{"title":"The U-shape of happiness in Scotland","authors":"David N. F. Bell, David G. Blanchflower","doi":"10.1111/sjpe.12283","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12283","url":null,"abstract":"We examine well-being in Scotland using micro data from the Scottish Health Survey and the UK Annual Population Surveys. We find evidence of a midlife nadir or zenith in Scotland in well-being at around age 50 using a variety of measures of both happiness and unhappiness. We confirm that higher consumption of fruit and vegetables is associated with higher levels of happiness in Scotland. We compare this with evidence for England from the Health Survey of England. The decline in well-being between youth and midlife is comparable in size to the loss of a spouse or of a job and around half of the fall in well-being in the COVID-19 lockdown. We also find a midlife peak in suicides in Scotland. Despite higher mortality and suicide rates in Scotland than in England, paradoxically we find that the Scots are happier than the English. Northern Ireland is the happiest of the four home countries. We also find evidence of U-shapes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the mid to late forties.","PeriodicalId":47171,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Journal of Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Structural change and economic development in the Islamic Middle East 700–1500: Population levels and property rights","authors":"Maya Shatzmiller","doi":"10.1111/SJPE.12277","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/SJPE.12277","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47171,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Journal of Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/SJPE.12277","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47095145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"White elephants on quicksand: Low oil prices and high geopolitical risk","authors":"Hany Abdel-Latif, Mahmoud El-Gamal","doi":"10.1111/sjpe.12279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12279","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate the effects of low oil prices and heightened geopolitical risks on economic growth and investment in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. We find that negative shocks to oil prices and positive shocks to geopolitical risk have adverse effects on GDP and investment. Moreover, we find that the impact of investment on GDP in MENA countries is muted when oil prices are low and/or geopolitical risk level is high. These findings cast doubts on the prospects of mega-project economic transformation plans as envisioned in 2030 visions for several MENA countries.","PeriodicalId":47171,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Journal of Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Public and private pension systems and macroeconomic volatility in OECD countries","authors":"M. Holzner, Stefan Jestl, David Pichler","doi":"10.1111/SJPE.12278","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/SJPE.12278","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyses the impact of public pension expenditures and pension funds’ assets as well as their benefits on economic volatility. To do so, we use panel data for 35 OECD countries for the period 1980-2018 and apply a set of state-of-the-art econometric estimators. Our results show weak evidence of a negative impact of public pension expenditures as well as weak evidence of a positive impact of pension funds’ benefits on volatility. Results were, however, found not to be very robust. In contrast, pension funds’ assets do not show any evidence of being associated with economic volatility. Unsystematic fiscal policy, banking crises and political (in)stability, however, are revealed to be somewhat more robust determinants of economic volatility.","PeriodicalId":47171,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Journal of Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/SJPE.12278","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47095179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is British output growth related to its uncertainty? Evidence using eight centuries of data","authors":"Don Bredin, Stilianos Fountas, Christos S. Savva","doi":"10.1111/SJPE.12270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/SJPE.12270","url":null,"abstract":"We examine the empirical relationship between output variability and output growth for Britain using data for eight centuries covering the 1270 to 2014 period. Drawing on the economic history literature, we split the full sample period in four subperiods and use GARCH models to measure output growth uncertainty and estimate its e ect on average growth. Within each sub-sample we allow output growth to depend on the state of the system, e.g. 2-regime switching model would switch between high-growth and low-growth regimes. We find that the e ect of uncertainty on growth di ers depending on the existing growth regime. Low-growth regimes are associated with a negative e ect of uncertainty on growth, and medium or high-growth regimes are associated with a positive e ect. These findings are consistent across the four states of economic development. Our results indicate why the empirical literature to date has found mixed results when examining the e ect of uncertainty on growth.","PeriodicalId":47171,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Journal of Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/SJPE.12270","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48998159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can central bank communication help to stabilise inflation expectations?","authors":"Alexander Jung, P. Kuehl","doi":"10.1111/SJPE.12276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/SJPE.12276","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines whether central bank communication stabilises euro area inflation expectations through the information and news channel. A novelty of the study is its use of data from Google Analytics on ECB website traffic as proxy for visitors’ attention to its communication. We conduct several econometric tests with daily data to measure the impact of ECB communication on the information demand of the public and ultimately on inflation expectations. Overall, this study shows that website attention, as captured by search volumes of visitors, influences euro area inflation expectations. We find that increased website attention contributes to narrowing the gap between market-based forecasts and (the mean of) longer-term professional inflation expectations. Our findings add to the theoretical evidence on the existence of an information and news channel. JEL Codes : C20","PeriodicalId":47171,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Journal of Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/SJPE.12276","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49590058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rental prices in Germany: A comparison between migrants and natives","authors":"Lea Eilers, A. Paloyo, Colin Vance","doi":"10.4419/86788856","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4419/86788856","url":null,"abstract":"This paper deals with the question of whether migrants in Germany pay a rent premium for apartments of comparable quality and neighborhood characteristics. We use a twostep selection-correction model augmented by a control function to account for nonrandom neighborhood choice. The estimation sample is a uniquely assembled panel comprising the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), information on household and apartment characteristics, as well as georeferenced data describing neighborhood quality. We find no evidence that having a migrant background is directly associated with higher rent. Migrants may nevertheless face higher rents by settling in neighborhoods populated by a high share of foreigners, which we find has a positive and statistically significant relationship with the rent.","PeriodicalId":47171,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Journal of Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44215653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Issue Information","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/sjpe.12213","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12213","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47171,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Journal of Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/sjpe.12213","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49667683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Arab region: Development without democracy\u0000 a","authors":"Samir A. Makdisi","doi":"10.1111/sjpe.12269","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12269","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47171,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Journal of Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/sjpe.12269","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43881501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}