Does Family Planning Help The Employment of Women? The Case of India

This paper gives some insight into the existence of a positive effect of family planning programmes on women’s employment in developing countries. We study married women aged 15 to 49 living throughout India using a sample drawn from the National Health Family Survey (NFHS-2) for 1998-1999. We focus on a programme of doorstep services delivered by health or family planning (FP) workers who are sent to visit women in their assigned areas. Results derived from the estimation of fixed effect linear probability and conditional logit models show a positive and significant correlation of the share of women living in a local area (village, town or city) that has been visited by FP workers with the probability of women’s employment. A multinomial analysis also shows that the largest positive effect of FP in rural India is to be found on paid work, as opposed to unpaid work, suggesting a potential empowering feedback of demographic measures through labour earnings.India, women’s employment, family planning, urban and rural development.

The effect of child labour and low education on adult's labour market experience. The case of Guatemala

Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze the causal effect of a low investment in education and the early entry into the labour market on labour market experience during adulthood. Following a quasi-experimental approach we establish the conditions of an experimental study applying a matching method that assures for the comparability between control and treatment groups. We identify different types of treatment depending on age at first entry into the labour market and on the level of education achieved. Then we estimate the effect of the treatment on adult's employment status and labour earnings. We focus on males and draw our data from the Guatemala Living Standard Measurement Survey (ENCOVI, 2000). We find that accumulated education assures a higher level of earnings in adulthood. Males that performed child work obtain a lower remuneration in the labour market, but have a higher probability of finding a job in adulthood. Experience matters among those who performed child labour since work experience has a positive effect on earnings, especially for older cohorts. JEL Classification: C21, J13, J24, O15, O5

Grid Infrastructure for Domain Decomposition Methods in Computational ElectroMagnetics

The accurate and efficient solution of Maxwell's equation is the problem addressed by the scientific discipline called Computational ElectroMagnetics (CEM). Many macroscopic phenomena in a great number of fields are governed by this set of differential equations: electronic, geophysics, medical and biomedical technologies, virtual EM prototyping, besides the traditional antenna and propagation applications. Therefore, many efforts are focussed on the development of new and more efficient approach to solve Maxwell's equation. The interest in CEM applications is growing on. Several problems, hard to figure out few years ago, can now be easily addressed thanks to the reliability and flexibility of new technologies, together with the increased computational power. This technology evolution opens the possibility to address large and complex tasks. Many of these applications aim to simulate the electromagnetic behavior, for example in terms of input impedance and radiation pattern in antenna problems, or Radar Cross Section for scattering applications. Instead, problems, which solution requires high accuracy, need to implement full wave analysis techniques, e.g., virtual prototyping context, where the objective is to obtain reliable simulations in order to minimize measurement number, and as consequence their cost. Besides, other tasks require the analysis of complete structures (that include an high number of details) by directly simulating a CAD Model. This approach allows to relieve researcher of the burden of removing useless details, while maintaining the original complexity and taking into account all details. Unfortunately, this reduction implies: (a) high computational effort, due to the increased number of degrees of freedom, and (b) worsening of spectral properties of the linear system during complex analysis. The above considerations underline the needs to identify appropriate information technologies that ease solution achievement and fasten required elaborations. The authors analysis and expertise infer that Grid Computing techniques can be very useful to these purposes. Grids appear mainly in high performance computing environments. In this context, hundreds of off-the-shelf nodes are linked together and work in parallel to solve problems, that, previously, could be addressed sequentially or by using supercomputers. Grid Computing is a technique developed to elaborate enormous amounts of data and enables large-scale resource sharing to solve problem by exploiting distributed scenarios. The main advantage of Grid is due to parallel computing, indeed if a problem can be split in smaller tasks, that can be executed independently, its solution calculation fasten up considerably. To exploit this advantage, it is necessary to identify a technique able to split original electromagnetic task into a set of smaller subproblems. The Domain Decomposition (DD) technique, based on the block generation algorithm introduced in Matekovits et al. (2007) and Francavilla et al. (2011), perfectly addresses our requirements (see Section 3.4 for details). In this chapter, a Grid Computing infrastructure is presented. This architecture allows parallel block execution by distributing tasks to nodes that belong to the Grid. The set of nodes is composed by physical machines and virtualized ones. This feature enables great flexibility and increase available computational power. Furthermore, the presence of virtual nodes allows a full and efficient Grid usage, indeed the presented architecture can be used by different users that run different applications

Use of Time and Value of Unpaid Family Care Work: A Comparison between Italy and Poland

This study provides a comparison of the size and value of unpaid family care work in two European member States, Italy and Poland. Using the Italian and Polish time use surveys, both the opportunity cost and the market replacement approaches are employed to separately estimate the value of family childcare and care of the elderly. The results show that, overall, in Italy the number of people performing family care work is higher, also due to the larger population. Italians participate somewhat less than Poles in child care, but substantially more in care of the elderly because of demographic factors. However, the huge difference in the value of unpaid family care work, which in Italy exceeds the value of Poland by about eight times, is largely to be attributed to the discrepancy in hourly earnings, average earnings of Poles being about one fifth of those of Italians. In GDP terms, instead, the value of unpaid family care work is more similar, ranging between 3.7 and 4.4 per cent of the Polish GDP and 4.1 and 5 per cent of the Italian GDP, depending on the estimation approach. The national values of these activities are discussed and an interpretation of the country differentials in the family care-taking gender gaps is given in terms of differences in culture, economic development and institutions.unpaid work, time use, child care, care of the elderly, adult care, Poland, Italy, satellite accounts

Use of Time and Value of Unpaid Family Care Work: a Comparison between Italy and Poland

The study provides a comparison of the size and value of unpaid family care work in two European member States, Italy and Poland. A micro-data analysis is conducted using the Italian and Polish time use surveys. Both the opportunity cost and the market replacement approaches are employed to measure family care work distinguishing between childcare and care of the elderly. The comparison between the two countries reveals that Italians participate somewhat less than Poles in child care, but substantially more in elderly care, because of demographic factors. However, the main explanation of the difference in the value of unpaid family care work, which is higher in Italy, is to be attributed to the discrepancy in hourly earnings, since average earnings of Poles are about one fifth of those of Italians. The value of unpaid family care work is more comparable when computed as percentage of the national GDP. Depending on the approach, it ranges between 3.7 and 4.4 per cent of the Polish GDP and 4.1 and 5 per cent of the Italian GDP. The national values of these activities are discussed and an interpretation of the country differentials in the family caretaking gender gaps is given in terms of differences in culture, economic development and institutions.Time Use, Unpaid Work, Care-giving, Child care, Elderly care, Poland, Italy

Poverty and Fertility in Less Developed Countries: A Comparative Analysis

Poverty and fertility are two important and closely related aspects of welfare. In this paper we use unique longitudinal data sources to study the relationship between poverty and fertility at household level in Albania, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Vietnam. These countries differ greatly in their history, average income, social structure, economic institutions and demographic features. We find that there is a substantial difference in the relative importance of the determinants of poverty dynamics and fertility; the persistence of high levels of fertility and poverty in Ethiopia is driven by lack of economic growth and poor access to family planning; education and health provision are crucial elements in reducing poverty and fertility, as is clear from Vietnam, Indonesia and Albania.

Limosilactobacillus reuteri Strains as Adjuvants in the Management of Helicobacter pylori Infection

Helicobacter pylori (HP) is a Gram-negative bacterium which finds its suitable habitat in the stomach. The infection affects about half of the global population with high variability in prevalence among regions and for age. HP is the main causative agent of chronic active gastritis, peptic and duodenal ulcers, and may be the primary cause of gastric cancer or MALT lymphoma. Due to the high rate of failure of eradication therapy in various countries and the increase in antibiotic resistance reported in the literature, there is an ever wider need to seek alternative therapeutic treatments. Probiotics seem to be a promising solution. In particular, the Limosilactobacillus reuteri (L. reuteri) species is a Gram-positive bacterium and is commonly found in the microbiota of mammals. L. reuteri is able to survive the gastric acid environment and bile and to colonize the gastric mucosa. This species is able to inhibit the growth of several pathogenic bacteria through different mechanisms, keeping the homeostasis of the microbiota. In particular, it is able to secrete reuterin and reutericycline, substances that exhibit antimicrobial properties, among other molecules. Through the secretion of these and the formation of the biofilm, it has been found to strongly inhibit the growth of HP and, at higher concentrations, to kill it. Moreover, it reduces the expression of HP virulence factors. In clinical trials, L. reuteri has been shown to decrease HP load when used as a single treatment, but has not achieved statistical significance in curing infected patients. As an adjuvant of standard regimens with antibiotics and pump inhibitors, L. reuteri can be used not only to improve cure rates, but especially to decrease gastrointestinal symptoms, which are a common cause of lack of compliance and interruption of therapy, leading to new antibiotic resistance