This paper attempts to study how individuals respond to the availability of an insurance that would safeguard their interests if a climate change catastrophe occurred. If such an insurance is available to them, do individuals insure themselves su¢ ciently? Further, the study investigates if information regarding the past occurrence of the catastrophic event leads to an increase in insurance subscriptions and/or the emergence of a lemons market. Finally, policy implications are investigated: can an indirect intervention in the form of a "nudge" ensure a better outcome?
This study employs a pseudo-panel approach to estimate the returns to education among income earners in Sri Lanka. Pseudo-panel data are constructed from nine repeated cross sections of Sri Lanka's Labor Force Survey data from 1997 to 2008, for workers born during 1953–1974. The results show that for males, one extra year of education increases monthly earnings by about 5% using the pseudo-panel estimation rather than 9% as in the ordinary least-squares (OLS) estimation. This indicates that not controlling for unobservables such as ability and motivation biases the OLS estimation of returns upwards by about 4% on average, driven mainly by what happens in urban areas. It also suggests that males with higher ability seem to be acquiring more years of education. This is contrary to what has been observed recently in countries such as Thailand [Warunsiri, S., and R. McNown. 2010. “The Return to Education in Thailand: A Pseudo-Panel Approach.” World Development 38 (1): 1616–1625], where the opportunity cost of edu…
The PalaeoEnvironments and ARchaeological Landscapes (PEARL) research project is a joint German-British project with the principal objective of developing a framework of past human occupation and landscape change in Southeastern Arabia. Fieldwork during 2018 and 2019 involved the systematic survey and excavation of sites in the Rustaq and Ibri regions of Northern Oman, with the aim of establishing the nature and timing of human occupation and landscape change during the Early Holocene period (ca. 10-7,000 years BP). Further to the findings previously reported, results from recent excavations of the site Hayy al-Sarh in Rustaq revealed the presence of animal remains, stone and shell beads and stone structures, indicating a large Neolithic settlement with burial areas. In addition, preliminary excavations at a rock shelter site near Ibri have revealed stratified archaeological remains, including a Fasad type assemblage. Future fieldwork will further develop archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records to help…
The care of people with dementia within the hospital setting is challenging for healthcare professionals. Hospital design and services are not optimized for people with dementia, owing to the lack of preparation of healthcare professionals and the busy environment of the acute hospital. The peri-operative environment may present particular difficulties but little is known about the experience and care of people with dementia in this setting. The aim of this review was to examine the care of surgical patients who have dementia and their family members in peri-operative environments and describe strategies adopted by healthcare professionals. A systematic search of the following databases was completed: BNI, CINAHL, PubMED and PsychINFO in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Data were extracted and analysed within a thematic analysis framework as described by Braun and Clarke. Ten papers based on eight studies were included, five (n = 355,010 participants) containing quantitative data and five reporting qualitat…
In this essay, we trace the symbolic conundrums of belonging, and of the reconciliation of identities, in the context of Catalan and Scottish sport and politics. Our discussion will commence with a necessarily concise consideration of past academic contentions regarding the national ‘psyches’ which have been argued to shape contemporary notions of identity and politics in Catalonia and Scotland, before turning our attention to the specific role of sport vis-à-vis these ‘psyches’ and the growing clamour for greater political autonomy for each of these stateless nations. Based on evidence drawn from the interaction between sport and politics in the two nations, we argue that secessionism is a liminal field of transformation as it includes what is seen as mutually exclusive sets of relationships (Catalans vs. Spaniards; Scottish vs. British, secessionists vs. unionists/centralists), which at the same time allows subjects to pass from one state to another and occupy them non-exclusively.
Chartism’s participation in parliamentary elections has only recently received serious attention, with a number of historians seeing it as evidence of cooperative relations between Chartism and Liberal MPs and parliamentary candidates that facilitated the electoral alliance of popular Liberalism in the 1860s. This article argues that such a conclusion neglects the overarching strategic purpose of that electioneering, which was to ensure Chartist leadership of parliamentary Liberalism through either the promise of electoral endorsement or the threat of a divisive opposition. This schismatic strategy has been overlooked because of a lack of attention to its origins in the 1837 general election, study of which reveals that the antagonistic aspiration of forcing Radical MPs to form a new party responsive to extra-parliamentary leadership was a foundational strategy of the movement. This strategy was born of an intense disillusionment with the Liberal MPs returned in the 1835 general election, which was retained w…
Background. Persistent throat symptoms, such as throat clearing, globus sensation, voice change and catarrh are extremely common. On very limited evidence, they are increasingly attributed to “laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR)” and treated with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) in primary and secondary care. Methods. A double blind placebo controlled UK multicentre phase III trial randomly allocated adults with persistent throat symptoms 1:1 to either 30 mg of Lansoprazole or matched placebo twice daily for 16 weeks, stratified by centre and symptom severity. The primary outcome was patient-reported symptomatic response, measured by the total Reflux Symptom Index (RSI) score at the end of therapy. Secondary outcomes included safety, further symptoms and quality of life measures at 12-months. Results. 346 participants were randomised from 8 UK centres: mean (sd) age 52 (13), 196 (57%) female, 162 (47%) severe symptoms, balanced across randomised groups. Mean RSI scores (95% CI) were similar at baseline- Lansoprazole:…
The present study compared the psychological well-being of choral singers to those who took part in five other activities: solo singers, band / orchestra members, solo musicians, team sport players and solo sport players. These comparison groups were chosen because they each share (or lack) three key features of choral singing: (1) singing; (2) the production of music; and (3) membership of a social group or team. 194 participants completed an online questionnaire to assess their well-being and the extent to which their chosen activity satisfies their psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. Analysis indicated that participants who sang in a choir reported similar levels of psychological well-being, happiness, anxiety, depression and self-esteem to those who took part in the other five leisure activities. Significant differences were found on measures of autonomy and relatedness, but participants in all six groups also reported experiencing similar levels of competence when engaged in the…
This article looks at the effect paternal death can have on non-cognitive outcomes at age 15 and 22 depending on whether a child lost the father in middle childhood or adolescence. The article uses the potential outcome framework to estimate results using five rounds of longitudinal survey data for Ethiopia collected between 2002 and 2016. It finds that the loss of the father in middle childhood reduces an orphan’s self-esteem significantly by 0.15 standard deviations and subjective wellbeing by 16 per cent. These effects are not persistent. Instead, the loss of the father between ages 12-22, encompassing early, middle and late adolescence have significant positive effects on agency, self-efficacy, self-esteem and peer relationships as a young adult aged 22, improving them by 0.31, 0.28, 0.31 and 0.26 standard deviations respectively. This suggests that a father’s death during a child’s adolescent years may be associated with positive adaptive behavior.