Integrating Poverty and Environmental Concerns into Value‐Chain Analysis: A Strategic Framework and Practical Guide

This article aims to guide the design and implementation of action‐research projects in value‐chain analysis by presenting a strategic framework focused on small producers and trading and processing firms in developing countries. Its stepwise approach – building on the conceptual framework set out in a companion article – covers in detail what to do, questions to be asked and issues to be considered, and integrates poverty, gender, labour and environmental concerns.‘Upgrading’ strategies potentially available for improving value‐chain participation for small producers are identified, with the ultimate purpose of increasing the rewards and/or reducing the risks.     

An examination of sexual risk behaviors in adolescent substance users

ABSTRACT. Objectives: This study examined the risk for engaging in high-risk sexual behavior associated with substance use in a sample of U.S. adolescents. Methods: The sample (N = 15,425) was obtained via the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, a survey of public high school students. Results: Substance use was associated with sexual risk behaviors, with odds ratios being greatest for adolescents who used cigarettes and illicit substances, as well as those who engaged in injection drug use. Conclusions: Results highlight the need for prevention and intervention programs targeting sexual risk behaviors in substance-using adolescents as a means to decrease the spread of sexually transmitted infections.     

Governance and strategy within the financial system: tradition and innovation

Italian banks have undergone an evolutionary process and development of corporate, retail and private banking within the Italian banking system as a response to market pressures exerted by business and private customers for a broadening and qualitative expansion of offerings and organization of available competencies. This not only refers to large enterprises, whose relations with the financial system are autonomous, on equal terms and for some time now have opened up internationally, but above all the large number of SMEs found in Italy’s economic system. Interpreting governance and strategy takes place in a broad perspective in which banks and the financial system have to deal with five significant factors today: regulations, customers, knowledge, capital and synergies. Interaction with these five factors is undoubtedly not only guided by a choice made by shareholders and managers but represents the set of decisions that mitigate ideological factors, choices concerning sustainability and social acceptance of these choices. This paper intends to explore this interaction, drawing on and utilizing the most significant studies in the Italian Banking & Finance sector, with a specific focus on relations between the financial system and businesses, that is to say, the corporate banking area.     

The Effect of Changing Sexual, Marital and Contraceptive Behaviour on Conceptions, Abortions, and Births

A model is proposed to estimate the number of conceptions during a single year using scarce survey data, official data on births and abortions for the two years following the survey, and some parameters on contraception failure. The model is fitted for 1979, 1989, 1994 to Puglia, a Southern Italian region with a population of 4 millions. Simulations are also produced.The decrease in births is caused mainly by the decline in wanted births, whereas the decline in abortions is caused by diffusion of the pill, IUD, and condom. The rapid increase in the proportion of never-married women explains the slow decrease in unwanted births and conceptions, compared to the fast decline in wanted ones. This situation is different compared to other Western countries (e.g. France, UK, and USA) where the decline in TFR during the 1960s and 1970s was largely caused by the decline in unwanted fertility, thanks to improved modern contraception and sterilisation.     

On a class of distributions on the simplex

In the present paper we define and investigate a novel class of distributions on the simplex, termed normalized infinitely divisible distributions, which includes the Dirichlet distribution. Distributional properties and general moment formulae are derived. Particular attention is devoted to special cases of normalized infinitely divisible distributions which lead to explicit expressions. As a by-product new distributions over the unit interval and a generalization of the Bessel function distribution are obtained.     

Social closure,micro‐class immobility and the intergenerational reproduction of the upper class: a comparative study

This article assesses how processes of social closure enhance intergenerational immobility in the regulated professions and thus promote persistence at the top of the occupational hierarchy. We compare four European countries (GB, Germany, Denmark and Sweden) that differ considerably in their degree of professional regulation and in their broader institutional arrangements. We run log‐linear and logistic regression models on a cumulative dataset based on three large‐scale surveys with detailed and highly comparable information at the level of unit occupations. Our analyses indicate that children of licensed professionals are far more likely to inherit the occupation of their parents and that this stronger micro‐class immobility translates into higher chances of persistence in the upper class. These results support social closure theory and confirm the relevance of a micro‐class approach for the explanation of social fluidity and of its cross‐national variations. Moreover, we find that, when children of professionals do not reproduce the micro‐class of their parents, they still display disproportionate chances of persistence in professional employment. Hence, on the one hand, processes of social closure erect barriers between professions and fuel micro‐class immobility at the top. On the other hand, the cultural proximity of different professional groups drives intense intergenerational exchanges between them. Our analyses indicate that these micro‐ and meso‐class rigidities work as complementary routes to immobility at the top.     

Discussing Measures of Financial Inclusion for the Main Euro Area Countries

Since financial inclusion has become a policy target in many countries, properly measuring it is crucial. Usual indexes of financial inclusion include inappropriate variables and don’t take into account other relevant aspects, thus misrepresenting the phenomenon. In this work we focus on the diffusion of electronic cards, generally not included in the usual indexes of financial inclusion notwithstanding they provide alternatives to usual saving practices and allow less costly transactions across larger markets and wider geographic areas. We show that, taking these instruments into account, the comparative valuation of the degree of financial inclusion between the main euro area countries changes substantially. We also employ survey data to analyze cross-country differences in the degree of financial inclusion and the distribution of multidimensional deprivations of specific sub-groups of populations.

     

Back to Stir It Up: Erectile Dysfunction in an Evolutionary,Developmental, and Clinical Perspective

In this review, we analyze erectile dysfunction (ED) in the context of sexual selection. We highlight that ED is a specific human male characteristic linked to the loss of the baculum or penile bone and results from a range of physical and psychological factors. We discuss evolutionary interpretations that consider dysfunctional penile erection as an honest signal of a low-quality male. We further emphasize the importance of considering psychosocial context and early attachment dynamics for understanding the etiology of some types of ED. Finally, we suggest that the integration of developmental factors for understanding the emergence of this sexual disorder is instrumental for the calibration of more effective therapies.