On adaptation, life-extension possibilities and the demand for health

A good health is important for having a good life. This is supported by surveys on happiness. However, at least after a certain age, the health state deteriorates naturally over time due to ageing. Nevertheless, research reports show that old people in average are satisfied with their health conditions. This and other empirical evidence indicate that individuals adapt to poorer health conditions. But how will this adaptation influence the demand for health services? Gjerde, Grepperud and Kverndokk will in this paper analyse the impacts of adaptation to a falling health state on the demand for health and medical care. This is done by integrating adaptation processes in the pure consumption model of Grossman. The authors will modify the consumption-model in another direction by introducing an uncertain lifetime. Model simulations show that adaptation affects the health variables by lowering the incentives to invest in health, as well as smoothening the optimal health stock path over the life cycle. Whether or not the risk of mortality is an object of choice has important effects on the joint development of the health variables.Grossman; Demand for health; Adaptation; Life extension; Ageing.

The Impact of State Fiscal Policy on States\u27 Resilience Entering the Great Recession

The U.S. economy entered the Great Recession in December 2007 and exited in June 2009. This national statistic obscures a wealth of state-level data shedding light on the policies and conditions that helped some states withstand that recessionary shock for a time. In this study, we used that state-level data in a parametric regression model, known as survival analysis, to estimate the effects that a state’s fiscal policy had on the timing of its entry into the Great Recession. Consistent with earlier, more general, studies focusing on economic growth, we found that taxes have the potential to hasten the start of a state’s recession, while expenditures could defer that event. However, not all types of taxes and expenditures were equivalent in terms of their effect on recessionary timing. Most notably, our results showed that corporate income taxes had a different timing effect than sales, property, and individual income taxes. In addition, although total expenditures tended to delay the Great Recession’s onset, relatively few individual expenditure types had a statistically-significant impact on recessionary timing. Overall, our results suggest that, while taxes likely increase a state’s recessionary risk and expenditures likely decrease it, that narrative is an oversimplification of the complex role played by fiscal policy in determining a state\u27s ability to resist a negative economic shock like the Great Recession

The Value-Relevance of Adopting IFRS: Evidence from 145 NGAAP Restatements

Firms listed on stock exchanges within the European Economic Area are required to report consolidated financial statements according to IFRS from 2005. The firms that adopted IFRS in 2005 were also required to restate their 2004 financial statements from national GAAP to provide comparable accounting figures. These two sets of financial statements for 2004 are thus based on identical underlying economic activities and are fully specified according to two different reporting regimes. Our sample consists of 145 restatements from NGAAP to IFRS for firms listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in Norway. We test whether the IFRS accounting figures correlate more strongly with stock market values than the corresponding NGAAP figures. We find little evidence of increased value-relevance after adopting IFRS when comparing and evaluating the two regimes unconditionally. On the other hand, when evaluating the change in the accounting figures from NGAAP to IFRS, we find evidence that the reconcilement adjustments to IFRS are marginally value-relevant due to increased relevance of the balance sheet and the normalized net operating income. By weighting our sample by firm size, intangible asset intensity and profitability, we learn that the increased value-relevance of the net operating income stems from different reporting of intangible assets. Since more intangible assets are capitalized according to IFRS than NGAAP, our finding is consistent with the view that capitalizing intangible assets is more value-relevant than expensing them as incurred or through goodwill amortization.Value-relevance of reporting standards; IFRS versus NGAAP; accounting harmonization; balance sheet-oriented conceptual frameworks versus earningsoriented conceptual frameworks

Evidence on Competitive Advantage and Superior Stock Market Performance

This article analyzes the value-relevance of industry-based and resource-based competitive advantage in a large sample of firms listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. We measure competitive advantage by a single variable and perform a new decomposition into its underlying sources. In 1986-2005, the industry-based and the resource-based competitive advantage explain more than 20% of abnormal stock market returns, accumulated over five years. The resource-based advantage is almost four times more important than the industry-based advantage. Differences in both the return and the risk capability of firms’ net assets relative to their industry peers are significant parts of the resource-based advantage, estimated at 60% and 40%, respectively.Competitive advantage; superior performance; value-relevance of performance metrics

Low birth weight, intrauterine growth restriction and risk of chronic kidney disease in adult age

Background and aims: Studies have shown that adults with low birth weight (LBW) face an increased risk for chronic kidney disease (CKD), high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Previous Norwegian studies have shown that individuals with LBW more often develop kidney failure; however, there is a need for more knowledge regarding risk of more moderate kidney disease, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: This thesis consists of three studies that were conducted as retrospective registry-based cohort studies. Datasets were obtained through linkage of the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBR), Norwegian Population Registry (NPoR), Norwegian Renal Registry (NRR) and the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR) (data available for 2008-2016 for the latter). We included all individuals born in Norway since 1967. For Paper I, we investigated the risk of kidney failure as registered in the NRR, and for Papers II and III, we investigated the risk of diverse forms of kidney disease as registered in the NPR. Relative risk (RR) estimates were obtained by Cox-regression or logistic regression statistics. Results: In our studies, we were able to include about 2.6 million individuals. In Paper I, 1126 individuals developed kidney failure and individuals with LBW had a RR of 1.61 (95% CI 1.38-1.98) for kidney failure, and individuals with small for gestational age (SGA) had a RR of 1.44 (1.22-1.70). In Papers II and III, 4495 individuals had been diagnosed with CKD and 12,818 with other groups of kidney disease. LBW was associated with a RR of 1.72 (1.60-1.90) for CKD and SGA with a RR of 1.79 (1.65-194). These birth-related factors were more strongly associated with CKD than with other forms of kidney disease. In Paper III, we found that as compared the individuals who did not have LBW and who did not have a sibling with LBW, individuals who did not have LBW but who had a sibling with LBW had a RR of 1.33 (1.19-1.49), individuals with LBW but no siblings with LBW had a RR of 1.74 (1.55-1.95) and individuals with LBW and a sibling with LBW had a RR of 1.77 (1.54-2.04) for CKD. Conclusion: In our cohort studies with a follow-up of 50 years, low birth weight and intrauterine growth restriction were found to be associated with an increased risk for both kidney failure and CKD. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) increases the risk of CKD in adult life.Doktorgradsavhandlin

Review of \u3ci\u3eEuropean Immigrants in the American West: Community Histories\u3c/i\u3e Edited by Frederick Luebke

European immigrants, Frederick Luebke argues correctly in his introduction to this collection of previously published essays, have been all but ignored by Western historians. Earlier Turnerian historians expected European immigrants to assimilate because this accorded well with their American frontier narrative. New Western historians, focused as they are on race, also overlooked Europeans. Because European immigrants were white, these revisionists of Turner similarly anticipated the Europeans\u27 assimilation into the white majority. For their part, labor historians who have concentrated on class have rued the failure of Western workers, in part because of their attachment to ethnic group, to develop a potent class consciousness. This neglect is curious, Luebke reminds us, because the Western United States was the site of a disproportionate numbers of European immigrants. To address the oversight, this volume brings together a disparate group of community studies situated in the West. It pays attention to those both in rural and urban residences (including Italians living in San Francisco), people in disparate occupations (from Irish hardrock miners in Montana to Jewish merchants in Portland, Oregon), and group experiences ranging across the past four centuries (from Spanish colonizers in seventeenth-century New Mexico to South Slavic miners in the twentieth century). Many of the selections will be familiar to Great Plains historians, including Robert C. Ostergren\u27s view of settlement patterns of Swedes in South Dakota, Carol K. Coburn\u27s consideration of gender in a German Lutheran settlement in Kansas, Josef J. Barton\u27s comparison of Mexican and Czech settlers in Texas, and Royden K. Loewen\u27s juxtaposition of two Mennonite communities in Nebraska and Manitoba. As significant as this collection is, it fails to address several vexing questions about its subject. The organizing theme is community histories of disparate groups moving from Europe to a place considered to be the West. Yet what is the West? North Dakota and San Francisco and many locales in between. Those who moved, moreover, left a place called Europe. Yet what is comparable between seventeenth century Spaniard conquistadors and nineteenth- century Swedish peasants besides the fact that they left Europe to live in a region defined today as the West ? As such, the unifying theme of Europeans and the West in this volume in many ways is a reification of places of origin and of new residence. That understood, this is nonetheless a valuable sampler of remarkable recent research on European ethnic groups in a place called the West, a subject that continues to be overlooked by historians. As such, it is a valuable contribution to the history of the Great Plains and Western history generally

The Power of Satire: An Analysis of Language Attitudes in South Park

Denne oppgaven har som formål å se på bruken av engelske uttalevarianter (accents) i den animerte TV-serien South Park, utgitt mellom 1997 og 2022. Total har 205 karakterer fra 6 ulike sesonger blitt analysert og kategorisert for å undersøke hvorvidt det finnes systematiske korrelasjoner mellom bestemte karaktertrekk og spesifikke uttalevarianter. I tillegg har et viktig mål for oppgaven vært å avdekke potensielle diakroniske endringer mellom de gamle og de nye sesongene, og om dette eventuelt kan knyttes til endringer og utviklinger i samfunnet. Et grunnleggende premiss for oppgaven er at språkbruk i media reflekterer språkholdninger og stereotypiske oppfatninger som eksisterer i samfunnet. Tidligere forskning på språkholdninger har vist at folk typisk assosier ulike varianter av engelsk med spesifikke personlige egenskaper og sosiale bakgrunner. Det å bruke ulike uttalevarianter i film og tv-serier kan dermed være et effektivt virkemiddel for å bygge karakterer. Resultatene fra denne oppgaven blir sammenlignet med funn fra tidligere studier som har sett på bruk av engelske uttalevarianter i film og tv. Studiene har fokusert på TV-serier og filmer rettet mot et yngre publikum, som skiller seg fra det voksne publikummet til serien diskutert i denne oppgaven. Samtlige studier har funnet systematiske sammenhenger mellom ulike karaktertrekk og varianter av engelsk, og det er disse korrelasjonene som har dannet grunnlaget for hypotesene i denne oppgaven. I forhold til de underliggende hypotesene var det forventet å finne systematiske sammenhenger mellom uttalevarianter og karaktertrekk, som kjønn, om karakterene var slem eller ikke, om de var usofistikert eller ikke og om de var mennesker eller ikke. Forventningen var også å finne forskjeller mellom de nye og de gamle sesongene. Siden samfunnet har utviklet seg mye over de siste 25 årene, var forventningen å finne mer stereotypisk språkbruk i de gamle sesongene, og mindre av dette i de nye. Resultatene viser at det er korrelasjoner mellom uttalevarianter og karaktertrekk i South Park, men at noen endringer har skjedd over de siste årene. Den mest brukte uttalevarianten i både eldre og nyere sesonger var standard amerikansk, og andelen karakterene som snakket denne varianten av engelsk var enda større i de nye sesongene enn i de gamle. I analysen av språkbruk ble det funnet forskjeller mellom menn og kvinner, nøytrale og onde, nøytrale og usofistikerte og mennesker og ikke-mennesker. Selv om forskjellene er mindre i de nye sesongene, viser resultatene i denne oppgaven at det fremdeles finnes stereotypisk språkbruk i animasjonsserien South Park.Engelsk mastergradsoppgaveENG350MAHF-ENGMAHF-LÆF