Ageing-driven pension reforms

This paper stems from the observation that there are two worldwide trends, pension reform and population ageing, and asks whether the two may be related. Exploring the cases of pension reform in different countries, we find that, although they are very different, the cases share a common characteristic: they shift risks away from workers towards those who are retired. Furthermore, population ageing, by increasing the weight of the elderly relative to working generations, raises the price of intergenerational risk sharing. Combining these findings, we argue and show formally that pension reform can be seen as a welfare-best response to population ageing.     

Expatriate contact with a local host: an intervention to increase social support

Social capital is a crucial factor for expatriates to employ as they cope with the demands of an international assignment. This longitudinal study used a mixed method approach to examine the social support benefits of expatriate contact with a local host. Western expatriates in the Netherlands were randomly divided into two groups: an experimental group (n = 33), that had contact with a Dutch host during 9 months, and a control group (n = 32) with no host. Qualitative methods such as interviews and diaries were included to shed light on the various types of social support that occurred. Results show that local hosts offered all four types of social support: social companionship, informational support, emotional support, and instrumental support. Furthermore, expatriates with a host increased their social capital; they received significantly more social support from host nationals than did those without a host. This study shows that HRD professionals may develop the social capital of expatriates by bringing them into contact with a local host, which can produce more social support from host nationals. Increased social capital may lead to a higher performance at both the individual and organisational levels.     

Adaptive information design for outdoor augmented reality

Augmented Reality focuses on the enrichment of the user's natural field of view by consistent integration of text, symbols and interactive three-dimensional objects in real time. Placing virtual objects directly into the user's view in a natural context empowers highly dynamic applications. On the other hand, this necessitates deliberate choice of information design and density, in particular for deployment in hazardous environments like military combat scenarios. As the amount of information needed is not foreseeable and strongly depends on the individual mission, an appropriate system must offer adequate adaptation capabilities. The paper presents a prototypical, vehicle-mountable Augmented Reality vision system, designed for enhancing situation awareness in stressful urban warfare scenarios. Tracking, as one of the most crucial challenges for outdoor Augmented Reality, is accomplished by means of a Differential-GPS approach while the type of display to attach can be modified, ranging from ocular displays to standard LCD mini-screens. The overall concept also includes envisioning of own troops (blue forces), for which a multi-sensor tracking approach has been chosen. As a main feature, the system allows switching between different information categories, focusing on friendly, hostile, unidentified or neutral data. Results of an empirical study on the superiority of an in-view navigation cue approach conclude the paper.     

Choice of study discipline and the postponement of motherhood in Europe: The impact of expected earnings,gender composition,and family attitudes

Theory suggests that the field of study may be at least as consequential for fertility behavior as the duration and level of education. Yet, this qualitative dimension of educational achievement has been largely neglected in demographic studies. This article analyzes the mechanisms relating the field of study with the postponement of motherhood by European college-graduate women aged 20–40. The second round of the European Social Survey is used to assess the impact of four features of study disciplines that are identified as key to reproductive decision making: the expected starting wage, the steepness of the earning profile, attitudes toward gendered family roles, and gender composition. The results indicate that the postponement of motherhood is relatively limited among graduates from study disciplines in which stereotypical attitudes about family roles prevail and in which a large share of the graduates are female. Both the level of the starting wage and the steepness of the earning profile are found to be associated with greater postponement. These results are robust to controlling for the partnership situation and the age at entry into the labor market.     

From Materialist to Post-Materialist Happiness? National Affluence and Determinants of Life Satisfaction in Cross-National Perspective

This paper takes the theory of value change as developed by Inglehart as a point of departure and tests its implications for the determinants of human happiness. It investigates whether the importance of post-material concerns for happiness, relative to that of materialist concerns, is indeed higher in rich post-industrial societies. Personal autonomy and job creativity serve as indicators for post-materialist concerns, the income domain as an indicator for materialist concerns. The main assumption is put against data for 48 countries from wave 5 of the World Values Survey, the most recent survey, which covers the full range from poor agrarian to rich post-industrial societies. Employing a multi-level design, the paper indeed reveals a quite consistent pattern towards post-materialist happiness as we move from poor to rich societies. This pattern seems to be driven by both a devalorization of material concerns and a valorization of post-materialist concerns, although the evidence suggests that the former trend is stronger and more linear than the latter.     

Parental Divorce,Residence Arrangements,and Contact Between Grandchildren and Grandparents

When parents divorce, grandparents can play a supportive role in the lives of their grandchildren, but a parental divorce may also put grandchild–grandparent ties under pressure. In this study the authors investigated how grandchildren of married and divorced parents differ in the frequency of face‐to‐face contacts with grandparents and how this is mediated by postdivorce residence arrangements. Based on the multi‐actor survey “Divorce in Flanders,” they used reports of contact provided by more than 1,000 grandchildren and compared them with more than 1,100 grandparent reports for validation. The results showed that grandchildren from divorced parents have fewer contacts with their grandparents than grandchildren whose parents are married but that it is the postdivorce residence arrangement of grandchildren that produces this result. When grandchildren live with their divorced father or in a shared residence arrangement, they even see paternal grandparents more often than grandchildren with married parents.