Timing and duration effects in residence histories and other longitudinal data: Part 1. Stochastic and statistical models; Part 2. Studies of duration effects in Norway, 1965-1971

The author describes an attempt to fit stochastic models to individual life histories. "In particular, [he] is concerned with the application of semi-Markov processes to the study of the timing of moves and duration of residence effects in the migration histories of Norwegian men over the period 1965-1971." In the second part of the article, the results of 11 studies using data on Norwegian men are presented     

A macro model of change in specialty and spatial distribution of physicians in Canada, 1971-1981.

Most studies on physician distribution have examined static relationships involving the influence of such factors as socio-economic status. This study employs a causal model to study change in physician ratios (general practitioners and family physicians, and specialists) between 1971 and 1981 as a function of change in hospital bed ratios, population size, age distribution, educational attainment of the population, population "native", owner-occupied dwellings, and geographic proximity to the nearest metropolitan area, using physician data for 189 Canadian census divisions. The results, derived from LISREL VI analyses, indicate that specialists experienced increases in their supply in higher socio-economic status areas and in those areas losing general practitioners and family physicians (from 1971 to 1981). General practitioners and family physicians appear to have moved into areas with a relatively low percentage of owner-occupied dwellings and areas where a large percentage of the population is "native". Both groups of physicians appear to have increased in areas where there were increases in hospital facilities over the decade. The study confirms the known association between the two physician groups; that is, general practitioners and family physicians increased in areas gaining specialists and specialists increased in areas where considerable decreases in general practitioners and family physicians were occurring. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for physician manpower planning.     

Distinguishing aging,period and cohort effects in longitudinal studies of elderly populations

In the analysis of longitudinal data sets describing the characteristics of elderly populations it is useful to distinguish aging, period, and cohort effects. An aging effect is a change in variable values which occurs among all cohorts independently of time period, as each cohort grows older. A cohort effect is a change which characterizes populations born at a particular point in time, but which is independent of the process of aging. A period effect is a change which occurs at a particular time, affecting all age groups and cohorts uniformly. In this paper a dummy variable regression technique and a parallel graphical technique are introduced as means of identifying aging, cohort, and period effects in a longitudinal data set. These techniques are applied to data describing Los Angeles County which appeared in the censuses of 1940, 1950, 1960 and 1970. Trends in residential density, home ownership, housing value, apartment living, rental rates, one-person households and racial composition are investigated, and aging, cohort and period effects are noted and interpreted.     

Environmental recidivism in Sweden: distributional shape and effects of sanctions on duration of compliance

Quality & Quantity - The study examines the association between the size of previous environmental sanction charges and subsequent compliance towards environmental regulations. Data used for...     

Campbell,David F. J. (2019) global quality of democracy as innovation enabler. Palgrave Studies in Democracy,Innovation, and entrepreneurship for growth: Palgrave Macmillan (508 p.). e-book: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72529-1

Quality & Quantity -     

Congestion, ownership, region of operation, and scale: Their impact on bus operator performance in Norway

The goal of this paper is to determine the impact that inputs such as fuel consumption and total number of workers employed have on operators’ efficiency in the Norwegian bus industry. Further, we investigate operations characteristics that are associated with the inefficient use of inputs in bus operations. This information is highly relevant for the subsidizers (decision-makers) since resource inefficiency leads to greater costs (ceteris paribus). We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to explore these issues. The results suggest that there is, in general, a potential for input saving in the sector of about 21%. No significant differences were found between urban and bus rural operators with respect to efficiency scores; neither were there any performance differences with respect to ownership. This latter result deviates from previous international studies, and can likely be explained by the lack of competition in the Norwegian bus industry. A particularly interesting result suggests a formidable degree of input congestion in the Norwegian bus industry, which is in contrast to previous international studies on such congestion.     

Combining qualitative, quantitative and structural dimensions in a longitudinal perspective. The case of network influence

Some research questions involve several dimensions. The most rewarding approach may be switching (under control) between the diverse methods and databases involved. Having recourse to different dimensions that form a system produces wider results but also opens up new questions. A survey on the evolutions of social networks and life transitions of young people draws an original design including contextual names generators, questionnaires and interviews in a longitudinal perspective. Young people interviewed every 3 years on 4 survey waves produced a total of 287 interviews and networks and a global amount of 10,804 relationships informed. This article aims to highlight this specific potential of integrating qualitative, qantitative and structural dimensions in an iterative process of data construction and analysis. The methodological argument is empirically illustrated with a focus on the thematic of influence of the network upon life orientations. It shows influence comes mainly from strong central ties but also from some peripheral isolated mates. The structural evolution reveals a general trend of dissociation of their ties the ones from the others when people are entering adult life, which makes influence from the network become more and more diversified.