PESTICIDES AND CHILD HEALTH: EVIDENCE FROM HISPANIC CHILDREN IN THE U.S.

This paper examines whether there is an externality of parental occupational exposure to pesticides on children's health, and whether some children are more severely affected by the externality than others. Using the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination survey, we find children of exposed parents are more likely to develop chronic conditions and less likely to attain good health than children of unexposed parents, after controlling for a large set of child and family characteristics. Furthermore, children from low socioeconomic status are most vulnerable to health shocks resulting from pesticides and other related environmental toxins. Our analysis suggests that terminating the pathway of parental occupational exposure would be cost effective to correct the externality. Taken together with earlier findings that poor childhood health is associated with lower adult earnings, our results suggest more attention to be paid to the health shocks from environmental toxins for the poor as a potential mechanism through which the increasing poverty across generations at the very poor takes place: poverty makes individuals more susceptible to health shocks at childhood, which is associated with worse poverty for their children.Health Economics and Policy,

Germline variation at 8q24 and prostate cancer risk in men of European ancestry

Chromosome 8q24 is a susceptibility locus for multiple cancers, including prostate cancer. Here we combine genetic data across the 8q24 susceptibility region from 71,535 prostate cancer cases and 52,935 controls of European ancestry to define the overall contribution of germline variation at 8q24 to prostate cancer risk. We identify 12 independent risk signals for prostate cancer (p < 4.28 × 10−15), including three risk variants that have yet to be reported. From a polygenic risk score (PRS) model, derived to assess the cumulative effect of risk variants at 8q24, men in the top 1% of the PRS have a 4-fold (95%CI = 3.62–4.40) greater risk compared to the population average. These 12 variants account for ~25% of what can be currently explained of the familial risk of prostate cancer by known genetic risk factors. These findings highlight the overwhelming contribution of germline variation at 8q24 on prostate cancer risk which has implications for population risk stratification

Fine-mapping of prostate cancer susceptibility loci in a large meta-analysis identifies candidate causal variants

Prostate cancer is a polygenic disease with a large heritable component. A number of common, low-penetrance prostate cancer risk loci have been identified through GWAS. Here we apply the Bayesian multivariate variable selection algorithm JAM to fine-map 84 prostate cancer susceptibility loci, using summary data from a large European ancestry meta-analysis. We observe evidence for multiple independent signals at 12 regions and 99 risk signals overall. Only 15 original GWAS tag SNPs remain among the catalogue of candidate variants identified; the remainder are replaced by more likely candidates. Biological annotation of our credible set of variants indicates significant enrichment within promoter and enhancer elements, and transcription factor-binding sites, including AR, ERG and FOXA1. In 40 regions at least one variant is colocalised with an eQTL in prostate cancer tissue. The refined set of candidate variants substantially increase the proportion of familial relative risk explained by these known susceptibility regions, which highlights the importance of fine-mapping studies and has implications for clinical risk profiling. © 2018 The Author(s).Prostate cancer is a polygenic disease with a large heritable component. A number of common, low-penetrance prostate cancer risk loci have been identified through GWAS. Here we apply the Bayesian multivariate variable selection algorithm JAM to fine-map 84 prostate cancer susceptibility loci, using summary data from a large European ancestry meta-analysis. We observe evidence for multiple independent signals at 12 regions and 99 risk signals overall. Only 15 original GWAS tag SNPs remain among the catalogue of candidate variants identified; the remainder are replaced by more likely candidates. Biological annotation of our credible set of variants indicates significant enrichment within promoter and enhancer elements, and transcription factor-binding sites, including AR, ERG and FOXA1. In 40 regions at least one variant is colocalised with an eQTL in prostate cancer tissue. The refined set of candidate variants substantially increase the proportion of familial relative risk explained by these known susceptibility regions, which highlights the importance of fine-mapping studies and has implications for clinical risk profiling. © 2018 The Author(s).Peer reviewe

SOCIAL SECURITY AND THE JOINT TRENDS IN LABOR SUPPLY AND BENEFITS RECEIPT AMONG OLDER MEN About the Center for Retirement Research

Abstract Using data from the Current Population Surveys, we find an increase in the fraction of older American men who worked without receiving Social Security retirement benefits and a decline in the fraction of men who claimed benefits without working during the period 1980-2006. Using bivariate probit regressions, we find that an increase in Social Security&apos;s normal retirement age decreased labor force participation rate regardless of benefits receipt status; that an increase in the delayed retirement credit increased benefit receipt regardless of labor force status; and that labor force participation and claiming Social Security benefits are strongly and negatively correlated

TRANSACTION COSTS AND ORGANIC MARKETING: EVIDENCE FROM U.S. ORGANIC PRODUCE FARMERS

We develop a conceptual framework that integrates quality of output and transaction costs in the choice of marketing channels. We estimate a reduced-form Tobit model and a semi-reduced logit model using a farm-level cross-sectional dataset to measure the effects of transaction costs in farming ability to make sales to indirect markets (retailers and wholesalers). We find strong empirical evidence that existing organic retail and wholesale markets impose considerable barriers to entry on individual organic farmers. The effects of transaction costs are asymmetric between farmers, those who transitioned from conventional farming and those who did not. Those who did are overall favored, and those who did not are constrained by more types of transaction costs and are constrained more severely than those who did. We argue that an effective policy should target the least favored farmers by encouraging or mandating distributors and retailers have a more transparent and objective process in selecting organic suppliers, such that all farmers would have an equal opportunity to be successful in selling to indirect markets

PESTICIDES AND CHILD HEALTH: EVIDENCE FROM HISPANIC CHILDREN IN THE U.S.

This paper examines whether there is an externality of parental occupational exposure to pesticides on children's health, and whether some children are more severely affected by the externality than others. Using the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination survey, we find children of exposed parents are more likely to develop chronic conditions and less likely to attain good health than children of unexposed parents, after controlling for a large set of child and family characteristics. Furthermore, children from low socioeconomic status are most vulnerable to health shocks resulting from pesticides and other related environmental toxins. Our analysis suggests that terminating the pathway of parental occupational exposure would be cost effective to correct the externality. Taken together with earlier findings that poor childhood health is associated with lower adult earnings, our results suggest more attention to be paid to the health shocks from environmental toxins for the poor as a potential mechanism through which the increasing poverty across generations at the very poor takes place: poverty makes individuals more susceptible to health shocks at childhood, which is associated with worse poverty for their children

Social Security and the Joint Trends in Labor Supply and Benefits Receipt Among Older Men

Using data from the Current Population Surveys, we find an increase in the fraction of older American men who worked without receiving Social Security retirement benefits and a decline in the fraction of men who claimed benefits without working during the period 1980-2006. Using bivariate probit regressions, we find that an increase in Social Security’s normal retirement age decreased labor force participation rate regardless of benefits receipt status; that an increase in the delayed retirement credit increased benefit receipt regardless of labor force status; and that labor force participation and claiming Social Security benefits are strongly and negatively correlated.

TRANSACTION COSTS AND ORGANIC MARKETING: EVIDENCE FROM U.S. ORGANIC PRODUCE FARMERS

We develop a conceptual framework that integrates quality of output and transaction costs in the choice of marketing channels. We estimate a reduced-form Tobit model and a semi-reduced logit model using a farm-level cross-sectional dataset to measure the effects of transaction costs in farming ability to make sales to indirect markets (retailers and wholesalers). We find strong empirical evidence that existing organic retail and wholesale markets impose considerable barriers to entry on individual organic farmers. The effects of transaction costs are asymmetric between farmers, those who transitioned from conventional farming and those who did not. Those who did are overall favored, and those who did not are constrained by more types of transaction costs and are constrained more severely than those who did. We argue that an effective policy should target the least favored farmers by encouraging or mandating distributors and retailers have a more transparent and objective process in selecting organic suppliers, such that all farmers would have an equal opportunity to be successful in selling to indirect markets.Marketing,