The Public Economics of Changing Longevity

Our societies are witnessing a steady increase in longevity. This demographic evolution is accompanied by some convergence across countries, but at the same time substantial longevity inequalities persist within nations across income classes. This Element aims to survey some crucial implications of changing longevity on the design of optimal public policy. For that purpose, it first focuses on some difficulties raised by risky and varying lifetime for the representation of individual and social preferences. Then, it explore some central implications of changing longevity for optimal policy making, regarding prevention against premature death, pension policies, education, health care and long-term care. The author distinguishes between the case when longevity is partially the responsibility of individuals and the case when longevity is plainly exogenous.

Construction of Biophysical Indicators for the Catalan Economy: Building a New Conceptual Framework

The main objective of this work is to create an environmental vision of the Catalan economy based on various indicators. To do this, we started from the fundamental idea of obtaining new metrics to measure impacts on the economy. The methodology used is focused on the systematization of descriptive statistics and econometric review. In this sense, GDP and GDP per capita are valued as chrematistic units, and biophysical variables are incorporated. For the period 2000–2016, the figures for energy consumption, CO2 emissions, energy intensity of the economy and water consumption were collected. In addition, demographic evolution and the Gini index were also ordered as factors that contribute to explaining not only population trajectory but also some of the social factors. Greater technological efficiency in regard to environmental aspects is intuited as sensitive to the economic cycle. The study is novel in the panorama of the regional economy of Spain, by incorporating biophysical variables to the applied economic analysis.

ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS DISPARITIES IN THE APUSENII SĂLAJULUI FROM COMMUNISM TO CAPITALISM

The aim of this study was to achieve an evolutionary-temporal analysis of demographic evolution, ethnic and confessional structure in Apusenii Sălajului. The period subjected to the study begins with the abdication of King Mihai I and the establishment of communism in Romania in the year 1948. The two demographic structures have undergone significant influences from the regime, contributing decisively to their modification. Unfortunately, the confessional structure had the most to suffer because of the atheism promoted by the communists. In Apusenii Sălajului there is an important confessional diversity due to several ethnicities that populate the mountain space. The most destructive confessional community in the Apusenii Sălajului was the Greek Catholic. In the year 1948, the regime banned this confession, with the population constrained to convert to the Orthodox confessional. Priests who did not obey, were arrested and convicted, many dying in prisons, as was the case of bishops. Because of these repression, the population passed to the Orthodox confession. All confessions were compelled to pass to the Orthodox cult, being the only cult accepted by the regime. Five censuses were used to carry out the study, from 1941, 1956, 1977, 1992 and 2011. The census of 1956 and 1977 are those of the Communist period that did not record the confession. Thus, in order to be able to analyze and observe the significant changes we used the data from the census in the year 1941.

Identification of new demands regarding prehospital care based on 35,188 missions in 2018

Background Population ageing and increased prevalence of chronic diseases result in the emergence of new demands in prehospital care. The prehospital system is facing an increase of cases without acute threat to life (so-called “non-urgent”), which generates tension due to a higher number of admissions to emergency departments and a greater use of prehospital resources. Our aim is to understand this transition in prehospital activities and to delineate the primary missions performed by paramedics in 2018 with a focus on the population concerned, the severity of cases encountered and the typology of health issues. Method The study is retrospective, and descriptive, using a statistical description of 35,188 primary missions realized in 2018 in the State of Vaud (Switzerland). The characteristics taken into consideration are the age and gender of patients, as well as the health issue, the severity of cases based on National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics score (NACA score), and the time and place of intervention. Results The results describe the primary missions in the State of Vaud in 2018 and show that 87% of missions concern “non-urgent” situations (without acute threat to life). Over half of patients are 65 or older, the highest proportion of health issues, 49%, are medical and only 23% of missions are for traumas. Mission related to mental health issues reach 7% and those for intoxication 6%. Most missions take place between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm (67%), and around 12% of missions lead to the non-transport of the patient. Conclusion The prehospital sector is confronted with a major transition in terms of patient care. An increase of non-urgent cases is observed, associated with the care of persons aged 65 or more. Our results question the adequacy between the needs in terms of prehospital care and the paramedic profession as it is currently defined, as well as the place of this profession within the health network. Reflecting upon the role of paramedics with respect to the socio-demographic evolution of populations appears necessary, to analyse the adequacy of the paramedics’ skills to respond to the current needs.

Who attended and presented at EGU General Assemblies 2015-2019?

<p>The first step for institutions committed to equality, diversity and inclusion is to know their demographics. This presentation includes descriptive statistics for 5 consecutive years (2015–2019) based on paid registrations to the physical EGU General Assembly. EGU data is not perfect nor complete, but provides an insightful overview of who attended and presented at the EGU General Assembly for a period of 5 years.</p><p>In total more than 71 000 participants attended the EGU General Assemblies during the years 2015-2019 from a wide range of countries. More than 11400 (16%) of the participants were from Germany, followed by almost 6400 (8.9%) from the UK, 5300 (7.4%) from France, 5000 (7.0%) from Italy, 4600 (6.5%) from the US, and 3500 (4.9%) each from Austria and China. We found that the number of participants to the EGU General Assembly has increased continuously from 2015 to 2019 and that the largest proportions of participants are aged between 26 and 45.</p><p>Among the PhD students attending there are 7 females for every 10 males, and among the regular members there are around 4 females for every 10 males. The proportion of female participants decreases with increasing age. However, the ratio of females to males among participants has continuously increased from 0.48 in 2015 to 0.51 in 2018. Four countries had more females than males attending the EGU General Assembly (Bulgaria, Morocco, Iceland and Slovenia).</p><p>There are great possibilities to present one’s research at the meetings with ninety percent of the participants as first author on presentations (2015-2018, 94% 2019) and there was no difference between females and males. More than half (52-61%) of the male participants had oral presentations, while slightly fewer (46-52%) of the female participants had oral presentations. The major differences in oral presentations are found between participants from different countries. Note that the data do not reveal the participants’ preferred choice of presentations, only the outcome at the meetings. Around 70% of the participants presented a poster, with no differences between genders, which indicate that men had more presentations than women. On average males had 6.5% more presentations per person. Finally a slightly higher proportion of the male participants were convenors (15-18% versus 12-15% for females).</p><p>EGU General Assembly is the largest geosciences conference in Europe and still growing. Understanding the demographic evolution of various groups is a critical tool for EGU governing body to draw targeted actions ensuring that procedures are fair and that all in the community are being and feeling included.</p>

Family Orchards and Health-Related Quality of Life in the Elderly. A Protocol for a Study in Las Hurdes (Spain) Based on an Ethnographic Approach

Demographic evolution is resulting on an aged population increment in Spain. This growth has been more relevant in rural areas, where the population has traditionally lived under hard socio-economic conditions and leveraging the natural resources such as food from family orchards to survive. Studies that have investigated the possibilities and uses of these traditional family orchards today in relation to health-related quality of life in the elderly are scarce. Based on a previous ethnography, this mixed research aims to describe a protocol that will evaluate the effects of the use of traditional family orchards as a daily resource on fitness and quality of life of the elderly population in Las Hurdes (Spain). Body composition, fitness, mental health, health-related quality of life, and activity-related behaviors of participants will be assessed. The outcomes of this study might enable us to design further tailored physical exercise-based interventions using family orchards as an adequate resource to improve the health-related quality of life and fitness of the elderly in rural areas. In addition, the study detailed here might also be applied to other similar rural areas in Spain and worldwide.

Demographic Evolution of Pakistanis in America

According to the last head count in 1981 the total population ofPakistan was 83.782 millions. In addition, “there are two millionoverseas Pakistanis, more than one million left behind families and halfa million returnee migrants.” Let us assume that out of the 1.5 millionPakistanis who are working abroad at agiven time, 33.3 percent have anaverage of three dependents with them overseas. This brings the totalnumber of persons of Pakistani origin and their offspring abroad tothree million.It is estimated that over two-thirds of the working Pakistanis abroadare in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, UAE, Libya, Kuwaitand Iraq. The rest of the total are working all over the world. After theMiddle East, their largest concentration points are England, the U.S.A.,Canada and Germany. Among the other countries with relativelysmaller-but significant numbers-of persons of Pakistani origin areBahrain, Oman, Qatar, Denmark, Singapore, Nigeria, Kenya, HongKong and Malaysia.Today Pakistan is one of the leading countries in exporting itsmanpower to the rest of the world. It is not an exaggeration of facts to saythat the foreign exchange sent home by the overseas Pakistanis iskeeping Pakistan afloat economically in these uncertain times. In 1983,close to three billion dollars were sent by overseas Pakistanis to theircountry. This is, again, one of the largest amounts sent by workers ...

The Surge of Young Americans from Minority-White Mixed Families & Its Significance for the Future

The number of youth from mixed majority-minority families, in which one parent is White and the other minority, is surging in the early twenty-first century. This development is challenging both our statistical schemes for measuring ethnicity and race as well as our thinking about their demographic evolution in the near future. This essay summarizes briefly what we know about mixed minority-White Americans and includes data about their growing numbers as well as key social characteristics of children and adults from mixed backgrounds. The essay concludes that this phenomenon highlights weaknesses in our demographic data system as well as in the majority-minority narrative about how American society is changing.

ALEXANDER CHAYANOV’S THEORY OF PEASANT FARMING AND PERSONAL SUBSIDIARY FARMS IN THE SOVIET VILLAGE (MID-1930s – 1980s)

The paper analyzes the possibility of applying the theory of peasant farming by Alexander Chayanov to personal subsidiary farms (LPH) of collective farmers and state farm workers. It is noted that the significant factors affecting their functioning were rural urbanization and the demographic evolution of the rural family, as well as the policy of severe administrative restrictions on individual households. Despite the unfavorable conditions for development, personal part-time farms have demonstrated stability over time. The relations between family size and farm size noted by Chayanov were distorted by a system of repressive taxation, active off-farm employment of farm members, and natural processes of family deformation under the influence of urbanization. The author characterizes why LPH have lost their function of the main source of livelihood. It is concluded that ideological restrictions led to an artificial archaization of production within part-time farms and limited their evolution along the farm route, i.e. the labor-consumer balance in the budget of a rural family was achieved at an extremely low level. On the other hand, it is the spread of non-mechanized manual labor in personal part-time farms that allows the author to largely apply the provisions of Chayanov’s theory of peasant farming.