Awareness of low self-control: Theory and evidence from a homeless shelter

Survey measures of self-control provide a potential low-cost alternative to incentivized elicitation. However, asking respondents to introspect on their self-control problems may instead measure their awareness of them, especially in populations with low self-control. We illustrate this with the Ameriks, Caplin, Leahy, and Tyler (2007) survey, which captures self-control problems through the deviation between self-reported ideal and predicted behavior (Expected Deviation, ED). Previous empirical evidence from high income or highly educated populations correlates larger ED with worse outcomes. We theoretically show that the reverse will be true in settings where awareness can play a large role: when self-control is low and costly commitment devices are available. We empirically show that, for residents of a homeless shelter, ED is positively correlated to savings in shelter lockboxes, a costly commitment device. This correlation is stronger for those likely to experience more self-control problems: individuals with past addiction problems.     

基于行政记录人口普查方法的国际比较

开展基于行政记录的人口普查被视为有效破解传统人口普查难题的途径之一,亦是顺应大数据时代充分挖掘人口行政记录资源的必然之选。本文较系统地阐述了基于行政记录人口普查方法的基本框架,尝试对“完全模式”人口普查和“组合模式”人口普查的实施步骤进行解析。基于此,本文选择芬兰、奥地利、瑞士、荷兰四个国家,分普查基本情况、行政记录类型选择和基本记录库形成、已存在统计记录系统基本结构、专门组织的抽样调查设计、不同系统间的链接途径、新人口统计信息质量评估方法等六个维度,对实施基于行政记录的人口普查方法进行了国家比较。     

Facing Up to Underfunding: Equity and Retrenchment in Community Care

Local social services departments in the UK are expected to distribute their cash-limited budgets for community care in ways that achieve an equitable allocation of resources in situations where, with present levels of funding, they cannot meet all the needs with which they are presented. This paper discusses a case study of the introduction of a "needs-based" formula to allocate a local authority's budget for home care services and a follow-up survey to investigate whether services reached the people intended to benefit. The article argues that the "gatekeeping" role of community care assessments is important to safeguard equity without the inflexibility of highly standardized tests of eligibility. However, with the new Labour government seeking to reduce dependency on public expenditure, and a growing lobby for national standards of social care, it will be increasingly important that local authorities justifiy their different practices with evidence about how they relate to local needs.     

Safety culture as an ongoing process: Culture surveys as opportunities for enquiry and change

In their efforts to enhance performance and use resources efficiently the nuclear power industry, along with many other industries, has turned to the improvement of 'culture'. This paper presents an example of one department at a nuclear power plant that faced an apparent problem with its safety culture. This department responded in a creative way that opened up possibilities for self-assessment and learning. In particular, although members of the department used a safety culture survey as a key part of self-assessment, the survey was understood to be an entry point into group interviews and collective discussions with change implications. The safety culture project revealed some surprises about the safety culture and work culture of the plant. In an atmosphere of mostly positive improvements following an earlier crisis, there were some issues that needed management attention. The safety culture survey and group interviews found that safety was not understood consistently and comprehensively, communications up and down the hierarchy were not always effective, and supervisors were being placed in weak positions without the resources to carry out their expanding roles. Management took steps to address these issues and continues to rely on a variety of feedback and communication mechanisms. It tends to hold these survey and enquiry techniques in reserve, as a reactive response when issues arise, although they could also be used as a periodic opportunity for dialogue.     

Happy by What Standard? The Role of Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Comparisons in Ratings of Happiness

The present research suggests that many of the most commonly-used indicators of happiness are constructed in a manner that renders them susceptible to null or misleading findings. While few happiness indicators specify particular comparison standards, we demonstrate that people tend to evaluate their happiness relative to comparison standards and give reliably different happiness ratings based on the comparison standards they spontaneously adopt. In Study 1, participants reported that intrapersonal comparisons were a more important consideration than interpersonal comparisons in determining their happiness ratings. In Study 2, participants using a free-response format more frequently reported making intrapersonal comparisons than interpersonal comparisons when rating happiness. In both Studies 1 and 2, participants who reported using interpersonal comparisons gave higher happiness ratings than those who reported using intrapersonal comparisons. In Study 3, participants who were prompted to make interpersonal comparisons gave higher happiness ratings than those prompted to make intrapersonal comparisons. We discuss the implications of these findings for measuring subjective well-being and interpreting happiness research.

An alternative sampling strategy for obtaining child health data in a reproductive health survey

Retrospective demographic surveys typically collect substantial information about child health. This information is often collected for all children born during a specified period. For women with several young children, the interview can become quite long. To shorten the interview, some surveys have asked child health questions only for the last child born. However, data on the last birth may be biased because last children have a younger age distribution and have longer subsequent birth intervals than does the average child. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach to collecting child health data - that child health questions be asked only for a child chosen randomly from among the respondent's children younger than age five. This alternative has the advantage of keeping the interview shorter but does not lead to biased information.Abbreviations DHS Demographic and Health Surveys     

Fertility In England: A Long-Term Perspective

This paper deals with two aspects of long-run fertility trends in England. First detailed and widely comparable fertility measures (Coale's indices) are reconstructed for England from the mid-sixteenth century to the present. Secondly the extent and nature of local and regional variation in those indices is discussed. The calculation of Coale's indices has never previously been attempted for so long a time span. Doing so requires the use of several different sources of information and a new method for combining them. The results provide significant insights into the development of the distinctive English demographic regime. The analysis of spatial patterns makes it apparent that local, rather than regional, variation was the main source of different fertility patterns in the nineteenth century. These patterns are obscured when counties or larger units are made the framework for analysis.     

The state and future of social service enterprises—a Finnish case

There has been a rapid increase in private social services in Finland, where the tradition of social care services has placed the main emphasis on public services. The aim of this article is to compare the situation of Finnish social service enterprises in 2001 and 2005/2006, in the light of two national surveys, in order to increase knowledge about the state and the future of such enterprises as providers of social care. Particular attention is paid to the profiles of men and women as entrepreneurs, as these differed somewhat. The composition of private care enterprises and their management remained fairly similar between 2001 and 2005/2006. Most of the enterprises were owned by middle-aged women with an extensive experience of social and health care. The owners of the older enterprises were more pessimistic about the future than the owners of the more recently-established firms. Social workers have not been active in setting up firms, but the public–private processes should be steered and evaluated from the social work perspective, too, because they are actors who have a relevant part to play in the long-term co-operation and development work of public and private social services.     

空间定位抽样技术:民意调查中的新方法

在我国进行的民意调查中,研究者们无论采取哪种具体抽样方法,均需要以居委会提供的户口登记信息为抽样基础。随着我国流动人口数量的不断增大,依靠户籍信息抽样容易导致抽样覆盖范围存在偏差。在此背景下,空间定位抽样技术应运而生,该方法作为一种崭新的调查技术,使被调查对象的人口特征更具有代表性,对较为敏感的民意研究具有开创性地意义。本文阐述了传统抽样技术的弊端,介绍了空间定位抽样技术的兴起过程,并对该技术的具体实施步骤及难点进行了解析,最后提出了该法的两大适用条件。