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The Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) examination is a high-stakes matriculation system that determines the opportunity for higher education and social mobility for most local students. This means that content featured in the tests poses strong washback effects on classroom teaching and learning. Despite the fact that the Hong Kong Examination and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) recognizes the effects of washback and the necessity to use it in a positive way, certain aspects within the HKDSE English Language Reading Comprehension paper might have been overlooked. This paper looks at the genres, text sources and topics featured by the HKDSE examination since its inception in 2011. It finds that while there is an effort to diversify the topics featured and ensure their appropriacy to local candidates, the Authority falls short in utilizing a wide enough range of text genres in its examinations, possibly leading to narrowed English reading abilities in the population. Additionally, texts are also usually selected from sources that favor affluent, professional demographics, which has possible implications for the fairness of the test.

We build an agent-based model to study how coordination failures, credit con- straints and unequal access to investment opportunities affect inequality and aggre- gate income dynamics. The economy is populated by households who can invest in alternative projects associated with different productivity growth rates. Access to investment projects also depends on credit availability. The income of each house- hold is determined by the output of the project but also by aggregate demand conditions. We show that aggregate dynamics is affected by income distribution. Moreover, we show that the model features a trickle-up growth dynamics. Redis- tribution towards poorer households raises aggregate demand and is beneficial for the income growth of all agents in the economy. Extensive numerical simulations show that our model is able to reproduce several stylized facts concerning income inequality and social mobility. Finally, we test the impact of redistributive fiscal policies, showing that fiscal policies facilitating access to investment opportunities by poor households have the largest impact in terms of raising long-run aggregate income and decreasing income inequality. Moreover, policy timing is important: fiscal policies that are implemented too late may have no significant effects on in- equality.

We build an agent-based model to study how coordination failures, credit con- straints and unequal access to investment opportunities affect inequality and aggre- gate income dynamics. The economy is populated by households who can invest in alternative projects associated with different productivity growth rates. Access to investment projects also depends on credit availability. The income of each house- hold is determined by the output of the project but also by aggregate demand conditions. We show that aggregate dynamics is affected by income distribution. Moreover, we show that the model features a trickle-up growth dynamics. Redis- tribution towards poorer households raises aggregate demand and is beneficial for the income growth of all agents in the economy. Extensive numerical simulations show that our model is able to reproduce several stylized facts concerning income inequality and social mobility. Finally, we test the impact of redistributive fiscal policies, showing that fiscal policies facilitating access to investment opportunities by poor households have the largest impact in terms of raising long-run aggregate income and decreasing income inequality. Moreover, policy timing is important: fiscal policies that are implemented too late may have no significant effects on in- equality.

By placing particular attention to the socio-economic dimension, this thesis explores the role of three pillars of an educational system: decentralization, early education and curricular tracking. The first article focuses on an experiment in Mexico that aimed to increase parental empowerment in the school's decision-making. Results show that increased participation produced an increase in cognitive abilities, however, this was mediated by the SES of the student. The second article brings an international perspective by comparing the evolution of the achievement gap over time in 32 countries. The findings suggest that tracking and vocational enrollment are important explanatory mechanisms of the cross-country variability in achievement gaps. The third article studies whether early education is associated with adult outcomes but concentrating on a particularly vulnerable population in the United States: GED recipients. Results show that participation in early education is associated with greater odds of graduating high school over attaining a GED. Esta tesis explora el rol de tres pilares de un sistema educativo: descentralización, educación temprana y seguimiento curricular. El primer artículo estudia un experimento en México que tuvo como objetivo aumentar el empoderamiento de padres en la toma de decisiones en la escuela. Los resultados muestran que mayor participación de los padres aumentó las habilidades cognitivas de sus hijos. Sin embargo, esto fue mediado por el SES del estudiante. El segundo artículo compara la evolución de la brecha de logros en 32 países. Los hallazgos sugieren que el seguimiento curricular y los estudios vocacionales pueden ser mecanismos explicativos de la brecha. El tercer artículo estudia si la educación temprana está asociada con resultados positivos en la adultez en Estados Unidos. Los resultados muestran que la participación en educación temprana está asociado con mayores probabilidades de graduarse de la escuela secundaria en comparación con la obtención de un GED.

In its first years in office, the Labour Government set out a wide-ranging and ambitious set of policies aimed at reducing poverty, inequality and social exclusion. A decade on, with the party facing probable catastrophic defeat in the next general election, how far can these ambitions be said to have been met? This article summarises the evidence. It also examines the most recent government White Paper on social mobility, New Opportunities: Fair Chances for the Future, published in January 2009, and asks whether this paper represents a serious last attempt to renew the equal opportunities agenda.

This is the presentation of the paper entitled “Interaction design principles in WYRED platform” in the Emerging interactive systems for education session at the HCI International 2017 Conference, held in Vancouver, Canada, 9 - 14 July 2017. This work presents the requirements elicitation phase for the WYRED platform. WYRED (netWorked Youth Research for Empowerment in the Digital society) is a European H2020 Project that aims to provide a framework for research in which children and young people can express and explore their perspectives and interests in relation to digital society, but also a platform from which they can communicate their perspectives to other stakeholders effectively through innovative engagement processes. The requirement elicitation is a basic step to design the interactive mechanism to build up the needed social dialog among the involved stakeholders. In order to set up the right interactive tasks, not only functional requirements are elicited, the non-functional requirements play a key role in this project, specially regarding to ensure the security and privacy of the underage people that will be presented in the development of this project.

This article considers eighteenth-century urban credit and its relationship to social context and commerce from the perspective offered by two thousand private credit agreements preserved in complaints filed to initiate suits in the New York City Mayor’s Court from the late seventeenth century to the eve of the American Revolution. The complaints cover the gamut of urban colonial commerce, from mundane local exchanges to ambitious and high-value ventures aimed at overseas markets. Some of the complaints run to as many as seventeen pages, but many are cast in formulaic terms over two or three manuscript sheets. The loss of most of the city’s eighteenth-century tax records make it difficult to produce a comprehensive assessment of the litigants’ social and economic status. But the patterns that do emerge from the aggregate glimpses of everyday practice give some sense of the city’s distinctive credit market. Previous studies of neighbouring colonies have noted the increasing use of paper instruments and a shift to restrictive common law pleading in debt which, it is argued, provided creditors with greater commercial certainty and confidence and thereby nurtured the expansion of trade. However, in New York the complaints indicate that city traders retained a preference for dealing on account and presented their suits in the more flexible common law form of assumpsit, casting the city’s economic and legal change in a different light. What we can glimpse of the practices and procedures associated with different forms of borrowing, indicate a local market that depended on inter-related household exchange and a commercial rationale that balanced considerations of profit with wider but cautiously-reckoned social obligations. For example, comparing the usual repayment terms available in the city with those offered wealthier borrowers, and the credit agreed between two upriver fur dealers and their Native American partners, reveals the city’s credit market as a relatively conservative provider of support for residents and the able-bodied, thereby ensuring minimal public out-relief, which offered limited opportunities for investment and social mobility, even for those from within local circles.

Higher education is at the heart of the national public agenda in a growing number of countries. Decision-makers need to consider more systematically the role of universities as instruments of economic development and social mobility, making it imperative important to ground higher education policies carefully on evidence about what works. Similarly, at the institutional level, universities must learn to guide their transformative efforts with a more thorough analysis of their strengths and weaknesses and a deeper understanding of the factors behind the results of successful universities. This introductory article shows how the lessons of experience can help understand what works and what does not work in higher education policy under various conditions and circumstances, in order to increase the probability of success and avoid repeating the mistakes of others.

Undocumented immigration has gained unprecedented prominence in many of the world's wealthiest nation-states. In the United States, a substantial population of undocumented youth is growing up with legal access to public education through high school, but facing legal and economic barriers to higher education, even when attaining college admission. The legal and social contradictions associated with undocumented status limit these youths’ chances for upward mobility through traditional means. Based on ethnography and in-depth interviews, this article examines the experiences of documented and undocumented children of working-class Latino immigrants in Los Angeles. Because their educational and home environments are not differentiated, undocumented youth undergo similar social incorporation processes as their documented peers early on. However, their legal protections end after high school, greatly limiting their chances for upward mobility through education. In some cases, knowledge of future barriers to college attendance leads to a decline in educational motivation. Existing assimilation theories need to be expanded to include this novel and sizeable phenomenon.

This study examined whether the contribution of social capital to household economic outputs was greater than that of other types of capital, whether different dimensions of social capital contribute equally to household income, and whether the role of social capital varies among different categories of households. We developed a reduced-form model of the household production function, in which social capital is treated as a production factor similar to other conventional factors such as physical capital, labor, and human capital, with household income and expenditure as dependent variables. The results show that social capital has a strong and positive contribution to household income, and the positive contribution of social capital to the general (the poor) house-hold’s income is greater than that of the paper-recycling (the rich) household’s income. In contrast to other studies, the number of memberships in associations does not have an impact on household income.

As Kate Vieira notes in her introduction, she did not set out to write a book about papers. Instead, she was interested in testing claims that literacy is the “key to upward mobility, national belonging, civic participation, and ultimately assimilation” (2). She found, however, that her study participants frequently invoked papers when she asked about literacy; for them, “papers and literacy are intimately linked.” Vieira’s research challenges the theory that literacy is a means of achieving assimilation. She argues that literacy and papers are seen by migrants as a means of mobility—social, economic, and physical—and that papers serve as “a material lynchpin in the process of writing and being written” (9).

This paper summarises key themes and research findings from papers presented at an event hosted by CASE on 23rd January 2014: - Blanden, J. & Macmillan, L. (2014) Education and Intergenerational Mobility: Help or Hindrance? CASEpaper (forthcoming) - Chowdry, H., Crawford, C., Dearden, L., Goodman, A. & Vignoles, A. (2013) Widening participation in higher education: analysis using linked administrative data. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Series A), Vol. 176, Part 2, pp. 431-457. - Crawford, C. (2012) Socioeconomic gaps in HE participation: how have they changed over time? London: Institute for Fiscal Studies. - Whitty, G. & Anders, J. (2014) (How) did Labour narrow the achievement and participation gap? LLAKES Research Paper 46. London: Institute of Education.

This paper measures social mobility rates in Hungary during the period 1949 to 2017, using surnames to measure social status. In those years, there were two very different social regimes. The first was the Hungarian People’s Republic (1949–1989), which was a communist regime with an avowed aim of favouring the working class. The second is the modern liberal democracy (1989–2017), which is a free-market economy. We find five surprising things. First, social mobility rates were low for both upper- and lower-class families during 1949–2017, with an underlying intergenerational status correlation of 0.6–0.8. Second, social mobility rates under communism were the same as in the subsequent capitalist regime. Third, the Romani minority throughout both periods showed even lower social mobility rates. Fourth, the descendants of the eighteenth-century noble class in Hungary were still significantly privileged in 1949 and later. And fifth, although social mobility rates did not change measurably during the transition, the composition of the political elite changed rapidly and sharply.

No industry has been affected by environmental social movements as much, in so short a time, and on such a wide geographical scale, as pulp and paper manufacturing. Environmental social movements have had a profound influence on the industry since the mid- to late 1980s. In just a few years, “state of the art” pulping and bleaching has become more environmentally friendly. Manufacturers around the world have spent billions of US dollars adopting new technologies, modifying old ones, and developing local innovations to meet rising environmental demands, expectations, and regulations. Additional millions of US dollars have been spent by public and private institutions on research, development, and testing of new nvironmental processes and technologies for the pulp and paper industry (cf. API 1992; Porter and Linde 1995). The transformation is incomplete -- many environmental problems remain -- but nonetheless profound. All of this can be attributed at least initially to the efforts and influence of environmental social movements.

Intergenerational mobility is often studied using survey data. In such settings, selective unit or item non-response may bias estimates. Linking Dutch survey data to administrative income data allows us to examine whether selective responses bias the estimated relationship between parental income and children's mathematics and language test scores in grades 6 and 9. We find that the estimates of these relationships are biased downward due to parental unit non-response, while they are biased upwards due to item non-response. In the analyses of both unit and item non-response, the point estimates for language and mathematics test scores point in the same direction but only one of the two relationships is significant. These findings suggest that estimates of intergenerational mobility based on survey data need to be interpreted with caution because they may be biased by selective non-response. The direction of such bias is difficult to predict a priori. Bias due to unit and item non-response may work in opposing directions and may differ across outcomes.

In the early stages of a pandemic, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) that encourage physical distancing and reduce contact can decrease and delay disease transmission. Although NPIs have been implemented globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, their intensity and timing have varied widely. This paper analyzed the country-level determinants and effects of NPIs during the early stages of the pandemic (January 1st to April 29th, 2020). We examined countries that had implemented NPIs within 30 or 45 days since first case detection, as well as countries in which 30 or 45 days had passed since first case detection. The health and socioeconomic factors associated with delay in implementation of three NPIs—national school closure, national lockdown, and global travel ban—were analyzed using fractional logit and probit models, and beta regression models. The probability of implementation of national school closure, national lockdown, and strict national lockdown by a country was analyzed using a probit model. The effects of these three interventions on mobility changes were analyzed with propensity score matching methods using Google’s social mobility reports. Countries with larger populations and better health preparedness measures had greater delays in implementation. Countries with greater population density, higher income, more democratic political systems, and later arrival of first cases were more likely to implement NPIs within 30 or 45 days of first case detection. Implementation of lockdowns significantly reduced physical mobility. Mobility was further reduced when lockdowns were enforced with curfews or fines, or when they were more strictly defined. National school closures did not significantly change mobility. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10198-021-01355-4.

Background The magnitude and time course of the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States depends on early interventions to reduce the basic reproductive number to below 1. It is imperative, then, to develop methods to actively assess where quarantine measures such as social distancing may be deficient and suppress those potential resurgence nodes as early as possible. Objective We ask if social media is an early indicator of public social distancing measures in the United States by investigating its correlation with the time-varying reproduction number (Rt) as compared to social mobility estimates reported from Google and Apple Maps. Methods In this observational study, the estimated Rt was obtained for the period between March 5 and April 5, 2020, using the EpiEstim package. Social media activity was assessed using queries of “social distancing” or “#socialdistancing” on Google Trends, Instagram, and Twitter, with social mobility assessed using Apple and Google Maps data. Cross-correlations were performed between Rt and social media activity or mobility for the United States. We used Pearson correlations and the coefficient of determination (ρ) with significance set to P Results Negative correlations were found between Google search interest for “social distancing” and Rt in the United States (P Conclusions Our study demonstrates the potential use of Google Trends, Instagram, and Twitter as epidemiological tools in the assessment of social distancing measures in the United States during the early course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their correlation and earlier rise and peak in correlative strength with Rt when compared to social mobility may provide proactive insight into whether social distancing efforts are sufficiently enacted. Whether this proves valuable in the creation of more accurate assessments of the early epidemic course is uncertain due to limitations. These limitations include the use of a biased sample that is internet literate with internet access, which may covary with socioeconomic status, education, geography, and age, and the use of subtotal social media mentions of social distancing. Future studies should focus on investigating how social media reactions change during the course of the epidemic, as well as the conversion of social media behavior to actual physical behavior.

Background Social distancing is an important component of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Minimizing social interactions and travel reduces the rate at which the infection spreads and “flattens the curve” so that the medical system is better equipped to treat infected individuals. However, it remains unclear how the public will respond to these policies as the pandemic continues. Objective The aim of this study is to present the Twitter Social Mobility Index, a measure of social distancing and travel derived from Twitter data. We used public geolocated Twitter data to measure how much users travel in a given week. Methods We collected 469,669,925 tweets geotagged in the United States from January 1, 2019, to April 27, 2020. We analyzed the aggregated mobility variance of a total of 3,768,959 Twitter users at the city and state level from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results We found a large reduction (61.83%) in travel in the United States after the implementation of social distancing policies. However, the variance by state was high, ranging from 38.54% to 76.80%. The eight states that had not issued statewide social distancing orders as of the start of April ranked poorly in terms of travel reduction: Arkansas (45), Iowa (37), Nebraska (35), North Dakota (22), South Carolina (38), South Dakota (46), Oklahoma (50), Utah (14), and Wyoming (53). We are presenting our findings on the internet and will continue to update our analysis during the pandemic. Conclusions We observed larger travel reductions in states that were early adopters of social distancing policies and smaller changes in states without such policies. The results were also consistent with those based on other mobility data to a certain extent. Therefore, geolocated tweets are an effective way to track social distancing practices using a public resource, and this tracking may be useful as part of ongoing pandemic response planning.

In an observational longitudinal study of a sub-sample of the Aberdeen 1936 birth cohort, from age 62 to 77 years, we investigated childhood intelligence, social class, education, life-course social mobility, memory test performance and memory decline in late life. We examined 388 local residents who had attended school in Aberdeen in 1947 and measured Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) at recruitment age about 64 years and up to five times until age about 77 years. Better performance at age about 64 on AVLT was predicted by early socioeconomic status (SES), social mobility and childhood intelligence. The trajectory of AVLT decline was steeper in those who had received less education. This relationship was independent of childhood ability, sex, SES in childhood and social mobility. The protection of memory by education suggests that education supports resilience to age-related cognitive impairment. Upward social mobility does not enhance this effect, suggesting that resilience to age-related decline may be established in early life.

Purpose An estimated 9 million elderly people accompanied their adult children to urban areas in China, raising concerns about their social capital and mental health following re-location. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of migration on social capital and depression among this population. Methods Multistage stratified cluster sampling was applied to recruit the migrant and urban elderly in Hangzhou from May to August, 2013. Data were collected from face-to-face interviews by trained college students using a standardized questionnaire. Social capital measurements included cognitive (generalized trust and reciprocity) and structure (support from individual and social contact) aspects. Depression was measured by Geriatric Depression Scale-30 (GDS-30). Chi-square tests and binary logistic regression models were used for analysis. Results A total of 1248 migrant elderly and 1322 urban elderly were eligible for analysis. After adjusting for a range of confounder factors, binary logistic regression models revealed that migrant elderly reported significantly lower levels of generalized trust [OR = 1.34, 95% CI (1.10–1.64)], reciprocity [OR = 1.55, 95% CI (1.29–1.87)], support from individual [OR = 1.96, 95% CI (1.61–2.38)] and social contact [OR = 3.27, 95% CI (2.70–3.97)]. In the full adjusted model, migrant elderly were more likely to be mentally unhealthy [OR = 1.85, 95% CI (1.44–2.36)] compared with urban elderly. Conclusions Migrant elderly suffered from a lower mental health status and social capital than their urban counterparts in the emigrating city. Attention should focus on improving the social capital and mental health of this growing population.

The Green Paper Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice [BIS. 2015. Sheffield: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/474227/BIS-15-623-fulfilling-our-potential-teaching-excellence-social-mobility-and-student-choice.pdf] suggests that the United Kingdom Higher Education (HE) landscape will be transformed, with greater emphasis on the quality of teaching and dissemination of high-quality learning and teaching (L&T) information to students. The latter is important for achieving the Government’s widening participation agenda. Previously, a survey of the websites of 38 HE institutions found that limited information was provided to prospective students on several aspects of L&T [Hosein, A., and N. Rao. 2015. An Impact Study of the Guidance Documents for Higher Education Providers Published by QAA in 2013. Gloucester: The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. http://www.q...

It is now widely assumed in England – by academics and social commentators alike – that, as a result of the introduction of a wide range of market reforms over the past few decades, English students have become consumers of higher education (HE). In this chapter we draw on two sources of data to interrogate critically these assumptions in relation to both students’ choice-making processes and experiences of degree-level study. Firstly, we analyse the extent to which students are constructed as consumers in contemporary policy documents, including the white paper Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice (DBIS, 2016), which provides the basis for the Higher Education Bill which has recently passed through the UK parliament. Secondly, we consider the extent to which these constructions are shared by students themselves, using data from focus groups in a diverse sample of English higher education institutions (HEIs). We explore whether students contest these constructions and/or offer their own alternatives. The structure of our chapter is as follows: we first discuss the background to the research, by outlining key facets of the higher education system in England, and some of the main theoretical debates that are pertinent to our study. We then briefly describe our research methods before going on to present our findings in some detail – comparing the degree of congruence between policy constructions and student understandings. In our conclusion, we discuss some of the systemic challenges that emerge from our data.

Wealth, an important financial cushion for older adults to buffer economic stress, requires a longer time to accumulate and develop in one’s course of life. However, little is known about the trajectories of wealth in later life, and how the life course socioeconomic status (SES) may contribute to the development of wealth at old-age. This study investigated longitudinal patterns of wealth trajectory and whether SES across the life course affects these trajectories using critical period, accumulation, and social mobility models. Using data from 16,189 adults aged 51 and older from the 2004-2014 Health and Retirement Study, a growth mixture model was used to explore distinct wealth trajectories. Impacts of life course models were studied using multinomial logistic regression. Results showed that four heterogeneous latent classes of wealth were identified: Stable high (reference group), Low and increasing, Stable low, and High but decline. Disadvantaged adulthood SES, accumulated exposure to socioeconomic risks, and downward or persistent socioeconomic disadvantage over the life course were associated with Stable low, Low and increasing, and High but decline, supporting all three life course mechanisms on wealth development in later life. Evidence suggests that wealth development is heterogeneous across individuals, and a strong gradient effect of life-course SES on wealth trajectories are clearly observed. Programs and policies should address the effects of life course on wealth development to strengthen the economic well-being in later life.

This paper interrogates how definitions of widening participation and fair access are changing, in the light of changing government and institutional priorities and following on from the Browne Review (2010) and the Government White Paper: ‘Students at the Heart of the System’ (2011). The authors draw on an analysis of OFFA Access Agreements, mission statements and other publicly available material for one region of England to analyse institutional discourses, priorities and rhetoric on fair access across a range of university missions. We highlight both continuity and change in the way individual universities express their widening participation aspirations and marked differences between universities, based on mission group, location and catchment area. We assess the future prospects for widening participation based on the notion of equal opportunities for all (Schwartz 2004), as opposed to sponsoring social mobility for some via entry to ‘our most selective institutions’ (BIS 2011).

The ability to access online communication touches almost every institution and industry the American public interacts with including education, healthcare, social services, government, and news media. In fact, economic mobility (or the lack thereof) is a common theme in this year’s presidential campaign, yet the discussion often ignores the importance of affordable Internet access and digital skills for financial and social stability in favor of securing employment. The gap between those that can afford high-speed, at-home, online access (and possess the critical skills to navigate digital environments (Hobbs, 2010)) impacts virtually every aspect of one’s life, but the digital divide is often overlooked in these discussions. This omission contributes to the increasing disparity between the digital — and economic — “haves” and “have nots.” In this paper, using Charlotte, North Carolina as the case study, we pose the question: what is the relationship between upward economic mobility and the digital divide? Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States by population (Wilson, 2015) and recently formed a city-wide “digital inclusion taskforce” (comprised of organizations, civic and business leaders, academics, and local politicians). The taskforce worked to ensure that Google’s forthcoming fiber rollout includes neighborhoods affected by the digital divide. Using multiple data sets, we analyze and map the relationship between economic mobility and the digital divide in Charlotte. The first data set is from a recent report by Harvard University and the National Bureau of Economic Research. Charlotte ranked 49th out of 50 cities in potential upward mobility for residents earning a median income within the bottom 25th percentile. Among the 100 largest counties in the U.S. by population, Mecklenburg County (where Charlotte resides) ranked 100 out of 100 for potential upward mobility among residents in the bottom 25th percentile for median income (Chetty & Hendren, 2015). The second data set is Charlotte’s Digital and Media Literacy Index (DML). This large-scale city-wide survey (MarketWise, Inc., 2012) mapped local residents' digital and media literacy. Based on our initial analyses, some of the residents with the lowest digital and media literacy scores also live in the most economically disadvantaged areas. A deeper and more comprehensive look into this relationship provides a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between digital inclusion and economic mobility. Further unpacking this issue will allow us to propose a set of policy recommendations for the city and county to pursue in developing economic and digital opportunities for all citizens, but specifically ones geared towards the depressed areas of the city and county. Preliminary recommendations include the following: 1) DML resources within a geographic area need to be considered when deploying a new social service. 2) Citizens from economically depressed areas will continue to be further removed from the economy without a supportive DML infrastructure. 3) Simply having broadband access is not sufficient in making sure citizens can use digital tools. 4) Economic mobility initiatives need to consider the availability of high speed Internet, the tools to access them, and the training in using them. References Chetty, R., & Hendren, N. (2015). The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility: Childhood Exposure Effects and County-Level Estimates. Retrieved from http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/hendren/files/nbhds_paper.pdf Hobbs, R. (2010). Digital and media literacy: a plan of action : a white paper on the digital and media literacy recommendations of the Knight Commission on the information needs of communities in a democracy. Washington, D.C.: Aspen Institute. MarketWise, Inc. (2012). Knight School of Communication 2012 Digital and Media Literacy Survey of Adults in Mecklenburg County, NC Final Report (p. 76). Charlotte, NC: Knight School of Communication. Wilson, J. (2015, March 5). Charlotte ranks No. 2 among fastest-growing large cities, new U.S. Census report shows. Charlotte Business Journal.

The white paper on higher education (BIS, 2011) refers to the government’s social mobility strategy, Opening doors, breaking barriers (HM Government, 2011). The expressed aspirations of the OER (open educational resources) community resonate with the white paper’s three central challenges: attaining sustainability; improving the learner experience; and taking responsibility for social mobility. Lee (2008), writing of the potential of OER, recalls the actions of the eponymous Jude the Obscure, whose anger at exclusion from university led him to graffiti the closed gates of ‘Biblioll College’ (Hardy, 1895). However, while both groups agree that change is necessary, there is little common ground in mapping solutions to opening doors to HE.

• Summary: Using Ghana as an illustrative case study, this article examines the ideology and intentions which underpin the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper required for approval by the IMF and World Bank to qualify for debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative. This article critically examines the functions assigned to governmental and non-governmental agencies within the social sector generally and the Department of Social Welfare specifically. Conditions at the Department of Social Welfare are explored through data gathered from semi-structured interviews with frontline social workers. These document the day-to-day realities of social work practice in Ghana and the relationship of the Department of Social Welfare with the non-governmental sector in the delivery of welfare services.• Findings: Social workers at the Department of Social Welfare report chronic under-funding which undermines even the most rudimentary activities. They also describe difficulties in holding NGOs to account due to the lack of logistical support and the inability to enforce compliance with statutory requirements.• Applications : Across the sub-Saharan region are government departments responsible for the delivery of social services and operating within the social policy frameworks created by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers required for debt relief. Evidence produced by this case study has implications for similar sub-Saharan countries implementing a social policy based on the neoliberal precepts if the New Policy Agenda.

Haiti's economic development has been held back by a history of civil conflict and violence. With donor assistance declining from its exceptional levels following the 2010 earthquake, and concessional financing growing scarce, Haiti must learn to live with tighter budget constraints. At the same time, the United Nations forces that have provided security in the past decade are scaling down. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the conditions under which public spending can minimize violent conflict, and draws possible lessons for Haiti. Drawing on an empirical analysis of 148 countries over the period 1960-2009, simulations for Haiti suggest that increases in military spending would be associated with a higher risk of conflict, an observation in line with Haiti's own history. Greater welfare expenditure (education, health, and social assistance), by contrast, would be associated with lower risk of conflict.

This paper exploits data from a rotating panel that follows individuals for four quarters to shed light on the factors driving the time use decisions and restrictions faced by Mexican youth. The results of the analysis imply that: (i) once youth aged 15 to 18 years old leave school, it is very unlikely that they will return; (ii) being "neither in work nor in school" (Nini) is a highly persistent condition; and (iii) marriage (perhaps motivated by teen pregnancy) increases the probability of girls leaving school and raising children by themselves, which may in turn increase their future likelihood of being Ninis, as well as the probability of their children growing up to become Ninis, potentially creating an intergenerational transmission of Nininess. Similar results are found for other countries in the region (Brazil and Argentina).

Using all the household survey data available in Latin America during the period 1992 to 2013, this paper estimates that in 2015, 20 million youth ages 15 to 24 years in the region were out of school and not working (making them ninis, for "ni estudian ni trabajan"). The share of out-of–school, out-of-work youth in Latin America, at about 19 percent, is roughly equal to the global average of 22 percent. Although women make up over two-thirds of the ninis in the region, the number of male ninis grew by 46 percent between 1992 and 2010. As a result, the absolute number of ninis rose over the two-decade period, even as women's education and employment rates were improving. Global comparisons show that Latin America is the region of the world with the largest concentration of ninis among households in the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution. Coupled with the long-lasting harm it causes to the youth's future labor-market outcomes, the high incidence of ninis among the poorest households tends to lock in income disparities from one generation to the next, obstructing social mobility and poverty reduction in the region.

Intention toward any occupational choice can be widely categorized as a rational choice process combined with a subjective attitude function. There is extensive literature dealing with the formation of intention toward entrepreneurship in adolescents, in particular as a result of either parental (vertical) transmission of social capital or network effects from peers or neighbours (the latter two being two different levels of horizontal transmission varying in proximity in terms of bonding and bridging). We contribute to this literature by considering the joint effect of all these three levels simultaneously, in order to avoid an underspecification of the model due to omission of important cultural factors. We hypothesize that such three levels identify a mechanism where the individual perception of their importance interacts with their objective characteristics. With data for second-year high-school students, and employing empirical triangulation through Logit and 3SLS methods, we find evidence for a strong parental effect and of secondary peer effects on student intention. We also detect clear endogenous effects from the neighbourhood and the overall cultural context. Moreover, entrepreneurship is confirmed to be perceived, even by students, as a buffer for unemployment and social mobility.

This paper seeks to understand what drove the trends in learning outcomes in Argentina between 2000 and 2012, using data from four rounds of the Program for International Student Assessment. A year-specific education production function is estimated and its results used to decompose the changes in learning outcomes into changes in inputs, parameters, and residuals via microsimulations. Estimates of the production function show the importance of socioeconomic status, gender, school autonomy, and teacher qualifications to determine learning outcomes. Despite an important increase in the level of resources invested in public education, learning outcomes in public schools decreased vis-à-vis private schools. According to the results presented here, the increase in the number of teachers in the system, pushing the pupil-teacher ratio in Argentina to 11, had no effect on learning outcomes. The microsimulation further confirms that changes in the system’s ability to transform inputs into outcomes accounted for most of the changes in test scores. Overall, the study shows the ineffectiveness of input-based education policies to improve learning outcomes in Argentina.

Purpose To examine the associations between family social support, community “social capital” and mental health and educational outcomes. Methods The data come from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, a multi-stage stratified nationally representative random sample. Family social support (parental relationships, evening meal with family, parental surveillance) and community social capital (parental involvement at school, sociability, involvement in activities outside the home) were measured at baseline (age 13–14), using a variety of instruments. Mental health was measured at age 14–15 (GHQ-12). Educational achievement was measured at age 15–16 by achievement at the General Certificate of Secondary Education. Results After adjustments, good paternal (OR = 0.70, 95% CI 0.56–0.86) and maternal (OR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.53–0.81) relationships, high parental surveillance (OR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.69–0.94) and frequency of evening meal with family (6 or 7 times a week: OR = 0.77, 95% CI 0.61–0.96) were associated with lower odds of poor mental health. A good paternal relationship (OR = 1.27, 95% CI 1.06–1.51), high parental surveillance (OR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.20–1.58), high frequency of evening meal with family (OR = 1.64, 95% CI 1.33–2.03) high involvement in extra-curricular activities (OR = 2.57, 95% CI 2.11–3.13) and parental involvement at school (OR = 1.60, 95% CI 1.37–1.87) were associated with higher odds of reaching the educational benchmark. Participating in non-directed activities was associated with lower odds of reaching the benchmark (OR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.70–0.89). Conclusions Building social capital in deprived communities may be one way in which both mental health and educational outcomes could be improved. In particular, there is a need to focus on the family as a provider of support.

ObjectiveLittle is known about the contribution of childhood socio-economic position (SEP) and social mobility to weight change. The present study evaluated the effect of family SEP during the pre-school years and social mobility on BMI between birth and adolescence.DesignLongitudinal. The SEP of each child’s family was classified according to an asset-based wealth index as low, medium or high. Four different categories of childhood–adolescence SEP groups were created in order to examine social mobility: low–medium/high, medium–medium, medium–high and high–high/medium. For each of these categories, BMI was tracked from birth to adolescence. Linear mixed-effects models were used to analyse the data.SettingCuiabá–MT, Brazil.SubjectsA population-based cohort of children born between 1994 and 1999 was assessed between 1999 and 2000, and again between 2009 and 2011.ResultsA total of 1716 adolescents were followed from childhood to adolescence (71·4 % of baseline). The prevalence of overweight/obesity was 20·4 % in childhood and 27·7 % in adolescence. A higher SEP in childhood was associated with a greater prevalence of overweight in adolescence. Expressive upward social mobility occurred, mainly in the lowest SEP group. There was a greater rate of change in BMI between birth and adolescence among children with a higher SEP in childhood and children who remained in the higher SEP from childhood to adolescence.ConclusionIndividuals from a higher SEP in childhood and those who remained in the higher social classes showed greater rate of change in BMI. Thus, initial SEP was the major determinant of changes in BMI.

Facing the prospects of rapid aging and demographic decline over the coming decades, Hungary needs a highly skilled workforce to help generate the productivity growth that it needs to continue fueling a convergence of its living standards with those of its West European neighbors. Skilling up Hungary’s workforce should start by equipping youth with the right cognitive and social-emotional foundation skills. International research has identified three dimensions of skills that matter for good employment outcomes and economic growth: cognitive skills, such as literacy, numeracy, creative and critical thinking, and problem-solving; social-emotional skills and behavioral traits, such as conscientiousness, grit, and openness to experience; and job- or occupation-specific technical skills, such as the ability to work as an engineer. Hungary can do significantly better in preparing its next generation with the right cognitive foundation skills. This report focuses on cognitive skills and examines results for Hungary from the program for international student assessment (PISA), which assesses the mathematics, reading, and science competencies of 15-year-olds. This report lays out a policy agenda consisting of two parallel elements: first, improving socioeconomic conditions for children and youth in general and in school through policies targeted to the poor and disadvantaged such as welfare and employment policies for parents and education support for children. Second, promoting equity and reducing socioeconomic segregation in basic education through inclusive education policies.

(1979). Social Realities and the Social Work Response: The Role of Schools of Social Work. International Association of Schools of Social Work, Vienna, Austria, 1977. $6, Paper. 173 Pp. Journal of Education for Social Work: Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 124-126.

This study investigates the effects of human capital, social capital and their interaction on the performance of 1,398 Vietnamese new-born firms. Operating profit is used as the measure of success. Human capital is captured by individual-level professional education, start-up experience, and learning. Whereas the first two dimensions of human capital are measured with traditional indicators, we define learning as the ability to accumulate knowledge to conduct innovation activities (new product introduction, product innovation and process innovation). Social capital is measured as benefits obtained from personal strong-tie and weak-tie networks. Key findings are threefold: (i) human capital strongly predicts firm success, with learning exhibiting a statistically significant positive association with operating profit, (ii) benefits from weak ties outweigh those from strong ties, (iii) interaction of human capital and social capital displays a statistically significant positive effect on new-firm performance.