scholarly journals Economic Expectations and Satisfaction with Democracy: Evidence from Italy

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Loveless ◽  
Chiara Binelli
Keyword(s):  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Local Labour ◽  
Degree Of Satisfaction ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Economic Expectations

AbstractIn this article, we argue that individuals’ expectations about their future economic prospects are a crucial missing determinant of their degree of satisfaction with democracy. To investigate this link, we collected an original, nationally representative data set on young skilled unemployed Italians using the innovative quantitative expectations data methodology (Manski 2004). Controlling for current local labour market conditions with administrative province-level data and for a rich array of individual-level determinants, we show that those expecting greater job insecurity and instability have lower current satisfaction levels with democracy. By better conceptualizing and operationalizing individuals’ expectations, we advance the theoretical framework on satisfaction with democracy and show that expectations are an important and often overlooked determinant of the current level of satisfaction with democratic institutions.

scholarly journals Social connectedness and political behavior

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 205316801771917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Lyons Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Socially Isolated

One of the focal points of social networks research has been the process by which individuals utilize information and cues from their social networks and communities to form political attitudes and make decisions about how and when to participate in politics. Not all individuals, however, have large social networks or are strongly connected to their local social environments. Furthermore, despite concerns about rising social isolation in American society, the role that relatively socially disconnected individuals play in politics is not well understood. Using a nationally representative data set with information about communities, social networks, and individual-level variables, this paper examines social connectedness and political behavior. Those who are more socially isolated, it is found, are neither more conservative nor liberal on any particular political issues, but clearly participate in politics less than individuals who are well connected to those around them. Finally, while individual political ideology is not correlated with isolation, the contextual influence of the local environment on individual preferences is correlated with social connectedness. When compared with well connected citizens, individuals who are more isolated are less likely to have their vote choices influenced by those around them. Individual social connectedness conditions the effect of contextual social influence.

The Gender Dimensions of Job Insecurity in a Local Labour Market

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nickie Charles ◽  
Emma James
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Local Labour Market ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Local Labour ◽  
Male Breadwinner ◽  
Manufacturing Organization ◽  
Full Time Employment

Increasing job insecurity has been associated with the proliferation of nonstandard forms of employment. In order to explore this association, in-depth interviews with 55 women and 56 men were carried out in three different organizations in a local labour market in South Wales. The organizations were in manufacturing, retail and the public sector. The manufacturing organization was characterized by male, full-time employment while the others were female-dominated with various forms of non-standard employment. Levels of insecurity were highest in manufacturing and lowest in retail. Respondents distinguished three types of job insecurity: post, employer and labour market insecurity. There were gender differences in experiences and perceptions of job insecurity, with women feeling less insecure than men. This related to the availability of jobs for women and younger people in the local labour market, women's willingness to take `any' job and the continuing strength of male breadwinner ideology. At an individual level job insecurity is regarded as equally serious for women and men. Our findings question the association of job insecurity with non-standard forms of employment and suggest that the way job insecurity is experienced cannot be fully understood unless it is seen in the context of home as well as work.

Always the Third Rail?

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (8) ◽  
pp. 1068-1097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Lynch ◽  
Mikko Myrskylä
Keyword(s):  
Pension System ◽  
Public Pensions ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Transfer Programs ◽  
Pension Systems ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Economic Analyses ◽  
Micro Foundations

Social transfer programs are thought to generate beneficiary groups who will act politically to defend “their” programs from retrenchment. But little empirical research has been conducted to either verify or disconfirm the micro foundations of this hypothesis, which lies at the heart of the “new social risks” thesis as well as many economic analyses of welfare state politics. This article tests empirically whether benefiting from public pensions leads individuals to greater support of the pension system status quo, net of other factors. It uses cross—data set imputation to combine cross-nationally comparable individual-level data on income from public pensions with political attitudes toward proposed pension reforms. The hypothesis that public pension systems create policy feedbacks of self-interested beneficiaries supporting further pension spending is not supported in any of 11 European countries in either 1992 or 2001.

Risk, Incentives, and Contracts: Partnerships in Rio de Janeiro, 1870–1891

2010 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 686-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ran Abramitzky ◽  
Zephyr Frank ◽  
Aprajit Mahajan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Limited Liability ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Relative Bargaining Power

We construct an individual-level data set of partnership contracts in late-nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro to study the determinants of contract terms. Partners with limited liability contributed more capital and received lower draws for private expenses and lower profit shares than their unlimited partners. Unlimited partners in turn received higher-powered incentives when they contracted with limited partners than when they contracted with unlimited partners. A reform that changed the relative bargaining power further improved the terms of unlimited partners in limited firms. These findings highlight the roles of risk, incentives, and bargaining power in shaping contracts.

scholarly journals Commitment to employment and organisation: Finland in a European comparison

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 55-66
Author(s):  
Teemu Turunen
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Multiple Regression Analysis ◽  
Multiple Regression ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Organisational Commitment ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Employment Commitment

Employment and organisational commitment are widely endorsed as goals for labour market policy and organisations. However, there are few comparative studies that examine how, in addition to individual characteristics, dimensions of national culture affect employment and organisational commitment. This article compares employment and organisational commitment among employees in Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and Sweden. The main focus is on whether these commitments differ in Finland from those in four other European countries. Finland has seldom been included in this kind of comparative study. Individual-level data come from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), Work Orientation Module III, collected in 2005–2006. Employment commitment was the highest in Sweden, while organisational commitment was the highest among Germans. Finnish employees did not display particularly high levels of employment commitment: Finns were next to last in this category. Organisational commitment in Finland was on the same level as Spain and Sweden. In all five countries low subjective job insecurity among employees increased organisational commitment. Schwartz’s (2007) cultural dimensions accounted for a significant share of the variance in employment commitment. The data were analysed mainly by using standard multiple regression analysis and hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The effect of the National Birth Defects Intervention Project on the prevention of congenital disabilities among children in China: a natural experiment

2020 ◽  
Vol 124 (7) ◽  
pp. 709-714
Author(s):  
Chao Guo ◽  
Xiaoying Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Birth Defects ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Nutrition Intervention ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Congenital Disability

AbstractMost childhood disabilities are caused by congenital factors such as birth defects. The present study aims to evaluate the effect of periconceptional nutrition intervention on the prevention of congenital disability among Chinese children using the National Birth Defects Intervention Project as a natural experiment. We obtained individual-level data from the Second National Sample Survey on Disability, a nationally representative survey, and 110 365 children born between September 1999 and August 2003 were included for analysis. Difference-in-differences estimates of the project effects on congenital disability were captured by exploiting temporal variation in the timing of project exposure across four birth cohorts along with geographical variation in project category at the province level. The findings contribute to an emerging body of evidence showing that prenatal micronutrient intervention before and during early pregnancy could substantially reduce the risk of congenital disability in childhood (OR 0·73; 95 % CI 0·57, 0·94). The National Birth Defects Intervention Project improved the awareness of reproductive health and disability prevention in the population. It highlights the need for a potential policy change focusing on early-life health investment in China.

scholarly journals Do People in Conservative States Really Watch More Porn? A Hierarchical Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 237802312090847
Author(s):  
Samuel L. Perry ◽  
Andrew L. Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
Ecological Fallacy ◽  
Hierarchical Analysis ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Pornography Consumption ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Evangelical Identity

Recent studies have found that state-level religious and political conservatism is positively associated with various aggregate indicators of interest in pornography. Such studies have been limited, however, in that they either did not include data measuring actual consumption patterns and/or did not include data on individuals (risking the ecological fallacy). This study overcomes both limitations by incorporating state-level data with individual-level data and a measure of pornography consumption from a large nationally representative survey. Hierarchical linear regression analyses show that, in the main, state-level religious and political characteristics do not predict individual-level pornography consumption, and individual-level religiosity and political conservatism predict less recent pornography consumption. However, interactions between individual-level evangelical identity and state-level political conservatism indicate that evangelicals who live in more politically conservative states report the highest rates of pornography consumption. These findings thus provide more nuanced support for previous research linking religious and political conservatism with greater pornography consumption.

Strategies of Flexible Accumulation and Perceived Employment Insecurity: Is There a Connection?

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-351
Author(s):  
Travis Scott Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
State Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Employment Insecurity ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Flexible Accumulation ◽  
Perceived Job Insecurity

Existing research on perceived employment insecurity tends to focus on perceptions of job insecurity (a worker’s perception of how vulnerable their position is with their current employer). This study examines perceived labor market insecurity (a worker’s assessment of their job prospects in the broader labor market) alongside perceived job insecurity. The author uses individual-level General Social Survey and publicly available state-level data from 1977 to 2012 to determine and identify strategies of flexible accumulation (e.g., deindustrialization, deunionization, and financialization) that may be associated with these outcomes. The findings indicate that these strategies are associated with greater levels of perceived job insecurity but are not significant for perceived labor market insecurity, which is only positively associated with unemployment at the state level. The author also finds that individual-level factors such as income and part-time status have differing effects for each outcome. In a time characterized by higher levels of employer-employee detachment, these findings have important implications for the study of employment insecurity.

Adults with learning disabilities known to local authorities in Scotland: a national dataset

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-23
Author(s):  
Claire Stuart ◽  
Andrew McKeown ◽  
Angela Henderson ◽  
Chloe Trew
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Learning Disability ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Analytical Potential ◽  
Adults With Learning Disabilities

Purpose – Learning Disability Statistics Scotland collects information on adults with learning disabilities who are known to local authorities in Scotland and the services they use. The data collection supports national and local government policy making and is focused on monitoring the implementation of learning disability policy. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Individual level data are requested from all 32 local authorities on adults aged 16-17 who are not in full-time education and those aged 18 and over. Annual data guidance is developed in conjunction with local authorities prior to the collection and is issued to standardise the process and manage avoidable error. The collated data are extracted from local authority administrative data and records are provided on each adult regardless of whether they are currently receiving a service. Anonymisation takes place prior to upload and strict guidelines are followed to ensure it is not possible to identify individuals. Findings – The paper provides insights to the project's processes, uses, challenges and future plans. It details the position of the data outputs within a policy context and the role these might play within a broader research agenda. Research limitations/implications – This data includes only adults known to local authority services. Originality/value – The value of the project lies in its strength as a national social care data set comprised of individual level data. This methodology increases the analytical potential of the data set. This paper will be of interest to those interested in data on learning disability and those with an interest in the analytical potential of an individual level national data set.

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