Too Educated to be Happy? An Investigation into the Relationship between Education and Subjective Well-being

While education has played a strong role in the ancient debate on the necessary preconditions for the good life, the contemporary literature on subjective well-being has not paid much attention to the possibility of education having an independent effect on happiness. Typically, education is mentioned only as having indirect effects, e.g., through its effect on income and wealth, employment status, health and mortality, marriage success, or as a proxy for socioconomic status. Also, the view that education - like income - mainly raises aspirations and therefore leads to lower levels of happiness is widespread in the literature, mostly without empirical evidence. Using data from the last five waves of the World Value Survey, the goal of this paper is to comprehensively study the empirical evidence by using logistic regression techniques to shed more light on the neglected role of education in happiness differentials. The results suggest that the relationship beteen education and happiness is distinct from the relationship between income and happiness. While there is evidence that higher income does not go hand in hand with higher happiness after a certain point, there is no evidence of a similar levelling off in the relationship between education and happiness. (author's abstract

Optimal Fertility

In this paper we challenge the widespread notion that replacement level fertility is the most desirable level of fertility both for countries currently above and below this level. We first discuss possible alternative criteria for choosing one fertility level over another. Dismissing for the time being the two extreme criteria of ever increasing national strength (which would imply unlimited population growth) and preservation of the environment (which would see human numbers converge to zero), we focus on age dependency as the sole criterion. But we do so by relaxing the strong assumption that all individuals of a given age are equal in terms of their economic contribution to society and introduce education as probably the most relevant observable source of population heterogeneity. Our criterion variable is the education weighted support ratio and we perform thousands of alternative simulations for different constant levels of fertility starting from empirically given populations. If education is assumed to present a cost at young age and results in higher productivity during working age then for most countries the optimal long-term total fertility rate turns out to be well below replacement level

How does education change the relationship between fertility and age-dependency under environmental constraints? A long-term simulation exercise

Background: When asked what a desirable fertility level for populations might be, most politicians, journalists, and even social scientists would say it is around two children per woman, a level that has been labelled by demographers "replacement-level fertility." The reasons given for considering this level of fertility as something to aim at usually include maintaining the size of the labour force and stabilizing the old-age-dependency ratio. Objective: In this paper, we scrutinize this wide-spread view by introducing education in addition to age and sex as a further relevant source of observable population heterogeneity. We consider several criteria for assessing the long-term implications of alternative fertility levels and present numerical simulations with a view on minimizing the education-weighted total dependency ratio and complement this with the goal of reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emission in the context of climate change. Methods: We perform thousands of alternative simulations for different fertility levels (assumed to be constant over time) starting from empirically given population structures and derive the rate of fertility which yields the lowest level of our education-weighted dependency ratio. We study the sensitivity of our results to different parameter values and choose to focus on the actual populations of Europe and China over the course of the 21st century. Results: The results show that when education is assumed to present a cost at young age and results in higher productivity during adult age, then the fertility rate that on the long run keeps dependency at a minimum turns out to lie well below replacement fertility both in Europe and in China under a set of plausible assumptions. The optimal fertility level falls even lower when climate change is factored in as well. Conclusions: We conclude that there is nothing magical or particularly desirable about replacement level fertility. (authors' abstract

Demography, Education, and the Future of Total Factor Productivity Growth

In this paper we present new data on total factor productivity for eight world regions over the period 1970 to 2001. The regions are North America, Western Europe, Japan/Oceania, the China Region, South Asia, Other Pacific Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. We propose and estimate a new model of the determinants of total factor productivity based on the framework of conditional convergence. The model allows us to distinguish between factors that influence the level of the conditional productivity frontier and the speed of catching up to that frontier. We show that productivity stagnation in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Sub-Saharan Africa are not because they are trapped far below their potential, but rather that they are fully utilizing the low potential that they have. We found that education and age structure have independent and joint effects on productivity. The rate of capital formation, the quality of institutions, openness, and corruption also affect total factor productivity. The effects of specific variables on total productivity differ by context. They can be different depending on whether a country is catching up to its conditional productivity frontier or not. This provides the possibility of resolving some of the puzzles with respect to the effects of age structure and education that appear in the literature. The paper is based on the new IIASA/VID database on education

Under-Five Child Growth and Nutrition Status: Spatial Clustering of Indian Districts

Variation in human growth and the genetic and environmental factors that are influencing it have been described worldwide. The objective of this study is to assess the geographical variance of under-five nutritional status and its related covariates across Indian districts. We use the most recent fourth round of the Indian National Family Health Survey conducted in 2015–2016, which for the first time offers district level information. We employ principal component analysis (PCA) on the demographic and socio-economic determinants of childhood morbidity and conduct hierarchical clustering analysis to identify geographical patterns in nutritional status at the district level. Our results reveal strong geographical clustering among the districts of India, often crossing state borders. Throughout most of Southern India, children are provided with relatively better conditions for growth and improved nutritional status, as compared to districts in the central, particularly rural parts of India along the so called “tribal belt”. Here is also where girls are on average measured to have less weight and height compared to boys. Looking at average weight, as well as the proportion of children that suffer from underweight and wasting, north-eastern Indian districts offer living conditions more conducive to healthy child development. The geographical clustering of malnutrition, as well as below-average child height and weight coincides with high poverty, low female education, lower BMI among mothers, higher prevalence of both parity 4 + and teenage pregnancies. The present study highlights the importance of combining PCA and cluster analysis in studying variation in under-five child growth and of conducting this analysis at the district level. We identify the geographical areas, where children are under severe risk of undernutrition, stunting and wasting and contribute to formulating policies to improve child nutrition in India

Summary of Data, Assumptions and Methods for New Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (WIC) Population Projections by Age, Sex and Level of Education for 195 Countries to 2100

This paper describes the base-line data and summarizes the methodology that underlies the projections presented for 195 countries of the world by age, sex, and educational attainment, based on detailed data on education for 171 countries. These multi-dimensional cohort-component projections require a large amount of empirical information, ranging from base-year data on populations disaggregated by levels of educational attainment by age and sex, to data on educational differentials of fertility and mortality. The paper also summarizes the procedures by which the assumed trajectories for future fertility, mortality and migration were derived by combining structured expert judgments with statistical models. It also describes in detail the procedures by which assumptions on aggregate fertility, mortality and migration trends were translated into education-specific trajectories in order to then calculate the implications of alternative education scenarios

Voltage-gated calcium channels (CaV) in GtoPdb v.2021.3

Ca2+ channels are voltage-gated ion channels present in the membrane of most excitable cells. The nomenclature for Ca2+channels was proposed by [127] and approved by the NC-IUPHAR Subcommittee on Ca2+ channels [70]. Most Ca2+ channels form hetero-oligomeric complexes. The α1 subunit is pore-forming and provides the binding site(s) for practically all agonists and antagonists. The 10 cloned α1-subunits can be grouped into three families: (1) the high-voltage activated dihydropyridine-sensitive (L-type, CaV1.x) channels; (2) the high- to moderate-voltage activated dihydropyridine-insensitive (CaV2.x) channels and (3) the low-voltage-activated (T-type, CaV3.x) channels. Each α1 subunit has four homologous repeats (I-IV), each repeat having six transmembrane domains (S1-S6) and a pore-forming region between S5 and S6. Voltage-dependent gating is driven by the membrane spanning S4 segment, which contains highly conserved positive charges that respond to changes in membrane potential. All of the α1-subunit genes give rise to alternatively spliced products. At least for high-voltage activated channels, it is likely that native channels comprise co-assemblies of α1, β and α2-δ subunits. The γ subunits have not been proven to associate with channels other than the α1s skeletal muscle Cav1.1 channel. The α2-δ1 and α2-δ2 subunits bind gabapentin and pregabalin

Voltage-gated calcium channels (version 2020.5) in the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology Database

Calcium (Ca2+) channels are voltage-gated ion channels present in the membrane of most excitable cells. The nomenclature for Ca2+channels was proposed by [120] and approved by the NC-IUPHAR Subcommittee on Ca2+ channels [68]. Ca2+ channels form hetero-oligomeric complexes. The α1 subunit is pore-forming and provides the binding site(s) for practically all agonists and antagonists. The 10 cloned α1-subunits can be grouped into three families: (1) the high-voltage activated dihydropyridine-sensitive (L-type, CaV1.x) channels; (2) the high-voltage activated dihydropyridine-insensitive (CaV2.x) channels and (3) the low-voltage-activated (T-type, CaV3.x) channels. Each α1 subunit has four homologous repeats (I-IV), each repeat having six transmembrane domains and a pore-forming region between transmembrane domains S5 and S6. Voltage-dependent gating is driven by the membrane spanning S4 segment, which contains highly conserved positive charges that respond to changes in membrane potential. Many of the α1-subunit genes give rise to alternatively spliced products. At least for high-voltage activated channels, it is likely that native channels comprise co-assemblies of α1, β and α2-δ subunits. The γ subunits have not been proven to associate with channels other than the α1s skeletal muscle Cav1.1 channel. The α2-δ1 and α2-δ2 subunits bind gabapentin and pregabalin