Different development trends in working life and increasing occupational stress require new work environment strategies

This article has a two-fold purpose. First, it provides an explanation for the increase in occupational stress and sick leaves in Sweden in terms of the structural and organizational conditions. Second, it discusses measures that address these issues. Results of a study of 72 establishments are presented. The study investigated these establishments at both the organizational and individual employee level. It examined management strategies and working conditions in the establishments, classifying these elements by type of operations and company position. Both classifications point to differences in how work is organized and in working conditions. The results indicate that management technologies distribute risks between segments of the labor market, thus, also between different groups of the labor force. The developments were most favorable in high tech and knowledge-based operations. The situation was least favorable in labor-intensive services and, the most negative development had taken place in human services. Establishments serving as contractors appeared to organize their work differently from those with core activities. Working conditions in contracting businesses were particularly problematic. Since organizational changes work differently from one company to the next, there is a need to develop a variety of strategies for enacting change in the work environment. This article proposes strategies for different segments of the labor market. These strategies are adapted to the particular problems facing each segment.     

Differences in mortality by marital status in Finland from 1976 to 2000: analyses of changes in marital-status distributions, socio-demographic and household composition, and cause of death

Being currently not married is more common today than 25 years ago. Over this period relative differences in mortality by marital status have increased in several countries, mainly as a result of a sharp decline in mortality among the married. Using Finnish census data linked with death certificates, we show that these increases are not explained by the non-married population becoming more marginalized in socio-economic status or household composition. However, the increases in marital-status differences in mortality from accidental, violent, and alcohol-related causes of death in the 30-64 age group indicate that changes in the health-related behaviour of the non-married population may play a role. The public-health burden associated with not being married has also grown. At the end of the 1990s about 15 per cent of all deaths above the age of 30 would not have occurred if the non-married population had had the same age-specific mortality rates as the married population.     

The impossibility of a paretian loyalist

Amartya Sen has argued the impossibility of the Paretian liberal. While his abstract argument is compelling, the concrete significance of the conclusion is in some doubt. This is because it is not clear how important liberalism in his sense is; in particular it is not clear that the sort of liberalism required for the impossibility result is a compelling variety. We show that even if the argument cannot be used to establish the inconsistency of Paretianism and common-or-garden liberalism, it can be adapted to prove a parallel impossibility. This is the impossibility of combining the Pareto criterion with a loyalty constraint involving certain claim-rights rather than liberty-rights. The impossibility of the Paretian loyalist is of interest in itself but it is also interesting for the light it throws on the source of Sen-style impossibilities.     

Mothers who killed or attempted to kill their child: life circumstances, childhood abuse, and types of killing

The objectives of the present study were to examine the life circumstances, childhood abuse, and types of homicidal acts of 48 mothers who killed/attempted to kill their child(ren) under age 12 between 1970-96 in Finland. Data on the mothers'life stresses, psychological problems, and childhood abuse were collected from mental state examination (MSE) reports. The cases were divided into 15 neonaticides and 33 mothers who killed an older child. Childhood abuse was documented in 63% of the mothers' MSE reports. Qualitative analysis identified neonaticides,joint homicide-suicide attempts, impulsive aggression, psychotic acts, postpartum depression, and abusive acts. Nonlinear principal components analysis showed that different variables were related to the neonaticide and non-neonaticide cases. We concluded that despite differences in the psychosocial profiles of neonaticides and other maternal homicidal acts the cycle of violence perspective can be applied to both cases, even though it may not be a sufficient explanation for maternal child killings.     

Brother correlations in earnings in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden compared to the United States

The correlation in economic status among siblings is a useful “omnibus measure” of the overall impact of family and community factors on adult economic status. In this study we compare brother correlations in long-run (permanent) earnings between the United States, on one hand, and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) on the other. Our base case results, based on very similar sample criteria and definitions for all countries, show that this correlation is above 0.40 in the United States and in the range 0.14–0.26 in the Nordic countries. Even though these results turn out to be somewhat sensitive to some assumptions that have to be made, we conclude that the family and community factors are more important determinants of long-run earnings in the United States than in the Nordic countries. Received: 27 July 2000/Accepted: 7 March 2001 All correspondence to: Anders Bj?rklund. Comments from two referees, conference participants at ESPE2000 and the Canadian Employment Research Forum, seminar participants in Aarhus, Uppsala, Bonn, and Stockholm are gratefully acknowledged. We thank NOS-S for financial support. The Swedish data collection was also supported by HSFR and SFR. The Finnish data were obtained with support from the Yrj? Jahnsson Foundation. We thank Tom Erik Aab? for preparing the Norwegian data, and Esben Agerbo for computational assistance with the Danish data. Responsible editor: John F. Ermisch.     

Demographic change and social security

This paper gives an overview over some central aspects of the highly complex topic, pointing out, e.g. the need for more longitudinal research in understanding effects of structural changes in demography and economy on social security. Starting from challenges by an ageing population for health and pension schemes it is briefly discussed whether changes in labour force participation or restructuring public expenditure can soften financing problems. Concerning reforms in pension schemes first changing retirement ages is briefly discussed and then some of the shortcomings in the debate on capital funding versus pay-as-you-go fincancing.Revised, updated and extended version of a lecture, given at the First Annual Congress of the European Society for Population Economics, Rotterdam, September 18, 1987. Revision and extension were inspired by two referees.