Beyond the Diagonal Reference Model: Critiques and New Directions in the Analysis of Mobility Effects

Theoretically there are good reasons to expect social mobility to have an effect on fertility. The problem is how to assess such an effect empirically, as social mobility is a function of both social origin and destination. This paper presents the Diagonal Reference Model (DRM) as a valuable historical method to study social mobility consequences. We use Swedish individual-level longitudinal data with intergenerational links covering the period 1905 to 2015 for cohorts born as early as 1870. We apply DRM to test hypotheses about the association between social mobility and fertility net of social origin and social attainment. The results show a constant but small negative association between upward social mobility and fertility. This relationship was most pronounced in the oldest cohorts, suggesting the need for more research on social mobility effects in historical settings with DRMs.

This paper is about the analysis of effects of status inconsistency and mobility on a dependent variable. We compare the mainstream square additive baseline model to alternative designs by Hope (1971, 1975) and Sobel (1981, 1985). Both writers claim that the square additive baseline model also contains some status inconsistency effects. An examination of the relationships between the square additive model, Hope's halfway/difference model, and Sobel's simple diagonal reference model shows that the effects uncovered by Sobel and Hope pertain to the inequality of the effects of the status variables on the dependent variable. These salience difference effects are therefore distinct from the non-additive status inconsistency effects which would be detected using the square additive approach. Less restricted versions of the diagonal reference model, the DM-1 and DM-2 models as well as a recent model by Weakliem (1992), are also examined with regard to additive/non-additive components and symmetry of effects.

The need to ensure adequate numbers of motivated health professionals is at the forefront of the modernisation of the UK NHS. The aim of this paper is to assess current understanding of the labour supply behaviour of nurses, and to propose an agenda for further research. In particular, the paper reviews American and British economics literature that focuses on empirical econometric studies based on the classical static labour supply model. American research could be classified into first generation, second generation and recent empirical evidence. Advances in methods mirror those in the general labour economics literature, and include the use of limited dependent variable models and the treatment of sample selection issues. However, there is considerable variation in results, which depends on the methods used, particularly on the effect of wages. Only one study was found that used UK data, although other studies examined the determinants of turnover, quit rates and job satisfaction. The agenda for further empirical research includes the analysis of discontinuities in the labour supply function, the relative importance of pecuniary and non-pecuniary job characteristics, and the application of dynamic and family labour supply models to nursing research. Such research is crucial to the development of evidence-based policies.

The consequences of social mobility have been a persistent theme on the research agenda of social scientists, but the estimation of the net mobility effect controlling for both social origin and destination confronts with the identification problem. This research 1) highlights the mechanical identification approaches deployed by the conventional methods—the square additive model, the diamond model, and the diagonal reference model; 2) draws on the directional acyclic graphs to present an identification framework that is based on the intermediate variables; and 3) elaborates the specific identification strategies in typical research scenarios: independent mechanism, joint mechanism, partial mechanism, and intermediate confounded mechanism. The results of the Monte Carlo simulations suggest that the mechanism-based identification approach helps to obtain an unbiased estimate of the net mobility effect.

To explain political divisions within British society, the current scholarship highlights the importance of the ‘winners’ and ‘left‐behind’ of political economic transformations. Yet, the impact of widespread absolute intergenerational social mobility in the past half century, which resulted in socio‐economic gains or losses for many, has not been systematically addressed. Our paper assesses how intergenerationally mobile voters’ positions in the Brexit referendum differ from their non‐mobile counterparts. We differentiate between the effects of social origins, social mobility and destination position. To do so, we model data from Understanding Society with a diagonal reference model. We show that origins are nearly as important as current socio‐economic positions for predicting the probability of voting to ‘leave’ or ‘remain’ in the Brexit referendum. We find that a first‐generation graduate would be up to 10 percentage points less likely to vote ‘Remain’ than a graduate whose parents also went to university.

μ-Synthesis control with reference model for aeropropulsion system test facility under dynamic coupling and uncertainty

Since Sorokin’s seminal work, many studies have explored the psychological outcomes of social mobility, with mixed results. Most of the previous research has been limited by methodological issues that prevent them from distinguishing the contributions of mobility from social status. We examined the relationship between perceptions of upward and downward social mobility and life satisfaction using diagonal reference model, a methodology that permits to estimate the separate effects of origin class, destination class, and social mobility. Based on nationally representative data from the 2019 and 2021 Chinese Social Survey, we found that perceptions of upward social mobility was associated with higher life satisfaction, while perceptions of downward social mobility was associated with lower life satisfaction. Mechanism analyses suggested that perceived fairness mediated the nexus between perceptions of upward and downward social mobility and life satisfaction. This study enhances our understanding of the association between social mobility and human well-being, elucidating the micro-level psychological mechanisms underlying this relationship.

SummaryThis work proposes a new approach for designing dynamic pre‐compensators to reduce interactions of multivariable uncertain square systems. The proposed method is based on the minimization of the norm of the difference between the compensated system and a diagonal reference model. The main appeal of the technique is to propose a systematic procedure to obtain the reference model dynamics, in contrast to methods that use the identity matrix as a reference, and to obtain diagonal dominance in a frequency range of interest employing the generalized Kalman‐Yakubovich‐Popov (KYP) Lemma. The design conditions are expressed as linear matrix inequalities (LMI) thanks to a new general parametrization on the decision variables in bilinear products to reduce the conservatism of the solutions compared to standard approaches from the literature. Numerical examples verify the robustness of the proposed method, showing significant decoupling of the uncertain plant.

An application of diagonal reference models and time-varying covariates in social mobility research on mortality and fertility

ABSTRACTObjectiveHousehold finances are often studied in relation to various life outcomes, but there is a lack of research on any links between intragenerational net worth mobility and health. This research aims to disentangle the effects of household net worth on individuals’ health at two different time points, 8 years apart, and possible mobility effects arising from any changes in household finances between those two points in time. So far, these issues have not been sufficiently explored, and filling this gap will allow a better understanding of the effect of financial resources and financial mobility on the health of young adults.MethodsThis study uses data about 8583 individuals from the United States National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and Sobel's diagonal reference model (DRM), developed to study the influence of social mobility, taking into account origin and destination effects, to test if intragenerational net worth mobility, net of origin, and destination positions, is linked to the mental health of individuals.ResultsThis study identifies linkages between household net worth and individuals’ mental health. The results are in line with theoretical expectations and past empirical studies showing that not only socioeconomic position but also social mobility shapes health outcomes. Even after accounting for debt and asset value explicitly, the influence of net worth position and mobility on mental health remains largely unaffected. The main findings suggest that individuals living in negative or break‐even net worth households experience poorer health. There are distinct patterns indicating that each of the three net worth categories is associated with substantial health differences.ConclusionThis investigation offers valuable insight into the role of social determinants in shaping health disparities among individuals. The conducted analysis shows that household net worth is strongly associated with the mental health of adults. The results indicate that health‐related policies should be formulated and implemented not only on one measure of household finances and that the difference between household assets and debt is one of the best candidates in this category.

The way women construct their subjective social status has garnered significant attention. However, the roles of husbands and fathers in this process have been underexplored, with even less focus on how these roles have evolved across generations. This study aims to answer two important questions against the backdrop: First, which is the most dominant factor in shaping married women's subjective social status, their own objective class or those of their husband or father? Answers to this question reveal the impacts of assortative mating and intergenerational mobility. Second, how does the construction pattern change across birth cohorts? Cohort dynamics help reflect the evolution of gender roles and family values in China. Using pooled data from the Chinese General Social Survey in 2010–2017 and the diagonal reference model, our study finds that Chinese married women previously tended to construct their own social status based on the objective class of their husbands. However, this trend is reversed for younger cohorts. Father's objective class status carries roughly the same weight as women's own, but its impact becomes moderately stronger in younger cohorts. Taken together, the above findings reveal a unique pathway of family modernization in transitional China. Married women, although increasingly independent of their spouses, still remain closely connected with their natal families.

Intergenerational occupational mobility and health in the United States.

Roles of accounting in New Service Development within Servitization – The viewpoint of pragmatic constructivism

This chapter presents a research agenda for further research on policy design, based on the fourfold model of causation, evaluation, instrumentation and intervention. It starts with a brief discussion about the new directions to be followed in policy design, from bricolage to conscious design, considering the three main issues identified by the authors of the Handbook: complexity, uncertainty and legitimacy. Then it reviews the challenges raised by these issues for each dimension of the policy design framework. Models of causation have to deal with multi-causality, bounded rationality and cognitive frames. Models of evaluation will face problems of realist evaluation, risk assessment and public accountability. Models of instrumentation should cope with the politics of policy design, the emergence and spreading out of algorithm design, and collaborative governance. Eventually, models of interventions face the challenges of institutional coordination, performance assessment and multi-level deliberation. The chapter ends up with a brief description of further issues for research and practice.

Optimal Controller Identification for multivariable non-minimum phase systems