Political pronouncements and policy statements include much conjecture concerning the health and behavioral effects of economic decline. We both summarize empirical research concerned with those effects and suggest questions for future research priorities. We separate the studies into groups...

Much medical literature attributes persistently high rates of very low birthweight (VLBW) to “dysregulated” gestation. We offer the alternative view that natural selection conserved well-regulated, though nonconscious, decisional biology that protects the reproductive fitness of women by...