Migration and fertility in Ticino

Summary Migration in the Swiss canton of Ticino is one example of the wide variety of demographic systems that existed in pre-industrial Europe. The continuous movement of men was a consequence of economic, social and geographic conditions which restricted the demand for labour. Seasonal migration and overseas migration were both sex and age selective. They resulted in an imbalance of the sex ratio and a remarkably low female nuptiality. They also reduced fertility within marriage by separating husbands and wives during their childbearing years. The effect of long, medium and short-term migration on fertility can be isolated from census and vital registration sources.     

A model for group counseling with male pedophiles

Group treatment programs for pedophiles are often designed for populations of convicted men in closed institutions with limited application to other populations. Treatment is usually focused on reducing the "deviant" sexual arousal and/or acquiring heterosocial skills and eventually establishing the ability to engage in adult heterosexual relationships. A six-week, highly structured program is presented to five men in a non-residential setting. In addition to individual psychotherapy, group counseling is offered. Male pedophiles are trained to talk effectively about common problems surrounding man-boy relationships. Counseling is based on the notion that the emotional, erotic and sexual attraction to boys per se does not need to be legitimized or modified. The attraction, however, can be a source of psychological and social problems that can be handled by using a social support system. Social support for pedophile problems can be obtained from and in interaction with other pedophiles.     

Culture and Openness

Previous literature on openness has mainly dealt with the consequences of openness. In this paper, however, we are interested in the cultural determinants of openness. Conducting a cross-country analysis incorporating 53 countries over the period 1959–1997, we find that several aspects of national culture have an impact on openness. Specifically, we find positive effects of individualism and negative effects of uncertainty avoidance and power distance on openness. These findings point to the importance of taking cultural influences into account in future research on openness. Interestingly, the cultural effects were found to become stronger over time and to smoothen out in the end of the study period. This result is in line with the idea that the effect of culture may be expressed most clearly in situations where freedom of choice for policy makers is greatest. When this freedom is restricted, because of scarcity reasons or because there is a dominant view on best practice, the possibility of cultural preferences to influence policy decisions seems to be smaller.     

Summer holiday camps for gay and lesbian young adults: an evaluation of their impact on social support and mental well-being

This study evaluates the effects of participating in a summer holiday camp for Flemish (Belgium) gay and lesbian young adults (N 197). Analysis showed to what extent participation affects the constitution and quality of friendships, the availability of confidant and appraisal support and reported levels of hopelessness, self-esteem, and depression. The study is based on panel data with a six-months interval. At follow-up, respondents reported a higher proportion of gays and lesbians in their friendship network, more satisfaction with these friendships, higher levels of confidant and appraisal support, less hopelessness, higher self-esteem, and lower levels of depression.     

The need for marriage contracts: An experimental study

A spouse who invests in relationship specific human capital enlarges the size of a couples total surplus. Such investments typically also weaken the outside opportunities of the specializing spouse and thereby her bargaining position. Realizing this, underinvestment in relationship specific human capital may result. This reduces the couples potential surplus. Private or public marriage contracts can stipulate conditions to solve this holdup underinvestment problem. This paper reports about an experiment that addresses the practical relevance of this problem. We find that although underinvestment in home production occurs, it is less frequent than game theory predicts. That is: players are prepared to specialize in home production when backwards induction predicts them not to do so. Furthermore, we find that the non-investing spouses are less opportunistic towards their partners when the large surplus has been created by the spouse than when the size of the surplus is determined exogenously.We gratefully acknowledge valuable comments from Theo Offerman, Randolph Sloof, from seminar participants in Amesterdam and Mannheim and from an anonymous referee. An earlier version of this paper circulated under the title Bargaining with endogenous pie sizes and disagreement points. Oosterbeek and Sonnemans are from the University of Amsterdam and the Tinbergen Institute. Van Velzen works for the Dutch Ministery of Finance. Oosterbeek is also affiliated with NWO program Scholar, and Sonnemans with CREED. Responsible editors: Alessandro Cigno.     

Do stepping-stone jobs exist? Early career paths in the medical profession

In the Netherlands, students who want to become a medical specialist have to enrol in a training program which is in limited supply. During the search for a position as trainee (or “junior medical specialist”), they may accept a temporary job as a medical assistant. We use a micro data set to investigate whether such work experience increases the probability of becoming junior medical specialist. To deal with selectivity, we simultaneously model the transitions from unemployment to trainee, from unemployment to medical assistant, from medical assistant to trainee and from medical assistant to unemployment. We find that a job as medical assistant helps to become a medical specialist. Received: 27 July 2000/Accepted: 31 January 2001 All correspondence to Gerard J. van den Berg. Responsible editor: John F. Ermisch.     

Land Use Regulation and Welfare

We evaluate the effect of land use regulation on the value of land and on welfare. Our estimates are based on a decomposition of the effects of regulation into three components: an own‐lot effect, which reflects the cost of regulatory constraints to the owner of a parcel; an external effect, which reflects the value of regulatory constraints on one's neighbors; a supply effect, which reflects the effect of regulated scarcity of developable land. Using this decomposition, we arrive at a novel strategy for estimating a plausibly causal effect of land use regulation on land value and welfare. This strategy exploits cross‐border changes in development, prices, and regulation in regions near municipal borders. Our estimates suggest large negative effects of regulation on the value of land and welfare in these regions.     

Measuring exposure to bullying at work: The validity and advantages of the latent class cluster approach

Abstract

This paper addresses the construct and predictive validity of two methods for classifying respondents as victims of workplace bullying. Although bullying is conceived as a complex phenomenon, the dominant method used in bullying surveys, the operational classification method, only distinguishes two groups: victims versus non-victims. Hence, the complex nature of workplace bullying may not be accounted for. Therefore a latent class cluster approach is suggested to model the data, which was obtained by using the Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ) administered to employees in Belgium (n=6,175). Latent class modelling is a method of analysis that does not appear to have been used in occupational health psychology before. In this study, six latent classes emerged: “not bullied,” “limited work criticism,” “limited negative encounters,” “sometimes bullied,” “work related bullied,” and “victims.” The results show that compared to the traditional operational classification method, the latent class cluster approach shows higher construct and higher predictive validity with respect to self-assessments and indicators of strain and well-being at work. The consequences of these results for theory, future research, and practice are discussed.     

Leader evaluations after performance feedback: The role of follower mood

Team and organizational failures can negatively impact leadership perceptions, as followers tend to attribute performance outcomes to leadership. The current study explores how follower mood moderates this effect. In two experiments, the first with students (N = 132) and the second with a sample of the working population (N = 229), we show that performance information has a weaker effect on leadership evaluations when the follower is in a positive mood as compared with a negative mood. In addition, we show that this moderation effect holds for performance information about the team as well as the leader. We discuss how these findings extend the cognitive follower-centric perspective on leadership by acknowledging affective influences and explore several counter-intuitive implications of these findings.