National Hospitalization Trends and the Role of Preventable Hospitalizations among Centenarians in the United States (2000–2009)

Increases in life expectancy mean that an unprecedented number of individuals are reaching centenarian status, often with complex health concerns. We analyzed nationally representative hospital admissions data (200–2009) from the National Inpatient Study (NIS) for 52,618 centenarians (aged 100–115 years, mean age 101.4). We predicted length of stay (LOS) via negative binomial models and total inflation adjusted costs via fixed effects regression analysis informed by descriptive data. We also identified hospitalizations due to ambulatory care-sensitive conditions defined by AHRQ Prevention Quality Indicators. Mean LOS decreased from 6.1 to 5.1 days, while over the same time period the mean total adjusted charges rose from USD 13,373 to USD 25,026 in 2009 dollars. Black, Hispanic, Asian, or other race centenarians had higher cost stays compared to White, but only Black and Hispanic centenarians had significantly greater mean length of stay. Comorbidities predicted greater length of stay and higher costs. Centenarians admitted on weekends had higher costs but shorter length of stay. In total, 29.4% of total costs were due to potentially preventable hospitalizations for total charges (2000–2009) of USD 341.8M in 2009 dollars. Centenarian hospitalizations cost significantly more than hospitalization for any other group of elderly in the U.S.

Factors Influencing the Renewable Energy Consumption in Selected European Countries

The overcoming of the issues on energy crisis and inequality have become the priorities as far developing as developed countries are concerned. Moreover, energy inequality has increased due to the shortage of natural gas and rising energy prices in retaliation to the economic recovery affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to verify the linkage between the growth of renewable energy consumption and the country’s economic advancement. In this context, this paper determines the main driving forces of renewable energy consumption in European countries during 2000–2018. The annual data for panel regression analysis are retrieved from the OECD. Stat and World Bank Open Data. This empirical analysis employed a set of estimation procedures such as the panel unit root test (Levin, Lin & Chu; Im, Pesaran, Shin W-Stat; ADF-Fisher Chi-square; and PP-Fisher Chi-square methods), the Pearson correlation, fixed- and random-effects models, generalized method of moments (GMM), Hausman and the robustness tests. The results from the Hausman test ratified that the fixed-effects regression model is more suitable for involved panel balanced data. The results of fixed-effects regression and GMM identified the statistically significant and positive relationship between the share of renewable energy consumption of total final energy consumption, GDP per capita, and CO2 emissions per capita for the overall sample. In turn, the total labor force, the gross capital formation, and production-based CO2 intensity are inversely related to renewable energy consumption. The identified effects could provide some insights for policymakers to improve the renewable energy sector towards gaining sustainable economic development.

US Parents’ Domestic Labor Over the Course of the COVID-19 Pandemic

•Objective: This study assesses changes in parents’ divisions of housework and childcare over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. •Background: Assessing the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for gender equality requires understanding how and why labor arrangements shifted as the pandemic progressed. Yet, we know little about US parents’ domestic arrangements beyond the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic or how simultaneous changes in men’s and women’s employment, earnings, telework, gender ideologies, and access to care supports may have altered domestic labor arrangements.•Method: This study assesses change in parents’ domestic labor using fixed-effects regression on data from a longitudinal panel of 700 different-sex partnered US parents collected at three time points: March 2020, April 2020, and November 2020.•Results: Partnered parents’ divisions of housework and childcare became more equal in the early days of the pandemic, but reverted toward pre-pandemic levels by the fall of 2020. Changes in parents’ divisions of domestic labor were largely driven by changes in parents’ labor force conditions, and especially by fathers’ labor force conditions. Decreases in fathers’ labor force participation and increases in telecommuting in April portended increases in partnered fathers’ shares of domestic tasks. As fathers increased time in paid work and returned to in-person work by fall, their shares of domestic labor fell.•Conclusion: Overall, results suggest that promoting full-time employment among mothers and greater time at home for fathers are key in facilitating a more equal division of domestic labor within families post-pandemic.

Economic Cycle and Bank Liquidity Hoarding: Are They Procyclical or Countercyclical?

The paper empirically examines bank liquidity hoarding fluctuations over the economic cycle and provides further evidence on the heterogeneous cyclicality of bank liquidity hoarding across different banks in Vietnam for the period 2007–2019. Using both static panel models with the fixed-effects regression using corrected Driscoll-Kraay standard errors and dynamic panel models with the two-step system generalized method of moments estimator, we find that the liquidity hoarding of banks is procyclical. Concretely bank liquidity hoarding on- and off-balance sheets tends to increase during economic upturns and decrease during economic downturns. Our additional analysis yields a consistent pattern that financially weaker banks are more procyclical than their stronger counterparts. During booms and busts, the behaviour of hoarding liquidity is more pronounced for banks with smaller sizes, less capital, more risk, and less profit. This heterogeneity also contributes to understanding the core mechanism behind our main findings, further confirming the precautionary motive of bank liquidity hoarding.

Rurality Versus Readiness: The Relationship Between State-Level Connection and Capacity Variables and the Management of Medical Stockpiles for a Public Health Emergency

This study investigates what factors contributed to the score a state received for managing its medical countermeasures stockpile pre-COVID-19. It is particularly interested in the relationship between a state’s level of rural population and its countermeasure management capacity. A fixed-effects regression analysis was run using data from 2016 to 2019 to test for a relationship between the percentage of rural population in a state and the states’ countermeasures management score, while controlling for other relevant social, economic, and political variables such as level of social associations, the segregation index, and the level of income inequality. Rurality and physicians per capita proved to be significant and negative. A subsequent analysis found that states with higher levels of rural populations have lower levels of COVID-19 vaccinations, even accounting for effective countermeasure management. This points to rural states having challenges in regard to medical countermeasures that cannot be completely solved with technocratic solutions.

Brain drain and economic growth: evidence of productivity growth from brain circulation

This paper analyzes the effect of the so-called ‘brain drain’ on economic growth through the channel of growth in total factor productivity. We analyze panel data that measure the severity of brain drain, which are from IMD and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Our analysis shows that middle-income countries have more brain drain compared to the group of high-income countries. Also, emerging economies that grow fast tend to experience more brain drain. Our results from fixed effects regression models show that that brain drain has a significant and positive impact on economic growth, and the main channel is productivity growth. This can be considered as evidence of the positive effects of ‘brain circulation’, which is one of the brain drain phenomena that settlement of the talents in advanced countries can eventually help improve the productivity of home country by the sharing of advanced technologies and skills around them with colleagues in motherland. Therefore, a strategy of utilizing overseas resident talents should also be considered, alongside the brain-attraction policy.

Objective Job Demands of Oneself and One’s Partner, and Depressive Symptoms. Evidence from a Nationally Representative Longitudinal Study

Background: Job characteristics are an important predictor of depressive symptoms. Recent research detected unemployment’s spillover effects on spouses’ depressive symptoms, but there is still a lack of studies that examine the association between objective job demands of oneself and one’s partner and depressive symptoms. Methods: Data were derived from the German Ageing Survey (DEAS), which is a representative sample that includes individuals aged 40 years and older. Psycho-social, physical, and overall job characteristics were assessed objectively, using a validated index developed by Kroll. Depressive symptoms were quantified by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Results: Regarding fixed-effects regression, we found no significant association between the own or the partner’s job demands and depression among the total sample and among men. However, among women, both increasing psychosocial demands of one’s own occupation and physical job demands of one’s partner’s occupation were related to higher levels of depression, as well as the partner’s overall job demands. Conclusions: The findings of the present longitudinal study highlight the association between job demands and depressive symptoms in women, but not in men, especially regarding the partner’s employment characteristics. Efforts to reduce the burden of high job demands may be helpful. This could help alleviate depressive symptoms. In turn, geriatric giants caused by increased depressive symptoms, such as frailty, could be postponed.

Impacts of COVID-19 on rural livelihoods in Bangladesh: Evidence using panel data

Rapid assessments have been emerging on the effects of COVID-19, yet rigorous analyses remain scant. Here, rigorous evidence of the impacts of COVID-19 on several livelihood outcomes are presented, with a particular focus on heterogenous effects of COVID-19. We use a household-level panel dataset consisting of 880 data points collected in rural Bangladesh in 2018 and 2020, and employ difference-in-differences with fixed effects regression techniques. Results suggest that COVID-19 had significant and heterogenous effects on livelihood outcomes. Agricultural production and share of production sold were reduced, especially for rice crops. Further, diet diversity and education expenditure were reduced for the total sample. Households primarily affected by (fear of) sickness had a significantly lower agricultural production, share of crop market sales, and lower health and education expenditure, compared to households affected by other COVID-19 effects, such as travel restrictions. In turn, (fear of) sickness and the correlated reduced incidence of leaving the house, resulted in higher off-farm incomes suggesting that households engage in less physically demanding and localized work. Policy-makers need to be cognizant of these heterogenous COVID-19 effects and formulate policies that are targeted at those households that are most vulnerable (e.g., unable/willing to leave the house due to (fear of) sickness).

Impact of Firm-specific Variables on Capital Structure Decisions. Evidence from the Indian Hospitality Sector

This study investigates the determinants of capital structure for hospitality firms listed in India. The study validates the contradiction in the determinants of capital structure by using the data for firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Using fixed-effects regression models, the findings indicate that firm size and return on assets are significantly associated with total debt ratio (TDR), long-term debt ratio (LTDR) and short-term debt ratio. The variables such as growth rate, tangibility and volatility are found to be significantly associated with TDR and LTDR. Non-debt tax shield is found to be significantly associated with only TDR. Each of the stated determinants has a unique impact on capital structure decisions. The study partially confirms the applicability of the pecking order theory for hospitality sector firms. With the findings on hospitality firms, we hope to provide useful insights to lending institutions and corporate executives.

Food Insecurity and International Migration Flows

The driving forces of international migration are increasingly complex and interrelated. This article examines the relationship between food insecurity and regular, permanent international migration. The analysis draws on data from the first global measure of individual-level food insecurity combined with data on migration flows from 198 origin countries to 16 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development destination countries for 2014 and 2015. Using a fixed-effects regression model that resembles an augmented gravity equation controlling for various confounding factors, we show both a significant positive correlation between food insecurity at origin and out-migration and a positive correlation between out-migration and within-country inequality in food insecurity at origin. Our findings imply that people may react not only to the average prevalence of food insecurity but also to their relative position in the distribution of food insecurity within their origin country. This finding may help inform policymakers about potential threshold effects and guide the design of migration policies and aid programs. It also contributes to the study of international migration flows by presenting novel evidence for the role of food insecurity and within-country inequality in food insecurity as drivers of migration flows.