Background
Van PRAAG, Bernard M. S. was born in 1939 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
(The essays in this collection, first published over a thi...)
The essays in this collection, first published over a thirty-year period, attempt to show how Roman Catholic communities in early modern Europe (particularly the great cities of Italy, and Venice above all) treated poor people and organized poor relief. Some essays discuss the principal groupings of poor, from the genteel, 'shamefaced' poor to orphans and foundlings, and from working folk to idle rogues. Others examine the motives and functions of the principal types of organization that dealt with poor people, either incidentally or as their main concern: religious brotherhoods, hospitals, conservatories, public loan banks, houses for the conversion of Jews and Muslims to Christianity. One main argument is that, although Catholics and Protestants shared a dislike and fear of vagrancy and reacted in similar ways to economic crises, Catholic charity was in many respects quite different from Protestant. Les essais contenus dans ce recueil, initialement parus sur une periode de trente-quatre ans, tentent de montrer comment les communautes catholiques (romaines), a l'aube de l'Europe moderne (particulierement dans les grandes cites italiennes et surtout a Venise), traitaient les pauvres et organisaient leur soutien. Certains essais s'interessent aux principaux groupements de pauvres: des pauvres decents et "honteux", aux orphelins et enfants trouves, ainsi que des travailleurs aux bons a rien. D'autres examinent les motifs et fonctions des principaux types d'organisations qui s'occupaient des pauvres, soit de facon occasionnelle ou en tant qu'activite principale: confreries religieuses , hospices, conservatoires, caisses d'emprunts publiques, centres de conversion au Christianisme pour Juifs et Musulmans. Un des arguments principaux etant le suivant: Catholiques et Protestants, bien que partageant la meme peur et le meme degout vis a vis du vagabondage et que reagissant de facon analogue face aux situations de crise economique, pratiquaient la charite de facons souvent bien differentes.
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Van PRAAG, Bernard M. S. was born in 1939 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Candidatt (Actuarial Sciences), Candidaat, Doctor University Amsterdam, 1960, 1964, 1968.
Assistant Professor, Econometric Institute, Institution, Rotterdam, 1964-1970. Association Professor of Economics, Free University Brussels,
70. Association Professor of Economics, Graduate School Management, Delft 1970-1972.
Professor of Economics, Leiden University 1972-1984;
Company-Director Center Professor Public Economics, Leiden, 1975-1984.
Professor Mathematics Economics, Econometrica Institute, Institution, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, since 1984. Association Editor, Journal of Health Economics, Economics Letters.
(The essays in this collection, first published over a thi...)
In my monograph (1968), I tried to draw an analogy between probability distribution functions for random variables and cardinal utility functions for commodities. On the basis of the central limit theorem of probability theory, I showed that under fairly general assumptions, individual welfare functions (id est (that is) cardinal utility
functions) tend to become lognormal (multivariate) distribution functions. In subsequent empirical research, I and my colleagues succeeded in estimating such welfare functions, at least for the one-dimensional concept of an individual welfare function of income.
This was done on the basis of attitude questions in surveys. The results, corroborated in about twenty large-scale surveys carried out from 1970 up to 1984 in European countries and the United States of America, may be used for the estimation of family equivalence scales, the assessment of the monetary value of household work and for poverty and income inequality analysis. They also provide information on the formation of norms on the basis of past experience and anticipated future and on the influence on an individual of his social reference group.
Secondary subjects of interest are the introduction of social security in an economic system with its effects for retirement and employment and statisticaleconometric estimation of linear models. In the last field,the population-sample decomposition approach was developed, which is quite helpful in understanding and solving problems with respect to missing data, sample selectivity and panel analysis.