No abstract

The way a person will develop over the lifespan is largely determined by the first few years of life. A substantial share of the inequalities in health and socioeconomic status observed in adult life originate during childhood (and even while in utero). In this paper, we first review the literature on the impact of childhood conditions throughout the life cycle. We next discuss some of the social and biological mechanisms behind the transmission of the effects of poverty during the prenatal period, childhood, and adulthood. We then analyze several international experiences aimed at reducing intergenerational transmission of poverty. The article ends with some critical thoughts and policy recommendations to avoid the possible long-term effects of the current crisis on the health and socioeconomic status of the "children of the crisis" in Spain.

Some consequences of adverse events early in life for labor market outcomes may emerge early and others only later in adult life. We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to investigate how early life circumstances-childhood health and socioeconomic status (SES)-are associated with various labor market outcomes over an individual's entire life cycle. Our main new finding is that these associations change significantly over the life cycle. For instance, the association of childhood SES with lifetime earnings is shown to become stronger over the life cycle and to operate through both working years and annual earnings. We discuss how our findings can explain some of the mixed evidence on these associations in previous literature. Our results also shed light on the potential gains in the different labor market outcomes of public policies that invest in children's health and parents' SES.

Tracking studies normally focus on long-distance migrants, meaning that our understanding about short-distance migration remains limited. In this study, we present the first individual tracks of the Eurasian golden plover Pluvialis apricaria, a short-distance migrant, which were tracked from a Scandinavian breeding population using geolocators. In addition, golden plovers are known for their cold spell-induced winter movements, and this study provides some first individual tracking data on this type of movements. In three cases the plovers spent the winter in NW Europe and in four cases they departed during winter from NW Europe to spend the rest of the winter in Iberia or Morocco (one bird that was tracked during two subsequent migration cycles moved to Iberia in the first winter but remained in NW Europe during the second winter). The four winter departures were associated with a cold spell in NW Europe during which maximum temperatures dropped to freezing. Cold spell-induced winter movements were notably long and fast. The birds that remained at their NW European wintering site did not experience such cold spell. Interestingly, the individual that was tracked for a second season did experience four cold spells at its wintering site in NW France, but it never left this area, indicating that plovers not always move on in response to cold. Little information was obtained about spring migration, but one bird had a prominent counter-clockwise loop migration pattern through E Europe. Due to their cold spell winter movements, golden plovers exhibit great flexibility in migration patterns, resulting in a notably large spread in final wintering areas.

Este ensayo tiene como finalidad hacer un recuento de los principios básicos del federalismo fiscal desde la perspectiva de uno de sus autores clásicos: Wallace E. Oates, quien retoma las funciones primarias del sector público (la estabilización, la distribución y la asignación) desarrolladas por Richard Musgrave. Con tal propósito, se abordan las ventajas y desventajas de un gobierno descentralizado, los principios conceptuales que pudieran guiar una distribución óptima de competencias en materia de ingreso y gasto de los diversos ámbitos de gobierno que conforman la federación. Asimismo, se destaca el rol de las transferencias condicionadas y no condicionadas con fines redistributivos y de compensación de los desequilibrios regionales que surgen en los sistemas federales. Finalmente, se hace una lectura del centralismo fiscal mexicano y de sus incipientes experiencias de descentralización que en estricto sentido no han trascendido la desconcentración.