PLANNED AND UNPLANNED BEQUESTS

We distinguish between bequests that are planned as part of a lifetime optimization process and those that are the unplanned result of errors in forecasting the date of death. Given the initial endowment we expect a positive relation between the bequest and the planning horizon, and a negative relation between unexpectedly long life and the bequest. A unique data set on wealthy decedents and their parents provides measures of expected horizons based on parents' longevity. Both predictions are confirmed, and there is an especially large and significant positive relation between the bequest and the length of the planning horizon.     

All-brother crews in the North Atlantic

Le recrutement familial (père et fils, groupe de frères) des équipages de pêche côtière dans l'Atlantique nord constitue une caractéristique constante. Même si ce type de recrutement peut être considéré comme une suite de stages successifs dans un cycle de développement, on a porté peu d'attention à l'évolution des équipages familiaux. A partir de données démographiques recueillies en Bretagne méridionale, l'article cherche à mettre en lumière le développement de ces équipages à travers le temps. L'analyse montre, plus précisément, que les raisons 'psychologiques' déjà avancées pour rendre compte de la nécessité et de la fragilité des équipages de frères sont purement illusoires: les tensions peuvent être expliquées, de façpn complète et constante, par la simple réalité de la pression économique.
A constant feature of the North Atlantic inshore fisheries is the familial recruitment of the crews: father and sons or all-brother crews. Although this type of recruitment represents successive stages of a developmental cycle, little attention has been devoted to the evolutive pattern of the family-based crew. Drawing on demographic data collected during fieldwork in southern Brittany, the article seeks to enlighten the developmental reality of the family crew. The analysis reveals in particular that the 'psychological' reasons put forward to account for both the necessity and fragility of all-brother crews pertain to self-deception: the cruder reality of economic pressure explains tensions thoroughly and consistently.     

Social Work and the Medical Profession--Arguments Against Unconditional Collaboration

Summary The history and major texts of medical social work emphasizethe need for collaboration with the medical profession. Howeverthere is a less visible history of conflict between medicineand social work. It is proposed that a critique of medicine’scontribution to health provides the foundation for a statementof principles for a social model of health for social work practice.Collaboration with medicine should be negotiated on the basisof such principles, rather than unconditional.     

LIQUIDITY CONSTRAINTS AND THE SUBSTITUTABILITY BETWEEN PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT CONSUMPTION: THE ROLE OF MILITARY AND NON-MILITARY SPENDING

Using data from 66 economies, we examine (i) the substitutability between private consumption and military and non-military government spending, and (ii) the severity of liquidity constraints. Although the estimated substitutability parameters are fragile, private consumption and non-military government spending are shown to be generally substitutes, whereas private consumption and military spending are better described as complements. The fraction of income that accrues to liquidity constrained households is typically positive, and the severity of liquidity constraints (which is robust and precisely estimated) is shown to be negatively related to saving rates, and positively related to the variability of transitory income. (JEL E62, E21)     

Family and nation: Brazilian national ideology as contested transnational practice in Japan

Studies of Brazilian Nikkeis (Japanese emigrants and their descendants) living in Japan tend to conceptualize ‘family’ and ‘nation’ as two distinct entities. Such distinctions are filtered through mutually exclusive discourses and understandings of national and ethnic identity. In this article, however, I view national attachments and migrant experiences in Japan through the lens of ideology, embodied experience and kinship relations. Treating national ideology as lived process sheds fresh light on the dynamics of state—society relations in transnational social spaces. I suggest that the ability of Brazilian state actors to impose social, moral and economic regulation on its citizens in Japan is compromised by the extent to which such discourses are ontologically grounded in the social relations of migrant family life. It is through these kin ties, I argue, that people set the tone and rules of play for state interests to encroach or otherwise on their everyday lives in these transnational social spaces.     

Estimating the Basic Reproductive Number in the General Epidemic Model with an Unknown Initial Number of Susceptible Individuals

Abstract. In any epidemic, there may exist an unidentified subpopulation which might be naturally immune or isolated and who will not be involved in the transmission of the disease. Estimation of key parameters, for example, the basic reproductive number, without accounting for this possibility would underestimate the severity of the epidemics. Here, we propose a procedure to estimate the basic reproductive number ( R ₀ ) in an epidemic model with an unknown initial number of susceptibles. The infection process is usually not completely observed, but is reconstructed by a kernel‐smoothing method under a counting process framework. Simulation is used to evaluate the performance of the estimators for major epidemics. We illustrate the procedure using the Abakaliki smallpox data.     

Postmaterialism in Unresponsive Political Systems: The Canadian Case*

Nous examinons la thèse de Ronald Inglehart selon laquelle le postmatérialisme est un phénomène politique universel qui concerne toute société industrialisée avancée. Après avoir introduit une distinction entre systèmes politiques réactifs et non réactifs, nous proposons que, dans les systèmes réactifs, le clivage matérialiste s'est enracinéà un tel point qu'il triomphait encore du postmatérialisme. Par contre, le postmatérialisme a réussi à se démarquer dans les systèmes non réactifs, ceux où le clivage matérialiste avait toujours été plus faible. Nous soutenons que les données tirées des sondages nationaux tenus lors des élections canadiennes de 1984 et 1997 confirment notre hypothèse sur les effets des systèmes non réactifs. Bien que le Canada soit l'objet principal de notre analyse, dans la conclusion nous nous penchons sur des facteurs qui pourraient expliquer les différences dans le postmatérialisme aux niveaux provincial et international. This article disputes Inglehart's claim that postmaterialism is a uniform political phenomenon that transcends differences between advanced industrial societies. We distinguish responsive from unresponsive political systems and argue that, in responsive systems, the materialist cleavage became so deeply entrenched that postmaterialism could not vie for dominance. In contrast, postmaterialism has become more salient than materialism in unresponsive systems, where the materialist cleavage was weaker to begin with. We argue that data from the Canadian National Election Surveys of 1984 and 1997 are consistent with our prediction about the effect of unresponsiveness. Differences within the Canadian electorate became weaker for materialist issues but more pronounced for postmate‐rialist issues between 1984 and 1997. Although our empirical analysis focusses on Canada, we conclude by speculating about the causes of cross‐provincial and cross‐national variations in postmaterialism.