Pathways to gender equality: A configurational analysis of childcare instruments and outcomes in 21 European countries

The ability to produce desired outcomes represents an important basis of the legitimacy of social policies. Nonetheless, policy outcomes have not systematically figured in the analysis of childcare regimes despite growing political interest in issues such as female employment, gender wage gap, and men's involvement in childcare. In this article, we use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to investigate the relationship between the configuration of policy instruments, attitudes toward childcare and outcomes in 21 European countries. Our results show that there is only one mix of policy instruments consistently linked with positive gender equality outcomes and this route has the quality of the universal caregiver model. It also demonstrates that both a combination of policy instruments and favorable attitudinal factors are necessary to produce desirable outcomes in the gender division of paid work and unpaid childcare.     

Assessing switchability for biosimilar products: modelling approaches applied to children's growth

The present paper describes two statistical modelling approaches that have been developed to demonstrate switchability from the original recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) formulation (Genotropin^®) to a biosimilar product (Omnitrope^®) in children suffering from growth hormone deficiency. Demonstrating switchability between rhGH products is challenging because the process of growth varies with the age of the child and across children. The first modelling approach aims at predicting individual height measured at several time‐points after switching to the biosimilar. The second modelling approach provides an estimate of the deviation from the overall growth rate after switching to the biosimilar, which can be regarded as an estimate of switchability. The results after applying these approaches to data from a randomized clinical trial are presented. The accuracy and precision of the predictions made using the first approach and the small deviation from switchability estimated with the second approach provide sufficient evidence to conclude that switching from Genotropin^® to Omnitrope^® has a very small effect on growth, which is neither statistically significant nor clinically relevant. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trends in Marital Instability in Italy in the 1980s

ABSTRACT The authors describe the most recent trends in separation and divorce in Italy using ISTAT data for the 1980–1991 period. The analysis shows a rising instability of marriage and thus a lessening of the gap between Italy and other western countries. The total divorce rate rose from three percent in the early 1980s to eight percent at the end of the 1980s. The analysis shows that the increasing breakdown of marriages is not due to “changes in timing” but to a real trend of ending marriages. Older couples have contributed more than younger couples to more unstable marriages over the past decade. Other variables continue today, as in the past, to be closely related to the instability of marriage in Italy.