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Personalities and public sector performance: evidence from a health experiment in Pakistan
No full textThis paper presents evidence that selecting better people to work in government and improving their incentives are complements in improving government effectiveness. To do so, this paper combines a policy that improved incentives for health service delivery in Punjab, Pakistan, with data on health worker personalities. We present three key results. First, government doctors with higher personality scores perform better, even under status quo incentives. Second, health inspectors with higher personality scores exhibit larger treatment responses when incentives are reformed. Last, senior health officials with higher personality scores respond more to data on staff absence by compelling better subsequent attendance
Rainfall seasonality, droughts, and business
No full textMany parts of the world are subject to seasonal rainfall that provides a major part of the water supply to support agrarian systems and various life forms. Climate change is inducing greater variability in the distribution of rainfall and posing a major livelihood crisis on a global scale. How have businesses reacted to such climatic fluctuations in the past and the present? This chapter outlines the interaction of businesses with seasonality by focusing on India, an economy heavily dependent on monsoon rainfall. It studies the financial sector in colonial India and its interaction with monsoon seasonality and the evolution of the massive borewell business involved in the extraction of groundwater. While borewells raised agricultural productivity, reduced poverty, and provided an immediate solution to overcome seasonality and water stress, their long-term sustainability has been questioned as groundwater tables plunge, underscoring complex cycles in the interaction between business and climate change
The erasure of infection-associated chronic conditions: critical interpretive synthesis of literature on healthcare for long COVID and related conditions in Brazil
No full textEvidence is emerging that long COVID is at least as prevalent in the Global South as the Global North, but literature on long COVID healthcare in the Global South is in its infancy. Brazil is seeing significant levels of debility due to long COVID but a limited national evidence-base. long COVID shares symptomatology and appropriate care with a wider category of infection-associated chronic conditions (IACCs). This article reviews literature published between 2000 and 2023 addressing healthcare for long COVID and IACCs in Brazil, in the interest of exploring challenges and opportunities for the SUS (Brazil’s universal health system) to offer appropriate long COVID healthcare. We find that long COVID and IACCs collectively are subject to erasure from Brazilian healthcare knowledge, through lack of expertise, a resource-limited health system prioritising urgent care, and the concentration of poor health in marginalised populations with limited decision-making power. A nascent intellectual will to address long COVID, and a tradition of social participation in healthcare governance present potential opportunities. We call for ignition of a global step-change in tackling healthcare for long COVID and IACCs. Global equity in long COVID healthcare requires the development and sharing of expertise regarding its universal and context-specific features
The effect of bearing surface on cementless and hybrid total hip arthroplasty survival: an updated analysis of contemporary bearing data from the National Joint Registry and hospital episode statistics
No full textThe aim of this project was to analyse the effect of contemporary THR bearings on THA survival. This is an updated report of our previous analysis with longer follow up and now includes antioxidant-stabilised polyethylene bearings.We combined the NJR dataset with polyethylene manufacturing properties to sub-divide polyethylene into conventional (PE) and highly crosslinked (XLPE). Only THAs with a cementless acetabular component were included. The Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) dataset was used to link ipsilateral surgical procedures for the treatment of peri-prosthetic hip fractures. Reoperation for peri-prosthetic fracture was defined as revision as registered by the NJR or fixation as captured by the HES dataset. Cause-specific and overall reasons for revisions were analysed using Kaplan-Meier and multi-variate Cox proportional hazard regression survival analyses.A total of 696,013 THAs and 17,468 reoperations were included in this analysis. Regression analysis with metal on XLPE as the reference bearing adjusted for age, sex, stem fixation and head size revealed that the lowest risk of revision for any reason was in Ceramicised Metal on XLPE (HR= 0.77, 95% CI = 0.69 – 0.86) followed by Ceramic on Antioxidant XLPE (HR 0.78, 95%CI = 0.68 – 0.88), Ceramic on XLPE (HR= 0.86, 95%CI = 0.82 – 0.91), Ceramic on Ceramic (HR 0.95, 95%CI= 0.90 – 1.0) and Metal on Antioxidant XLPE (HR 1.02, 95%CI= 1.05 – 1.14). Age under 55 at primary, male sex, cementless stem fixation and head size of 28mm were associated with a higher risk of revision.In this updated report with longer follow up, XLPE-based bearings were associated with the lowest risk of revision. The lowest risk of revision for aseptic loosening and revision for all reasons was in CMoXLPE THAs
Secondary school admissions in London: banding and selection by aptitude and ability
No full textThis paper addresses secondary school admissions in London and specifically the different types of selection used. The focus is on three forms of selection: banding, designed to ensure that schools have an academically balanced intake; partial selection on the basis of aptitude or ability; and selection by ability to grammar schools. The paper addresses two main research questions: What is the extent of selection in state funded secondary schools in London? And to what extent have these forms of selection changed? We present a brief historical overview of the school-based education system in England, including the specific London context. We then present an outline of relevant legislative provision before examining selection in London over time. Our findings reveal that banding has decreased over time. Although fewer local authorities use banding than two decades ago, a number of individual schools and academy trusts have adopted this approach, most notably in areas that previous had local authority banding and also in some areas with grammar schools. The proportion of schools adopting partial selection on the basis of ability or aptitude in particular subjects has remained similar over the past decade. The number of grammar schools remains unchanged. More generally, our findings reveal considerable continuity with the use of various forms of testing / assessment at entry to a significant minority of state-funded secondary schools albeit of different types and with different underlying aims: ranging from seeking to achieve an academically balanced intake in the case of banding, to seeking to obtain a high ability intake in the case of grammar schools
David Owen, human rights and the remaking of British foreign policy
No full textDavid Owen, human rights and the remaking of British foreign policy by Grealy, David, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2023, viii+223 pp., £85 (hbk), ISBN 9781350294875; £76.50 (ePDF), ISBN 9781350294882; £76.50 (ebk), ISBN 978135029489
How students can future-proof their careers against automation
No full textWith the evolution of AI and robotics, jobs are being automated at a fast pace. To protect their future careers, students must develop soft skills, which are both highly valued by employers and less susceptible to automation. Juan José Mena Greenham and Daniel Jolles list five proven real-world experiences that can help develop the most in-demand soft skills
RightsCon 2025: spotlight on children's rights in the digital age
No full textThe world’s leading summit on human rights in the digital age, RightsCon, was held in Taipei, Taiwan, and online from February 24 to 27, 2025. Two researchers linked to the Digital Futures for Children centre at LSE joint with 5Rights – Natálie Terčová and Sonia Livingstone– participated in the conference and offer their reflections on the sessions focused on children’s rights in the digital age
Abolishing NHS England won’t save the NHS
No full textThe creation of NHS England by Dr Lansley was widely seen as a disaster. But Wes Streeting’s decision to abolish NHS England altogether will lead to years of disruption, while leaving the problematic culture of measuring NHS performance by narrow targets intact, argues Gwyn Bevan
Should we introduce a new right against AI replicas?
No full textThere is an increasing concern by artists about the impact of new AI technologies. One of those worries is AI’s ability to create digital replicas of people’s voices and image. Luke McDonagh, Emma Perot and Luis Porangaba ask whether it’s time the UK introduced a new right to protect against that