Age structure and capital dilution effects in neo-classical growth models

This paper reexamines the problem of the relationship between demographic growth and per capita income in neo-classical growth models with age-structured populations. It is suggested that, when they assume a constant rate of capital depreciation, such models overestimate the negative impact of population growth through capital dilution effects. With more realistic depreciation schedules, the ageing of the capital stock which results from lower growth implies a higher overall depreciation rate, which reduces benefits from lower capital dilution. The implications of this observation are examined for the existence of an optimum population growth rate, for models with heterogeneous capital, and for models where capital obsolescence is not fixed but is allowed to vary.This article is a modified version of a paper presented at the First Annual Meeting of the European Society for Population Economics, Rotterdam, September 1987. I am indebted to the anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions and to Linda Sergent for revising the English text.     

New Public Management et professions dans l’État : au-delà des oppositions, quelles recompositions ?

More and more reforms in public administrations are being conducted that are based on the principles and instruments of “new public management”. They have set off protest and collective actions by several professional groups in various sectors (health, education, justice, social work, research…), whence questions about the future of professional groups in public services, in particular about their autonomy, which these reforms threaten. The opposition between this new public management and certain professional groups, is not the final explanation to draw from an analysis of this situation. Should these changes be seen as the decline of professional groups and of their autonomy, as a mutation of professional models, an overhaul of professionalism, etc.? These questions, which current events in France and Europe have raised, are a matter for ongoing sociological thought. They are approached empirically, from the field, using varied scales of analysis and research. Forms of tension between this new public management and professional groups are explored.     

The Role of European Welfare States in Explaining Resources Deprivation

In a previous paper in this journal (Headey etal., 2000) a comparison was made between threeso-called `best cases' of welfare regime types,the `Liberal' US, `the `Corporatist' Germanyand the `Social-Democratic' Netherlands. Themain conclusion was that the Social-Democraticwelfare state performed best on nearly allsocial and economic indicators that wereapplied. That paper was based on the ten-yeardatasets drawn from the national socio-economicpanel studies. For this paper we use the uniquecomparative panel dataset of the EuropeanCommunity Household Panel. At the time ofresearch, only three waves of data covering the1994–96 period were available. Instead of threecountries representing three different welfarestate types as in the earlier paper we covertwelve countries allowing us to distinguish afourth Southern or Mediterranean welfare regimetype and to compare the performance of the fourregimes. Compared to the Headey's et al. paperwe focus on the comparative analysis of thelevel of deprivation and pay less attention toincome poverty and inequality. Because weconsider deprivation to be part of the conceptof social exclusion (see also Atkinson et al.,2002) our results also provide evidence on howwelfare regimes across the EU cope with socialexclusion. We conclude that theSocial-Democratic welfare state does a good jobof preventing income poverty but performs lesswell in equalising levels of deprivation. Ourresults also show that the immature Southernwelfare states perform worse with respect topreventing deprivation. Trying to explainlevels of deprivation by estimating Tobit panelregressions it turned out that the impact ofregime type remains significant though limited.Common, `structural' disparities between thecountries and regimes in terms of economicwelfare, the demographic structure, and theemployment situation explain most of thevariance across countries.     

A new method for the estimation of variance matrix with prescribed zeros in nonlinear mixed effects models

We propose a new method for the Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) of nonlinear mixed effects models when the variance matrix of Gaussian random effects has a prescribed pattern of zeros (PPZ). The method consists of coupling the recently developed Iterative Conditional Fitting (ICF) algorithm with the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. It provides positive definite estimates for any sample size, and does not rely on any structural assumption concerning the PPZ. It can be easily adapted to many versions of EM.     

A simple model for interpreting cross-tabulations of family size and women's labour force participation

Simple 2×2 contingency tables cross-tabulating family size and activity status of mothers are analyzed with a logistic or log-linear model whose parameters can be interpreted as, respectively, the intrinsic value given to work by mothers, the value given to large families, and the degree of incompatibility between work and child care. An analysis of French data for 1968 and 1982 suggests that it is the increased value given to work which accounts best for activity and fertility changes over this time period, variation of the two other parameters playing only a minor role. The same result is observed, cross-sectionally, when analyzing fertility and activity of women across a sample of French couples in 1982 stratified by education levels of both parents. But this simple explanation of activity and fertility differentials does not apply when analyzing fertility and activity differentials across EEC countries, using data from the EUROSTAT Labour Force Survey of 1990.L'article utilise un modèle logistique ou log-linéaire pour analyser des tableaux de contingence élémentaires à quatre cases croisant activité féminine et taille de la famille. Les paramètres de ce modèle s'interprètent respectivement comme le degré de valorisation du travail, la préférence pour la famille nombreuse, et le degré d'incompatibilité entre travail et charge de famille. L'analyse des données françaises de 1968 et 1982 suggère que c'est la valorisation croissante du travail qui explique le mieux les mouvements joints de l'activité et de la fécondité au cours de cette période, les variations des deux autres paramètres ne jouant qu'un rôle mineur. Le même résultat se retrouve, en coupe transversale, si on analyse l'activité et la fécondité dans un échantillon de ménages français de 1982 stratifié par niveaux d'éducation des deux parents. Mais cette explication simple des variations de l'activité et de la fécondité ne s'applique plus si on s'intéresse aux différences d'activité et de fécondité entre pays de la CEE, mesurées à travers l'Enquête sur la Force de Travail coordonnée par EUROSTAT en 1990.     

His and Her Education and Marital Dissolution: Adding a Contextual Dimension

Educationally hypogamous marriages, where the wife is more educated than the husband, have been expected to be less stable than other educational pairings, in part because they do not conform to social norms. With the reversal of the gender gap in education, such marriages have become more common than in the past. Recent research suggests that this new context might be beneficial for the stability of hypogamous unions compared to other educational pairings. Here, we investigate how educational matches in married couples are associated with divorce risks taking into account the local prevalence of hypogamy. Using Belgian census and register data for 458,499 marriages contracted between 1986 and 2001, we show that hypogamy was not associated with higher divorce rates than homogamy in communities where hypogamy was common. Against expectations, marriages in which the husband was more educated than the wife tend to exhibit the highest divorce rates. More detailed analysis of the different types of educational matches revealed that marriages with at least one highly educated partner, male or female, were less divorce prone compared to otherwise similar couple types.     

Choosing Unauthorized Migration: Evidence from Return Migrants

We assess who among migrants is likely to choose unauthorized migration. While the literature has addressed reasons for unauthorized migration, we are the first to model individual choice of actual unauthorized migration. By using data from Albanian return migrants, we can ascertain that we capture actual migration – behaviour – rather than intentions to migrate, and respondents have no incentives to hide unauthorized migration as there are no consequences at this stage. At the individual level, unauthorized migration in a context of circular migration is linked to being young and male – interpreted as risk‐taking individuals – and being free of social responsibilities like having a partner or children. Social responsibilities appear to moderate the impact of risk‐taking on choosing unauthorized migration.     

Ethnic discrimination in hiring decisions: a meta-analysis of correspondence tests 1990–2015

For almost 50 years field experiments have been used to study ethnic and racial discrimination in hiring decisions, consistently reporting high rates of discrimination against minority applicants – including immigrants – irrespective of time, location, or minority groups tested. While Peter A. Riach and Judith Rich [2002. “Field Experiments of Discrimination in the Market Place.” The Economic Journal 112 (483): F480–F518] and Judith Rich [2014. “What Do Field Experiments of Discrimination in Markets Tell Us? A Meta Analysis of Studies Conducted since 2000.” In Discussion Paper Series. Bonn: IZA] provide systematic reviews of existing field experiments, no study has undertaken a meta-analysis to examine the findings in the studies reported. In this article, we present a meta-analysis of 738 correspondence tests in 43 separate studies conducted in OECD countries between 1990 and 2015. In addition to summarising research findings, we focus on groups of specific tests to ascertain the robustness of findings, emphasising differences across countries, gender, and economic contexts. Moreover we examine patterns of discrimination, by drawing on the fact that the groups considered in correspondence tests and the contexts of testing vary to some extent. We focus on first- and second-generation immigrants, differences between specific minority groups, the implementation of EU directives, and the length of job application packs.