WOMEN PREFER LARGER GOVERNMENTS: GROWTH,STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION,AND GOVERNMENT SIZE

The increase in income per capita is accompanied, in virtually all countries, by two changes in economic structure: the increase in the share of government spending in gross domestic product (GDP), and the increase in female labor force participation. We argue that these two changes are causally related. We develop a growth model based on Galor and Weil (1996) where female participation in market activities, fertility, and government size, in addition to consumption and saving, is endogenously determined. Rising incomes lead to a rise in female labor force participation as the opportunity cost of staying at home and caring for the children increases. In our model, higher government spending decreases the cost of performing household chores, including, but not limited to, child rearing and child care, as in Rosen (1996) . We also use a wide cross‐section of data for developed and developing countries and show that higher market participation by women is positively and robustly associated with government size. We then investigate the causal link between participation and government size using a novel unique data set that allows the use of the relative price of productive home appliances as an instrumental variable. We find strong evidence of a causal link between female market participation and government size. This effect is robust to the country sample, time period, and a set of controls in the spirit of Rodrik (1998) . (JEL O4, E62, H11)     

No Compelling Evidence That Newborns Imitate Oral Gestures

Newborns (N = 83) were presented with 3 conditions, each for 160 sec: tongue protrusion (TP), mouth opening (MO), and control (CO). In TP and MO, a female model alternated between demonstrating the gesture for 20 sec and presenting a passive, motionless face for 20 sec. In CO, she presented a passive face in both the “demonstration” and “passive” intervals. The participants' eyes were more widely open in the demonstration intervals of TP and MO than in the passive intervals, indicating that they were attending to the gestures. In TP, the participants produced more TP responses than MO responses, but in MO there was no effect, undermining the neonatal imitation hypothesis.     

LGBQ-Specific Elderly Housing as a “Sparkling Sanctuary”: Boundary Work on LGBQ Identity and Community in Relationship to Potential LGBQ-Specific Elderly Housing in Sweden

This study explored how boundaries in relationship to community and identity were created and negotiated among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) people within the framework of picturing LGBQ-specific elderly housing as a housing alternative in older age, by applying focus group methodology. “An island as a sparkling sanctuary” was identified as a metaphor for how symbolic resources defining the LGBQ community can be manifested in LGBQ-specific qualities of elderly housing. The boundary work underlying this manifestation included elaborations on the dilemma between exclusiveness and normality. The findings illustrate further how symbolic resources and collective identities were developed through dialectic interplay between internal and external definitions. Further, the findings show how boundary work generated shared feelings of similarity and group membership. The associated symbolic and social resources not only served to deal with difficult situations but also to manifest LGBQ identity and sense of community as a “gold medal.”     

Ideology and the Tax Revolt: Florida's Amendment 1

A number of researchers have concluded that the tax revolt ismotivated by an antigovernment ideology which is distributeddiffusely in the mass public. However, public opinion on Florida'sAmendment 1 was fragmented into a number of separate issue publics,with different sets of voters expressing different concerns.The implication of this finding is that prevailing interpretationsof the tax revolt have overestimated the role of ideology.     

Self-objectification: Relevance for the species and society

Mead described how, as a result of the social interaction process, the individual becomes an object to him or herself. This self-objectification process makes important contributions to the evolutionary success of the human species and to the survival of the society, although it is also a major source of social and personal problems. Through the distinctive human capacity for self-construction, human beings can build different selves with different skills to meet the changing demands of the environment. Through the objectification of thoughts and feelings, people are able to subordinate their organismic impulses to the control of social rules, thereby maintaining social order.     

Réglementation et avenir du travail: la relation de travail facilite l'innovation

La transformation numérique et la réorganisation des entreprises font apparaître de nouvelles modalités de travail fort éloignées de la relation de travail typique. Selon les partisans de la rupture numérique, le cadre juridique actuel n'est pas adapté aux formes de travail et modèles d'entreprises «innovants». Pourtant, la réglementation du travail peut faciliter l'innovation et la flexibilité, comme l'emploi typique peut être un moyen d'améliorer l'efficacité et de réduire les coûts. En effet, la relation de travail permet le plein exercice des prérogatives de l'employeur et le déploiement interne de la main-d'œuvre; c'est aussi un bon moyen d'assurer formation et montée des compétences.