The role of economic incentives and attitudes in participation and childcare decisions

We analyze the participation and childcare decisions made by mothers in two-parent households with children aged 0-12 in the Netherlands, paying special attention to the role of attitudes regarding work and care. In a multinomial logit model we distinguish between not working, a small parttime job, and a larger job. For working mothers we consider no childcare, informal, and formal childcare. We account for potential endogeneity of attitudes. The results show that the role of the price of formal childcare in the decision-making process is negligible. A higher earnings capacity increases the take-up of larger jobs and formal childcare. Modern attitudes have a strong impact on the decisions to work and to use childcare.labor force participation, childcare use, attitudes about childcare, multinomial logit

Labor force participation by the elderly in Mexico

A brief review of the aging of the Mexican population, the high labor force participation of elderly, and the lack of retirement pensions, is followed by a causal empirical analysis using a panel data set (Mexican Health and Aging Study, MHAS) of Mexicans aged 50 and more. We find that the labor force participation of elderly men is affected by their economic situation; in particular the availability of a retirement pension (after contributions to a pension plan earlier in their life) reduces participation. A better health raises male participation rates, while the health effect is absent for women. The opposite effect, from labor force participation on health status, is negligible for both genders. Access to health services, which is obtained if the partner or a child is working, reduces participation rates. Additional analysis indicates that the same variables influence the choice for a job in the formal or the informal sector, and whether a job is held in addition to a pension. The results suggest that a redesign of the social security including retirement pensions and health care services has implications for the individuals’ participation decisions, and therefore for future contributions to the insurance and pension plans.labor force participation, pension, health, insurance

College versus campus

In the descriptions and names of many student housing projects that have been completed in the Netherlands over the past few years, the terms ‘college’ and ‘campus’ occur quite frequently. Examples include Campus Diemen-Zuid (on an industrial estate in Diemen), the Anna van Buren University College Leiden (sandwiched between Central Station in The Hague and the Royal Library), and the Amsterdam University College Campus (part of the Science Park campus in Amsterdam). The word ‘campus’ is no longer confined to the academic world. It seems as if every group of buildings that is used for a specific purpose is called a campus, varying from a single building to the entire city: the University of Amsterdam’s motto is ‘the City is our Campus’. And does ‘college’ stand for a form of housing, an educational building, or a combination of the two? The concepts of campus and college seem to be used indiscriminately when it comes to student housing, rendering these terms meaningless. What distinguishes these two ideas? Do they represent a specific spatial model, a way that buildings and student residences are involved in the university and the city? By tracing the origins and developments of the college and the campus, we can examine whether these concepts still have any meaning for the commissioned student housing projects that are currently underway.In beschrijvingen en naamgeving van veel projecten voor studentenhuisvesting die de afgelopen jaren in Nederland tot stand zijn gekomen, komen de begrippen ‘campus’ en ‘college’ veelvuldig voor. Campus Diemen-Zuid, op een bedrijventerrein in Diemen; het Anna van Buren University College Leiden, ingeklemd tussen Den Haag Centraal Station en de Koninklijke Bibliotheek; de Amsterdam University College Campus, onderdeel van de Science Park Campus in Amsterdam zijn slechts enkele recente voorbeelden. Het woord campus is inmiddels al niet meer beperkt tot de academische wereld. Elke verzameling gebouwen voor een specifiek doel lijkt een campus te zijn, variërend van één gebouw tot de gehele stad; ‘The City is our Campus’, luidt het devies van de Universiteit van Amsterdam. En staat college (Engels uitgesproken) voor een woonvorm, een onderwijsgebouw of juist de combinatie daarvan? De begrippen campus en college lijken in relatie tot studentenhuisvesting lukraak gebruikt te worden, en daarmee ook betekenisloos. Waarin onderscheiden deze begrippen zich van elkaar? Staan zij voor een specifiek ruimtelijk model, voor een wijze waarop gebouw en studentenwoning betrokken zijn op de universiteit en de stad? Door de oorsprong en ontwikkeling van het college en de campus te traceren kan onderzocht worden of deze begrippen nog betekenis hebben in de actuele opgaven voor studentenhuisvesting

Barbican Londen

The large-scale destruction wreaked by the Second World War in London’s financial heart, the City of London, was responsible for intensifying the population decrease that had started many years before. Where 120,000 people had lived in 1851, this number was barely 5,000 a century later. The Corporation of London, the City’s governing body, resolved to reverse this trend, and designated one of the largest bomb craters in the City – the Barbican site – as a residential area, despite the lower revenue this would generate. Chamberlin Powell & Bon, architects of the Golden Lane project immediately to the north of the Barbican, the successful product of a 1951 competition, were invited to submit a plan. Their initial proposal for a grid-based development, enclosing alternating public and private courtyards, was followed in 1959 by a second submission whose major features were adopted and implemented without change, despite the lengthy construction time required that would extend well into the 1970s.  De grootschalige verwoestingen in de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Londens financiële hart, the City of London, waren oorzaak dat de al jaren daarvoor ingezette daling van het aantal inwoners nog toenam. Het aantal van 120.000 bewoners in 1851 was een eeuw later gereduceerd tot nauwelijks 5.000. De Corporation of London, het bestuur van de City, besloot om deze ontwikkeling te keren en bestemde, ondanks de lagere opbrengsten, een van de grootste bomkraters in de stad – het Barbicanterrein – als nieuw woongebied. Chamberlin, Powell en Bon, de architecten van het direct ten noorden van het Barbican gelegen Golden Lane project, succesvol resultaat van een prijsvraag uit 1951, werden uitgenodigd een plan te maken. Na een eerste voorstel voor een rasterbebouwing die afwisselend openbare en privé binnenhoven omsloot, werd in 1959 een tweede voorstel gepresenteerd dat, ondanks de lange bouwtijd die tot ver in de jaren 1970 zou duren, in hoofdlijn ongewijzigd werd uitgevoerd

Rabenhof Wenen

The large-scale housing programme implemented by the city of Vienna from 1923 to 1934 provides a unique example of a direct connection between politics and architecture. From 1919 to 1934 Vienna was run by a social-democratic city council, thus forming a political enclave, known as Red Vienna, in an otherwise highly conservative and clerically governed Austria. Social and economic problems were colossal in Vienna after the end of the First World War and the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. High levels of working-class unemployment were combined with wretched living conditions, generally regarded as the worst in Europe. The city council initiated a programme to build good, affordable housing for the impoverished working classes, financed by the revenue from newly introduced municipal taxes. From 1923 a large number of building projects were completed, producing a total of 64,000 dwellings. Rents were extremely low, being based solely on a contribution towards maintenance, and considerably reduced the cost of living for residents. This progressive programme was not translated in the architecture. While functional housing architecture with strict strip building parcellation was being developed on new estates in Germany, the architecture of the Viennese Gemeindebauten tended to the traditional, and projects were fitted into the fabric of the existing city. Designs were generally planned as more or less traditional blocks with large collective courtyards. Manfredo Tafuri’s book Vienna Rossa is perhaps the best known of the many studies of this programme. Tafuri described the projects as a conflict between technique, ideology and form, and hopelessly regressive from a typological point of view. His view of the executed plans as isolated enclaves, cut off from the city of which they were part, is perhaps best illustrated by the storming of a number of the projects by fascist troops in 1934, and their residents’ unsuccessful defence of these working-class bastions. This February Revolution signified the end of Red Vienna.Het grootscheepse woningbouwprogramma van de stad Wenen tussen 1923-1934 is een uniek voorbeeld van een directe verbinding tussen politiek en architectuur. Wenen werd tussen 1919-1934 geleid door een sociaaldemocratisch stadsbestuur, en was, onder de naam het Rode Wenen, een politieke enclave in een verder zeer conservatief en klerikaal bestuurd Oostenrijk. De sociale en economische problemen in Wenen waren kolossaal na het einde van de Eerste Wereldoorlog en het uiteenvallen van het Oostenrijks-Hongaars keizerrijk. Enorme werkeloosheid onder de arbeidersbevolking ging samen met miserabele woonomstandigheden, destijds algemeen beschouwd als de slechtste van Europa. Het stadsbestuur initieerde een bouwprogramma om voor de verarmde arbeidersbevolking goede en betaalbare woningen te bouwen, die gefinancierd werden met de inkomsten van nieuw geïntroduceerde gemeentelijke belastingen. Vanaf 1923 kwam een groot aantal bouwprojecten tot stand, in totaal 64.000 woningen. De huur was zeer laag, omdat deze alleen was gebaseerd op een bijdrage aan het onderhoud. De kosten voor levensonderhoud voor de bewoners verminderde daardoor sterk

Labor Force Participation of Mexican Elderly: The Importance of Health

The determinants of the labor force participation of people in Mexico aged 50 and over are analyzed using data of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). In particular we study the importance of health in the participation decision, taking into account the potential endogeneity of health. The results indicate that a better health causes a stronger attachment to the labor market. We find no clear evidence that employment affects health, but it cannot be ruled out that the effects of bad labor circumstances and justification eliminate each other. There are indications that self-assessed health does not capture all relevant aspects of health. For policy decisions the direct importance of financial circumstances could be more relevant than the role of health.labor force participation, health status, pensions, elderly,

a challenge of integration

Climate change is a growing challenge facing the entire world. Today, most actions are aimed at mitigation. However, some climate change impacts will be unavoidable. This explains a growing interest in adaptation to climate change. On a political level, adaptation is a challenging concept. At this level, there is a growing literature on “climate policy integration” theory (stemming from the environmental policy integration paradigm). It proposes to take climate change into account in each and every sectoral policy. This contribution addresses the way to integrate climate change adaptation into policies. We will focus on regional and external adaptation strategies, from a theoretical and practical perspective. First, we will present the concept of adaptation, as a political challenge. The “climate policy integration” theory will be defined and its practical application, which has links with both vertical and horizontal integration of adaptation, will be explained. A second part of our paper will address the practical implementation of climate change adaptation at two policy levels. We will first analyse regional adaptation strategies and plans of several European countries, with regards to integration of adaptation in different sectors. These policy instruments will be analysed, as well as the perception of adaptation by various concerned actors at the regional level. Secondly, the focus will be on how adaptation to climate change can be integrated into external policies. This will be studied through development aid. Two different approaches will be described. Institutions such as the E.U. or the World Bank often highlight the need to take climate change into account while working on any development projects. This is the so-called mainstreaming approach. On the contrary, a sectoral approach of adaptation, such as proposed by NAPAs , will be aimed at reducing the vulnerability of a specific sector. Both approaches will be analysed, through scientific and official literature