What happens after compulsory education? Problems of continuity and possible policies in the case of Spain

The lack of opportunities to enter post-compulsory education in Spain and other countries in southern Europe is a serious problem from the point of view of the requirements of the productive system as well as the social inequality that it creates. This article analyses the effect of a range of variables on that lack of opportunity and various public policy measures are proposed that are directed towards reinforcing the continuity of young people in the education system. The analysis is carried out through the proposal and estimation of a multinomial logistic regression model that permits the identification of factors associated with the process of passing from compulsory education to the possibilities that are open when this finishes (with regard to the education system and the labor market). The model is applied to a sample of individuals of 16 and 17 years of age from the European Community Household Panel in the year 2000 wave. The analysis allows the identification of two groups of variables that affect the probability of following the different paths that are open at the end of compulsory education. On the one hand, there is social and cultural background (reflected in variables such as the social class and education of the parents) and on the other, there is the region of residence, the effect of which derives essentially from the differences that exist between the labor markets. The article concludes by putting forward a set of mainly educational public policies that have the object of increasing access to post-compulsory education. These policies are mostly equity oriented.     

Nonparametric estimation of a regression function from backward recurrence times in a cross-sectional sampling

This study considers the nonparametric estimation of a regression function when the response variable is the waiting time between two consecutive events of a stationary renewal process, and where this variable is not completely observed. In these circumstances, our data are the recurrence times from the occurrence of the last event up to a pre-established time, along with the corresponding values of a certain set of covariates. Estimation of the error density function and some of its characteristics are also considered. For the proposed estimators, we first analyze their asymptotic behavior and, thereafter, carry out a simulation study to highlight their behavior in finite samples. Finally, we apply this methodology to an illustrative example with biomedical data.     

Undercounting Urban Residents in Bolivia: A Small-Area Study of Census-Driven Migration

Employing a small-area study approach in a single urban area in Bolivia, a country with high rates of internal circular migration, we describe how, in the months before the November 2012 census, local leaders and neighbors, concerned with maximizing the per capita resources their residential districts and rural communities could claim from central government, threatened to employ sanctions against absent individuals whom they judged to be regular residents. We use three types of data—a two-wave household survey, data from vehicle toll booths, and photographic logs of a minibus station—to show how these threats generated substantial movement out of the urban area, leading to an urban undercount of roughly 20 % of prime-age adults and 50 % of those aged at least 50. More generally, we argue that these data highlight how local leaders’ increasingly sophisticated attempts to shape data extend beyond the well-known examples from autocratic states. This is driven by a combination of intensive urban–rural connections, leaders’ greater democratic accountability to local voters, increasing fiscal transparency at the national level, increasing fiscal accountability of governments to transnational neoliberal institutions pushing “transparency” and “evidence-based” policy, and more overt talk about “resource sharing” that is rooted in an evidence-based planning paradigm. Since these structural conditions exist in many other developing countries, the possibility of equivalent urban undercounts in forthcoming censuses needs to be anticipated and avoided.     

Philanthrocapitalism as a Neoliberal (Development Agenda) artefact: philanthropic discourse and hegemony in (financing for) international development*

ABSTRACT

Based on a critical analysis of the structurally neoliberal financing for development (FfD) system established by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, this article contributes to the literature that views the 2030 Agenda as a new phase of the Neoliberal Development Agenda (NDA), which has been consolidated as hegemonic within the international development (ID) field in recent decades. Additionally, considering philanthrocapitalism as an ideological framework that proposes its own diagnoses and prognoses, we analyse various discourses of relevant Philanthrocapitalist Institutions and International Organizations to point how they legitimate themselves. This article shows how philanthrocapitalism has been constituted not only as a key element within the current model of FfD but also as a genuine neoliberal artefact designed to encapsulate the NDA apparatus, and fostered by the discourse of international agencies to contribute to the meta-objective of consolidating the neoliberal model as hegemonic in the ID arena.     

International migration and development in mexican communities

The theoretical and empirical literature generally regards international migration as producing a cycle of dependency and stunted development in sending communities. Most migrants’ earnings are spent on consumption; few funds are channeled into productive investment. We argue that this view is misleading because it ignores the conditions under which productive investment is likely to be possible and profitable. We analyze the determinants of migrants’ savings and remittance decisions, using variables defined at the individual, household, community, and macroeconomic levels. We identify the conditions under which U.S. earnings are repatriated to Mexico as remittances and savings, and indicate the factors leading to their productive investment.     

Changing conditions in the US labor market

In this paper, we assess the extent to which the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 affected US labor market conditions facing Mexican migrant workers. Using data gathered from migrants in ten Mexican communities, as well as out-migrants from those communities located in the USA, we examined whether and how IRCA affected US wages, hours worked, and the terms of employment. Estimated period effects did not indicate a clear break in most of these variables following IRCA's passage in 1986, except for hours worked and monthly income. Our analyses did reveal a fairly consistent pattern of deterioration in the labor market conditions facing undocumented migrants, however. Compared to illegal migrants working in the USA before IRCA, those migrating afterward worked fewer hours and were less likely to have taxes withheld from their pay. We also found evidence that undocumented migrants were pushed from the agrarian to the urban economy by the increase in labor supply occasioned by the SAW program.     

Stemming the tide? Assessing the deterrent effects of the immigration reform and control act

This study uses a new source of data to assess the degree to which the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) deterred undocumented migration from Mexico to the United States. Data were collected from migrants interviewed in seven Mexican communities during the winters of 1987 through 1989, as well as from out-migrants from those communities who subsequently located in the United States. We conduct time-series experiments that examine changes in migrants' behavior before and after passage of the IRCA in 1986. We estimate trends in the probability of taking a first illegal trip, the probability of repeat migration, the probability of apprehension by the Border Patrol, the probability of using a border smuggler, and the costs of illegal border crossing. In none of these analyses could we detect any evidence that IRCA has significantly deterred undocumented migration from Mexico.     

Negativismr equivocation,and wobbly assent: public “support” for the prochoice platform on abortion

Although disapproval of all justifications for abortion is rare in the United States, our analysis of numerous surveys taken in the 1960s and 1970s shows that support for the full prochoice platform is also rare. This means that respondents who endorse some justifications for abortion and reject others typically constitute about 50 percent of these samples. If forced to choose politically between polar positions, would these people be more likely to side with a positive or a negative extreme? Using Multiple Classification Analysis as a form of discriminant analysis, we examine whether people who appear to form a “middle” group actually are closer in their characteristics to those who are positive, or to those who are negative. Finally, we test to see whether those respondents who endorse all four justifications for abortion (health, child defect, financial stress, and elective abortion) also endorse additional prochoice positions, such as government payments for abortion, abortion without the husband’s or the parent’s consent, and abortion after the first trimester.     

Eating Disorders Among a Community-based Sample of Chilean Female Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence and correlates of eating disorders among a community-based sample of female Chilean adolescents. Data were collected through structured interviews with 420 female adolescents residing in Santiago, Chile. Approximately 4% of the sample reported ever being diagnosed with an eating disorder. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that those with higher symptoms of anxiety and who had tried cigarettes were significantly more likely to have been diagnosed with an eating disorder. Findings indicate that Chilean female adolescents are at risk of eating disorders and that eating disorders, albeit maladaptive, may be a means to cope with negative affect, specifically anxiety.