The conventional wisdom is that mortality falls when the economy temporarily improves and increases when it weakens. This strong apriori belief has engendered substantial attention to be paid to analyses indicating a countercyclical variation in deaths and excessive scepticism to countervailing evidence. However, this view is beginning to change as recent research, often using more sophisticate...

Artificial lighting has been used to illuminate the nocturnal environment for centuries and continues to expand with urbanization and economic development. Yet, the potential ecological impact of the resultant light pollution has only recently emerged as a major cause for concern. While investigations have demonstrated that artificial lighting can influence organism behaviour, reproductive succ...

Hardly any economist or economic historian now disputes that technical progress and advances in scientific knowledge underpin all long-term, sustained economic growth. Sure, in the short run, sharp spurts of improvement in economic performance can arise from investing in factories, streamlining transportation and distribution networks, bettering market structure, and removing impediments to pro...

We explore the relationships between subjective well-being and income, as seen across individuals within a given country, between countries in a given year, and as a country grows through time. We show that richer individuals in a given country are more satisfied with their lives than are poorer individuals, and establish that this relationship is similar in most countries around the world. Tur...

Abstract This paper addresses a question which is fundamental to the perceived legitimacy of distribution resources today: what extent does unfairness in how assets came be acquired past affect incomes and wealth now? To answer that requires two things: first, principle determine is, not, just acquisition or source income; second, means using estimate fraction income now unjust. I use put forwa...

OBJECTIVE To assess a new impunity index and variables that have been found to predict variation in homicide rates in other geographical levels as predictive of state-level homicide rates in Brazil. METHODS This was a cross-sectional ecological study. Data from the mortality information system relating to the 27 Brazilian states for the years 1996 to 2005 were analyzed. The outcome variables ...

W hen we began to put together this special feature on poverty and sustainability science, we sought significant science-based research and perspectives on poverty worldwide. However, the six articles that have emerged from a lengthy solicitation, preparation, and review process, with one exception, all focus on sub-Saharan Africa. The exception, the absolute poverty measures for the developing...