Narratives of the Future Affect Fertility: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment

European Journal of Population - In recent years, fertility rates have declined in most wealthy countries. This phenomenon has largely been explained by focusing on the rise of economic...     

Monthly Instability in Early Adolescent Friendship Networks and Depressive Symptoms

This study examined (1) the relation between perceived friendship instability and depressive symptoms, (2) the directionality of this link, and (3) whether the relation between friendship instability and depressive symptoms would differ according to specific friendship status (best and secondary friendships) and contexts (school, non-school, and multiple). Participants were 102 young adolescents (51 girls; M age  =  12 years) who completed a series of five monthly telephone interviews and in-class questionnaires. Results suggested that friendship instability over a five-month period was significantly associated with an increase in depressed mood. Regarding the directionality of the influence, cross-lag analyses revealed that elevated depressive symptoms at one time point significantly predicted an increase in friendship instability by the following month, whereas friendship instability at one time point did not predict an increase in depressive symptoms the next month. Finally, participants' depressed mood appeared to be associated with instability in their best friendships (but not secondary friendships) and in their school friendships (but not non-school and multi-context friendships). The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

INVESTMENT AND TIME TO PLAN AND BUILD: A COMPARISON OF STRUCTURES VS. EQUIPMENT IN A PANEL OF ITALIAN FIRMS

“Time‐to‐build” models of investment expenditures play an important role in many traditional and modern theories of the business cycle, especially for explaining the dynamic propagation of shocks. We estimate the structural parameters of a time‐to‐build model using annual firm‐level investment data on equipment and structures. For expenditures on equipment, we find no evidence of time‐to‐build effects beyond one year. For expenditures on structures, by contrast, there is clear evidence of such effects in the range of two to three years. The contrast between equipment and structures is intuitively reasonable and consistent with previous results. The estimates for structures also indicate that initial‐period expenditures are low and increase as projects near completion. These results provide empirical support for including “time‐to‐plan” effects for investment in structures. More generally, these results suggest a potential source of specification error for Q models of investment and production‐based asset pricing models that ignore the time required to plan, build, and install new capital. (JEL: D24, G31, C33, C34)     

Separation and Divorce: Effect on Family Structures and Life Conditions

The aim of this paper is to supply some basic data on separations and divorces in Italy in order to evaluate their impact on the family system both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view. The focus is on the role played by marital disruption in the observed recent increase in the number of ‘new families’ and its effects on the life conditions and economic well‐being of the women and children involved.     

Social media time,identity narratives and the construction of political biographies

ABSTRACT

The question of identity narrative is at the core of the interaction between social movements and temporalities. In this paper, we draw on long-term qualitative research amongst activists engaged in Italian social movements and argue that identity narratives are often the result of a complex mnemonic, contradictory and open-ended process that spans through a life-time of engagement with multiple collectives. We then question whether the use of social media reshape these dynamics. The analysis shows that the construction of identity narratives on social media tends to take place with knowledge of the complexity and overlaps that characterise these processes online. Nevertheless, the temporality of social media, based on immediacy, archival and predictive time, challenges the unpredictable, contradictory, and open-ended nature of political identity construction offline. The need to escape the hegemonic temporalities of social media poses new challenges to activists in their creative agency.     

What’s left unsaid? In-group solidarity and ethnic and racial differences in opposition to immigration in the United States

Do racial and ethnic characteristics of non-immigrants play an important role in shaping attitudes toward immigrants in the U.S.? Using a 2010 survey experiment representative of the U.S. general population, this paper examines differences in opposition to immigration by the race or ethnicity of the respondent. By manipulating the amount of anonymity offered to respondents, the experiment allows explicit opposition to be distinguished from implicit opposition, which offers unique insight into the extent to which opposition is masked. Consistent with theories of in-group solidarity, we find that Hispanics, who comprise nearly half of all immigrants in the U.S., overtly express a less restrictive posture, which, relative to Black and White respondents, is not significantly masked. In contrast, White and Black respondents only overtly express more openness to immigration. When offered absolute anonymity, opposition is significantly and substantively greater. The implications are profound in that differences in the extent to which opposition is masked, rather than overtly expressed, fundamentally patterns racial and ethnic differences in opposition to immigration in the U.S.     

Does director capital influence board turnover after an incident of fraud? Evidence from Italian listed companies

Studies in U.S. have found that that director capital influences turnover within the board after an incident of fraud. We analyse whether there is a relationship between the probability of non-executive director turnover in Italian listed firms in which fraud has occurred and each director’s level of: (1) general business knowledge, (2) industry knowledge, and (3) relational capital. Our results suggest that non-executive director departure can be explained as a result of decisions by companies to clean their house of directors with lower expertise, industry knowledge and relational capital. These findings indicate that firms encourage the departure of these non-executive directors to signal to their stakeholders that they want to repair legitimacy and want to enhance the monitoring and resource provider tasks of the board. Indeed, in Italy, director turnover is more marked when the fraud visibility is greater. Furthermore, our study findings indicate that the cleaning house strategy is not influenced by the ownership structure and identity.     

Usability testing with children: an application of Pedactice and Ticese methods

Graphic representation of clickable areas in computer interfaces should allow mental representations that facilitate systems navigation during the cognitive process. If it doesn't happen users can feel lost. When thinking about websites designed to children with both entertainment and educational intention these systems must stimulates this kind of users. As many other activities for children nowadays, many system are commonly used as support for contents explored in school, as a complement. The design of theses educational systems must have the compromise to allow these users navigate and feel capable to explore every part of these interfaces. This paper is focusing the results of Ticese and Pedactice methods and shows the importance of these results as an exploratory phase in a bigger research that evaluates interfaces with children. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected related to structuring the user's mental model, influenced by the graphic representation of hypertext areas in a children's educational site.     

Methodological Choices and Data Quality Issues for Official Poverty Measures: Evidences from Italy

Social Indicators Research - The application of new technologies and the implementation of e-government have profoundly modified management systems in public administrations. In this article we...