Grandparenting and Childbearing in the Extended Family

The study analyzes the role of grandparents’ childcare provision on their adult children’s fertility behavior using data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for eleven European countries. An important innovation is that we take into account siblings’ fertility behavior and share of grandparents’ time in terms of childcare. We show that availability of grandparents plays an important role in individuals’ decision of having children. Being helped by grandparents increases the chance of childbearing when existing grandchildren are not too young. On the other hand, the probability of having a child is lower when grandparents are already looking after a sibling’s young child. The role of grandparenting appears stronger in the South of Europe, where public childcare for young children is less prevalent.     

Risk-Based Design of Aseptic Processing of Heterogeneous Food Products

A risk assessment was performed to incorporate uncertainty in food processing conditions to develop a risk-based sterilization process design. The focus of this analysis was uncertainty associated with heterogeneous food products. Quartered button mushrooms were the chosen food product because it represents the most typical type. A model for sterilization of spherical particles was utilized, and each parameter's uncertainty was characterized for use under Monte Carlo simulation. Various particle distributions and fluid types were compared. The output of the model was the required sterilization time to achieve the target sterilization conditions with 95% probability. This value was then used to determine the mean fluid velocity for a given tube length. Finally, the output from the model was analyzed to determine the confidence in output based on uncertainty in the input parameters. The model was more sensitive to variation in particle size distribution than fluid type for power-law fluids. The 90% confidence interval included a holding time range of 1 min. With a 95% confidence level that only 8% of the data will be below the target sterilization conditions, a maximum of 9% of the data were expected to achieve double the target level. The results of such an analysis would be useful for management decisions concerning the design of aseptic food processing operations.     

ANALYSIS OF VECTOR AUTOREGRESSIONS IN THE PRESENCE OF SHIFTS IN MEAN

This paper considers the implications of mean shifts in a multivariate setting. It is shown that under the additive outlier type mean shift specification, the intercept in each equation of the vector autoregression (VAR) will be subject to multiple shifts when the break dates of the mean shifts to the univariate series do not coincide. Conversely, under the innovative outlier type mean shift specification, both the univariate and the multivariate time series are subject to multiple shifts when mean shifts to the innovation processes occur at different dates. We consider two procedures, the first removes the shifts series by series before forming the VAR, and the second removes intercept shifts in the VAR directly. The pros and cons of both methods are discussed.     

Social Class and Adolescents' Beliefs about Justice in Different Social Orders

We report on the justice beliefs of 4508 adolescents from 4 security societies in transition to market economies (i.e., Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Russia) and from 2 opportunity societies (Australia and the United States). Using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), justice beliefs were examined as a function of type of society, social class, and gender. In the security societies, working-class teens wanted the state and schools to provide a safety net, while middle-class teens preferred that schools promote student autonomy and competition but also reported the most negative school climates of any group. In the opportunity societies, working-class youth believed success was based on individual merit, while middle class youth expressed more doubt about this connection .     

Inequality and deprivation within and between groups: An illustration of European union countries

This paper broadens the approach of Hey and Lambert (Q. J. Econ. 95,567–573 1980) regarding relative deprivation to the case in which individuals compare themselves with individuals belonging not only to their own group, but also to other groups. In this way, we obtain the average deprivation of a population in relation to another. This allows us to establish a correspondence between the decomposition of the Gini coefficient based on a partition of the population, and the decomposition of deprivation into two components. One quantifies deprivation within the subpopulation and the other deprivation between populations. An empirical illustration is given, based on the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Government–MCYT, (SEC2001-1668) and would like to thank Jacques Silber and two anonymous referees for their suggestions.     

Exact parametric causal mediation analysis for a binary outcome with a binary mediator

Statistical Methods & Applications - With reference to causal mediation analysis, a parametric expression for natural direct and indirect effects is derived for the setting of a binary outcome...