On the Optimality of PAYG Pension Systems in an Endogenous Fertility Setting

In order to help in designing an accurate pension reform, we determine the optimal resource allocation in an endogenous fertility model generating a demographic transition. Extending Samuelson’s (1975) work in such a setting, we analyze the problem of the interiority of the optimal solution and discuss the serendipity theorem. We then characterize the decentralization of the first best, showing that a pension policy linking pension benefits to the number of children constitutes an optimal social security program able to restore both the optimal capital stock and the optimal rate of pupulation growth as a unique instrument. We also show that neither a Beveridgean pension scheme nor a Bismarckian one can decentralize the first best.demographic transition;fertility;pensions;golden rule

Identification and Characterization of Mediators of Fluconazole Tolerance in Candida albicans.

Candida albicans is an important human pathogen and a major concern in intensive care units around the world. C. albicans infections are associated with a high mortality despite the use of antifungal treatments. One of the causes of therapeutic failures is the acquisition of antifungal resistance by mutations in the C. albicans genome. Fluconazole (FLC) is one of the most widely used antifungal and mechanisms of FLC resistance occurring by mutations have been extensively investigated. However, some clinical isolates are known to be able to survive at high FLC concentrations without acquiring resistance mutations, a phenotype known as tolerance. Mechanisms behind FLC tolerance are not well studied, mainly due to the lack of a proper way to identify and quantify tolerance in clinical isolates. We proposed here culture conditions to investigate FLC tolerance as well as an easy and efficient method to identity and quantify tolerance to FLC. The screening of C. albicans strain collections revealed that FLC tolerance is pH- and strain-dependent, suggesting the involvement of multiple mechanisms. Here, we addressed the identification of FLC tolerance mediators in C. albicans by an overexpression strategy focusing on 572 C. albicans genes. This strategy led to the identification of two transcription factors, CRZ1 and GZF3. CRZ1 is a C2H2-type transcription factor that is part of the calcineurin-dependent pathway in C. albicans, while GZF3 is a GATA-type transcription factor of unknown function in C. albicans. Overexpression of each gene resulted in an increase of FLC tolerance, however, only the deletion of CRZ1 in clinical FLC-tolerant strains consistently decreased their FLC tolerance. Transcription profiling of clinical isolates with variable levels of FLC tolerance confirmed a calcineurin-dependent signature in these isolates when exposed to FLC

Author Correction: Bayesian reassessment of the epigenetic architecture of complex traits

The original version of this Article contains an error in Fig. 3 in which panel B was inadvertently duplicated from panel A. This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article

Multi-method genome- and epigenome-wide studies of inflammatory protein levels in healthy older adults

The molecular factors which control circulating levels of inflammatory proteins are not well understood. Furthermore, association studies between molecular probes and human traits are often performed by linear model-based methods which may fail to account for complex structure and interrelationships within molecular datasets.In this study, we perform genome- and epigenome-wide association studies (GWAS/EWAS) on the levels of 70 plasma-derived inflammatory protein biomarkers in healthy older adults (Lothian Birth Cohort 1936; n = 876; Olink® inflammation panel). We employ a Bayesian framework (BayesR+) which can account for issues pertaining to data structure and unknown confounding variables (with sensitivity analyses using ordinary least squares- (OLS) and mixed model-based approaches). We identified 13 SNPs associated with 13 proteins (n = 1 SNP each) concordant across OLS and Bayesian methods. We identified 3 CpG sites spread across 3 proteins (n = 1 CpG each) that were concordant across OLS, mixed-model and Bayesian analyses. Tagged genetic variants accounted for up to 45% of variance in protein levels (for MCP2, 36% of variance alone attributable to 1 polymorphism). Methylation data accounted for up to 46% of variation in protein levels (for CXCL10). Up to 66% of variation in protein levels (for VEGFA) was explained using genetic and epigenetic data combined. We demonstrated putative causal relationships between CD6 and IL18R1 with inflammatory bowel disease and between IL12B and Crohn’s disease. Our data may aid understanding of the molecular regulation of the circulating inflammatory proteome as well as causal relationships between inflammatory mediators and disease

The Continuous Sample of Working Lives: improving its representativeness

This paper studies the representativeness of the Continuous Sample of Working Lives (CSWL), a set of anonymized microdata containing information on individuals from Spanish Social Security records. We examine several CSWL waves (2005-2013) and show that it is not representative for the population with a pension income. We then develop a methodology to draw a large dataset from the CSWL that is much more representative of the retired population in terms of pension type, gender and age. This procedure also makes it possible for users to choose between goodness of fit and subsample size. In order to illustrate the practical significance of our methodology, the paper also contains an application in which we generate a large subsample distribution from the 2010 CSWL. The results are striking: with a very small reduction in the size of the original CSWL, we significantly reduce errors in estimating pension expenditure for 2010, with a p value greater or equal to 0.999

Health Care and Female Employment: A Potential Conflict?. CEPS ENEPRI Occasional Papers No. 6, 1 April 2004

This paper presents a discussion of some general conceptual and empirical issues of increasing importance for the analysis of the consequences of ageing: the potential trade-off between ensuring informal health care for the elderly and at the same time achieving an increase in the employment participation ratio for women. It first provides an overview of some general issues in health economics and then turns to some theoretical and empirical investigations of these issues. The future of health care for the elderly is, as demonstrated above, a most important aspect of the prospects for health care in general. The policy issues, however, do not present themselves in the same manner for all member states. In fact, the forward path of old-age care will be greatly determined by the starting position with respect to the level of formal and informal care, the present state of affairs as far as female labour market participation is concerned and the existing patterns of financing of old-age care

Optimal population growth and social security reform with heterogeneous agents

In this paper we propose a pension policy that would isolate the social security system from any financial crisis resulting from changes in population structure. This policy consists of linking social security benefits to the fertility behaviour of the individual. We present a theoretical analysis to show that this policy restores the optimality of the capital-labour ratio and the population growth rate in an overlapping-generations model with endogenous fertility. We extend this analysis to the case of heterogeneous agents with respect to their preferences towards children.pay-as-you-go social security system, overlapping-generations model, endogenous fertility, heterogeneous agents, optimal population growth

On the optimality of PAYG pension systems in an endogenous fertility setting

In order to help in designing an accurate pension reform, we determine the resource allocation in an endogenous fertility model that generates an endogenous demographic transition by means of distinguishing between female and male labor. We analyze the problem of the optimal solution and characterize the decentralization of the first best. We show that a pension policy linking pension benefits to the number of children acts as a corrective tax system able to restore both the optimal capital stock and the optimal rate of population growth as a single instrument. We also show that neither a Beveridgean pension scheme nor a Bismarckian one can decentralize the first best.

Health Care and Female Employment: A Potential Conflict?

This paper presents a discussion of some general conceptual and empirical issues of increasing importance for the analysis of the consequences of ageing: the potential trade-off between ensuring informal health care for the elderly and at the same time achieving an increase in the employment participation ratio for women. It first provides an overview of some general issues in health economics and then turns to some theoretical and empirical investigations of these issues. The future of health care for the elderly is, as demonstrated above, a most important aspect of the prospects for health care in general. The policy issues, however, do not present themselves in the same manner for all member states. In fact, the forward path of old-age care will be greatly determined by the starting position with respect to the level of formal and informal care, the present state of affairs as far as female labour market participation is concerned and the existing patterns of financing of old-age care.