Parent‐Child Value Similarity: The Role of Zeitgeist

Reporting a study of German 2‐child families, the article focuses on a neglected issue in value transmission studies: contemporaneous societal context. Parent‐child value similarity depends not only on family characteristics but also on zeitgeist, the modal value climate of a society. To evaluate the role of zeitgeist in value transmission, differences in parent‐child value similarity between families agreeing and disagreeing with the zeitgeist are studied, focusing on a core value of modern societies: hierarchic self‐interest. Results show a weak general zeitgeist effect. A family’s relative position vis‐à‐vis the societal value climate, however, is shown to strongly influence intergenerational similarity in hierarchic self‐interest, families distant from the zeitgeist showing a much higher intergenerational value similarity than families close to the zeitgeist.     

Kernel smoothed prediction intervals for ARMA models

The procedures of estimating prediction intervals for ARMA processes can be divided into model based methods and empirical methods. Model based methods require knowledge of the model and the underlying innovation distribution. Empirical methods are based on sample forecast errors. In this paper we apply nonparametric quantile regression to empirical forecast errors using lead time as regressor. Using this method there is no need for a distributional assumption. But for the special data pattern in this application a double kernel method which allows smoothing in two directions is required. An estimation algorithm is presented and applied to some simulation examples.     

Ethnic Self‐Identification of First‐Generation Immigrants1

This paper uses the concept of ethnic self‐identification of immigrants in a two‐dimensional framework. It acknowledges that attachments to both the country of origin and the host country are not necessarily mutually exclusive. There are three possible paths of adjustment from separation at entry, namely the transitions to assimilation, integration, and marginalization. We analyze the determinants of ethnic self‐identification in this process using samples of first‐generation male and female immigrants, and controlling for pre‐ and post‐immigration characteristics. While we find strong gender differences, a wide range of pre‐immigration characteristics like education in the country of origin are not important.     

Eco‐Sociology: Inside and outside of the cocoon

The present article examines how American and German sociological theories deal with the concept of nature and with environmental problems. The results of an analysis of professional sociological publications are presented. Various conceptions of sociological theorists are discussed focussing on nature and environmental problems. It is argued that the social sciences and the mass media are becoming more and more intertwined, increasingly coming to comprise ‘parallel systems of meaning production’ (Gamson and Modgliani, 1989). The basic cultural orientations (subsystems) determine how the concept of nature is discussed. It is suggested to investigate how different conceptions of nature are used in social actions and social situations.     

Choice correspondences for public goods

We consider collective choice problems where a group of agents has to decide on the location of a public facility in a Euclidean space. A well-known solution for such problems is the coordinatewise median of the reported votes and additional fixed ballots. Instead of adding ballots, we extend the median solution by allowing set-valued outcomes. This especially applies for location problems with an even number of agents. Received: 14 August 1998/Accepted: 29 August 2000     

The environmental value of buildings: a proposal for performance assessment with reference to the case of the tall office building

Buildings consume approximately 33% of the world's energy, equivalent to 21% of global CO₂ emissions (IEA 2009, World energy outlook 2009, http://www.iea.org/weo/electricity.asp). Given the current scenario of energy consumption in buildings, the objective of this paper is to present some of the key issues related to assessment of the environmental performance of buildings, supported by the proposal of strategic indicators (with reference to the tall office building), followed by a critical review of the value of environmental design. Fieldwork has shown that a group of European case-studies show signs of change beginning to emerge considering value ahead of first cost, challenging the conventional commercial model. Energy savings and environmental quality in the operation of buildings bring marketability benefits to tenants, whilst future-proofing investments are of benefit to investors. In addition, buildings need to go beyond governmental targets to be able to remain competitive, adding value to environmentally considerate design.     

Do ethnic minorities ��stretch�� their time? UK household evidence on multitasking

This paper investigates the effect of ethnicity on time spent on secondary household production, work and leisure activities employing the 2000 UK Time Use Survey. We find that, unconditionally, white females manage to “stretch” their time the most by almost four additional hours per day and non-white men “stretch” their time the least. The three secondary activities most often combined with other (primary) activities in terms of time spent on them are social activities including resting, passive leisure and childcare. Regression results indicate that non-white ethnic minorities engage less in multitasking than whites, with Pakistani and Bangladeshi males spending the least time on total secondary activities. There also exists a significant ethnicity gap for secondary housework activities and for both males and females, although females in general engage more in multitasking. The effect is heterogeneous across different sub-groups. We review several potential interpretations and discuss whether these differences in behavior may relate, among other, to opportunity costs of time, different preferences and tastes of ethnic minorities, integration experience, family composition and household productivity.     

Matrimonial circuits in kinship networks: Calculation, enumeration and census

The article presents a series of new methods for analyzing the morphology of kinship networks via the study of matrimonial circuits (closed chains of kinship and marriage ties). The article gives a simple definition of matrimonial circuits in mixed graphs and introduces the technique of representing matrimonial circuit types by characteristic vectors. This technique is used to develop (1) an arithmetic approach to the algebra of circuit composition, (2) a method for the complete enumeration of matrimonial circuit types, and (3) an algorithm for finding and counting matrimonial circuits in empirical kinship networks. All methods have been implemented in the software Puck (Program for the Use and Computation of Kinship Data).