Paying for Pensions and Other Public Expenditures: Overtaxing our Children?

This paper argues that although current public pension schemes may shift the major financial burden to future generations, private and public transfers of wealth across generations offset this development. As a result the financing of existing social security and pension arrangements seems to be less problematic than commonly assumed.Policy models that assume there is no linkage between generations except through the state bear little resemblance to empirical reality. An accounting system is therefore needed which highlights the allocation of retirement costs among working and retired population as well as future generations, and includes the public as well as private ledger.Many of the aformentioned features are included in the well-established practice of âGenerational Accountingâ. This paper, however, will integrate private as well as public intergenerational transfers of wealth so as to account not only for the burden, which current generations leave, but also the wealth, which is passed on to future generations.Economics ;

Children’s Subjective Well-being in Rich Countries

This paper is based on background research we undertook for UNICEF Innocenti Report Card 11 on child well-being in rich countries. It develops a new domain index of subjective well-being based on seven indicators drawn from the Health Behaviour of School Aged Children (HBSC) survey 2009/10, which includes life satisfaction, relationships with family and friends, well-being at school, and subjective health. It explores the associations between the indicators, components and the overall domain. Changes in subjective well-being between HBSC 2001/2 and 2009/10 are analysed. It then explores the relationships between subjective well-being and objective domains: material, health, education, behaviour and housing and environment. At a macro level subjective well-being is associated with all those domains. It concludes that subjective well-being should be included in comparative studies of well-being but not necessarily as just another domain. It is a related but different order measure

A blended preconception lifestyle programme for couples undergoing IVF:lessons learned from a multicentre randomized controlled trial

Study question: What is the effect of a blended preconception lifestyle programme on reproductive and lifestyle outcomes of couples going through their first 12 months of IVF as compared to an attention control condition?Summery answer:This randomized controlled trial (RCT) was stopped prematurely because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic but the available data did not suggest that a blended preconception lifestyle programme could meaningfully affect time to ongoing pregnancy or other reproductive and lifestyle outcomes.What is know already:Increasing evidence shows associations between a healthy lifestyle and IVF success rates. Lifestyle programmes provided through a mobile phone application have yet to be evaluated by RCTs in couples undergoing IVF.Study design, size, duration:A multicentre RCT (1:1) was carried out. The RCT started in January 2019 and was prematurely stopped because of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to a reduced sample size (211 couples initiating IVF) and change in primary outcome (cumulative ongoing pregnancy to time to ongoing pregnancy).Participants/materials, setting, methods:Heterosexual couples initiating IVF in five fertility clinics were randomized between an attention control arm and an intervention arm for 12 months. The attention control arm received treatment information by mobile phone in addition to standard care. The intervention arm received the blended preconception lifestyle (PreLiFe)-programme in addition to standard care. The PreLiFe-programme included a mobile application, offering tailored advice and skills training on diet, physical activity and mindfulness, in combination with motivational interviewing over the telephone. The primary outcome was 'time to ongoing pregnancy'. Secondary reproductive outcomes included the Core Outcome Measures for Infertility Trials and IVF discontinuation. Changes in the following secondary lifestyle outcomes over 3 and 6 months were studied in both partners: diet quality, fruit intake, vegetable intake, total moderate to vigorous physical activity, sedentary behaviour, emotional distress, quality of life, BMI, and waist circumference. Finally, in the intervention arm, acceptability of the programme was evaluated and actual use of the mobile application part of the programme was tracked. Analysis was according to intention to treat.Main results and the role of chance:A total of 211 couples were randomized (105 control arm, 106 intervention arm). The hazard ratio of the intervention for time to ongoing pregnancy was 0.94 (95% CI 0.63 to 1.4). Little to no effect on other reproductive or lifestyle outcomes was identified. Although acceptability of the programme was good (6/10), considerable proportions of men (38%) and 9% of women did not actively use all the modules of the mobile application (diet, physical activity, or mindfulness).Limitations, reasons for caution:The findings of this RCT should be considered exploratory, as the Covid-19 pandemic limited its power and the actual use of the mobile application was low.Wider implications of the findings:This is the first multicentre RCT evaluating the effect of a blended preconception lifestyle programme for women and their partners undergoing IVF on both reproductive and lifestyle outcomes. This exploratory RCT highlights the need for further studies into optimal intervention characteristics and actual use of preconception lifestyle programmes, as well as RCTs evaluating effectiveness.Study fonding/competing intrest(s):Supported by the Research foundation Flanders (Belgium) (FWO-TBM; reference: T005417N). No competing interests to declare.Trial registration number:ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03790449TRIAL REGISTRATION DATE 31 December 2018DATE OF FIRST PATIENT'S ENROLMENT 2 January 201

A crise social desenhada pelas crianças: imaginação e conhecimento social

A crise social e económica que tem atingido o mundo desde 2008, com efeitos especialmente sentidos nos países do Sul da Europa, causou impactos fortes e visíveis na infância, como o aumento das taxas efetivas e de risco de pobreza e a vulnerabilidade e a exposição a fatores de risco social e de perda consistente de direitos. A análise dessas incidências tem vindo a ser trabalhada num conjunto de relatórios nacionais e internacionais, de ONG’s e estudos académicos. No entanto, poucos estudos têm dedicado atenção ao modo como a interpretação das representações das crianças sobre a crise é feita e sobre as expressões específicas que estas assumem na sua vida quotidiana. As crianças são capazes de observar os modos como a crise impacta o seu próprio grupo geracional, bem como os adultos que mais lhe são próximos. Da mesma forma, promovem interpretações económicas sobre os fenómenos, sejam elas mais “ingénuas” ou mais complexas. Este artigo incide sobre as representações das crianças sobre a crise social e económica em Portugal. São especialmente analisadas narrativas gráficas produzidas por crianças oriundas de classes trabalhadoras, com idades compreendidas entre os 6 e os 10 anos de idade. Por meio dessas narrativas, as crianças constroem formas visuais a partir da sua imaginação sobre a sua condição. Assim, a imaginação das crianças é um modo de acesso ao conhecimento na sociedade onde se inserem e aos seus modos próprios de compreensão de realidades complexas.The social and economic crisis that has hit the world since 2008, with effects strongly felt in the countries of Southern Europe, has had fierce and visible impacts in childhood with the increase of the effective rates, the risk of poverty and vulnerability, and the exposure to factors of social risk and consistent loss of rights. The analysis of these incidents has been worked on in a series of national and international reports from NGOs and academic studies. However, few studies have devoted attention to the way in which the interpretation of the representations of children about the crisis is made and the specific expressions that they assume in their daily lives. Children are able to observe the ways in which the crisis affects their own generational group as well as the adults closest to them. In the same way, they promote economic interpretations of phenomena, whether “naïve” or more complex. This article focuses on the representations of children about the social and economic crisis in Portugal. Graphical narratives produced by children from working classes, aged between 6 and 10 years old, are given focus. From these narratives, children construct visual forms from their imagination about their social condition. Thus, the child’s imagination is a way of accessing knowledge in the society they belong to and their own way of understanding complex realities.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT), Portugalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Social assistance performance in Central and Eastern Europe: A pre-transfer post-transfer comparison

The anti-poverty impact of national social assistance programmes in eight Central and Eastern European countries is examined using data from the European Union-Survey of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Results indicate that social assistance programmes achieve only limited poverty reduction, while spending a significant amount of their resources on the non-poor. The more extensive and generous programmes achieve higher effectiveness in reducing poverty. Efficiency on the other hand appears to be linked only to programme size and not to benefit levels. Unlike Western Europe, no trade-off between effectiveness and efficiency could be detected

Clinical effectiveness of elective single versus double embryo transfer: meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomised trials

Objective To compare the effectiveness of elective single embryo transfer versus double embryo transfer on the outcomes of live birth, multiple live birth, miscarriage, preterm birth, term singleton birth, and low birth weight after fresh embryo transfer, and on the outcomes of cumulative live birth and multiple live birth after fresh and frozen embryo transfers