A Case for “Reverse One-Child” Policies in Japan and South Korea? Examining the Link Between Education Costs and Lowest-Low Fertility

Household spending on children’s pre-tertiary education is exceptionally high in Japan and South Korea, and has been cited as a cause of low fertility. Previous research attributes this high spending to a cultural emphasis on education in East Asian countries. In this paper, we argue that institutional factors, namely higher education and labor market systems, play an important role in reinforcing the pressure on parents to invest in their children’s education. We review evidence showing that graduating from a prestigious university has very high economic and social returns in Japan and South Korea, and examine the implications for fertility within the framework of quantity–quality models. Finally, we put forward ‘reverse one-child’ policies that directly address the unintended consequences of these institutional factors on fertility. These policies have the additional virtues of having very low fiscal requirements and reducing social inequality.     

Influence of Satisfaction with Services on Assisted Living Resident Satisfaction

The purpose of our investigation was to provide insight into the service domains that most heavily influenced self-reported resident satisfaction among residents in assisted living facilities. Data was gathered from the 2008 Press Ganey Assisted Living Survey. Satisfaction with service domains was measured using 7 subscales addressing the areas of activities, staff attentiveness, meals, apartment space, facility attractiveness, personal issues, and management. Generalized linear mixed models were specified to assess the influence of demographics, functional status, self-rated health, and satisfaction with service domains on resident satisfaction. In the final multivariate model self-rated health, independence with laundry and finances, and satisfaction with aides, meals and management demonstrated a significant positive effect on resident satisfaction. As the number of assisted living facilities continues to increase, senior management would be wise to consider which domains of service are particularly salient in assisted living environments.     

Reexamining the link of early childbearing to Marriage and to subsequent fertillty

Using data from the 1980, 1985, and 1990 Current Population Surveys, we show that the link between early fertility and nonmarital births has become stronger. Women who give birth earlier are increasingly likely to be unmarried. In contrast, we find a weaker association between first births at young (versus older) ages and (1) a rapid pace of subsequent childbearing and (2) higher completed fertility. We discuss possible causes and consequences of these changes.     

Retirement financial preparation:implications for policy

Financial preparation for retirement is key to positive outcomes for future cohorts. Studies suggest that insufficient preparation is occurring among Baby Boomers. Data from community-dwelling adults (N = 1508, ages 40-70) show that most respondents (22-75%) had taken four specific preparation steps, and few reported negative attitudes toward planning. Five correlates (gathering information, locus of control, self-definition as household planner, financial worries, and negative attitudes) and demographic variables tested in bivariate analyses showed most having associations with preparation. In multivariate analyses, however, only two correlates (gathering information and negative planning attitudes) and demographics (race/ethnicity, education, income, health, age, and education) explained planning behavior.     

Is low fertility a twenty-first-century demographic crisis?

Nearly half of the world's population in 2000 lived in countries with fertility rates at or below replacement level, and nearly all countries will reach low fertility levels in the next two decades. Concerns about low fertility, fertility that is well below replacement, are widespread. But there are both persistent rationales for having children and institutional adjustments that can make the widespread intentions for two children attainable, even in increasingly individualistic and egalitarian societies.     

The Efficacy of Different Methods for Informing the Public About the Range Dependency of Magnetic Fields from High Voltage Power Lines

The AC electric and magnetic fields associated with high voltage power lines have become a concern as a possible health risk. In most cases the strength of these fields decreases as the inverse square of the distance from the line. In earlier work, we found that laypeople do not understand how rapidly field strength decreases with distance. Most believe that any high voltage power line they can see is exposing them to strong fields. This paper confirms the earlier finding and explores a number of strategies which might be used in risk communications to correct this misperception. We found it relatively easy to provide subjects with a better understanding of the range-dependency of magnetic field strength. Moreover, the quality of this acquisition was apparently independent of the manner in which they were instructed. Such successful instruction is markedly different from the well-established difficulty of teaching people about many qualitative domains, such as physics or ideas in probability. Clearly, while some erroneous beliefs are highly resistant to change, others can be altered quite readily. We suspect that an important distinction between knowledge about the range-dependency of power-frequency magnetic fields and less tractable topics involves the presence or absence of prior folk-theories or "mental models" of the domain.     

Making Sense of “Quality?” — Toward a Review and Critique of Quality Initiatives in Financial Services

This article provides a broad classification and critique of the theoretical and empirical approaches toward quality initiatives. These are the technical managerialist, social managerialist, and critical nonmanagerialist approaches. The technical managerialist approach is based upon the flawed assumption that practice follows policy almost like night follows day. By contrast, focusing on intraorganizational politics and the tensions of hierarchy, social managerialists recognize that outcomes are always a negotiated compromise. A majority of these authors are concerned with rendering quality initiatives more effective for management. In contrast, critical nonmanagerialists refuse to take on uncritically the assumptions and attitudes of management, and are concerned with understanding the forms and content of quality initiatives. The article provides a conceptual framework for guiding and advancing research on quality initiatives, and it offers themes and issues which warrant exploring.