Colonization and habitat selection of a declining farmland species in urban areas

Despite the accelerating global urbanization and its associated implications for wildlife and humans, we know little about the biology of urban ecosystems. Here, we investigated colonization and habitat selection of the European hare (Lepus europaeus), a declining farmland species, in urban areas in Denmark, using a combination of citizen science data and transect counts. Further, we estimated the population density of urban hares in Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city. Our results provide the first evidence that hares have established populations in urban areas, potentially in response to decreasing habitat quality in rural areas due to agricultural intensification. The hare density in Aarhus was ca. 8 hares per km², which is comparable to or slightly higher than hare abundance estimates from various pastural areas in Europe, suggesting that urban areas provide suitable habitat for hares. Hare habitat selection was generally associated with areas consisting of large lawns, such as high buildings and parks, which potentially provide high-quality forage throughout the year. Considering the increasing expansion of urban areas and deteriorating habitat quality of agricultural areas, urban planning that incorporates habitat requirements for wildlife could help to support urban animal populations, especially for species of conservation concern.

     

Aging,Proximity to Death,and Religiosity

Considerable evidence has documented that the elderly are more religious and that religiosity is associated with better health and lower mortality. Yet, little is known about the reverse role of life expectancy or proximity to death, as opposed to age, for religiosity. This paper provides evidence for the distinct role of expected remaining life years for the importance of religion in individuals’ lives. We combine individual survey response data for more than 300,000 individuals from 95 countries over the period 1994–2014 with information from period life tables. Contrary to wide-held beliefs, religiosity decreases with greater expected proximity to death. The findings have important implications regarding the consequences of population aging for religiosity and associated outcomes.     

Demographic dynamics and long-run development: insights for the secular stagnation debate

This paper takes a global, long-run perspective on the recent debate about secular stagnation, which has so far mainly focused on the short term. The analysis is motivated by observing the interplay between the economic and demographic transition that has occurred in the developed world over the past 150 years. To the extent that high growth rates in the past have partly been the consequence of singular changes during the economic and demographic transition, growth is likely to become more moderate once the transition is completed. At the same time, a similar transition is on its way in most developing countries, with profound consequences for the development prospects in these countries, but also for global comparative development. The evidence presented here suggests that long-run demographic dynamics have potentially important implications for the prospects of human and physical capital accumulation, the evolution of productivity, and the question of secular stagnation.     

INDIVIDUAL RISK ATTITUDES: MEASUREMENT,DETERMINANTS, AND BEHAVIORAL CONSEQUENCES

This paper studies risk attitudes using a large representative survey and a complementary experiment conducted with a representative subject pool in subjects' homes. Using a question asking people about their willingness to take risks “in general”, we find that gender, age, height, and parental background have an economically significant impact on willingness to take risks. The experiment confirms the behavioral validity of this measure, using paid lottery choices. Turning to other questions about risk attitudes in specific contexts, we find similar results on the determinants of risk attitudes, and also shed light on the deeper question of stability of risk attitudes across contexts. We conduct a horse race of the ability of different measures to explain risky behaviors such as holdings stocks, occupational choice, and smoking. The question about risk taking in general generates the best all‐round predictor of risky behavior.     

Correction to: Colonization and habitat selection of a declining farmland species in urban areas

Urban Ecosystems - In our paper, using distance sampling, we estimated the population density of hares in Aarhus city to 6.8 hares/km2.     

Life Expectancy,Schooling, and Lifetime Labor Supply: Theory and Evidence Revisited

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the role of life expectancy for optimal schooling and lifetime labor supply. The results of a simple prototype Ben‐Porath model with age‐specific survival rates show that an increase in lifetime labor supply is not a necessary, or a sufficient, condition for greater life expectancy to increase optimal schooling. The observed increase in survival rates during working ages that follows from the “rectangularization” of the survival function is crucial for schooling and labor supply. The empirical results suggest that the relative benefits of schooling have been increasing across cohorts of U.S. men born between 1840 and 1930. A simple quantitative analysis shows that a realistic shift in the survival function can lead to an increase in schooling and a reduction in lifetime labor hours.     

Health and economic development—evidence from the introduction of public health care

This paper investigates the causal effect of improvements in health on economic development using a long panel of European countries. Identification is based on the particular timing of the introduction of public health care systems in different countries, which is the random outcome of a political process. We document that the introduction of public health care systems had a significant immediate effect on health dynamics proxied by infant mortality and crude death rates. The findings suggest that health improvements had a positive effect on growth in income per capita and aggregate income.