Effects of Prenatal and Early Life Malnutrition: Evidence from the Greek Famine

This paper examines the long run education and labor market effects from early-life exposure to the Greek 1941-42 famine. Given the short duration of the famine, we can separately identify the famine effects for cohorts exposed in utero, during infancy and at one year of age. We find that adverse outcomes due to the famine are largest for infants. Further, in our regression analysis we exploit the fact that the famine was more severe in urban than in rural areas. Consistent with our prediction, we find that urban-born cohorts show larger negative impacts on educational outcomes than the rural-born cohorts.famine, health, regression discontinuity, Greece

The Effect of Abortion Liberalization on Sexual Behavior: International Evidence

Most industrialized countries have increased access to abortion over the past 30 years. Economic theory predicts that abortion laws affect sexual behavior since they change the marginal cost of having risky sex. We use gonorrhea incidence as a metric of risky sexual behavior. Using a panel of 41 North American, European and Central Asian countries over the period 1980-2000, we estimate the impact of abortion law reform on risky sex. Compared to the most restrictive legislation that permits abortion only to save the pregnant woman’s life or her physical health, more liberal abortion laws are associated with at least thirty additional gonorrhea cases per 100,000 individuals. The marginal effect of laws which make abortion available on request is larger than the effect of laws which allow abortion on socioeconomic and mental health grounds. Our results are robust against a set of alternative sample constructions and model specifications.Gonorrhea, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, abortion laws.

Obamacare – Hoffnung auf eine Reform des amerikanischen Gesundheitssystems?

Der Umbau des US-amerikanischen Gesundheitssystems ist eines der Vorhaben der gegenwärtigen US-Regierung. Der folgende Beitrag stellt die Organisation und die Leistungsfähigkeit des derzeitigen Gesundheitswesens vor und diskutiert die aktuellen Reformvorschläge.Gesundheitswesen, Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung, Gesundheitsreform, Vereinigte Staaten

Musik erzählt

Der Artikel befasst sich mit der Rezeption elektronischer Musik im zeitgenössischen Roman anhand zweier Romantrilogien, die zwischen den 1980er Jahren und heute entstanden sind. Dabei handelt es sich um Techno in den Werken des Deutschen Rainald Goetz (Irre, Kontrolliert und Rave) und Punk-Rock im Werk der Französin Virginie Despentes, Vernon Subutex. Der Vergleich zeigt, dass beide AutorInnen sich zunächst für E-Musik in ihrer populären Variante als Kulisse, Milieu und soziale Praxis interessieren. Doch als Gegen-Kultur ist die Musik nicht nur eine Herausforderung der bürgerlichen Ordnung sondern auch ihrer Erzählmuster. Beide AutorInnen nehmen sich den DJ zum Vorbild, um die Narration einer musikalischen Produktionsästhetik anzunähern. Das ‚Handwerk‘ des DJ liegt dabei im Vordergrund: Das Auflegen von Platten ist ein Hören lernen und ein greifendes Schöpfen. Beide Qualitäten ergeben neue Verknüpfungsregeln, die von Goetz und Despentes narrativ und gesellschaftlich eingesetzt werden.Cet article analyse la réception de la musique électronique dans le roman contemporain à travers deux séries de romans écrites entre les années 1980 et nos jours. Il s’agit de la musique techno dans trois romans de l’Allemand Rainald Goetz (Irre, Kontrolliert et Rave) et du punk rock dans la trilogie de la Française Virginie Despentes, Vernon Subutex. La comparaison révèle que les deux auteurs s’intéressent d’abord à la musique électronique comme arrière-plan, milieu et pratique sociale. Mais en tant que contre‑culture, la musique ne remet pas en cause seulement l’ordre bourgeois mais aussi ses schémas narratifs. La  figure du DJ sert de modèle aux deux auteurs pour tenter de rapprocher la narration de l’esthétique propre à cette production musicale. L’art du DJ est décrit en premier lieu comme un « travail manuel » : mixer c’est apprendre à écouter et créer en touchant. De ces deux qualités naissent des liens nouveaux que Goetz et Despentes explorent sur le plan narratif et sociétal.This article analyses the reception of electronic music in contemporary novels through a textcorpus of two trilogies written between the 1980s and today. It deals with techno music in three novels by German author Rainald Goetz (Irre, Kontrolliert and Rave) and punk rock in the trilogy Vernon Subutex by French author Virginie Despentes. As the comparison reveals both authors use electronic music in the first place as background, milieu and social practice for their story. But as counter-culture it challenges not only the bourgeois order but also its narrative structures. Both authors take the DJ as model and try to use for their writings the aesthetics of his music production. The focus lies on the DJs art as handicraft: it consists in learning how to listen and creating by touching. These two qualities allow new combination rules explored by the authors in narration and society

Bemerkungen zu dem Aufsatz von Prof. Klebs "Pathologische Anatomie und Bacteriologie"

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Economic Impact of Illness with Health Insurance but without Income Insurance

__Abstract__ We examine economic vulnerability to illness when, as for informal sector workers in Thailand, there is universal coverage for health care but earnings losses are uninsured. Even with comprehensive health care entitlement, severe illness that strikes an initially healthy worker is found to raise out-of-pocket medical expenses by around two thirds and increase the probability that medical spending absorbs more than a tenth of the household budget by nine percentage points. Moreover, severe illness reduces the probability of remaining in employment by 18 points and precipitates a reduction in household labor income of almost one third. Despite the rise in medical expenses and fall in earnings, households are able to maintain expenditure on goods and services other than medical care by drawing on remittances and informal transfers, cutting back on saving, and by borrowing. In the short term, informal insurance fills gaps left uncovered by formal insurance but there is likely to be subst antial exposure to economic risks associated with long-term illness