Axiomatic measurement of multidimensional well-being inequality: Some distributional questions

This paper focuses on two main issues which are crucial for improving on the analysis of multidimensional inequality: the effect of both the dispersion of well-being attributes across individuals and the interaction among attributes on the measurement of multidimensional well-being. To approach these distributional questions we rely on the Atkinson, Kolm, Sen (hereafter AKS) methodology, which defines a multidimensional inequality index consistent with the Pigou–Dalton principle. This index can be decomposed into univariate indexes belonging to the class of AKS indexes, and a residual term accounting for the interaction across dimensions. The empirical application investigates the evolution of inequality in well-being across some EU countries between 1994 and 2001.Since the multidimensional index depends on the values assigned to the parameters, we test the sensitivity of the trend in well-being to the degree of inequality aversion on each dimension. Our empirical results summarize the evolution of inequality for the indicators of well-being considered both separately and jointly, over time and across countries.     

Exploring the relation between maternal mind‐mindedness and children’s symbolic play: A longitudinal study from 6 to 18 months

Relations between mothers’ mind‐mindedness (appropriate attunement to their infants’ internal states) at 6 and 12 months and infants’ early symbolic play during infant–mother pretense at 12 and 18 months were investigated in a sample of 43 mothers and infants. Mothers’ appropriate mind‐related comments were associated with average level, length, complexity, and maturity level of symbolic play. Specific sub‐categories of appropriate mind‐related comments were identified as independent predictors of children's symbolic play. Appropriate comments about desires and cognitions at 6 months were associated with average level and length of episodes, as well as with maturity level of symbolic play at 12 months. Longitudinal stability in the appropriateness and content of mothers’ mind‐related comments was also investigated. The results are discussed in terms of the proposal that attunement to specific types of internal state should vary as a function of infant age in order to index mind‐mindedness.     

Nutritional Status from 1 to 15 Years and Adolescent Learning for Boys and Girls in Ethiopia,India, Peru,and Vietnam

Population Research and Policy Review - There has been little examination of: (1) associations of early-life nutrition and adolescent cognitive skills, (2) if they vary by gender, (3) if...     

Breadth of Vocational Interests: The Role of Career Adaptability and Future Orientation

The authors examined the relationship between career adaptability, future orientation, and vocational interests. Specifically, they tested the role of career adaptability and future orientation in promoting a broader range of vocational interests, based on the principle that experiencing more interests can be useful in giving one's best in multiple occupations and in planning a broad range of career goals. A total of 762 Italian adolescents (383 males, 379 females) participated in the study. Results highlight the mediating role of future orientation in the relationship between 4 career adaptability resources and breadth of vocational interests. These results underscore that specific interventions in career adaptability and future orientation may foster a broader range of vocational interests, providing more opportunity for adolescents to respond to the demands of the current job market.     

Subverting rules and reinforcing stereotypes: Italianness in Madonna of the Seven Moons

This article focuses on a key Gainsborough costume melodrama, Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944). Following the critical revaluation of the ‘woman's film’, feminist film scholars have celebrated Madonna's feminine aesthetics and extravagant Italian setting, seen as an alternative to the austerity of Britain's wartime self‐definition. Using this position as a point of debate, I explore some hitherto ignored implications of the film's representation of Italianness, arguing that Madonna actually reinforces national boundaries by relying on long‐established notions of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Italianness’, and owes its box‐office success to the validation of Italy's ambivalent place in British fantasy.     

Measurement of the quality of family planning services

The quality of health services is a subject of increasing interest to health care providers and organizations responsible for financing and promoting health services. The importance of the client's perspective (and by inference, the perspective of potential clients, as well) is now well established, but efforts to define and measure quality have thus far been limited to the perspective of experts even when the experts claim to speak for the clients. In this paper we utilize family planning programs to explore issues of the quality of health services. We propose that a better understanding of the view of quality actually held by family planning program clients will clarify the influence of quality on the use of services, a clarity that has not been possible by looking at quality only as defined by providers, managers or experts. We review the literature on quality of services and identify the gaps in research that must be filled if a better understanding of what quality is and how it relates to service outcomes is to be obtained. A first step must be the research required to develop a set of measures of quality that reflects the multi-dimensional nature of quality, includes the clients' view of services in the definition of quality, and incorporates methodologies required to ascertain the true view of clients. Finally, we suggest that dimensions of quality identified as important for clients as a group will be more predictive of use of services than dimensions identified as important to providers.     

How Many Labour Force States? An Analysis Based on the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)

Abstract. The motivation of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of the British labour force, using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). The goal is to examine whether there are statistically significant differences between the unemployed and non‐participants, as well as inside each of the two groups, considering their transitions in the job market. Using logistic regression for a pooled cross‐section time‐series sample of employed as well as non‐employed persons, three different Out of Work subgroups are identified: Seeking Out of Work, Attached Out of Work, and Voluntary Out of Work. The first group can be broadly assimilated to the official definition of unemployment, International Labour Organization unemployment, whereas all the others are usually classified as economically inactive. Nonetheless, the last two groups are characterized by significantly different transition rates, showing a behaviourally distinct attitude in their labour market dynamics. This result points out that the aggregate non‐employment has several dimensions, which are not caught by the distinction between unemployment and economic inactivity, and should be accounted for by policy makers and researchers.     

Machine learning and design of experiments with an application to product innovation in the chemical industry

Industrial statistics plays a major role in the areas of both quality management and innovation. However, existing methodologies must be integrated with the latest tools from the field of Artificial Intelligence. To this end, a background on the joint application of Design of Experiments (DOE) and Machine Learning (ML) methodologies in industrial settings is presented here, along with a case study from the chemical industry. A DOE study is used to collect data, and two ML models are applied to predict responses which performance show an advantage over the traditional modeling approach. Emphasis is placed on causal investigation and quantification of prediction uncertainty, as these are crucial for an assessment of the goodness and robustness of the models developed. Within the scope of the case study, the models learned can be implemented in a semi-automatic system that can assist practitioners who are inexperienced in data analysis in the process of new product development.     

Why the rise in adolescent fertility rates in the Dominican Republic in the 1990s?

Despite concern over high pregnancy rates and levels of risk for sexually transmittedinfections, adolescent fertility rates in the Dominican Republic have not changed substantially since the early 1980's, and actually increased during the early to mid 1990s. The present study was undertaken to assess the factors contributing to the recent rise in fertility among Dominican adolescents. The findings suggest that although contraceptive use among adolescents and young adults has increased, this has been more than offset by ominous trends on other determinants of fertility. Among these are declines in mean age at first sex and first marriage/union without a commensurate decline in mean age at first contraceptive use, and stubbornly high discontinuation rates for oral contraceptives andcondoms. There is also some evidence that rates of induced abortion among adolescents may have increased, without which adolescent fertility rates would have been even higher. Demand for children among Dominican adolescents remains strong, suggesting that efforts to reduce the current high prevalence of risky sexual behaviors need to influence social norms in order to be successful.