Dancing in the Dark: Social Life and Life Satisfaction in Times of Economic Prosperity and Crisis
This article explores the relationship between individuals ’ satisfaction with their social life and global life satisfaction during periods of economic prosperity and crisis, using data from the Panel of Social Inequalities in Catalonia, Spain (PaD 2001–2012). The study also investigates how this relationship varies across different social origins. Cat alonia is a pertinent context due to its significant increase in inequality and unemployment during the 2008 Economic Crisis, positioning it among the most affected regions in Europe. The findings reveal that satisfaction with one’s social life matters for global life...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 27, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Is Generation Z more Inclined than Generation Y to Purchase Sustainable Clothing?
AbstractIncreasing clothing (over)consumption, supported by the fast fashion industry, has caused a significant reduction in clothing costs, raised major sustainability challenges, and highlighted the need for engaging in more sustainable consumption behaviour to mitigate the negative environmental, social, and economic consequences. Although green purchase behaviour is now well understood, extant literature still lacks a comprehensive approach to explain consumers behaviour (especially that of the younger generations) with respect to sustainable clothing. Using survey data collected through a structured questionnaire, thi...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 23, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

What Led to the Decline of Child Labour in the European Periphery? A Cointegration Approach with Long Historical Data
AbstractThe “traditional view” on the historical decline of child labour has emphasised the role of the approval of effective child labour (minimum working age) laws. Since then, the importance of alternative key driving factors such as schooling, demography, household income or technology has been highligh ted. While historically leading countries such as England and industrial labour have been studied, peripheral Europe and a full participation rate also including agriculture and services have received limited research attention. The contribution of this paper is to provide a first empirical explanat ion for the chil...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 23, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Social Vulnerability as Support for Disaster Management: Discussions from a Method Applied in Brazil that Strengthens the Resilience of Communities
AbstractStudies on social vulnerability have been consolidated as indispensable for understanding the risks of natural disasters, as well as for the constitution of efficient management strategies to face disasters. Using usual methodologies to determine the dimension of risks, this study presents and discusses social vulnerability at the intra-urban municipal scale, in order to contribute to the understanding of sustainability from social factors, besides subsidizing the integration between citizens and managers in a Brazilian case. Information on the criticality of populations and their disaster response capacity was con...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 23, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Spatial Distribution and Territorial Justice of Public Service for Disadvantaged Groups: Evidence from China
This article also found a significant regional spatial variation in public service facilities for persons with disabilities. Specifically, public service facilities for persons with disabilities in eastern region s were obviously higher than in other regions, mainly due to regional differences in financial autonomy, the density of the disabled population, and urbanization. The above shows that the opportunities for accessing public services still differ within a territorial entity. The realization of territo rial justice requires strengthening the government’s governance capacity. (Source: Social Indicators Research)
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 21, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

The Nexus Between Pro-poor Growth, Inequality, Institutions and Poverty: Evidence from Low and Middle Income Developing Countries
AbstractIn contrast to former investigations in the growth-poverty literature, this research constructs a panel vector autoregressive model to explore the interactive relationship between income inequality, institutional quality, inclusive growth and poverty of 82 low and middle income developing countries from 1996 to 2022. In addition, we employed the impulse response function tool, which is the reaction of any dynamic system in response to some external change, to comprehend the reaction of poverty aftershocks on inclusive growth, income inequality and institutional quality variables. Finally, the study was completed by...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 18, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

The Geography of Human Capital: Insights from the Subnational Human Capital Index in Indonesia
AbstractThis paper explores the spatial heterogeneity in the human capital potential of Indonesia ’s next generation by constructing and analyzing sub-national human capital indices (HCI) for 34 provinces and 514 districts in Indonesia. The paper identifies data and methodological constraints in the construction of these sub-national indices and proposes and implements strategies to overcome t hese challenges. Several interesting findings emerge from the analysis. First, Indonesian’s young generation can only achieve 53% of their future productivity relative to the full benchmark of health and education. Second, the va...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 13, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Educational Attainment, Household Income and Wealth Accumulation in Vietnam
This study examines the effects of educational attainment and household income on wealth accumulation in Vietnam using various Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys (VHLSSs) in 2008, 2018 and 2020. We use the threshold regression to separate households into different groups depending on their assets. We find that owning a university degree is optimal to maximize wealth accumulation for households in 2008. However, post-graduate qualifications are needed for wealth accumulation in 2018 and 2020. For those household heads without a university degree, owning advanced training certificates provides the best opportunity to...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 10, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Graphical Representation of Multidimensional Poverty: Insights for Index Construction and Policy Making
AbstractBy means of probabilistic graphical models, in this paper, we present a new framework for exploring relationships among indicators commonly included in the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). In particular, we propose an Ising model with covariates for modeling the MPI as an undirected graph. First, we prove why Ising models are consistent with the theoretical distribution of MPI indicators. Then, a comparison between our estimates and the association measures typically used in the literature is provided. Finally, we show how undirected graphs can complement the MPI policy-relevant properties, apart from discover...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 8, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Does Atypical Employment Come in Couples? Evidence from European Countries
AbstractThe literature on atypical employment has largely focused on the individual level. This paper provides a novel account of the dynamics of atypical employment, specifically part-time and temporary employment, within couples. Analyzing a sample of 29 European countries using 2016 EU-SILC data, it investigates the association between partner and own atypical employment. The results show that temporary employment does come in couples, in that partner temporary employment is associated with a higher likelihood of own temporary employment. A significant portion of this result is driven by individuals with partners in tem...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 7, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Multidimensional Child Poverty Measurement in Sierra Leone and Lao PDR: Contrasting Individual- and Household-Based Approaches
This article compares the properties of individual- and household-based multidimensional child poverty approaches. Specifically, it contrasts UNICEF ’s multiple overlapping deprivation analysis (MODA) with the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. MODA focuses on children and is rooted in the child rights approach, while MPI has been developed for households and follows Se n’s (1985) capabilities approach. We demonstrate their similarities and differences using two recent multiple indicator cluster surveys: Sierra Leone and Lao People’s Democrati...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 5, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Evaluating and Improving the Metropolitan Economic Freedom Index
This study investigates the statistical consistency of MEFI through Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Multiple models investigate current variable selection by providing a potentially better indicator of labor market freedom, aggregation assumptions by removing the requirements for fixed and equal weights, and statistical consistency by evaluating the fit between the data and models. Results indicate that the current MEFI model is not statistically consistent with the data, that weighting of variables should not be equal, that variable selection should be investigated, and that constructs should be re-imagined. The models inve...
Source: Social Indicators Research - March 4, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Does Regulatory Quality Reduce Informal Economy? A Theoretical and Empirical Framework
AbstractItaly is characterised by a significant dualistic economy, which also includes an extensive underground sector. The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between the quality of legislation and irregular employment in Italy. Our contribution consists of two components: the theoretical modelling of the impact of regulatory quality on the informal economy and the empirical validation of the predictions of the theoretical model using data from the Italian region between 2004 and 2019. The results confirm the theoretical and empirical arguments in favour of the need for laws to curb the informal sector. The r...
Source: Social Indicators Research - February 29, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Multi-way Analysis of the Gender Dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals
AbstractThe gender dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is integral to the goals established to foster the development of nations, as it is intertwined with other goals and enhances their attainability. Thus, this study examines 28 indicators belonging to the goals of the sustainable development objectives, distinguishing between the gender SDGs (6 indicators) and other SDGs (22 indicators), all of which were reported by 110 countries in the year 2023. The assessment considers four regions: the African continent (28 countries), the Americas region (21 countries), Asia-Oceania (29 countries), and Europe (32 ...
Source: Social Indicators Research - February 27, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research

Aggregating the Human Development Index: A Non-compensatory Approach
AbstractThe United Nations ’ Human Development Index remains a widely used and accepted measure of human development. Although it has been revised over the years to address various critiques, a remaining concern is the way the three dimensions are aggregated into the single index. A deterioration in one dimension can be com pensated for by an improvement in another. Since compensability is inextricably linked with trade-offs and intensity of preferences, a non-compensatory (i.e., Condorcet) approach to aggregation is employed in this paper. Although non-compensatory approaches have been employed previously, this paper ad...
Source: Social Indicators Research - February 21, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research