Sind leistungsschwache Jugendliche tats?chlich nicht ausbildungsf?hig?

For several years, there is an increasing discussion in Germany that youths are less and less ready for vocational training. According to these reports that have been published by employers?? representatives, there exists a relatively high share of youths whose cognitive competencies are too low to be successfully integrated into the German dual training system. Our article aims at investigating the maturity of youths with low cognitive competencies in a longitudinal design for Switzerland. The Swiss educational system resembles the German educational system in various main aspects and PISA has shown that the share of pupils with low competencies is comparably high in both countries. For our empirical analyses, we will use youth panel data from the Swiss TREE study which allows us to identify youths with low cognitive competencies and to follow their training trajectories after finishing compulsory schooling. Our results show that in the German neighbour Switzerland also youths with low competencies can be successfully integreated into the vocational training system. In contrast to Germany, the Swiss system thus is far more successful in offering also academically weak youths to obtain vocational training.     

Social networks and HIV/AIDS risk perceptions

Understanding the determinants of individuals' perceptions of their risk of becoming infected with HIV and their perceptions of acceptable strategies of prevention is an essential step toward curtailing the spread of this disease. We focus in this article on learning and decision-making about AIDS in the context of high uncertainty about the disease and appropriate behavioral responses. We argue that social interactions are important for both. Using longitudinal survey data from rural Kenya and Malawi, we test this hypothesis. We investigate whether social interactions--and especially the extent to which social network partners perceive themselves to be at risk--exert causal influences on respondents' risk perceptions and on one approach to prevention, spousal communication about the threat of AIDS to the couple and their children. The study explicitly allows for the possibility that important characteristics, such as unobserved preferences or community characteristics, determine not only the outcomes of interest but also the size and composition of networks. The most important empirical result is that social networks have significant and substantial effects on risk perceptions and the adoption of new behaviors even after we control for unobserved factors.     

On the role of families and kinship networks in pre-industrial agricultural societies: An analysis of the 1698 Slavonian census

This paper uses the 1698 Slavonian census to illuminate features of social organization and productive activity of an eastern European population under the New Feudalism of the 17th century. In particular we investigate the ability of community or kinship networks to provide substitutes for missing markets in securities and production factors. It is found that kinship networks increase the efficiency of agricultural production by facilitating the exchange of oxen. This confirms contemporary reports that draft animals were the critical constraint to the expansion of agricultural output. We also find that kinship networks fail to reduce the variability of output through mutual harvest insurance. Received: 03 November 1998/Accepted: 16 June 1999     

Die Wahl der Soziologie als Studienfach

Sociology is one of the fields of study with the highest dropout rates. How can this be explained? Using data on students of sociology at the University of Bamberg, the authors examine three aspects of the decision making process for this subject: (1) the information gathering strategy of prospective studens, (2) the timing aspect of the decision process, and (3) the consideration of labour market issues. Based on rational choice theory, it is shown that on the one hand the problems erst upon the subject itself, since sociology is not enough professionalized and still not clear-cut enough towards specific occupational fields. On the other hand, the information gathering process of prospective students is often insufficient and there is too little consideration of the labour market aspects of the subject. Finally, the decision is often hastily made, which is also caused by the fact that for many students of sociology this subjectwas not their “first choice”.     

Is Fertility Behavior in Our Genes? Findings from a Danish Twin Study

This article investigates the fertility of Danish twins born during the periods 1870–1910 and 1953–64 in order to pursue two central questions for understanding human reproduction: Do genetic dispositions influence fertility and fertility-related behavior? Does the relevance of the “nature versus nurture” debate shift over time or with demographic regimes? The authors find that genetic influences on fertility exist, but that their relative magnitude and pattern are contingent on gender and on the socioeconomic environment experienced by cohorts. Among females born in 1880–90 and after 1955, about 30–50 percent of the variance in fertility is due to genetic influences; these influences are substantially smaller for earlier and for interim birth cohorts. Male fertility is generally subject to smaller genetic and larger shared-environment effects than female fertility. Because genetic effects are most prevalent in situations with deliberately controlled fertility and relatively egalitarian socioeconomic opportunities, the authors propose that the genetic dispositions affect primarily fertility behavior and motivations for having children. Analyses of fertility motivations, measured by age of first attempt to have a child, support this interpretation.     

Learning in social networks and contraceptive choice

A puzzling observation in the diffusion of modern fertility control is the persistent diversity in contraceptive practices across communities or social strata. I propose a model of “learning in social networks” to explain this diversity with the random dynamics of word-of-mouth communication. Women are uncertain about the merits of modern contraception and estimate the different qualities of available methods based on imprecise information from network partners. Their contraceptive choices are determined by this estimate and by private knowledge about one s personal characteristics. This process of social learning leads to path-dependent adoption of fertility control within, and diversity in contraceptive practices across villages or social strata.     

The Emergence of Lowest‐Low Fertility in Europe During the 1990s

Lowest‐low fertility, defined as a period total fertility rate at or below 1.3, has rapidly spread in Europe during the 1990s. This article traces the emergence of this new phenomenon to the interaction of five factors. First, tempo and compositional distortions reduce the total fertility rate below the associated level of cohort fertility. Second, socioeconomic changes—including increased returns to human capital and high economic uncertainty in early adulthood—have made late childbearing a rational response for individuals and couples. Third, social interaction effects reinforce this behavioral adjustment and contribute to large and persistent postponement in the mean age at birth. Fourth, institutional settings favor an overall low quantum of fertility. Fifth, postponement–quantum interactions amplify the consequences of this institutional setting when combined with ongoing delays of child‐bearing. The article concludes with speculations about future trends in current and prospective lowest‐low‐fertility countries.