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This paper evaluates the effects of public expenditures on sovereign bond spreads in emerging market countries. Specifically, the paper explores empirically how country risk, as proxied by sovereign bond spreads, is influenced by the different types of government expenditures (namely current spending, public investments, spending on education, health, social protection, economic affairs and defense) and country-specific fundamentals. Using panel data from emerging market countries, we find that governments can improve their borrowing conditions in international financial markets by heightening public investment and managing their current spending. In accordance with the empirical literature on the determinants of spreads, we find that country-specific fundamentals are also important determinants of spreads. Further, we find evidence that financial markets' reaction to public expenditures depends on government effectiveness.

Effective states provide public goods by taxing their citizens and imposing penalties for non-compliance. However, accountable government requires that enough citizens are civically engaged. We study the voluntary cooperative underpinnings of the accountable state by conducting a two-level public goods experiment in which civic engagement can build a sanction scheme to solve the first-order public goods dilemma. We find that civic engagement can be sustained at high levels when costs are low relative to the benefits of public good provision. This cost-to-benefit differential yields what we call a "leverage effect" because it transforms modest willingness to cooperate into the larger social dividend from the power of taxation. In addition, we find that local social interaction among subgroups of participants also boosts cooperation.

This paper examines the extent to which wellbeing levels change in the transition to retirement depending on transitioning from being employed, unemployed or economically inactive. Whereas transitioning from employment to unemployment has been found to cause a decrease in subjective wellbeing with more time spent in unemployment, it is not clear how transitioning from unemployment to retirement affects wellbeing levels. We use the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to monitor the life satisfaction of respondents who retire in between two waves. We portray wellbeing scores before and after retirement and then identify the change in life satisfaction during the retirement transition using a First Difference model. Results indicate that being unemployed before retirement is associated with an increase in life satisfaction, but presents mainly a catching-up effect compared to employed persons transitioning to retirement. These results are still significant if we control for selection into unemployment and country differences. Retirement from labour market inactivity does not lead to significant changes in wellbeing. As the wellbeing of unemployed persons recovers after transitioning to retirement, especially the currently unemployed population should be supported to prevent detrimental consequences of economically unfavourable conditions and lower wellbeing.

Relatively little is known about the psychophysiological processes underlying the development of socioemotional vulnerabilities that are common among adolescents exposed to child maltreatment. Using a prospective, longitudinal design, we investigated whether trajectories of resting heart period (HP; a physiological correlate of stress vulnerability) across three visits (separated by 6 months) was associated with shyness (a type of socioemotional vulnerability) in adolescent females exposed to child maltreatment ( N = 55; Mage = 14.07 years). Adolescents' resting HP across visits was best characterized by two latent trajectories: a stable high class (25.5%) and a stable low class (74.5%). The stable low HP trajectory was associated with higher shyness at Time 1 (T1), and HP trajectory moderated the association between T1 and Time 3 (T3) shyness. Females in the stable low HP trajectory demonstrated stability of shyness from T1 to T3, whereas T1 and T3 shyness were unrelated for females in the stable high HP trajectory. We also found that shyness at T1 and T3 was associated with greater levels of anxiety at T3. These findings illustrate heterogeneity in the developmental patterns of resting autonomic activity in adolescent females exposed to child maltreatment; such differences may influence the continuity of some traits linked with socioemotional vulnerability such as shyness.

ᶜAli Akbar Khatāyi's Khatāynāmeh (Book of China), a detailed description of state and society in Ming China written in 922/1516, includes citations from the Kanz al-Haqāyeq (attributed to Mahmud Shabestari) and ᶜAttār's Elāhināmeh. By citing these two texts at key points in his description of the Chinese government, Khatāyi articulates a radical political vision in which the civil officials, rather than the emperor, are the true rulers. Furthermore, by using the Kanz al-Haqāyeq as a portal text, and through frequent citations of other gnostic poetry, he crafts his own authorial presence by identifying his own text with fotovvat and gnosticism, and invokes a conceptual framework based on the thought of Ibn ᶜArabi epitomized in his intertexts.

El objetivo del presente artículo es hacer un análisis cuantitativo de la problemática del hambre en el estado de Zacatecas en México. Las variables tomadas en cuenta para la realización del modelo son años de escolaridad, habitantes por vivienda, Valor Agregado Bruto, Población Económica Activa, Producto Interno Bruto y número de hectáreas cosechadas, en cada uno de los 58 municipios de Zacatecas. A través de una recategorización del Método de Mínimos Cuadrados Ordinarios (MCO) se llega a la conclusión de que el número de habitantes por vivienda es el factor más importante al momento de determinar la probabilidad de padecer hambre en dicho estado.

Food crises and ecologization have given rise to a Belgian dynamic that does not behave according to the conventional tripod of agroecology: practitioners, social movement, and scientists. Instead of simply recounting the history of Belgian agroecology, the authors trace the history and dynamics in Belgium), a journey along six strands that weave themselves into a Belgian tapestry: Genetically modified crop commandos, a scientific paradigm shift, hybrid expertise opening the Northern route that intersects with a Southern political route, an original non-institutional dynamic in the French-speaking part of Belgium and an institutional initiative that led to a rift in Flanders. In the following section, we identify, emerging from those six strands, four tensions that create a space of innovations, namely, politically differentiated discourses, land access, fair price, and epistemic tensions. We discuss then the generative potential of the 4 tensions and describe the potential of reconfigurations generated by boundaries organizations, food justice and transdisciplinarity. We conclude that the concept of agroecology continues to have transformative potential in Belgium today. However, no one can predict the course of such a largely non-institutional dynamic.