scholarly journals Did Improvements in Household Technology Cause the Baby Boom? Evidence from Electrification, Appliance Diffusion, and the Amish

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha J Bailey ◽  
William J Collins

We examine the hypothesis that advances in household technology caused the US baby boom, and we find no support for this claim. Advances in household technology occurred before the baby boom, while fertility declined. From 1940 to 1960, levels/changes in county-level appliance ownership and electrification negatively predict levels/changes in fertility rates. Exposure to electricity in early adulthood and children-ever-born are negatively correlated for the relevant cohorts. The Amish, who used modern technologies much less than other US households, experienced a coincident baby boom. This evidence can be reconciled with economic theory if other home-produced goods are substitutes with children. (JEL D12, J13, N32, N92, O33)

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 601-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew B. Rosenkrantz ◽  
Wenyi Wang ◽  
Danny R. Hughes ◽  
Richard Duszak

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-02
Author(s):  
Amycus Alecto

Patients with bipolar disorder are exceptionally challenging to manage because of the dynamic, chronic, and fluctuating nature of their disease. Typically, the symptoms of bipolar disorder first appear in adolescence or early adulthood, and are repeated over the patient's lifetime, expressed as unpredictable recurrences of hypomanic/manic or depressive episodes. The lifetime prevalence of bipolar disorder in adults is reported to be approximately 4%, and its management was estimated to cost the US healthcare system in 2009 $150 billion in combined direct and indirect costs.


Author(s):  
A. Dolinkiy

Education exchanges are a key element of public diplomacy for most countries that considered effective in that domain of foreign policy activities. Education exchanges are attributed an important role in the post-war peace settlement between Germany and France and in determining the outcome of the Cold war. Relevant aspects of public diplomacy remain key elements of foreign policy instruments of the US, Germany and many other countries. Russia has been increasingly active in public diplomacy in the past decade and the role of education exchanges has been increasing which is also demonstrated by a growing number of expert publications on the subject. However the strategy, the quality of organization and the use of modern technologies remain at a relatively low level which leads to an inefficient use of resources. Priority issues that can be a core of Russia's public diplomacy (and foreign policy in general). Moreover, systemic work would be required to evaluate efficiency of current and complete projects which would allow determine effectiveness of programs and appropriateness of resources used. Education exchanges need to be targeted at both bringing international students to Russia and assisting Russian students to study internationally and professors to teach abroad. Finally, international best practices show that there is a need to maintain connections with international exchanges alumni and assist them to maintain connections with each other including with the use of modern technologies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (s1) ◽  
pp. 31-32
Author(s):  
Alexander J Layden ◽  
Janet Catov

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Preterm birth is the most common birth complication in the United States. To date, there are no effective public health strategies to reduce the burden of prematurity. Using geospatial information system (GIS) mapping, we identified the most salient risk factors of preterm birth across US counties targetable for future interventions. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Risk factors of preterm birth were identified from the perinatal health nonprofit organization, March of Dimes, and included factors such as obesity, smoking, insurance coverage and poverty. US 2013 county-level data on sociodemographic characteristics, behavioral risk factors and preterm birth were extracted and combined from the American Census, Center for Disease Control, and US Health Resources and Services Administration. Spatial autocorrelation and multivariate spatial regression were used to determine the risk factors most strongly associated with preterm birth. These models were adjusted for race, given well-documented race disparities for preterm birth. As a case-study comparison, we mapped risk factors in the two states with the highest and lowest proportion of preterm births in 2013. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: In our preliminary analysis, obesity was the factor most strongly associated with preterm birth (ß = 7.32, SE: 1.13, p<0.001) at the US county-level. Surprisingly, smoking was not found to be significantly associated with preterm birth. In 2013, Vermont had the lowest prevalence of preterm birth at 7.6% and Mississippi had the highest prevalence of preterm birth at 13.1%. Health insurance coverage and obesity were the two risk factors that differed between Vermont and Mississippi. The median proportion of uninsured individuals in Mississippi counties was four times higher than that of Vermont counties (26.3% vs 10.9%, p<0.01). Similarly, the median obesity prevalence in Mississippi counties was significantly higher than the median obesity prevalence in Vermont counties (38.8% vs. 25.2%). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Public health efforts aimed at reducing obesity and increasing health insurance coverage may have the greatest impact at addressing the US burden of preterm birth. Further, geospatial mapping is a powerful analytic tool to identify regions in the US where preterm birth interventions would be most beneficial.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (15) ◽  
pp. 3879-3884 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Blau ◽  
Bruce A. Weinberg

The science and engineering workforce has aged rapidly in recent years, both in absolute terms and relative to the workforce as a whole. This is a potential concern if the large number of older scientists crowds out younger scientists, making it difficult for them to establish independent careers. In addition, scientists are believed to be most creative earlier in their careers, so the aging of the workforce may slow the pace of scientific progress. We develop and simulate a demographic model, which shows that a substantial majority of recent aging is a result of the aging of the large baby boom cohort of scientists. However, changes in behavior have also played a significant role, in particular, a decline in the retirement rate of older scientists, induced in part by the elimination of mandatory retirement in universities in 1994. Furthermore, the age distribution of the scientific workforce is still adjusting. Current retirement rates and other determinants of employment in science imply a steady-state mean age 2.3 y higher than the 2008 level of 48.6.


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