1,721,021 research outputs found
The EU regional Social Progress Index 2.0
Full text linkThe EU-Social Progress Index (EU-SPI) is a valuable tool for facilitating benchmarking across European Union (EU) regions. Its purpose is to assist policymakers and stakeholders in evaluating a region's strengths and weaknesses, particularly in the realms of social and environmental considerations. The Index encompasses crucial aspects integral to EU cohesion policy-backed investments, spanning basic services (health, education, water, and waste), access to information and communication technologies, energy efficiency, education and skills, and pollution. In essence, this index serves as a valuable tool for policymakers to refine interventions in regional development programs. For the 2021-2027 funding programming period, Cohesion Policy has outlined distinct policy objectives to guide investments supporting growth
Social interactions, loneliness and collective health: A new angle on an old debate
Full text linkLoneliness is increasingly being recognized as an important economic and public health issue. This paper investigates the relationship between historically rooted norms that drive individuals to conform to predefined behavioral standards and contemporary perceptions of social interactions and attitudes towards loneliness. Using a sub-population of second-generation immigrants, we identify an intergenerationally transmitted component of culture that reflects the importance of restrained discipline and rules characterizing highly intensive pre-industrial agricultural systems. We show that this cultural dimension influences perceptions of the quality of social relationships and significantly affects the likelihood of experiencing loneliness. The identified trait is then used to instrument loneliness in a two-stage model for health. We find that loneliness directly affects body mass index and some specific mental health issues. We argue, however, that loneliness may influence other health outcomes indirectly due to its economically significant effect on the increased body mass index. The results are robust to a battery of sensitivity checks. Our findings add to a growing body of research on the importance of attitudes in predicting significant economic and health outcomes, opening up a new channel via which deeply-rooted geographical, cultural, and individual characteristics may influence comparative economic development processes
Ethnic distribution, effective power and ethnic conflict
No full textThis thesis is investigating both in theoretical and empirical terms the relationship
between the features of ethnic distribution and the probability of con ict. The thesis
is composed of four chapters. The rst chapter is the introduction to the thesis in
which I brie y summarize the main problems related to the existing literature on
ethnic diversity and con ict and I present an overview of the measures of ethnic
diversity commonly used in the literature.
In the second chapter I propose a theoretical model that speci es the potential
of con ict in a society as a function of the population distribution across ethnic
groups. I axiomatically derive a general parametric class of indices of con ict potential
that combines the groups' e ective power and the between-groups interaction. The
e ective power of a group is a function of a group's relative size but it also depends on
the relative sizes of all the other groups in the population. The interaction component,
on the other hand, is given by the probability of interaction between the members
of one group with those of other groups. I show that for certain parameter values
the index reduces to the existing indices of ethnic diversity, while in general the
indices combine in a non-linear way three di erent aspects of ethnic diversity, namely
the fractionalization, the polarization and the ethnic dominance. The results of the
model share some common features with the literature on con icts in contests and
the literature on voting power indices. In particular, the power component of the
extreme element of the class of indices is intuitively related to the de nition of voting
power in a simple majority game. In that particular case, the value of the e ective
power is given by the relative Penrose-Banzhaf index of voting power calculated over
the shares of populations associated to each ethnic group. In the third chapter I investigate empirically the role of ethnic diversity in the
explanation of the ethnic con ict outbreak. The empirical performance of the indices
of con ict potential developed in the second chapter is tested against the existing
distributional indices of ethnic diversity within the context of the commonly used
logistic model that focuses on the onset of ethnic con icts in a time range from 1946 to
2005. Together with the set of the explanatory variables for structural conditions and
country characteristics, I take advantage of the recent "Ethnic Power Relations" data
set which includes additional information on the political exclusion and competition
along ethnic lines and it o ers the best coding for ethnic wars. The results obtained
suggest that the indices of con ict potential outperform the existing indices of ethnic
diversity in the explanation of ethnic con ict onset. This evidence is robust to the
inclusion of a larger set of regressors, time and regional controls as well as to several
other estimation techniques.
The fourth chapter explores empirically the determinants of con ict duration with
a particular attention to the potential role of ethnic diversity together with ethnic
politics and competition dynamics. The rst part of the chapter presents an overview
of the existing literature on con ict duration, the main data cources and the related
econometric issues. The second part of the chapter consists in a non-parametric and
a parametric survival analysis of the duration of ethnic con ict where we address
in detail the issues of non-proportionality of the hazard function, the unmeasured
heterogeneity and the presence of "repeated events". The results suggest that there
is a statistically signi cant and robust association between ethnic distribution and
con ict duration, together with other commonly used explanatory variables in the
literature on con ict duration
Historical roots of loneliness and its impact on second-generation immigrants’ health
No full textThis paper examines the relationship between historical cultural norms and attitudes towards loneliness, specifically within the context of second-generation immigrants. We uncover an intergenerationally transmitted cultural element that emphasizes restraint and adherence to strict rules characterizing highly-intensive pre-industrial agricultural systems. This cultural dimension significantly impacts how individuals perceive their social relationships and influences their likelihood of experiencing loneliness. Additionally, we demonstrate that the identified cultural trait serves as a predictor of loneliness in a two-stage model for health. Our research shows that loneliness directly impacts body mass index and specific mental health issues, and these findings hold true across a battery of sensitivity checks. The results add to the existing body of research highlighting the importance of attitudes in predicting economic and health outcomes, shedding light on how deeply ingrained geographical, cultural, and individual characteristics can shape economic development processes in both home and host countries
Health and relationship quality of sexual minorities in Europe
Full text linkA growing body of literature investigates inequalities between sexual minorities and their heterosexual peers. This paper deals with disparities in health, health-related behaviours, and relationship quality among LGB+ individuals. We use a novel data set that allows for a wide cross-national analysis (27 EU member states) of disparities between sexual minorities and the rest of the population, as well as differences in reporting sexual orientation. We consider a rich set of social stressors, individual-specific behavioural factors, and health outcomes, as well as novel para-data (i.e., individuals’ response times) that are not available in other large surveys. The results indicate that sexual minorities are more exposed to stigma-related social stressors (both in childhood and adulthood), report worse physical and mental health conditions, feel more lonely, and are more likely to engage in coping strategies aimed at reducing or adapting to stressful conditions. Some of these findings significantly differ across gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals and with respect to household income, the country’s enforcement of sexual minorities’ rights, and relationship status.JRC.S.3 - Science for Modelling, Monitoring and Evaluatio
Childhood Experiences, Health and Loneliness
No full textThis chapter examines the associations between loneliness, health and adverse childhood experiences. First, it describes the general patterns of these variables across 27 European Union member states. Second, it investigates the association between loneliness and early-life adverse experiences, controlling for individuals’ current situation and demographic and socio-economic conditions. Third, it examines the interplay between adverse childhood conditions and the statistically and economically considerable association between loneliness and physical and mental health outcomes. Finally, the chapter assesses the robustness of the main findings to alternative measures of loneliness. Results show that there is a significant association between adverse childhood experiences and loneliness even after accounting for a range of individual-specific factors, suggesting that feelings of loneliness may be a result not only of individuals’ current circumstances but also of their upbringing. Childhood experiences are also strongly associated with different health outcomes in adulthood. The association between loneliness and health reduces in magnitude once we take account of childhood experiences. In addition to a direct association between early-life conditions and health, this result indicates that adverse childhood conditions may be linked to health outcomes indirectly through loneliness
Ethnic Distribution, Effective Power and Conflict
Full text linkThis paper highlights the fact that different distributional aspects of ethnicity matter for conflict. We axiomatically derive a parametric class of indices of conflict potential obtained as the sum of each ethnic group’s relative power weighted by the probability of across group interactions. The power component of an extreme element of this class of indices is given by the Penrose–Banzhaf measure of relative power. This index combines in a non-linear way fractionalization, polarization and dominance. The empirical analysis verifies that it outperforms the existing indices of ethnic diversity in explaining ethnic conflict onset
Wounds of the past, screens of the present: how childhood adversities shape social media behaviours in adulthood
Full text linkThis paper explores whether individuals that grew up in adverse environments are more likely to engage in harmful use of social media later in life. We rely on the first EU-wide, individual-level survey that comprises information on social media usage time, patterns, motivations, and potential overuse, together with a rich set of socio-economic conditions, experiences of loneliness, and traumatic events in childhood of individuals residing in 27 European member states. We find that the presence of close relatives with severe drinking and mental health problems during childhood is positively associated with excessive use of social media in adulthood. Adverse childhood environments have a significant impact on passive overuse of digital platforms, leading to increased neglect of work and family responsibilities. The results also indicate interesting geographical patterns as well as gender and cohort effects, with younger male individuals and those living in Northern and Eastern European countries being particularly affected. Finally, we show that the childhood environment spillovers are, to some extent, mediated by loneliness and social isolation in adulthood. Our findings have significant policy implications since the interplay between the excessive social media use and adverse childhood experiences may jointly undermine individuals’ well-being and cognitive development, representing a pressing public health issue
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