WAGE DISCRIMINATION ACROSS ETHNIC GROUPS: EVIDENCE FROM ISRAEL

We investigate wage differentials between ethnic groups in Israel, proposing a new methodology and an illustration based on the latest Israeli census. By using separate wage equations for the various occupations, our methodology allows us to decompose the wage differential into three components: one reflecting human capital differences; one reflecting wage discrimination; and a third indicating occupational segregation. We find that 70 percent of the wage gap is due to segregation, 26 percent to wage discrimination and only 4 percent to human capital differences. Evidence is also found for the existence of duality in the Israeli labor market.     

The emergence of an Alpine environmental expertise

This article reports on the findings of research carried out on conflicts concerning major transport infrastructure projects in the Southern Alps. These conflicts were analyzed as delineating the gradual emergence of an environmental expertise network. Rather than fighting the administration and/or the transport operator in the field of transport, some opponents try to relocate the expertise into the field of the environment so as to catch the experts in the different administrations off guard. This resulting Alpine environmental expertise is based on the constitution of trans‐Alpine associative networks and the emergence of a constantly more supportive and structuring notion: sustainable development. In this article, we analyze the manner in which this notion is diffused and how it gradually builds up its definition in the course of action. The Alpine Agreement plays a major role in this operationalization: it constitutes a multilateral semantic point of reference for a variable Alpine policy and has influenced both major trans‐Alpine associative networks and official French land transport policy.     

An Individual Mixed‐Evaluation Method for Career Intervention

Economic issues linked to career counseling are a cause for concern to policy makers in developed countries because they expect career practitioners to provide evidence of the efficiency of career counseling interventions. The aim of this study was to test an individual evaluation method mixing time series (outcomes) and life narrative (processes). The method used 5 items related to 1 client's career decision self‐efficacy and studied the evolution of those items throughout the intervention of 1 career counselor (43 days). Changepoint analysis helped in identifying the changes that have to be taken into account for time series and which are contextualized in the client's verbatim analysis. This mixed method highlighted that the career counselor's intervention increased the client's career decision self‐efficacy. Practitioners could use the methodology proposed in this article to evaluate their interventions. They could also report their practice to clients, employers, and decision makers.     

Psychological Vulnerability and Problem Gambling: The Mediational Role of Cognitive Distortions

Despite numerous studies demonstrating the influence of cognitive distortions on gambling problem severity, empirical data regarding the role of psychological vulnerability on the latter is limited. Hence, this study assesses the mediating effect of cognitive distortions between psychological vulnerability (personality and mood), and gambling problem severity. It also verifies whether the relationships between these variables differs according to the preferred gambling activity. The sample is composed of 272 male gamblers [191 poker players; 81 video lottery terminal (VLT) players] aged between 18 and 82 years (M = 35.2). Bootstrap analysis results revealed that cognitive distortions mediate the effect of narcissism on gambling problem severity for both groups. The level of depression for VLT players significantly predicted gambling problem severity, both directly and indirectly via the mediating effect of cognitive distortions. Mediation analyses also indicated that narcissism had an indirect impact on problem gambling through cognitive distortions for both groups. These findings suggest that certain vulnerabilities related to personality and mood may influence cognitive distortion intensity and gambling problem severity. In addition, psychological vulnerabilities could differ based on preferred gambling activity. These results may be useful for prevention policies, identifying high risk gamblers and planning psychological interventions.     

Male gamblers – suicide victims and living controls: comparison of adversity over the life course

The objective of this research is to investigate the possible difference in accumulation of adversity over the life course among decedent gamblers and living control gamblers in the province of Quebec, Canada. A sample of 90 adult men, 41 living participants and 49 suicide decedents, met the criteria for at-risk and problem gambling over the last five years. Data were obtained from informants in the case of suicide and directly from living controls during semi-structured face-to-face interviews using SCID I and II, SOGS, Module K and a recount of life trajectories methodology. The results showed a high level of adversity throughout the life trajectories of both groups. However, the living gamblers faced more difficulties during their lifespan than the suicide victims. In the last six months before their death, suicide victims had a significantly higher number of mental health disorders, especially co-morbid mental health disorders and anxiety, compared to the living controls. We also observed a rapid escalation of difficulties, more life events and more psychological distress in the last six months of their lives among the suicide decedents. Suicidal behaviour needs to be carefully investigated by medical staff and mental health practitioners, especially when gamblers demonstrate evidence of mental health disorders or financial difficulties.     

Early Retirement: The Case of The Netherlands

ABSTRACT This article takes a closer look at the scope of actual early retirements, reasons for choosing early retirement, the popularity of different types of flexible retirement schemes, and the status of elderly employees within their own organization. It appears that positive reasons for choosing early retirement are more often mentioned by persons in higher professional groups, by those with a higher level of education, and by those who work in the civil service or the service sector. Neutral and negative reasons are mentioned more often by persons in lower professional groups, by those with a lower level of education, and by those working in the industrial sector. Although the motives for opting for early retirement differ, there do not appear to be great differences between categories of respondents if they have been able to choose their age at retirement personally, within specified age limits. Approximately a quarter of the respondents indicated they would leave work at the age of 60, even if this meant a 30% drop in net income.     

Regional Dispersion of Industrial Labour Costs in the European Community (1988)

ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to present a measure of regional labour costs in manufacturing industry in the European Community in 1988. As raw data, derived from the Eurostat Labour Cost Survey, are strongly dependent on sectoral distribution of employment in each region, a method is presented, based on reweighting techniques and loglinear modelling, to eliminate the composition effect. As a result, a regular geographical pattern does emerge. The same type of technique is then applied to the evolution of regional labour costs between 1984 and 1988; some correlation does appear with regional unemployment levels in the United Kingdom and France, pointing the way towards further research.     

Using the Shapley Decomposition to Disentangle the Impact of Circumstances and Efforts on Health Inequality

Following previous work on inequality in health opportunity, this paper attempts to determine the contribution of circumstances, efforts and lifestyle, and demographic variables to the overall inequality in health in Luxembourg. Health is measured via the answers given to a question on self-assessed health and is considered as an ordinal variable. The educational level of each parent, the financial situation of the family during childhood, the area of birth of the individual, and of his/her parents, and the year of immigration are considered as circumstances. Effort and lifestyle variables are proxied by information on the educational level of the individual, whether he/she smoked and whether he/she had a physical activity on a regular basis. Sex and age are considered as demographic variables. To solve the issue of correlation between circumstances and effort and lifestyle the estimation is implemented in two stages. In the first stage, each effort and lifestyle variable is regressed in a separate equation against the vector of circumstances and demographic variables and, in a second stage, the individual health status is regressed against the vector of circumstances and demographic variables along with the estimated residuals of the effort equations described previously. The respective impacts of the three categories of explanatory variables (circumstances, effort and lifestyle and demographic variables) on health inequality are derived via a Shapley decomposition of the likelihood ratio of the health ordered logit regression. It appears that differences in circumstances and effort and lifestyle explain each around a quarter of this likelihood ratio.