Like Father, Like Son: Inheriting and Bequeathing

Empirical evidence suggests that parents who have themselves inherited from their own parents are more likely to leave an estate to their children even after controlling for income, wealth and education. This implies an indirect reciprocal behavior between three generations by transmitting the attitude towards bequeathing from one generation to the next. We incorporate such an intergenerational chain into an overlapping generations model and show that the economy might be characterized by multiple steady states involving poverty traps. Individuals will not leave bequests unless per capita income levels exceed a threshold level. In such a situation, an unfunded social security security programme may help to overcome poverty by providing additional old age income out of which to bequeath.Empirische Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Eltern, die etwas geerbt haben, unabhängig von etwaigen Einkommens- und Vermögenseffekten, eher geneigt sind selbst auch zu vererben. Dies impliziert ein indirekt reziprokes Verhalten zwischen drei Generationen, bei dem die Einstellung gegenüber dem Vererbungsvorgang von einer Generation zur nächsten weitergegeben wird. Wir integrieren eine solche intergenerationale Verknüpfung in ein überlappendes Generationenmodell und zeigen, dass die resultierende Ökonomie durch multiple Gleichgewichte, einschließlich Armutsfallen, charakterisiert werden kann. Individuen vererben nur dann an ihre Nachkommen, wenn das eigene Pro-Kopf-Einkommen hinreichend hoch ist und einen gewissen Schwellenwert überschreitet. In einer solchen Situation kann ein umlagefinanziertes Rentensystem dazu beitragen der Armut zu entkommen, indem es den Individuen zusätzliches Alterseinkommen zur Verfügung stellt, aus dem sie vererben können

Chuanxiongzine relaxes isolated corpus cavernosum strips and raises intracavernous pressure in rabbits

It has been shown that there are many Chinese traditional herbals that can enhance sexual activity. Chuanxiongzine is a vasoactive ingredient that has been isolated and purified from Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. In previous studies, it has been found that chuanxiongzine was effective in relaxing rabbit corpus cavernosum smooth muscle. We determined the effects of chuanxiongzine on relaxation of isolated corpus cavernosum strips in vitro and on increase of intracavernous pressure (ICP) in vivo in rabbits. Chuanxiongzine caused a concentration-dependent relaxation of phenylephrine precontracted isolated corpus cavernosum strips (EC50 1.58 × 10−4 mol l−1), which were endothelium independent and NO independent. However, the guanylyl cyclase inhibitor 1-H-[1,2,4] oxadiazolo [4,3-a] quinoxalin-1-one significantly shifted the chuanxiongzine concentration–response relationship to the right. Although there was no significant difference in the level of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in isolated corpus cavernosum strips treated with chuanxiongzine or vehicle, chuanxiongzine caused a significant rise in the level of cGMP and cAMP in isolated corpus cavernosum strips pretreated with the activator of adenylyl cyclase forskolin and the source of NO sodium nitroprusside. In an in vivo study, chuanxiongzine dose-dependently raised ICP after the intracavernous injection of its cumulative doses (0.5, 1, 2 and 5 mg kg−1). The ICP increased from baseline to 19.1±3.7, 24.8±2.1, 30.2±4.8 and 39.7±6.1 mm Hg, respectively, and the duration of tumescence ranged from 8.5±2.8 to 22.9±7.3 min. Our results show that chuanxiongzine can relax isolated corpus cavernosum strips of rabbits in vitro and increase ICP of rabbits in vivo, which is neither endothelium dependent nor NO dependent, but may be partly mediated by the inhibition of cAMP phosphodiesterase or cGMP phosphodiesterase

On Intergenerational Transmission of Reading Habits in Italy: Is a Good Example the Best Sermon?

The intergenerational transmission of preference and attitudes has been less investigated in the literature than the intergenerational transmission of education and income. Using the Italian Time Use Survey (2002-2003) conducted by ISTAT, we analyse the intergenerational transmission of reading habits: are children more likely to allocate time to studying and reading when they observe their parents doing the same activity? The intergeneration transmission of attitudes towards studying and reading can be explained by both cultural and educational transmission from parents to children and by imitating behaviours. The latter channel is of particular interest, since it entails a direct influence parents may have on child's preference formation through their role model, and it opens the scope for active policies aimed at promoting good parents' behaviours. We follow two fundamental approaches to estimation: a long run model, consisting of OLS intergenerational type regressions for the reading habit, and short run household fixed effect models, where we aim at identifying the impact of the role model exerted by parents, exploiting different exposure of sibling to parents' example within the same household. Our long run results show that children are more likely to read and study when they live with parents that are used to read. Mothers seem to be more important than fathers in this type of intergenerational transmission. Moreover, the short run analysis shows that there is an imitation effect: in the day of the survey children are more likely to read after they saw either the mother or the father reading