A simple estimator for a shared frailty regression model

Summary. We propose a simple estimation procedure for a proportional hazards frailty regression model for clustered survival data in which the dependence is generated by a positive stable distribution. Inferences for the frailty parameter can be obtained by using output from Cox regression analyses. The computational burden is substantially less than that of the other approaches to estimation. The large sample behaviour of the estimator is studied and simulations show that the approximations are appropriate for use with realistic sample sizes. The methods are motivated by studies of familial associations in the natural history of diseases. Their practical utility is illustrated with sib pair data from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.     

Race and exits from white collar jobs: Differences in downward mobility processes among African American, Latino, and White males

Does race affect the route to downward mobility from white collar occupations? Data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics are used to assess the minority vulnerability thesis, which maintains there are race-specific processes of down ward occupational mobility among males from white collar occupations. Findings indicate that, consistent with theory, a racialized continuum exists across six years of the work-career. For Whites, the path to downward mobility is relatively narrow and structured by traditional stratification-based causal factors, namely, human capital, back ground socioeconomic status, and job/labor market characteristics. For African Americans, the route to downward mobility is broad-based and not captured by traditional stratification factors and Latinos occupy an intermediate ground between Whites and African Americans. Further, as predicted by theory, the racial gap in mobility processes between Whites and racial minorities is pronounced at the lower-tier of white collar employment. Finally, implications of the findings for understanding labor market inequalities on the basis of race are discussed.     

The stratification of universities: Structural inequality in Canada and the United States

This paper conceives national systems of higher education as stratified populations of organizations. This stratification is a structural component of ‘horizontal inequality’ in higher education, and may be exacerbated by current pressures for colleges and universities to compete for resources and status. To explore this structural inequality, we compare the level of stratification in financial resources across four-year institutions in Canada and the United States over a 35-year period (1971–2006). Our analyses provide a first-look at this form of stratification, employing Gini coefficients, Lorenz curves, and boxplots. Our results provide new and compelling evidence of increasing structural stratification, even in Canada's predominantly publicly funded postsecondary system. Findings indicate that the distribution of resources is far more stratified in the American system, and that both systems have become more stratified over time. We conclude by situating structural inequality within more general processes of stratification in education.     

The state and structural vulnerability: Policy egalitarianism and household income

The distribution of household income in the United States is remarkably unequal. Stratification researchers predict levels of income in terms of individual characteristics and structural features of the economy and society. These researchers, however, often neglect the role of the state. Political sociologists have begun to examine the impact of the state on aggregate levels of inequality across nations. I build on this literature to explain household income in the United States. Utilizing 2000 IPUMS data, I clarify how household income varies across the sub-national U.S. states according to policy configurations. I find that sub-national states with more egalitarian policies help to buttress the relative incomes of groups vulnerable to low incomes, particularly service workers and single mother families. These results suggest that studies of income and income inequality should consider the role of policies.     

灾疫伦理学：一种生态文明的话语方法

灾疫伦理学作为一门新型的综合性应用型人文科学,以生态理性哲学为指导,拷问频频爆发的当代灾疫之难的历史性生存之因,引导当代人类从伦理学角度入手检讨自我,重建生境,重续人与自然宇宙、生命世界的亲缘性存在关系,恢复日常生活的安全感、稳定性和生存的家园归宿感。灾疫伦理学的最高使命,就是为当代人类开创生态文明构架起一座全新的实践理性桥梁。这座桥梁即是负载灾疫伦理认知体系、观念体系、价值体系和方法体系的生态理性实践话语体系,它以＂灾疫伦理＂为基本范畴,以＂生境重建＂、＂生态利益＂、＂生态安全＂为核心概念,以灾疫防治宏观伦理方案设计和微观伦理方案实施为两维指向。     

中国城市“居住分异”模式的问题与对策

当前,我国城市化进程逐渐加快,导致城市发展出现一系列城市病问题,城市居住区呈现出越来越明显的"居住分异"现象,整个城市形成一种居住空间分化甚至相互隔离的状况,给社会健康发展带来一系列负面影响。混合居住是目前解决居住分异的一种重要途径。混合居住模式以消除居民的社会差异为住宅建设的社会意义和目标,是解决不同社会阶层隔离、促进不同居民交往的有效方法,有利于营造和谐的居住模式。     

转型期农村教育社会分层功能弱化的制度性因素

学校教育制度应该促进农村学生的向上社会流动,然而在我国社会转型过程中的教育制度以城市教育为中心,优先发展城市教育,以"市场能力"和学业成绩作为学校选拔规则,以及重点学校制度对农村学生获得高一级教育机会的制约,导致了对农村学生的"教育排斥"。教育制度的城市化、市场化、精英化取向是转型期农村教育社会分层功能弱化的制度性原因。将现阶段农村教育主要功能定位于促进农村学生城市化和社会地位升迁,确立教育制度的正义原则,实现对农村学生的"差异补偿"是解决这一问题的主要思路。     

Imprisonment and (inequality in) population health

This article extends research on the consequences of mass imprisonment and the factors shaping population health and health inequalities by considering the associations between imprisonment and population health—measured as life expectancy at birth and the infant mortality rate—and black-white differences in population health using state-level panel data from the United States (N = 669), 1980-2004. Results show that imprisonment is significantly associated with poorer population health, though associations between imprisonment and infant mortality and female life expectancy are somewhat more consistently statistically significant than are associations with male life expectancy, and associations are more pronounced and statistically significant for blacks than they are for whites. Results also show, however, that increases in imprisonment are associated with decreases in the mortality rates of young black men. Thus, though imprisonment tends to be associated with higher mortality risk and greater black-white differences in mortality, it may, in the short-run, have some paradoxical mortality benefits for young black men.     

Austin Turk,stratification reinforcers and reversals,and traffic ticket decisions by Boston police during April and May of 2001

Austin Turk theorizes that places in stratification hierarchies affect police–citizen encounters by reinforcing or reversing the positional authority of police officers. To this point, however, there have been only three direct tests of the stratification portions of Turk's theory. Two examined overt conflict and all represented Turk's concepts using aggregated measures. The results are mixed. The present research adds a fourth test to the stratification and policing literatures by examining the effects of aggregated as well as disaggregated measures of stratification reinforcers and reversals on traffic ticket decisions by Boston police officers during April and May of 2001. Net of important control measures, there is no support for Turk's theory using the aggregated stratification measures employed in previous research. However, support for Turk's theory is clearly visible when viewed through the lens of some of the disaggregated stratification measures advanced for the first time in present research. We conclude that more research is needed to determine whether stratification reinforcers and reversals are among the factors affecting people in police blue and the people they police, with a sustained focus on both aggregated and disaggregated measures.     

Estimation of mean using double sampling for stratification and multivariate auxiliary information

Several estimators for estimating the mean of a principal variable are proposed based on double sampling for stratification (DSS) and multivariate auxiliary information. The general properties of the proposed estimators are studied, search for optimum estimators is made and the proposed estimators are compared with the corresponding estimators based on unstratified double sampling (USDS).