The Role of Institutions in Economic Development

This paper provides the text of the Gunnar Myrdal Lecture presented at the U.N. Palais des Nations in 2003. The lecture suggests that the gaps in income per capita between richer and poorer countries largely reflect the quality of their institutions. Institutions, by reducing uncertainty, are the key to facilitating cooperation which allows the realization of the gains from trade and exchange and the advantages of increasing specialization. It is argued that there is no single strategy for institutional design that will fit all countries.Myrdal, institutions, comparative economic performance

Groundwater Flow andWater Quality – A Flowpath Study in the SeminoleWell Field, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

In Iowa, alluvial aquifers near major rivers are a source of water for many communities. The City of Cedar Rapids withdraws water from wells completed in the Cedar River alluvium, a shallow alluvial aquifer adjacent to the Cedar River. The City of Cedar Rapids is located within Linn County in east-central Iowa, and water for the City is supplied by four well fields (East, Northwest, Seminole, and West well fields) along the Cedar River. The City has a population of about 121,000, and several large industries are major water users. Currently, per capita water usage in the City is nearly three times the national average. The City is committed to providing both a high quality and quantity of water to its customers. The USGS and Cedar Rapids Water Department have been working together in an ongoing research program to better understand water quality and flow in the Cedar River and alluvial well fields. Work has been done on both a basin and well-field approach and has involved dye tracing/time-of-travel studies on the Cedar River, water-quality sampling, geochemical modeling, and groundwater-flow modeling

Combining different worlds : Interdisciplinarity in action research

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Vulnerability of Distance Learning Initial Teacher Education (DLITE)

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Hybrid vigour and maternal environment in mice. III. Hippocampal mossy fibres and behaviour

Inbred BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice as well as their F1 hybrids were reared in either an inbred or hybrid maternal environment prenatally and/or postnatally, and were later tested for several behaviours prior to histological study of the brain at 100 days after birth. Whereas measures of spatial memory showed hybrid vigour or overdominance, measures of hippocampal mossy fibres showed intermediate inheritance. Brain-behaviour correlations within a strain were generally very small, and effects of maternal environment on hippocampal morphology were not significant

Race, the heritability of IQ, and the intellectual scale of nature

A critical response to selected arguments presented by Arthur Jensen regarding intelligence testing, race, and heritability

Reply: A Note on the Roman and Tryon Selected Lines of Rats

We would like to make several brief comments on Professor Broadhurst's letter. The sentence from Wahlsten's chapter in the Anisman and Bignami volume which Professor Broadhurst is contesting was based on Anisman's personal experiences in 1970-1972, when he failed to obtain selected lines of rats following two attempts. On the other hand, both of us have been impressed by the rapid response of Dr. DeFries and the staff of the Institute for Behavioral Genetics to requests for special mouse strains or lines

The genetic kaleidoscope of vision

Site-specific phenotypic effects of the 73 known alleles in the rhodopsin gene that cause retinal degeneration are difficult to interpret because most alleles are documented in only one case or one family, which means variation in effects could actually arise from interactions with other loci. However, sample sizes necessary to detect epistatk. interaction may place an answer to this question beyond our grasp

Shock-Induced Activity Changes, Adrenal Lipid Depletion and Brain Weight in Mice: A Genetic Study

Motor activity was evaluated before and after a brief electric shock. Whereas small genetic differences in activity were apparent prior to shock, large group differences occurred following shock. C57 mice did not freeze following a shock; DBA mice showed prolonged freezing; and the F1 hybrids froze only briefly. Backcross groups revealed segregation for postshock activity. Adrenal lipid depletion, as revealed by the absence of Sudan staining in the adrenal cortex, was detected in many male mice, but no correlation with either pre- or postshock activity was detected. Inheritance of adrenal lipid depletion clearly was not monogenetic

Digit Ratio (2D:4D) Differences between 20 Strains of Inbred Mice

The second to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) is sexually differentiated in a variety of species, including humans, rats, birds, and lizards. In humans, this ratio tends to be lower in males than in females. Lower digit ratios are believed to indicate increased prenatal testosterone exposure, and are associated with more masculinized behavior across a range of traits. The story seems more complicated in laboratory mice. We have previously shown that there is no sex difference in the digit ratios of inbred mice, but found behavioral evidence to suggest that higher 2D:4D is associated with more masculinized behaviors. Work examining intrauterine position effects show that neighbouring males raise pup digit ratio, suggesting again that higher digit ratios are associated with increased developmental androgens. Other work has suggested that masculinization is associated with lower digit ratios in lab mice. Here, we examine the fore- and hindlimb digit ratios of 20 inbred mouse strains. We find large inter-strain differences, but no sexual dimorphism. Digit ratios also did not correlate with mice behavioral traits. This result calls into question the use of this trait as a broadly applicable indicator for prenatal androgen exposure. We suggest that the inbred mice model presents an opportunity for researchers to investigate the genetic, and gene-environmental influence on the development of digit ratios