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88 POPULATION RESEARCH AND POLICY REVIEW, August 1998, Vol. 17, N° 4
00.88.1 - MAGNANI, Robert J.; McCANN, H. Gilman; HOTCHKISS, David R.; FLORENCE, Curtis S.
The effects of monetized food aid on reproductive behavior in rural Honduras.
This article presents research findings on the question of whether the monetization of non-emergency food aid has adversely influenced national family planning program efforts in Honduras. Women receiving food aid in the form of cash coupons are compared in the study with women receiving food rations and a third group of women with similar characteristics who were not food aid recipients on three types of outcomes: recent fertility, fertility preferences, and contraceptive use. The health facilities where study subjects received health/family planning services and food aid benefits were also compared to assess possible adverse cross-program effects on family planning service delivery. A "sample selection" model was used in the analysis to control for unobserved differences between comparison groups. No compelling evidence for adverse demand- or supply-side effects of monetized food aid on family planning efforts was observed. The most striking study finding was the extremely high level of unmet need for family planning.
English - pp. 305-328.
R. J. Magnani, Tulane University Medical Center, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Department of International Health and Development, 1440 Canal Street, Suite 2200, New Orleans, LA 70112, U.S.A.
magnani@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu.
(HONDURAS, RURAL ENVIRONMENT, FOOD SUPPLY, FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMMES, INCOME, FAMILY BUDGET.)
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00.88.2 - JAYNE, Susan H.; GUILKEY, David K.
Contraceptive determinants in three leading countries.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative importance of access to family planning and the motivation to restrict fertility in determining contraceptive use in three countries that have led the fertility transitions in their regions: Colombia, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe. A structural equations model is estimated where endogenous fertility intentions are allowed to affect contraceptive method use. Simulation methods are then used to quantify the size of the impact of intentions and access on method choice for the three countries. The results demonstrate that even after controlling for fertility intentions, family planning program variables still have important effects in all three countries.
English - pp. 329-350.
D. K. Guilkey, Carolina Population Center, CB 8120, University Square, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-3997, U.S.A.
david_guilkey@unc.edu.
(COLOMBIA, TUNISIA, ZIMBABWE, CONTRACEPTIVE USAGE, DESIRED FAMILY SIZE, FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMMES.)
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Fertility policy and employment: Implications from the former Soviet Union.
Using individual-level survey data that were collected in Russia in 1993, we analyze the fertility-employment relationship for a sample of urban women who bore children during the Soviet era. Although some Russian policy makers advocate policies that reduce female employment to stimulate fertility, we find little empirical support to ensure success of these policies. Specifically, we find no connection between employment and fertility for our sample of Russian females, perhaps because of their historic, mandated commitment to the labor market. Instead, we find that demographics and attitudes influence fertility decision making. These results, in combination with the findings that our sample of Russian women hold more "traditional" attitudes toward family and "egalitarian" attitudes toward work than similar American women, suggest that policies to stimulate fertility by reducing employment may not be effective for women raised during the Soviet era unless a dramatic shift in attitudes away from a strong work commitment also occurs.
English - pp. 351-368.
N. L. Maxwell, Department of Economics and Human Investment Research and Education (HIRE) Center, California State University, Hayward, CA 94542, U.S.A.
nmaxwell@csuhayward.eu.
(RUSSIA, USSR, FEMALE EMPLOYMENT, FERTILITY TRENDS, PRONATALIST POLICY, SOCIALIZATION.)
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00.88.4 - SOUTH, Scott J.; CROWDER, Kyle D.
Housing discrimination and residential mobility: Impacts for blacks and whites.
We merge metropolitan-level measures of racial discrimination in housing markets derived from two national housing audit studies, along with tract-level 1980 census data, with the 1979-1985 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine the impact of housing discrimination on patterns of residential mobility between neighborhoods of varying racial composition. We find no evidence that housing discrimination in the metropolitan area impedes African Americans' mobility into whiter neighborhoods. Contrary to expectations, in multivariate analyses based on black movers, the level of housing discrimination is positively associated with the percentage of the population that is white in the tract of destination. Housing discrimination against African Americans is positively associated with the rate at which mobile white households move into whiter census tracts. These findings imply that eliminating racial discrimination by real estate and rental agents will fail to increase black residential mobility into racially-mixed and predominantly white neighborhoods. For both black and white households, life-cycle factors, such as age, children, and home ownership, impede mobility out of the current neighborhood. Conditional upon moving, socioeconomic resources, such as education and income, facilitate mobility into whiter neighborhoods.
English - pp. 369-387.
S. J. South, State University of New York at Albany, Department of Sociology, SS-340, Albany, NY 12222, U.S.A.
s.south@albany.edu.
(UNITED STATES, BLACKS, WHITES, HOUSING POLICY, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY.)
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00.88.5 - STYCOS, J. Mayone; PFEFFER, Max J.
Does demographic knowledge matter? Results of a poll in the New York City Watershed.
A 1993 telephone survey of 1,150 households in 15 upstate towns in the New York City watershed asked a number of knowledge and attitude questions related to perceptions of national, local, and world population size. Considerable public ignorance of population size was revealed, with gender differences the most critical explanatory variable. Males were much more likely to respond to knowledge questions on population size, and to respond more accurately, even after several other characteristics were held constant. However, knowledge is at best unrelated to measures of concern about population, and even shows a slight tendency to be associated with lower concern.
English - pp. 389-402.
J. M. Stycos, Department of Rural Sociology, 218 Warren Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-7801, U.S.A.
JMS18@cornell.edu.
(UNITED STATES, POPULATION INFORMATION, KAP SURVEYS.)
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88 POPULATION RESEARCH AND POLICY REVIEW, October 1998, Vol. 17, N° 5
How many children? - Fixing total annual births as a population control policy.
Traditional family planning's emphasis on manipulating the total fertility rate often results in erratic number of births which disrupts school enrollment and labor supply. Fixing total annual births to a permanently lower level will avoid such repeated disruptions and can eventually lead to a lower stationary population with annual deaths equal to the fixed annual births. If allocation of the fixed birth quotas is conditional upon deaths, each death can be converted to a variable number of inheritable and tradable birth quotas. Tradable birth coupons allow families to have the number of children they want and can afford within the overall fixed birth quotas. Inheritable birth quotas provide incentive for higher old-age mortality and consequently less aging in a declining population.
English - pp. 403-419.
K. K. Fung, University of Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A.
(POPULATION POLICY, ANTINATALIST POLICY, NATIONAL PLANNING, STABLE POPULATION.)
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Immigration and environment: A framework for establishing a possible relationship.
This paper considers conceptual, analytic and policy issues concerning US population, immigration and environment. The policy question guiding the analysis is whether the environmental impact of immigration is proportional to its numbers, i.e., additions to the population, or does immigration have a disproportionate effect on the environment, i.e., above or below what would be expected on additional numbers alone? If the effect is proportional, then policy issues concerning the environmental impact of immigration become centered on population policy and programs, and the relative benefit of manipulating immigration as a component of population growth to achieve national environmental (or other) goals. If, however, immigration has a disproportionate effect, thus an effect on the environment beyond the contribution to population growth, then US immigration policy and its administration have unique environmental implications which may be appropriately addressed through immigration policy reform. The IPAT model is presented as a general framework for establishing the proportionality of the environmental effects of US immigration. Given the demands of theory and limitations of data, the framework is decidedly 'ideal' and is offered as a long range proposal for policy relevant research on US population, immigration and environment. In order to move to act on the proposed research agenda, however, several important analytic components of national population and environmental research must be strengthened. First, more accurate and comprehensive measurement of the components of US population growth is critical. Second, analysis of population, immigration and environmental processes must occur over time and across regions and local communities in the US. Third, a process of interpreting research results which is both inter- and multi-disciplinary, and is inclusive of national, regional and local concerns must be organized to wisely interpret findings within the context of national goals and traditions.
English - pp. 421-437.
E. P. Kraly, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, U.S.A.
(UNITED STATES, IMMIGRATION, ENVIRONMENT, GOVERNMENT POLICY, THEORY, METHODOLOGY.)
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The effect of immigrant admission criteria on immigrant labour-market characteristics.
The skill levels of immigrants entering the USA has declined in recent decades; however, most immigrants to the USA continue to be admitted on the basis of family contacts, without reference to labour-market characteristics. This situation has given rise to a debate about the criteria on which immigrants are admitted or excluded. I examine how the relative skill levels of immigrants admitted under different criteria vary by country of origin, those criteria being the possession of highly-valued skills and family connections. Using data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Borjas' 1987 model is tested. The results show (a) that the relative skill levels of the two groups do indeed differ by country of origin, and (b) the pattern by country of origin is consistent with the Borjas predictions. The policy implication is that the effects of changing admission criteria will differ by country of origin, but in a predictable way.
English - pp. 439-456.
A. Barrett, Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, Ireland.
UNITED STATES, IMMIGRATION POLICY, SELECTIVE IMMIGRATION, LABOUR MARKET, OCCUPATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS.)
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Applying demographic analysis in affirmative action disputes: An instructional case.
This instructional case study illustrates applications of demographic concepts, data, and techniques in evaluating affirmative action goals for equalizing employment opportunity. Courts of law addressing employment discrimination disputes need an accurate picture of each minority group's proportion in a pool of prospective employees. The demographic and socioeconomic factors conditioning those proportions vary from place to place. In the situation examined here, the court originally used an imperfect population standard to set hiring goals. The case traces the multiple failures to account for those conditioning influences and describes the resulting distortions of legal purpose. In analysing this failure, students gain experience in clarifying issues in dispute, devising measures to fit legal standards, and delineating qualified labor pools. Specific instructional applications include: using census data to document how local population structure and composition determine each minority group's presence in the workforce; and using administrative data to delineate the relevant labor pools for setting affirmative action goals. Training is broadly suited to assignments where applied demographers must delineate the ethnic and racial composition of a pool of workers eligible to be hired or promoted.
English - pp. 457-478.
P. A. Morrison, The RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, U.S.A.
(APPLIED DEMOGRAPHY, TEACHING METHODS, LABOUR MARKET, ETHNIC COMPOSITION, DISCRIMI-NATION, LABOUR DISPUTES.)
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