scholarly journals Social and child care provision in kinship networks: An agent-based model

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0242779
Author(s):  
Umberto Gostoli ◽  
Eric Silverman
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Physical Distance ◽  
Care Provision ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Private Care ◽  
Kinship Networks ◽  
The Uk

Providing for the needs of the vulnerable is a critical component of social and health policy-making. In particular, caring for children and for vulnerable older people is vital to the wellbeing of millions of families throughout the world. In most developed countries, this care is provided through both formal and informal means, and is therefore governed by complex policies that interact in non-obvious ways with other areas of policy-making. In this paper we present an agent-based model of social and child care provision in the UK, in which agents can provide informal care or pay for private care for their relatives. Agents make care decisions based on numerous factors including their health status, employment, financial situation, and social and physical distance to those in need. Simulation results show that the model can produce plausible patterns of care need and availability, and therefore can provide an important aid to this complex area of policy-making. We conclude that the model’s use of kinship networks for distributing care and the explicit modelling of interactions between social care and child care will enable policy-makers to develop more informed policy interventions in these critical areas. “The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” — Hubert Humphrey Jr.

scholarly journals Modelling social care provision in an agent-based framework with kinship networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 190029
Author(s):  
Umberto Gostoli ◽  
Eric Silverman
Keyword(s):  
Social Care ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Care Provision ◽  
Birth Rates ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Private Care ◽  
Kinship Networks ◽  
The Uk

Current demographic trends in the UK include a fast-growing elderly population and dropping birth rates, and demand for social care among the aged is rising. The UK depends on informal social care—family members or friends providing care—for some 50% of care provision. However, lower birth rates and a greying population mean that care availability is becoming a significant problem, causing concern among policy-makers that substantial public investment in formal care will be required in decades to come. In this paper, we present an agent-based simulation of care provision in the UK, in which individual agents can decide to provide informal care, or pay for private care, for their loved ones. Agents base these decisions on factors including their own health, employment status, financial resources, relationship to the individual in need and geographical location. Results demonstrate that the model can produce similar patterns of care need and availability as are observed in the real world, despite the model containing minimal empirical data. We propose that our model better captures the complexities of social care provision than other methods, due to the socioeconomic details present and the use of kinship networks to distribute care among family members.

scholarly journals SCHOOL RE-OPENING SIMULATIONS WITH COVID-19 AGENT-BASED MODEL FOR QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES

2021 ◽  
Vol XLVI-4/W6-2021 ◽  
pp. 85-90
Author(s):  
J. J. Celeste ◽  
V. P. Bongolan
Keyword(s):  
Vaccination Coverage ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Social Contact ◽  
Physical Distance ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Quezon City ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Quality Of Learning ◽  
The City

Abstract. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted schools to close in 2020, and with its negative impact on the quality of learning, the conversation shifts to the re-opening scenarios. In this study, we coupled a COVID-19 agent-based model (ABM) with social contact probabilities from pre-pandemic estimates. We then simulated school re-opening and vaccination scenarios in Quezon City, Philippines using our ABM. Our toy simulations suggest that the city could already re-open schools with 50% vaccination coverage. However, we suggest that students shall be vaccinated first, mask-wearing and physical distance shall be strictly observed, and schools shall only be re-opened by 25% as a precaution. Policymakers may take insights from the study.

Macroprudential Policy in an Agent-Based Model of the UK Housing Market

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafa Baptista ◽  
Marc Hinterschweiger ◽  
Katie Low ◽  
Arzu Uluc
Keyword(s):  
Housing Market ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Macroprudential Policy ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
The Uk

The Irresponsible State? The Politics of Child Daycare Provision in Britain

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicky Randall
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Care Provision ◽  
World War ◽  
The Family ◽  
Policy Style ◽  
Second World ◽  
Shed Light

This article seeks to shed light on the scarcity of public child daycare provision in Britain. Following a brief account of the development of policy since the Second World War, it notes the institutional and discursive fragmentation of the process through which child-care policy has been resolved. However, it concentrates on the way that process has been shaped by the intersection of two variables, the type of issue constituted by child care and the British national policy-making style. It argues that public child-care provision is both a ‘redistributive’ issue, and as such particularly unappealing to recent Conservative governments, and an issue that concerns the family, invoking an ‘ideology of motherhood’. Moreover, national policy style has entailed a reluctance to intervene either in the labour market or in the ‘private’ family sphere. This combination of issue type and policy-making tradition has conspired to marginalize child care on the national policy agenda.

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