Legislating ourselves out of a shortage

A Map of Ourselves

When setting out through unknown territory, it is always wise to take a map. This is also true for explorations in biology, even when we ourselves are the subject. In this Select, we highlight intrepid mapmakers whose efforts to chart new realms of human biology will aid the discovery of new cellular mechanisms and therapies for disease. The human brain is arguably the most distinctive feature ...

Ourselves

Legislating AIDS away.

Every 18 seconds someone, somewhere is infected with HIV. The scale of the epidemic has not been exaggerated. On average, HIV-infected individuals have their immune system destroyed by this virus over a 9 year period, resulting in the acquisition after that time of an immune deficiency state (AIDS). Once defenceless, many organisms may seize upon the opportunity presented and infect an unresist...

Legislating for transnational ageing

Transnational ageing presents fundamental challenges to nationally bounded welfare states, which historically have tended to be organised according to a logic of solidarity among nationals and permanent residents of a given state territory. Nonetheless, the Dutch and French governments have taken steps to break this link between solidarity and territorially bounded consumption of welfare, by pr...

Legislating Stock Prices*

We demonstrate that legislation has a simple, yet previously undetected impact on stock prices. Exploiting the voting record of legislators whose constituents are the affected industries, we show that the votes of these “interested” legislators capture important information seemingly ignored by the market. A long-short portfolio based on these legislators’ views earns abnormal returns of over 9...