Age,Wage, and Job Placement: Older Women’s Experiences Entering the Retail Sector

Older women seeking employment often find opportunities limited to low-wage jobs, such as those in retail. We report findings about job placement and starting wages for hourly workers hired at a women’s apparel retailer from August 2006 to December 2009. We examine competing hypotheses regarding the role of age in explaining women’s job placement and starting wages. Although newly hired women age 55+ earn higher wages and are placed in higher-quality jobs than the youngest women (ages 18–22), they are less likely to be placed in better-quality jobs than their midlife counterparts. Overall, wage differences are largely explained by job quality.     

Analyzing the Productive and Protective Dimensions of Welfare: Looking Beyond the OECD

Several theorists have argued that social policy in East Asia can be seen as representing a distinctive welfare ideal type based around ‘productive welfare’. However, we have contested such claims in earlier work (Hudson and Kühner 2009) and, in common with theorists such as Castells, have suggested that some of the welfare states of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) have a distinct bias towards the ‘productive’ rather than ‘protective’ dimensions of welfare. In this article, we build on our earlier work, utilizing fuzzy set ideal type analysis (FSITA) to explore the balance between ‘productive' and ‘protective’ dimensions of welfare state activity. Here we extend our analysis beyond the OECD, incorporating a range of nations on the ‘fringe’ of the OECD from Latin America, East Asia and the non‐OECD parts of Europe. In so doing, we contest simple notions of welfare regimes aligning with regional blocks. Primarily, however, we highlight the advantages of the ‘diversity‐orientated’ approach to data analysis that fuzzy set methods facilitate in comparison with standard quantitative techniques. In particular, we utilize FSITA to avoid data availability and reliability issues that have plagued quantitatively informed classifications of global welfare regimes. Not least, we argue FSITA allows for the contextualization of cases in a way that is sealed to quantitatively driven, comparative research. Thus, we argue FSITA has an important role to play in attempts to extend the inclusiveness of the ‘welfare modelling business’ in a manner that reflects diverse and highly significant cases beyond the Western lens that dominates the literature.     

“受艾滋病影响的失依儿童”抗逆力特质解读——基于河南省某地阳光家园的循证研究

"受艾滋病影响的失依儿童"的抗逆力在生成方面存在多元差异性,即同是面临父母因艾滋病去世,不同的个体所表现出的应对困境的能力存在差异;在养成中存在向光性扭曲,即在与环境匹配的生长过程中出现自我被动适应的发展扭曲;在实践中存在理想状况剥离,即在国家、政府以及社会机构和个人多个方面支持下,补偿性质的福利包办无偿给孩子们提供必需品、教育资源和工作机会,致使孩子们产生福利依赖心理,不愿意也没有机会真正的走入社会,失去了社会化的良好时机,导致"受艾滋病影响的失依儿童"进入社会后适应和竞争能力的弱化。揭示其抗逆力特质,剖析其形成机制的内外因素,才能为以后的系统干预提供理论与循证依据。     

略论当代文学现实主义的价值和向度

现实主义作为一种人类文学创作主潮之一,无论在过去还是在现在它都有蓬勃的生命力,而对它的理论却有太多的争议。如何界定和评价它在当代文坛中的价值和向度仍有重大的理论意义和现实意义。本文试图对此提出自己若干看法。马克思、恩格斯的现实主义创作理论一定会在新的历史条件下更一步地丰富自己、发展自己,永远跃动着伟大的生命力。     

Comment on “recent developments in bootstrapping time series”

The paper develops a general framework for identification, estimation, and hypothesis testing in cointegrated systems when the cointegrating coefficients are subject to (possibly) non-linear and cross-equation restrictions, obtained from economic theory or other relevant a priori information. It provides a proof of the consistency of the quasi maximum likelihood estimators (QMLE), establishes the relative rates of convergence of the QMLE of the short-run and the long-run parameters, and derives their asymptotic distributions; thus generalizing the results already available in the literature for the linear case. The paper also develops tests of the over-identifying (possibly) non-linear restrictions on the cointegrating vectors. The estimation and hypothesis testing procedures are applied to an Almost Ideal Demand System estimated on U.K. quarterly observations. Unlike many other studies of consumer demand this application does not treat relative prices and real per capita expenditures as exogenously given.     

竞争条件与中国就业创造的微观机制研究

文章基于劳动力需求的微观基础构建了一个数理模型,分析了在产业发展的普遍趋势——技术进步和资本深化的背景下,完全竞争和不完全竞争市场情形中影响就业的基本因素。模型及理论分析表明：提高产品需求的价格弹性,增加劳动供给的工资弹性以及减少厂商的垄断势力是当前中国增加就业的现实选择。     

基于TOPSIS法的黑龙江装备制造企业AMT选择

结合黑龙江装备制造企业实际,采用因子分析法构建黑龙江装备制造企业先进制造技术选择评价指标体系,然后将TOPSIS法引入到黑龙江装备制造企业先进制造技术选择中,构建黑龙江装备制造企业先进制造技术选择评价模型,最后将该模型应用于具体的实例,验证了TOPSIS法的可行性和实用性。     

The social investment approach as a field of job creation. From the ‘recalibration’ to a resurgent trade-off between employment growth and low wage (white) jobs. A comparison between Germany and Italy

The social investment approach emerged as a new welfare paradigm, aimed at reconciling the traditional functions of the welfare supply with a productive social agenda, designed at preparing people to confront the ‘new social risks’, whether they be related to the problem of balancing paid work and family responsibilities, upgrading the skills, preventing inequalities and promoting the availability of in-kind services. In order to achieve these objectives, especially those related to care needs and work-life balance, the adoption of social investment-based strategies necessarily implies an expansion of the jobs related to health and social care services. In more recent years, many studies have analysed the limitations of the social investment policies because of their different redistributive impacts on social groups. Several studies have found a higher use of these policies for high-income families. Another source of criticism on social investment is that spending on these policies would seem to crowd out more traditional passive social expenditures. In this article, we examine another question related to the widespread of this approach: what are the effects of the social investment policies in terms of direct job creation? In fact, one of the more controversial issues, related to social investment policies, is their direct contribution to the labour market in terms of both quantity and quality of work within welfare services. The article analyses these issues focusing on Germany and Italy, two countries that represent not only two different care regimes but also two distinct models regarding job creation strategies in the care sector. In doing so, particular attention will be paid to long-term care policies, as they represent one of the pivotal areas of the social investment approach, both in terms of social services, to address new social risks, and new jobs related to welfare services     

Blurred lines: German freelance journalists with secondary employment in public relations

Nearly half of all German freelance journalists have a second job, mainly in public relations (PR). This work combination can be problematic, since journalists and PR practitioners have different responsibilities. Working as a journalist entails contributing to the public duties of journalism such as informing the public, offering multiple viewpoints, and representing societal interests; in contrast, PR practitioners must advocate solely in their clients’ interests. Conflicts can arise between these two roles if a freelance journalist is, for instance, required to critically investigate his or her PR client. However, there has been little research on freelance journalists with secondary work in PR. This study seeks to address this gap in research; therefore, we conducted a quantitative online survey among German “PR-journalists”. Our results show that nearly half of the participants take on secondary PR work for financial reasons; however, a similar number of journalists take on PR-work voluntarily, as they find the work interesting and enjoyable. Moreover, participants described their professional identity very similarly to that of German journalists in general. The PR-journalists surveyed were aware of the potential for conflicts of interest arising from their dual role. While such conflicts have been rarely encountered by those in the study sample, most participants assumed that other PR-journalists face such conflicts often, and expressed concern that these conflicts are not handled professionally.     

李德懋诗作:自我省察意识

学是一种具有补偿功能的艺术。李德懋进行诗歌创作，既基于内心的缺憾，将学创作视作消解内心苦闷的工具，同时，他也通过自我省察，努力使自己具有一种人格美，求得自我人格理想的实现，并藉此追求一种自我人格。