Working mothers and sons’ preferences regarding female labor supply: direct evidence from stated preferences

We investigate the argument that men who are raised by working mothers develop a preference that is favorable toward working women and, consequently, are more likely to have working wives. We test this hypothesis using the Japanese General Social Surveys 2000–2003. We directly examine the responses to the opinion survey’s questions regarding appropriate gender roles. The estimation results indicate that men raised by full-time working mothers are less likely to support traditional gender roles. Those men are also less likely to believe in the negative impact of a mother’s working on her children’s development.      

Peer effects on substance use among American teenagers

The widespread use of illicit substances by American teenagers has attracted the interest of both the general public and academic researchers. Among the various factors that people believe influence youth substance use, peer effects are identified as a critical determinant. Identifying peer effects, however, is known to be a difficult task. In an attempt to overcome known difficulties, I estimate peer effects on substance usage among American teenagers using perceived peer behavior in the National Longitudinal Survey Youth 97. The data indicate robust peer effects. Moreover, the results do not change substantially in school and household fixed effects estimations.This is a chapter of my Ph.D. dissertation submitted to Michigan State University. I am especially grateful to David Neumark for his constructive comments and continuous encouragement. I thank Jeff Biddle, Ali Berker, Frederic Durousseau, Gigi Foster, Daniel Hamermesh, John Strauss, Jeffrey Wooldridge, the participants in the labor economics workshop at Michigan State University and 2001 Joint Statistical Meeting, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. Scott Adams and David Wetzell gave me detailed comments, as well as advice on English. Donna Maurer provided careful editorial assistance. All remaining errors are, of course, my own. Due to a confidentiality agreement with the BLS on the usage of the NLSY 97 GeoCode file, the part of the dataset that is constructed from the GeoCode file cannot be released. Responsible editor: Daniel S. Hamermesh     

从当代日本媒体社会看耻辱感文化

“耻辱感”是日本人日常行为的驱动力的基本因素之一。而当今日本社会高度发达的经济和媒体,进一步强化了这一“耻辱感”文化。日本民众的耻辱感深层心理促进了日本社区集体意识的形成,也带来了一些负面影响。     

BRIDES FOR SALE: CROSS‐BORDER MARRIAGES AND FEMALE IMMIGRATION

Developed East Asian countries import a large number of women from abroad as brides every year, although such cross‐border marriages virtually did not exist 20 years ago. With a theoretical framework and empirical evidence, we argue that developed Asian countries' demand for foreign brides is the consequence of improvement in women's economic status and gender‐discriminative household arrangements that insufficiently incorporate women's improved status in marriage. We offer sets of empirical evidence in line with our argument, using various macro‐ and microlevel datasets. (JEL A12, J12, J61)     

Analyzing multiple endpoints in a confirmatory randomized clinical trial—an approach that addresses stratification,missing values,baseline imbalance and multiplicity for strictly ordinal outcomes

Confirmatory randomized clinical trials with a stratified design may have ordinal response outcomes, ie, either ordered categories or continuous determinations that are not compatible with an interval scale. Also, multiple endpoints are often collected when 1 single endpoint does not represent the overall efficacy of the treatment. In addition, random baseline imbalances and missing values can add another layer of difficulty in the analysis plan. Therefore, the development of an approach that provides a consolidated strategy to all issues collectively is essential. For a real case example that is from a clinical trial comparing a test treatment and a control for the pain management for patients with osteoarthritis, which has all aforementioned issues, multivariate Mann‐Whitney estimators with stratification adjustment are applicable to the strictly ordinal responses with stratified design. Randomization based nonparametric analysis of covariance is applied to account for the possible baseline imbalances. Several approaches that handle missing values are provided. A global test followed by a closed testing procedure controls the family wise error rate in the strong sense for the analysis of multiple endpoints. Four outcomes indicating joint pain, stiffness, and functional status were analyzed collectively and also individually through the procedures. Treatment efficacy was observed in the combined endpoint as well as in the individual endpoints. The proposed approach is effective in addressing the aforementioned problems simultaneously and straightforward to implement.     

THE EFFECTS OF GRADUATING FROM COLLEGE DURING A RECESSION ON LIVING STANDARDS

Graduating from college during a recession has persistent negative effects on labor-market outcomes. This study assesses the welfare impact of a recession at entry by analyzing family formation behaviors and asset holdings. Scrutiny of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) reveals that despite a decline in hourly wages, business cycle conditions at entry to the labor market do not affect family formation, car or home ownership, or net asset holdings in the long run. Evidence suggests that individuals who graduate in bad times tend to move to states with lower living costs to secure living standards. (JEL E21)     

地震救灾的健康管理:国际经验及启示

为克服中越冲地震带来的灾民健康恶化、疾病流行等危机，日本采取了医疗救助、心理干预、音乐演出以及高龄老人康复等大量措施，取得了较好的成效。其健康管理经验为中国抗震救灾提供了有益的借鉴，具体表现为：及时提供医疗救护及疾病预防；积极地进行心理危机干预；开展健康需求调查；营造平安、健康的避难环境。