The development of social statistics and indicators on the status of women

In developing social statistics and indicators on the status of women, three requirements must be satisfied. First, existing measures of prevalent demographic, socio-economic, and socio-cultural conditions must be more fully utilized. Second, some improvements in these measures, together with certain new measures and data sets are needed. Finally, agreed standards of comparison for gauging the relative status of women must be established. In each of the above subject-areas, some widely available statistics and derived measures are examined with respect to their adequacy for describing women's living conditions and assessing their status. Proposals are then offered for additional measures and new data collection efforts designed to reduce the deficiencies or gaps in existing data and provide a sounder basis for assessing the status of women in different societies.     

Effects of migration on social change in the country of origin

This paper analyzes the consequences of migration for European countries of origin with a view to suggesting policies to resolve the difficulties of achieving equilibrium in balance of payments, regional development, increasing employment, reducing unemployment and inflation, raising productivity, and increasing the gross national product. Migratory flows are generally organized to meet immediate needs and solve latent socioeconomic tensions. Initially, the benefits for the 2 sets of countries (origin and destination) are considerable. Countries of origin manage to solve major problems in the areas of employment, undertake social and political efforts, and achieve equilibrium in the balance of payments through receiving remittances, which also contribute to the economic development of the regions of departure. For their part, receiving countries have reduced the shortage of cheap labor, a fact which, especially during the post-war recovery period, was instrumental in the recovery of their economies and the increased creation of wealth. From the demographic standpoint, many people have been deserting rural areas and there has been an increase in the aging of the population, with the resulting socioeconomic consequences. Emigration has also spread to women (family reunification), which in turn has led to a steeper decline in birth rates and made economic and social projections more difficult to assess. Social consequences have become obvious, emigration flows have led to a change of values and thus created a veritable cultural breach and disruption of rural societies. From the standpoint of employment, expectations have also been thwarted; despite their enormous experience, returning workers do not possess a high level of vocational training. For countries of origin, migratory trends may have some beneficial demographic, social, and economic effects if returns are carefully planned, prepared, conducted, and supported. There should be a considerable strengthening of relations between countries, effective cooperation and solidarity, and a shouldering of joint responsibility so as to define the correct policies for harmonious and more balanced world economic development.     

Poverty Among The Elderly: An Application of a Collective Consumption Model in Brazil

Social Indicators Research - The growth of the elderly population and changes in household composition raise important questions regarding the level of well-being of the elderly in developing...     

Infant‐directed speech to infants at risk for dyslexia: A novel cross‐dyad design

When mothers speak to infants at risk for developmental dyslexia, they do not hyperarticulate vowels in their infant‐directed speech (IDS). Here, we used an innovative cross‐dyad design to investigate whether the absence of vowel hyperarticulation in IDS to at‐risk infants is a product of maternal infant‐directed behavior or of infants’ parent‐directed cues. Interactions between mothers and infants who were at risk or not at risk for dyslexia were recorded in three conditions: when mothers interacted with (a) their own infants, (b) infants who were not their own but of the same risk status, and (c) infants who were not their own and of the opposite risk status. This design revealed both infant and parent effects. Mothers of not‐at‐risk infants hyperarticulated vowels significantly more when speaking to not‐at‐risk than to at‐risk infants. In contrast, mothers of at‐risk infants hyperarticulated vowels significantly less than NAR mothers, and this was irrespective of infant status. Mothers of not‐at‐risk infants thus adjusted their IDS to the infant's risk status, while mothers of at‐risk infants did not. We suggest that IDS is determined reciprocally by characteristics of both partners in the dyad: Both infant and maternal factors are essential for the vowel hyperarticulation component of IDS.     

How to choose a non-controversial list with k names

Barberà and Coelho (WP 264, CREA-Barcelona Economics, 2007) documented six screening rules associated with the rule of k names that are used by diferent institutions around the world. Here, we study whether these screening rules satisfy stability. A set is said to be a weak Condorcet set à la Gehrlein (Math Soc Sci 10:199–209) if no candidate in this set can be defeated by any candidate from outside the set on the basis of simple majority rule. We say that a screening rule is stable if it always selects a weak Condorcet set whenever such set exists. We show that all of the six procedures which are used in reality do violate stability if the voters do not act strategically. We then show that there are screening rules which satisfy stability. Finally, we provide two results that can explain the widespread use of unstable screening rules.