Pension systems and intragenerational redistribution when labor supply is endogenous

It is usually thought that a Beveridgean pension system redistributes income more than a Bismarckian one, since it ensures replacement ratios that decrease with income. We check the validity of this result when the fact that pension systems can redistribute also through their effects on labor income is taken into account. Labor market institutions turn out to be crucial. First we study an economy with a competitive labor market : quite surprisingly, inequality is unaffected by a reallocation of funds towards the Beveridgean system. Then we introduce a minimum wage that creates unemployment on the unskilled labor market : in this case the Beveridgean system is proved to reduce inequality.Social Security; Intragenerational redistribution; Basic Pension; Beveridgean pension system; Bismarckian pension system

Labor Income Taxation, Human Capital and Growth: The Role of Child Care

This paper studies the implications of introducing child care in the human capital production function when assessing the effects of labor income taxation on growth. We develop an OLG model where formal schooling and child care enter the human capital production function as complements and we compare it with a model where only formal schooling matters for skill formation. Using a numerical analysis we find that, depending on the quality of child care services relative to parental care, the omission of child care from the technology of skills' formation can significantly bias the results related to the effects of labor income taxation on growth.taxation, growth, human capital production function, child care, labor supply

Economic Development and the Family Structure: from the Pater Familias to the Nuclear Family

We provide a theory that is able to account for the observed comovement between the shift in intergenerational living arrangements from coresidence to non-coresidence and economic development. Our theory is consistent with the diminution in the status of the elderly documented by some sociologists. The results from our analysis show that, when technical progress is fast enough, the economy experiences a shift from stagnation to growth, there is a transition from coresidence to non-coresidence, and the social status of the elderly tends to deteriorate.Unified Growth Theory, Intergenerational Living Arrangements, Bargaining Power, Family Economics

Intergenerational Transmission of Skills during Childhood and Optimal Public Policy

The paper characterizes the optimal tax policy and the optimal quality of day care services in a OLG model with warm-glow altruism where parental choices over child care arrangements affect the probability that the child becomes a high-skilled adult in a type-specific way. With respect to previous contributions, optimal tax formulas include type-specific Pigouvian terms which correct for the intergenerational externality in human capital accumulation. Our numerical simulations suggest that a public policy that disregards the effects of parental time on children's human capital entails a welfare loss that ranges from 0:2% to 5:7% of aggregate consumption.optimal taxation, day care quality, intergenerational transmission of skills, early childhood environment, warm-glow

A Theory of Medecine Effectiveness, Differential Mortality, Income Inequality and Growth for Pre-Industrial England

We study how mortality reductions and income growth interact, looking at their relationship prior to the Industrial Revolution, when income per capita was stagnant. We first present a model of individual medical spending giving a rationale for individual health expenditures even when medecine was not effective in postponing death. We then explain the rise of effective medecine by a learning process function of expenditures in health. The rise in effective medicine can then be linked to the take-off of the eighteenth century through life expectancy increases, and fostered capital accumulation. The rise of effective medecine has also an impact on the relation between growth and inequality and on the intergenerational persistence of differences in income. These channels are operative through differential mortality induced by medecine effectiveness that turns out to determines a differential in the propensity to save among income groupsDifferential mortality, Life expectancy, Propensity to save, Health expenditures

Intergenerational transmission of skills during childhood and optimal public policy

The paper characterizes the optimal tax policy and the optimal quality of day care services in a OLG model with warm-glow altruism where parental choices over child care arrangements affect the probability that the child becomes a high-skilled adult in a type-specific way. With respect to previous contributions, optimal tax formulas include type-specific Pigouvian terms which correct for the intergenerational externality in human capital accumulation. Our numerical simulations suggest that a public policy that disregards the effects of parental time on children's human capital entails a welfare loss that ranges from 0:2% to 5:7% of aggregate consumption.optimal taxation; day care quality; intergenerational transmission of skills; early childhood environment; warm-glow

Percentage of weight loss and triceps skinfold : reliable parameters for malnutrition diagnosis in patients with periampullary neoplasms - preoperative nutritional assessment

Objetivos: identificar os métodos de avaliação nutricional pré-operatória que possam diagnosticar a desnutrição em pacientes com neoplasia periampolar. Métodos: estudo prospectivo com 29 pacientes submetidos à cirurgia no Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre. As avaliações foram realizadas no pré-operatório e incluíam dados antropométricos, bioquímicos e clínicos. Resultados: dos pacientes analisados, 86% apresentaram perda de peso, destes, 88% foram classificados com perda de peso grave, a média de perda de peso foi de 13,81%. A dobra cutânea tricipital mostrou desnutrição e perda de massa magra em 25 pacientes (86%), em relação à dobra cutânea subescapular 19 pacientes tiveram diminuição da massa magra e foram classificados como desnutridos. Em relação à circunferência muscular do braço e a circunferência do braço identificou-se 7 (24%) e 5 (17%) pacientes com desnutrição, respectivamente. Na avaliação bioquímica a concentração sérica de albumina, transferrina e contagem total de linfócitos indicou redução correspondente à desnutrição em 12 (41%), 20 (69%) e 18 pacientes (62%) respectivamente. Quinze deles (52%) tinham diagnóstico de diabetes mellitus. Conclusão: todos os pacientes apresentaram alguma variável nutricional alterada, mas o índice de massa corporal e a dosagem de albumina demonstraram alteração com menor frequência, enquanto o percentual de perda de peso e a dobra cutânea tricipital mostraram a maior capacidade para detectar desnutrição.Aim: to identify methods of preoperative nutritional assessment that can establish the diagnosis of malnutrition in patients with periampullary cancer. Methods: prospective study with 29 patients undergoing surgery in the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre. Assessments were performed during the preoperative period and included anthropometric, biochemical, and clinical data. Results: eighty-six percent of the patients showed weight loss, and 88% of these were classified as severe weight loss, while their mean weight loss was 13.81%. Triceps skinfold thickness revealed malnutrition and lean body mass decrease in 25 patients (86%); in relation to the subscapular skinfold thickness, 19 patients had lean body mass decrease and were classified as malnourished. In terms of arm muscle circumference and arm circumference, 7 (24%) and 5 (17%) patients had malnutrition, respectively. In the biochemical evaluation, serum albumin, transferrin and lymphocytes total count decreased suggesting malnutrition in 12 (41%), 20 (69%) e 18 (62%) patients, respectively. Fifteen patients (52%) had diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: all patients were found to have some degree of malnutrition. Body mass index and serum albumin level showed to be the least sensitive among the parameters used, whereas weight loss percentage and triceps skinfold thickness had the highest sensitivity for malnutrition in these patients

Pension systems and intragenerational redistribution when labor supply is endogenous

It is usually thought that a Beveridgean pension system redistributes income more than a Bismarckian one, since it ensures replacement ratios that decrease with income. We check the validity of this result when the fact that pension systems can redistribute also through their effects on labor income is taken into account. Labor market institutions turn out to be crucial. First we study an economy with a competitive labor market: quite surprisingly, inequality is unaffected by a reallocation of funds towards the Beveridgean system. Then we introduce a minimum wage that creates unemployment on the unskilled labor market: in this case the Beveridgean system is proved to reduce inequality