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This study considers the effects of globalization, in its economic and social dimensions, on obesity and caloric intake. In assessing these effects using longitudinal analysis, this study adopts an extensive list of controls to account for compositional changes and effects, as well as different specifications. The results suggest a robust association between globalization and both obesity and caloric intake. A one standard deviation increase in globalization is associated with a 20 percent increase in obese population and a 4 percent rise in calorie intake. The effect remains statistically significant even with an instrument variable strategy, a lagged structure, and corrections for panel standard errors. The primary driver is social globalization, and specifically the effects of changes in information flows and social proximity. A one standard deviation increase in social globalization increased the percentage of obese population by 14.5 percent and the consumption of calories by 2.8 percent, respectively.

This paper examines the heterogeneity in the public financing of long-term care (LTC), and the wide-ranging instruments in place to finance long-term care services. We distinguish and classify the institutional responses to the need for LTC financing as ex-ante (occurring prior to when the need arises, such as insurance) and ex-post (occurring after the need arises, such as public sector and family financing). Then we examine country-specific data to ascertain whether the two types of financing are complements or substitutes. Finally, we examine exploratory cross-national data on public expenditure determinants, specifically economic, demographic and social determinants. We show that although both ex-ante and ex-post mechanisms exist in all countries with advanced industrial economies and despite the fact that instruments are different across countries, ex-ante and ex-post instruments are largely substitutes for each other. Expenditure estimates to date indicate that the public financing of long-term care is highly sensitive to a country's income, ageing of the population, and the availability of informal caregiving.

Long-term care (LTC) is the largest insurable risk that old-age individuals face in most western societies. However, the demand for LTC insurance is still ostensibly small in comparison to the financial risk, which is reflected in the formation of expectations of insurance coverage. One explanation that has received limited support is that expectations of either "public sector funding" and "family bailout" crowd out individual incentives to seek insurance. This paper aims to investigate further the above mentioned motivational crowding out hypothesis by developing a theoretical model and by drawing on empirical analysis of representative survey data of fifteen European countries containing records on individual expectations of LTC funding sources (including private insurance, social insurance and the family). The theoretical model shows that, when informal care is treated as exogenously determined, expectations of both state support and informal care can potentially crowd out LTC insurance expectations, while this is not necessarily the case when informal care is endogenous to insurance, as is the case when intra-family moral hazard is integrated in the insurance decision. Evidence from expectations data suggest evidence consistent with the presence of family crowding out, but no evidence of public sector crowding out, and only weak evidence for cohorts of individuals older than 55.

The distribution of health inequalities appears to exhibit a different pattern when samples of developing countries are examined. One explanation is the existence of a health Kuznets ́curve. This paper sets out as an exploratory analysis to test the latter hypothesis of an inverse U shape pattern between both economic and health development and income inequalities in health. We draw upon two rich datasets and we use two measures of health, self -reported health and Body Mass Index (BMI). Our results are suggestive of a socioeconomic health Kuznets' curve on self-reported health but not on BMI. We find robust evidence of both cross country and time series heterogeneity which display a turning point of GDP per capita varying between US $26,000 -38,200.

Much of the theoretical literature on inequality assumes that the equalisand is a cardinal variable like income or wealth. However, health status is generally measured as a categorical variable expressing a qualitative order. Traditional solutions involve reclassifying the variable by means of qualitative models and relying on inequality measures that are mean independent. We argue that the way status is conceptualized has important theoretical implications for measurement as well as for policy analysis. We also bring to the data a recently proposed approach to measuring self-reported health inequality that meets both rigorous and practical considerations. We draw upon the World Health Survey data to examine alternative pragmatic methods for making health inequality comparisons. Findings suggest significant differences in health inequality measurement and that regional and country patterns of inequality orderings do not coincide with any reasonable categorization of countries by health system organization

pt. 1. Institutionalism and the Mediterranean area -- part 2. Liberalization and macroeconomic performance in the Mediterranean -- part 3. Privatization, labour markets and productivity in the Mediterranean -- part 4. Social welfare and public policy in the Mediterranean.

"Reforming Long-term Care in Europe offers the most up-to-date analysis of the features and developments of long-term care in Europe. Each chapter focuses on a key question in the policy debate in each country and offers a description and analysis of each system. Offers the very latest analysis of long-term care reform agendas in Europe. Compares countries comparatively less studied with the experiences of reform in Germany, the UK, Netherlands and Sweden. Each chapter focuses on a key question in the policy debate in each country and portrays a description and analysis of each system. Contributions from a wide range of European scholars for an exceptionally broad perspective."--

In the European Union, medicines are regulated products subject to both single market (e.g., regional exhaustion of property rights) and country specific health care regulations (e.g., medicines pricing). This gives rise to parallel trade (PT), a phenomenon that takes place when a patented product is diverted from the official distribution chain of one country to another parallel one where it competes with the official distribution chain. We argue that parallel trade of heavily regulated medicines conflicts with traditional sources of arbitrage (e.g., price and income differences) and instead is a form of regulatory arbitrage' that does not produce equivalent welfare effects. We draw upon a unique dataset that contains records of both origin and destination flows of parallel imported medicines to the Netherlands, for one therapeutic group (statins) that accounted for 5% of the market at the time of study and faced no generic competition. Our findings suggest that after controlling for country of origin (source) effects, parallel trade flows are primarily determined by medicines distribution chain regulation, and not by price differences in line with the hypothesis of regulatory arbitrage'.

The European Union is regarded as a union of diverse territories, but this definition applies to most European Union member states, too. How best should member states manage diversity to maintain the Union? What are the main triggers for autonomy demands in a Union? This article contends that the progressive expansion of regional identities as a response to European integration acts as the main trigger of demand for regional autonomy. This paper draws upon descriptive evidence from two affluent and distinctive Spanish regions, Catalonia and the Basque Country, from 1982 to 2007. Explorative regression analysis of survey data suggests that sub-central identity exceeds that of taming regional redistribution in determining support for regional autonomy.

Social economics: current and emerging avenues / Joan Costa-Font and Mario Macis -- Social preferences, public policy, and gender / Philipp Zahn and Evguenia Winschel -- Who gains from competition? The ultimatum game in a labor-market setting in Ghana / Elwyn Davies and Marcel Fafchamps -- Why give away your wealth? An analysis of the billionaires' view / Jana Sadeh, Mirco Tonin, and Michael Vlassopoulos -- Altruism and egoism/warm glow in economics and psychology: building a bridge between different experimental approaches / Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm -- The microeconomics of trust / Luigi Guiso -- Measuring value diversity within countries / Sjoerd Beugelsdijk and Mariko J. Klasing -- Cultural persistence and the pill / Kelly Ragan -- Cultural determinants of gender roles: "Pragmatism" as an underpinning attitude toward gender equality among children of immigrants / Martin Ljunge -- The role of repugnance in the development of markets: the case of the market for transplantable kidneys / Julio Jorge Elias -- Cultural attitudes and the "Traditional Medicines Paradox": evidence from Ghana and the Philippines / Joan Costa-Font and Azusa Sato -- Changing culture to change society? / Miereia Borrell-Porta, Joan Costa-Font, and Azusa Sato -- The role of children in building parents' social networks / Odelia Heizler and Ayal Kimhi -- Individual fundraising: the power of the personal / Abigail Payne, Kimberley Scharf, and Sarah Smith.

Forecasts predict that those in need of long-term care in Europe will double in the next 50 years. This book offers a full understanding of the institutional responses and mechanisms in place to finance old age and provides analysis of demand and supply factors underpinning the development of financial instruments to cover long-term care in Europe.

Ideological spillovers refer to the modification of an individual's core beliefs after learning about other people's beliefs. We study one specific international ideological spillover, namely, the effect of the unexpected election of a United States (US) president (Donald Trump on the 9th of November 2016), who openly questioned the so-called 'core liberal consensuses, on European's core political beliefs. Using a regression discontinuity design (RDD) around the election event, we show that the Trump presidential election (TPE) gave rise to a 'backlash effect'. That is, it steered core European beliefs in two specific domains, making Europeans more favourable to globalisation and international mobility (about 10% change in the overall Likert scale range of the statement that immigrants contribute to a country). Contrasting with the hypotheses of 'belief contagion', we do not find evidence that TPE steered illiberal beliefs. Furthermore, TPE improved (deteriorated) the view Europeans have of their own country (the United States).

We study whether a democracy improves a measure of individual wellbeing; human heights. Drawing on individual-level datasets, we test the hypothesis using a battery of eight different measures of democracy and derived averages, and include models accounting for several confounders, regional and cohort fixed effects. We document that democracy - or its quality during early childhood - shows a strong and positive conditional correlation with male, but not female, adult stature. Our preferred estimates suggest that being born in a democracy increases average male stature from a minimum of 1.33 to a maximum of 2.4 cm. Together with the positive association with male stature and the increase in gender dimorphism, we also show an additional contribution when democracy increases furtherly during adolescent years, and when we adopt measures of existing democratic capital before birth and at the end of height plasticity in early adulthood. We also find that democracy is associated with a reduction in inequality of heights distribution. We find period-heterogeneity in our results, with early democratizations being more effective on heights than later ones. Results are robust to the inclusion/exclusion of countries exposed to communism.