Optimal Times to Contact Sample Households

Finding a suitable respondent at home is an essential and expensivecomponent of a household survey. This article reports on theresults of a study of the probabilities of finding someone aged14 or older at home and discusses the application of such datato survey design and budgeting.     

Marital splits and income changes: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

We provide new evidence about what happens to people's incomes when their or their parents' marital union dissolves using longitudinal data from waves 1--4 of the British Household Panel Survey. Marital splits are accompanied by substantial declines in real income for separating wives and children on average, whereas separating husbands' real income on average changes much less. Results are shown to be robust to the choice of income de®nition and degree of economies of scale built into the household equivalence scale, and are validated with information about respondents' assessments of how their personal ®nancial circumstances changed. In addition we analyse the extent to which the welfare state mitigates the size of the income loss for women and children relative to men, and document the accompanying changes in social assistance bene®t receipt and paid work, and maintenance income receipt and payment.     

Age at immigration and educational attainment

Cette analyse des données d'une étude sur la mobilité canadienne révèle que le niveau d'éducation atteint par les immigrants qui sont arrivés au Canada à temps pour suivre les cours d'école primaire, semble être plus élevé que le niveau atteint par ceux qui sont arrivés avant ou après cet âge. Toutefois, comme la plupart des différences entre les catégories d'âge à L'arrivée ne sont guère significatives, statistiquement parlant, et comme les valeurs des mesures concises de la relation globale sont peu élevées, il y a lieu de douter si L'âge à L'arrivée exerce en soi un effet direct sur le niveau d'éducation atteint. Ces résultats sont en opposition avec ceux publiés par Inbar et donnent très peu d'appui à celui-ci, dont les conclusions font croire que L'âge à L'arrivée entraîne des conséquences différentielles pour L'acculturation. Analysis of Canadian Mobility Study data reveals that educational attainment tends to be higher among those who immigrated to Canada during grade school years than among those who immigrated earlier or later. However, as most differences between age-at-immigration categories are not statistically significant and as values for summary measures of the overall relationship are low, there is reason to doubt that age at immigration, in itself, exercises a direct effect on educational attainment. These findings contrast sharply with those reported by Inbar and provide little support for his conclusion that age at immigration has differential consequences for acculturation.     

Adolescents in Care and their Social Workers: A Research Note

Summary There has recently been an increasing concern that young people,and especially those in residential care, should be encouragedto express their views, and that the views expressed shouldbe used in improving the care which they receive. The publicationof the Who Cares? booklet (Page and Clarke¹), and the emergenceof ‘Who Cares’ groups and the ‘Voice of theChild in Care’ organisation, is evidence of this concern.In sympathy with these developments has been a study of adolescents'perceptions of social workers, and a part of this research hasincluded a pilot study of the views of adolescents living intwo family group homes.     

When Women Run Against Men

The electorate's reactions to women congressional candidatesare examined using both election returns and survey data. Whenparty and incumbency are controlled candidate sex alone is foundto have little or no effect on election outcomes. A curiousinteraction is found between candidate sex and party, however.This is attributed to nomination patterns     

Transnational social work: using a wraparound model

In this article, we explore the wraparound approach of service delivery as a model for transnational social work. The wraparound model, used primarily within community‐based children's mental health services and child protection initiatives, has been effective when planning services for clients and their families with complicated needs, whose care has to be provided within a multiple provider context. Most social work is delivered nationally or internationally rather than trans‐nationally. In the article we outline how the model could be structured to meet the particular needs of transmigrants, including the involvement of NGOs and INGOs, and identify key obstacles and limitations.     

Using a Markov Chain to Construct a Tractable Approximation of an Intractable Probability Distribution

Abstract.  Let π denote an intractable probability distribution that we would like to explore. Suppose that we have a positive recurrent, irreducible Markov chain that satisfies a minorization condition and has π as its invariant measure. We provide a method of using simulations from the Markov chain to construct a statistical estimate of π from which it is straightforward to sample. We show that this estimate is 'strongly consistent' in the sense that the total variation distance between the estimate and π converges to 0 almost surely as the number of simulations grows. Moreover, we use some recently developed asymptotic results to provide guidance as to how much simulation is necessary. Draws from the estimate can be used to approximate features of π or as intelligent starting values for the original Markov chain. We illustrate our methods with two examples.     

ECONOMIES OF SCALE IN A MULTIPLANT TECHNOLOGY: EVIDENCE FROM THE OILPATCH

A unique micro data set detailing operating costs and technical characteristics of 133 Texas oil leases was used to estimate an econometric cost function, yielding a number of interesting findings. First, evidence of economies of scale in crude extraction implies additional gains from oil field unitization and helps explain the paradox that voluntary unitization often occurs in the later stages of a field's life. Second, marginal operating costs per well were found to be about 30 percent below average costs, explaining why many wells remain operational despite falling crude oil prices. Finally, the results confirmed a number of plausible technical relationships. For example, operating costs rise sharply with depth, explaining the existence of shallow, low-production stripper wells.