GEOWEALTH-US: Spatial wealth inequality data for the United States, 1960-2020.

Wealth inequality has been sharply rising in the United States and across many other high-income countries. Due to a lack of data, we know little about how this trend has unfolded across locations within countries. Examining the subnational geography of wealth is crucial because, from one generation to the next, it shapes the distribution of opportunity, disadvantage, and power across individuals and communities. By employing machine-learning-based imputation to link national historical surveys conducted by the U.S. Federal Reserve to population survey microdata, the data presented in this article addresses this gap. The Geographic Wealth Inequality Database ("GEOWEALTH-US") provides the first estimates of the level and distribution of wealth at various geographical scales within the United States from 1960 to 2020. The GEOWEALTH-US database enables new lines of investigation into the contribution of spatial wealth disparities to major societal challenges including wealth concentration, income inequality, social mobility, housing unaffordability, and political polarization.

Higher income individuals are more generous when local economic inequality is high.

There is ongoing debate about whether the relationship between income and pro-social behaviour depends on economic inequality. Studies investigating this question differ in their conclusions but are consistent in measuring inequality at aggregated geographic levels (i.e. at the state, region, or country-level). I hypothesise that local, more immediate manifestations of inequality are important for driving pro-social behaviour, and test the interaction between income and inequality at a much finer geographical resolution than previous studies. I first analyse the charitable giving of US households using ZIP-code level measures of inequality and data on tax deductible charitable donations reported to the IRS. I then examine whether the results generalise using a large-scale UK household survey and neighbourhood-level inequality measures. In both samples I find robust evidence of a significant interaction effect, albeit in the opposite direction as that which has been previously postulated-higher income individuals behave more pro-socially rather than less when local inequality is high.

A user-centred assessment of a less-lethal launcher: the case of the FN 303® in a high-pressure setting.

The present study explored the usability of a less-lethal launcher from the end-user's perspective. A within-subjects field experiment (N = 16) tested the FN 303® in a lab condition, enabling optimal firing conditions and in a high-pressure simulated operational condition (SOC). Results showed that the high-pressure SOC, which was both psychologically and physiologically challenging, provoked significantly more subjective workload and substantial increases in cortisol biomarker secretion. Importantly, the SOC had a deleterious effect on participants' shooting accuracy at a static target at 30 m. Moreover, as might be expected, accuracy was affected, notably in the hazardous vertical y-axis. Finally, the SOC significantly influenced participants' perception of the overall usability of the FN 303®. These findings, combined with reduced accuracy, could become critical factors during real-life crowd control operations. To the authors' knowledge, no empirical work has tested less-lethal launchers from an end-user's perspective. Recommendations are made with regard to the selection, training, skill maintenance, and design.