PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Low birth rates can actually pay off in the US and other countries

Results of global study challenge previous assumptions about population growth

2014-10-09
(Press-News.org) As birth rates decline in countries that include parts of Europe and East Asia, threatening the economic slowdown associated with aging populations, a global study from the University of California, Berkeley, and the East-West Center in Hawaii suggests that in much of the world, it actually pays to have fewer children. The results challenge previous assumptions about population growth.

Researchers in 40 countries correlated birth rates with economic data and concluded that a moderately low birth rate – a little below two children per woman – can actually boost a country's overall standard of living. While governments generally favor higher birth rates to maintain the workforce and tax base needed to fund pensions, health care and other benefits for the elderly, it is typically families that bear the brunt of the cost of having children, the study found.

"Higher fertility imposes large costs on families because it is they, rather than governments, that bear most of the costs of raising children. Also, a growing labor force has to be provided with costly capital such as factories, office buildings, transportation and housing," said UC Berkeley demographer Ronald Lee, an author of the far-reaching study to be published Oct. 10 in the journal, Science.

"Instead of trying to get people to have more children, governments should adjust their policies to accommodate inevitable population aging," added Lee, who co-authored the report, "Is low fertility really a problem? Population aging, dependency, and consumption," with Andrew Mason, an economist and senior fellow at the East-West Center. Lee, Mason and fellow researchers compared government and private spending among all age groups using the National Transfer Accounts project, which studies how population changes impact economies across generations, and which they co-direct.

Their calculations were based on finding the birth rate and age distribution that would best balance the costs of raising children and of caring for the elderly. For example, they found that the U.S. birth rate is close to ideal for government budgetary needs, but that in parts of Europe and East Asia, average fertility rates are so low that they reduce living standards when public and private costs are included.

"A more complete accounting of the costs of children shows only a few countries in East Asia and Europe where the governments should encourage people to have more children," said Mason, an economics professor at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. "In the United States and many other high- and middle-income countries, people are having about the number of kids that are best for overall standards of living."

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Hubble project involving CU-Boulder maps temperature, water vapor on wild exoplanet

Hubble project involving CU-Boulder maps temperature, water vapor on wild exoplanet
2014-10-09
A team of scientists including a University of Colorado Boulder professor used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to make the most detailed global map yet of the glow from a giant, oddball planet orbiting another star, an object twice as massive as Jupiter and hot enough to melt steel. The Hubble observations show that the planet, called WASP-43b, is no place to call home. It's a world of extremes, where winds howl at the speed of sound from a 3,000-degree-Fahrenheit dayside to a pitch-black nightside when temperatures plunge to a relatively cool 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, ...

Researchers unfold new details about a powerful protein

2014-10-09
Using X-rays and neutron beams, a team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, University of Utah and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have teased out new information about Protein Kinase A (PKA), a ubiquitous master switch that helps regulate fundamental cellular functions like energy consumption and interactions with hormones, neurotransmitters and drugs. "Mutations in PKA can lead to a variety of different human diseases, including cancers, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and diseases involving the brain and nervous system," ...

Researchers reveal genomic diversity of individual lung tumors

2014-10-09
Known cancer-driving genomic aberrations in localized lung cancer appear to be so consistently present across tumors that a single biopsy of one region of the tumor is likely to identify most of them, according to a paper published today in Science. The study led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center addresses the challenge of what scientists call genomic heterogeneity, the presence of many different variations that drive tumor formation, growth and progression, and likely complicate the choice and potential efficacy of therapy. A landmark ...

Hubble reveals most detailed exoplanet weather map ever

Hubble reveals most detailed exoplanet weather map ever
2014-10-09
A team of scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have made the most detailed map ever of the temperature of an exoplanet's atmosphere, and traced the amount of water it contains. The planet targeted for both of the investigations was the hot-Jupiter exoplanet WASP-43b. WASP-43b WASP-43b is a planet the size of Jupiter but with double the mass and an orbit much closer to its parent star than any planet in the Solar System. It has one of the shortest years ever measured for an exoplanet of its size -- lasting just 19 hours. A team of astronomers working ...

GPA, GRE inadequate for evaluating non-traditional students for graduate school admissions

2014-10-09
COLUMBIA, Mo. – As more people in the middle of their careers decide to return to school to further their education, the number of students applying to graduate school programs across the country has reached a record high in the past decade. With record numbers of potential students applying to their programs, many graduate school admissions evaluators are working to develop stronger admissions criteria that assure they are admitting students who will succeed academically. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that traditional measures such as ...

Unusual skin cancer linked to chronic allergy from metal orthopedic implant

Unusual skin cancer linked to chronic allergy from metal orthopedic implant
2014-10-09
In rare cases, patients with allergies to metals develop persistent skin rashes after metal devices are implanted near the skin. New research suggests these patients may be at increased risk of an unusual and aggressive form of skin cancer. Metal alloys help make orthopedic implants stronger and more durable. But people with sensitivity to these metals, which include nickel, cobalt and chromium, can develop chronic inflammation that promotes the development of skin cancers, report researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. ...

University of Maryland School of Medicine begins Ebola vaccine trails in Mali

University of Maryland School of Medicine begins Ebola vaccine trails in Mali
2014-10-09
VIDEO: Dr. Myron M. Levine, Director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine describes the Ebola vaccine testing taking place in Mali, West Africa. Click here for more information. Professor Myron M. Levine, MD, Director of the Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), and UM SOM Dean E. Albert Reece MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that the CVD, in conjunction with its sister institution, ...

UCLA study finds link between neural stem cell overgrowth and autism-like behavior in mice

2014-10-09
People with autism spectrum disorder often experience a period of accelerated brain growth after birth. No one knows why, or whether the change is linked to any specific behavioral changes. A new study by UCLA researchers demonstrates how, in pregnant mice, inflammation, a first line defense of the immune system, can trigger an excessive division of neural stem cells that can cause "overgrowth" in the offspring's brain. The paper appears Oct. 9 in the online edition of the journal Stem Cell Reports. "We have now shown that one way maternal inflammation could result ...

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals alter thyroid hormone activity during pregnancy

2014-10-09
Washington, DC—A new study in human placenta provides the strongest evidence to date that Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) can interfere with thyroid hormone action in pregnant women. The implication is that flame retardant chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can infiltrate the placenta during pregnancy and affect thyroid hormone activity at the cellular level, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). PCBs were used in transformers and other electrical equipment, paints, ...

Cold exposure prompts body to convert white fat to calorie-burning beige fat

2014-10-09
Washington, DC—Exposure to cold temperatures can convert white fat tissue from the thighs and belly to beige fat that burns calories for heat, but this biological response is hampered in obese people, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Known as brown adipose tissue (BAT), brown fat is a particular kind of fat tissue that burns energy and glucose to generate heat. Babies and small animals rely on brown fat to stay warm. Brown fat's energy expenditure helps to prevent obesity in rodents. While ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

Targeting FGFR2 may prevent or delay some KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancers

[Press-News.org] Low birth rates can actually pay off in the US and other countries
Results of global study challenge previous assumptions about population growth