This paper examines the impact of breastfeeding practices on the large regional differences in infant mortality in Germany around 1910. Breastfeeding is strongly negatively associated with infant mortality and remains so after controlling for public health measures and for demographic, economic,...

Motivated by empirical evidence that fluctuations in age structure affect relative wages across age groups, this paper asks whether there is a steady-state age distribution that maximizes the lifetime wages of a representative worker. The paper proves the surprising result that in a pure labor...

Objective: This paper presents a new approach for understanding factors related to physician adoption of clinical guidelines, using children's vaccine recommendations as a case study. Methods: The model traces sequential steps, from awareness to agreement to adoption and, finally, adherence to...

Objectives : To examine whether per capita income and income inequality are independently associated with teen birth rate in populous U.S. counties. Methods : This study used 1990 U.S. Census data and National Center for Health Statistics birth data. Income inequality was measured with the 90:10...

This paper examines the impact of parental economic status and family size on the actual and expected fertility of adult children using longitudinal data from two generations of families participating in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. There was a modest positive relationship between first...

Recently, the National Academy of Sciences concluded “it is clear thatpopulation and the environment are usually interrelated . . . ”. This paper directlytests the expected interrelationship using annual county-level population estimatesprovided by the U.S. Census Bureau and annual counts of...

The oft-observed inverse relationship between economic activity in the formal or informal sector and levels of fertility is attributed to the opportunity costs of reproduction. The economic and social policies that initiate and maintain the substantial flow of federal transfer payments to the...

To help guide development of the Gross National Happiness (GNH), this paper analyzes Western economic systems. Drivers of environmental and social problems will be discussed with the goal of helping Bhutan avoid these pitfalls. The paper then suggests a strategy for developing the GNH as well as...

Im gleichen Zuge, in dem sich China und Indien zu dominierenden Wirtschaftsmächten entwickeln, wird sich die Belastung des Ökosystems in regionaler und globaler Hinsicht drastisch verschärfen. So rechnet die Internationale Energieagentur (IEA) damit, dass Indien bis 2015 weltweit der...