Cultural Diversity Stimulates Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Two Large-Scale Natural Experiments

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
pp. 10533
Author(s):  
Jackson Lu
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Natural Experiments

scholarly journals Linking child travel routes and routine health data

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Mizen ◽  
Sarah Rodgers ◽  
Richard Fry ◽  
Ronan Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Data Linkage ◽  
Routine Data ◽  
Environmental Exposures ◽  
Health Data ◽  
Walking Distance ◽  
Complete Analysis ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Household Level

ABSTRACTObjectivesLinking routinely collected health and environment data can allow for large scale evaluations of how our environment impacts our health. Our data linkage approach advances previous research where residence-based environmental exposures were anonymously linked in the SAIL databank using Residential Anonymous Linking Fields (RALFs). The dose-response relationship between exposure to food and dietary intake has not been widely investigated. Previous research found conflicting views on whether increased environmental exposure to unhealthy food contributes to higher BMIs. This may have been due to different methodological approaches, including imprecise exposures, small numbers, and the use of self-reported BMIs. ApproachThis investigation calculated food exposure environments for routes from all homes to and from school. A Geographic Information System was used to calculate the environmental exposures along all potential routes up to a maximum age-appropriate walking distance from each school. Once within the SAIL databank we selected relevant routes using linked demographic and pupil datasets. To maintain privacy, the primary (doctoral) researcher generating the environmental exposures, did not have access to the final household-level exposure data in their identifiable form. The researcher automated their method so a second researcher could run the GIS analysis. Accuracy of modelled exposures will be compared with actual routes collected from GPS traces of children walking to school. ResultsRemoving access to the final identifiable household-level route exposures enabled the primary researcher to complete analysis on the combined household and individual-level data within the secure environment. The environmental exposures were linked with routine health data from the SAIL databank; including BMI as an indicator of obesity. BMI data for 4-5 year olds, and a sample of 1300 13-14 year olds were linked to associated environmental exposures. ConclusionDepending on modelled accuracy, a GIS and data linkage approach may allow the investigation of natural experiments and intervention evaluation at the scale of the total population. This is the first step towards anonymously modelling part of the daily exposure environment using routine data. A limitation is the lack of routinely collected BMI data for older children and teenagers an age when they are more likely to have the option to choose to buy food on the school route. This work will have many potential applications, including the delivery and evaluation of multiple school and workplace commuting interventions.

scholarly journals The genomic footprint of coastal earthquake uplift

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1930) ◽  
pp. 20200712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elahe Parvizi ◽  
Ceridwen I. Fraser ◽  
Ludovic Dutoit ◽  
Dave Craw ◽  
Jonathan M. Waters
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Habitat Choice ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Ecological Constraints ◽  
Dispersal Capacity ◽  
Interspecific Differences ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genetic Patterns

Theory suggests that catastrophic earth-history events can drive rapid biological evolution, but empirical evidence for such processes is scarce. Destructive geological events such as earthquakes can represent large-scale natural experiments for inferring such evolutionary processes. We capitalized on a major prehistoric (800 yr BP) geological uplift event affecting a southern New Zealand coastline to test for the lasting genomic impacts of disturbance. Genome-wide analyses of three co-distributed keystone kelp taxa revealed that post-earthquake recolonization drove the evolution of novel, large-scale intertidal spatial genetic ‘sectors’ which are tightly linked to geological fault boundaries. Demographic simulations confirmed that, following widespread extirpation, parallel expansions into newly vacant habitats rapidly restructured genome-wide diversity. Interspecific differences in recolonization mode and tempo reflect differing ecological constraints relating to habitat choice and dispersal capacity among taxa. This study highlights the rapid and enduring evolutionary effects of catastrophic ecosystem disturbance and reveals the key role of range expansion in reshaping spatial genetic patterns.

The Power and the Pitfalls of Large-scale, Unreplicated Natural Experiments

Ecosystems ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanta C. Barley ◽  
Jessica J. Meeuwig
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Natural Experiments

Does Mandatory Disclosure Matter? The Case of Nonprofit Fundraising

2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402110014
Author(s):  
Putnam Barber ◽  
Megan M. Farwell ◽  
Brian Galle
Keyword(s):  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Mandatory Disclosure ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Charitable Organizations ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Nonprofit Fundraising ◽  
Tax Exempt ◽  
Standard Difference

Do donors seek out potentially adverse information about organizations making fundraising appeals? Do they react when it is readily available? Do they draw negative inferences when critical information is not available? To answer these questions, we consider previously unexamined large-scale natural experiments involving U.S. charitable organizations—tax-exempt organizations that file Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990. Using standard difference-in-differences designs, we find that donors penalize organizations with high fundraising costs when there is mandatory disclosure or involuntary disclosure by a third-party reporter. Organizations with lower fundraising costs fundraise more successfully in the presence of these disclosures. The contrast with donors’ behavior when such information is not available suggests that donors do not draw correct inferences when potentially consequential information is not disclosed. Disclose-on-request requirements, in contrast, apparently do not have any significant impact on donors’ or organizations’ behavior. We then sketch implications for the regulation of donations to charities and their modern cousins, such as crowdfunding and social enterprise organizations.

scholarly journals The Scopic Feast of Heritage and the Invention of Unthreatening Diversity in Neoliberal Cities

Heritage ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 1660-1680
Author(s):  
Feras Hammami
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Heritage Management ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
The Past

This article explores the role that heritage might play in the representation of ‘difference’, within the context of neoliberal cities. The case is a large-scale urban change in the former working-class neighborhood of Gamlestaden, Sweden. Interviews and on-site observations revealed how authorized heritage practices can enable the celebration of particular social and cultural values, while naturalizing the erasure of others. People’s cultural diversity, and diverging interpretations of the past, have been guided by the power of heritage into a process of subjectification, according to which only ‘unthreatening’ forms of cultural diversity were celebrated and revealed legitimate. The ‘fetishized’ difference and particular historical records have served to conceal the political interest at stake in its’ production and maintenance, and led to a politicised representation of cultural diversity through what Annie Coombes’ terms ‘scopic feast’. All this was made possible through BID, the first neoliberal business improvement district model in Sweden, and its investment in a deeply rooted process of heritageisation. Uncritical engagement with difference in the context of heritage management and neoliberal urban development, make it appear almost natural to erase the cultural values that fall outside the authorized narrative of value.

Gain a child, lose a tooth? Using natural experiments to distinguish between fact and fiction

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 552-556
Author(s):  
Frank Gabel ◽  
Hendrik Jürges ◽  
Kai E Kruk ◽  
Stefan Listl
Keyword(s):  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Missing Teeth ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Dental Diseases ◽  
Natural Teeth ◽  
Instrumental Variables Approach

BackgroundDental diseases are among the most frequent diseases globally and tooth loss imposes a substantial burden on peoples' quality of life. Non-experimental evidence suggests that individuals with more children have more missing teeth than individuals with fewer children, but until now there is no causal evidence for or against this.MethodsUsing a Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) instrumental variables approach and large-scale cross-sectional data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (study sample: 34 843 non-institutionalised individuals aged 50+ from 14 European countries and Israel; data were collected in 2013), we investigated the causal relationship between the number of biological children and their parents’ number of missing natural teeth. Thereby, we exploited random natural variation in family size resulting from (i) the birth of multiples vs singletons, and (ii) the sex composition of the two first-born children (increased likelihood of a third child if the two first-born children have the same sex).Results2SLS regressions detected a strong causal relationship between the number of children and teeth for women but not for men when an additional birth occurred after the first two children had the same sex. Women then had an average of 4.27 (95% CI: 1.08 to 7.46) fewer teeth than women without an additional birth whose first two children had different sexes.ConclusionsThis study provides novel evidence for causal links between the number of children and the number of missing teeth. An additional birth might be detrimental to the mother’s but not the father’s oral health.

scholarly journals Historical Census Record Linkage

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Ruggles ◽  
Catherine A. Fitch ◽  
Evan Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Record Linkage ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Family Health ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Geographic Mobility ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Social Welfare Programs ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Census Record

For the past 80 years, social scientists have been linking historical censuses across time to study economic and geographic mobility. In recent decades, the quantity of historical census record linkage has exploded, owing largely to the advent of new machine-readable data created by genealogical organizations. Investigators are examining economic and geographic mobility across multiple generations and also engaging many new topics. Several analysts are exploring the effects of early-life socioeconomic conditions, environmental exposures, or natural disasters on family, health, and economic outcomes in later life. Other studies exploit natural experiments to gauge the impact of policy interventions such as social welfare programs and educational reforms. The new data sources have led to a proliferation of record linkage methodologies, and some widespread approaches inadvertently introduce errors that can lead to false inferences. A new generation of large-scale shared data infrastructure now in preparation will ameliorate weaknesses of current linkage methods.

scholarly journals Consider This Before Using the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic as an Instrumental Variable in an Epidemiological Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle C Dimitris ◽  
Robert W Platt
Keyword(s):  
Human Health ◽  
Instrumental Variables ◽  
Respiratory System ◽  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
External Sources ◽  
Sources Of Variation

Abstract Epidemiologists sometimes use external sources of variation to explore highly-confounded exposure-outcome relationships or exposures that cannot be randomized. These exogenous sources of variation, or natural experiments, are sometimes proposed as instrumental variables to examine the effects of a given exposure(s) on a given outcome(s). Previous epidemiological studies have applied this technique using famines, earthquakes, weather events, and previous pandemics as exogenous sources of variation for other exposures; interest in applying this technique using the current severe acute respiratory system coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is already documented. Yet, large-scale events like these likely have broad and complicated impacts on human health, which almost certainly violates the exclusion restriction assumption of instrumental variable analyses. We review the assumptions of instrumental variable analyses, highlight previous applications of this method with respect to natural experiments with broad impacts or “shocks”, and discuss how these relate to our current observations of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. While we encourage thorough investigation of the broad impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on human health, we caution against its widespread use as an instrumental variable to study other exposures of interest.

scholarly journals Locating New Urbanism Developments in the U.S.: Which Cities Have New Urbanism and Why?

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Jie Gao ◽  
Yan Song ◽  
Jiang Zhou ◽  
Dingxin Wu
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
New Urbanism ◽  
Negative Binomial Regression ◽  
Growth Patterns ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Data Set ◽  
New Urbanist ◽  
The U.S

This article aims to examine the characteristics of cities where New Urbanism (NU) developments are located as of 2019. We first develop a set of hypotheses to explore why some cities are welcoming NU developments more than other cities and how the cities differ in terms of general real estate development determinants, fiscal capacity and regulatory authority, advocacy group support, and cultural diversity. We then employ a Negative Binomial Regression to test the relationship between concentrations of NU developments and a variety of city characteristics by using a data set of 6923 urban cities. The results suggest that NU developments are advocated by cities with a higher level of environmental awareness, better fiscal and regulatory status, and better cultural diversity. The research results highlight the importance of continuously gaining support from environmental groups and the general public for effective expansion of New Urbanist developments within the U.S. These findings also indicate that for noteworthy changes in growth patterns to arise at a large scale across the U.S., there must be changes in values and preferences, and institutional capacity in updating land-use regulations that allow for sustainable growth.

scholarly journals Asylum Seekers Arrived, Elites Occupied the Air

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-93
Author(s):  
Annu Perälä ◽  
Mari K. Niemi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Humanitarian Crisis ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Challenging Environment ◽  
The Media

Abstract In this study, we examine the choice of interviewees and discussion topics made by Finland’s national broadcasting company YLE during the so-called “asylum-seeker crisis” of 2015 and 2016. The rapid increase in asylum-seekers, combined with deepening political tensions regarding the situation and the entry of a populist anti-immigration party into government, created a challenging environment for the media. This was especially true for YLE, which is committed to political neutrality and cultural diversity. Our data shows that the “crisis” was framed as a crisis hitting Finland and European decision-making rather than as a humanitarian crisis. Despite long-term academic criticism of bias in expert interviewee selection (e.g. the underrepresentation of minority and female interviewees), the media continued to use traditional sources of knowledge. However, in a novel approach for Finland, the media engaged the large-scale involvement of politicians, and especially representatives of the populist Finns Party.

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