world

Fertility Declines Don’t Reverse with Development

24 September 2009

In this follow-up guest post on The Stubborn Mule, Mark Lauer takes a closer look at the relationship between national development and fertility rates. STOP PRESS: Switzerland’s population would be decimated in just two generations if it weren’t for advances in their development. At least, that’s what the modelling in a recent Nature paper projects.  [...]

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Is There a Baby Bounce?

4 September 2009

In this first ever guest post on The Stubborn Mule, Mark Lauer takes a careful look at the relationship between national development and fertility rates. Recently The Economist and the Washington Post reported a research paper in Nature on the relationship between development and fertility across a large number of countries.  The main conclusion of [...]

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No Alternative View of Dubai

3 July 2009

Back in April, I announced that the Mule was to be graced with a guest post providing an alternative, more positive picture of Dubai than the one painted by The Independent. Sad to say, although written, the piece is not going to see the light of day. My guest poster’s employer has ruled out any [...]

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Dubai Perspectives

30 April 2009

I’m hoping to try something a little bit different here on the Stubborn Mule: a guest post. But first some background. Recently I came across this article in the Independent exploring the “dark side” of Dubai. It paints a very grim picture of massive crumbling developments, environmental degredation, Western ex-pats who either revel in luxury [...]

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