Longitudinal Effects of Distress and Its Management During COVID-19 Lockdown in Spain

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic that hit Spain during March 2020 forced the strict confinement of the population for 2 months. The objectives of this study were (a) to assess the magnitude and duration of the influence of confinement on people’s Distress, (b) to study the temporal sequence of stress, and (c) to show how different day-to-day activities and personal variables influence perceived Distress levels.Method: A daily registration was completed by 123 people, with ages ranging from 21 to 75 years old (X¯ = 43, SD = 10 years), of which there were 40 men (32%) and 83 females (68%). During 45 days of lockdown, from March 19th to May 3rd, participants were asked to respond to a socio-demographic survey and make daily records comprising the MASQ-D30 and some day-to-day behaviors. Pooled time series was applied to establish what effect time had on the dependent variable.Results: Distress has a 14-day autoregressive function and gender, physical activity, sexual activity, listening to music, and teleworking also influence Distress. It has been hypothesized that the intercept presents variability at level 2 (individual), but it has not been significant. Interactions between Gender—Telecommuting, and Gender—Physical Activity were observed. Approximately 66% of the variance of Distress was explained (R2 = 0.663).Discussion: At the beginning of the lockdown, the average levels of Distress were well above the levels of the end (z = 3.301). The individuals in the sample have followed a very similar process in the development of Distress. During the lockdown, the “memory” of Distress was 2 weeks. Our results indicate that levels of Distress depend on activities during lockdown. Interactions exist between gender and some behavioral variables that barely influence Distress in men but decrease Distress in women. The importance of routine maintenance and gender differences must be considered to propose future interventions during confinement.

The Puzzle of Protest Policing Over Time: Historicizing Repression Research Using Temporal Moving Regressions

Research attempting to predict repression, including the policing of protest, has tended to rely on pooled time series data, which statistically produces coefficients that estimate the average relationship between each variable and the outcome across the entire pooled time period. When relationships are very stable, this statistical assumption, referred to as temporal homogeneity, is unproblematic. But, when enforced without testing, it threatens to artificially “stabilize” temporally heterogenous relationships. In terms of protest policing, this has resulted in relatively ahistorical empirical explanations of protest policing. This article imports modeling techniques from work on identifying historical periods to show how temporal moving regressions can be built to recognize and model temporal heterogeneity in the factors influencing protest policing. We present three important uses for these models: testing exhaustively for temporal heterogeneity in apparently stable findings; testing for temporal heterogeneity that may reconcile otherwise contradictory findings; and inductively combining orthogonal research lines. We demonstrate the utility of each in examinations of protest policing. More generally, we show the potential of temporal moving regressions for uncovering new insights and bringing greater historical sensitivity to research on protest and beyond.

The Effect of Austerity Packages on Government Popularity During the Great Recession

During the Great Recession, governments across the continent implemented austerity policies. A large literature claims that such policies are surprisingly popular and have few electoral costs. This article revisits this question by studying the popularity of governments during the economic crisis. The authors assemble a pooled time-series data set for monthly support for ruling parties from fifteen European countries and treat austerity packages as intervention variables to the underlying popularity series. Using time-series analysis, this permits the careful tracking of the impact of austerity packages over time. The main empirical contributions are twofold. First, the study shows that, on average, austerity packages hurt incumbent parties in opinion polls. Secondly, it demonstrates that the magnitude of this electoral punishment is contingent on the economic and political context: in instances of rising unemployment, the involvement of external creditors and high protest intensity, the cumulative impact of austerity on government popularity becomes considerable.

Assessing the Impact of Cigarette Taxation on the Supply Chain Stakeholders' Revenue Shares in Greece

The chapter aims to analyze the impact of cigarette taxes evolution over the period 1992-2017 on the revenue share of the main tobacco supply chain stakeholders in Greece. This empirical analysis uses a pooled time series from 1992 through 2017 including a data set of retail prices, three tax groups levied on cigarettes (specific tax, ad valorem tax, and V.A.T.), and revenue shares for three categories of stakeholders. The results indicate that the revenue share of the stakeholders is decreasing over the whole period, and specifically, their shares drop by half in the last 15 years. The regression results show that the revenue shares of tobacco companies are most affected by both excise taxes in a negative way, and similarly, both price and the excises affect significantly the revenue share of retailers, whereas the findings regarding distributors' revenues are insignificant. This knowledge is likely to be useful for policymakers in the development of effective tobacco control policies.

The Determinants of Tax Revenue and Tax Effort in Developed and Developing Countries: Theory and New Evidence 1996-2015

This paper measures the tax effort of a group of fifty-nine developed and developing countries over the period 1996-2015 by comparing a country’s actual tax/GDP ratio with the ratio predicted derived from an international tax function which relates tax revenue to various measures of a country’s taxable capacity such as the level of per capita income; the share of trade in GDP; the productive structure, and the level of financial deepening. The tax function is estimated using cross section data; pooled time series/cross section data, and panel data using a fixed effects estimator. The results are compared and show a range of tax effort from South Africa with the highest effort and Switzerland with the lowest effort. Implications for policy are drawn. The paper is critical of studies that include institutional variables (and other variables not related to the tax base of countries) to measure tax effort when they are really explanations of why the tax ratio differs between countries not of tax effort itself.

Ballot Measures for Open Space Conservation: Economic and Institutional Processes in Cities

This article examines referendums for open space conservation, focusing on an assessment of their likelihood in cities. It presents data on conservation referendums, over 15 years, based on the Trust for Public Land’s LandVote® database. Economic and institutional factors of influence are explored across cities, testing whether those factors explain differences in the likelihood of referendums and their passage. One finding is that the frequency of conservation referendums varies dramatically across American cities. Additional findings, from a pooled time-series analysis, are that economic and institutional contexts of cities affect the likelihood of conservation referendums. The likelihood of referendums and their passage is further tested across alternative models to evaluate the robustness of the findings. While its central contribution is to research on local referendums, the article connects to the political market framework to identify factors influencing the likelihood of open space referendums.

Functional responsibilities of municipal government: Metropolitan disparities and instruments of intergovernmental management

This paper examines the functional responsibilities of municipal government, in the context of intergovernmental interactions in metropolitan areas of the USA. It presents an operationalisation of the functional responsibilities of municipal government: measures of size and breadth of those responsibilities assess the reliability of the findings across those related measurements. Alternative explanations are tested for differences in the functional responsibilities of municipal government in metropolitan (metro) areas. The central finding is that the functional responsibilities of municipal government vary widely; additional findings are that regional and intergovernmental contexts shape those responsibilities, based on a pooled time-series analysis of municipal governments. The paper reports census-normalised data that can be utilised for research extensions. Although its primary contribution is to research on functional responsibilities of municipal government, the paper also proposes a local public economies approach to identify factors influencing the breadth of those responsibilities in metropolitan areas.

Guns and Butter: Child Mortality and the Mediators of Militarization

Which types of militarization affect child mortality? Which type appears to lower it; which appears to push it higher? This article focuses on social militarization (i.e., troops as a proportion of workforce-aged population) and praetorian militarization (i.e., the military’s control or strong influence over the government), investigating their impact on child mortality using pooled time series analysis covering 142 countries from 1996 through 2008. We find that social and praetorian militarization have opposite effects even after controlling for potentially confounding influences. Access to basic public health infrastructures and education mediates between each type of militarization and child mortality.