Can Compulsory Military Service Raise Civilian Wages? Evidence from the Peacetime Draft in Portugal

Although the practice of military conscription was widespread during most of the past century, credible evidence on the effects of mandatory service is limited. Angrist (1990) showed that the Vietnam-era draft in the U.S. lowered the early-career wages of conscripts, a finding he attributed to the low value of military experience. More recent studies have found a mixed pattern of effects, with both negative (the Netherlands) and positive (in Sweden) earnings impacts. Even among Vietnam era draftees, Angrist and Chen (2011) find that the net effect on earnings by age 50 is close to zero. We provide new evidence on the long-term impacts of peacetime conscription in a "low education" labor market, using longitudinal data for Portuguese men born in 1967. These men were inducted at a relatively late age (21), allowing us to use pre- conscription wages as a control for potential ability differences between conscripts and non- conscripts. Our estimates of the average impact of military service for men who had entered the labor market by age 21 are slightly positive (1-2 percent) but not significantly different from zero throughout the period from 2 to 20 years after their service. These small average effects arise from a significantly positive later-life impact for men with only primary education, coupled with a zero-effect for men with higher education. The positive impacts for less-educated men suggest that mandatory service can be a valuable experience for poorly-educated men who might otherwise spend their careers in low-level jobs.quasi-differences, longitudinal earnings, military conscription, sensitivity analysis

Can Compulsory Military Service Increase Civilian Wages? Evidence from the Peacetime Draft in Portugal

Although military conscription was widespread during most of the past century, credible evidence on the effects of mandatory service is limited. We provide new evidence on the long-term effects of peacetime conscription, using longitudinal data for Portuguese men born in 1967. These men were inducted at a relatively late age (21), allowing us to use pre-conscription wages to control for ability differences between conscripts and non-conscripts. We find that the average impact of military service for men who were working prior to age 21 is close to zero throughout the period from 2 to 20 years after their service. These small average effects arise from a significant 4-5 percentage point impact for men with only primary education, coupled with a zero-effect for men with higher education. The positive impacts for less-educated men suggest that mandatory service can be a valuable experience for those who might otherwise spend their careers in low-level jobs.

The mixed black hole partition function for the STU model

We evaluate the mixed partition function for dyonic BPS black holes using the recently proposed degeneracy formula for the STU model. The result factorizes into the OSV mixed partition function times a proportionality factor. The latter is in agreement with the measure factor that was recently conjectured for a class of N=2 black holes that contains the STU model.Comment: 14 page

Laplacian Distribution and Domination

Let $m_G(I)$ denote the number of Laplacian eigenvalues of a graph $G$ in an interval $I$, and let $\gamma(G)$ denote its domination number. We extend the recent result $m_G[0,1) \leq \gamma(G)$, and show that isolate-free graphs also satisfy $\gamma(G) \leq m_G[2,n]$. In pursuit of better understanding Laplacian eigenvalue distribution, we find applications for these inequalities. We relate these spectral parameters with the approximability of $\gamma(G)$, showing that $\frac{\gamma(G)}{m_G[0,1)} \not\in O(\log n)$. However, $\gamma(G) \leq m_G[2, n] \leq (c + 1) \gamma(G)$ for $c$-cyclic graphs, $c \geq 1$. For trees $T$, $\gamma(T) \leq m_T[2, n] \leq 2 \gamma(G)$

Gluons at finite temperature

The gluon propagator is investigated at finite temperature via lattice simulations. In particular, we discuss its interpretation as a massive-type bosonic propagator. Moreover, we compute the corresponding spectral density and study the violation of spectral positivity. Finally, we explore the dependence of the gluon propagator on the phase of the Polyakov loop

Inflammatory bowel disease and cognitive behavioural therapy : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Trabalho Final do Curso de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, 2018Introdução. As doenças inflamatórias do intestino (DII) são doenças crónicas, com agudizações, multifactoriais, caracterizadas por inflamação crónica do intestino e estão associadas a perturbações psiquiátricas, como depressão e ansiedade, assim como uma pior qualidade de vida. Alguns estudos reportaram benefício com a aplicação de terapia cognitivo-comportamental (TCC) nestes doentes. Objectivo. Nesta revisão, propomo-nos inventariar e analisar as evidências da TCC nos doentes com DII relativas à actividade da doença, depressão, ansiedade e qualidade de vida (QdV). Métodos. Foram incluídos estudos controlados e aleatorizados que compararam TCC com um grupo controlo, independentemente da idade ou data de publicação. A pesquisa foi efectuada na MEDLINE, e estudos adicionais foram selecionados da literatura cinzenta e da bibliografia de estudos seleccionados. Todos os outcomes foram considerados para a revisão sistemática, e os dados relativos a actividade da doença, depressão, ansiedade e qualidade de vida foram incluídos na meta-análise. Dados foram resumidos em médias e desvios-padrão (DP). Variância inversa genérica com modelos de efeitos aleatorizados foram feitas para obter estimativas do efeito, expressas em diferenças de médias padronizadas (DMP) com intervalos de confiança de 95% (IC). Resultados. Identificámos 117 estudos, dos quais 11 foram incluídos na revisão sistemática, com um total de 1012 doentes. Nenhum outcome demonstrou benefício da TCC. A actividade da doença foi avaliada em 7 estudos, tendo 2 sido incluídos na nossa análise (DMP: 0.060; -0.449 0.568 IC 95%; p-values>0.818). A depressão (DMP: -0.131; -0.347, 0.084 IC 95%; p-values>0.233) foi avaliada em todos os estudos, a ansiedade (DMP: -0.029; -0.232, 0.173 IC 95%; p-values>0.777) e qualidade de vida (DMP: 0.037; -0.178, 0.252 IC 95%; p-values>0.736) em 7, com 3 incluídas na nossa análise, não tendo sido demonstrado benefício. Discussão e conclusão. Esta meta-análise falhou em provar benefícios da TCC nos doentes com DII nos 4 outcomes principais: actividade da doença, depressão, ansiedade e qualidade de vida, mas foram encontradas grandes limitações. Estudos futuros deverão incluir mais doentes e fazer análises de subgrupo, reportando dados completos.Introduction. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are chronic, relapsing-remitting, multifactorial disorders characterized by chronic intestinal inflammation, associated with psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and depression, and with poorer quality of life. Some trials have reported benefit of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for these patients. Aim. In this review, we aim to summarize and analyse the evidences of CBT in IBD patients regarding disease activity, anxiety, depression and quality of life. Methods. Randomized controlled trials recruiting patients with IBD that compared CBT to a control group were included, regardless of age or date of publication. Search was performed on MEDLINE, and additional trials were selected from grey literature and references from selected articles. Any disease-related or psychological outcomes were considered for the systematic review, and data regarding disease activity, anxiety, depression and quality of life was included in the meta-analysis. We summarized the findings using descriptive statistics, including mean and standard deviation (SD) scores for outcomes of interest. Generic inverse variance with random-effects models were run to obtain effect estimates expressed as standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results. We identified 117 studies of which 11 studies included, with a total of 1012 participants. None of the outcomes reported benefit from CBT. Disease activity was evaluated in 7 trials, with 2 included in our analysis showing no improvement (SMD: 0.060; -0.449 0.568 CI 95%; p-values>0.818). Depression (SMD: -0.131; -0.347, 0.084 CI 95%; p-values>0.233) was evaluated in all trials, anxiety (SMD: -0.029; -0.232, 0.173 CI 95%; p-values>0.777) and quality of life (SMD: 0.037; -0.178, 0.252 CI 95%; p-values>0.736) in 7, with 3 included in our analysis showing no improvement. Discussion and conclusion. This meta-analysis failed to prove that CBT could be of benefit for IBD patients on 4 major outcomes: disease activity, depression, anxiety and quality of life, but several limitations were found. Future studies should include more patients, perform subgroups analysis, and adequately report data