Birth In European Countries Research Articles

Macroeconomic determinants of enterprise births in European countries: The moderating role of human capital in the unemployment structure

Research background: While micro-level studies evidence that unemployment increases the probability of being self-employed, the findings at the macro-scale are ambiguous. At the macroscale, the unemployment push mechanism is further conditioned by cyclical fluctuations and industry-specific characteristics. Most studies, however, have neglected the heterogeneity of the group of unemployed, which could also be behind the disparate results. Purpose of the article: In filling this gap, the study aims to examine the links between the unemployment rate and enterprise births, while considering the unemployment structure in terms of the human capital of the unemployed and the unemployment duration. Methods: The issue is examined using the example of 20 European countries in the period 2004–2020. The fixed- and random-effects panel models were applied. The sectoral diversity of entrepreneurial activity (manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing, professional and scientific activities, ICT), and the size class of the newly established enterprises (with/without employees) are also considered. Findings & value added: The study reveals that the share of long-term unemployment and the skill structure of the unemployed have an impact on new firm formation, which varies with the knowledge intensity of the start-ups and their size. A higher share of highly qualified unemployed increases the start-up rates, particularly in knowledge-intensive services and manufacturing. A higher share of long-term unemployed has a negative impact on enterprise births, specifically in new businesses with employees. The findings are important for designing effective instruments to address unemployment by entrepreneurship within active labour market policy.

National health systems, legislation, and social determinants: a comparative study of Brazil, Spain, Portugal, and Italy

This is a documentary, exploratory, descriptive study, which is part of a multicenter international study assessing the national health systems with a care model based on primary health care of Brazil, Spain, Italy, and Portugal, funded by the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq, acronym in Portuguese). It aims to identify the basic health legislation, the right to health, and the doctrinal and organizational principles of each country with a focus on the impact of social determinants of health on the national health systems. The results showed these countries have similar legislation and doctrinal principles, with a constitutional right to health, based on primary health care, and with a care model of the family health type. The challenges identified were low birth rate and high life expectancy at birth in European countries and criteria for access to medication and care financing. Based on our findings, the countries with higher investment in a structural basis, ensuring more dignified, solid, and vigilant socioeconomic and sanitary conditions, provide an important differentiation in responsiveness and sustainability of the national health system and direct impact on the quality of life.

Unemployment and Enterprise Births in European Countries: A Sectoral Approach

Different types of entrepreneurial activities are more or less conducive to socio-economic development. Among others, opportunity entrepreneurs are found to have a greater impact on economic growth, innovation, and employment compared to necessity entrepreneurs (pushed by the risk of being unemployed). In this context, the main goal of the study is to find the answer to the following research question: Which business sectors in European countries are sensitive to the unemployment push effect and thus more prone to necessity entrepreneurship? The paper provides further insight into the unemployment push hypothesis by investigating this issue in the group of 20 European countries across 11 business sectors (NACE Rev. 2 classification): manufacturing, construction, and services of business economies (nine sectors). The issue is examined by analyzing Eurostat and World Bank data for 2004–2020 using the panel vector autoregression (p-VAR) approach. The results confirm the unemployment push effect only in wholesaling, retailing, and repair services. The effect, however, seems to be triggered by entry behaviors in the Central Eastern European countries, which are more active in creating new businesses and more prone to necessity entrepreneurship. In addition, the interplay between unemployment and new enterprise dynamics in wholesaling, retailing, and repair services seems to be relatively more robust to existing heterogeneity within entrepreneurs, countries, and estimation techniques. The implications of the results could assist policymakers responsible for active labor market instruments promoting entrepreneurial attitudes.

Economic costs at age five associated with very preterm birth: multinational European cohort study

BackgroundThis study aims to estimate the economic costs of care provided to children born very preterm and extremely preterm across 11 European countries, and to understand what perinatal and socioeconomic factors contribute to higher costs.MethodsGeneralised linear modelling was used to explore the association between perinatal and sociodemographic characteristics and total economic costs (€, 2016 prices) during the fifth year of life.ResultsLower gestational age was associated with increased mean societal costs of €2755 (p < 0.001), €752 (p < 0.01) and €657 (p < 0.01) for children born at < 26, 26–27 and 28–29 weeks, respectively, in comparison to the reference group born at 30–31 weeks. A sensitivity analyses that excluded variables (BPD, any neonatal morbidity and presence of congenital anomaly) plausibly lying on the causal pathway between gestational age at birth and economic outcomes elevated incremental societal costs by €1482, €763 and €144 at < 26, 26–27 and 28–29 weeks, respectively, in comparison to the baseline model.ConclusionThis study provides new evidence about the main cost drivers associated with preterm birth in European countries. Evidence identified by this study can act as inputs within cost-effectiveness models for preventive or treatment interventions for preterm birth.ImpactWhat is the key message of your article? This study provides new evidence about the magnitude and drivers of economic costs associated with preterm birth in European countries.What does it add to the existing literature? Lower gestational age is associated with increased mean societal costs during mid-childhood with indirect costs representing a key driver of increased costs.What is the impact? For policy makers, this study adds to sparse evidence about the main cost drivers associated with preterm birth in European countries beyond the first 2 years of life.

Rising Dispersion in Age at First Birth in Europe: Is it related to Fertility Postponement?

This paper examines the dispersion of fertility across age and time which has rarely beenstudied. Using data from the Human Fertility Database, we examine fertility age schedulesby looking at standard deviations in age at first births in European countries at differentstages of fertility postponement. The standard deviation at first birth remained overallconstant during the start of fertility postponement in the early 1970s, then it increasedduring the second stage marking the progression of postponement. It remained againconstant at a higher level during recent years. The paper discusses the structural changesthat might have caused these changes.

The Relative Importance of Globalization and Public Expenditure on Life Expectancy in Europe: An Approach Based on MARS Methodology.

Background: There has been a widespread debate about the overall impact of globalization on population, not just economically, but also in terms of health status. Moreover, the current health crisis is going to force governments to review the structure of the public budget to most effectively alleviate the negative economic and health effects on the population. Objective: The aim of this paper is to analyze the relative importance of globalization and the public budget composition—specifically the participation of public expenditure on healthcare, social services and environment in gross domestic product (GDP)—on life expectancy at birth in European countries during the period 1995–2017. Methods: The Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) methodology was applied to analyze the socioeconomic determinants of life expectancy at birth. Results: Our findings show that globalization has no relative importance as an explanatory variable of life expectancy in European countries, while government expenditure on social protection is the most relevant followed by public expenditure on health, gross national income per capita, education level of the population and public expenditure on environmental protection. Conclusion: European strategies intended to impact on health outcome should spend more attention to the composition of public budget.

INITIATION OF DIETARY INTERVENTION AFTER 20 YEARS OF UNTREATED PKU

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an autosomal recessive inborn error of metabolism causing accumulation of phenylalanine resulting in cognitive, behavioural and pyramidal dysfunction. The prevalence of PKU is 1 per 10,000 live...

General obstetrics: Preterm birth and multiple pregnancy in European countries participating in the PERISTAT project

To compare rates of preterm birth among multiple births in European countries, to estimate their contribution to overall preterm birth rates and to explore factors which could explain differences between preterm birth rates. Analyses of data from vital statistics, birth registers or national samples of births. Eleven member states of the European Union. All live births or representative samples of births at national or regional level for the year 2000 or most recent year. Description of rates of preterm birth before 37 and 32 weeks, estimation of population attributable risks (PAR), study of associations between preterm birth rates in multiples and singletons and nonspontaneous labour using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Preterm birth rates, PAR, proportions of deliveries with nonspontaneous onset (caesarean sections before labour or induction of labour). The proportion of multiple births before 37 weeks varied from 68.4% in Austria to 42.2% in the Republic of Ireland. In half of the countries, over 20% of all preterm births were attributable to multiple births. A strong association was found between the proportions of births before 37 weeks among multiple and singleton births (r= 0.81; P < 0.001). An association was observed between the rates of preterm birth and the proportions of deliveries with nonspontaneous onset among twins. Wide variations in rates of preterm births and deliveries with nonspontaneous onset were found between countries, suggesting marked differences in clinical practice which could have long-term implications for the health of children from multiple births.

History of induced abortion as a risk factor for preterm birth in European countries: results of the EUROPOP survey.

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between history of induced abortion and preterm delivery in various parts of Europe, and according to the main cause of preterm birth. We used data from a case-control survey, the EUROPOP study; 2938 preterm births and 4781 controls at term from ten European countries were included. Based on national statistics, we distinguished three groups of countries with high, intermediate and low rates of induced abortion. Previous induced abortions were significantly associated with preterm delivery and the risk of preterm birth increased with the number of abortions. Odds ratios did not differ significantly between the three groups of countries. The extent of association with previous induced abortion varied according to the cause of preterm delivery. Previous induced abortions significantly increased the risk of preterm delivery after idiopathic preterm labour, preterm premature rupture of membranes and ante-partum haemorrhage, but not preterm delivery after maternal hypertension. The strength of the association increased with decreasing gestational age at birth. Identifying subgroups of preterm births on the basis of the complications involved in delivery increases our understanding of the mechanisms by which previous induced abortion affects subsequent pregnancy outcomes.

Changing mortality from esophageal cancer in males in Denmark and other European countries, in relation to changing levels of alcohol consumption

Age-specific mortality rates from esophageal cancer in men are considered by year of birth in European countries with different levels of alcohol consumption. In countries with high and increasing levels of alcohol consumption (Denmark, Hungary, Federal Republic of Germany, and Czechoslovakia) successive birth cohorts born after about 1910 experience increasing mortality from esophageal cancer in all age-groups. No clear trend in esophageal cancer mortality was observed in countries starting from lower levels of alcohol consumption, even in the presence of increasing consumption (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Poland, UK). There was an apparent threshold around 8 l of ethanol per capita per year. Likewise, no upward trend in esophageal cancer mortality was observed in countries with high and stable alcohol consumption (France, Italy, Portugal). These findings are in agreement with results of analytic epidemiologic studies which indicate that esophageal cancer mortality is only slightly affected by moderate doses of alcohol, but rises steeply with consumption of large quantities. The incidence and mortality of esophageal cancer is likely to increase further in the future in countries where the level of alcohol consumption was relatively high in 1960 and where consumption increased further in the 1960s and 1970s.

Seasonal variation in human births

During the first half of this century, the seasonal pattern of births in European countries showed a major peak in the spring and a minor peak in the autumn. In contrast, the pattern in the US was of a minor peak in spring and a major peak in autumn. Over the last 20 years, the pattern in England and Wales has changed to resemble the US pattern, and the same seems to be true of several other European countries. A hypothesis is offered to account for the difference between the European and the US patterns and for the change from one to the other in some countries. The magnitude of seasonality correlates positively with latitude: it is suggested that this is partially consequent on variation in luminosity.