Low Fertility and Long-Run Growth in an Economy with a Large Public Sector

Recently it has been suggested that low fertility countries may be caught in a trap that is hard to get out of. One important mechanism in such a trap would be social interaction and its effect on the ideal family size. Such social interaction mechanisms are hard to capture in formal models, therefore we use an agent-based simulation model to investigate the issue. In our experimental setup a stable growth and population path is calibrated to Swedish data using the Swedish social policy setup. The model is provoked into a fertility trap by increasing relative child costs linked to positive growth. Even rather large increases in child benefits are then insufficient to get out of the trap. However, the small number of children temporarily enables the economy to grow faster for several decades. Removing the adaptation of social norms turns out to disarm the trap.     

The maximum likelihood estimators in the growth curve model with serial covariance structure

The maximum likelihood estimators of unknown parameters in the growth curve model with serial covariance structure under some conditions are derived in the paper.     

Generalized blockmodeling of valued networks

The paper presents several approaches to generalized blockmodeling of valued networks, where values of the ties are assumed to be measured on at least interval scale. The first approach is a straightforward generalization of the generalized blockmodeling of binary networks [Doreian, P., Batagelj, V., Ferligoj, A., 2005. Generalized Blockmodeling. Cambridge University Press, New York.] to valued blockmodeling. The second approach is homogeneity blockmodeling. The basic idea of homogeneity blockmodeling is that the inconsistency of an empirical block with its ideal block can be measured by within block variability of appropriate values. New ideal blocks appropriate for blockmodeling of valued networks are presented together with definitions of their block inconsistencies.     

Facilitating labour migration from Latvia: strategies of various categories of intermediaries

ABSTRACT

Within the broad category of migration industries, we focus on intermediaries between employers in Norway requiring migrant labour, and suppliers of Latvian workers willing to migrate. Mediation of labour power is a regulated domain in both countries, but regulations may change: regulations in Latvia have become more lenient, whereas in Norway, they have become stricter in response to increased migration. Intermediaries must be responsive to fluctuations in labour supply and demand, as well as to changing regulations. Today, destination countries are experiencing an overabundance of available migrant labour. This buyer’s labour market represents a challenge for intermediaries, spurring adjustments and side-stepping of regulations. Formal temp agencies are supplemented by informal ones, challenging the conceptualisation of intermediaries. Also work migrants may become agents, shaping new forms of intermediation and expanding the concept of ‘migration industry’ to encompass facilitation of labour migration through social networks. In this article, we construct typologies inductively, establishing categories meaningful in the complex context of labour migration from Latvia to Norway. We distinguish between mediation through formal versus informal agencies, establish characteristics of agencies versus individual social network-based mediation and discuss mediation through the posting of workers by companies.     

Quality of Life and Leisure Activities: How do Leisure Activities Contribute to Subjective Well-Being?

The quality of life is determined with objective factors and also with subjective perception of factors which influence human life. Leisure activities play a very important role in subjective well-being because they provide opportunities to meet life values and needs. Through participation in leisure activities people build social relationships, feel positive emotions, acquire additional skills and knowledge, and therefore improve their quality of life. In this report we will explore how leisure activities improve subjective well-being. We will try to distinguish among different types of leisure activities and find those which contribute more to the subjective well-being. Particularly, we will explore which leisure activities contribute to the subjective well-being of women and men of different age. Our study is based on data from a representative sample of Croatian citizens (N = 4,000), who estimated their subjective well-being and participation in various leisure activities. First, we will describe the subjective well-being of various groups of people who differ by gender and age. Afterward, we will identify important leisure activities which determine subjective well-being across age and gender groups. Overall, our results show that engagement in leisure activities contributes to subjective well being, while the pattern of important leisure activities somewhat varies across different age and gender groups.     

Non-response in social networks: The impact of different non-response treatments on the stability of blockmodels

Discerning the essential structure of social networks is a major task. Yet, social network data usually contain different types of errors, including missing data that can wreak havoc during data analyses. Blockmodeling is one technique for delineating network structure. While we know little about its vulnerability to missing data problems, it is reasonable to expect that it is vulnerable given its positional nature. We focus on actor non-response and treatments for this. We examine their impacts on blockmodeling results using simulated and real networks. A set of ‘known’ networks are used, errors due to actor non-response are introduced and are then treated in different ways. Blockmodels are fitted to these treated networks and compared to those for the known networks. The outcome indicators are the correspondence of both position memberships and identified blockmodel structures. Both the amount and type of non-response, and considered treatments, have an impact on delineated blockmodel structures.     

Multivariate Lorenz majorization

The Lorenz zonotope is a multivariate generalization of the Lorenz curve. It allows to define multivariate Lorenz majorization whose properties are studied.