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    Equivalence Scales, the Cost of Children and Household Consumption Patterns in Italy

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    This article deals with the estimation of parametric equivalence scales for Italian households with different demographic characteristics: composition, location and number of employed members in the household. Using a sample of 43,701 observations on monthly current expenditures from 1997 to 2004 we estimate a demand system for ten goods and we tackle the problem of corner solutions for some goods adopting the Two Step estimator proposed by Shonkweiler and Yen (Am J Agric Econ 81:972-982, 1999). The consumption behavior of households is also analyzed calculating compensated, uncompensated and expenditure elasticites for each commodity. By considering households that differ in composition (number of children), geographic location (four-different macro-areas of Italy), and number of employed adults, we allow for a range of useful comparisons

    Declining Equivalence Scales and Cost of Children: Evidence and Implications for Inequality Measurement

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    This article estimates expenditure-dependent equivalence scales for Italian couples with and without children. Following Donaldson and Pendakur (2006), the generalised absolute equivalence-scale exactness (GAESE) restrictions are incorporated into a translated quadratic almost ideal demand system. We obtain declining-with-expenditure equivalence scales, a pattern that tends to strengthen when the number of children increases. Thus, scale economies in current consumption are lower for families with poor expenditure capacities. We also show that families living in the South bear a substantial additional cost to achieve the same well-being of those living in the North. Finally, we find that ignoring the declining with expenditure pattern may involve a relevant understatement of measured inequality

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Obesity in adolescence: Its prevention and psycho-social aspects [Prevenzione e aspetti psico-sociali dell'obesità in età evolutiva]

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    Obesity is the most frequent nutritional disorder in adolescence and the rapid rise in its prevalence is one of the most alarming public health issue that western countries have to face nowadays. Directly associated with the rise in adolescence obesity is an increase in the prevalence of weight-related medical problems such as type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Therefore, obese adolescents might even be the first generation to die before their parents. Interventions that target risk factors for obesity at the individual, family and community levels are needed in order to prevent its increasing prevalence. Being adolescence not only one of the most vulnerable periods for the development of obesity but also the most important formative period in life, youth is a priority population for intervention strategies on both food behaviour and physical activity
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