Regional inequality of economic outcomes and opportunities in Ethiopia: A tale of two periods

This paper provides an informative picture of the extent of regional inequality of economic outcomes and opportunities in the pre-and post-reform Ethiopia. We start by presenting evidence that regional inequality in educational attainment, formal employment, and access to safe water and sanitation facilities declined substantially between the mid-1990s and late 2000s. When we measure regional inequality of opportunities using the intergenerational persistence of educational attainment, we find a moderate increase in intergenerational mobility at the national level and a declining gap across regions. Given the regional concentration of ethnic and language groups in Ethiopia, further reducing the unequal distribution of economic outcomes and opportunities across regions have important implications for the political stability and economic development of the country

Quasi-experimental evidence on the effects of mother tongue-based education on reading skills and early labour market outcomes

Prior to the introduction of mother tongue based education in 1994, the language of instruction for most subjects in Ethiopia's primary schools was the offcial language (Amharic) - the mother tongue of only one third of the population. This paper uses the variation in individual's exposure to the policy change across birth cohorts and mother tongues to estimate the effects of language of instruction on reading skills and early labour market outcomes. The results indicate that the reading skills of birth cohorts that gained access to mother tongue-based primary education after 1994 improved significantly by about 11 percentage points. The provision of primary education in mother tongue halved the reading skills gap between Amharic and non-Amharic mother tongue users. The improved reading skills seem to translate into gains in the labour market in terms of the skill contents of jobs held and the type of payment individuals receive for their work. An increase in school enrollment and enhanced parental educational investment at home are identified as potential channels linking mother tongue instruction and an improvement in reading skills

Risk attitudes, job mobility and subsequent wage growth during the early career

Job change is a decision under uncertainty: It is associated with costs whereas the decision is made without full knowledge about future benefits. In order to investigate the relationship between willingness to take risks and job mobility, we first extend a model for on-the-job search with nonwage job characteristics by including heterogeneity in risk attitudes. Second, we empirically test the model's implications showing that individuals who are more risk-averse choose to change their jobs less often than more risk-tolerant individuals. This difference in the job changing behaviour leads to only moderate differences wage growth during early career: Risk-averse individuals tend to have on average higher wage gains from each job change and have obtained higher overall wage growth at the end of the early career phase

Risk attitudes, job mobility and subsequent wage growth during the early career

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between individuals' willingness to take risk and job mobility during the early career. Job change is a risky decision since it involves substantial costs without entirely foreseeing the benefits at the time the decision is made. We incorporate risk preferences as an additional parameter influencing the individual job change behaviour in an on-the-job search model accounting for nonwage job characteristics. Empirically, we show that more risk-averse individuals voluntarily change their jobs less often compared to more risk-tolerant individuals. In addition, since risk-averse individuals demand higher compensation for the risk associated with uncertain nonwage job characteristics, we find that their job changes are associated with higher wage gains. However, more risk-averse individuals do not obtain higher overall wage growth as a result of the early career compared to more risk-tolerant individuals

Identification of two distinct structural regions in a human porcine endogenous retrovirus receptor, HuPAR2, contributing to function for viral entry

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Of the three subclasses of Porcine Endogenous Retrovirus (PERV), PERV-A is able to infect human cells via one of two receptors, HuPAR1 or HuPAR2. Characterizing the structure-function relationships of the two HuPAR receptors in PERV-A binding and entry is important in understanding receptor-mediated gammaretroviral entry and contributes to evaluating the risk of zoonosis in xenotransplantation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Chimeras of the non-permissive murine PAR and the permissive HuPAR2, which scanned the entire molecule, revealed that the first 135 amino acids of HuPAR2 are critical for PERV-A entry. Within this critical region, eighteen single residue differences exist. Site-directed mutagenesis used to map single residues confirmed the previously identified L109 as a binding and infectivity determinant. In addition, we identified seven residues contributing to the efficiency of PERV-A entry without affecting envelope binding, located in multiple predicted structural motifs (intracellular, extracellular and transmembrane). We also show that expression of HuPAR2 in a non-permissive cell line results in an average 11-fold higher infectivity titer for PERV-A compared to equal expression of HuPAR1, although PERV-A envelope binding is similar. Chimeras between HuPAR-1 and -2 revealed that the region spanning amino acids 152–285 is responsible for the increase of HuPAR2. Fine mapping of this region revealed that the increased receptor function required the full sequence rather than one or more specific residues.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>HuPAR2 has two distinct structural regions. In one region, a single residue determines binding; however, in both regions, multiple residues influence receptor function for PERV-A entry.</p

Natural history of a visceral leishmaniasis outbreak in highland Ethiopia

In May 2005, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) was recognized for the first time in Libo Kemken, Ethiopia, a highland region where only few cases had been reported before. We analyzed records of VL patients treated from May 25, 2005 to December 13, 2007 by the only VL treatment center in the area, maintained by Médecins Sans Frontières-Ethiopia, Operational Center Barcelona-Athens. The median age was 18 years; 77.6% were male. The overall case fatality rate was 4%, but adults 45 years or older were five times as likely to die as 5-29 year olds. Other factors associated with increased mortality included HIV infection, edema, severe malnutrition, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and vomiting. The VL epidemic expanded rapidly over a several-year period, culminating in an epidemic peak in the last third of 2005, spread over two districts, and transformed into a sustained endemic situation by 2007

Polymorphisms in Toll-like receptor 4 ( TLR4 ) are associated with protection against leprosy

Accumulating evidence suggests that polymorphisms in Toll-like receptors (TLRs) influence the pathogenesis of mycobacterial infections, including leprosy, a disease whose manifestations depend on host immune responses. Polymorphisms in TLR2 are associated with an increased risk of reversal reaction, but not susceptibility to leprosy itself. We examined whether polymorphisms in TLR4 are associated with susceptibility to leprosy in a cohort of 441 Ethiopian leprosy patients and 197 healthy controls. We found that two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TLR4 (896G>A [D299G] and 1196C>T [T399I]) were associated with a protective effect against the disease. The 896GG, GA and AA genotypes were found in 91.7, 7.8 and 0.5% of leprosy cases versus 79.9, 19.1 and 1.0% of controls, respectively (odds ratio [OR] = 0.34, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.20-0.57, P < 0.001, additive model). Similarly, the 1196CC, CT and TT genotypes were found in 98.1, 1.9 and 0% of leprosy cases versus 91.8, 7.7 and 0.5% of controls, respectively (OR = 0.16, 95% CI 0.06--.40, P < 0.001, dominant model). We found that Mycobacterium leprae stimulation of monocytes partially inhibited their subsequent response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. Our data suggest that TLR4 polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to leprosy and that this effect may be mediated at the cellular level by the modulation of TLR4 signalling by M. lepra