Résultat de la recherche
The Rolling 50s (and More): Cars and Life Satisfaction Among Seniors Across Europe
Cars represent a valuable real asset that most individuals use on a daily basis. Although cars are a form of material prosperity like income and other forms of wealth, the link between cars and subjective well-being (SWB) is barely covered in the existing literature. Furthermore, few existing contributions are scattered across specific cultural contexts. Here, we analyze the relationship between cars and the SWB of seniors in different European countries using the SHARE dataset. We construct multilevel and fixed-effect models to explore the extent of economic, infrastructural, and cultural factors and how they can explain this relationship. The results show that the value of the car is, among all wealth components (houses, bank account, bonds, stocks, mutual funds, debts and mortgages), the form of wealth most related to life satisfaction. In addition, cars matter less (a) in affluent societies, (b) where rail infrastructure is more developed, and (c) where people hold fewer materialistic values. We discuss these results in the framework of the functional and positional value of cars, i.e., respectively, the value derived from it regardless of others and the value derived from it vis-Ã -vis others.
The four types of wealth and happiness: how different forms of wealth affect the subjective well-being of the eldely in Europe
Sociological Perspectives on Poverty
Poverty, the social question of the 19th century, is still one of the most pressing global issues both in the economically advanced, affluent societies of the global North and in the developing countries of the global South. Since the emergence of social problems and deviance as sociological concepts and fields of study in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, poverty has been a focus of concern. Other social phenomena labeled as social problems or forms of deviance (like violence, crime, alcoholism and drug addiction, divorce, family breakdown, suicide) are often considered to be directly linked to, and caused by, poverty. As with other phenomena treated as social problems, research on poverty has typically been applied and policy-oriented, i.e., pragmatic and solution-driven, often related to reform efforts and social policy measures. The diverse sociological perspectives on poverty, therefore, have emerged in specific national, regional and global policy contexts. Furthermore, poverty research often has a strong empirical focus, which is demonstrated by the fact that some of the first comprehensive sociological surveys dealt with poverty issues. Theoretically, diverse approaches have been developed to address poverty, and there is no consensus on the exact definition and conceptualization of poverty. Poverty research, finally, is a field of interdisciplinary research. Sociological perspectives on poverty, therefore, have emerged from a discourse among scholars of sociology, social work, economics and political science. Based on these considerations, the chapter is organized as follows: The first section presents the pioneers of classical sociological poverty research. The second section deals with the different poverty concepts and measurement debates that emerged during the early postwar period of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The third section focuses on the issue of poverty policy. The fourth section looks at contemporary sociological perspectives on poverty in the era of globalization. Finally, the last section summarizes the main trends in sociological poverty analysis over the past decades and points to the challenges for future research.
Ségrégation ou intégration ? L’intensité de la ségrégation sur le marché du travail neuchâtelois, romand et suisse et ses changements depuis les années 1990
A travers plusieurs comparaisons entre différents groupes de la population (Suisses et non-Suisses, hommes et femmes, jeunes et matures), cette contribution vise à évaluer l’intensité de la ségrégation sur le marché du travail au niveau cantonal, régional et national. Les résultats mettent en évidence les transformations sur le marché du travail neuchâtelois dans une perspective interrégionale en lien avec les changements des inégalités sociales et économiques.
Inégalités de patrimoine et bien-être subjectif chez les seniors en Europe
An intergenerational perspective on the risk of poverty: integrating wealth to measure poverty
Currently, the debate of national statistical offices and scholars working on poverty is on how to include wealth in the classical measure of income poverty. Holding the income-poverty threshold fixed, some studies show that wealth-corrected poverty rates of the elderly are much more affected than those of the rest of the population. In addition, the decline in poverty rates for the elderly is higher when the value of the household’s main residence is included than when only non-housing wealth is taken into account. However, as the main residence is difficult to sell to foster consumption, it remains questionable whether this component should be added in the measurement of the risk of poverty. Difficult choices that remain to be made in the creation of a composite measure of poverty based on income and wealth are not only which components and which poverty threshold should be used, but also which methodology to aggregate income and wealth and which equivalence scale to adjust for different household members should be applied. This contribution focuses specifically on this last issue of equivalence scales highlighting how this methodological choice changes the risk of poverty among the elderly. The analysis is run with CH-SILC 2015 and on its specific module on wealth. Results show how methodological choices change the risk of poverty for different age groups in a significant way.
Egalité des chances au sein de l’UniNE : où en est-on ? : Ancrage institutionnel des mesures du SECH, enjeux de la conciliation vie privée et professionnelle et relève académique
Fruit d’une collaboration entre l’Institut de sociologie et le Service d’égalité des chances (SECH) de l’Université de Neuchâtel (UniNE), l’objectif a été de mener une enquête quantitative auprès de la communauté universitaire de l’UniNE pour l’année académique 2015-2016 autour de questions liées à la diversité et l’égalité des chances. Ce document vise non seulement à analyser l’ancrage institutionnel du SECH en évaluant notamment les prestations que ce service offre ainsi que sa visibilité auprès de membres de la communauté universitaire, mais également cherche à rendre compte plus spécifiquement des enjeux qui entourent la conciliation de la vie privée et professionnelle des collaborateurs et collaboratrices de l’UniNE ainsi qu’à répondre à des questions articulées autour de la carrière et de la relève académique. Les résultats exposés dans le présent rapport sont extraits de deux questionnaires envoyés à la fois au personnel salarié et aux étudiant-e-s de l’UniNE desquels près d’un tiers des membres de la communauté universitaire a répondu à l’appel.
Comparison of survey data on wealth in Switzerland
Beyond income, wealth is one of most relevant components among national and international indicators of household finances. Three surveys that include Switzerland have recently integrated questions about wealth and its components. These surveys are the Swiss Household Panel -SHP- (2016), the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions -CH-SILC- (2015), and the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe -SHARE- (2015). Following three important criteria suggested by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), namely relevance, coherence and accuracy, this study systematically compares data on housing and financial wealth. The analysis addresses question wording, the comparison with national accounts and accuracy. Results suggest that SHARE is the most relevant survey in terms of financial wealth and total net worth. CH-SILC is a coherent survey that allows for additional analysis on subjective living conditions, while the SHP is an ecological survey in terms of the number of questions on wealth.
Do opposites attract? Educational assortative mating and dynamics of wage homogamy in Switzerland 1992-2014
This paper addresses homogamy and assortative mating in Switzerland. The empirical analysis monitors trends for education and hourly wages using the Swiss Labour Force Survey and the Swiss Household Panel. The analysis disentangles the effects of educational expansion from mating patterns and incorporates not only couples, but also singles. Results show an increasing level of assortative mating both for education and for wages. For wage homogamy, selection is more important than adaptation.
Considering the various data sources, survey types and indicators: To what extent do conclusions regarding changing income inequality in Switzerland since the early 1990s converge?
We compared time series of eight different data sources (HBS, SLFS, SESS, SHP, SILC, SHS, SPS, tax data) and calculated various inequality measures (Gini coefficient, Atkinson coefficient, Theil’s T, MLD, SCV, p90/p10, p80/p20, p50/p10, p90/p50) for the period from 1990 to 2012. While the level of inequality varies strongly across surveys, the results concerning the evolution over time are rather coherent. For disposable household income, inequality has remained stable, but evolves parallel to the business cycle of the Swiss economy. For individual employment income, findings across datasets are less consistent.