Women's Unpaid Work: Measurement and Distributional Issues

Many activities of every person’s daily life can be recorded under the category of “unpaid work”, meaning that they are performed without receiving a monetary reward. The present research deals with two of the most pervasive forms of unpaid work: housework and caregiving. In these last decades, the existence of such hidden side of the economy has been partially brought to light by time use questionnaires led by several first world countries, and by indexes on gender development and empowerment worked out by the United Nations. Such tools reveal that, both in developed and developing countries, the greatest amount of unpaid work is carried out by women who spend long hours in performing what can be defined as social reproduction. Moreover, it is striking to observe that, when such time is converted into money, by attributing a monetary value to the time spent in housework or to the activities which have been performed, the economic relevance of unpaid work emerges, proving to be equivalent to a considerable share of the official GDP. Many different evaluation methods are presented, and the effort to apply them through the so-called Household Satellite Accounts, that some countries have been drafting, is remarked. The point made by the present research is that despite the existing successful efforts to give an economic value to the work performed within the household – especially by women –, no actual concrete guidance is given by international organizations to governments in choosing an harmonized evaluation method. Moreover, the inclusion of unpaid work in the calculations of the GDP is discouraged, since it doesn’t seem to match with the current economic concepts. We maintain that, considering the economic relevance of the work performed for no pay, it would be advisable to redefine what production means. Giving a monetary value to such activities, though not being a definitive solution, could be a good way in letting economists and policymakers realize the role of unpaid work, and of those who perform it, in the economic system and in society. Keywords: women, unpaid work, housework, caregiving, evaluatio

Reti : telecomunicazioni in Piemonte

Preprint dell'edizione Rosenberg & Sellier ; Collana Piemonte ; 24- Indice #4- Presentazione #8- L'evoluzione della tecnologia #23- L'assetto istituzionale e le tariffe #37- I mercati #67- I servizi di telecomunicazione in Piemonte #95- Le imprese del gruppo STET in Piemonte #109- Le imprese private #157- Le politiche regionali perle telecomunicazioni #191- Riferimenti bibliografici #225- Glossario tecnico #22

Le nuove tecnologie dell'informazione nell'analisi economica statistica

StrumentIres ; n.5- Abstract #6- Indice #8- La letteratura #10- I dati #38- Riferimenti bibliografici #76- Appendice #8

La NET Economy in Piemonte. Una indagine esplorativa

Contributi di ricerca ; n.181/2004- Indice #4- Presentazione #8- Introduzione #10- Il quadro generale #14- La realtà piemontese #26- Le imprese ICT in Piemonte #40- Le applicazioni ICT nelle imprese piemnontesi #58- Le ICT e gli enti pubblici piemontesi #70- Gli interventi pubblici #80- Considerazioni finali #82- Appendice #8

Serum levels of heat shock protein 27 in patients with acute ischemic stroke

Expression of intracellular heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) rises in the brain of animal models of cerebral ischemia and stroke. Hsp27 is also released into the circulation and the aim of the present study was to investigated if serum Hsp27 (sHsp27) levels are altered in patients with acute ischemic stroke. sHsp27 was measured in 15 patients with acute ischemic stroke and in 14 control subjects comparable for age, sex, and cardiovascular risk factors. In patients, measurements were performed at admission and 1, 2, and 30 days thereafter. At admission, mean sHsp27 values were threefold higher in patients than in controls. In patients, sHsp27 values dropped after 24 h, rose again at 48 h, and markedly declined at 30 days, indicating the presence of a temporal trend of sHsp27 values following acute ischemic stroke

Hospital admissions for hypertensive crisis in the Emergency Departments: a large multicenter Italian study

Epidemiological data on the impact of hypertensive crises (emergencies and urgencies) on referral to the Emergency Departments (EDs) are lacking, in spite of the evidence that they may be life-threatening conditions. We performed a multicenter study to identify all patients aged 18 years and over who were admitted to 10 Italian EDs during 2009 for hypertensive crises (systolic blood pressure ≥220 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥120 mmHg). We classified patients as affected by either hypertensive emergencies or hypertensive urgencies depending on the presence or the absence of progressive target organ damage, respectively. Logistic regression analysis was then performed to assess variables independently associated with hypertensive emergencies with respect to hypertensive urgencies. Of 333,407 patients admitted to the EDs over the one-year period, 1,546 had hypertensive crises (4.6/1,000, 95% CI 4.4-4.9), and 23% of them had unknown hypertension. Hypertensive emergencies (n = 391, 25.3% of hypertensive crises) were acute pulmonary edema (30.9%), stroke (22.0%,), myocardial infarction (17.9%), acute aortic dissection (7.9%), acute renal failure (5.9%) and hypertensive encephalopathy (4.9%). Men had higher frequency than women of unknown hypertension (27.9% vs 18.5%, p<0.001). Even among known hypertensive patients, a larger proportion of men than women reported not taking anti-hypertensive drug (12.6% among men and 9.4% among women (p<0.001). Compared to women of similar age, men had higher likelihood of having hypertensive emergencies than urgencies (OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.06-1.70), independently of presenting symptoms, creatinine, smoking habit and known hypertension. This study shows that hypertensive crises involved almost 5 out of 1,000 patients-year admitted to EDs. Sex differences in frequencies of unknown hypertension, compliance to treatment and risk of hypertensive emergencies might have implications for public health programs