Impact of the National Minimum Wage on Disabled People

The survey reported here found disparities in the impact of the introduction of the National Minimum Wage on disabled people. These were associated with age, gender, impairment and type of employment setting. The main determinant of whether individuals gained from the NMW was their status as claimants of welfare benefits. We also found evidence that paid hours had been reduced to implement the NMW with no net increase in earnings, possibly to enable people to retain benefits entitlements. We make recommendations about how the anomalies can be tackled. It may be unrealistic to expect the Act to have been implemented fully so soon after it became law and some of the anomalies found may eventually disappear. However, many of the inequalities uncovered by this survey are not addressed by the NMW, specifically those inequalities associated with impairment and gender.     

Objective Bayesian analysis of counting experiments with correlated sources of background

Searches for faint signals in counting experiments are often encountered in particle physics and astrophysics, as well as in other fields. Many problems can be reduced to the case of a model with independent and Poisson-distributed signal and background. Often several background contributions are present at the same time, possibly correlated. We provide the analytic solution of the statistical inference problem of estimating the signal in the presence of multiple backgrounds, in the framework of objective Bayes statistics. The model can be written in the form of a product of a single Poisson distribution with a multinomial distribution. The first is related to the total number of events, whereas the latter describes the fraction of events coming from each individual source. Correlations among different backgrounds can be included in the inference problem by a suitable choice of the priors.     

Volunteering and the strategic value of ignorance

Private provision of public goods often takes place as a war of attrition: individuals wait until someone else volunteers and provides the good. After a certain time period, however, one individual may be randomly selected. If the individuals are uncertain about their cost of provision, but can find out about this cost ahead of the volunteering game, a strategic value is attached to the information, and individuals may prefer not to learn their cost of provision. If the time horizon is sufficiently short, in equilibrium only one individual may acquire information about his cost. For a long time horizon, acquiring information is strictly dominant. The time limit is an important instrument in influencing the efficiency of the volunteering game.     

Note on the accuracy of local population estimates

Mr. Silcock's article will be of interest to all concerned with local population data. It may be useful to supplement it by a brief account of the fuller examination of the local population estimates made in 1951 by the General Register Office, since this covered all 1472 administrative areas in England and Wales and could be made in more detail than was possible for a private investigator.

Any census, of course, provides information not available, at least in such detail, at other times or from other sources, and also serves as a base from which estimates for succeeding years can be derived. In addition, however, the General Register Office takes the opportunity of a census to try and assess the accuracy of the various types of current population estimates made by the Department. In the case of local administrative areas the comparison of actual and expected populations made after the 1931 Census is discussed in the Text Volume of the Registrar General's Statistical Review for 1930 (pages 100-102).     

Understanding the demographic implications of climate change: estimates of localized population predictions under future scenarios of sea-level rise

Significant advances have been made to understand the interrelationship between humans and the environment in recent years, yet research has not produced useful localized estimates that link population forecasts to environmental change. Coarse, static population estimates that have little information on projected growth or spatial variability mask substantial impacts of environmental change on especially vulnerable populations. We estimate that 20 million people in the United States will be affected by sea-level rise by 2030 in selected regions that represent a range of sociodemographic characteristics and corresponding risks of vulnerability. Our results show that the impact of sea-level rise extends beyond the directly impacted counties due to migration networks that link inland and coastal areas and their populations. Substantial rates of population growth and migration are serious considerations for developing mitigation, adaptation, and planning strategies, and for future research on the social, demographic, and political dimensions of climate change.     

Evidence-based treatments for trauma among culturally diverse foster care youth: Treatment retention and outcomes

This study describes the implementation of three evidence-based treatments addressing traumatic stress symptoms within a wraparound foster care program in Illinois. Child–Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress (SPARCS) were implemented with a racially diverse sample of youth ages 3–18 at six agencies. Culturally sensitive adaptations were made to treatment approaches to improve client retention and outcomes. Data analyses revealed no racial differences in retention in the program and no differences in outcomes between minority youth exposed to the intervention and other participants. All three evidence-based treatments were effective in reducing symptoms and improving functioning among minority youth. Implementation issues, including challenges and culturally competent accommodations, are discussed.     

What Shapes Attitudes Toward Paying Taxes? Evidence from Multicultural European Countries*

Objectives. Considerable evidence suggests that enforcement efforts cannot fully explain the high degree of tax compliance. To resolve this puzzle of tax compliance, several researchers have argued that citizens' attitudes toward paying taxes, defined as tax morale, helps to explain the high degree of tax compliance. However, most studies have treated tax morale as a black box, without discussing which factors shape it. Additionally, the tax compliance literature provides little empirical research that investigates attitudes toward paying taxes in Europe. Methods. Thus, this article is unique in its examination of citizen tax morale within three multicultural European countries, Switzerland, Belgium, and Spain, a choice that allows far more detailed examination of the impact of culture and institutions using data sets from the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey. Results. The results indicate the tendency that cultural and regional differences affect tax morale. Conclusion. The findings suggest that higher legitimacy for political institutions leads to higher tax morale.     

A Strategic Approach to Rights: Lessons from Clientelism in Rural Peru

International norms of social, economic and political rights are presented as a means of transforming social relations in developing countries. Yet, when rights norms are introduced into domestic practice, they do not always produce liberal, democratic results. Instead, rights and local practices of clientelism mix. This article examines this political process in rural Peru. Alternatives to clientelism emerge when NGOs and international development agencies forge strategic and selective coalitions between urban middle‐class sectors and the rural poor. This calls for an explicit politics of advancing rights by any means necessary: accepting hybrid forms when inevitable, incorporating excluded groups when possible, and striking alliances that displace traditional elites.     

TARGETING WORKING PROFESSIONALS: A MASTER'S OF ARTS IN GERONTOLOGY

This overview of an online degree programme aims to develop a concrete illustration of an exploding array of courses and programmes. The approach at the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, at the University of Southern California, seeks to address a targeted audience and to build on the special strengths and more unique degree programmes of the University.     

Neighborhood Quality, Environmental Hazards, Personality Traits, and Resident Actions

A survey of 798 New Jersey residents examined relationships among residents' neighborhood activities, perceptions of neighborhood quality, trust of experts, support for rebuilding cities and equal rights, and degree of optimism. Neighborhood activities increased with lack of trust and optimism. These personality characteristic measures were folded into multidimensional constructs that included local environmental hazards, respondents' ratings of their previous neighborhoods, and some demographic variables. Pessimism and values that support equal rights and rebuilding cities were weakly associated with poor quality neighborhood ratings.