scholarly journals Environment, Health, and Human Capital

2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 689-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Graff Zivin ◽  
Matthew Neidell

In this review, we discuss three major contributions economists have made to our understanding of the relationship between the environment and individual well-being. First, in explicitly recognizing how optimizing behavior, particularly in the form of residential sorting, can lead to nonrandom assignment of pollution, economists have employed a wide range of quasi-experimental techniques to develop causal estimates of the effect of pollution. Second, economic research has placed a considerable focus on the role of avoidance behavior, which is an important component for understanding the difference between biological and behavioral effects of pollution and for proper welfare calculations. Lastly, economic research has expanded the focus of analysis beyond traditional health outcomes to include measures of human capital, including labor supply, productivity, and cognition. Our review of the quasi-experimental evidence on this topic suggests that pollution does indeed have a wide range of effects on individual well-being, even at levels well below current regulatory standards. Given the importance of health and human capital as an engine for economic growth, these findings underscore the role of environmental conditions as an important factor of production. (JEL I12, I31, J24, Q51, Q53)

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 5049-5060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kainan S Wang ◽  
Mauricio R Delgado

AbstractThe ability to perceive and exercise control over an outcome is both desirable and beneficial to our well-being. It has been shown that animals and humans alike exhibit behavioral bias towards seeking control and that such bias recruits the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and striatum. Yet, this bias remains to be quantitatively captured and studied neurally. Here, we employed a behavioral task to measure the preference for control and characterize its neural underpinnings. Participants made a series of binary choices between having control and no-control over a game for monetary reward. The mere presence of the control option evoked activity in the ventral striatum. Importantly, we manipulated the expected value (EV) of each choice pair to extract the pairing where participants were equally likely to choose either option. The difference in EV between the options at this point of equivalence was inferred as the subjective value of control. Strikingly, perceiving control inflated the reward value of the associated option by 30% and this value inflation was tracked by the vmPFC. Altogether, these results capture the subjective value of perceived control inherent in decision making and highlight the role of corticostriatal circuitry in the perception of control.


2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (10) ◽  
pp. 1-50
Author(s):  
Susan Bush-Mecenas ◽  
Julie A. Marsh ◽  
Katharine O. Strunk

Background/Context School leaders are central to state and district human-capital reforms (HCRs), yet they are rarely equipped with the skills to implement new evaluation, professional development, and personnel data systems. Although districts increasingly offer principals coaching and training, there has been limited empirical work on how these supports influence principals’ HCR-related practices. Purpose Drawing on a two-year, mixed-methods study in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), this article examines the role of principal supervisors in HCRs. We ask: What role did principal supervisors (Instructional Directors [IDs]) play in the implementation of human-capital reforms? What did high-quality coaching on the part of IDs look like in this context? Research Design Our two-part analysis draws upon survey and interview data. First, we conducted descriptive analyses and significance testing using principal and ID survey data to examine the correlations among principals’ ratings of ID coaching quality, ID coaching practices, and principals’ implementation of HCRs. Second, we conducted in-depth interviews, using a think-aloud protocol, with two sets of IDs—those consistently highly-rated and those with mixed ratings—who were identified using principals’ reports of coaching quality. Following interview coding, we created various case-ordered metamatrix displays to analyze our qualitative data in order to identify patterns in coaching strategy and approach across IDs, content, and contexts. Findings First, our survey data indicate that receiving high-quality coaching from IDs is correlated with stronger principal support for and implementation of HCRs. Our survey findings further illustrate that IDs support a wide range of principals’ HCR activities. Second, our think-aloud interviews with case IDs demonstrate that coaching strategy and approach vary between consistently highly-rated and mixed-rated coaches: Consistently highly-rated IDs emphasize the importance of engaging in, or defining HCR problems as, joint work alongside principals, while mixed-rated IDs often emphasize the use of tools to guide principal improvement. We find that, on the whole, the consistently highly-rated IDs in our sample employ a nondirective approach to coaching more often than mixed-rated coaches. Conclusions These findings contribute to a growing literature on the crucial role of principal supervisors as coaches to improve principals’ instructional leadership and policy implementation. While exploratory, this study offers the first steps toward building greater evidence of the connections between high-quality coaching and policy implementation, and it may have implications for the design and implementation of professional development for principal supervisors and the selection and placement of supervisors with principals.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Junça Silva ◽  
António Caetano ◽  
Rita Rueff Lopes

This study aims to: (1) analyze the relationship between humor-daily events and well-being; (2) test the mediating role of positive affect in this relationship; (3) analyze the moderating role of gelotophobia between humor-daily events and positive affect, and; (4) explore the moderating role of psychological climate between positive affect and well-being. To test these goals, we conducted a quasi-experimental study with 93 participants. We used regressions and bootstrapping analyses to test the moderated mediation model. The relationship between the humor-daily events and well-being was mediated by positive affect and this relation was moderated by psychological work, such that this relationship was stronger when a positive psychological work climate was identified. Gelotophobia did not moderate the relationship between humor daily-events and positive affect, however, it significantly and negatively predicted positive affect. This paper adds considerable evidence of the relationship between humor-related daily events and its impact on well-being. Psychological work climate strengthens the association between positive affect and well-being, after humor daily events.


2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bushra Yasmin

This study analyzes the role of human capital and job attributes, i.e., supply-side determinants, in determining wages in a period of trade liberalization. Using the Mincerian earning function and based on data from the Labor Force Surveys, we construct a model to estimate various wage determinants and compute the rates of return to different educational qualifications and relative occupational wage shares for the years 2005/06 and 1990/91. The estimated earning functions for 1990/91 and 2005/06 are compared to investigate whether individual characteristics—such as gender, job location, nature of job, educational qualifications, and different occupations—cause the wage gap to widen or contract under conditions of trade liberalization. The mean and quantile regression approach is used for estimation purposes. Our key findings postulate (i) an increasing gender pay gap, (ii) a higher wage premium to the highest educational qualification, and (iii) more or less stable relative wages for different occupations over time. In addition, wage dispersion across occupational groups appears more pronounced in 1990/91 than in 2005/06, implying a declining trend in the difference in wage distribution across occupations.


This book reproduces the texts of four lectures, followed by discussions, and two interviews with Lise Gauvin published in Introduction à une poétique du divers (1996); and also four further interviews from L’Imaginaire des langues (Lise Gauvin, 2010). It covers a wide range of topics but key recurring themes are creolization, language and langage, culture and identity, ‘monolingualism’, the ‘Chaos-world’ and the role of the writer. Migration and the various different kinds of migrants are also discussed, as is the difference between ‘atavistic’ and ‘composite’ communities, the art of translation, identity as a ‘rhizome’ rather than a single root, the Chaos-World and chaos theory, ‘trace thought’ as opposed to ‘systematic thought’, the relation between ‘place’ and the Whole-World, exoticism, utopias, a new definition of beauty as the realized quantity of differences, the status of literary genres and the possibility that literature as a whole will disappear. Four of the interviews (Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9) relate to particular works that Glissant has published: Tout-monde, Le monde incrée, La Cohée du Lamentin, Une nouvelle région du monde. Many of these themes have been explored in his previous works, but here, because in all the chapters we see Glissant interacting with the questions and views of other people, they are presented in a particularly accessible form.


Author(s):  
Mohamed Salama ◽  
Cakil Angew ◽  
Gregory Fantham

This chapter falls in two parts. Part 1 discusses team issues with emphasis on virtual teams. The first few sections briefly compare and contrast the different types of team and how team performance should be planned and managed, in line with set goals and detailed deliverables. This will cover a wide range of concepts that come into play under performance management and measurement. The following sections focus on the challenges that virtual teams face amid the prevailing digital transformation and suggest effective measures to address those challenges. The presented concepts are generic, thus can be readily applied to the context of event management. Part 2 comprises two sections; the first discusses well-being and cross-cultural variations in relation to event management, while the second section is focused on the role of social psychology in devising event experiences.


Author(s):  
Deane H. Shapiro

Spiritual, religious, and secular traditions emphasize the importance of control over one’s thoughts, feelings and behavior, and the relevance of meditation in achieving this control. Meditation practices, in particular, can be understood as one strategy amongst others for achieving self-regulation. While the main focus in Western psychology has been on active instrumental control, other traditions have emphasized the importance of a more accepting/yielding mode of control. This chapter distinguishes between different forms of control and how some of these may be enhanced by meditation practices. While over-control and passive resignation can have negative consequences for a person’s well-being, there is evidence for the beneficial role of the active/assertive and positive accepting/yielding modes of control. Selecting the most appropriate meditation strategy for a particular person is dependent upon a wide range of factors, including the person’s control profile, their sensory orientation, and their belief systems. The chapter concludes with the description of the author’s personal journey in exploring meditation and theories and practices of control—and a note of gratitude.


2011 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 413-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Leunig ◽  
Chris Minns ◽  
Patrick Wallis

We examine the role of social and geographical networks in structuring entry into premodern London's skilled occupations. Newly digitized apprenticeship indenture records for 1600–1749 offer little evidence that personal ties strongly shaped apprentice recruitment. The typical London apprentices had no identifiable tie to their master through kin or place of origin. Migrant apprentices' fathers were generally outside the craft sector. The apprenticeship market was strikingly open: well-to-do families accessed a wide range of apprenticeships, and would-be apprentices could match ability and aptitude to opportunity. This fluidity aided human capital formation, with obvious implications for economic development.


Author(s):  
Oleksandr Burov

Keywords: human capital, remote work, cybersecurity, workforce, digital economics The article considers the role of human capital in the transitionto the remote work. The analysis of world changes in the field of safe and effectiveuse of digital business environment and qualification of workforce in the conditions ofgrowth of remote work is carried out. The analysis was conducted in the following areas:general features of the digitalizing in crisis and innovation, a new paradigm of business«Data is the new gold», the organization of the workforce in the transition to teleworking,the priorities of today's professions, the problems of cybersecurity in teleworking. It has been articulated that the main requirements for the today’s workforce are intellectualand creative abilities, competence in the field of creation and use of ICT, bigdata (data science, data mining, data analytics) and artificial intelligence, the role ofwhich has grown even more due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The human component ofintellectual capital (in the form of knowledge, skills and competencies, as well as intellectualand creative abilities) is gaining new importance in the digital economy.The analysis of relationship of the crisis and innovation made on the basis of the ClarivateDerwent report has demonstrated the impact of the pandemic on the global lifecycle of research and innovation projects in the first half of 2020, namely that COVID-19violated innovation strategy of the innovative leaders worldwide. The analysis hasdemonstrated: in the new conditions of accelerated digitalization, ingenuity and speed ofdecision-making and innovation are needed more than ever. These priorities will affectthe world economy in the coming year.Special attention in analysis has been paid to the new business paradigm related touse and role of data. It was highlighted that digitization generates vast amounts of datathat offer many opportunities for business, human well-being, and the environment. As aresult, new capabilities and opportunities arise for business with the ecosystem of cooperationand partnership, as well as collaboration of stakeholders.The core of changes in digitalization is reskilling and upskilling of the workforce accountingnew workplaces and new requirements for them. It is recognized that talentmanagement and creative people selection can be the main engine in future transformationof economics, and workforce becomes an effective pole for investments. At the sametime, it is argued that remote worker is outside the scope of corporate protection, and virtuallyany production information, like human capital, becomes much more vulnerablein such conditions and requires appropriate cybersecurity methods.As a conclusion, it is articulated that the ability of companies to use big data is beginningto play a significant role in the economy, which in turn requires the involvementand training of data processing and analysis specialists. The direction of professions thatis being actively formed recently — data science — is one of the most priority in the labormarket. At the same time, the labor market needs skills and abilities in the field of interpersonalcommunication (soft skills), which are able to ensure the effective operation ofpeople and systems of hybrid intelligence «human-artificial intelligence».For the further research it has been recommended a comprehensive study of protectionof objects and subjects of intellectual property in open networks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Tsamadou ◽  
P. Voultsos ◽  
A. Emmanouilidis ◽  
G. Ampatzoglou

Abstract Background A subset of adolescents with mental disorders are likely to have decision-making capacity that facilitates their therapy engagement. However, there are high rates of drop-out in mental health settings. Aim This study aims to identify perceived barriers to or facilitators of mental health care engagement among adolescents with decision-making competence in Greece. Methods A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews of adolescents with a wide range of mental health problems. In addition, two psychometric assessment measures were used to define who to include or exclude from the study sample. Results Positive attitudes and experiences with therapy were reported as strong (“major”) facilitators of therapy engagement for adolescents with mental disorders, whereas negative experiences with therapy were reported as strong barriers to it. Furthermore, and most importantly, a “good” adolescent-therapist relationship was reported as a strong facilitator, whereas negative experiences of participants with their therapist were reported as strong barriers. Moreover, goals such as getting rid of symptoms, improving personal well-being, and improving social skills and relationships (especially with peers) emerged as strong facilitators of therapy engagement. Importantly, the early remission of symptoms emerged from the study as a strong barrier to therapy engagement for participants. Among the weaker (“minor”) perceived facilitators were goals such as confessing to a trustworthy person, becoming able to achieve personal expectations and life goals, enhancing independence and self-esteem, and developing a positive self-image. The (active or supportive) role of family emerged as a facilitator. The stigma related to mental health emerged as both a (“minor”) facilitator of and barrier to therapy engagement for participants. Friends were reported as having a role ranging from neutral to mildly supportive. Conclusion A number of more or less strong barriers and facilitators were identified that, for the most part, were consistent with prior literature. However, the authors identified some nuances that are of clinical importance. For instance, adolescents are most likely to terminate the treatment prematurely if they experience early symptom remission. Highlighting the role of therapy in achieving their goals or improving their families’ well-being might be used by therapists to reduce the attrition rate.


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