Policy makers recognize the importance of identifying early young people who are likely to end up jobless on entry to the adult labour market. This paper uses sequence techniques to characterize 712 young peoples' transitions from school to work into`types', with jobless types interpreted as unsuccessful transitions. A logit model is estimated for transition type using a collection of static individual, family and school characteristics. This allows us to identify which young people are most likely to experience unsuccessful transitions into the adult labour market. Policy makers might use such information to target social and educational policy more effectively to promote social inclusion.

Potential loss of group distinctiveness can represent a threat to the existence of a group. Across three studies (Ns ¼ 42, 60, 94), a mediated-moderation model was tested in which the interactive effects of group identification and potential ingroup distinctiveness loss predicts the desire to engage in ingroup protective action to the extent that collective angst (i.e., concern for the ingroup's future vitality) is aroused. It was hypothesized that the threat of potential distinctiveness loss would result in collective angst and subsequent support for protective action among high, but not necessarily low, identified group members. Results provided support for this model within the context of French Canadian distinctiveness from English Canada (Experiment 1, where the outcome measure was the desire for a sovereign Quebec) and Canadian distinctiveness from the United States (Experiments 2 and 3, where the outcome was support for action to protect Canadian sovereignty and rejection of a North American Union respectively). When and why collective angst facilitates ingroup protective action is discussed. Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Group membership provides a person with existential security (Durkheim, 1951). Although individual group members will eventually perish, the group is generally thought to have temporal persistence or continuity (Reicher & Hopkins, 2001;Sani et al., 2007). To the extent that group members believe their group's future is secure, existential concerns may be minimized. When however the group's future is perceived to be insecure, then existential concerns are most likely to surface (Lewin, 1948). One type of threat to the continuity of the ingroup is the potential loss of group distinctiveness. According to social identity theory (SIT;Tajfel & Turner, 1986), a group is defined by its unique characteristics relative to other groups. Group members are thus motivated to differentiate their ingroup from other salient groups in order to achieve a positively distinct social identity. When the demarcations between the ingroup and a relevant outgroup are blurred, threat is likely to be experienced (Branscombe, Ellemers, Spears, & Doosje, 1999).Due to the existential significance of group membership, the potential loss of group distinctiveness might evoke a groupbased emotional response that reflects existential concerns. Branscombe (2008, 2009) have identified collective angst as an emotional response that is based on concern for the ingroup's future existence. Just as feelings of personal angst emerge when a person experiences concern that something negative will befall the self in the future (Barlow, 1988), collective angst emerges when negative events are thought likely to befall the ingroup. The current research examined the idea that because the potential loss of group distinctiveness speaks to the raison d'être of the group as an entity (see Jetten, Spears, & Postmes, 2004), it is likely to evoke concern for the group's future (Wilder, 1986). We argue that when collective ang...

Homelessness is associated with substance use, but whether substance use precedes or follows homelessness is unclear. We investigate the nature of the relationship between homelessness and substance use using data from the unique Australian panel dataset Journeys Home collected in 4 surveys over the period from October 2011 to May 2013. Our data refer to 1325 individuals who were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. We investigate dynamics in homelessness and substance use over the survey period. We find that the two are closely related: homeless individuals are more likely to be substance users and substance users are more likely to be homeless. These relationships, however, are predominantly driven by observed and unobserved individual characteristics which cause individuals to be both more likely to be homeless and to be substance users. Once we take these personal characteristics into account it seems that homelessness does not affect substance use, although we cannot rule out that alcohol use increases the probability that an individual becomes homeless. These overall relationships also hide some interesting heterogeneity by 'type' of homelessness.

Unsustainable growth in program costs and beneficiaries, together with a growing recognition that even people with severe impairments can work, led to fundamental disability policy reforms in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Great Britain. In Australia, rapid growth in disability recipiency led to more modest reforms. Here we describe the factors driving unsustainable DI program growth in the U.S., show their similarity to the factors that led to unsustainable growth in these other four OECD countries, and discuss the reforms each country implemented to regain control over their cash transfer disability program. Although each country took a unique path to making and implementing fundamental reforms, shared lessons emerge from their experiences. JEL codes: J14, J18

McVicar D. (2006) Why do disability benefit rolls vary between regions? A review of the evidence from the USA and the UK, Regional Studies 40, 519-533. Over the last 30 years, many Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries have seen a dramatic rise in the share of the working-age population receiving earnings replacement sickness and disability benefits. The reasons behind this growth - particularly for the USA, but also to a lesser extent elsewhere - have been extensively researched in the economics literature. What have been less well researched are the large spatial differences in the size of disability benefit rolls that have emerged in some countries over this period. The UK displays a distinct regional pattern where working-age men and women in the 'North' are considerably more likely to be claiming disability benefits than those in the 'South'. The USA has its own version of the north/south divide, with many southern states displaying disproportionately large disability benefit rolls. The paper describes these regional patterns and explores the existing economics literature on disability benefits in search of potential explanations for them. McVicar D. (2006) Pourquoi les listes des demandeurs de prestations d'invalidite varient suivant la region?: une critique des preuves provenant des E-U et du R-U, Regional Studies 40, 519-533. Sur les 30 dernieres annees, beaucoup des pays-membres de l'OCDE ont temoigne d'une montee vertigineuse de la part de la population active qui font une demande de prestations de l'assurance maladie et d'invalidite invalidite. La documentation economique a approfondi les raisons qui expliquent cette montee - notamment pour les E-U mais aussi dans une moindre mesure ailleurs. Ce qui a ete moins bien recherche c'est la variation geographique importante des listes des demandeurs de prestations d'invalidite qui se font le jour dans certains pays sur cette periode. Le R-U montre une distribution regionale nette a partir de laquelle il est plus probable que les populations masculine et feminine en age de travailler du 'nord' font une demande des prestations invalidite que ne le font celles du 'sud'. Les E-U ont leur propre version du clivage nord-sud; a savoir beaucoup des etats du sud ont des listes des demandeurs de prestations d'invalidite disproportionnees. Cet article cherche a presenter ces distributions regionales et a examiner la documentation economique existante sur prestations d'invalidite afin de rechercher des explications eventuelles. Sante, Invalidite, Prestations d'invalidite, Prestations d'incapacite, Marches du travail McVicar D. (2006) Warum sind Invalidenrenten von Region zu Region verschieden? Eine Besprechung von Beweisen aus den USA und dem UK, Regional Studies 40, 519-533. Im Laufe der letzten 30 Jahre haben viele OECD Lander einen dramatischen Anstieg des Anteils der Bevolkerung im erwerbsfahigen Alter gesehen, die statt Verdienst Krankengeld und Invalidenrenten empfangen.Die Grunde fur diesen Anstieg - besonders in den USA, aber au...