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We use data from the World Values Survey to describe and compare levels of confidence in the civil service in a series of countries, and study determinants of this confidence. Instead of focusing on citizen satisfaction with specific public services in a specific country, we analyze citizens’ general attitudes toward the public administration or civil service, and compare these attitudes internationally. We fit 60 identical regression models, to test for the impact of a series of socio-demographic and socio-economic variables in each of the countries. We finish by comparing the determinants in each of the countries, and test whether cultural or regional patterns emerge.

Purpose — The purpose of this chapter is to assess empirically the levels of trust across the world and to explore possible differences in the levels of trust among different groups of respondents.Design/methodology/approach — We analyze the individual-level data from 81 countries around the world using latest available European Values Study (EVS) and World Values Survey (WVS) datasets (most data refer to the year 2008). Methodologically, we compose three trust indicators using confirmatory factor analysis and then compare the level of trust in different groups. After that we calculate country-level means of trust indicators and use these as inputs in cluster analysis.Findings — The results of our empirical analysis show that the level of trust among supervisors do not differ significantly from the overall level of trust in a society, supporting the hypothesis that honesty and trust tend to be contagious. Still, there are statistically significant differences in trust levels between almost all explored population groups which were composed on the basis of previous theoretical and empirical literature.Limitations — Our analysis covered only selected socio-economic determinants of trust. It would be reasonable to add some contextual or systemic factors at the level of nation (like GDP per capita, quality of formal institutions, society’s polarization, or others) into further analysis.Originality/value — Our analysis distinguishes between three different types of trust which are studied both at individual and national level. Also, differences between age groups and educational groups, men and women, religious and non-religious persons are examined. Finally, we compare the levels of trust of those supervising someone with the average trust levels in the society as a whole.

For central banks who study the use of cash, acceptance of card payments is an important factor. Surveys to measure levels of card acceptance and the costs of payments can be complicated and expensive. In this paper, we exploit a novel data set from Hungary to see the effect of stratified random sampling on estimates of payment card acceptance and usage. Using the Online Cashier Registry, a database linking the universe of merchant cash registers in Hungary, we create merchant and transaction level data sets. We compare county (geographic), industry and store size stratifications to simulate the usual stratification criteria for merchant surveys and see the effect on estimates of card acceptance for different sample sizes. Further, we estimate logistic regression models of card acceptance/usage to see how stratification biases estimates of key determinants of card acceptance/usage.

The aim of the research was to analyse the image of Vojvodina's cuisine and tourist satisfaction with food experience as part of a rural tourism offer in Vojvodina province (Serbia). This chapter is based on research carried out among 891 foreign tourists who visited villages in Vojvodina. The obtained results were examined via exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, multiple regression analysis (stepwise method) and T-test. The obtained results indicated that factors like food uniqueness and cultural heritage, food quality and price, nutrition and health benefits of food and affective image of food influence the image of local cuisine. The results showed that local cuisine (food) can serve as a tool for building destination's brand identity. The study pointed out the role and significance of the image of local cuisine on rural tourist attractions but also on tourist satisfaction with food experience. Also, the contribution of the research is reflected in three aspects: theoretical implication, methodological and practical contribution.

Past literature has focused on the intergenerational transmission of gender ideologies, without considering the role cultural context plays. That is, while it is understood that there is a positive relationship between mothers’ gender ideology and that of their adolescents, how might this relationship differ among foreign-born mothers and their native-born adolescent children? This chapter extends the literature on the construction and transmission of gender ideology between immigrant mothers and their children in two ways. First, using data from the child sample of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (N=2,202), it examines adolescent gender ideology as influenced by mothers’ gender beliefs and nativity. Second, it assesses the interaction between maternal gender ideologies and nativity as they influence adolescent ideology. Findings from this study suggest that the nativity of the mother does not affect the adolescent’s ideology, nor does it act as a moderator of maternal influence. The chapter ends with a summary and contextualization of the findings framed in developmental psychology and suggesting that factors external to the household, such as the influence of peers, may work to mitigate the effects of cultural frameworks.

One of the most important changes in the past few decades influencing the way in which early childhood is experienced in European countries is the dramatic increase of mothers with young children who are also active in the paid labour force. The Dutch case is exemplary of this change. Dutch women's labour force participation increased from internationally the lowest rate for married women at 7.3% in 1960, to 32.8% in 1987 and to 58.7% in 2005. The latter was above the average participation rate in the European Union (15 countries) (Statistics Netherlands, CBS, 2006). In addition, the proportion of employed mothers with children below the age of 6 more than doubled in less than a decade: from 26% in 1988 to 57% in 1996 (OSA, 1997).¹ In 2003, 90% of women in the Netherlands remained in the labour force after giving birth to their first child, although they worked fewer hours (Statistics Netherlands, CBS, 2006). Children who are born in the Netherlands nowadays, therefore, generally have a mother working in the labour market, who has to organise her time around the triple needs of care, income and professional demands. This substantial change from the situation still prevalent in the mid-eighties, is somewhat counter-balanced by changes in fathers’ behaviour following the birth of a child. While in most European countries fathers increase their labour force participation when they have a child (see e.g. Plantenga & Siegel, 2004), an increasing proportion of Dutch fathers on the contrary reduces it. 10% of first-time fathers reduced their working hours when their child was born in 1997, 13% did so in 2003 (Statistics Netherlands, CBS, 2006).²

We examine the extent to which food prices and restaurant outlet density are associated with adolescent fruit and vegetable consumption, body mass index (BMI), and the probability of overweight. We use repeated cross-sections of individual-level data on adolescents from the Monitoring the Future Surveys from 1997 to 2003 combined with fast food and fruit and vegetable prices obtained from the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association and fast food and full-service restaurant outlet density measures obtained from Dun & Bradstreet. The results suggest that the price of a fast food meal is an important determinant of adolescents’ body weight and eating habits: a 10% increase in the price of a fast food meal leads to a 3.0% increase in the probability of frequent fruit and vegetable consumption, a 0.4% decrease in BMI, and a 5.9% decrease in probability of overweight. The price of fruits and vegetables and restaurant outlet density are less important determinants, although these variables typically have the expected sign and are often statistically associated with our outcome measures. Despite these findings, changes in all observed economic and socio-demographic characteristics together only explain roughly one-quarter of the change in mean BMI and one-fifth of the change in overweight over the 1997–2003 sampling period.

This chapter examines how motivational and behavioral indicators influence overnight stays of international tourists in the Algarve. The method includes a first selection of the motivations associating with high heterogeneity over the years considered, followed by a correlation matrix to assess how tourists’ behavioral patterns relate with overnight stays. Behavioral patterns by year are defined based on motivations, socio-demographics, intentions, and lagged satisfaction. The correlation analysis was conducted using 15,542 observations collected at Faro international airport, from 2007 to 2010. The findings include 10 main motivations and reveal that these motivations are statistically different by country and over the years. This study contributes to the overall understanding of the dynamics of tourism demand.