Modelling work history patterns in the Italian labour market

We focus on work histories of new entrants in 1998 in the Italian labour market. For workers in the private sector, we define a standard and three non-standard history patterns. We profile the workers through a mixed-effect multinomial logit model and show that certain features may be associated with the probability of belonging to one or the other category. Furthermore, we show that there are differential effects on wages associated with non-standard patterns. A closer look at best performing non-standard workers shows that even for them an early contractual stabilization may not always be expected.     

Using the RE‐AIM framework to identify and describe best practice models in family‐based intervention development: A systematic review

The family unit carries with it a responsibility of possibly being the most important predictor of positive child development. The aim of this systematic review is to identify and describe best practice models or processes in family‐based intervention development. The following databases were included in the review: PsychArticles, Academic Search Complete, ERIC, SocIndex, Sage, Sabinet, and Pubmed. Peer‐reviewed, English language, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods in nature conducted within the last 10 years. Interventions were required to include families as part of the programme as well as describe the model or process used in intervention development. Two self‐developed data extraction tables were developed for this review. The articles included for review were heterogeneous in terms of the outcomes, and so a narrative synthesis was used. After yielding an initial search of 400 studies, 28 articles were finally included for extraction and analysis with varying levels of intervention strength. Interventions are further described in terms of reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance dimensions. A feasible intervention appears to be one that is flexible, engages processes to recruit those who are most at‐risk and is facilitated by someone known to or from the same community as the participants, can retain its participants, and can be evaluated with the same participants at a minimum of 6 months later.     

Effectiveness of the International Child Development Programme: Results from a randomized controlled trial

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the International Child Development Programme (ICDP), a group-based parenting programme used internationally and implemented nationally in Norway. We used a cluster randomized controlled trial in which 81 groups were randomly assigned to either the intervention or waitlist control condition after the baseline data collection. A total of 590 parents completed at least one of three questionnaires (administrated before and after ICDP and 4 months after completing the intervention). Primary outcomes included parental self-efficacy, parental emotion sensitivity and positive involvement with their child. Secondary outcomes included parents' perceptions of their relationship with the child, child-rearing conflicts and the child's psychosocial health. We found significant effects favouring the intervention arm following the intervention and at follow-up on two primary outcomes (parental self-efficacy and emotion sensitivity). For the secondary outcomes, we found a significant reduction in child-rearing conflict at the 4-month follow-up, increased closeness to the child, reduced child internalizing difficulties and increased prosocial behaviour immediately following the intervention. However, ICDP seems to have limited effects on parent-reported changes in children. We conclude that ICDP as a universal preventive programme offered to parents in groups can be effective in strengthening parental self-efficacy and improving parental emotion sensitivity.     

Estimation of multivariate conditional-tail-expectation using Kendall's process

This paper deals with the problem of estimating the multivariate version of the Conditional-Tail-Expectation, proposed by Di Bernardino et al. [(2013), ‘Plug-in Estimation of Level Sets in a Non-Compact Setting with Applications in Multivariable Risk Theory’, ESAIM: Probability and Statistics, (17), 236–256]. We propose a new nonparametric estimator for this multivariate risk-measure, which is essentially based on Kendall's process [Genest and Rivest, (1993), ‘Statistical Inference Procedures for Bivariate Archimedean Copulas’, Journal of American Statistical Association, 88(423), 1034–1043]. Using the central limit theorem for Kendall's process, proved by Barbe et al. [(1996), ‘On Kendall's Process’, Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 58(2), 197–229], we provide a functional central limit theorem for our estimator. We illustrate the practical properties of our nonparametric estimator on simulations and on two real test cases. We also propose a comparison study with the level sets-based estimator introduced in Di Bernardino et al. [(2013), ‘Plug-In Estimation of Level Sets in A Non-Compact Setting with Applications in Multivariable Risk Theory’, ESAIM: Probability and Statistics, (17), 236–256] and with (semi-)parametric approaches.     

Measuring Socio-Demographic Differences in Volunteers with a Value-Based Index: Illustration in a Mega Event

The phenomenon of volunteering can be analysed as a consumer experience through the concept of value as a trade-off between benefits and costs. In event volunteering, both the expected value (pre-experienced) and the perceived value (post-experienced) of volunteering can be assessed. With this purpose, an online quantitative survey is conducted with a sample of 711 volunteers in a religious mega event, with questions related to five dimensions of their experience: efficiency, social value, play, spirituality and time spent. These five scales, properly tested are used for building a multidimensional index of both the expected and perceived value of the volunteer experience. ANOVAs test show significant differences on the index in both moments upon the socio-demographic profiles: negative expectations/experience balance by age, contrasted results by sex, and more experienced volunteers being more critical with the value experienced. Implications for event managers are proposed, in line with the motivation of volunteers.     

Profiling Donors of Blood,Money, and Time

Understanding donor profiles is crucial for donor relationship management. Whereas previous research has focused on profiling blood, money, or time donor segments separately, we define seven donor profiles based on their former donation behavior for blood, money, and time donation and compare them to non‐donors. Relying on representative data from the German Socio Economic Panel, we use an extensive set of characteristics that include sociodemographic, psychographic, health‐related, and geographical measures and simultaneously investigate profiles of donors for single and multiple donation forms and non‐donors by means of a multinomial logistic model. Our results reveal valuable insights for donor acquisition and retention strategies of nonprofit organizations along the identified profiling characteristics of donor segments. By this, our findings help nonprofit organization managers to better target single and multiple donors across three donation forms.     

Using mixtures in seemingly unrelated linear regression models with non-normal errors

Seemingly unrelated linear regression models are introduced in which the distribution of the errors is a finite mixture of Gaussian distributions. Identifiability conditions are provided. The score vector and the Hessian matrix are derived. Parameter estimation is performed using the maximum likelihood method and an Expectation–Maximisation algorithm is developed. The usefulness of the proposed methods and a numerical evaluation of their properties are illustrated through the analysis of simulated and real datasets.     

Changes in the Satisfaction of Cohabitors Relative to Spouses Over Time

Family scholars have noted a gap in the subjective well‐being of cohabitors relative to spouses and have hypothesized that the size of this “cohabitation gap” varies depending on how far cohabitation has diffused in a society. For the first time we test this hypothesis across time in a single country, Italy, by analyzing 20 cross‐sectional, nationally representative surveys collected from 1993 to 2013 by the Italian Institute of Statistics (N = 279,190 partnered young adults). We find that differences in the assessments of family satisfaction between cohabitors and spouses have eroded over the years and that there has been no detectable cohabitation gap since 2011. In addition, we illustrate that the weakening of the cohabitation gap is attributable to the diffusion of cohabiting unions in Italian society.     

Social Services for Children At Risk: The Impact on the Quality of Life

Social Indicators Research -