Local economic growth and infant mortality Kammerlander, Andreas; Schulze, Günther G.
Journal of health economics,
January 2023, 2023-Jan, 2023-01-00, 20230101, Letnik:
87
Journal Article
Recenzirano
We estimate the effect of local economic growth on infant mortality. We use geo-referenced data for non-migrating mothers from 46 developing countries and a total of 128 DHS survey rounds and combine ...it with nighttime luminosity data at a granular level. Using mother fixed effects we show that an increase in local economic activity significantly reduces the probability that the same mother loses a child before its first birthday.
The etiology and clinical course of bipolar disorder are considered to be determined by genetic and environmental factors. Although the kindling hypothesis emphasizes the impact of environmental ...factors on initial onset, their connection to the outcome and clinical course have been poorly established. Hence, there have been numerous research efforts to investigate the impact of environmental factors on the clinical course of illness. Our aim is to outline recent research on the impact of environmental determinants on the clinical course of bipolar disorder. We carried out a computer‐aided search to find publications on an association between environmental factors, life events, and the clinical course of bipolar disorder. Publications in the reference lists of suitable papers have also been taken into consideration. We performed a narrative overview on all eligible publications. The available body of data supports an association between environmental factors and the clinical course of bipolar disorder. These factors comprise prenatal, early‐life, and entire lifespan aspects. Given varying sample sizes and several methodological limitations, the reported quality and extent of the association between environmental factors and the clinical course of bipolar disorder should be interpreted with utmost caution. Systematic longitudinal long‐term follow‐up trials are needed to obtain a clearer and more robust picture.
Abstract
What are the correlates of environmental performance? In particular, does globalization lead to environmental degradation? What is the role of democracy for environmental performance and do ...left-wing governments really care more about the environment? Using a novel and comprehensive measure of environmental performance, we test these three hypotheses for a panel of 134 countries for the period 2007–2016. Our results are surprising—we find no evidence that democracies are cleaner, left-wing governments perform better than right-wing governments, but centrist governments clearly have the highest environmental performance, and globalization is good for the environment. The positive impact of globalization, however, is driven by social globalization—economic and political globalization do not play a role.
Magnetic and superconducting interactions couple electrons together to form complex states of matter. We show that, at the atomic scale, both types of interactions can coexist and compete to ...influence the ground state of a localized magnetic moment. Local spectroscopy at 4.5 kelvin shows that the spin-1 system formed by manganese-phthalocyanine (MnPc) adsorbed on Pb(111) can lie in two different magnetic ground states. These are determined by the balance between Kondo screening and superconducting pair-breaking interactions. Both ground states alternate at nanometer length scales to form a Moiré-like superstructure. The quantum phase transition connecting the two (singlet and doublet) ground states is thus tuned by small changes in the molecule-lead interaction.
Are Democracies Cleaner? Kammerlander, Andreas; Schulze, Günther G.
European Journal of Political Economy,
09/2020, Letnik:
64
Journal Article
Recenzirano
We inquire whether democracies enjoy lower pollution levels than autocracies by investigating the ‘clean democracy hypothesis’, which posits that democracies have a more demand-determined policy ...formation leading to more stringent environmental policies. We test this hypothesis with a large data set covering 137 countries and the period 1970–2012 using eleven different air pollutants as endogenous variables and a wide range of control variables measuring democracy, development stage, globalization, and factor endowments. We find no consistent evidence that democracies are cleaner, not even the richer ones, which casts doubt on the validity of single pollutants studies. Numerous checks show the robustness of our results.
•Tests the influence of democracy on air pollution per capita for 11 pollutants.•Large data set, 1970–2012, 137 countries, fixed effects and pooled OLS regressions.•Finds no consistent pattern for democracy, no support for ‘clean democracy hypothesis’.•Effect of democracy is highly dependent on pollutant.•No evidence for environmental Kuznets curve, no effect of globalization on pollution.
We analyze the role of performance and beauty for the market value and the social media popularity of all female soccer players who took part in the European Championship 2022. Controlling for team ...and position effects, we find that the players’ market values are determined by a set of performance indicators and their social media popularity, which in turn is determined by the performance and facial attractiveness of the players. Thus, while beauty has no statistically significant direct effect on players’ market values it indirectly affects their values through the effect on social media popularity.
We analyze the determinants of the origin of domestic and international terrorism in a large panel data set of 159 countries spanning from 1970 to 2007. We show that terror increases with GDP per ...capita, a higher polity score measuring a more open and competitive political system and experiences of domestic conflict, anarchy and regime transitions. Our evidence thus contradicts the notion that terrorism is rooted in economic deprivation or that strongly autocratic regimes breed more terrorists. Rather we show that weak or failing states are an incubator for terrorism. We also show that the causes of domestic terror and international terror are similar.
► We analyze the determinants of the origin of terror in a large panel data set covering 159 countries for 1970–2007. ► It is the first comprehensive study using a data set that covers also domestic terror (85 % of all incidents). ► We carefully use various measures for (i) income and economic development, (ii) political regime and democracy, (iii) political stability, transition and failed states. ► We find that terror is not rooted in economic deprivation, strongly autocratic regimes do not breed more terror, failing states are a hotbed for terror and past conflicts increase terror.
We analyze the differences in the socioeconomic profiles between suicide terrorists and ‘regular’ militants using a dataset of 1596 militants (including 209 suicide terrorists) from Hamas and ...Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). We find that suicide terrorists are better educated, younger, less likely to be married or have children, and less likely to live in the Gaza strip than their non-suicide counterparts. Moreover, although the profiles of Hamas and PIJ militants are distinctively different, the suicide terrorists are very similar to one another.
The genetic basis of bipolar disorder has long been thought to be complex, with the potential involvement of multiple genes, but methods to analyze populations with respect to this complexity have ...only recently become available. We have carried out a genome-wide association study of bipolar disorder by genotyping over 550,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in two independent case-control samples of European origin. The initial association screen was performed using pooled DNA, and selected SNPs were confirmed by individual genotyping. While DNA pooling reduces power to detect genetic associations, there is a substantial cost saving and gain in efficiency. A total of 88 SNPs, representing 80 different genes, met the prior criteria for replication in both samples. Effect sizes were modest: no single SNP of large effect was detected. Of 37 SNPs selected for individual genotyping, the strongest association signal was detected at a marker within the first intron of diacylglycerol kinase eta (DGKH; P=1.5 x 10(-8), experiment-wide P<0.01, OR=1.59). This gene encodes DGKH, a key protein in the lithium-sensitive phosphatidyl inositol pathway. This first genome-wide association study of bipolar disorder shows that several genes, each of modest effect, reproducibly influence disease risk. Bipolar disorder may be a polygenic disease.
Subclinical psychotic experiences (PLEs) are among the frequently reported mental health problems in children/adolescents. PLEs identified in cross sectional studies of children/adolescents are ...associated with current and future mental health problems. These associations are stronger for PLEs that persist over time. Hence, it could be useful to examine which children/adolescents with PLEs at a first assessment (baseline) are more likely to have PLEs at subsequent assessments.
We conducted a scoping review of studies that examined whether characteristics of children/adolescents (≤18 years) with PLEs at baseline predict whether PLEs are likely to be persistent or remittent at subsequent assessments. We included studies published between January 2002 and December 2017, conducted on general child/adolescent populations of ≥300 individuals, that provided data on PLEs for at least 2 time points, had available follow-up data for ≥50% of those assessed for PLEs at baseline and targeted for follow-up examination, and reported the differences between individuals with PLEs that persisted or remitted during the study period.
Six studies met our criteria. Each of them investigated a wide range of baseline characteristics but no predictor of persistence was replicated.
Our knowledge about which children/adolescents with PLEs at an initial assessment are likely to have persistent PLEs at subsequent assessments is sparse. A handful of predictors of persistent PLEs have been investigated so far, and none replicated. A better understanding of these predictors would be an important complement to investigations examining the evolution of PLEs and of mental health problems in children/adolescents.
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