Endogenous (In)Formal Institutions.

Despite the huge evidence documenting the relevance of inclusive political institutions and a culture of cooperation, we still lack a framework that identifies their origins and interaction. In a model in which an elite and a citizenry try to cooperate in consumption risk-sharing and investment, we show that a rise in the investment value encourages the elite to introduce more inclusive political institutions to convince the citizenry that a sufficient part of the returns on joint investments will be shared. In addition, accumulation of culture rises with the severity of consumption risk if this is not too large and thus cheating is not too appealing. Finally, the citizenry may over-accumulate culture to credibly commit to cooperate in investment when its value falls and so inclusive political institutions are at risk. These predictions are consistent with the evolution of activity-specific geographic factors, monasticism, and political institutions in a panel of 90 European regions spanning the 1000-1600 period. Evidence from several identification strategies suggests that the relationships we uncover are causal

Crop domestication in the upper Madeira River basin

Most native Amazonian crops were domesticated in the periphery of the basin. The upper Madeira River basin is an important part of this periphery where several important crops were domesticated and others are suspected to have been domesticated or arrived early. Some of these crops have been reasonably well studied, such as manioc, peanut, peach palm, coca and tobacco, while others are not as well known, such as the hot peppers Capsicum baccatum and C. frutescens, and still others need confirmation, such as cocoyam and annatto. We review the information available for manioc, peach palm, Capsicum, peanut, annatto and cocoyam. The state-of-the-art for Capsicum frutescens, annatto and cocoyam is insufficient to conclude definitively that they were domesticated in the upper Madeira, while all the others have at least one of their origins or centers of diversity in the upper Madeira

Eating in the Elderly

International audienceAlthough having a good diet is recognized to be important for successful aging, malnutrition is one of the highest threats to the health, autonomy, and well-being of older adults. Several medical associations and public policies have proposed dietary guidelines directed at elderly people to ensure a healthy nutritional status and prevent the onset of disease. However, several studies have demonstrated the inadequacy of food intake in the elderly population. A decline in energy and protein intake is frequently observed with aging, in particular for the very old and/or dependent people. The aging process, even when it takes place normally, is associated with several changes likely to have an impact on food intake and the nutritional status of the elderly people such as impairment in appetite regulation, oral health, and chemosensory perception. Beyond these changes, the life of an elderly individual is marked by “breaking points” which may have a social origin (e.g., retirement, widowhood, fall in income) or a medical origin (e.g., onset of a disease, dementia). These breaking points are likely to disrupt their lifestyle habits and in particular their eating habits, leading to new eating habits, which are sometimes inappropriate and at the origin of unbalanced diet. In the context of an aging population, it is therefore crucial to combine meal interventions and food development with nutritional strategies to stimulate appetite and sustain food intake in the older individuals, in order to support active and healthy aging