Econometric Identification of the Cost of Maintaining a Child

The paper estimates the cost of maintaining a child, of different ages, the cost of being a single and the cost of additional adults present in a family with the aim of making the income levels of different households comparable. The study investigates the issue of econometric identification of equivalence scales within a demand system modified to include demographic characteristics consistently with economic theory. It shows that a robust estimation of equivalence scales must take into formal consideration the problem of econometric identification. The estimation also proposes an encompassing demographic specification which permits isolation of the costs due to differences in needs and differences in household life-styles and scale economies.Equivalence scales, identification, interhousehold comparisons, economies of scale

The Collective Household Enterprise Model: An Empirical Analysis

This paper estimates a household model where both the production and consumption sides are observed. The household activities produce both marketable and nonmarketable products. Family members consume market goods, domestically produced goods and leisure. This household equilibrium model is described within a collective framework. The data are from a nation-wide sample of Italian farm-households. The estimation is implemented using a generalized Heckman estimator to account for corner solutions generated by the fact that not all households are engaged in all enterpreneurial activities and do not consume some of all goods and leisure. The identification of the sharing rule stems from the assignability of clothing consumption and leisure.Household collective model, household and domestic productions, consumption and leisure, separability, Consumer/Household Economics,

The passive drinking effect: Evidence from Italy

This paper investigates whether consumption of alcoholic beverages affects distribution of resources among household members. We refer to this effect, highlighting the negative impact that alcohol addicted individuals can have on other household members wellbeing. To investigate this issue we rely on the collective framework and estimate a structural collective demand system. Our results show that for Italian households a high level of alcohol consumption influences the allocation of resources in favour of the husband, with a larger effect in poor households. This evidence implies that alcohol consumption is not only an individual problem. Public costs that are transferred to the other household members should be taken into account when designing social policies.collective model ; demand system ; sharing rule ; alcohol consumption ; intra-household resources distribution ; policy implications

Extension of the Traditional Travel Cost Method to a Collective Framework: An Empirical Application

This study proposes a novel approach to estimating a travel cost model that accounts for intrahousehold resource allocation. We define it ‘Collective Travel Cost Method’ (CTCM). The technique is based on an analogy borrowed from the literature of collective household behavior and adapted to the recreational setting. Knowledge of the travel cost to the recreational site of each household member allows us to identify the sharing rule within the household and to estimate a collective Almost Ideal Demand System that takes into account the role of each member’s preferences for consumption choices and how resources are allocated within the household. We show how to identify and estimate welfare measures, such as the equivalent variation (EV), to infer the Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) to access a natural park of each household member. Moreover, the development and estimation of the CTCM allows: (1) to test whether the WTP estimated by the traditional unitary TCM is significantly different from the WTP estimated by the CTCM; (2) to test whether two spouses have equal or different WTP to access the recreational site, and (3) whether the individual WTP estimated by the CTCM is significantly different from the WTP derived by applying the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) on the same sample of individuals.collective model, compensating variation, equivalent variation, revealed preferences, travel cost method, Willingness-To-Pay.

Linking forest diversity and tree health: preliminary insights from a large-scale survey in Italy

Forest health is currently assessed in Europe (ICP Forests monitoring program). Crown defoliation and dieback, tree mortality, and pathogenic damage are the main aspects considered in tree health assessment. The worsening of environmental conditions (i.e., increase of temperature and drought events) may cause large-spatial scale tree mortality and forest decline. However, the role of stand features, including tree species assemblage and diversity as factors that modify environmental impacts, is poorly considered. The present contribution reanalyses the historical dataset of crown conditions in Italian forests from 1997 to 2014 to identify ecological and structural factors that influence tree crown defoliation, highlighting in a special manner the role of tree diversity. The effects of tree diversity were explored using the entire data set through multivariate cluster analyses and on individual trees, analysing the influence of the neighbouring tree diversity and identity at the local (neighbour) level. Preliminary results suggest that each tree species shows a specific behaviour in relation to crown defoliation, and the distribution of crown defoliation across Italian forests reflects the distribution of the main forest types and their ecological equilibrium with the environment. The potentiality and the problems connected to the possible extension of this analysis at a more general level (European and North American) were discussed

Triassic-Jurassic thermal evolution and exhumation of the western Gondwana foreland: Thermochronology and basalt thermobarometry from the Argentine Sierras Pampeanas

The geological record of the eastern Sierras Pampeanas province, in the modern Andean broken foreland of Argentina can be divided into four main events: (1) Proterozoic to early Paleozoic collisional tectonics, (2) middle-late Paleozoic anorogenic magmatism, relief generation and glacial paleovalley formation followed by (3) a classical foreland filling in the Permian and two proximal alluvial sedimentation associated with (3) Cretaceous rifting and (4) Neogene intermontane foreland accumulation. The region lacks Silurian, Triassic and Jurassic records, commonly associated with unknown deformation and/or no-sedimentation stages (bypass zone?). In this work, we analyzed the Mesozoic (Triassic-Jurassic) Pampean unconformity, using low- temperature thermochronological modelling. After a rapid Carboniferous cooling track, a Triassic reheating followed by a slow Jurassic to Cretaceous cooling. Considering that (1) no Triassic basins have been described to date in the eastern Sierras Pampeanas (i.e., reheating cannot be related to burial), (2) coeval surface heat flows are anomalously high in western Sierras Pampeanas, in the Ischigualasto basin, and (3) our petrogenetic modelling on Triassic basalts evidence mantle potential temperatures of ~1350-1400 °C (i.e., the heat source cannot be related with an anomalously high basal heat flows and/or mantle plumes); we interpreted the formation of the Mesozoic unconformity as a result of ridge collision and slab window formation, followed by slab rollback. Both processes might have affected not only the surface heat flow but also triggered a lithospheric thickness reduction, which drove isostatic rebound. In this context, the Jurassic history of the unconformity could be associated with cooling by erosion and exhumation until the Cretaceous, when the region was under extension. Our model agrees with other observations like the formation of back-arc hydrocarbon-productive Triassic-Jurassic depocenters to the west (Cuyo and Ischigualasto basins) and the magmatic evolution, from 28° to 34° SL, described along the Chilean margin.Fil: Martina, Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; ArgentinaFil: Avila, Pilar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; ArgentinaFil: Davila, Federico Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; ArgentinaFil: Parra, Mauricio. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasi

The passive drinking effect: Evidence from Italy

This paper investigates whether consumption of alcoholic beverages affects distribution of resources among household members. We refer to this effect, highlighting the negative impact that alcohol addicted individuals can have on other household members wellbeing. To investigate this issue we rely on the collective framework and estimate a structural collective demand system. Our results show that for Italian households a high level of alcohol consumption influences the allocation of resources in favour of the husband, with a larger effect in poor households. This evidence implies that alcohol consumption is not only an individual problem. Public costs that are transferred to the other household members should be taken into account when designing social policies.Cet article étudie si la consommation de boissons alcoolisées affecte la distribution des ressources entre les membres du ménage. Nous nous référons à cet effet comme le Passive Drinking Effect, en mettant en évidence l'impact négatif que des individus dépendant de l'alcool peuvent avoir sur le bien-être des autres membres de la famille. Pour répondre à cette question nous nous appuyons sur le modèle collectif et on estime un système structurelle de demande de consommation. Nos résultats montrent que, pour les foyers italiens un niveau élevé de consommation d'alcool influe sur la répartition des ressources en faveur du mari, avec un effet plus grand pour les ménages pauvres. Cette évidence implique que la consommation d'alcool n'est pas seulement un problème individuel: les coûts publics qui sont transférés aux autres membres du ménage doivent être pris en compte dans le cadre des politiques sociales

Identifying and Visualizing Macromolecular Flexibility in Structural Biology

Structural biology comprises a variety of tools to obtain atomic resolution data for the investigation of macromolecules. Conventional structural methodologies including crystallography, NMR and electron microscopy often do not provide sufficient details concerning flexibility and dynamics, even though these aspects are critical for the physiological functions of the systems under investigation. However, the increasing complexity of the molecules studied by structural biology (including large macromolecular assemblies, integral membrane proteins, intrinsically disordered systems, and folding intermediates) continuously demands in-depth analyses of the roles of flexibility and conformational specificity involved in interactions with ligands and inhibitors. The intrinsic difficulties in capturing often subtle but critical molecular motions in biological systems have restrained the investigation of flexible molecules into a small niche of structural biology. Introduction of massive technological developments over the recent years, which include time-resolved studies, solution X-ray scattering, and new detectors for cryo-electron microscopy, have pushed the limits of structural investigation of flexible systems far beyond traditional approaches of NMR analysis. By integrating these modern methods with powerful biophysical and computational approaches such as generation of ensembles of molecular models and selective particle picking in electron microscopy, more feasible investigations of dynamic systems are now possible. Using some prominent examples from recent literature, we review how current structural biology methods can contribute useful data to accurately visualize flexibility in macromolecular structures and understand its important roles in regulation of biological processes

Observing relationships between lightning and cloud profiles by means of a satellite-borne cloud radar

Abstract. Cloud electrification and related lightning activity in thunderstorms have their origin in the charge separation and resulting distribution of charged iced particles within the cloud. So far, the ice distribution within convective clouds has been investigated mainly by means of ground-based meteorological radars. In this paper we show how the products from Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) on board CloudSat, a polar satellite of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP), can be used to obtain information from space on the vertical distribution of ice particles and ice content and relate them to the lightning activity. The analysis has been carried out, focusing on 12 convective events over Italy that crossed CloudSat overpasses during significant lightning activity. The CPR products considered here are the vertical profiles of cloud ice water content (IWC) and the effective radius (ER) of ice particles, which are compared with the number of strokes as measured by a ground lightning network (LINET). Results show a strong correlation between the number of strokes and the vertical distribution of ice particles as depicted by the 94 GHz CPR products: in particular, cloud upper and middle levels, high IWC content and relatively high ER seem to be favourable contributory causes for CG (cloud to ground) stroke occurrence

Ninety years of publications in Economic History: evidence from the top five field journals (1927-2017)

The growing appeal of the long run perspective among economists and the fiftieth anniversary of the of the publication of the Conrad and Meyer article (1958), which signed the Cliometric Revolution, have attracted a lot of interest on the origin and the development of Economic history. This paper explores the evolution of the field with a new articulated database of all the 6,516 articles published in five journals (Economic History Review, Journal of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History, European Review of Economic History and Cliometrica) from their establishment to 2017. We show that these journals are the most important in the field, with a wide influence also outside it. Our main results are that the Cliometric Revolution took quite a long time to fully display its effects, which became evident only in the 1990s, when personal computer and software packages became available. Finally, as for the last two decades, we find that the process of integration of economic history into economics is, so far, slower than previously suggested and limited to US. On the other hand, the most striking and neglected change is the overall success of Continental European scholars within the field. Are these changes the harbinger of a new divergence between the two shores of the Atlantic with the rise of a new paradigm based on the “Historical economics” approach? It is too early to tell