The period since 1991 has seen a general improvement both in terms of household welfare and schooling participation in Ghana. This monograph explores the patterns among descriptive indicators and uses regression analysis to examine possible causal relationships with special reference to the role of education in determining welfare and its…

This study uses data from the "Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS] 1999-2000" to investigate the predictors of child (age 1-4 years) mortality in a developing country like Bangladesh. The cross-tabulation and multiple logistic regression techniques have been used to estimate the predictors of child mortality. The…

Whereas period life expectancy constitutes an intuitive indicator of the survival conditions prevailing at a particular period, this paper argues that, given the existence of welfare interdependencies, that widespread indicator is nonetheless an incomplete measure of the longevity achievements relevant for human well-being. The central importance…

A marked transformation in the U.S. economy has yet to occur. The living standards of most working families have neither fully recovered from the recession of the early 1990s nor benefitted from the overall growth in productivity. (Author)

Background: This paper proposes that the adequacy of service delivery and caregiving to people who are disabled should be assessed using two criteria. One is the objective circumstance of living, which should be at a standard acceptable to the community at large. The other is a level of subjective wellbeing (SWB) within the normal range. Method:…

The purpose of this paper is to suggest an improved measure of financial poverty, based on household consumption and wealth as well as income. Data come from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) Survey, which appears to be the first national socio-economic panel survey to provide longitudinal data on all three measures of…

It is commonly believed that today's young college and university students possess an "advanced" market mentality and show a degree of adaptation to market conditions that is higher than in the older generation. Those who share this point of view assert that the market is fundamentally changing the structure of people's thinking,…

Research has established that those with higher social status have better health. Less is known about whether this relationship differs cross-nationally and whether it operates similarly across different institutional arrangements. To examine the relationship between stratification and health, two Western, industrialized societies at opposite ends…

This article summarizes findings from a recent study of 451 Career Technical Education (CTE) and non-CTE students as drawn from seven high schools supported by an area career technical center. One aspect of this study examined each group's academic standing and their socioeconomic status, including the household living arrangements and the family…

Compares the functional and exploitive impact of social stratification. A case study of the Mayan culture indicates that, as social inequality increases, the standard of living for the majority does not. (AM)

The economic factor is considered primary in temporary labor migrations: when people can find jobs in a country where the standard of living is higher, they are able to earn more money than they would in their home country. In the recent years, differences in pay have been so large that by earning a lot of money in a different country and spending…

The Human Development Index (HDI) implicitly defines "human development" and ranks countries accordingly. To elucidate the HDI's meaning of "human development," the paper examines the sensitivity of the HDI to changes in its components, namely social indicators of education, longevity and standard of living. The HDI is next compared with two…

This issue discusses world population trends and their implications for more and less developed countries. There have been two periods of major population expansion since 1750 with the first lasting almost 200 years and the second surge occurring after World War II. Growth rates in industrialized countries are now very low with fertility below…

Today poverty in rural America remains pervasive and persistent. A decade ago, 14 million rural Americans were classified as "officially" poor. In 1973, nearly 9.2 million were classified poor. The decline in rural poverty over the years has been minimal. This paper briefly documents the poverty statistics according to the living standards used by…

This article addresses perceptual aspects of occupational prestige evaluations. The data presented are based on the evaluation of a set of occupational categories on six dimensions: power and influence, value to society, standard of living, initiative and autonomy, skills and knowledge, and social standing. (Author/CT)