Modeling economic behavior in Peru's informal urban retail sector

In Lima, Peru, the informal sector makes up half the labor force, accounts for 61 percent of the hours worked, and generates an astounding 39 percent of GDP. More than half the street vendors are women. In the informal sector, the free play of market forces determines returns to productive factors, especially labor. Informal enterprises are concentrated in low-income areas of urban centers. The authors analyze Peru's urban informal sector - particularly women's role in it - based on a theoretical model of informal retail trade. They address these questions: what factors explain differences in the performanceof retail busineesses? If these can be identified, what types of policy initiatives might improve the performance of firms, especially those run by women? The authors recommend : channeling credit to small businesses, promoting cooperatives and self-help associations, providing technical assistance in basic management, making it easier and cheaper to get business licenses and facilitating cooperative child care centers.Banks&Banking Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Poverty Assessment,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies

Accessing Food in Rural Food Deserts in Iowa and Minnesota

The purpose of this research is to examine the food infrastructure (grocery stores and food safety net services) available to meet the food needs of people living in high poverty rural places. Random mail surveys (n=1,516), purposeful in-person surveys (n=665), and market basket food price surveys of 130 USDA Thrifty Food Plan items in 16 grocery stores in six rural counties in Iowa and Minnesota provide data for this analysis. We find that Iowa rural users of food safety net services are more likely to depend on others to get to the grocery store (5.6-6.2%) compared to similar population in Minnesota (3.1-3.5%). The general rural population is more likely to perceive local institutions are working together to solve food access problems than users of food safety net services. Minnesota average rural food prices are significantly higher than in rural Iowa grocery stores during similar time periods. Minnesota stores have significantly more costly fresh fruits and vegetables, canned fruits and vegetables, breads and cereal, milk and dairy products and meat and meat alternatives. We conclude that rural residents may share similar food infrastructure but experience it differently depending on income, food insecurity, food prices, transportation and how local government and church leadership engage in solving community food problems

Obstetrician-assessed maternal health at pregnancy predicts offspring future health

Background: We aimed to examine the association between obstetrician assessment of maternal physical health at the time of pregnancy and offspring cardiovascular disease risk.<p></p> Methods and Principal Findings: We examined this association in a birth cohort of 11,106 individuals, with 245,000 person years of follow-up. We were concerned that any associations might be explained by residual confounding, particularly by family socioeconomic position. In order to explore this we used multivariable regression models in which we adjusted for a range of indicators of socioeconomic position and we explored the specificity of the association. Specificity of association was explored by examining associations with other health related outcomes. Maternal physical health was associated with cardiovascular disease: adjusted (socioeconomic position, complications of pregnancy, birthweight and childhood growth at mean age 5) hazard ratio comparing those described as having poor or very poor health at the time of pregnancy to those with good or very good health was 1.55 (95%CI: 1.05, 2.28) for coronary heart disease, 1.91 (95%CI: 0.99, 3.67) for stroke and 1.57 (95%CI: 1.13, 2.18) for either coronary heart disease or stroke. However, this association was not specific. There were strong associations for other outcomes that are known to be related to socioeconomic position (3.61 (95%CI: 1.04, 12.55) for lung cancer and 1.28 (95%CI:1.03, 1.58) for unintentional injury), but not for breast cancer (1.10 (95%CI:0.48, 2.53)).<p></p> Conclusions and Significance: These findings demonstrate that a simple assessment of physical health (based on the appearance of eyes, skin, hair and teeth) of mothers at the time of pregnancy is a strong indicator of the future health risk of their offspring for common conditions that are associated with poor socioeconomic position and unhealthy behaviours. They do not support a specific biological link between maternal health across her life course and future risk of cardiovascular disease in her offspring.<p></p&gt

Student Perceptions of the Teacher-Counselor Role at the Albina Youth Opportunity School

This project is a descriptive study of the Albina Youth Opportunity School of Portland, Oregon. The school is described as one whose primary function is to help disadvantaged students who have extreme social and academic problems. The study focused on the students\u27 perception of their teachers, who are defined by the school as teacher-counselors. Of the seventy full-time students, sixty-five participated in the study, and five refused to do so. The major questions of the study were concerned with the students\u27 assessment of the teacher-counselors characteristics. Main areas for exploration dealt with the students\u27 perception of the role of a teacher-counselor in relation to their specific needs. Factors taken into consideration were sex, age, length of attendance at the school, and the student\u27s belief that the teacher-counselor liked or disliked him. A questionnaire was administered to each student in order to determine his assessment of the teacher-counselor role. Date was analyzed with the help of scale-measured attitudes of variables dealing with teaching and counseling items and tests of significance. Indices were computed from the data. Descriptive statistics included the use of frequency distribution, percentages, means, medians, and correlations. Study findings indicated that some students see the role differently, and some differences were difficult to interpret in terms of specific traits. There were differences in perception associated with the factors of sex, end length of attendance at the school. The findings suggest that the student\u27s belief that the teacher-counselor like or dislike s him or her is associated with perception. They also yield evidence that the students perceive the teacher-counselor concept as a duel role. Implications are that the students who attend this school are being provided learning environment which is helpful to their needs

Interactions Between the Effects of Nitrogen, and Phosphorus, Potassium and Sulphur on Grass Production

The interactions between rates of nitrogen (N) and rates of phosphorus (P), potassium (K) or sulphur (S) on yield of ryegrass dominant swards were measured with no return of mown clippings in Southland, New Zealand. In the second year of the trial, the yield response to 176 kg N ha-1 compared with no N increased only slightly with increasing soil Olsen P from 8 to 91 µg g-1 soil. At 352 and 704 kg N ha-1 there was a large increase in the yield response (from 5 to 9.4 and 11 t DM ha-1 respectively) up to an Olsen P of 55 µg g-1 soil. At 176 kg N ha-1, there was a linear yield response (from 3.5 to 6.5 t DM ha-1) as ammonium acetate extracted soil K increased from 80 to 120 µg g-1 soil. A larger yield response to K (from 3.5 to 13.5 t DM ha-1) was measured up to but not above 240 µg K g-1 soil at 352 and 704 kg N ha-1. The yield response to 352 and 704 kg N ha-1 increased with soil S status (from 8.2 to 11.8 t DM ha-1) up to 15 µg calcium phosphate extractable S g-1 soil. These results demonstrated that yield responses to increasing rates of N do not increase above a threshold level of other soil nutrients