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Mindfulness-based weekend retreats seem to be effective in alleviating the psychological distress of suicide survivors in the short term. The benefit may depend on standard mindfulness practices and on more tailored interventions aimed at promoting acceptance of loss, forgiveness and rage management, and thus reducing rumination. Since there is no established treatment for this population, this type of intervention, which seems feasible and well accepted by participants, paves the way for future research in this area.

We study the effects of a temporary Green QE, defined as a policy that temporarily tilts the central bank's balance sheet toward green bonds, i.e. bonds issued by firms in nonpolluting sectors. To this end, we merge a standard DSGE framework with an environmental model in which detrimental emissions increase the stock of pollution. Imperfect substitutability between green and brown bonds is a necessary condition for the effectiveness of Green QE. While a temporary Green QE is an effective tool for mitigating detrimental emissions, it has limited effects in reducing the stock of pollution, if pollutants, e.g. CO2, stay in the atmosphere for a long time. The welfare gains of Green QE are positive but small. Welfare gains are larger if the flow of emissions negatively affects the utility of households.

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The EU's common commercial policy is used as an instrument to realize its values in EU trading partners, reflected in the inclusion of sustainable trade and development chapters in EU preferential trade agreements (PTAs). In this paper we ask if including non-trade provisions (NTPs) in EU PTAs has a systematic positive effect on non-trade outcomes in partner countries. We analyze the relationship between bilateral trade flows, the coverage of NTPs in EU PTAs and the performance of EU partner countries on several non-trade outcome variables using synthetic control methods. We find no robust evidence of a causal effect of including NTPs in EU PTAs on indicators of non-trade outcomes. KeywordsNon-trade policy objectives, EU trade agreements, trade policy, non-trade provisions.Abadie, Alberto, Alexis Diamond, and Jens Hainmueller, "Synthetic control methods for comparative case studies: Estimating the effect of California tobacco control program,"