Demographic Shifts in the Czech Republic after 1989: A Second Demographic Transition View

A dramatic change in fertility,family formation and living arrangements tookplace in the Czech Republic over the 1990s. Theestablishment of democracy, profound socialtransformation and transition to the marketeconomy affected the values and demographicbehaviour of the young Czech generation. Thispaper examines whether these demographic shiftscan be interpreted within the framework of thesecond demographic transition. The theoreticalpart discusses the idea of the transition,outlining three distinctive conceptualisations.Two of them – the view of the transition as aprogression of characteristic interrelateddemographic changes and a broader viewstressing the importance of underlyingideational factors – fit the Czech situationvery well. A comparison with the Netherlandsreveals that the onset of the transition in theCzech Republic may be clearly located in thefirst half of the 1990s, lagging two decadesbehind the Netherlands.     

Family Cap and Nonmarital Fertility: The Racial Conditioning of Policy Effects

Using an experimental design, this research examines the effect of the nation's first family cap on the births, abortions, and contraception use of over 8,000 women receiving public assistance in New Jersey. The family cap denies additional cash benefits to children conceived while the mother is receiving public assistance. Our research shows that a targeted welfare benefit manipulation does influence fertility behavior; however, the effect is conditioned by race. We find that Black women in the experimental group have a 21% lower birth rate and a 32% higher abortion rate than Black women in the control group. We do not find a birth effect for Hispanic or White women. We discuss the policy implications of the effects of a segmented family cap.     

Testing symmetry under a skew Laplace model

We develop tests of hypothesis about symmetry based on samples from possibly asymmetric Laplace distributions and present exact and limiting distribution of the test statistics. We postulate that the test statistic derived under the Laplace model is a rational choice as a measure of skewness and can be used in testing symmetry for other, quite general classes of skew distributions. Our results are applied to foreign exchange rates for 15 currencies.     

Trade-Offs Between Formal Home Health Care and Informal Family CareGiving

Using 1994 National Long Term Care Survey data, we estimated logistic regressions of formal and informal home health care use and hours. Home health care use and intensity were differentially impacted by chronic conditions, are higher for Medicaid enrollees and rural or small town residents, but lower for HMO enrollees. Decreases in the probability of home health care use increased informal instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) support four hours and decreased informal activities of daily living (ADL) support eight hours weekly. IADL caregiving substituted for formal care, but ADL caregiving declined with reductions in formal care. Public policy reducing formal home health care access may reduce informal ADL caregiving and increase informal IADL caregiving, producing net declines in support.     

社会资本与我国家族企业的发展

改革开放以来,我国家族企业迅速崛起。此现象按新古典经济学的理论无法解释,因为家族企业创业时既缺少物质资本,又缺少人力资本,也没有技术支持,甚至连存在的合法性都成问题。其实,经济增长不仅需要物质资本和人力资本,还需要社会资本。家族企业之所以在夹缝中突起,很大程度依靠其深厚的社会资本。但也要看到,如果社会资本不能应经济发展而提高,就可能走向反面,成为家族企业发展的障碍。     

Working Time,Gender and Family: An East‐West European Comparison

This article provides a comparison of three West European countries with five Central East European countries in respect of working time and the integration of work and family life. The countries are the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK in West Europe and Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia in Central East Europe. As well as providing an East–West comparison, the article also takes into account the differing institutional and policy contexts in the selected countries and the different routes to flexibility. A further aim of the article is to extend our understanding of the culture and values which underpin the organization of family and work in each country. Whilst there is a clear East–West divide, all eight countries demonstrate diverse routes to flexibility and different mixes of social policies and gender cultures which have lead to considerable differences in the integration of work and family life.     

家族企业管理机制创新探析

改革开放以来 ,我国私营经济获得了长足的发展 ,并为我国经济和社会发展做出了重要贡献 ,成为社会主义市场经济的重要组成部分。但随着市场外在条件和社会经济发展格局的变化 ,作为私营资本形式之一的家族企业 ,其自身的不适应性逐步凸现出来。克服家族式管理的不足 ,转换管理机制和管理方式 ,通过资本市场使家族企业完成由家庭化向专业化、由宗法化向市场化的转变 ,是使其真正做大做强的必由之路     

Residual analysis for spatial point processes (with discussion)

Summary.  We define residuals for point process models fitted to spatial point pattern data, and we propose diagnostic plots based on them. The residuals apply to any point process model that has a conditional intensity; the model may exhibit spatial heterogeneity, interpoint interaction and dependence on spatial covariates. Some existing ad hoc methods for model checking (quadrat counts, scan statistic, kernel smoothed intensity and Berman's diagnostic) are recovered as special cases. Diagnostic tools are developed systematically, by using an analogy between our spatial residuals and the usual residuals for (non-spatial) generalized linear models. The conditional intensity λ plays the role of the mean response. This makes it possible to adapt existing knowledge about model validation for generalized linear models to the spatial point process context, giving recommendations for diagnostic plots. A plot of smoothed residuals against spatial location, or against a spatial covariate, is effective in diagnosing spatial trend or co-variate effects. Q – Q -plots of the residuals are effective in diagnosing interpoint interaction.     

现代家庭和谐心理教育探析

构建和谐社会需要相适应的现代家庭教育,特别是家庭和谐心理教育。个体自身的心理和谐、人与自然的心理和谐、人与社会的心理和谐、人与人的心理和谐都给家庭和谐心理教育提出了新要求。家庭和谐心理教育要探索新形势下开展和谐心理教育的方法途径,实现家庭与家庭、家庭与学校、家庭与社会教育机构的良性互动,为建设和谐社会发挥作用。     

中国乡镇企业崛起的多维分析

乡镇企业随着中国社会变革和现代化进程的深入应运而生,其产业特征并不符合标准的转轨型经济模式,它诞生之初面对的是市场交易和私产受到严格限制的计划经济体制,贫困且对现代工业技术一无所知的农民是如何创办工业企业的,需要从多重角度分析。