The Value of Health and Longevity

We develop an economic framework for valuing improvements to health and life expectancy, based on individuals' willingness to pay. We then apply the framework to past and prospective reductions in mortality risks, both overall and for specific life-threatening diseases. We calculate (i) the social values of increased longevity for men and women over the 20th century; (ii) the social value of progress against various diseases after 1970; and (iii) the social value of potential future progress against various major categories of disease. The historical gains from increased longevity have been enormous. Over the 20th century, cumulative gains in life expectancy were worth over $1.2 million per person for both men and women. Between 1970 and 2000 increased longevity added about$3.2 trillion per year to national wealth, an uncounted value equal to about half of average annual GDP over the period. Reduced mortality from heart disease alone has increased the value of life by about $1.5 trillion per year since 1970. The potential gains from future innovations in health care are also extremely large. Even a modest 1 percent reduction in cancer mortality would be worth nearly$500 billion.

Why Has the Natural Rate of Unemployment Increased over Time?

macroeconomics, unemployment

Entry, Pricing and Product Design in an Initially Monopolized Market

We analyze entry, pricing and product design in a model with differentiated products. Under plausible conditions, entry into an initially monopolized market leads to higher prices for some, possibly all, consumers. Entry can induce a misallocation of goods to consumers, segment the market in a way that transfers surplus to producers and undermine aggressive pricing by the incumbent. Post entry, firms have strong incentives to modify product designs so as to raise price by strengthening market segmentation. Firms may also forego socially beneficial product improvements in the post-entry equilibrium, because they intensify price competition too much. Multi-product monopoly can lead to better design incentives than the non-cooperative pricing that prevails under competition.

Enhancing the Profitability of Solar Tower Power Plants through Thermoeconomic Analysis Based on Multi-objective Optimization

AbstractSolar tower power plants with integrated thermal energy storage units represent one of the most promising technologies for enhancing the economic viability of concentrating solar power in the short term. Tower systems allow higher concentration ratios to be achieved, which in turn means higher fluid operating temperatures and thus higher power cycle efficiencies. Moreover, the integration of storage allows power production to be shifted from times where there is low demand to periods where electricity prices are higher, potentially enhancing the profitability of the plantdespite representing an additional upfront cost.The variable nature of the solar resource and the myriad potential roles that storage can assume, together with the complexity of enhancing the synergies between the three blocks: the solar field, the storage block and power block, make the design of these power plants a challenging process. This paper introduces a comprehensive methodology for designing solar tower power plants based on a thermoeconomic approach that allows the true optimum trade-off curves between cost, profitability and investment to be identified while simultaneously considering several operating strategies as well as varying critical design parameters in each of the aforementioned blocks.The methodology is presented by means of analyzing the design of a power plant for the region of Seville. For this location, results show that similar profits, measured in terms of the internal rate of return, can be achieved from different power plant configurations in terms of sizing and operating strategy, each associated to different investments. In particular, optimum configurations found corresponded tolarger power blocks with medium-to-large solar field and storage blocksthat allow the plants to operate continuously throughout the day and be shut down during midnight. Moreover, it isshown that for a fixed power block size it can also be economically interesting to consider smaller storage unitsand adopt instead a peaking strategy, as this can still be profitable whilst representing a lower investment, thus lower risk

Higher education and unemployment in Europe : an analysis of the academic subject and national effects

This paper examines the impact of an academic degree and field of study on short and long-term unemployment across Europe (EU15). Labour Force Survey (LFS) data on over half a million individuals are utilised for that purpose. The harmonized LFS classification of level of education and field of study overcomes past problems of comparability across Europe. The study analyses (i) the effect of an academic degree at a European level, (ii) the specific effect of 14 academic subjects and (iii) country specific effects. The results indicate that an academic degree is more effective on reducing the likelihood of short-term than long-term unemployment. This general pattern even though it is observed for most of the academic subjects its levels show significant variation across disciplines and countries

Genetics and epigenetics of liver cancer

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents a major form of primary liver cancer in adults. Chronic infections with hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) viruses and alcohol abuse are the major factors leading to HCC. This deadly cancer affects more than 500,000 people worldwide and it is quite resistant to conventional chemo- and radiotherapy. Genetic and epigenetic studies on HCC may help to understand better its mechanisms and provide new tools for early diagnosis and therapy. Recent literature on whole genome analysis of HCC indicated a high number of mutated genes in addition to well-known genes such as TP53, CTNNB1, AXIN1 and CDKN2A, but their frequencies are much lower. Apart from CTNNB1 mutations, most of the other mutations appear to result in loss-of-function. Thus, HCC-associated mutations cannot be easily targeted for therapy. Epigenetic aberrations that appear to occur quite frequently may serve as new targets. Global DNA hypomethylation, promoter methylation, aberrant expression of non-coding RNAs and dysregulated expression of other epigenetic regulatory genes such as EZH2 are the best-known epigenetic abnormalities. Future research in this direction may help to identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for HCC. © 2013 Elsevier B.V