THE IMPACT OF SKILL ON UNION MEMBERSHIP:

A worker's occupation and industry position in the economy primarily determine gender differences in union membership. However, the data reveal that these economic structural factors are not alone responsible. A specific strategy for rethinking the problem examines bargaining power; skill has been identified as a central factor in worker power. Feminists maintain that gender mediates manual skill's effect on union membership. Logistic regression techniques that test for gender interaction effects support the feminist perspective. Manual skill produces lower rates of union membership for women than men with comparable skills.     

Nonparametrics: The Early Years—Impressions and Recollections

In 1942 Wolfowitz introduced the term nonparametric into the statistical literature to call attention to the need for extending then-existing statistical theory beyond the customary parametric framework. Subsequently, statistical methods that did not depend on a strictly parametric setup became known as nonparametric methods. This article surveys developments in nonparametrics roughly up to 1960. The suggestion is made that statistics might be better served by eliminating the term nonparametric altogether from the statistical vocabulary.     

Exposure to Client Trauma,Secondary Traumatic Stress,and the Health of Clinical Social Workers: A Mediation Analysis

While it is widely acknowledged that providing services to traumatized populations may negatively impact the mental health of clinicians, little is known about the impact of exposure to traumatized clients and secondary traumatic stress on the physical health status of clinicians. As such, the twofold purpose of this study was to: (1) document the prevalence of STS in a national (US) sample of clinical social workers, and (2) to examine the relationships between exposure to client trauma, STS, and perceived health of clinical social workers. Specifically, we sought to determine if STS mediates the relationship between exposure to client traumas and perceived health. Results indicate clinicians experience intrusion symptoms most frequently, and a significant portion report arousal and avoidance symptoms. Mediation analyses revealed that exposure to traumatized client populations indirectly influenced clinical social workers’ physical health perceptions by way of secondary traumatic stress. Findings call for increased attention toward prevention and amelioration of secondary traumatic stress symptomology among direct service providers, given both its prevalence and potential impact on physical health. Directions for future research are discussed.     

The Stability of Rankings Derived From Composite Indicators: Analysis of the “IL Sole 24 Ore” Quality of Life Report

The calculation of composite indicators and the derivation of respective rankings is a common method used to benchmark countries or regions. However, although the statistical robustness of these rankings is often criticised, they often still spark off heated political debate. Here, we assess the sensitivity of the province ranking published by the Italian economics newspaper “Il Sole 24 Ore”. For this purpose, various weighting, normalising and aggregation schemes were compared. Furthermore, to assess the accuracy of the underlying model, confidence intervals were calculated for the indicator values. The dynamic properties of the rankings were also analysed by evaluating the short- and long-term forecast properties of the rankings.     

Pathways to Economic Security: Gender and Nonstandard Employment in Contemporary Japan

Compiling data from several government surveys, this article identifies key social indicators of economic security associated with nonstandard employment in Japan. Empirical trends of nonstandard employment are contextualized in the development of Japanese coordinated capitalism from the economic boom during the 1960s through the recession of the 1990s to the turn of the 21st Century. A case study of Japan, with its high relative and absolute numbers of nonstandard workers, can reveal what happens to economic security when neoliberalism increasingly encroaches on a highly regulated employment relations system. The dramatic increase of nonstandard employment, particularly among women, is rooted in the design of the institutional architecture supporting pillars of the Japanese employment system and its mode of regulation. Based on interviews and a review of labour laws, the article chronicles regulatory reform aimed at stimulating the growth of nonstandard employment as a cheap source of labor with few benefits and limited employment protections. The final section concludes with a proposal for reframing social policies to advance economic security in Japan.

Multivariate Stochastic Volatility via Wishart Processes: A Comment

This comment refers to an error in the methodology for estimating the parameters of the model developed by Philipov and Glickman for modeling multivariate stochastic volatility via Wishart processes. For estimation they used Bayesian techniques. The derived expressions for the full conditionals of the model parameters as well as the expression for the acceptance ratio of the covariance matrix are erroneous. In this erratum all necessary formulae are given to guarantee an appropriate implementation and application of the model.