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Sought-for freedoms require action in both domains, she says

Climate change is not a simplistic comparison of apartheid but entails global cooperation to deal with it

Alok Bhargava responds to Desmond Tutu's Comparison of Climate Change as Developed Countries' "Climate Apartheid" On the Poor

Sharing households seems to be the solution facing rising housing costs in Miami

Trust is praised by many social scientists as the foundation of functioning social systems owing to its assumed connection to cooperative behavior. The existence of such a link is still subject to debate. In the present study, we first highlight important conceptual issues within this debate. Second, we examine previous evidence, highlighting several issues. Third, we present findings from an original experiment, in which we tried to identify a “real” situation that allowed us to measure both trust and cooperation. People’s expectations and behavior when they decide to share (or not) their data represents such a situation, and we make use of corresponding data. We found that there is no relationship between trust and cooperation. This non-relationship may be rationalized in different ways which, in turn, provides important lessons for the study of the trust—behavior nexus beyond the particular situation we study empirically.

How demography is reshaping the global religious landscape

Migration, Urbanization, and Health: Insights from South Africa

We develop a simple dynamic model of policy reform that captures some of the determinants that underlie the differences between the reform paths taken by a number of countries since the early 1990s. The model focuses on the interaction between domestic institutions and international organizations that promote reform, on the one hand, and the political incentives for reversing reforms, on the other. At equilibrium, there are three types of reform paths. A country can undergo a full-scale, lasting reform, can carry out a partial but lasting reform, or can go through cycles of reforms and costly counter-reforms. Domestic institutions, along with the incentives provided by international organizations, determine the equilibrium path. A politically myopic international organization may induce cycles of reforms and costly counter-reforms, thereby reducing the country's well-being. An international organization that only provides funds to promote reforms may have a less beneficial effect than one that assists the country with fresh funds to defend reforms when there is a risk of reversal. International funds that promote reforms can also influence domestic institutions. For example, due to the intervention of an international organization, countries could have incentives to dismantle institutions that build up reversal cost and/or do not fully build their fiscal capacity.

This paper examines whether Medicaid adult vision coverage affects labor market activity using state-by-year changes to these benefits.We find that vision benefits increase hours worked and occupational skill requirements, but no consistent evidence of changes on the extensive employment margin. Intensive margin effects could be facilitated by decreased barriers to transportation - when a state covers vision services, beneficiaries are more likely to commute to work by car or motorcycle rather than other modes. Our study suggests that, conditional on eligibility, Medicaid can have a positive effect on labor market activity by expanding access to services that enable work. JEL codes:I13, I18, J22, H75. Link to online-before-print version

Less Sex, Fewer Babies, Blame - no, wait . . .