Using Norwegian survey data (n = 4116), we study couples" likelihood of pooling their economic resources. The proportion of cohabitation compared to marriages is high in Norway. Over the last decades, tax policy and the social security system have moved towards equating cohabitation with marriage. Our knowledge of the economic organization of the two types of couples is, however, rather imperfect. Our main hypothesis is that cohabitants are less likely to pool their economic resources than married couples, but that this difference is less if they hold plans to marry. We take into account important factors that largely have been ignored in many earlier studies, namely the presence of children and the duration of the relationship. The results confirm our hypothesis but also show that the difference between cohabitants and married couples is reduced once these important factors are controlled for.Implications for policy are discussed.(145 words)

Street-level bureaucrats are considered to be subject to bureaucratic managerial regimes and threatened by stronger regulation and a reduction in their ability to exercise control over their work. Contrary to the managerial approach, predicting curtailment of professional autonomy, theorists foretell the continuing importance of discretion in the translation of social objectives into actual service delivery. Given such opposite predictions, what is the perceived direction of change and scope for independent decision-making for front-line workers? This paper empirically investigates the contradictory hypotheses predicting continuing or declining opportunities for street-level discretion in a context of activation policies and welfare reforms. The data come from two surveys conducted among practitioners and local managers in the Norwegian employment and welfare services in 2004 and 2011. Despite managerial control and bureaucratic procedures that regulate many decisions, discretion still remains a characteristic of front-line work. Continued discretion is closely related to the implementation of activation goals and the merging of tasks and integrated services following the whole-of-government reform. The findings confirm the role of managers as key players in implementing policies at the local level. Concurrently, the discretionary power of trained social workers is decreasing and challenged by the push for uniform practices and a managerially regulated role.

Farmers’ satisfaction with their farm job can have far‐reaching implications, as farmer and livestock wellbeing is likely to be intertwined. The aim of this study was to explore how job satisfaction of Norwegian sheep farmers is associated with other work‐related traits, such as work motivation, perceived physical work environment, the performance of management routines, and the proportion of their income derived from farming. Overall, respondents to the questionnaire (n = 1206) reported high levels of job satisfaction, and they were more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated. Regression analyses revealed that the strongest predictor of job satisfaction was intrinsic work motivation. Routinisation of management practices was also positively associated with job satisfaction, whereas extrinsic motivation and negative physical work environment were negatively associated. In conclusion, job satisfaction of Norwegian sheep farmers is mainly predicted by their intrinsic work motivation. Knowledge of this kind can be of use in supporting farmers, and through that enabling them to be proficient stockpeople.

Abstract:Modern professions provide important and essential services like engineering, financial services, and welfare state services. Sustaining a sufficient supply of these services requires professionals to remain in the workforce as long as possible. This article examines variation in the risk of disability pension among individuals with different professional education backgrounds according to the status of the profession and its primary task (i.e., caring for others, "life" professions; or providing other kinds of services, "thing" professions). Event history analysis was employed to examine register data for the Norwegian population from 1992 through 2008, with gender, age at completed education, birth year, and social status as control variables. The results indicate that individuals in low-status life professions were exposed to a greater risk of disability pension than individuals with other professional education backgrounds. Possible explanations are mechanisms related to selection effects, physical and mental job strain, and professional ethics.

The quality of human-animal relationships in the livestock industries has been increasingly recognised as an important determinant of animal welfare. Attitudes and empathy are multi-dimensional traits that may be associated with the stockpersons' behaviour. The aim of this study was to determine the dimensionality of the goat-oriented attitudes and empathy of stockpeople in the Norwegian dairy goat industry. We also explored how empathic and attitudinal dimensions are interrelated, and how the demographic background variables may predict empathy and attitudes. A total of 260 dairy goat farmers participated in the study, by the means of either postal or internet-based questionnaire formats. Multi-item rating scales were developed specifically for the assessment of attitudes and empathy towards goats, and Principal Component Factor Analysis was conducted to determine the dimensionality of the farmers' goat-oriented attitudes and empathy. Subsequently, linear and ordinal regression analyses were performed to explore the interrelationships. The analyses revealed dimensions of empathy that can be recognised from studies of human-oriented empathy, and attitude dimensions that can be interpreted similarly as dimensions described in studies from other livestock industries. Our results show that different dimensions of attitudes and empathy were associated with different demographic variables, and that each empathy dimension was associated with a different attitude factor.