Stuck in the Tunnel: Is Globalization Muddling the Middle Class?

Our objective in this paper is to assess how middle-income groups are faring with the global turn to the market. We suggest some simple measures of the middle-the size and income shares of households around the median (75/125%)-and their income status relative to wealthier counterparts. Our results point to genuine distributional stress for middle-income households, as well as public perceptions of such stress. They also suggest the need for new measures to capture distributional trends that are masked by aggregate measures. We posit that the fate of those in the middle merits new attention, as their political support and economic participation are critical to sustainable, market-oriented growth and poverty reduction in the long-term

Biokinetics and dosimetry of commonly used radiopharmaceuticals in diagnostic nuclear medicine – a review

Purpose The impact on patients’ health of radiopharmaceuticals in nuclear medicine diagnostics has not until now been evaluated systematically in a European context. Therefore, as part of the EU-funded Project PEDDOSE. NET (www.peddose.net), we review and summarize the current knowledge on biokinetics and dosimetry of commonly used diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals. Methods A detailed literature search on published biokinetic and dosimetric data was performed mostly via PubMed (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed). In principle the criteria for inclusion of data followed the EANM Dosimetry Committee guidance document on good clinical reporting. Results Data on dosimetry and biokinetics can be difficult to find, are scattered in various journals and, especially in paediatric nuclear medicine, are very scarce. The data collection and calculation methods vary with respect to the time-points, bladder voiding, dose assessment after the last data point and the way the effective dose was calculated. In many studies the number of subjects included for obtaining biokinetic and dosimetry data was fewer than ten, and some of the biokinetic data were acquired more than 20 years ago. Conclusion It would be of interest to generate new data on biokinetics and dosimetry in diagnostic nuclear medicine using state-of-the-art equipment and more uniform dosimetry protocols. For easier public access to dosimetry data for diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, a database containing these data should be created and maintained

Frustrated Achievers: Winners, Losers and Subjective Well-Being in New Market Economies

To date the literature on subjective well-being has focused on the developed economies. We provide empirical evidence from two emerging market countries, Peru and Russia. Our results - and in particular a strong negative skew in the assessments of the respondents with the greatest income gains - support the importance of relative rather than absolute income differences. Among other factors, we attribute our results to shifts in reference norms and to macroeconomic volatility. Relative differences seem to matter more for those in the middle of the distribution than for the very wealthy or the very poor. Our respondents were more critical in assessing their progress vis-a-vis others in their country versus those in their community. The large and consistent gap we find between objective income trends and the subjective assessments of the upwardly mobile may have implications for the future economic and political behaviour of a group that is critical to the sustainability of market policies.subjective well-being, Peru, Russia, relative income differences, sustainability of market policies,

Happiness, Markets, and Democracy: Latin America in Comparative Perspective

Subjective well-being, Relative income differences, Inflation, Unemployment, Markets, Democracy,

Hardship and Happiness

This paper focuses on an age-old puzzle: why some societies peacefully tolerate high levels of inequality and others do not. The authors posit that opportunity and mobility over time are as important as current distributions are to the explanation. Assessments of past mobility and future expectations are as important as objective trends. An analyze of data for Latin America compares subjective assessments with objective trends during a period of volatility and policy change.  It was found that relative incomes matter as much as absolute ones. Expectations of future upward mobility were higher in countries with more inequality. Upwardly mobile people were more critical in their self assessments than were less mobile people. Collective memory of macroeconomic volatility was critical to subjective assessments of future prospects: those countries with recent crises and reforms had the highest levels of support for market policies. The effects of expectations on self-assessments have methodological and analytical implications for political economy research.