130,811 research outputs found
Child poverty in English-speaking countries
No full textThe paper considers child poverty in rich English-speaking countries - the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Ireland. Do all these countries stand out from other OECD countries for their levels of child poverty, as is sometimes assumed? And what policies have they adopted to address the problem? 'Poverty' is interpreted broadly and hence the available cross-national evidence on educational disadvantage and teenage births is considered alongside that on low household income. Likewise, discussion of policy initiatives ranges across a number of areas of government activity
New directions in the analysis of inequality and poverty
No full textOver the last four decades, academic and wider public interest in inequality and poverty has grown substantially. In this paper we address the question: what have been the major new directions in the analysis of inequality and poverty over the last thirty to forty years? We draw attention to developments under seven headings: changes in the extent of inequality and poverty, changes in the policy environment, increased scrutiny of the concepts of ‘poverty’ and inequality’ and the rise of multidimensional approaches, the use of longitudinal perspectives, an increase in availability of and access to data, developments in analytical methods of measurement, and developments in modelling
How reliable are income data collected with a single question?
No full textIncome is an important correlate for numerous phenomena in the social sciences. But many surveys collect data with just a single question covering all forms of income. This raises issues of quality, and these are heightened when individuals are asked about the household total rather than own income alone. Data are typically banded, implying a loss of information. We investigate the reliability of ‘single-question’ data using the ONS Omnibus and British Social Attitudes (BSA) surveys as examples. We first compare the distributions of income in these surveys – individual income in the Omnibus and household income in the BSA – with those in two other much larger UK surveys that measure income in much greater detail. Second, we investigate an implication of restricting the single question to individual income and interviewing only one adult per household: total income in respondents’ households is unobserved. We therefore examine the relationship between individual and household income in one of the comparator surveys. Third, after imposing bands on comparator survey data, we measure the information loss from banding with Generalised Entropy indices. We then assess its impact on the use of income as a covariate. Disaggregation by gender proves fruitful in much of the analysis
Inequality of learning in industrialised countries
No full textWithin-country differences in educational outcomes are compared for a large group of industrialised countries. We investigate where inequality is greatest, the association between inequality in learning and average levels of learning, the interpretation of measured levels of inequality, and differences in inequality at the top and bottom of the national distributions. Our analysis is based on test score data for 21 countries present in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). The use of three different surveys avoids reliance on a single source
Donations for overseas development: evidence from a panel of UK charities
No full textWe model the determinants of donations made to UK overseas development charities using panel data on charities’ donation income covering a 25 year period. The paper starts by reviewing relevant theory and previous empirical work on donations to UK charities before outlining a framework in which donations are a function of fundraising, government grants, total household income, inequality in household income, disasters, Official Development Assistance, and unobserved fixed characteristics of charities. Models are estimated by the within groups estimator and also by Generalised Method of Moments (GMM). When using the GMM approach, fundraising and government grants are allowed to be endogenous. Fundraising has a powerful effect. Government grants appear to crowd in rather than crowd out donations. No impact is found from ODA. The hypothesis of a unitary income elasticity for donations cannot be rejected. Results are compared with those for non-development charities
Charitable giving for overseas development: UK trends over a quarter century
No full textCharitable giving is an important source of funding for overseas development and emergency relief. Donations in the UK are about a quarter of the size of government development aid. There has been strong growth over time, reflecting the activities of development charities and the public response to humanitarian emergencies. The paper examines how this charitable giving has changed since 1978, using a newly constructed panel data set on donations to individual UK charities. When did the increase take place? Did the public respond to events such as Live Aid or has there been a steady upward trend? What has been the relationship with changes in household income? Which charities have grown fastest? Have new charities displaced old? How do changes in giving for overseas compare with changes in giving for other causes
Social Exclusion and Children: A European view for a US debate
No full textThe concept of social exclusion has been widely debated in Europe but its application to children has seen relatively little discussion. What could be meant by exclusion of children is the first main theme of the paper. Among other things, I consider the choice of reference group, the geographical dimension of exclusion, and the issue of who is responsible for any exclusion of children. The second main theme is the use of the concept of exclusion in the USA, where in contrast to Europe it has achieved little penetration to date. To assess whether there is fertile ground for discussion of social exclusion as it relates to children in the US, I discuss various features of US society and institutions including the measurement of poverty, analysis of children's living standards, state versus federal responsibilities, welfare reform and the emphasis on 'personal responsibility'.children, poverty, social exclusion
Performance prediction, pacing profile and running pattern of elite 1-h track running events
No full textPurpose: This study aimed at comparing the predictive accuracy of the power law (PL), 2-parameter hyperbolic (HYP) and linear (LIN) models on elite 1-h track running performance, and evaluating pacing profile and running pattern of the men’s best two 1-h track running performances of all times. Methods: The individual running speed–distance profile was obtained for nine male elite runners using the three models. Different combinations of personal bests times (3000 m-marathon) were used to predict performance. The level of absolute agreement between predicted and actual performance was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), paired t test and Bland–Altman analysis. A video analysis was performed to assess pacing profile and running pattern. Results: Regardless of the predictors used, no significant differences (p > 0.05) between predicted and actual performances were observed for the PL model. A good agreement was found for the HYP and LIN models only when the half-marathon was the longest event predictor used (ICC = 0.718–0.737, p < 0.05). Critical speed (CS) was highly dependent on the predictors used. Unlike CS, PLV20 (i.e., the running speed corresponding to a 20-min performance estimated using the PL model) was associated with 1-h track running performances (r = 0.722–0.807, p < 0.05). An even pacing profile with minimal changes of step length and frequency was observed. Conclusions: The PL model may offer the more realistic 1-h track running performance prediction among the models investigated. An even pacing might be the best strategy for succeeding in such running events
Is Child Welfare Converging in the European Union?
No full textDiscussion of convergence in the European Union in recent years has centred on macroeconomic indicators, in line with requirements for participation in the single currency. But it is convergence of living standards that is an ultimate goal of European Integration - the greater "economic and social cohesion" emphasized by the Treaty on Union. We assemble evidence on whether the well-being of one part of Europe's people, children, has been converging over the last two decades. We discuss methodological issues raised by measuring child welfare and its convergence in a group of countries, and then look in turn at trends in the economic well-being of children, mortality among children and young people, education, teenage fertility, and teenagers' own views of their life satisfaction. Evidence of convergence is mixed, and includes some trends of an unwelcome sort - convergence at a lower average level of welfare. The conclusions include comment on the need for more measurement of child well-being in Europe.
MeSH term explosion and author rank improve expert recommendations
No full textInformation overload is an often-cited phenomenon that reduces the productivity, efficiency and efficacy of scientists. One challenge for scientists is to find appropriate collaborators in their research. The literature describes various solutions to the problem of expertise location, but most current approaches do not appear to be very suitable for expert recommendations in biomedical research. In this study, we present the development and initial evaluation of a vector space model-based algorithm to calculate researcher similarity using four inputs: 1) MeSH terms of publications; 2) MeSH terms and author rank; 3) exploded MeSH terms; and 4) exploded MeSH terms and author rank. We developed and evaluated the algorithm using a data set of 17,525 authors and their 22,542 papers. On average, our algorithms correctly predicted 2.5 of the top 5/10 coauthors of individual scientists. Exploded MeSH and author rank outperformed all other algorithms in accuracy, followed closely by MeSH and author rank. Our results show that the accuracy of MeSH term-based matching can be enhanced with other metadata such as author rank
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