Longitudinal analysis of personal networks. The case of Argentinean migrants in Spain

This paper discusses and illustrates various approaches for the longitudinal analysis of personal networks (multilevel analysis, regression analysis, and SIENA). We combined the different types of analyses in a study of the changing personal networks of immigrants. Data were obtained from 25 Argentineans in Spain, who were interviewed twice in a 2-year interval. Qualitative interviews were used to estimate the amount of measurement error and to isolate important predictors. Quantitative analyses showed that the persistence of ties was explained by tie strength, network density, and alters’ country of origin and residence. Furthermore, transitivity appeared to be an important tendency, both for acquiring new contacts and for the relationships among alters. At the network level, immigrants’ networks were remarkably stable in composition and structure despite the high turnover. Clustered graphs have been used to illustrate the results. The results are discussed in light of adaptation to the host society.     

ROC curve and covariates: extending induced methodology to the non-parametric framework

Continuous diagnostic tests are often used to discriminate between diseased and healthy populations. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a widely used tool that provides a graphical visualisation of the effectiveness of such tests. The potential performance of the tests in terms of distinguishing diseased from healthy people may be strongly influenced by covariates, and a variety of regression methods for adjusting ROC curves has been developed. Until now, these methodologies have assumed that covariate effects have parametric forms, but in this paper we extend the induced methodology by allowing for arbitrary non-parametric effects of a continuous covariate. To this end, local polynomial kernel smoothers are used in the estimation procedure. Our method allows for covariate effect not only on the mean, but also on the variance of the diagnostic test. We also present a bootstrap-based method for testing for a significant covariate effect on the ROC curve. To illustrate the method, endocrine data were analysed with the aim of assessing the performance of anthropometry for predicting clusters of cardiovascular risk factors in an adult population in Galicia (NW Spain), duly adjusted for age. The proposed methodology has proved useful for providing age-specific thresholds for anthropometric measures in the Galician community.     

Lorenz undominated allocations for TU-games: The weighted Coalitional Lorenz Solutions

In this paper we introduce and study the w-Coalitional Lorenz Solutions to identify the similarities and differences between the prenucleolus and the Shapley value. The similarity is that they both use egalitarian criteria over coalitions. The two main differences are: the prenucleolus and the Shapley value use different egalitarian criteria, and they weight the coalitions differently when applying the criteria. Received: 27 October 2000/Accepted: 2 October 2001     

An Analysis of the Relationship between Environmental Motivations and ISO14001 Certification

The objectives of this paper are both to identify the environmental motivations associated with the decision to initiate the process for ISO14001 certification and to check whether such motivations undergo any changes once the company obtains its certification and experiences the actual effects of this process. Based on the work of Bansal and Roth, we distinguish between ethical, competitive and relational motivations, and compare the importance of these motivations in four company stages with respect to the ISO14001 certification: not considered, considered, in process and awarded. This comparison was performed through a logit analysis applied over the data supplied by 184 Spanish manufacturers from three different industrial sectors. It was concluded that the decision to pursue the ISO14001 certification responds to ethical and competitive motivations, and that once the company gets its certification, the company portfolio of environmental motivations does not change significantly.     

UNILINGUAL VERSUS BILINGUAL EDUCATION: A POLITICAL ECONOMY ANALYSIS

We consider an economy with two language groups, where only agents who share a language can produce together. Schooling enhances the productivity of students. Individuals attending a unilingual school end up speaking the language of instruction only, whereas bilingual schools render individuals bilingual atthe same cost. The politically dominant group (not necessarily the majority) chooses the type(s) of schools accessible to each language group, and then individuals decide whethertoattend school. Weshow that the dominant either choose laissez‐faireor restrict access to schools in the language of the dominated. Instead, the dominated favour the use of their own language. Thus, although agents do not derive utility from speaking their mother tongue, language conflicts of the expected type endogenously arise. Democracy (majority rule) always leads to the implementation of a socially optimal education system, whereas restrictions to the use of the language of the dominated are implemented too often under minority rule. The model is consistent with evidence from Belgium, France, and Finland. (JEL: I2, J15)     

ON THE IMPUTATION OF RENTAL PRICES TO OWNER‐OCCUPIED HOUSING

This paper challenges the usual objections to the possibility of applying the rental equivalent approach to determine the weight that nonrental housing services should have in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Using data from two Spanish household budget surveys, it is shown that market rents can be well represented in terms of an index of housing quality, two geographical variables, and the year of occupancy. This parsimonious empirical model is used to impute a rental value to nonrental housing units, taking into account the possible selection bias induced by systematic differences in housing characteristics between the market rental sector and the nonrental stock. On average, the estimated hedonic values are relatively close to the self‐imputations provided in the household surveys by the occupants of such dwellings. Therefore, using either of the two alternatives to assess the importance of nonrental housing services in the CPI have small consequences for inflation. Instead, dropping these services from the CPI creates a downward bias in the measurement of inflation of 0.33 percentage points per year during 1985–1992, and an upward bias of 0.38 percentage points per year during 1993 to 2000. (JEL: C43, D12, R21, C21, E31)     

The Impact of Social Expenditure on Attitudes Towards Immigration in Europe

There is a growing body of literature dealing with the causes behind anti-immigrant sentiment and xenophobia. Based on the literature on the fiscal burden model, this paper contends that the differences in attitudes toward immigration, between low and high statuses, can be explained by the size of the welfare state. We argue that the impact of socio-economic status on attitudes toward immigration is larger in countries where social expenditure is high. Since a potential increase in the number of welfare recipients due to new immigrants might lead to a reduction in per capita transfers, low-income individuals in these countries are expected to be more concerned about the effect of immigration on social benefits. Using multilevel models and data from the European Social Survey we have found that while the effect of socio-economic status on attitudes toward immigration is positive there is a great deal of variation between countries. The difference in attitudes between high and low socio-economic statuses increases as social expenditure increases. Moreover, increases of social expenditure in the short run increases anti-immigrant sentiment as it raises concerns about the impact of immigration on welfare services.     

Correcting for Scale Perception Bias in Measuring Corruption: an Application to Chile and Spain

Corruption perceptions are commonly utilized as essential information to measure corruption across countries and regions. In this paper we consider the hypothesis that respondents to corruption perception questions utilize different response scales in their answers, i.e. for identical levels of corruption practices, subjects from one country could answer a different level of corruption perception than subjects from another country, based on socioeconomic characteristics. This hypothesis is investigated by utilizing the technique of anchoring vignettes with a sample of citizens in Spain and Chile. The results show that response scales are used differently across individuals in both countries, suggesting that the use of uncorrected measures of corruption perceptions could mislead some conclusions about the comparisons of the corruption levels between countries.