Brain stimulation and brain lesions converge on common causal circuits in neuropsychiatric disease

Damage to specific brain circuits can cause specific neuropsychiatric symptoms. Therapeutic stimulation to these same circuits may modulate these symptoms. To determine whether these circuits converge, we studied depression severity after brain lesions (n = 461, five datasets), transcranial magnetic stimulation (n = 151, four datasets) and deep brain stimulation (n = 101, five datasets). Lesions and stimulation sites most associated with depression severity were connected to a similar brain circuit across all 14 datasets (P < 0.001). Circuits derived from lesions, deep brain stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation were similar (P < 0.0005), as were circuits derived from patients with major depression versus other diagnoses (P < 0.001). Connectivity to this circuit predicted out-of-sample antidepressant efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation and deep brain stimulation sites (P < 0.0001). In an independent analysis, 29 lesions and 95 stimulation sites converged on a distinct circuit for motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (P < 0.05). We conclude that lesions, transcranial magnetic stimulation and DBS converge on common brain circuitry that may represent improved neurostimulation targets for depression and other disorders

On economic growth and minimum wages

We offer an analysis of the existence of a positive relationship between minimum wages and economic growth in a simple one-sector overlapping generations economy where the usual Romer-typed knowledge spill-over mechanism in production represents the engine of endogenous growth, in the case of both homogeneous and heterogeneous (i.e., skilled and unskilled) labour. Assuming also the existence of unemployment benefits financed with consumption taxes not conditioned on age at a balanced budget, it is shown that minimum wages may stimulate economic growth and welfare despite the unemployment occurrence. Moreover, a growth-maximising minimum wage can exist. A straightforward message, therefore, is that a combination of minimum wage and unemployment benefit policies can appropriately be used to promote balanced growth and welfare

What Do We Know About the Labor Share and the Profit Share? Part I: Theories

In this second part of our study we survey the rapidly expanding empirical literature on the determinants of the functional distribution of income. Three major strands emerge: technological change, international trade, and financialization. All contribute to the fluctuations of the labor share, and there is a significant amount of self-reinforcement among these factors. For the case of the United States, it seems that the factors listed above are by order of increasing importance. We conclude by noting that the falling US wage shares cointegrates with rising inequality and a rising top 1 percent income share. Thus, all measures of income distribution provide the same picture. Liberalization and financialization worsen economic inequality by raising top incomes, unless institutions are strongly redistributive. The labor share has also fallen, for structural reasons and for reasons related to economic policy. Such explanations are left to parts III and IV of our study, respectively. Part I investigated the theories of income distribution

Taxation, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

We examine how basic research should be financed. While basic research is a public good benefiting innovating entrepreneurs it also affects the entire economy: occupational choices of potential entrepreneurs, wages of workers, dividends to shareholders, and aggregate output. We show that the general economy impact of basic research rationalizes a pecking order of taxation to finance basic research. In particular, in a society with desirable dense entrepreneurial activity, a large share of funds for basic research should be financed by labor taxation and a minor share is left to profit taxation. Such tax schemes induce a significant share of agents to become entrepreneurs, thereby rationalizing substantial investments in basic research. These entrepreneurial economies, however, may make a majority of citizens worse off if those individuals do not possess shares of final good producers in the economy. In such circumstances, stagnation may prevail