Incentives in Merchant Empires: Portuguese and Dutch Labor Compensation

The different organizational structure of the Portuguese and Dutch merchant empires affected their ability to monitor workers. I test the theoretical implications of these differences using micro data of overseas workers' compensation from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The two merchant empires used significantly different compensation structures: working for the king of Portugal corresponded to a higher bonus share of compensation on average than that of the Dutch East India Company. These results are consistent with theoretical implications and provide additional support to the historical evidence we have on the organizational structure of merchant empires.Merchant Empires, Labor Compensation, Incentives, Monitoring

Incentives in Merchant Empires: Portuguese and Dutch Labor Compensation

The different organizational structure of the Portuguese and Dutch merchant empires affected their ability to monitor workers. I test the theoretical implications of these differences using micro data of overseas workers' compensation from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The two merchant empires used significantly different compensation structures: working for the king of Portugal corresponded to a higher bonus share of compensation on average than that of the Dutch East India Company. These results are consistent with theoretical implications and provide additional support to the historical evidence we have on the organizational structure of merchant empires

Incentives in Merchant Empires: Portuguese and Dutch Labor Compensation

The different organizational structure of the Portuguese and Dutch merchant empires affected their ability to monitor workers. I test the theoretical implications of these differences using micro data of overseas workers' compensation from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The two merchant empires used significantly different compensation structures: working for the king of Portugal corresponded to a higher bonus share of compensation on average than that of the Dutch East India Company. These results are consistent with theoretical implications and provide additional support to the historical evidence we have on the organizational structure of merchant empires

Escaping Europe: health and human capital of Holocaust refugees

Trabajo presentado a Iberometrics VIII: Eight Iberian Cliometrics Workshop. Organizado por el Institute of Advanced Research in Business and Economics (INARBE) de la Universidad Pública de Navarra, en colaboración con Glocred y expertos de instituciones de España y Portugal. Celebrado en la Upna el 20-21 de abril de 2017.The large-scale persecution of European Jews during the Second World War generated massive refugee movements. We study the last wave of Holocaust refugees with a newly compiled dataset of mostly Jewish passengers from several European countries traveling from Lisbon to New York between 1940 and 1942. We find most countries experienced substantial losses in human and health capital, especially from women. In spite of the unique circumstances of this historical setting, this episode of migration displays well-known selection features: early migrants were taller than late migrants, a large migrant stock reduces migrant selectivity, and economic barriers to migration apply

The impact of IL-1 modulation on the development of lipopolysaccharide-induced cognitive dysfunction

INTRODUCTION: The impact of pro-inflammatory cytokines on neuroinflammation and cognitive function after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge remains elusive. Herein we provide evidence that there is a temporal correlation between high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB-1), microglial activation, and cognitive dysfunction. Disabling the interleukin (IL)-1 signaling pathway is sufficient to reduce inflammation and ameliorate the disability. METHODS: Endotoxemia was induced in wild-type and IL-1R-/- mice by intra peritoneal injection of E. Coli LPS (1 mg/kg). Markers of inflammation were assessed both peripherally and centrally, and correlated to behavioral outcome using trace fear conditioning. RESULTS: Increase in plasma tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) peaked at 30 minutes after LPS challenge. Up-regulation of IL-1beta, IL-6 and HMGB-1 was more persistent, with detectable levels up to day three. A 15-fold increase in IL-6 and a 6.5-fold increase in IL-1beta mRNA at 6 hours post intervention (P < 0.001 respectively) was found in the hippocampus. Reactive microgliosis was observed both at days one and three, and was associated with elevated HMGB-1 and impaired memory retention (P < 0.005). Preemptive administration of IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) significantly reduced plasma cytokines and hippocampal microgliosis and ameliorated cognitive dysfunction without affecting HMGB-1 levels. Similar results were observed in LPS-challenged mice lacking the IL-1 receptor to those seen in LPS-challenged wild type mice treated with IL-1Ra. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that by blocking IL-1 signaling, the inflammatory cascade to LPS is attenuated, thereby reducing microglial activation and preventing the behavioral abnormality

Molecular characterization of multidrug resistant Enterobacterales strains isolated from liver and kidney transplant recipients in Spain

The objective of this study was to analyse the mechanisms of resistance to carbapenems and other extended-spectrum-?-lactams and to determine the genetic relatedness of multidrug-resistant Enterobacterales (MDR-E) causing colonization or infection in solid-organ transplantation (SOT) recipients. Prospective cohort study in kidney (n= 142), liver (n= 98) or kidney/pancreas (n= 7) transplant recipients between 2014 and 2018 in seven Spanish hospitals. We included 531 MDR-E isolates from rectal swabs obtained before transplantation and weekly for 4?6 weeks after the procedure and 10 MDR-E from clinical samples related to an infection. Overall, 46.2% Escherichia coli, 35.3% Klebsiella pneumoniae, 6.5% Enterobacter cloacae, 6.3% Citrobacter freundii and 5.7% other species were isolated. The number of patients with MDR-E colonization post-transplantation (176; 71.3%) was 2.5-fold the number of patients colonized pre-transplantation (71; 28.7%). Extended spectrum ?-lactamases (ESBLs) and carbapenemases were detected in 78.0% and 21.1% of MDR-E isolates respectively. In nine of the 247 (3.6%) transplant patients, the microorganism causing an infection was the same strain previously cultured from surveillance rectal swabs. In our study we have observed a low rate of MDR-E infection in colonized patients 4?6 weeks post-transplantation. E. coli producing blaCTX-M-G1 and K. pneumoniae harbouring blaOXA-48 alone or with blaCTX-M-G1 were the most prevalent MDR-E colonization strains in SOT recipients.Acknowledgements The authors thank Mª Jesús Lecea and Laura Álvarez for technical assistance. Tis research was supported by ‘Plan Nacional de I+D+i and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias 13/01191), Subdirección General de Redes y Centros de Investigación Cooperativa, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, and the Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI RD16/0016/0007, RD16/0016/0010, RD16/0016/0012, RD16/0016/0011, RD16/0016/0008, RD16/0016/0002). Te study was co-fnanced by the European Development Regional Fund “A way to achieve Europe” and the Operative Program Intelligent Growth 2014‐2020