The Impact of Population on CO2 Emissions: Evidence From European Countries

This paper analyses the impact of population growth on CO2 emissions in European Union countries. Traditionally, researchers have assumed a unitary elasticity of emissions with respect to population growth. In this study population is treated as a predictor in the model, instead of being included as part of the dependent variable (per capita emissions), thus relaxing the above-mentioned assumption of unitary elasticity. We also contribute to the existing literature by taking into account the presence of heterogeneity in the sample and considering a dynamic specification. The sample covers the period 1975- 1999 for the current European Union members. Our results show that the impact of population growth on emissions is more than proportional for recent accession countries whereas for old EU members, the elasticity is lower than unity and non significant when the properties of the time series and the dynamics are correctly specified. The different impact of population change on CO2 emissions for the current EU members should therefore be taken into account in future discussions of climate change policies within the EU.CO2 Emissions, European Union, Panel Data, Population Growth

Club Convergence of Sectoral CO2 Emissions in the European Union.

An understanding of the evolution of sectoral CO2 emissions for all EU countries in recent decades would clearly be useful for political authorities when designing future environmental policies. This paper investigates the process of convergence in sectoral per capita CO2 emissions, with a focus on the energy sector. The concept of club convergence is used to analyse emissions in 28 EU countries from 1971 to 2012, with special attention paid to the energy subsectors (power generation and heating, manufactures and construction, transportation, and other minor fuel combustion). We find that core European countries (France, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK) are included in the best performing clubs, no matter the sector or subsector, whereas among Central and Eastern European Countries, a few diverge from the average towards higher emissions. Relative convergence among a large number of EU members would, therefore, support the relevance of both the EU abatement policy and international agreements in this process

World-Wide FINGERS Network: A global approach to risk reduction and prevention of dementia

© 2020 The Authors. Alzheimer\u27s & Dementia published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Alzheimer\u27s Association Reducing the risk of dementia can halt the worldwide increase of affected people. The multifactorial and heterogeneous nature of late-onset dementia, including Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD), indicates a potential impact of multidomain lifestyle interventions on risk reduction. The positive results of the landmark multidomain Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) support such an approach. The World-Wide FINGERS (WW-FINGERS), launched in 2017 and including over 25 countries, is the first global network of multidomain lifestyle intervention trials for dementia risk reduction and prevention. WW-FINGERS aims to adapt, test, and optimize the FINGER model to reduce risk across the spectrum of cognitive decline—from at-risk asymptomatic states to early symptomatic stages—in different geographical, cultural, and economic settings. WW-FINGERS aims to harmonize and adapt multidomain interventions across various countries and settings, to facilitate data sharing and analysis across studies, and to promote international joint initiatives to identify globally implementable and effective preventive strategies

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Multiancestry analysis of the HLA locus in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases uncovers a shared adaptive immune response mediated by HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes

Across multiancestry groups, we analyzed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) associations in over 176,000 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus controls. We demonstrate that the two diseases share the same protective association at the HLA locus. HLA-specific fine-mapping showed that hierarchical protective effects of HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes best accounted for the association, strongest with HLA-DRB1*04:04 and HLA-DRB1*04:07, and intermediary with HLA-DRB1*04:01 and HLA-DRB1*04:03. The same signal was associated with decreased neurofibrillary tangles in postmortem brains and was associated with reduced tau levels in cerebrospinal fluid and to a lower extent with increased Aβ42. Protective HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes strongly bound the aggregation-prone tau PHF6 sequence, however only when acetylated at a lysine (K311), a common posttranslational modification central to tau aggregation. An HLA-DRB1*04-mediated adaptive immune response decreases PD and AD risks, potentially by acting against tau, offering the possibility of therapeutic avenues

Tres assajos sobre desenvolupament i medi ambient

La tesi consta de 3 assajos: El primer té com a objectiu analitzar quins factors de l'activitat econòmica determinen les emissions a l'atmosfera. El plantejament empíric es basa en la formulació estocàstica del model IPAT amb dades dels 28 països de la Unió Europea (UE) entre 1971 i 2012, per a estimar la influència que exerceix la població, entre altres factors, sobre els nivells d'emissions de CO2. El segon treball té com a objectiu conéixer l'evolució en emissions de CO2 per capita del conjunt de països de la UE en el passat perquè puga servir per a concentrar els esforços dels governs en els països o sectors amb major potencial de millora. Per aconseguir-ho, apliquem tècniques paramètriques transversals i temporals per a comprovar l'existència de convergència o divergència en la reducció d'emissions, entre els 28 països membres, amb dades obtingudes del World Resource Institute. El tercer treball té com a objectiu analitzar les conseqüències sobre l'activitat econòmica de les regulacions mediambientals. En el treball es plantegen dos models empírics per a testar la hipòtesi feble i forta formulada per Porter i ampliada pels treballs de Jaffe, amb dades de 14 països de l'OCDE. Aquesta hipòtesi proposa la possibilitat que les restriccions aprovades pels governs en la preservació del medi ambient no siga un impediment sinó, en sentit contrari, un incentiu per a la innovació i millore la competitivitat de les empreses. Una de les novetats d'aquest treball és la utilització de l'índex de restricció de les polítiques mediambientals, EPS, elaborat per l'OCDE com a indicador del major o menor grau de restricció en les regulacions mediambientals de cada país

Does Environmetal Policy Stringency Foster Innovation and Productivity in OECD Countries?

In this paper we use panel data models and quantile regressions to test the “weak” and “strong” versions of the Porter hypothesis, using data from 14 OECD countries over the period 1990-2011. A newly-released environmental policy stringency index (EPS) provided by the OECD is used as an indicator of the stringency of environmental regulations in order to tackle endogeneity issues of proxies used in earlier research. The findings indicate that more stringent environmental regulations positively influence R&D expenditure, the number of patent applications and total factor productivity (TFP). The results show that environmental stringency has a positive effect on R&D, mainly for the lower quantiles (0.10, 0.25) of the distribution of R&D, whereas for the number of patent applications and total factor productivity, the effect increases for the highest quantiles (0.75, 0.90) of the distribution of the targeted indicators

The Impact of Population on CO2 Emissions: Evidence From European Countries

This paper analyses the impact of population growth on CO2 emissions in European Union countries. Traditionally, researchers have assumed a unitary elasticity of emissions with respect to population growth. In this study population is treated as a predictor in the model, instead of being included as part of the dependent variable (per capita emissions), thus relaxing the above-mentioned assumption of unitary elasticity. We also contribute to the existing literature by taking into account the presence of heterogeneity in the sample and considering a dynamic specification. The sample covers the period 1975- 1999 for the current European Union members. Our results show that the impact of population growth on emissions is more than proportional for recent accession countries whereas for old EU members, the elasticity is lower than unity and non significant when the properties of the time series and the dynamics are correctly specified. The different impact of population change on CO2 emissions for the current EU members should therefore be taken into account in future discussions of climate change policies within the EU

The impact of population on CO 2 emissions: evidence from European countries

CO 2 emissions, European Union, Panel data, Population growth, Q25, Q4, Q54,