La dimension économique de la législation protectrice de l'emploi,y compris sous ses modalités différentes: analyse sur un panel de 117 pays, 1990–2013

Les auteurs replacent l'évolution de la législation protectrice de l'emploi (y compris de durée déterminée, intérimaire et à temps partiel) dans une perspective économique en utilisant un indice de la rigueur de la réglementation établi par le Centre for Business Research de l'Université de Cambridge pour 117 pays (1970–2013). L'analyse économétrique repose sur des méthodes pour données de panel non stationnaires. Elle fait apparaître un renforcement de la protection, associé à une hausse de la part salariale dans le revenu national, une progression des taux d'activité et d'emploi et une baisse du chômage, des relations qui restent faibles cependant au regard de la tendance économique globale.     

Reflections on Joan Acker's influence on us and on her legacy: A dialogue

In reflecting on Joan Acker's legacy and her influence on us, we had the dialogue we reproduce here. We hope it shows our admiration and gratitude for her work.     

Neither real nor fictitious but ‘as if real'? A political ontology of the state

The state is one of series of concepts (capitalism, patriarchy and class being others) which pose a particular kind of ontological difficulty and provoke a particular kind of ontological controversy – for it is far from self‐evident that the object or entity to which they refer is in any obvious sense ‘real’. In this paper I make the case for developing a distinct political ontology of the state which builds from such a reflection. In the process, I argue that the state is neither real nor fictitious, but ‘as if real’ – a conceptual abstraction whose value is best seen as an open analytical question. Thus understood, the state possesses no agency per se though it serves to define and construct a series of contexts within which political agency is both authorized (in the name of the state) and enacted (by those thereby authorized). The state is thus revealed as a dynamic institutional complex whose unity is at best partial, the constantly evolving outcome of unifying tendencies and dis‐unifying counter‐tendencies.     

Utility values in health technology assessments: a statistician's perspective

This paper provides an introduction to utilities for statisticians working mainly in clinical research who have not had experience of health technology assessment work. Utility is the numeric valuation applied to a health state based on the preference of being in that state relative to perfect health. Utilities are often combined with survival data in health economic modelling to obtain quality‐adjusted life years. There are several methods available for deriving the preference weights and the health states to which they are applied, and combining them to estimate utilities, and the clinical statistician has valuable skills that can be applied in ensuring the robustness of the trial design, data collection and analyses to obtain and handle this data. In addition to raising awareness of the subject and providing source references, the paper outlines the concepts and approaches around utilities using examples, discusses some of the key issues, and proposes areas where statisticians can collaborate with health economic colleagues to improve the quality of this important element of health technology assessment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive penalized quantile regression for high dimensional data

We propose a new adaptive L₁ penalized quantile regression estimator for high-dimensional sparse regression models with heterogeneous error sequences. We show that under weaker conditions compared with alternative procedures, the adaptive L₁ quantile regression selects the true underlying model with probability converging to one, and the unique estimates of nonzero coefficients it provides have the same asymptotic normal distribution as the quantile estimator which uses only the covariates with non-zero impact on the response. Thus, the adaptive L₁ quantile regression enjoys oracle properties. We propose a completely data driven choice of the penalty level _λn${\lambda }_n$, which ensures good performance of the adaptive L₁ quantile regression. Extensive Monte Carlo simulation studies have been conducted to demonstrate the finite sample performance of the proposed method.     

FATHERS TAKING PARENTAL LEAVE AND THEIR INVOLVEMENT WITH CHILDREN

Parental leave has been promoted as a way to enhance employed fathers’ involvement with their children. Leave patterns, factors affecting these patterns and the impact of taking leave on involvement with children were assessed for fathers in 38 couples. Parents, contacted through their employers, completed self-administered questionnaires on their work schedule changes after the arrival of a baby, reactions to these changes, childcare activities and attitudes. The mother's and father's assessments in each couple were averaged to measure 21 different aspects of fathers’ involvement. Fathers who took leave were more likely to share some specific childcare tasks with mothers than fathers who did not take leave but no differences were found for time spent with children or taking responsibility for childcare. Parents’ equalitarian beliefs, income and education had more impact than taking leave on fathers’ overall involvement in childcare.

Se ha promovido La Licencia de Paternidad como una forma para ayudar a los padres que están empleados a involucrarse con sus hijos. Los patrones de estas licencias, los factores que afectan estos patrones, y el impacto que tiene esta licencia en las relaciones con los niños fueron evaluadas por los padres en 38 parejas. Los padres, contactados por sus empleadores, completaron cuestionarios sobre los cambios en sus horarios de trabajo después de la llegada del bebé, las reacciones a esos cambios, actividades para el cuidado del niño, y sus actitudes. Se hizo un promedio midiendo los 21 diferentes aspectos del involucro de los padres presentado en las evaluaciones hechas por la madre y el padre en cada pareja. Los padres que tomaron licencia de paternidad, generalmente compartieron con la madre algunos aspectos específicos para el cuidado del niño a diferencia de los padres que no tomaron la licencia, pero no se encontraron diferencias sobre el tiempo empleado con los niños o en las responsabilidades del cuidado de los mismos. En general, las creencias sobre la igualdad, la situación económica y la educación de los padres, tuvo más impacto que el involucrarse totalmente en el cuidado de los niños de los padres con licencia de paternidad.     

Forum introduction

This piece is an abstract to a commentary section on Alexander Wendt's (2015) book, Quantum mind and social science : unifying physical and social ontology. In this book, Wendt, one of the core theorists of constructivism in international relations, undertakes a bold new initiative in grand theorizing. The commentators, followed by Wendt's own response to them, analyze this new direction from a number of angles.