A Multigenerational View of Inequality

The study of intergenerational mobility and most population research are governed by a two-generation (parent-to-offspring) view of intergenerational influence, to the neglect of the effects of grandparents and other ancestors and nonresident contemporary kin. While appropriate for some populations in some periods, this perspective may omit important sources of intergenerational continuity of family-based social inequality. Social institutions, which transcend individual lives, help support multigenerational influence, particularly at the extreme top and bottom of the social hierarchy, but to some extent in the middle as well. Multigenerational influence also works through demographic processes because families influence subsequent generations through differential fertility and survival, migration, and marriage patterns, as well as through direct transmission of socioeconomic rewards, statuses, and positions. Future research should attend more closely to multigenerational effects; to the tandem nature of demographic and socioeconomic reproduction; and to data, measures, and models that transcend coresident nuclear families

Mendelian randomisation analyses find pulmonary factors mediate the effect of height on coronary artery disease

British Heart Foundation (BHF) grant RG/14/5/30893Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw VIDI 016.136.367)NIDDK grant K12DK094721Intramural Research Program of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NC

The Impact of Venture Capital on the Persistence of Innovation Activities of Swiss Start-Ups

In this study we investigate the impact of early stage venture capital on innovation activities of start-ups. This is done based on a cohort of start-ups that is representative of all firms founded in Switzerland in 1996/97, as recorded by a census of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office for this period. We analyze not only the impact of early stage venture capital on innovation performance 3 years after firm foundation, but also 6 and 9 years after firm start, respectively, for those firms that survived and reported continuously innovation activities (persistence of innovation). The results support neither the hypothesis of a positive impact on initial innovation activities nor the hypothesis of a positive time-persistent effect on innovation performance of start-ups

Surveying human vulnerabilities across the life course : Balancing substantive and methodological challenges

How should quantitative researchers interested in investigating human vulnerabilities across the life course optimize their research designs so they can gather accurate data and draw valid conclusions about the phenomena they wish to explain? This is the question tackled in this book, which includes nine contributions from researchers in Switzerland involved in gathering and analyzing new data for a multi-disciplinary research programme called 'LIVES - Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives'. The chapters address both the shared and unique challenges involved in surveying specific vulnerable populations and measuring different aspects of vulnerability. The authors share both the strengths and limitations of their empirical research, and bring to light the tensions involved in pursuing ambitious and pioneering substantive research aims, while attempting to uphold the scientific standards prescribed by the literature on survey methodology. In this introductory discussion, we introduce the chapters by describing how they fit within the broader field of research into vulnerability, and how they are contributing to the advancement of substantive and theoretical debates in this domain. We then discuss the concept of survey quality, drawing on the 'total survey error' framework to highlight the various challenges faced in conducting surveys in nonstandard contexts. The chapter concludes with a discussion of lessons learned from the LIVES research about the paramount importance of collaboration between subject specialists and methodologists in the design of new research in the field of vulnerability, and of transparency with respect to the documentation of research methods, particularly in interdisciplinary research settings