The validity of survey responses on abortion: Evidence from Estonia

This paper presents results of a validation survey of abortion conducted in Tallinn, Estonia in April and May 1992. The sample was drawn from patient records in a maternity hospital. Women who had an abortion in that hospital in 1991 were asked about recent abortions as part of a survey about women’s health. More than 80% of the respondents reported having a recent abortion. Some respondents misreported their abortion as a miscarriage. Moreover, some variation in reporting was associated with respondents’ characteristics. Ethnic Estonians were less likely to report their abortion than were Russians, women over age 40 were less likely to report the abortion than younger women, and women who had the abortion late in the first trimester were less likely to report that abortion. There was some evidence that unmarried women were less likely than married women to report their abortion, and that women who had borne three or more children were less likely to report their abortion than women who had borne fewer children. These differences probably stem from the extent to which pregnancy or abortion is considered stigmatizing for women in different situations.     

城市的精神

面对全球化的挑战,城市风尚具有越来越重要的政治意蕴.这是因为,全球化正在使不同的文化传统、不同的生活方式迅速同一化和均质化,在国家层面,对抗这种同一化和均质化是相当困难的,而在城市层面,城市风尚的培养或恢复可以有效地保护文化多样性.     

How do marital status,work effort,and wage rates interact?

How marital status interacts with men's earnings is an important analytic and policy issue, especially in the context of debates in the United States over programs that encourage healthy marriage. This paper generates new findings about the earnings-marriage relationship by estimating the linkages among flows into and out of marriage, work effort, and wage rates. The estimates are based on National Longitudinal Survey of Youth panel data, covering 23 years of marital and labor market outcomes, and control for unobserved heterogeneity. We estimate marriage effects on hours worked (our proxy for work effort) and on wage rates for all men and for black and low-skilled men separately. The estimates reveal that entering marriage raises hours worked quickly and substantially but that marriage's effect on wage rates takes place more slowly while men continue in marriage. Together; the stimulus to hours worked and wage rates generates an 18%-19% increase in earnings, with about one-third to one-half of the marriage earnings premium attributable to higher work effort. At the same time, higher wage rates and hours worked encourage men to marry and to stay married. Thus, being married and having high earnings reinforce each other over time.     

Sarah was a butch: sexual identity, gender practices, and Sarah's place as mother in the Jewish National Pantheon

Three fields of discourse regarding a masculine-like woman connect at a point that the queer field calls intersex, medical practice calls a sexual disorder, and rabbinic literature terms aylonit. The queer discursive field focuses on the freedom to choose an identity, but not the freedom from choosing one. The medical field focuses on sexual practice as the source of determining "normal" sexuality. In the discursive field of Jewish law there are no demands, because the Halakhic authority determines gender identity on behalf of the individual, maintaining ambiguity.     

Job turnover, wage rates, and marital stability: How are they related?

This study examines the interplay between job stability, wage rates, and marital stability. We use a Dynamic Selection Control model in which young men make sequential choices about work and family and estimate the model using an approach that takes account of self-selection, simultaneity and unobserved heterogeneity. The results quantify how job stability affects wage rates, how both affect marital status, and how marital status affects earnings and job stability. The study reveals robust evidence that job changes lower wages and the likelihood of getting married and remaining married. At the same time, marriage raises wage rates and job stability. To project the sequential effects linking job change, marital status, and earnings, we simulate the impacts of shocks that raise preferences for marriage and that increase education. Feedback effects cause the simulated wage gains from marriage to cumulate over time, indicating that long-run marriage wage premiums exceed conventional short-run estimates.     

Electricity Cost as a Driver of Competitiveness in Northern Europe: The Case of Estonia

The Estonian electricity market will be fully opened in 2013. Given ever-stricter environmental standards limiting the use of domestically available oil shale as main fuel for electricity generation and expansion of regional power pools, it is widely believed that Estonia’s currently low electricity prices are set to increase. Authors argue that cost differentiation and regional competition will be based on transmission charges and add-on fees. Measuring exporting industry’s total electricity costs as a share of total production costs shows that for the majority of Estonian producers electricity costs make up only around 1–2 % of production costs, but noteworthy exceptions exist.     

The governance of nonprofit organizations: Law and public policy

Who should have the right to set the objectives of nonprofit organizations, hire their managers, set compensation standards, and in general control these organizations? Current law and public policy do not provide answers to these questions. Often, nonprofit organizations are controlled by managers and members of the boards of directors or trustees (many of whom are appointed by management). The goals of these individuals may not best serve the interests of those who support the operation of nonprofit organizations. This article proposes a legal and policy framework for empowering consumers, donors, and sponsors—those who have an economic demand for the nonprofit form of organization. The framework establishes a formal status of membership, accords standing in the court of law to members, enhances direct information dissemination by nonprofit organizations, and empowers state-sponsored agencies to support and oversee nonprofit organizations.     

Reviews

Beyond Hitler's Grasp. Michael Bar‐Zohar, Beyond Hitler's Grasp: The Heroic Rescue of Bulgaria's Jews (Holbrook MA: Adams Media Corporation 1998), 299pp.

Russian Jews Abroad. Evrei v kulture zarubezhnoy Hossii: Statii, publikatsii, vospominaniya, ocherki (Jews in the Culture of Russia Abroad: Articles, Publications, Memoirs and Essays), Vol. 5. Compiled and published by M. Parkhomovsky. Jerusalem 1996. 560pp. Index

Learning the Lessons of the Past. Istvan Pogany, Righting Wrongs in Eastern Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press 1997, xiv+226pp. Notes. Index. £45.00     

Sarah was a Butch: Sexual Identity,Gender Practices,and Sarah's Place as Mother in the Jewish National Pantheon

Three fields of discourse regarding a masculine-like woman connect at a point that the queer field calls intersex, medical practice calls a sexual disorder, and rabbinic literature terms aylonit. The queer discursive field focuses on the freedom to choose an identity, but not the freedom from choosing one. The medical field focuses on sexual practice as the source of determining “normal” sexuality. In the discursive field of Jewish law there are no demands, because the Halakhic authority determines gender identity on behalf of the individual, maintaining ambiguity.