The impact of household capital income on income inequality��a factor decomposition analysis for the UK, Germany and the USA

This paper analyses the contribution of capital income to income inequality in a cross-national comparison. Using micro-data from the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) for three prominent panel studies, namely the BHPS for the UK, the SOEP for West Germany, and the PSID for the USA, we use the factor decomposition method described by Shorrocks (Econometrica 50:193–211, 1982). The factor decomposition of disposable income into single income components shows that capital income is exceedingly volatile and that its share in disposable income has risen recent years. Moreover, capital income makes a disproportionately high contribution to overall inequality in relation to its share in disposable income. This applies to Germany and the USA in particular. Thus capital income accounts for a large part of disparity in all three countries.     

Worum geht es, wenn es um nichts geht?

Rational choice theories appear to have difficulties when it comes to explain behaviour in so called ‘low cost, low benefit’ situations. As a consequence, low cost situations are sometimes regarded as a serious problem of the rational choice paradigm as a whole. We demonstrate that, quite to the contrary, theories of rational action are perfectly well suited to understand the logic of low cost situations. The costs of information and decision making on the part of the actor and the clarity of incentive or cost structures on the part of the situation prove to be the central variables. Since there is a close link between low cost situations and certain collective good problems, the role of these variables is discussed with regard to the production of collective goods. In adapting an established model of routine based decision making, we show how the threshold of a low cost situation can be determined analytically.     

Estrogen treatment affects brain functioning after menopause

Sex hormones have powerful neuromodulatory effects on functional brain organization and cognitive functioning. This paper reviews findings from studies investigating the influence of sex hormones in postmenopausal women with and without hormone therapy (HT). Functional brain organization was investigated using different behavioural tasks in postmenopausal women using either estrogen therapy or combined estrogen plus gestagen therapy and age- and IQ-matched postmenopausal women not taking HT. The results revealed HT-related modulations in specific aspects of functional brain organization including functional cerebral asymmetries and interhemispheric interaction. In contrast to younger women during the menstrual cycle, however, it seems that HT, and especially estrogen therapy, after menopause affects intrahemispheric processing rather than interhemispheric interaction. This might be explained by a faster and more pronounced age-related decline in intrahemispheric relative to interhemispheric functioning, which might be associated with higher sensitivity to HT. Taken together, the findings suggest that the female brain retains its plasticity even after reproductive age and remains susceptible to the effects of sex hormones throughout the lifetime, which might help to discover new clinical approaches in the hormonal treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.     

Globalization as the ‘Pulping’ of Landscapes: Forestry Capitalism's North–South Territorial Accumulation

Abstract

The article presents the findings of a long-term incorporated comparison of forestry capitalism's globalization process. Primary data was collected by participant observation in pulp investment areas in Brazil between 2004 and 2011 and semi-structured interviews with key industry personnel, particularly in Finland. It is argued that the key cyclic change in industrial forestry from innovation–capitalization to material–territorial accumulation explains why and how the industry has globalized to the south via industrial tree plantations. The interlinked northern (Finnish) and southern (Brazilian) cases reveal that industry trajectories are influenced by who controls the supply chains of commodities. The findings are relevant for theorizing about the globalization of natural resource exploitation sectors. Changes in agrarian political economies and agency of state, business, and social movement actors—that is, socio-ecological relations and landscapes—help to explain how and why national and global capitalism and its developmental–environmental impacts are transformed.

Este artículo presenta las conclusiones de una comparación incorporada a largo plazo sobre el proceso de la globalización de la silvicultura capitalista. Los datos primarios fueron recopilados mediante la observación participante en áreas de inversión de celulosa en el Brasil entre el 2004 y 2011 y entrevistas semiestructuradas con el personal clave de la industria, particularmente en Finlandia. Se sostiene que el cambio cíclico clave en la silvicultura industrial desde la innovación–capitalización a lo material–acumulación territorial, explica el porqué y cómo la industria se ha globalizado hacia el sur vía plantaciones de árboles industriales. La interconexión entre los casos del norte (finlandeses) y del sur (brasileño), revelan que las trayectorias de la industria están influenciadas por quien controla las cadenas de suministro de productos básicos. Las conclusiones son pertinentes para teorizar sobre la globalización de los sectores de explotación de los recursos naturales. Cambios en las economías políticas agrarias y los actores de las agencias de estado, negocios y movimientos sociales—es decir, relaciones y paisajes socioecológicos—ayudan a explicar cómo y por qué el capitalismo nacional y global y sus desarrollos—impactos medioambientales, están transformados.

本文演示对森林资本主义的全球化过程的公司化比较研究的一些发现。在2004至2011期间在巴西的纸浆投资领域的原始数据通过研究人员的观察收集,并且,对相关工业界人士,尤其是在芬兰,进行半结构性的采访。在森林工业的从创新-资本化到物质的-领土的积累关键的周期变化解释了这一产业通过产业化的种植园为什么和如何在南方实现了全球化。南（巴西）北（芬兰）相互联系机制的案例说明,工业的发展趋势受制于谁控制商品的供应链。此项发现与关于自然资源开采部门的全球化的理论是相关的。在土地开发的政治经济的变化,以及国家机构、商业和社会运动的行动者——也就是社会-生态关系和风景——帮助解释了国家和全球资本主义以及其发展-环境影响如何与为什么受到转型的。

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В статье представлены результаты долгосрочного объединенного сравнения процесса глобализации капитализма лесоводства. Первичные данные были собраны путем включенного наблюдения за целлюлозно - инвестиционным направлением в Бразилии с 2004 по 2011 год и частично структурированных интервью с ключевыми сотрудниками промышленности, в частности в Финляндии. Утверждается, что ключевое циклическое изменение в индустриальном лесоводстве от капитализации инноваций до материально-территориального накопления объясняет, почему и как промышленность глобализировалась на юг через индустриальные плантации деревьев. Взаимосвязанные северный (финский) и южный (бразильский) случаи показывают, что промышленные траектории находятся под влиянием того, кто управляет каналами поставок товаров потребления. Выводы важны для теоретического осмысления глобализации сектора эксплуатации природных ресурсов. Изменения в аграрной экономике и государственных органах, бизнесе и субъектах общественных движений, то есть в социально-экологических отношениях и ландшафтах, помогают объяснить, как и почему национальный и глобальный капитализм и связанные с их развитием последствия будут преобразованы.