The Social and Economic Underpinning of Paternalism and Violence on the Maize Farms of the South-Western Transvaal, 1900–1950*

Abstract All social systems - including highly repressive ones - manifest features of accommodation as well as those of coercion. These are often seen as discrete entities and, in the case of modern South Africa, the pervasiveness of racial oppression has given rise to a literature which fails to explore more accommodatory ideologies and social practices such as paternalism. In this essay it is argued that paternalism and violence are not necessarily exclusive phenomena. Indeed, it is suggested that the very presence of paternalistic relationships can - at various historic junctures - exacerbate the propensity to violence.     

Global cities in Global Commodity Chains: exploring the role of Mexico City in the geography of global economic governance

In this article I assert that global cities are critical nodes in Global Commodity Chains because it is from them that producer services are provided. I explore forward linkages of producer service firms in Mexico City, showing that there are important service flows to companies responsible for the globalization of the 'Mexican' economy. Based on this finding I also indicate reasons why Mexico City is 'on the map' of global cities and of Global Commodity Chains. I argue that both access to local knowledge and close contact to clients are key factors. A third issue dealt with is the position of Mexico City in the geography of governance of commodity chains. The analysis suggests that it is useful to break up global city functions into the management of the world economy and into its command and control, because Mexico City is certainly a place for the former, while the scope of influence exercised from the city is rather limited.     

Estimating the Period of a Cyclic Non‐Homogeneous Poisson Process

Abstract. Motivated by applications of Poisson processes for modelling periodic time‐varying phenomena, we study a semi‐parametric estimator of the period of cyclic intensity function of a non‐homogeneous Poisson process. There are no parametric assumptions on the intensity function which is treated as an infinite dimensional nuisance parameter. We propose a new family of estimators for the period of the intensity function, address the identifiability and consistency issues and present simulations which demonstrate good performance of the proposed estimation procedure in practice. We compare our method to competing methods on synthetic data and apply it to a real data set from a call center.     

Religious differentials in infant and child mortality in Holland, 1855–1912

At least three kinds of hypothesis may be invoked to interpret religious differentials in mortality. They are (i) hypotheses that refer to characteristics, (ii) those that refer to lifestyle, and (iii) those that refer to the social isolation of minorities. This paper tests all three kinds of hypothesis using data on urban child mortality from The Hague just before and during the demographic transition. A hazard analysis suggests that economic and demographic characteristics do not account for much of the variation by religion. An analysis of seasonal mortality suggests that some of the variation may be explained by differences in lifestyle. The third kind of hypothesis is presented here for the first time. We suggest that the social isolation of small religious groups lowered their exposure to certain kinds of infectious disease. We use a simulation study to show that this hypothesis could account for part of the variation.     

Empirical Likelihood for Non-Smooth Criterion Functions

Abstract.  Suppose that X ₁ ,…,  X _n is a sequence of independent random vectors, identically distributed as a d -dimensional random vector X . Let     be a parameter of interest and     be some nuisance parameter. The unknown, true parameters ( μ ₀ , ν ₀ ) are uniquely determined by the system of equations E { g ( X , μ ₀ , ν ₀ )} =   0 , where g  =  ( g ₁ ,…, g _{p + q} ) is a vector of p + q functions. In this paper we develop an empirical likelihood (EL) method to do inference for the parameter μ ₀ . The results in this paper are valid under very mild conditions on the vector of criterion functions g . In particular, we do not require that g ₁ ,…, g _{p + q} are smooth in μ or ν . This offers the advantage that the criterion function may involve indicators, which are encountered when considering, e.g. differences of quantiles, copulas, ROC curves, to mention just a few examples. We prove the asymptotic limit of the empirical log-likelihood ratio, and carry out a small simulation study to test the performance of the proposed EL method for small samples.     

Beyond control? The mechanics and dynamics of ‘informal’ remittances between Europe and Africa

Abstract Policy making usually assumes that the best way to harness migrant remittances for development is by shifting them into the regulated money transfer sector. However, much research evidence concludes that alternative methods are often cheaper and more reliable, accessible and convenient. In this article, we explore this tension between policy objectives and evidence. Based on a review of remittance mechanisms in seven sub‐Saharan African countries, we question the validity of the distinction between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ remittances. We conclude that the formalization of remittance systems should not be approached as a regulatory task carried out from the top down, but as a bottom‐up evolutionary and organic process that should be encouraged. We suggest that the current regulatory thrust in this area is likely to be counterproductive, since it risks undermining the many vibrant institutions emerging through the movement of migrants and their money, together with their potential to enhance much needed economic and social development.     

Parametric Estimation for Subordinators and Induced OU Processes

Abstract.  Consider a stationary sequence of random variables with infinitely divisible marginal law, characterized by its Lévy density. We analyse the behaviour of a so-called cumulant M-estimator, in case this Lévy density is characterized by a Euclidean (finite dimensional) parameter. Under mild conditions, we prove consistency and asymptotic normality of the estimator. The estimator is considered in the situation where the data are increments of a subordinator as well as the situation where the data consist of a discretely sampled Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) process induced by the subordinator. We illustrate our results for the Gamma-process and the Inverse-Gaussian OU process. For these processes we also explain how the estimator can be computed numerically.