Identifying health inequalities between Māori and non‐Māori using mortality tables

Abstract

While there is a need for more detailed information on health inequality to guide public health policy, the most complete and easily available data remain those in mortality tables. We investigate, via a comparative analysis of data from New Zealand on Māori and non‐Māori mortality, whether more detailed information than raw life expectancy may be extracted from the mortality tables. Given a parametric distribution for the mortality capable of fitting irregularities in mortality table data, the curvature of the survival and hazard rates can identify changes in mortality rates, such as infant and late‐life adult mortality, which allows for straightforward comparisons between the two sub‐populations. Our results identify an exogenous effect in earlier mortality among Maori, which correlates well with many published observations of health and health‐care inequalities between Māori and non‐Māori. This “proof of concept” for our method of analysis indicates that examination of bulk data such as those in mortality tables has a potential role in the design of more detailed studies involving causes of mortality.     

Comparing advertising and editorials: An experimental study in TV and print

Publicity represents one of the most visible elements of public relations and as such draws a lot of attention from both within and outside the profession. Public relations practitioners seem to rely on the concept that news in the media has a superior value to advertising, if both messages are similar in content. This study aimed to establish the relationship between advertising and news editorials in terms of communication effects. Since public relations specialists claim that editorials are more credible and have greater impact than advertising it is clear how the results of this study could have potentially important implications for both advertising and public relations professionals.     

Towards the strategies of modern societies: systems and social processes

While several sociological theories have traditionally dealt with rational action by human actors, little attention has been devoted to the possibilities for rational steering of the entire subsystems of functionally differentiated modern societies in the context of their increasing complexity. Although rational intentional action is clearly limited at the macro-level by the complexity emphasized by Luhmann's social systems theory, strategies are required to approach the normative ideal of active society as defined by Etzioni. Understanding the strategic processes requires micro–macro and agency–structure connections. A possible solution to understanding strategy as a social process in this respect is found in the adaptation of the three-level – individuality, reality and totality – approach of Sztompka's theory of social becoming.     

Let's meet up! The role of relational goods in promoting cooperation

The present paper draws on data collected through a Traveler's Dilemma experiment where the possibility of consuming relational goods is introduced by allowing (or forcing) agents to meet after the experiment. It enriches the literature on social distance by comparing the effect of its reduction when it is a voluntary subject's choice and when it is compulsory.We show that the existing interpretations of the effect of social distance reduction cannot explain the differences in agents’ behavior across our experimental treatments. This allows us to give to the theory of social distance an original interpretation based on the concept of relational goods where the possibility to consume relational goods promotes non-selfish behavior.     

A use of second-order co-orientation model in international public relations

This paper is an extension of a line of research that questions the possibility of applying the co-orientation theory in researching the communication behavior between “general” publics of nations. Here we included three nations, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia and questioned publics’ opinions on investment policies between mentioned nations. We extended the notion of co-orientation in international relations to include not only evaluations of two countries’ attitudes towards a third country, but also evaluations of opinions the two countries have between themselves (and to which the first is only an observer). We called it the second-order co-orientation. So far accuracy has been seen as the right objective for public relations using co-orientation. Our results question centrality of accuracy as the key performance indicator of effectiveness of public relations programs in the context of co-orientation model.     

Negotiating masculinity in informal paid care work

The theorisation of informal care markets from the perspective of global care chains focuses on the feminisation and racialisation of the field. Some recent research does, however, also discuss male migrant care workers, while national male care workers in informal care markets remain overlooked. The entrance of men into such an extremely feminised and racialised field as care work in private homes represents a challenge to masculinity. If the vulnerable and subordinate position of migrant men in European labour markets provides an explanation for their gender-untraditional choice of work, this, however, does not explain what drives national men into the informal care market, nor how they negotiate their masculinity. Drawing on individual interviews, the article explores how national male care workers in child and elder care in Slovenia employ a strategy of professionalisation and a vision of care entrepreneurship in order to distance themselves from the feminised and racialised norms and practices of care work. How their inclusion in informal care markets might reinforce gendered and radicalised hierarchies in care work is also analysed. Nevertheless, the interview data also indicate that the informal care market represents an arena for doing alternative masculinities that transgress the stereotypical, racialised construction of men in care work.     

The impact of internal communication satisfaction dimensions on job satisfaction dimensions and the moderating role of LMX

This paper presents the results of the research on the predictive role of internal communication satisfaction dimensions on job satisfaction dimensions of middle managers from 131 companies in Serbia and the moderating influence of the leader member exchange relationship between middle managers and their supervisors (LMX) on that role. The research has shown that some internal communication satisfaction dimensions have statistically positive impact on job satisfaction dimensions and the moderating effect of LMX has also been noticed.     

Delinquent Networks

Delinquents are embedded in a network of relationships. Each delinquent decides in a non‐cooperative way how much delinquency effort he will exert. We characterize the Nash equilibrium and derive an optimal enforcement policy, called the key‐player policy. We then extend our characterization of optimal single player network removal to optimal group removal, the key group. We also characterize and derive a policy that targets links rather than players. Finally, we endogenize the network connecting delinquents by allowing players to join the labor market instead of committing delinquent offenses. The key‐player policy turns out to be much more complex because it depends on wages and on the structure of the network. (JEL: A14, C72, K42, L14)