Why the economy still plays a major role in shaping support for European integration

The success of Eurosceptic parties is often attributed to cultural factors such as the strength of citizens’ national identities. Chase Foster and Jeff Frieden write that while these cultural considerations can help predict support for European integration, the importance of economic factors should not be overlooked. Drawing on a new study, they illustrate that every percentage-point increase in average unemployment in the EU is associated with a two percentage-point decline in favourable views toward EU membership

Finança internacional e política doméstica: internacionalização financeira e os Estados Unidos

RESUMO Este artigo pretende mostrar que as mudanças ocorridas nos movimentos internacionais de capitais e nas relações monetárias transformaram as economias políticas domésticas resultando em mudanças que transformaram a economia política internacional. Especialmente considerando os Estados Unidos, o autor argumenta que a hegemonia econômica internacional dos EUA, após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, foi baseada em três elementos principais: saídas maciças de capital de longo prazo, um compromisso com a estabilização do sistema monetário internacional, e liberalização comercial. Esses três elementos inicialmente tiveram amplo apoio dentro e fora dos Estados Unidos. No entanto, quando a abertura financeira e comercial mudou gradualmente as ordens econômicas domésticas, o apoio político à estabilidade hegemônica se erodiu. Para o autor, a batalha ali decidida determinará o próprio caráter dos EUA e a economia política internacional para o futuro previsível

Charge Reduction of Membrane Proteins in Native Mass Spectrometry Using Alkali Metal Acetate Salts

Native mass spectrometry paired with ion mobility (IM-MS) provides the capacity to monitor the structure of protein complexes and simultaneously assess small molecule binding to the protein. Native IM-MS typically utilizes positive mode electrospray ionization producing a distribution of multiply charged protein species. For membrane proteins, these charge states are often too high resulting in protein gas phase unfolding or loss of noncovalent interactions. In an effort to reduce the charge of membrane proteins, the utility of alkali metal salts as a charge reducing additive was explored. Low concentrations of alkali metal salts caused marked charge reduction in the membrane protein, ELIC. The charge reducing effect was only present in membrane proteins, and could not be accounted for by conformational changes in ELIC structure. Charge reduction by alkali metal salts was also detergent dependent, and was most pronounced in long PEG-based detergents such as C10E5 and C12E8. Based on these results, a mechanism was posited for alkali metal charge reduction of membrane proteins. Addition of low concentration of alkali metals may provide an advantageous approach for charge reduction of detergent solubilized membrane proteins by native MS. </p

Religion and Preferences for Social Insurance

(Konstanz), and the International Studies Association annual meetings for comments on an earlier draft. This research was initiated while Scheve was a visitor at the STICERD (LSE). In this paper we argue that religion and welfare state spending are substitute mechanisms that insure individuals against adverse life events. As a result, individuals who are religious will prefer lower levels of social insurance than will individuals who are secular. To the extent policy outcomes reflect individual preferences, then countries with higher levels of religiosity will have lower levels of welfare state spending. In formalizing our argument we also suggest that if benefits from religion are subject to a network externality (I derive greater pleasure from religion when others are also religious), it is possible for countries that are similar in terms of underlying conditions to exhibit multiple equilibria. In one equilibrium, high religiosity will coexist with low levels of social insurance, while in a second equilibrium there will be low religiosity and high social insurance. We empirically test our predictions using individual-level data on religiosity, individual level data on social insurance preferences, and cross-country data on social spending outcomes. The findings are strongly supportive of our hypotheses.