Micro-Perspectives on 19th-century Russian Living Standards

Russia, livings standards, economic history

Micro-Perspectives on Living Standards in Nineteenth-Century Russia

In recent years economic historians have turned new attention to questions about standards of living in pre-revolutionary Russia. However, most of the studies to date have focused on a narrow range of measures for predominantly urban areas. We expand on the existing literature with a micro-level analysis, which employs a broader set of measures of wellbeing for a small rural region in central Russia. Our findings suggest that living standards were improving over the nineteenth century, even in such seemingly less dynamic rural areas. Income and consumption patterns, human capital development, and the distribution of resources in the countryside were more variegated than a ‘subsistence’ approach has typically allowed. The micro-level context presented here suggests that state and local institutions should be emphasized in future analyses of rural living standards in pre-Soviet Russia.Russia, livings standards, economic history

The fate of the reform: Russian peasantry in government policy before and after the abolition of serfdom (1830-1890-ies)

In this impressive new book, Igor΄ Khristoforov assesses the impact of the 1861 emancipation legislation on rural Russia. How successful were the state’s attempts to reform the countryside in the mid-nineteenth century? “Not very” is the answer to emerge from this compelling account. According to Khristoforov, the legislation was fraught with contradictions and ambiguities, resulting from attempts to reconcile the reformers’ diverse ideological positions within a set of institutional and fiscal constraints. This half-baked legislative compromise, forged by members of a ruling elite who understood few of the challenges faced by peasants, exacerbated rural under development and thus facilitated the emergence of the even more ideologically motivated “counter-reforms” of the 1870s. This string of failed attempts to improve conditions in the countryside ultimately led to a new effort, the Stolypin reforms, in the early twentieth century

The Institutional Revolution: Measurement and the Economic Emergence of the Modern World

For Douglas Allen, the past can be divided roughly into two eras: the old times, characterized by peculiar and exotic institutions, such as dueling, venality, and patronage, and the modern era, characterized by wages and prices, technology, and meritocracy. Allen argues that the transition, c. 1850, from the old world to the new was effected by more precise, standardized systems of measurement. Before the modern era it was impossible to measure the most basic things: time, distance, trade volume, labor productivity. As economies gradually expanded with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, new institutions, such as standardized forms of measurement, were created to reduce transactions costs, making growth and wealth creation possible

Does the European Marriage Pattern Explain Economic Growth?

This article scrutinizes the recently postulated link between the European Marriage Pattern (EMP) and economic success. Multivariate analysis of 4,705 demographic observations, covering women’s marriage age, female lifetime celibacy, and household complexity in 39 European countries, shows that the most extreme manifestations of the EMP were associated with economic stagnation rather than growth. There is no evidence that the EMP improved economic performance by empowering women, increasing human capital investment, adjusting population to economic trends, or sustaining beneficial cultural norms. European economic success was not caused by the EMP and its sources must therefore be sought in other factors

Development of a novel, multifunctional, membrane-interactive pyridinium salt with potent anticancer activity

The synthesis and biological evaluation of a novel pyridinium salt is reported. Initial membrane interaction with isolated phospholipid monolayers was obtained with the pyridinium salt, and two neutral analogues for comparison, and the anticancer effects of the best compound established using a cytotoxicity screening assay against glioma cells using both an established cell line and three short-term cell cultures – one of which has been largely resistant to all chemotherapeutic drugs tested to date. The results indicate that the pyridinium salt exhibits potent anticancer activity (EC50s = 9.8-312.5 μM) on all cell types, including the resistant one, for a continuous treatment of 72 hours. Microscopic examination of the treated cells using a trypan blue exclusion assay showed membrane lysis had occurred. Therefore, this letter highlights the potential for a new class of pyridinium salt to be developed as a much needed alternative treatment for glioma chemotherapy

Engaging Patients with Heart Failure into the Design of Health System Interventions: Impact on Research Methods

Purpose: To engage patients with heart failure (HF) to assess if changes are needed in a research study design, methods and outcomes when transferring interventions used in urban/community hospitals to rural hospital settings. Design: A qualitative structured interview was conducted. Method: Eight patients from two rural hospitals participated in an interview prior to discharge. Results: Patients validated the study design, measures and outcomes, but identified one area that should be added to the study protocol, symptom experience. Conclusion: Patient interviews validated that the intervention, methods and outcomes were important, but modifications to the study protocol resulted. Patient engagement in the conceptualization of patient centered outcome research is essential to guide the investigator approach to studies

Does the European marriage pattern explain economic growth?

This article scrutinizes the recently postulated link between the European Marriage Pattern (EMP) and economic success. Multivariate analysis of 4,705 demographic observations, covering women's marriage age, female lifetime celibacy, and household complexity in 39 European countries, shows that the most extreme manifestations of the EMP were associated with economic stagnation rather than growth. There is no evidence that the EMP improved economic performance by empowering women, increasing human capital investment, adjusting population to economic trends, or sustaining beneficial cultural norms. European economic success was not caused by the EMP and its sources must therefore be sought in other factors.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from CUP at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9335236&fileId=S0022050714000564

A population of gamma-ray emitting globular clusters seen with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Globular clusters with their large populations of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are believed to be potential emitters of high-energy gamma-ray emission. Our goal is to constrain the millisecond pulsar populations in globular clusters from analysis of gamma-ray observations. We use 546 days of continuous sky-survey observations obtained with the Large Area Telescope aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to study the gamma-ray emission towards 13 globular clusters. Steady point-like high-energy gamma-ray emission has been significantly detected towards 8 globular clusters. Five of them (47 Tucanae, Omega Cen, NGC 6388, Terzan 5, and M 28) show hard spectral power indices $(0.7 < \Gamma <1.4)$ and clear evidence for an exponential cut-off in the range 1.0-2.6 GeV, which is the characteristic signature of magnetospheric emission from MSPs. Three of them (M 62, NGC 6440 and NGC 6652) also show hard spectral indices $(1.0 < \Gamma < 1.7)$, however the presence of an exponential cut-off can not be unambiguously established. Three of them (Omega Cen, NGC 6388, NGC 6652) have no known radio or X-ray MSPs yet still exhibit MSP spectral properties. From the observed gamma-ray luminosities, we estimate the total number of MSPs that is expected to be present in these globular clusters. We show that our estimates of the MSP population correlate with the stellar encounter rate and we estimate 2600-4700 MSPs in Galactic globular clusters, commensurate with previous estimates. The observation of high-energy gamma-ray emission from a globular cluster thus provides a reliable independent method to assess their millisecond pulsar populations that can be used to make constraints on the original neutron star X-ray binary population, essential for understanding the importance of binary systems in slowing the inevitable core collapse of globular clusters.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. Corresponding authors: J. Kn\"odlseder, N. Webb, B. Pancraz