Occasional Survey

SOMALI FOOD SHELTERS IN THE OGADEN FAMINE AND THEIR IMPACT ON HEALTH

Using CEOs' exposure to the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961) as a measure of early-life trauma in their life (termed, famine-CEOs), we find that firms led by famine-CEOs are associated with lower corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Our findings of myriad tests are consistent with the egoism proposition that early-life traumatic experience of human-induced suffering adversely impacts CEOs' social initiatives and willingness to engage in social practices. We also note that the adverse impact of famine-CEOs on CSR is mitigated by CEOs' hometown connection and government ownership while magnified by CEO power. Our results are robust to various econometric methods, alternative explanations, and approaches to address endogeneity concerns such as two-stage least squares, propensity score matching, and the Lewbel procedure. This study shows the importance of considering the influences of CEO early-life experience on non-financial decisions.

An epidemic of obesity has been witnessed by the Western societies over the past 50 years. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized obesity as the greatest health threat facing the Western world. Twin and genetic-mapping studies reveal that obesity has a strong genetic component, yet the rapidity of its increase cannot be a consequence of population genetic changes. The most accepted model is that modern obesity occurs because of a gene-environment interaction. There is a genetic predisposition to deposit fat that is strongly expressed in the modern environment. There is a consensus that over evolutionary time, exposure to regular periods of famine led to fatter individuals having lower mortality. This chapter discusses some fundamental difficulties with the “famine hypothesis.” Famines do not provide sufficient selective advantage and have occurred over an insufficient time period for thrifty genes to spread in the population. It also discusses a novel alternative model for the evolutionary background of the epidemic. In the novel model, it is argued that ancient man like other animals would have been subjected to stabilizing selection for body weight/fatness—constrained at the lower end by the risks of disease, and possibly starvation, and at the upper end by the risk of predation. This selection results in a set point around which body weight and fatness is regulated.

Caloric restriction in rodents is well known to retard the rate of aging, increase mean and maximum life-spans, and inhibit the occurrence of many age-associated diseases. However, little is known about the influence of short-term repeated fasting on longevity. In this study, female (NZB×NZW)F1 mice were used to test the physiological effect of short-term repeated fasting (4 consecutive days, every 2 weeks). The results showed that fasting mice survived significantly longer than the full-fed mice, in spite of the fasting group having a heavier body weight than the control group. Mean survival times for fasting and control mice were 64.0±15.3 and 47.9±9.4 weeks, respectively. Short-term repeated fasting manipulation was also effective on the prolongation of life-span in autoimmune-prone mice.