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Background: International and migrant students face specific challenges which may impact their mental health, well-being and academic outcomes, and these may be gendered experiences. The purpose of this scoping review was to map the literature on the challenges, coping responses and supportive interventions for international and migrant students in academic nursing programs in major host countries, with a gender lens. Methods: We searched 10 databases to identify literature reporting on the challenges, coping responses and/or supportive interventions for international and migrant nursing students in college or university programs in Canada, the United-States, Australia, New Zealand or a European country. We included peer-reviewed research (any design), discussion papers and literature reviews. English, French and Spanish publications were considered and no time restrictions were applied. Drawing from existing frameworks, we critically assessed each paper and extracted information with a gender lens. Results: One hundred fourteen publications were included. Overall the literature mostly focused on international students, and among migrants, migration history/status and length of time in country were not considered with regards to challenges, coping or interventions. Females and males, respectively, were included in 69 and 59% of studies with student participants, while those students who identify as other genders/sexual orientations were not named or identified in any of the research. Several papers suggest that foreign-born nursing students face challenges associated with different cultural roles, norms and expectations for men and women. Other challenges included perceived discrimination due to wearing a hijab and being a 'foreign-born male nurse', and in general nursing being viewed as a feminine, low-status profession. Only two strategies, accessing support from family and other student mothers, used by women to cope with challenges, were identified. Supportive interventions considering gender were limited; these included matching students with support services' personnel by sex, involving male family members in admission and orientation processes, and using patient simulation as a method to prepare students for care-provision of patients of the opposite-sex. Conclusion: Future work in nursing higher education, especially regarding supportive interventions, needs to address the intersections of gender, gender identity/sexual orientation and foreign-born status, and also consider the complexity of migrant students' contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the paper "Cash, Paper, and Electronic Payments: A Cross-Country Analysis," by David B. Humphrey, Lawrence B. Pulley, and Jukka M. Vesala, published in the November 2, 1996 issue of "The Journal of Money, Credit and Banking." He states that the writers expand on the payments system framework to consider cross-country variation, but suggests that if countries are idiosyncratic with basic cultural factors causing differences in the payment systems rather than the countries being at different development stages, then cross-country comparisons can give misleading forecasts. He comments on differences between the U.S. and several European countries concerning noncash transactions.

Copyright of Jurídicas CUC is the property of Corporacion Universidad de la Costa, CUC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Biotherapeutics dominate the pipelines of pharmaceutical companies across the world today with products ranging from hormones, immune-modulators, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), blood coagulation factors, enzymes and vaccines. However, they are considerably more expensive than their small molecule counterparts (pharmaceuticals) and as a result their contribution to the already unacceptably high healthcare costs in the developed economies (Europe, United States, Japan, Canada and South Korea) has been in the limelight in the last decade. This has resulted in the rise of biosimilars, seen as the affordable versions of innovator biotherapeutics. As the developed economies form the majority of the global sales of biotherapeutics, they are an attractive market for the biosimilars as well. Regulatory considerations for approval of biosimilars in these jurisdictions is likely to have a major impact on the adoption of biosimilars. In this paper, we offer a perspective on this topic while focusing on the developed markets. This article summarizes the main regulatory requirements for approval of biosimilars in Europe, United States, Japan, Canada, and South Korea. An overview on current biosimilars status and market in the aforesaid countries has also been included., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This paper examines twelve banking crises that occurred in developed countries between the 1970s and 1990s and highlights the macroeconomic adjustment paths experienced during these episodes. The banking crises were generally preceded by financial deregulation, which sparked rapid real credit growth and asset price inflation. During the booms, the lending standards of banks deteriorated and prudential supervision was inadequate. The most serious crises coincided with deep and prolonged slowdowns in economic activity, starting with falling credit growth and asset prices, followed by a sharp fall in investment and a slowing in consumption, partly offset by a rise in net exports. Governments responded with a range of policies to restore the health of the banking sector, along with monetary and fiscal stimulus. The paper concludes by comparing these past crises with the recent banking crises in the United States and parts of Europe, where the deterioration of lending standards appears to have been an important factor once again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Diabetes is more prevalent among overweight/obese individuals, but has become a significant public health challenge among normal-weight populations. In this meta-analysis, we aimed to estimate diabetes/prediabetes incidence and its temporal trends by weight status. Methods PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched until 8 December 2021. Prospective cohort studies reporting diabetes incidence by baseline body mass index (BMI) categories in adults were included. The median year of data collection was used to assess the temporal trends. Subgroup analyses and meta-regression were also performed. Results We included 94 studies involving 3.4 million adults from 22 countries. The pooled diabetes incidence in underweight, normal-weight, and overweight/obese adults was 4.5 (95% confidence interval (CI)=2.8-7.3), 2.7 (95% CI=2.2-3.3), and 10.5 (95% CI=9.3-11.8) per 1000 person-years, respectively. The diabetes incidence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) was higher than in high-income countries among normal-weight (5.8 vs 2.0 per 1000 person-years) or overweight/obese (15.9 vs 8.9 per 1000 person-years) adults. European and American regions had a higher diabetes incidence than the non-Western areas, regardless of weight status. Underweight diabetes incidence decreased significantly from 1995-2000 to 2005-2010. Diabetes incidence in normal-weight populations has increased continuously since 1985 by an estimated 36% every five years. In overweight/obese adults, diabetes incidence increased between 1985-1990 and 1995-2000, stabilised between 2000 and 2010, and spiked suddenly after 2010. Conclusions Diabetes incidence and its temporal trends differed by weight status. The continuous upward trend of diabetes incidence among overweight/obese individuals requires urgent attention, particularly in LMICs. Furthermore, diabetes among normal-weight individuals is becoming a significant public health problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Midlife, beginning at 40 years and extending to 65 years, a range that encompasses the late reproductive to late menopausal stages, is a unique time in women's lives, when hormonal and physical changes are often accompanied by psychological and social evolution. Access to sexual health and sexual well-being (SHSW) services, which include the prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, contraception and the support of sexual function, pleasure and safety, is important for the health of midlife women, their relationships and community cohesion. The objective was to use the socio-ecological model to synthesise the barriers and enablers to SHSW services for midlife women in high-income countries. A systematic review of the enablers and barriers to women (including trans-gender and non-binary people) aged 40–65 years accessing SHSW services in high-income countries was undertaken. Four databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Google Scholar) were searched for peer-reviewed publications. Findings were thematically extracted and reported in a narrative synthesis. Eighty-one studies were included; a minority specifically set out to study SHSW care for midlife women. The key barriers that emerged were the intersecting disadvantage of under-served groups, poor knowledge, about SHSW, and SHSW services, among women and their healthcare professionals (HCPs), and the over-arching effect of stigma, social connections and psychological factors on access to care. Enablers included intergenerational learning, interdisciplinary and one-stop women-only services, integration of SHSW into other services, peer support programmes, representation of minoritised midlife women working in SHSW, local and free facilities and financial incentives to access services for under-served groups. Efforts are needed to enhance education about SHSW and related services among midlife women and their healthcare providers. This increased education should be leveraged to improve research, public health messaging, interventions, policy development and access to comprehensive services, especially for midlife women from underserved groups. Plain language summary: Sexual health and sexual wellbeing services for midlife women in high income countries Midlife, beginning at 40 years and extending to 65 years, a range that encompasses the late reproductive to late menopausal stages, is a unique time in women's lives. Access to Sexual Health and Sexual Wellbeing (SHSW) services, which include the prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, contraception and the support of sexual function, pleasure and safety, is important for the health of midlife women, their relationships and community cohesion. The objective of this systematic review was to use the socio-ecological model to synthesise the barriers and enablers to SHSW services for midlife women in high income countries. Eighty-one studies were included; a minority specifically set out to study SHSW care for midlife women. The key barriers that emerged were the intersecting disadvantage of under-served groups, poor knowledge, about SHSW, and SHSW services, among women and their HealthCare Professionals (HCPs), and the over-arching effect of stigma, social connections, and psychological factors on access to care. Enablers included intergenerational learning, interdisciplinary and one-stop women-only services, integration of SHSW into other services, peer support programmes, representation of minoritised midlife women working in SHSW, local and free facilities, and financial incentives for under-served groups to access services. The appetite for education about SHSW and SHSW services among midlife women and their HCPs should be capitalised upon, and utilised to improve research, public health messaging, interventions and access to holistic services, particularly for midlife women from under-served groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is a giant market with a population of Europe and Japan combined, and highly diversified with respect to culture, natural resources, economic development, and political regimes. Yet, the continent is largely ignored with respect to research on the multinational activities of U.S. firms. In this paper, we provide the first evidence regarding the operating characteristics of U.S. firms that operate in Africa. We find that firms with operations in Africa are larger, more diversified, and more profitable than a matched control sample of multinational firms. This paper also shows that technology firms, manufacturing firms, and mining firms dominate the rest of companies operating in Africa. Certain geographical regions in Africa also seem to attract more companies than others, with Southern Africa being the most preferred region, while Central Africa is the least preferred. Finally, when a multinational firm invests in a specific country in Africa, it tends to do so in several business sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Office buildings are thought to be significant sources of energy use and emissions in industrialized countries, but quantitative assessments of all of the phases of the service life of office buildings are still quite rare. In order to enable environmentally conscious design and management, this paper presents life-cycle assessments of newly constructed European and U.S. office buildings from materials production through construction, use, and maintenance to end-of-life treatment. The significant environmental aspects indicate the dominance of the use phase in the quantified environmental categories, but draw attention to the importance of embedded materials and expected maintenance investments throughout the assumed 50-year service life, especially for particulate matter emissions. The relevance of the materials, construction, maintenance, and end-of-life phases relative to the use of buildings is expected to increase considerably as functional obsolescence of office buildings becomes more rapid, and complete reconstruction and reconfiguration become more frequent. By quantifying the energy use and environmental emissions of each life-cycle phase in more detail, the elements that cause significant emissions can be identified and targeted for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the long-term (1970-2002) rates of real growth in health spending per capita in the United States and a group of high-income countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Real health spending growth is decomposed into population aging, overall economic growth, and excess growth. Although rates of aging and overall economic growth were similar, annual excess growth was much higher in the United States (2.0 percent) versus the OECD countries studied (1.1 percent). That difference, which is of an economically important magnitude, suggests that country-specific institutional factors might contribute to long-term health spending trends.

We summarized the findings of several studies of ours to compare the quantity and quality of published research from around the world for the years 1995 to 2003. We evaluated the number of articles published and their mean journal impact factor. We also studied the research productivity of various areas adjusted for gross domestic product (GDP) and population. We found that Western Europe leads the world in published research on infectious diseases-microbiology (82,342 articles [38.8%]) and in cardiopulmonary medicine (67,783 articles [39.5%]), whereas the United States ranks first in the fields of preventive medicine, public health and epidemiology both in quantity (23,918 articles [49.1%]) and quality of published papers. However, after adjustments for GDP, Canada ranked first, with the United States and Oceania following closely behind. All of the developing regions had only small research contributions in all of the biomedical fields examined.

Background: It is widely acknowledged that there is a global divide on health care and health research known as the 10/90 divide., Methods: A retrospective survey of articles published in the BMJ, Lancet, NEJM, Annals of Internal Medicine & JAMA in a calendar year to examine the contribution of the developing world to medical literature. We categorized countries into four regions: UK, USA, Other Euro-American countries (OEAC) and (RoW). OEAC were European countries other than the UK but including Australia, New Zealand and Canada. RoW comprised all other countries., Results: The average contribution of the RoW to the research literature in the five journals was 6.5%. In the two British journals 7.6% of the articles were from the RoW; in the three American journals 4.8% of articles were from RoW. The highest proportion of papers from the RoW was in the Lancet (12%). An analysis of the authorship of 151 articles from RoW showed that 104 (68.9%) involved authorship with developed countries in Europe or North America. There were 15 original papers in these journals with data from RoW but without any authors from RoW., Conclusions: There is a marked under-representation of countries in high-impact general medical journals. The ethical implications of this inequity and ways of reducing it are discussed.

This paper examines causality and parameter instability in the long-run relationship between fertility and women's employment. This is done by a cross-national comparison of macro-level time-series data from 1960 to 2000 for France, West Germany, Italy, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. By applying vector error correction models (a combination of Granger-causality tests with recent econometric time-series techniques) we find causality in both directions. This finding is consistent with simultaneous movements of both variables brought about by common exogenous factors such as social norms, social institutions, financial incentives, and the availability and acceptability of contraception. We find a negative and significant correlation until about the mid-1970s and an insignificant or weaker negative correlation afterwards. This result is consistent with a recent hypothesis in the demographic literature according to which changes in the institutional context, such as changes in childcare availability and attitudes towards working mothers, might have reduced the incompatibility between child-rearing and the employment of women.

The paper compares the design and outcome of public subsidies to business across a number of industrialized countries. The comparison of the amount of subsidies shows that the share of GDP devoted to total public support is markedly lower in the USA than in Europe but the share of GDP devoted to support that improves economic performance is comparable. Implementing public support follows two models. The first model (Anglo-Saxon) model is primarily 'soft' in nature and decentralized. The second model is more interventionist and centralized. The former model seems to perform better especially in term of science and technology. However, the impact of public support policies remains seriously under-researched and more research is crucially needed to draw firm conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a game theoretic model to explain empirical research which has revealed higher relational satisfaction among married couples than cohabiting couples, as well as among married couples who did not cohabit before marriage. Despite these findings, in recent decades cohabitation rates have dramatically increased in both Europe and the United States. Instrumental variables estimations on data from 28 industrialized countries and 50 U.S. states show cohabitation strongly correlated with increases in women's labor force participation, where a 10 percent increase in women's labor force participation results in a 6.4 to 14.6 percent increase in cohabitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution of health services to improvements in health is contentious. The main aim of the present study was to assess the relative contribution that dental services may have made to the changes in dental caries (decayed, missing or filled permanent teeth) level of 12-year-old children in some industrialized countries in the 1970s and early 1980s. A secondary aim was an analysis of the association of the changes in caries levels with broad socioeconomic factors. In this study aggregate (ecological) data from 18 industrialized countries were analyzed at a national level. Data were obtained from published papers and official publications and included 3 kinds of variables: caries, presence of dental service and broad socioeconomic factors (including fluoridated toothpastes). Dental services explained 3% of the variation in changes in 12-year-old caries levels in the 1970s and early 1980s period whereas broad socioeconomic factors (including or excluding fluoridated toothpastes) explained 65%. The findings suggest that dental services were relatively unimportant in explaining the differences in changes in 12 year-old caries levels in the 1970s and early 1980s in the 18 countries. The view that fluoride in toothpaste was the only important cause of the declines in decayed, missing or filled permanent teeth in industrialized countries was questioned. A possible important contribution of the dental services to the declines was a change in the diagnostic and treatment criteria of caries.

Although rabies in domestic and wild animals represents a significant threat to public health and can cause economic losses among livestock, there are very few studies that examine the economics of rabies in animals. The literature that does exist can be characterised as poorly documented estimates of costs, with insufficient information to allow replication of the analyses. Most papers have numerous 'violations' of the standard recommended procedures for assessing burden of disease and the cost and benefits of interventions. For example, most studies do not distinguish between financial charges and true economic costs. Further, despite the fact that controlling rabies in animal populations is often a multi-year task, only a few papers contain a multi-year framework, complete with discounting of future costs and benefits. Globally, dog-transmitted rabies represents the largest threat to human health. In order to prevent the transmission of rabies in a dog population, it is theoretically necessary to vaccinate a minimum of 60 to 70% of the dogs. Even countries with potentially sufficient resources, however, do not often meet and sustain these rates. One reason for such failure might be that individual dog owners might feel that it is too expensive to vaccinate their pets. Recent estimates in the US of the cost of vaccinating dogs range from $US16 to $US24 per dog. In developing countries, estimates range from $US0.52 in Thailand, to $US1.19 in the Philippines, to $US2.70 in Malawi. None of these estimates include indirect costs accured by the pet owners. Lethal methods of dog population control are even more expensive, and attempting to control rabies by reducing dog populations has not worked for any extended period. Rabies in livestock is often reported, but the impact in the US and most developed countries appears relatively small. Vampire bat-transmitted rabies in Latin America appears to be the most serious rabies problem in livestock. The largest cost due to wildlife rabies is the cost of vaccinating domestic animals, both large and small. In the US, domestic animals face multiple sources of wildlife rabies. Attributing the entire cost of vaccinating domestic animals to 1 species can result in the over estimation of the benefits of immunising a given wildlife population via vaccine-laden baits. For example, despite a definite decline in the number of rabid foxes, it has been difficult to obtain the promised benefits of using oral vaccines in Europe to control fox rabies. Other authors maintain that the use of oral vaccines to control fox rabies is cost beneficial, but there are no convincing data supporting that claim. Additionally, vaccinating raccoons with an oral vaccine requires approximately 4 times more vaccine-laden baits vaccinating foxes, which makes it highly questionable if it would be cost beneficial to use oral vaccine to attempt raccoon rabies elimination in areas where it is already enzootic. The economics of using oral vaccines to prevent raccoon rabies invading uninfected areas has yet to be examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses in a comparative framework the relations between construction of collective identity and those of state-civil society relations in three modern settings--namely, in a general way Europe, the United States and Japan--the three major modern industrialized societies, with a brief comparative glance at Latin America. This analysis is based on the assumption first that collective identity is not naturally generated but socially constructed: it is the international or non-intentional consequence of interactions which on their turn are socially patterned and structured. Collective identity depends on special processes of induction of the members in the collectivity, ranging from various rites of initiation to various collective rituals, in which the attribute of "similarity" among its members as against the strangeness, the differences the distinction of the other, is symbolically constructed and defined. Constructing boundaries and constructing a basis for trust solidarity and communal equality are two aspects of such processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on a study by S. H. Woolf, published in the issue about life expectancy in the U.S. She discusses some caveats on the comparisons presented by Woolf in discussing methodology and data, three of the four causes that Woolf notes are causing midlife mortality to rise in the U.S., and results that do not make a lack of higher education causal in the higher mortality rates for those without a four-year college degree.

This study aims to provide some empirical explanations for the gaps in information and communication technologies (ICT) diffusion between industrialized countries and especially between European countries and the USA. National macro-economic panel data are mobilized for 11 OECD countries over the 1981–2005 period. The analysis is based on factor demand estimates. It provides some original results: (i) the impact on ICT diffusion is positive for the level of education and negative for market rigidities, and both increased over time (in absolute terms) until mid-1990s; (ii) in each country, the price-elasticity of demand for ICT decreased (in absolute terms) over time, from 2 at the beginning of the 1980s to 1 in the middle of the 2000s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper the author wishes to point out the socio-demographical and geographical causes and consequences of the occurrence and growth of slums in the modern world. He draws attention to the problem of slums in the modern rich capitalist world and at the same time focuses on the problems and features of these housing areas in the United States of America and Europe, and then sheds light on the socio-demographical features of these housing areas in Asia, Africa and South America. Slums are analyzed as a chain of consequences of class and ethnic differentiations not only within a single state, but also as a chain of consequences of international differentiations, segregations and expulsions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, men's and women's time use in industrialized nations has changed dramatically, suggesting a gender revolution. Women increased their time in paid work and reduced time in unpaid activities, while men increased their time in unpaid work, but not enough to compensate for women's retreat. We investigate developments regarding men's and women's unpaid work across Europe and the United States, using time diary data from the mid‐1980s and onward. We find evidence for gender convergence in unpaid work over time, but different trends for housework and childcare. Gender convergence in housework primarily resulted from women reducing their time, whereas childcare time increased for both sexes, resulting in convergence only where men increased more than did women. Decomposition analyses show that trends in housework and childcare are explained by changes in behavior rather than compositional changes in population characteristics. Though level differences in unpaid work persist, our findings regarding trends support gender convergence in that they are general across country contexts that vary regarding policy and social norms about gender, family, and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While we know that living alone is often associated w ith greater risk of financial hardship, we have limited knowledge on the possible link between the availability of public support and independent living. We use data from the 2 0 14 Health and Retirement Study and the 201 1-2015 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to compare income and wealth profiles of the population aged 60 and above who are living alone in the United States and 19 European countries. We find that the likelihood of living alone is higher in generous welfare states, with social support and spending both positively associated with living alone. The relationship between personal resources and living alone has a smaller positive gradient in countries with robust welfare systems. The lack of adequate public support in less generous welfare states may constrain the ability of many low-income older adults with out a partner to continue living independently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues for an evaluation of antenatal care programs of the developed countries. Difficulties in conducting scientific trials to evaluate the programs; Results of some trials on antenatal care from the U.S. and Europe; Reasons for preferring private care to public clinics by women in developed countries; Desirable features of programs of antenatal care.

Copyright of AIDS & Behavior is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Funding models influence provision and development of palliative care services. As palliative care integrates into mainstream health care provision, opportunities to develop funding mechanisms arise. However, little has been reported on what funding models exist or how we can learn from them. Aim: To assess national models and methods for financing and reimbursing palliative care. Design: Initial literature scoping yielded limited evidence on the subject as national policy documents are difficult to identify, access and interpret. We undertook expert consultations to appraise national models of palliative care financing in England, Germany, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and Wales. These represent different levels of service development and a variety of funding mechanisms. Results: Funding mechanisms reflect country-specific context and local variations in care provision. Patterns emerging include the following: • Provider payment is rarely linked to population need and often perpetuates existing inequitable patterns in service provision. • Funding is frequently characterised as a mixed system of charitable, public and private payers. • The basis on which providers are paid for services rarely reflects individual care input or patient needs. Conclusion: Funding mechanisms need to be well understood and used with caution to ensure best practice and minimise perverse incentives. Before we can conduct cross-national comparisons of costs and impact of palliative care, we need to understand the funding and policy context for palliative care in each country of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Concerns about differences in registration practices across countries have limited the use of routine data for international very preterm birth (VPT) rate comparisons.Design: Population-based study.Setting: Twenty-seven European countries, the United States, Canada and Japan in 2010.Population: A total of 9 376 252 singleton births.Method: We requested aggregated gestational age data on live births, stillbirths and terminations of pregnancy (TOP) before 32 weeks of gestation, and information on registration practices for these births. We compared VPT rates and assessed the impact of births at 22-23 weeks of gestation, and different criteria for inclusion of stillbirths and TOP on country rates and rankings.Main Outcome Measures: Singleton very preterm birth rate, defined as singleton stillbirths and live births before 32 completed weeks of gestation per 1000 total births, excluding TOP if identifiable in the data source.Results: Rates varied from 5.7 to 15.7 per 1000 total births and 4.0 to 11.9 per 1000 live births. Country registration practices were related to percentage of births at 22-23 weeks of gestation (between 1% and 23% of very preterm births) and stillbirths (between 6% and 40% of very preterm births). After excluding births at 22-23 weeks, rate variations remained high and with a few exceptions, country rankings were unchanged.Conclusions: International comparisons of very preterm birth rates using routine data should exclude births at 22-23 weeks of gestation and terminations of pregnancy. The persistent large rate variations after these exclusions warrant continued surveillance of VPT rates at 24 weeks and over in high-income countries.Tweetable Abstract: International comparisons of VPT rates should exclude births at 22-23 weeks of gestation and terminations of pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural insurance in developed countries originates in named peril products that were originally offered by private companies approximately two hundred years ago, first in Europe and then in the United States. Today, many agricultural insurance products are offered, most of them heavily subsidized by governments. In the context of developed economies, this article examines the evolution of agricultural insurance products, the economics of the demand and supply sides of agricultural insurance markets, and the economic welfare, political economy, and trade relation implications of private and public agricultural insurance in developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the regulatory approaches used in the U.S., Europe and other developed countries in assessing and managing the quality of ecosystems. It notes the importance of Ecosystem Reality Checks (ERC) as a required step between assessing risk and management actions. It discusses the need to address ecological condition relevant to the sources of stress and incorporate outcomes that propose alternative and iterative management options.

The article presents a comparative analysis between the U.S. and Europe, and the international legal regulations regarding patent laws and traditional knowledge. It highlights the need to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples that will pave way for the economic development of the poor while granting an accessibility to valuable natural resources in the third world. It also suggests on the implementation of a new structure for international intellectual property rights law in an advent of political solidarity and careful consideration from industrialized and developing countries.

As has been widely recognized and commented upon, border controls across Europe and America have been strenuously tightened since September 11th. In fact, of course, the movement of certain non-citizens in and around most western, industrialized countries had been restricted for some time predating the advent of the 'war on terror'. In this article Twill explore the particular use being made in Britain of criminal justice rhetoric and policy as a means of securing the border and the implications of this reliance on criminal justice discourses in the development of immigration and asylum policies. Building on work by David Garland (1996) and Jonathan Simon (2007), I suggest not only that the increased concern over border control reflects a decline in the power of the state in the face of globalization, but also that the adoption of harsh rhetoric about foreigners risks undermining the agency and democratic freedoms long held dear by British citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has often been pointed out in the literature that a symbiotic relationship exists between terrorist groups and the media. As yet, however, no formal model has been built based on this issue and only very little empirical research has been done in this field. The present contribution builds a simple game theoretic model, focussing on the strategic interactions between terrorists and the media. The model has features of a common-interest-game and results in multiple equilibria. After a discussion of the policy implications of the model, an empirical analysis is performed. Using newspaper coverage, terror incidents and terror fatalities data, it is shown that media attention and terrorism do mutually Granger cause each other, as predicted by the model. Moreover, it is explained why terror attacks tend to be “bloodier” in developing countries than in Europe and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how European women are historically bearing their first children later than ever before. In the United States and other countries, entry into parenthood is also seeing delays. Many experts argue that such fertility trends in developed countries are characterized by increasing, persistent, and arguably irreversible delays in childbearing in many socioeconomic conditions. Many of the informal age deadlines for childbearing are apparently being challenged and biological limits are being pushed. The article also presents information about the physiological aspects of late fertility and discusses the effect of new technologies on conception and pregnancy. Sweden's late and very late fertility is also examined.

How well is the United States really doing? Money isn't everything, says this economist. He takes a broader look at the standard of living in the United States compared to other rich nations and finds the United States lags in several key ways, including the fact that Europeans are now taller on average than Americans. Greater tolerance of inequality in the distribution of income and wealth in the United States than in Europe may have taken its toll. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on research analyzing similarities and differences among 19 rich democracies, this article compares the economic performance of big spenders and lean spenders at a similar economic level from 1950 to the late 1990s. Going beyond aggregate public spending, it shows the contrasting effects of particular types of spending and taxing and particular social policies. I highlight the extraordinary continuity of the contrasting institutions and policy directions of these countries. I find that there is not one road to good economic performance, but several. I specify five types of political economy, each with its own costs and gains in people's well-being, both economic and noneconomic. A final summary compares extremes: the confrontational "low road" pursued by the USA and the "high road" pursued by the strongest consensual democracies of Continental Europe, where social partners have negotiated real reforms in expensive social policies while preserving social cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prominent figures in our profession have quite recently offered clear cut views on the present distribution of prosperity and depression among the advanced industrial countries, see for example, Lucas (2003), Prescott (2002) : prosperity is identified with the United States, depression with Western Europe, and they relate this to the lower burden of taxation in the United States. The gap in the chosen level of performance (output per capita) is very large, about 30%, and the remedy is clear: cut taxes in Europe. But Europe is different from America: for deep historical, cultural reasons, but partly because the pressures to consume are different. There can be no easy inference about relative prosperity: the market investment of modern capitalism can drive people towards longer hours of work and away from their underlying (meta) preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As income mobility over time serves to offset income inequality existing at any point in time, cross-national differences in social stratification are preferably assessed from data on average incomes over an extended period of time. Hence, this article uses longitudinal income data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the European Community Household Panel to reassess the received empirical evidence. Even discounting the impact of income mobility, however the United States continues to exhibit the highest level of permanent income inequality in this particular sample of industrial countries. In addition, older workers and individuals at the bottom of the income distribution have faced significantly worse income prospects than common in many European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic activities are highly clustered. Why is geographic concentration becoming a predominant feature of industrialized economies? On the basis of the empirical models developed by the new theories of international trade, our answer is that increasing returns are the driving force of economic geography in the US as well as in Europe. In so doing, we review several econometric methods proposed in the literature to separate and to test alternative theoretical paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the factors that led to the emergence of a business paradigm of globalization and the subsequent global-marketing strategies that global and globalizing companies adopt. The idea of global marketing represents a trend towards a growing similarity in tastes by consumers worldwide citing the global influence of the countries of Japan, Europe and the United States. The relative purchasing poer of these consumers is ten times that of residents in the newly developing parts of the world.