The Effect of Urbanization on China’s Fertility

The relationship between urbanization and fertility decline is known to be inverse in developed countries. However, the nature of this relationship in developing countries that already have relatively low fertilities is not well-understood. This study aims to illustrate how much urbanization contributed to China’s fertility decline between 1982 and 2008 and forecasts how much it can contribute to future reductions in fertility. The study examines changes in the total fertility rate (TFR) at both the national and provincial levels, given regional differences in the urbanization rate. The results show that changes in rural fertility behavior accounted for most of the decline in the national TFR between 1982 and 2008. This finding suggests that official birth control policies were instrumental in curbing China’s population growth. However, urbanization was responsible for about 22% of the decrease in TFR during this period, and its effect was especially important during the latter years (2001–2008). In most provinces, urbanization associated with a decline in provincial-level fertility. The forecasts indicate that urbanization will become the primary factor behind future declines in national fertility. Given the negative effect of urbanization on the TFR, it is possible to relax the one-child policy without having adverse implications for population growth.     

Risk Communication in The Netherlands: The Monitored Introduction of the EC "Post-Seveso" Directive

Implementation of article 8.1 of the EC-"Seveso" Directive (82/501/EC) is now under way in many countries in Europe. In The Netherlands, the implementation of the Directive started with a carefully monitored introduction of active information provision at two sites (Dordrecht and Elst). This introduction was supported by a multidisciplinary research group. This group helped to develop the risk communication program and also played a role in the evaluation of the program. This paper describes these processes and their evaluation. We will focus on the design of the risk communication programs and the effects of the programs on knowledge and attitudes of the local target groups. This effort and its results clearly started an institutional learning process involving governmental bodies at several organizational levels (local, regional, and national), and industrial organizations (individual firms and organizations of industries). Monitoring the design, the implementation, and the effects of active information provision proves an effective means to gain experience with the implementation of the Seveso Directive and could help to facilitate further implementation.     

Innovation in education: Technological economics

Technological change and innovation are vital parts of the economy. This paper concerns one particular attempt to study both the process of innovation itself and possible means of increasing its effectiveness: Technological Economics. Barriers to innovation, intellectual and organizational, are described from the experience at the University of Stirling.     

Repartnering after first union disruption

Using data from the 1995 General Social Survey (N= 2,639), this study examines two competing repartnering choices made by Canadians after first union disruption: marriage or cohabitation. About 42% of women and 54% of men form a second union 5 years after union disruption, with cohabitation being the most prevalent choice. The timing of second union formation is more rapid among former cohabitors than among the divorced. Widowhood is an acute barrier to repartnering. Gender is the most crucial determinant in the repartnering process; men have a higher rate of second union formation than women. The hazard rate of second union formation also varies by age at union disruption, duration of the first union, prior fertility (for men only), education, employment, and religion.     

The Correlates of Self-Assessed Community Belonging in Canada: Social Capital,Neighbourhood Characteristics,and Rootedness

This study examines the extent to which a single-item question on sense of community belonging captures the multi-dimensionality of the underlying concept. Many studies use multi-item scales to measure the different dimensions of this concept, but including extensive questions on community belonging in large surveys is often impractical given constraints on survey lengths and budgets. Having an economical and robust measure provides considerable scope for future studies to consider the effects of community belonging without reliance on multi-item scales. Drawing on several large, nationally representative Canadian surveys, the study shows that self-assessed community belonging is a parsimonious measure of a broad range of factors that pertain to local social relations, neighbourhood characteristics, and place attachment. Social capital yields the strongest correlations, and also plays an important mediating role vis-à-vis other variables. However, neighbourhood characteristics (e.g., perceptions of area crime, the built environment) and “rootedness” (e.g., duration of residence in an area) are also significantly correlated with sense of community belonging, independent of individuals’ strength of social capital.     

Repartnering After Union Dissolution in Later Life

The authors estimated the timing of repartnering among individuals who had experienced a union dissolution at age 45 or older, treating cohabitation and marriage as competing risks. The analysis used retrospective data from the 2007 Canadian General Social Survey and life table analysis and Cox models to examine patterns of repartnering. The study offered three major conclusions. First, age constraints on repartnering are large when union dissolution occurs in midlife or later. This age constraint is particularly strong for women and contributes to a wide gender gap in repartnering. Second, in contrast to repartnering at earlier life stages, cohabitation is not the predominant choice of repartnering for those experiencing union dissolution at age 45 and older. Third, union exit status (divorce, cohabitation separation, and widowhood) is a key repartnering differential. The most disadvantageous routes to repartnering are through the experience of cohabitation separation and widowhood.     

Race, ethnicity, and depression in Canadian society

This study examines racial/ethnic differences in mental health using data from the 1996-97 National Population Health Survey. Three hypotheses are tested. First, a socioeconomic hypothesis tests if differences in family income, education, and low income explain racial/ethnic mental health variation. Second, a social resources hypothesis tests if differences in social support explain racial/ethnic mental health variation. Finally, an interaction hypothesis tests if mental health variation stems from specific interactions of race/ethnicity with economic and social factors. Although there are socioeconomic, social resource, and interaction effects, the analysis shows that they do not fully explain racial/ethnic mental health variation. Overall, our results suggest that East and Southeast Asian, Chinese, South Asian, and black Canadians have better mental health than English Canadians. Jewish Canadians have poorer mental health than English Canadians. All other racial/ethnic groupings have similar mental health as English Canadians.