant or had delivered within the past year. A factor analysis indicated that 11 items together measured mothers’ acceptance of the pregnancies that resulted in the births of their first children. Links to mothers’ later parenting stress, warmth, and their toddlers’ attachment security were explored. Pregnancy acceptance was a negative predictor of one aspect of maternal parenting stress (distress resulting from feelings that parenting is burdensome) and a positive predictor of toddler attachment security. It did not, however, predict another aspect of parenting stress (feelings that interactions with children are not enjoyable) or maternal warmth.