Child Malnutrition and Mortality in Developing Countries: Evidence from a Cross-Country Analysis

In this article, after having identified the main clusters of food-insecure households worldwide, and summarily analyzed their livelihood profiles, we discuss the interaction and relevance of the most relevant key economic and social factors causing child malnutrition and mortality. On the basis of an essential but consistent World Bank database, covering all developing and transition countries, we also carry out a cross-country econometric analysis on relations of income and non-income factors with child malnutrition and mortality. Our main findings are threefold. First, among income factors, each country's overall level of economic development is paramount, but income distribution also plays an important role. Second, taking into account that public provision of basic services tends to increase with economic growth, each country's relative propensity to spend on basic services is significantly and negatively correlated with child malnutrition and mortality. Third, gender-related cultural factors also play a large role.     

Instrumental Variables Estimates of the Effect of Subsidized Training on the Quantiles of Trainee Earnings

This paper reports estimates of the effects of JTPA training programs on the distribution of earnings. The estimation uses a new instrumental variable (IV) method that measures program impacts on quantiles. The quantile treatment effects (QTE) estimator reduces to quantile regression when selection for treatment is exogenously determined. QTE can be computed as the solution to a convex linear programming problem, although this requires first‐step estimation of a nuisance function. We develop distribution theory for the case where the first step is estimated nonparametrically. For women, the empirical results show that the JTPA program had the largest proportional impact at low quantiles. Perhaps surprisingly, however, JTPA training raised the quantiles of earnings for men only in the upper half of the trainee earnings distribution.     

ARTIFICIAL STATES

We define artificial states as those in which political borders do not coincide with a division of nationalities desired by the people on the ground. We propose and compute for most countries in the world two measures of the degree to which borders may be artificial. One measures how borders split ethnic groups into two separate adjacent countries. The other measures the straightness of land borders, under the assumption the straight land borders are more likely to be artificial. We then show that these two measures are correlated with several measures of political and economic success.     

FAMILY TIES AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

We establish an inverse relationship between family ties and political participation, such that the more individuals rely on the family as a provider of services, insurance, and transfer of resources, the lower is one's civic engagement and political participation. We also show that strong family ties appear to be a substitute for generalized trust, rather than a complement to it. These three constructs—civic engagement, political participation, and trust—are part of what is known as social capital; therefore, in this paper, we contribute to the investigation of the origin and evolution of social capital. We establish these results using within‐country evidence and looking at the behavior of immigrants from various countries in 32 different destination places.     

Stigma toward internalizing and externalizing disorders: How do adolescents perceive their peers? A network analysis approach

This study's first aim was to explore whether stigma's facets differ between internalizing and externalizing disorders in adolescence. The second aim was to compare the relationships among stigma's facets toward these disorders. Two vignettes depicting a peer with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were used with 616 adolescents in Italy. A Repeated measure MANOVA showed biogenetic causes, social distancing, and discomfort were more attributed to depression, while dangerousness to ADHD. Furthermore, a Psychometric Network Analysis showed no differences between these disorders in the relations among stigma's components. However, dangerousness seemed to be among the nodes with the highest levels of “strength,” confirming previous literature that shows that dangerousness plays a major role in stigma.     

Discusion

Resumen

En esta investigación se estudia la validez de una versión castellana de la escala «Environmental Concern Scale» (ECS) llevada a cabo con 716 estudiantes. Las puntuaciones obtenidas por los sujetos proambientalistas y no proambientalistas resultan significativamente diferentes. Asímismo, se estudian las relaciones entre las actitudes hacia la preocupación por el medio ambiente, la energía nuclear y la ideología política, mostrándose una relación entre ellas de diferente intensidad. Mientras la energía nuclear está fuertemente vinculada a la ideología política, no sucede en tal medida entre ésta y las actitudes conservacionistas, ya que tanto los de derechas como los de izquierdas participan de la preocupación por el medio ambiente, aunque no en la misma medida.     

Effects of air pollution and weather on the initial COVID-19 outbreaks in United States,Italy, Spain,and China: A comparative study

Contrasting effects have been identified in association of weather (temperature and humidity) and pollutant gases with COVID-19 infection, which could be derived from the influence of lockdowns and season change. The influence of pollutant gases and climate during the initial phases of the pandemic, before the closures and the change of season in the northern hemisphere, is unknown. Here, we used a spatial-temporal Bayesian zero-inflated-Poisson model to test for short-term associations of weather and pollutant gases with the relative risk of COVID-19 disease in China (first outbreak) and the countries with more cases during the initial pandemic (the United States, Spain and Italy), considering also the effects of season and lockdown. We found contrasting association between pollutant gases and COVID-19 risk in the United States, Italy, and Spain, while in China it was negatively associated (except for SO₂). COVID-19 risk was positively associated with specific humidity in all countries, while temperature presented a negative effect. Our findings showed that short-term associations of air pollutants with COVID-19 infection vary strongly between countries, while generalized effects of temperature (negative) and humidity (positive) with COVID-19 was found. Our results show novel information about the influence of pollution and weather on the initial outbreaks, which contribute to unravel the mechanisms during the beginning of the pandemic.