The Obese Smoker's Wage Penalty*

Objective. Smoking and obesity are associated with significant wage penalties when considered separately. We assess the combined effects of those behaviors. Methods. We estimate the effects of smoking and obesity on wages using multivariate regression analysis with 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data. Results. The raw data indicate that obese smokers experience large earnings penalties. However, these penalties are not found to be interactive or directly causal for most of the demographic subgroups we examine. One exception is the wage penalty associated with obesity for females, which remains significant throughout the analysis. Conclusions. In the absence of a demonstrable direct causal effect of those behaviors on wages, associated individual‐specific socioeconomic factors appear to be the driving forces behind the obese smoker wage penalty. Not included, but potentially significant, are the effects of employer and customer discrimination against obese smokers and the possible labor policy implications of such discrimination.     

A Small-Sample Estimator for the Sample-Selection Model

A semiparametric estimator for evaluating the parameters of data generated under a sample selection process is developed. This estimator is based on the generalized maximum entropy estimator and performs well for small and ill-posed samples. Theoretical and sampling comparisons with parametric and semiparametric estimators are given. This method and standard ones are applied to three small-sample empirical applications of the wage-participation model for female teenage heads of households, immigrants, and Native Americans.     

Place, Culture, and the Social Amplification of Risk

This article investigates the role of culture in the social production of risks and risk communication surrounding industrial development in a region located at a rural-urban interface. A case study examined a public consultation that was undertaken to inform local residents about an eco-industrial development proposal being planned near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The research employed the social amplification of risk framework (SARF) to examine the relationships among culture, place, and socially constructed risk. A total of 44 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 33 landowners (farmers, acreage owners), public officials (municipal politicians, administrators), journalists, and industry representatives. Analysis revealed that risk communication occurred in relation to situated experiences of place that were based on conflicting cultural worldviews. The research shows that place is a useful component of the SARF, providing a spatial explanation for why some people amplify, and others attenuate, risks in locally contentious environmental debates.     

The Sociology of Micro‐politics: An Examination of a Neglected Field of Political Action in the Middle East and Beyond

In this paper, the political dimensions of the social interactions of everyday life are investigated. The perspectives of Michel Foucault and Michel de Certeau, George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman, are applied. A close analysis of micro‐politics in Israel–Palestine and the Sinai is used to reveal the independent significance of micro‐politics, as it is shown that such politics constitute the prevailing order of things, but also present the possibility of escaping, subverting, criticizing and transforming that order.     

A longitudinal analysis of household and nonhousehold living arrangements in later life

Most explanatory models of living arrangements in later life link the decision process surrounding choice of living arrangement to personal resources such as income and health. Applications of these models, however, are based for the most part on cross-sectional rather than longitudinal data. In this paper we examine living arrangements in later life among the nonmarried population aged 55 and over, using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. We observe individuals as they change living arrangements, die, or become institutionalized. Our results suggest that economic resources dominate the decision-making process in transitions across different household arrangements, whereas health is most important in explaining institutionalization.     

Deviant social positions in small groups: The relation between role and individual

This paper studies a deviant social position within a small group of Italian Fishermen. The role of “court-jester” emerges and, as the title suggests, the relation between this role and the inherent properties of the deviant are explored. It is argued that the emergence of roles among deviant social positions is dependent upon the personal attributes of the deviant and the characteristics of his relations to other members of the group.     

Estimation of Dietary Exposure to Chemicals: A Case Study Illustrating Methods of Distributional Analyses for Food Consumption Data

There are a number of sources of variability in food consumption patterns and residue levels of a particular chemical (e.g., pesticide, food additive) in commodities that lead to an expected high level of variability in dietary exposures across a population. This paper focuses on examples of consumption pattern survey data for specific commodities, namely that for wine and grape juice, and demonstrates how such data might be analyzed in preparation for performing stochastic analyses of dietary exposure. Data from the NIAAA/NHIS wine consumption survey were subset for gender and age group and, with matched body weight data from the survey database, were used to define empirically-based percentile estimates for wine intake (μl wine/kg body weight) for the strata of interest. The data for these two subpopulations were analyzed to estimate 14-day consumption distributional statistics and distributions for only those days on which wine was consumed. Data subsets for all wine-consuming adults and wine-consuming females ages 18 through 45, were determined to fit a lognormal distribution ( R ²= 0.99 for both datasets). Market share data were incorporated into estimation of chronic exposures to hypothetical chemical residues in imported table wine. As a separate example, treatment of grape juice consumption data for females, ages 18–40, as a simple lognormal distribution resulted in a significant underestimation of intake, and thus exposure, because the actual distribution is a mixture (i.e., multiple subpopulations of grape juice consumers exist in the parent distribution). Thus, deriving dietary intake statistics from food consumption survey data requires careful analysis of the underlying empirical distributions.     

Transitional phenomena in adolescence: Tools for negotiating the second individuation

The purpose of this article is to heighten clinicians awareness of the integrative potential of transitional phenomena in adolescent ego development. A review of the literature and presentation of clinical examples support the author's contention that adolescents may employ transitional phenomena to assist them through developmental turbulence reminiscent of original rap-prochement crises in early separation-individuation. An understanding of how adolescent clients may use transitional phenomena provides clinicians with an expanded perspective for differential assessment and intervention.