Engel’s Law Around the World 150 Years Later

One of the most enduring relationships in economics is that proposed by Ernst Engel in 1857: “The poorer is a family, the greater is the proportion of the total outgo [family expenditures] which must be used for food. … The proportion of the outgo used for food, other things being equal is the best measure of the material standard of living of a population.” The 150th anniversary of Engel’s law passed in 2007. With this in mind, the present paper looks at the extent to which Engel’s law is relevant in today’s world by looking across countries at the relationship between the share of household expenditure spent on food and national income per capita. This working paper provides an empirical analysis of Engel’s law based on data for almost every country and territory in the world. This facilitates analysis of the relationship between the food share of household expenditure and national income per capita, especially how this differs by development level.History of economic thought, Economic history, Consumer economics, Consumption, Measurement and analysis of poverty, Household behavior

In Kind Benefits as Partial Payment of Wages: A Review of Laws Around the World

This paper is concerned with in kind benefits received by workers and how they are treated in national laws – in particular whether the value of in kind benefits are considered as partial payment of wages and, if so, under what conditions and how their monetary value is determined. This review is based to a large extent on information on national laws in 162 countries from around the world. This analysis is supplemented by analysis of how in kind benefits are treated in International Labor Organization ( ILO ) conventions; laws and regulations of the federal government and five states in the United States; and collective bargaining agreements from six developing countries. Despite data limitations, this is, as far as we know, the most comprehensive and systematic international review of in kind benefits and how they are treated as partial payment of wages

The Genealogy of Duplicity in Henry James

Departing from Nietzsche's conception of man's expropriation from nature (The Genealogy of Morals), this article proposes an interpretation of trope in Henry James

Randomized controlled trial comparing different single doses of intravenous paracetamol for placement of peripherally inserted central catheters in preterm infants

__Background:__ The availability of a safe and effective pharmacological therapy to reduce procedural pain in preterm infants is limited. The effective analgesic single dose of intravenous paracetamol in preterm infants is unknown. Comparative studies on efficacy of different paracetamol doses in preterm infants are lacking. __Objectives:__ To determine the analgesic effects of different single intravenous paracetamol doses on pain from peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) placement in preterm infants. __Methods:__ In a blinded randomized controlled trial, the an

Effects of several types of biomass fuels on the yield, nanostructure and reactivity of soot from fast pyrolysis at high temperatures

peer-reviewedThis study presents the effect of biomass origin on the yield, nanostructure and reactivity of soot. Soot was produced from wood and herbaceous biomass pyrolysis at high heating rates and at temperatures of 1250 and 1400° C in a drop tube furnace. The structure of solid residues was characterized by electron microscopy techniques, X-ray diffraction and N2 adsorption. The reactivity of soot was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. Results showed that soot generated at 1400° C was more reactive than soot generated at 1250° C for all biomass types. Pinewood, beechwood and wheat straw soot demonstrated differences in alkali content, particle size and nanostructure. Potassium was incorporated in the soot matrix and significantly influenced soot reactivity. Pinewood soot particles produced at 1250° C had a broader particle size range (27.2–263 nm) compared to beechwood soot (33.2–102 nm) and wheat straw soot (11.5–165.3 nm), and contained mainly multi-core structures

Environmental effects are stronger than human effects on mammalian predator-prey relationships in arid Australian ecosystems

Climate (drought, rainfall), geology (habitat availability), land use change (provision of artificial waterpoints, introduction of livestock), invasive species (competition, predation), and direct human intervention (lethal control of top-predators) have each been identified as processes driving the sustainability of threatened fauna populations. We used a systematic combination of empirical observational studies and experimental manipulations to comprehensively evaluate the effects of these process on a model endangered rodent, dusky hopping-mice (Notomys fuscus). We established a large manipulative experiment in arid Australia, and collected information from relative abundance indices, camera traps, GPS-collared dingoes (Canis familiaris) and dingo scats, along with a range of related environmental data (e.g. rainfall, habitat type, distance to artificial water etc.). We show that hopping-mice populations were most strongly influenced by geological and climatic effects of resource availability and rainfall, and not land use, invasive species, or human effects of livestock grazing, waterpoint provision, or the lethal control of dingoes. Hopping-mice distribution declined along a geological gradient of more to less available hopping-mice habitat (sand dunes), and their abundance was driven by rainfall. Hopping-mice populations fluctuated independent of livestock presence, artificial waterpoint availability or repeated lethal dingo control. Hopping-mice populations appear to be limited first by habitat availability, then by food availability, then by predation. Contemporary top-predator control practices (for protection of livestock) have little influence on hopping-mice behaviour or population dynamics. Given our inability to constrain the effects of predation across broad scales, management actions focusing on increasing available food and habitat (e.g. alteration of fire and grazing regimes) may have a greater chance of improving the conservation status of hopping-mice and other small mammals in arid areas. Our study also reaffirms the importance of using systematic and experimental approaches to detect true drivers of population distribution and dynamics where multiple potential drivers operate simultaneously