Individual and Institutional Constraints: An Analysis of Parental Leave Use and Duration in Spain

This paper analyzes the extent to which individual characteristics, the workplace situation, and regional policies influence the use and duration of parental leave in Spain. The research is based on a sample of 125,165 individuals, and 6,959 parental leaves covered in the “Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales” (MCVL-2006). The MCVL consists of administrative register data, which include information from three different sources: The social security system, municipal and income tax Registers. We adopt a simultaneous equations approach to analyze the determinants of the use (logistic regression) and duration (event history analysis) of parental leave, which allows us to control for endogeneity and censored observations. Our results suggest that the Spanish parental leave scheme increases gender and social inequalities, insofar as it reinforces gender role specialization, and only encourages the reconciliation of work and family life among workers with a good position in the labor market (educated employees with a high and stable work status).     

Identity and Trauma in Adolescents Within the Context of Political Violence: A Psychosocial and Communitarian View

The author explores the concept of identity as a frame of analysis in adolescents responding to various actual experiences of trauma. The author looks into numerous themes including the impact of broken identities, different ways of understanding the “victim identity”, the identities of trauma, the role of transitions, as well as identity dilemmas. By examining the experience of young Mapuche in South America, the experience of war and political violence in Mexico and el Salvador, the identity of displaced young people in Colombia, and a multilevel analysis of child suicides among the Embera ethnic group in Choco, Colombia, a psychosocial and communitarian analysis of the impact of violence and war on youth is offered.     

The Interrelations Between Cohabitation,Marriage and First Birth in Germany and Sweden

We study the interrelationships between union-formation forms and fertility in Swedish and West German female cohorts born in 1949–1971. We apply simultaneous hazard models, permitting the presence of correlated unobserved heterogeneity. This method allows us to control for country-specific composition of the population with respect to several socio-economic variables, as well as with respect to unobserved factors jointly affecting childbearing and union formation behavior. Our results confirm that partnership formation and the transition to parenthood are partially interchangeable. Net of those selection effects, we find that the impact of being in a union on first birth is higher in Sweden than in Germany, in particular for cohabitation.     

中国的“魅力”

2013年3月15日,沈阳师范大学文学院为了让外国研究生更深入地了解中国、了解中国人的精神风貌,在老师们的带领下来到了抚顺雷锋纪念馆进行参观。我身为文学院的外国研究生之一参加了这次活动。在这次活动中也进一步了解了关于雷锋的生平,学会了更多处人处事的道理。我来到抚顺雷锋纪念馆之前对雷锋及他的事迹一点都不了解,只是偶尔听到老师在课堂上提过几次。不过,参观雷锋纪念馆之后,雷锋的精神感染了我,他的精神改变了我的思想。从他的处事态度中,我们应该学会要设身处地为别人着想,不能什么事情都光想着自己,也可以说,不能做一个自私的人。     

Gender Gaps in Educational Outcomes Among Children of New Migrants: The Role of Social Integration from a Comparative Perspective

This article reviews current research on gender gaps in educational outcomes among children of new migrants (first, 1.5, and second generations) from a comparative cross‐national perspective. The article examines potential explanations for why gendered differences in educational outcomes among immigrants (vis‐à‐vis non‐migrants) continue to occur, focusing on individual, schooling, and institutional factors. For example, while gender gaps in expectations and aspirations as well as some cognitive outcomes are increasing (reading ability is considerably higher among females) and shrinking in specific subjects (e.g. math and science ability is slightly higher among boys), that process often has been less explored within and across immigrant vis‐à‐vis non‐immigrant students. We show that in some countries, gender gaps among disadvantaged ethnic minorities (in relation to other groups) continue to persist and are exacerbated by institutional factors. These disadvantages vary not only across different educational systems and at different rates over time but also are based on students' social background. Overall, we argue that these educational inequalities are key to understanding not only the socioeconomic and future political adaptation of migrants and their children but also future social policy developments in the European Union context.     

Beyond convergence: unveiling variations of external franchise in Latin America and the Caribbean from 1950 to 2015

A growing literature deals with the models that states have developed to reach out to their emigrant communities. The literature covers a wide range of initiatives, most notably electoral policies. In this line of research, we present a comparative view of the citizenship policies of Latin American and Caribbean states using a data set that includes information (yearly observations from 1950 to 2015) of the external franchise policies of 22 countries. First, this paper describes the scope of inclusion of non-resident citizens in terms of electoral rights. Second, we study the evolution over time of the external franchise policies of the countries under study. Despite cultural, historical and obvious geographic commonalities across countries, the analyses reveal that the convergence trend in the external franchise policies developed by Latin American and Caribbean countries is limited to a most general level. Below that level many variations in terms of specific electoral rights, types and venues of representation of emigrants are observable. These variations range from exclusion of non-resident citizens in terms of electoral rights, to full inclusion, when emigrants have active and passive electoral rights in all the national elections held in the states of origin (presidential and/or legislative).     

TRADE LIBERALIZATION AND FIRM PRODUCTIVITY: ESTIMATION METHODS MATTER

In this paper, we show that the relationship between trade liberalization and firm productivity is sensitive to the method used to estimate the production function. We estimate the productivity of Colombian manufacturing plants using the methods of Levinsohn and Petrin, Ackerberg et al., and Gandhi et al. and at times come to surprisingly different conclusions about firm productivity growth after the liberalization. Results from a growth decomposition exercise and from a quantile regression model reinforce the dissimilarity of results across methods. (JEL F13, 14, D24, C14)     

Cohabitation, Marriage, and First Birth: The Interrelationship of Family Formation Events in Spain

In this paper, we investigate (1) the mutualcausal relationship between first unionformation and first childbirth, and (2) theexistence of constant unmeasured determinantsshared by these two events. We argue that thesedeterminants mainly consist of valueorientations that are heterogeneous in thepopulation. We apply event-history techniquesto retrospective survey data on Spain, allowingfor unobserved heterogeneity components whichsimultaneously affect the two processes. Ourfindings confirm the existence of a strongselection effect, which influences both unionformation and first birth. When controlling forthese shared factors, we find that the risk ofconception increases immediately at marriage,and it continues to be high during thefollowing four years. Entry into cohabitation,in contrast, produces a much smaller increasein the relative risk of conception. The effectof conception on union formation isparticularly strong during pregnancy, but itdeclines sharply after delivery.