Troisième conférence de l'ACORBAT Association pour la Coopération des Recherches Bananières aux Antilles et en Amérique Tropicale : Fort-de-France, 20-24 mai 1974

Compte rendu de la 3ème conférence de l'ACORBAT. Fort-de-France, 20-24 mai 1974. Défense des cultures (Cercospora, charançons, nématodes, thrips). Qualité des fruits, transport par conteneurs, agronomie générale, utilisation de la banane en alimentation animal

Work Capacity and Longer Working Lives in Belgium

We explore the link between health indicators and employment rates of the population aged 55 or more. Our focus lies on work capacity as a key determinant of employment. Using cohort mortality information as a proxy for overall health outcomes, we establish a substantial untapped work capacity in the population 55+. Similar results are obtained when relying on individual-level objective and subjective health and socioeconomic parameters as predictors

Tax Evasion, Welfare Fraud, and "The Broken Windows" Effect: An Experiment in Belgium, France and the Netherlands

In a series of experiments conducted in Belgium (Wallonia and Flanders), France and the Netherlands, we compare behavior regarding tax evasion and welfare dodging, with and without information about others' behavior. Subjects have to decide between a 'registered' income, the realization of which will be known to the tax authority for sure, and an 'unregistered' income that will only be known with some probability. This unregistered income comes from self-employment in the Tax treatment and from black labor supplementing some unemployment compensation in the Welfare treatment. Subjects have then to decide on whether reporting their income or not, knowing the risk of detection. The results show that (i) individuals evade more in the Welfare treatment than in the Tax treatment; (ii) many subjects choose an option that allows for tax evasion or welfare fraud but report their income honestly anyway; (iii) examples of low compliance tend to increase tax evasion while examples of high compliance exert no influence; (iv) tax evasion is more frequent in France and the Netherlands; Walloons evade taxes less than the Flemish. There is no cross-country difference in welfare dodging.tax evasion, social fraud, social comparisons, cross-country comparisons, experiments

The redistributive effects of pension systems in Europe: A survey of evidence

Pension systems differ across European countries according to various characteristics. But every one operates some redistribution within cohort. This paper analyses the comparative intragenerational redistributive performances of public pension transfers using data from the Luxembourg Income Study. The analysis shows that there is wide variation among the countries but that these differences can be explained by the characteristics of the systems. It is also shown that redistribution does not occur the same way among subgroups of population and that older women are the less favoured by the pension systems

Incentive Effects on Risk Attitude in Small Probability Prospects

Most studies on the role of incentives on risk attitude report data obtained from within-subject experimental investigations. This may however raise an issue of sequentiality of effects as later choices may be influenced by earlier ones. This paper reports instead between-subject results on the effect of monetary stakes on risk attitudes for small probability prospects in a laboratory experiment. Under low stakes, we find the typical risk seeking behavior for small probabilities predicted by the prospect theory. But under high stakes, we provide some evidence that risk seeking behavior is dramatically reduced. This could suggest that utility is not consistently concave over the outcome space, but rather contains a convex section for very small amounts.risk attitude, incentives, decision, experiment

Rapid decline in child mortality in a rural area of Senegal

Retrospective and prospective demographic and health data collected on the population of Mlomp (6352 people in 1985), a rural area of Senegal, show that the probability of dying before the age of 5 years declined from 350 to 81 deaths per hundred livebirths in the last 25 years. This dedine is greater and faster than ever observed in Senegal. The drop in mortality mainly results from improved access to new and efficient health services-a dispensary and a maternity clinic-and from growth surveillance, health education, vaccination and malaria programmes initiated in the 1960s and 1970s. Although socioeconomic conditions have changed in the area, the influence of classical factors such as women's educational level and improvement in transportation has probably been limited. Deaths from diseases that can be prevented by immunization (such as neonatal tetanus, measles, whooping cough) are now very rare (3% of the deaths of children under 5 years during the period 1985–1989). Although the risks of dying from diarrhoea or acute respiratory infections are much lower than in other rural areas of Senegal, these are still the main causes of deaths (33% and 19% of deaths after 1 month of age). Malaria, despite its high morbidity during the rainy season, causes few deaths (4%). This reflects the success of the health education programme promoting chemoprophylaxis and early treatment of fever cases. Mlomp is one example of an African rural area where the provision of well-organized health services at a reasonable cost has produced a dramatic decline in child mortality

Implantation of esterified hyaluronic acid in microdissected Reinke's space after vocal fold microsurgery

laryngeal and vocal results obtained after microflap excision of benign vocal fold lesions and immediate implantation of esterified hyaluronic acid(EHA) in the surgical wound are described in this study. Prospective and comparative study on 83 patients ( 33 implanted with EHA and 50 not implanted). Longest follow up is 4 years. The objectives are to confirm the innocuity of the technique, to demonstrate the laryngeal and vocal evolution at short and long term, and to evaluate the eventual positive impact of EHA implantation on the pliability of the superficial layer of the lamina propria (SLLP) and on voice. The use of EHA implant in microdissected SLLP is safe and leads to good laryngeal and vocal outcomes in the treated patients