Agricultural Prices, Food Consumption and the Health and Productivity of Farmers

Demand and Price Analysis, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Estimating the Intrafamily Incidence of Health: Child Illness and Gender Inequality in Indonesian Households

In this paper, we demonstrate the difficulties of identifying both the own- and cross-effects of health on the allocation of time within a household, and develop and implement a method for estimating the effects of infant morbidity on the differential allocation of time by other family members based on discrete indicators of health and of activity participation commonly available in survey data. Estimates obtained from Indonesian household data indicate that inattention to problems of the measurement and endogeneity of health leads to a substantial underestimate of the effects of variations in child morbidity on the intrahousehold division of labor, and our estimates that take into account the "simultaneity" of health-activity associations indicate that increased levels of infant morbidity significantly exacerbate existing differentials in work-home time allocations across teenage boys and girls in Indonesia.Consumer/Household Economics, Health Economics and Policy,

The Selectivity of Fertility and the Determinants of Human Capital Investments: Parametric and Semi-Parametric Estimates

In this paper we assess the importance of heterogeneity and selective fertility in altering estimates and interpretations of the determinants of the human capital of children. We set out a sequential model of human capital investments in children incorporating endogenous fertility and heterogeneity in human capital endowments to illustrate the fertility selection problem and issues of identification. Empirical results based on parametric and semi-parametric estimates of selectivity models applied to data on birthweight and schooling in Malaysia indicate that the hypothesis of no fertility selection is strongly rejected, with mothers having higher birthweight children tending to have substantially lower birth probabilities (negative birth selectivity). As a consequence, the positive association between mother's schooling and birthweight is substantially underestimated and the positive effects of delaying childbearing overestimated when birth selectivity is not taken into account. The schooling results indicate strong rejection of the "efficient schooling" model, in which schooling is allocated efficiently across children, but only when the selectivity of fertility is taken into account.Labor and Human Capital,

Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor

We use a model of human capital investment and activity choice to explain facts describing gender differentials in the levels and returns to human capital investments. These include the higher return to and level of schooling, the small effect of healthiness on wages, and the large effect of healthiness on schooling for females relative to males. The model incorporates gender differences in the level and responsiveness of brawn to nutrition in a Roy-economy setting in which activities reward skill and brawn differentially. Empirical evidence from rural Bangladesh provides support for the model and the importance of the distribution of brawn.brawn, health, schooling, gender

Hybrid modeling of relativistic underdense plasma photocathode injectors

The dynamics of laser ionization-based electron injection in the recently introduced plasma photocathode concept is analyzed analytically and with particle-in-cell simulations. The influence of the initial few-cycle laser pulse that liberates electrons through background gas ionization in a plasma wakefield accelerator on the final electron phase space is described through the use of Ammosov-Deloine-Krainov theory as well as nonadiabatic Yudin-Ivanov (YI) ionization theory and subsequent downstream dynamics in the combined laser and plasma wave fields. The photoelectrons are tracked by solving their relativistic equations of motion. They experience the analytically described transient laser field and the simulation-derived plasma wakefields. It is shown that the minimum normalized emittance of fs-scale electron bunches released in mulit-GV/m-scale plasma wakefields is of the order of 10-2 mm mrad. Such unprecedented values, combined with the dramatically increased controllability of electron bunch production, pave the way for highly compact yet ultrahigh quality plasma-based electron accelerators and light source applications

Identifying Climate-smart agriculture research needs

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an approach to help agricultural systems worldwide, concurrently addressing three challenge areas: increased adaptation to climate change, mitigation of climate change, and ensuring global food security – through innovative policies, practices, and financing. It involves a set of objectives and multiple transformative transitions for which there are newly identified knowledge gaps. We address these questions raised by CSA within three areas: conceptualization, implementation, and implications for policy and decision-makers. We also draw up scenarios on the future of the CSA concept in relation to the 4 per 1000 Initiative (Soils for Food Security and Climate) launched at UNFCCC 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21). Our analysis shows that there is still a need for further interdisciplinary research on the theoretical foundation of the CSA concept and on the necessary transformations of agriculture and land use systems. Contrasting views about implementation indicate that CSA focus on the “triple win” (adaptation, mitigation, food security) needs to be assessed in terms of science-based practices. CSA policy tools need to incorporate an integrated set of measures supported by reliable metrics. Environmental and social safeguards are necessary to make sure that CSA initiatives conform to the principles of sustainability, both at the agriculture and food system levels

Sequential metastatic breast cancer chemotherapy: Should the median be the message?

Background: Counseling and anticipatory guidance of the expected course of treatment for women newly diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) are difficult due to multiple factors influencing survival following MBC therapy. In order to better tailor counseling at the onset and through the duration of MBC we used non-clinical trial data to better characterize real life experience of sequential MBC treatment.We examined the following aims: (1) What demographic and tumor characteristics are predictive of survival in MBC? (2)What is the median duration of each sequential chemotherapy regimen and subsequent survival of women following each sequence of chemotherapy regimen in MBC? Methods: Retrospective study included 792women diagnosed from January 1999 through December 2009 at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute Breast Cancer Program. Results: Median duration of sequential chemotherapy regimen and median survival from completion of sequence of chemotherapy regimens were relatively short with a wide range of treatment duration and survival. Characteristics for poor survival included hormone status, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER 2/neu) status, and increased number and type of metastatic sites.Women who took more than the second sequential chemotherapy regimens had no more than median 3 months of treatment duration and 6 months survival from treatment termination. Discussion: Median clinical response and survival shorten with sequential chemotherapy regimen but with wide ranges. The rare clinical response of the minority should not set the standard for treatment expectations. All cancer clinicians, including oncology nurses, must ensure that patients are receiving tailored counseling regarding their specific risks and benefits for sequential MBC chemotherapy

Networks and Misallocation: Insurance, Migration, and the Rural-Urban Wage Gap

We provide an explanation for the large spatial wage disparities and low male migration in India based on the trade-off between consumption-smoothing, provided bycaste-based rural insurance networks, and the income-gains from migration. Our theory generates two key empirically-verified predictions: (i) males in relatively wealthy households within a caste who benefit less from the redistributive (surplus-maximizing)network will be more likely to migrate, and (ii) males in households facing greater rural income-risk (who benefit more from the insurance network) migrate less. Structural estimates show that small improvements in formal insurance decrease the spatial misallocation of labor by substantially increasing migration