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Prosperity
Kinds of Prosperity Selected AbstractsHAYEKIAN ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE AS A FOUNDATION FOR SUSTAINED PROSPERITYCONTEMPORARY ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 1 2001JL Jordan Rather than debate whether technical advances have created a ,new economy', economists should focus on the more interesting and useful question: How do we create the sort of environment in which innovation and the productive use of new technology thrive, thereby creating economic prosperity? Such an environment is the product of government laying the appropriate infrastructure, manifested in the culture of the institutions it supports. This article discusses the features governments must incorporate into their institutions in order to build an economic infrastructure that promotes prosperity. [source] FREE TRADE, ,PAUPER LABOUR' AND PROSPERITY: A REPLY TO PROFESSOR MISHANECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2006John Meadowcroft In an Economic Viewpoint published in the September 2005 edition of Economic Affairs, ,Can Globalisation Depress Living Standards in the West?', Professor E. J. Mishan argued that globalisation may reduce living standards in the West by decreasing the labour,capital ratio in developed countries as firms move production to countries where labour is cheaper and/or migrants to the West from the developing world bid down wage rates. In a reply to Professor Mishan's article, Dr John Meadowcroft argues that this view of globalisation is far too pessimistic and explains why free trade, not protection, will secure the prosperity of developed and developing economies. In a final comment, Professor Mishan responds to this critique of his analysis. [source] SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE NEW PRESIDENT: SECURITY, PROSPERITY AND STABILITY IN THE 21ST CENTURYPOLITICS & POLICY, Issue 6 2008Robert McCreight No abstract is available for this article. [source] Effects of Economic Prosperity on Numbers of Threatened SpeciesCONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2001Robin Naidoo We corrected for factors that might otherwise confound such a relationship. Our study was motivated by the continuing debate over the relationship between environmental degradation and per-capita income. Proponents of the environmental Kuznets-curve hypothesis argue that although environmental degradation may increase initially, increases in per-capita income will eventually result in greater environmental quality. Theoretical objections and the lack of widespread empirical evidence recently have thrown doubt on the existence of such a pattern. Treating threat to biodiversity as one potential indicator of environmental degradation, we divided threatened species into seven taxonomic groups ( plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fishes, and invertebrates) and analyzed each group separately. Count-data regression analysis indicated that the number of threatened species was related to per-capita gross national product in five of seven taxonomic groups. Birds were the only taxonomic group in which numbers of threatened species decreased throughout the range of developed countries' per-capita gross national product. Plants, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates showed increasing numbers of threatened species throughout this same range. If these relationships hold, increasing numbers of species from several taxonomic groups are likely to be threatened with extinction as countries increase in prosperity. A key challenge is to understand the interactions among consumer preferences, biology, and institutions that lead to the relationship observed for birds and to see whether this knowledge can be applied to conservation of other taxa. Resumen: Utilizamos datos de más de 100 países para investigar la relación entre números de especies amenazadas y el producto interno bruto per cápita. Hicimos ajustes para factores que pudieran confundir tal relación. Nuestro estudio fue motivado por el continuo debate sobre la relación entre la degradación ambiental y el ingreso per cápita. Proponentes de la hipótesis de la curva ambiental de Kuznets argumentan que, aunque la degradación ambiental puede aumentar inicialmente, el incremento en el ingreso per cápita eventualmente resultará en una mejor calidad ambiental. Recientemente, objeciones teóricas y la carencia de evidencia empírica generalizada hacen dudar de la existencia de ese patrón. Tratando la amenaza a la biodiversidad como un potencial indicador de la degradación ambiental, dividimos a las especies amenazadas en siete grupos taxonómicos (plantas, mamíferos, aves, anfibios, reptiles, peces e invertebrados) y analizamos cada uno por separado. El análisis de regresión de los datos de conteo indicó que el número de especies amenazadas se relacionó con el producto interno bruto per cápita en 5 de los 7 grupos taxonómicos. Las aves fueron el único grupo en el que el número de especies amenazadas decreció a lo largo del rango del producto interno bruto per cápita de los países desarrollados. Las plantas, anfibios, reptiles e invertebrados mostraron un incremento en el número de especies amenazadas en este mismo rango. Si estas relaciones persisten, es posible que aumente el número de especies, de varios grupos taxonómicos, amenazadas de extinción a medida que los países incrementen su prosperidad. Constituye un reto clave entender las interacciones entre la preferencia de los consumidores y los factores biológicos e institucionales que conducen a la relación observada en las aves, y ver si este conocimiento puede aplicarse en la conservación de otros taxones. [source] The Elusive Underpinnings of U.S. Venturesomeness (If Not Prosperity),JOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 2 2009Amar Bhidé This article explores the question of how the U.S. economy has managed to maintain (or even increase) its lead over other nations in per capita income and the average productivity of its workforce. The answer provided in the author's recent book is that such productivity depends on the greater willingness and effectiveness of U.S. consumers and businesses in making use of innovations in products and business processes. But this begs the question: What accounts for the increase in the innovative capabilities or effectiveness of U.S. consumers and businesses, both over time and relative to that of their global counterparts? After starting with the conventional "supply-side" focus on low taxes, limited regulatory barriers, and strong property rights, the author goes on to shift the main emphasis to the following six "institutional" contributors to U.S. prosperity: ,Breadth of participation: the modern U.S. economy draws, to a greater extent than either its global competitors or the U.S. of a century ago, on the contributions of far more individuals both as developers and as users of new products. ,Organizational diversity and specialization: the evolution of new forms of organization in the U.S., from small venture capital-backed firms to huge public corporations with dispersed ownership, has enabled the system to use the contributions of many individuals more effectively. ,Changes in common beliefs and attitudes: greater receptiveness to technological change has accelerated the adoption of new products in all countries, but especially in the U.S. ,Increased pressure for growth: the "grow or die" imperative faced by U.S. businesses has encouraged them to look for help from new technologies. ,The professionalization of management and sales functions,a distinctively U.S. phenomenon whose beginnings can be traced to IBM in the 1920s,has improved the capacity of modern U.S. organizations to develop markets and use new products. ,The expansion of higher education, to a far greater extent in the U.S. than elsewhere, has increased the supply of individuals with habits and attitudes that improve their ability to develop and use innovations. [source] The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World,JOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 1 2009Amar Bhidé Many observers have warned that the next stage of globalization,the offshoring of research and development to China and India,threatens the foundations of Western prosperity. But in this article, the author explains why the doomsayers are likely to be wrong. Using extensive field studies on venture capital-backed businesses to examine how technology is really used to create value in modern economies, this article explains how and why scientific advances abroad generally contribute to prosperity at home, and why trying to maintain the U.S. lead by subsidizing more research or training more scientists is likely to do more harm than good. When breakthrough ideas have no borders, a nation's capacity to exploit cutting-edge research regardless of where it originates is the key to its economic competitiveness. "Venturesome consumption",that is, the willingness and ability of businesses and consumers to use products and technologies derived from scientific research in the most effective ways,is far more important than having a share of the research. And for this reason, well-developed and "venturesome" economies like the U.S. benefit disproportionately from scientific innovations abroad. To cite just one example discussed at length in this article, the success of Apple's iPod owes much to technologies that were developed largely in Asia and Europe. The proven ability of the United States to remain at the forefront of the global "innovation game" reflects the contributions of many players,not just a few brilliant scientists and engineers, but literally millions of U.S. entrepreneurs, managers, financiers, salespersons, and, to a very large degree, U.S. consumers. As long as their venturesome spirit remains alive and well, advances abroad should not be feared but welcomed. [source] Prosperity Without Growth: The Transition to a Sustainable Economy by Tim JacksonJOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2010Arnold Tukker No abstract is available for this article. [source] Prosperity, Depression and Modern CapitalismKYKLOS INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, Issue 3 2006Keith Cowling SUMMARY Prominent figures in our profession have quite recently offered clear cut views on the present distribution of prosperity and depression among the advanced industrial countries, see for example, Lucas (2003), Prescott (2002): prosperity is identified with the United States, depression with Western Europe, and they relate this to the lower burden of taxation in the United States. The gap in the chosen level of performance (output per capita) is very large, about 30%, and the remedy is clear: cut taxes in Europe. But Europe is different from America: for deep historical, cultural reasons, but partly because the pressures to consume are different. There can be no easy inference about relative prosperity: the market investment of modern capitalism can drive people towards longer hours of work and away from their underlying (meta) preferences. [source] In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity: Labor and Gender Politics in Taiwan's Economic RestructuringAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 2 2005HILL GATES No abstract is available for this article. [source] TRIP: a psycho-educational programme in Hong Kong for people with schizophreniaOCCUPATIONAL THERAPY INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2007Sunny Ho-Wan Chan Abstract ,TRIP' (Transforming Relapse and Instilling Prosperity) is a ward-based illness management programme that aims to decrease treatment non-compliance and relapse rate by improving the insight and health of acute psychiatric patients with schizophrenia. Eighty-one stable male acute psychiatric patients with schizophrenia were randomized to receive the TRIP programme (n = 44) or the comparison group of traditional ward occupational therapy (WOT) programme (n = 37). Participants' insights and health were assessed by the Unawareness of Mental Disorder Scale and the Hong Kong version of the Short Form-36 (SF-36) health survey, respectively. Each group was then followed up for a 12-month period. One-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that participants in the TRIP programme had significantly better insight and health than a comparison group during post-study measurement. Participants in the TRIP programme had significantly fewer re-admissions in the 12-month follow-up period than those who attended the WOT programme. In summary the TRIP programme, as led by an occupational therapist, was effective in improving insight, awareness of health and in having a lower re-admission rate than a traditional occupational therapy programme. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Sustainable Prosperity in the New Economy?THE JOURNAL OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2010Business Organization, High-Tech Employment in the United States, by William Lazonick: A Review First page of article [source] The Clean Industrial Revolution; Growing Australian Prosperity in a Greenhouse AgeAUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2010ALISTAIR J. HOBDAY No abstract is available for this article. [source] Provisions Made for Prosperity and Affluence: Karl Sigmund Franz Freiherr von Stein zum Altenstein and the Establishment of the Gärtnerlehranstalt in PrussiaCENTAURUS, Issue 1 2007Björn Brüsch Taking three different case studies, the paper sets out to demonstrate the importance of the garden in land improvement, and how this interest resulted in the foundation of an institution for the specific training and instruction of gardeners. Not only was this Königliche Gärtnerlehranstalt (Royal Gardener's Institute), along with the Royal Botanical Garden and the Society for the Advancement of Horticulture in the Royal Prussian states, seen as an outstanding centre for the improvement of the Prussian landscape, it also combined practical theoretical, and scientific instruction. Merging agrarian and horticultural utility with beautiful gardens, it was aimed at the scientific schooling of land cultivators and experts of plant culture so providing technical support for those industries dedicated to garden culture. Copying the magnificent example of the Parisian Jardin des plantes not only was the garden regarded as a place in which the state's affluence and prosperity was rooted, it also combined cameralistic as well as the scientific and political ideas of the time. The gardener became part of the agrarian political economy. [source] Effects of Economic Prosperity on Numbers of Threatened SpeciesCONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2001Robin Naidoo We corrected for factors that might otherwise confound such a relationship. Our study was motivated by the continuing debate over the relationship between environmental degradation and per-capita income. Proponents of the environmental Kuznets-curve hypothesis argue that although environmental degradation may increase initially, increases in per-capita income will eventually result in greater environmental quality. Theoretical objections and the lack of widespread empirical evidence recently have thrown doubt on the existence of such a pattern. Treating threat to biodiversity as one potential indicator of environmental degradation, we divided threatened species into seven taxonomic groups ( plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fishes, and invertebrates) and analyzed each group separately. Count-data regression analysis indicated that the number of threatened species was related to per-capita gross national product in five of seven taxonomic groups. Birds were the only taxonomic group in which numbers of threatened species decreased throughout the range of developed countries' per-capita gross national product. Plants, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates showed increasing numbers of threatened species throughout this same range. If these relationships hold, increasing numbers of species from several taxonomic groups are likely to be threatened with extinction as countries increase in prosperity. A key challenge is to understand the interactions among consumer preferences, biology, and institutions that lead to the relationship observed for birds and to see whether this knowledge can be applied to conservation of other taxa. Resumen: Utilizamos datos de más de 100 países para investigar la relación entre números de especies amenazadas y el producto interno bruto per cápita. Hicimos ajustes para factores que pudieran confundir tal relación. Nuestro estudio fue motivado por el continuo debate sobre la relación entre la degradación ambiental y el ingreso per cápita. Proponentes de la hipótesis de la curva ambiental de Kuznets argumentan que, aunque la degradación ambiental puede aumentar inicialmente, el incremento en el ingreso per cápita eventualmente resultará en una mejor calidad ambiental. Recientemente, objeciones teóricas y la carencia de evidencia empírica generalizada hacen dudar de la existencia de ese patrón. Tratando la amenaza a la biodiversidad como un potencial indicador de la degradación ambiental, dividimos a las especies amenazadas en siete grupos taxonómicos (plantas, mamíferos, aves, anfibios, reptiles, peces e invertebrados) y analizamos cada uno por separado. El análisis de regresión de los datos de conteo indicó que el número de especies amenazadas se relacionó con el producto interno bruto per cápita en 5 de los 7 grupos taxonómicos. Las aves fueron el único grupo en el que el número de especies amenazadas decreció a lo largo del rango del producto interno bruto per cápita de los países desarrollados. Las plantas, anfibios, reptiles e invertebrados mostraron un incremento en el número de especies amenazadas en este mismo rango. Si estas relaciones persisten, es posible que aumente el número de especies, de varios grupos taxonómicos, amenazadas de extinción a medida que los países incrementen su prosperidad. Constituye un reto clave entender las interacciones entre la preferencia de los consumidores y los factores biológicos e institucionales que conducen a la relación observada en las aves, y ver si este conocimiento puede aplicarse en la conservación de otros taxones. [source] HAYEKIAN ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE AS A FOUNDATION FOR SUSTAINED PROSPERITYCONTEMPORARY ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 1 2001JL Jordan Rather than debate whether technical advances have created a ,new economy', economists should focus on the more interesting and useful question: How do we create the sort of environment in which innovation and the productive use of new technology thrive, thereby creating economic prosperity? Such an environment is the product of government laying the appropriate infrastructure, manifested in the culture of the institutions it supports. This article discusses the features governments must incorporate into their institutions in order to build an economic infrastructure that promotes prosperity. [source] An environment for prosperity and quality living accommodating growth in the Thames ValleyCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2004Hugh Howes The Thames Valley is seen as the powerhouse of the British economy, and one of the best performing regions in Europe. This economic base offers opportunities for expansion with the potential for it to become the knowledge capital of Europe. Business interests view the area as a highly desirable location, not only because of its markets, skills and proximity to the City and Heathrow but also because of its high quality environment. Companies, however, complain of skills shortages, traffic congestion, lack of suitable premises and housing that is affordable to the workforce. Much of the Thames Valley is either Green Belt or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Furthermore, the availability of future water supplies, the maintenance of the quality of water in the rivers and managing flood risk are also likely to act as constraints on development in the future. How economic growth is to be achieved with minimal additional development and without detriment to the environment is the central question that is likely to dominate planning in the this region over the next few years. Is it possible to achieve more with existing resources? Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Trading places: Quentovic and Dorestad reassessedEARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 3 2002Simon Coupland In any list of Carolingian emporia, Quentovic and Dorestad feature prominently, yet the numismatic evidence reveals a complete contrast between the two. In the late eighth and early ninth centuries, contrary to popular belief, Quentovic was of very little economic significance. At the same time, Dorestad was booming, reaching the peak of its prosperity around 820. Only thirty years later, the situation was dramatically reversed: Dorestad rapidly declined and disappeared, while Quentovic enjoyed a remarkable renaissance. This challenges the current theory that the emporia disappeared in the mid-ninth century, to be replaced by the emerging towns. [source] APPLYING NORTH'S LAWS OF MOTION TO THE EDGE OF THE WESTECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2009Saad Azmat This paper uses Douglass North's theories of institutional economics to explain progress in Muslim Spain. It argues that it was efficient economic institutions in the guise of a free-market economy where the property rights of different strata of society were well protected, which ensured lasting prosperity. This paper postulates that while a population explosion could have been responsible for the initial growth in Spain, it was an efficient formal,informal institutional matrix that ensured a high level of long-term growth. [source] MUSLIM WOMEN AND PROPERTY RIGHTSECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2009Azhar Aslam This paper examines rights to property accorded to women in Islam under direct injunctions and compares it with the state of these rights in present Muslim societies. It argues that the correct application of law will not only materially improve the status of women in Muslim societies and guarantee them economic security, it will also bring economic prosperity to such societies directly. [source] FREE TRADE, ,PAUPER LABOUR' AND PROSPERITY: A REPLY TO PROFESSOR MISHANECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2006John Meadowcroft In an Economic Viewpoint published in the September 2005 edition of Economic Affairs, ,Can Globalisation Depress Living Standards in the West?', Professor E. J. Mishan argued that globalisation may reduce living standards in the West by decreasing the labour,capital ratio in developed countries as firms move production to countries where labour is cheaper and/or migrants to the West from the developing world bid down wage rates. In a reply to Professor Mishan's article, Dr John Meadowcroft argues that this view of globalisation is far too pessimistic and explains why free trade, not protection, will secure the prosperity of developed and developing economies. In a final comment, Professor Mishan responds to this critique of his analysis. [source] The expansion of the south-western fisheries in late medieval EnglandECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 3 2000Maryanne Kowaleski This article argues that the expansion of marine fishing in south-western England from the late fourteenth century to the early sixteenth was part of the maritime sector's critical, but unappreciated, contribution to the rising prosperity of the region. Revenues from fishing represented a substantial supplement to the income of the fisher-farmers who dominated the industry; promoted employment in ancillary industries such as fish curing; improved the seasonal distribution of maritime work; and stimulated capital investment in ships, nets, and other equipment because of the share system that characterized the division of profits within fishing enterprises. In offering what was probably the chief source of employment within the maritime sector, fishing also provided the ,nursery of seamen' so prized by the Tudor navy, and built the navigational experience that underpinned later voyages of exploration. [source] TAX REFORM: A DIFFERENT VIEWECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 2 2007GEOFFREY KINGSTON The mainstream view of tax reformers in Australia is that dropping our top personal tax rate closer to our corporate rate is the best way to use persistent budget surpluses in order to promote national prosperity. Yet the international evidence suggests that dropping our corporate rate would be more effective in lifting output and wages. Prominent tax reformers have tended to go along with recent measures that will shield the elderly from most direct taxation. Further down the track, however, questions will arise about whether the young are bearing an inordinate share of the tax burden. [source] Entrepreneurial Policy: The Case of Regional Specialization vs.ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 5 2008Spontaneous Industrial Diversity Regional economic development policy is recognized as a key tool governments use to foster economic prosperity. Whether specialization (or diversity) of economic activities should be a regional development policy goal is often debated. We address this question in a local-diversity context, by reviewing traditional arguments in its favor, supplemented with evidence for more entrepreneurial concepts like industrial symbiosis and Jacobs externalities. We show that the context of entrepreneurship matters more to policy than the type and form of resulting industries. Policies enabling entrepreneurs to exploit opportunities in a context of spontaneously evolved industrial diversity are better facilitators of regional development. [source] Changes in Wives' Employment When Husbands Stop Working: A Recession-Prosperity ComparisonFAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 4 2010Marybeth J. Mattingly American families are experiencing the effects of the "Great Recession." Most of the job losses are accruing to men, so families may find it strategic for wives to enter the labor force, or increase their work hours. We consider this possibility using the May 2008 and 2009 Current Population Survey, and compare findings to May 2004 and 2005 data, a time of relative prosperity. We find that wives of husbands who stopped working during the recession were more likely to increase work hours, and more likely to commence or seek work. During the Great Recession years, the effect for wives entering the labor force is significantly greater than during the earlier years of relative prosperity. [source] Regional Devolution and Regional Economic Success: Myths and Illusions about PowerGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2006Ray Hudson Abstract The proposition that regional devolution in and of itself will lead to economic success has become deeply embedded in beliefs and policy discourses about the determinants of regional prosperity, and in turn has led to political demands for such devolution. In this paper I seek critically to examine such claims, using the case of the north-east of England as the setting for this examination. The paper begins with some introductory comments on concepts of power, regions, the reorganization of the state and of multi-level governance, and governmentality, which help in understanding the issues surrounding regional devolution. I then examine the ways in which north-east England was politically and socially constructed as a particular type of region, with specific problems, in the 1930s , a move that has had lasting significance up until the present day. Moving on some six decades, I then examine contemporary claims about the relationship between regional devolution and regional economic success, which find fertile ground in the north-east precisely due to its long history of representation as a region with a unified regional interest. I then reflect on the processes of regional planning, regional strategies and regional devolution, and their relationship to regional economic regeneration. A brief conclusion follows, emphasizing that questions remain about the efficacy of the new governmentality and about who would be its main beneficiaries in the region. The extent to which devolution would actually involve transferring power to the region and the capacity of networked forms of power within the region to counter the structural power of capital and shape central state policies remains unclear. [source] URBAN-SYSTEM EVOLUTION ON THE FRONTIER OF THE ECUADORIAN AMAZONGEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 4 2000Roy Ryder ABSTRACT. Like the North American frontier, Ecuador's Amazonian margin has advanced in periodic waves. But the impetus has been extremely varied, interlacing periods of socioeconomic crisis with times of prosperity. Recent events in eastern Ecuador confirm that urbanization is a fundamental component of frontier development in South America. The urbanization process is not a sign, however, of regional economic strength. Capital gains at the periphery are transferred to the nation's core region. Even the larger boom towns display little functional specialization; they are, instead, precariously dependent on employment in the public-service sector. Nonetheless, urban centers in the Ecuadorian Amazon continue to grow and to drain surrounding rural areas of younger and more educated individuals. [source] The Quality of Education, Educational Institutions, and Cross-Country Differences in Human Capital AccumulationGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2005SHAWN D. KNABB ABSTRACT Cross-country studies of education and economic prosperity often reach conflicting results when using growth rates as the measure of economic development. However, growth rates lack persistence over time and may not accurately measure long-term economic success over relatively short economic horizons. To overcome this potential specification problem, we estimate the relationship between key education variables and the capital to physical labor ratio. Using both cross-sectional and panel specifications, we find that both the primary-pupil,teacher ratio and decentralized education finance are associated with a larger capital to physical labor ratio. The relationship between human capital and expenditures, private education, and test scores are less robust. [source] Re-Forging the ,Age of Iron' Part II: The Tenth Century in a New Age?HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 9 2010John Howe The tenth century, once dismissed as an unpleasant ,Age of Iron', now receives increased attention as an important age of transition. Historians are attempting to understand how it fits into the broader narrative of Western Civilization. Although some scholars have identified it as the last act of the post-Roman world, others see it as a new age. Perhaps the High Middle Ages with its agricultural and demographic revolution, its new villages and parishes, its revived cities, its reformed churches and schools, and its medieval monarchs began in the tenth century? Or were those changes not novelties of the tenth century but rather manifestations of a ,take off' that had already begun back in the Carolingian Empire, and which, despite the problems posed by late Carolingian wars and invasions, was able to continue, spread, and blossom into the growth and prosperity of the High Middle Ages? New scholarly interest in the tenth century has made it much less of a ,dark age', but scholars still are not quite certain how to conceptualize its historical significance. [source] Trends in adult stature of peoples who inhabited the modern Portuguese territory from the Mesolithic to the late 20th centuryINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 6 2009H. F. V. Cardoso Abstract This study documents long-term changes in stature from the Mesolithic to the late 20th century in the territory of modern Portugal. Data utilised originated from published sources and from a sample of the Lisbon identified skeletal collection, where long bone lengths were collected. Mean long bone lengths were obtained from 20 population samples and compiled into nine periods. Pooled long bone lengths for each period were then converted to stature estimates. Results show three major trends: (1) a slow increase in stature from prehistory to the Middle Ages; (2) a negative trend from the Middle Ages to the late 19th century; and (3) a very rapid increase in mean stature during the second half of the 20th century. The political and territorial stability of the Kingdom of Portugal may have contributed to the greater heights of the medieval Portuguese, compared with the Roman and Modern periods. The negative secular trend was rooted in poor and unsanitary living conditions and the spread of infectious disease, brought about by increased population growth and urbanisation. Although the end of the Middle Ages coincided with the age of discoveries, the population may not have benefited from the overall prosperity of this period. The 20th century witnessed minor and slow changes in the health status of the Portuguese, but it was not until major improvements in social and economic conditions that were initiated in the 1960s, and further progress in the 1970s, that the Portuguese grew taller than ever before. Since the Middle Ages other European countries have experienced similar oscillations, but showed an earlier recovery in stature after the industrial period. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The World Bank's New Social Policies: PensionsINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 170 2001François-Xavier Merrien Over the last 15 years, the world has become the scene of struggles between major inter-national stakeholders regarding the policies required for economic prosperity and social development. The World Bank plays a dominant role here. In this article, the author highlights the epistemic revolution the policy field has undergone under the aegis of the Bank. He analyses the basic aspects of the new orthodoxy regarding pensions and the effects on the policies of the governments concerned. He concludes with an examination of the theoretical and practical relevance of the recommendations and asks to what extent the Bank is able to learn from its own mistakes. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||