Bibliographical Note

In England in the Middle Ages, inheritance data were recorded of tenants who owned land from the Crown. Male adult mortality is estimated from these data. A tenant was allowed to sell his land. Only if he still owned land at death, his age at death was observed; so death was right censored by sell of all the land. The censoring times are not observed because sell of land was never recorded. This makes the estimation problem nonstandard. The age at death is left truncated, because a future tenant had to survive his testator to inherit the title “tenant” and the land and to appear in the dataset. Life span distribution and life expectancy are estimated before and during the outbreak of the Black Death, which started in 1348.     

Retrospective Earnings Data: Some Solutions for Old Problems

In this study using the recall method to collect longitudinalsalary data, it was found that information on past earningsis not substantially less accurate than that obtained for currentsalary. Retrospective information on earnings could be a usefulalternative to the costlier and more time-consuming panel operation.     

The multiplicity of citizenship: transnational and local practices and identifications of middle‐class migrants

In this article we focus on local and transnational forms of active citizenship, understood as the sum of all political practices and processes of identification. Our study, conducted among middle‐class immigrants in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, indicates that the importance of active transnational citizenship should not be overstated. Among these immigrants, political practices are primarily focused on the local level; political practices directed to the home country appear to be quite rare. However, although transnational activities in the public sphere are rather exceptional, many immigrants do participate in homeland‐directed activities in the private sphere. If we look at processes of identification, we see that a majority of the middle‐class immigrants have a strong local identity. Many of them combine this local identification with feelings of belonging to people in their home country.     

Reactive transnationalism: homeland involvement in the face of discrimination

In this article we examine whether migrants' perceived discrimination in the country of settlement leads to an increase of their transnational involvement. So far, this so‐called ‘reactive transnationalism’ has not been studied extensively. Based on literature on discrimination and transnationalism, reactive transnationalism is expected to be most prominent among socioeconomically successful migrants, particularly among males and those who consider themselves Muslims. Our research among middle‐class migrants in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, indeed shows that the more respondents experienced discrimination, the more transnationally involved they are, both regarding transnational identifications and transnational activities. While no gender difference was found regarding reactive transnational activities, for women perceived discrimination proves to lead to stronger instead of weaker transnational identifications than for men. The fact that no difference was found between Muslim and non‐Muslim respondents regarding reactive transnationalism suggests that, despite heated public debates about ‘Islam’, in the Netherlands, ethnic divides – being considered as ‘Dutch’ or ‘non‐Dutch’ – are even more prominent than religious ones.     

COMPETITIVE PRIORITIES: INVESTIGATING THE NEED FOR TRADE‐OFFS IN OPERATIONS STRATEGY

A heated debate continues over the need for trade‐offs in operations strategy. Some researchers call for plants to focus on a single manufacturing capability and devote their limited resources accordingly, while others claim that advanced manufacturing technology (amt) enables concurrent improvements in quality, cost, flexibility, and delivery. Yet there is little empirical evidence for or against the trade‐off model. In response, this study addresses the question: “To what extent do manufacturing plants view competitive priorities as trade‐offs?” We employ survey data collected from managers and operators in 110 plants that have recently implemented AMT. Our findings suggest that trade‐offs remain. However, perceived differences in competitive priorities are subtle and may vary across levels of the plant hierarchy.