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Spillovers of U.S. Unconventional Monetary Policy to Emerging Markets: The Role of Capital Flows

We employ a structural global VAR model to analyze whether U.S. unconventional monetary policy shocks, identified through changes in the central bank’s balance sheet, have an impact on financial and economic conditions in emerging market economies (EMEs). Moreover, we study whether international capital flows are an important channel of shock transmission. We find that an expansionary policy shock ...

Start-up Costs of Thermal Power Plants in Markets with Increasing Shares of Variable Renewable Generation

The emerging literature on power markets with high shares of variable renewable energy sources suggests that the costs of more frequent start-ups of thermal power plants may become an increasing concern. Here we investigate how this develops in Germany, where the share of variable renewables is expected to grow from 14% in 2013 to 34% in 2030. We show that the overall number of start-ups grows by 81%, ...

Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies 74 Loci Associated with Educational Attainment

Educational attainment is strongly influenced by social and other environmental factors, but genetic factors are estimated to account for at least 20% of the variation across individuals1. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for educational attainment that extends our earlier discovery sample1, 2 of 101,069 individuals to 293,723 individuals, and a replication study ...

A Research Symbiont

Genetic Variants Linked to Education Predict Longevity

Educational attainment is associated with many health outcomes, including longevity. It is also known to be substantially heritable. Here, we used data from three large genetic epidemiology cohort studies (Generation Scotland, n = ∼17,000; UK Biobank, n = ∼115,000; and the Estonian Biobank, n = ∼6,000) to test whether education-linked genetic variants can predict lifespan length. We did so by using ...

When Bad Moods May Not Be So Bad: Valuing Negative Affect Is Associated with Weakened Affect-Health Links

Bad moods are considered “bad” not only because they may be aversive experiences in and of themselves, but also because they are associated with poorer psychosocial functioning and health. We propose that people differ in their negative affect valuation (NAV; the extent to which negative affective states are valued as pleasant, useful/helpful, appropriate, and meaningful experiences) and that affect–health ...

Open Access, Innovation, and Research Infrastructure

In this article we argue that the current endeavors to achieve open access in scientific literature require a discussion about innovation in scholarly publishing and research infrastructure. Drawing on path dependence theory and addressing different open access (OA) models and recent political endeavors, we argue that academia is once again running the risk of outsourcing the organization of its c ...

Genome-Wide Analysis Identifies 12 Loci Influencing Human Reproductive Behavior

The genetic architecture of human reproductive behavior—age at first birth (AFB) and number of children ever born (NEB)—has a strong relationship with fitness, human development, infertility and risk of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, very few genetic loci have been identified, and the underlying mechanisms of AFB and NEB are poorly understood. We report a large genome-wide association study of ...

Vor dem Brexitus: Folgen des britischen EU-Referendums für Ostmitteleuropa

Die britische Regierung will im Jahr 2017 den Austritt aus der EU erklären. Dies wird Folgen für die EU-Staaten Ostmittel- und Südosteuropas haben. Die Abwertung des Pfunds nach dem britischen Referendum hat bereits den Wert der Überweisungen von Arbeitsmigranten verringert. Erheblich wären die Folgen, sollte Großbritannien die Arbeitnehmerfreizügigkeit einschränken. Auch auf den Handel und in geringerem ...

Psychische Gesundheit und Lebensqualität von Zuwanderern und deren Nachkommen im SOEP in den Jahren 1984-2016

Das Sozio-ökonomische Panel hält für die Erforschung der psychischen Gesundheit und Lebensqualität von Zuwanderern ein großes Analysepotenzial bereit. Der Beitrag beleuchtet sowohl die Güte der Stichprobenziehung, die Zusammensetzung und den Umfang von Personen mit Migrationshintergrund in dieser Datengrundlage, als auch die für das Thema psychische Gesundheit und Lebensqualität zur Verfügung stehenden ...