Search

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, has called for the reintroduction of paper ballots in order to enhance the confidence of the electorate. Reddy believes that using paper ballots, as many developed countries do, will ensure that democracy not only prevails but also thrives. This is not the first time Reddy has advocated for the use of paper ballots, as he previously made similar statements after his party's defeat in the Andhra Pradesh elections. The Congress party, which lost the recent Haryana Assembly elections despite exit polls predicting a majority, has also expressed surprise at the results. [Extracted from the article]

Addressing delegates at what's been dubbed finance day at the summit, Sunak earlier promised to step up international climate aid, mobilize private sector finance and overhaul the global financial system to align it with a net zero future. (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said the world must translate hundreds of billions of dollars of pledges from companies and governments into concrete action on climate change, as he hailed a new "wall of capital" directed toward eliminating fossil fuel emissions. [Extracted from the article]

The article reports that industrialized countries consume almost 90 percent of the printing and writing papers in the world.

Researchers from Chongqing University in China have explored the potential benefits and challenges of the proposed WHO pandemic treaty for Least Developed Nations (LDNs) in the global health landscape. The treaty has the potential to improve LDNs' access to resources, strengthen health systems, and amplify their voice in global health governance. However, challenges in ensuring equitable access, protecting sovereignty, and ensuring compliance are highlighted. The researchers advocate for treaty revisions that prioritize resource access, safeguard LDNs' autonomy, and promote capacity-building. The paper emphasizes the importance of empowering LDNs and creating a more equitable, resilient, and inclusive global health future. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the author's views on the proportion of British highly-skilled technical workers compared to those in other developed countries. He muses on the growing demand for highly-skilled workers across all countries of the European Union (EU). The author supports the British government's proposal for the white paper 'Skills for Growth' which would provide higher education or advanced apprenticeships for technical courses.

The article discusses the decline in the number of international students studying in China, particularly from developed countries. The author highlights proposals made by Professor Jia Qingguo of Peking University to address this issue. Possible reasons for the decline include perception issues, limited employment opportunities, and concerns about academic research. Jia suggests measures such as clarifying the application of relevant laws and improving communication about China's policy intentions. The article concludes by questioning whether these proposals will effectively attract students from developed countries and how the relevant departments will respond to the issues raised. [Extracted from the article]

In the present paper, we review two of the most neglected intestinal food-borne trematodiases: echinostomiasis, caused by members of the family Echinostomatidae, and gastrodiscoidiasis produced by the amphistome Gastrodiscoides hominis. Both parasitic infections are important intestinal food-borne diseases. Humans become infected after ingestion of raw or insufficiently cooked molluscs, fish, crustaceans, amphibians or aquatic vegetables. Thus, eating habits are essential to determine the distribution of these parasitic diseases and, traditionally, they have been considered as minor diseases confined to low-income areas, mainly in Asia. However, this scenario is changing and the population at risk are currently expanding in relation to factors such as new eating habits in developed countries, growing international markets, improved transportation systems and demographic changes. These aspects determine the necessity of a better understanding of these parasitic diseases. Herein, we review the main features of human echinostomiasis and gastrodiscoidiasis in relation to their biology, epidemiology, immunology, clinical aspects, diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.K. is more vulnerable to financial shocks than most other nations, a Bank of England study concluded, indicating that openness to trade and banking poses some risks. "Openness could be a double-edged sword", the researchers wrote in a paper published in the BOE's quarterly bulletin on Friday. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents a paper which summarizes the literature on global financial crisis by emphasizing the glut of savings globally and the demand for financial resources in developed countries. It states the it seeks to answer two key questions such as one on the cause of the financial crisis and one on the reason why the spillover effects is so destructive to various industrial countries. It also mentions that the crisis rapidly spread across economies, economic sectors and in equity markets.

The article presents the comments of several authors on an article by Andrew Warner about patterns in wages and wage growth across developed and developing countries. Harry J. Holzer states that he believes in increasing wages in proportion with real gross domestic product (GDP). Nina Pavcnik points out that the establishment of link between globalization and aggregated wages has been difficult in cross-country studies.

The article discusses research on the disparities in real wages. It references a study of the hourly worker wages at McDonald's restaurants in over 60 countries by Orley Ashenfelter. He found that workers in Latin America, the Middle East, India and China earn 10-15% of their counterparts in developed countries. Those in South Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia earn 25-35% of their counterparts in developed countries.

Pregnant people with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have a higher risk of adverse maternal and fetal outcomes compared with pregnant people without COVID-19. In 2021, large increases in maternal mortality were reported in Jamaica, almost half of which were attributable to COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccination has been shown to reduce these risks, but low- and middle-income countries lack free, publicly available data, known as open data, on COVID-19 vaccine uptake for their pregnant populations. The objectives of this paper were to: review how high-income countries use open data to detect trends in COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant people and develop vaccination distribution strategies; outline barriers to making open data available for maternal COVID-19 vaccination in the Caribbean; and propose a multipronged strategy that would increase the availability of open data on maternal COVID-19 vaccination in the Caribbean. A multipronged strategy to fill the data void would involve: (i) utilizing existing Caribbean maternal immunization data collection entities; (ii) adapting digital software tools to establish maternal electronic immunization registries; and (iii) collaborating with local partners skilled in data analytics. Making open data available for COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant people in the Caribbean could offer substantial benefits, including the development of measurable maternal COVID-19 vaccination goals and the facilitation of vaccine decision-making discussions between providers and pregnant people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a play called "Kyoto" that celebrates the agreement made over 25 years ago, known as the Kyoto Protocol, which committed industrialized countries to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The play dramatizes a historic meeting in Kyoto, Japan, where the protocol was finalized and highlights the role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in providing scientific assessments on climate change. The article also mentions the efforts of a lobbyist named Donald Pearlman, who tried to undermine climate science and delay international efforts to reduce emissions. Despite these challenges, the Kyoto Protocol was ultimately ratified by 191 countries and paved the way for the 2016 Paris Agreement. The article emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the scientific understanding of climate change and the need for real action to address it. [Extracted from the article]

The U.S. and Europe run the risk of replicating the experience of Japan and need to undertake forceful fiscal, monetary and structural policies, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said in a new research report. "The developed world is at risk of mirroring the experience of Japan, whereby the very low equilibrium rate of interest appears to be a semi-permanent feature", Summers and Rachel wrote in a paper to be presented on Thursday at the Brookings Institution in Washington. [Extracted from the article]

In 2021, according to the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry, 9.7 million Central Asian citizens officially migrated to the Russian Federation. Last year, Russia and Uzbekistan began piloting a program that would enable prospective migrants to undergo the multi-step process to obtain a work permit in Russia while still in Uzbekistan, considerably easing the burden and risks of migrating. [Extracted from the article]

A study conducted by researchers at Autonomous University Madrid compares the economic resilience of industries and regions during the last four decades, including the 1990s, the Great Recession in 2007, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The study examines the role of productive structure and sectoral specialization in explaining regional behaviors during crises. The research finds that economic specialization has influenced the recovery of certain regions, although the results are limited to six sectors and may not apply to all regions. The study provides a long-term comparison of the causes and effects of major crises in Spanish regions and introduces specialization as a factor in regional resilience. [Extracted from the article]

The authors discuss their experience of metal detecting in several locations in central Mexico and southwestern Virginia and mentions that by the early 19th century, U.S. was undergoing a transformation from an agrarian to an industrial society.

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Climate Change's Policy Fix Has a Short-Term Cost: Mark Buchanan In the research paper, published in Nature Climate Change, scientists compared estimates of how either climate change or a strong carbon tax would affect the global population at risk of hunger. Uncertainties aside, the researchers' best guess is that on the matter of food security, climate change would be bad, but a carbon tax big enough to reduce emissions significantly could actually be worse. [Extracted from the article]

To fix that problem - which is partly a result of the expectation that women will take on most of the family child care - Willamette University professor Keith Cunningham-Parmeter argues we need to give American men a bonus. This so-called "fatherhood bonus" is necessary because men won't take time off to be with new children otherwise, Cunningham-Parmeter argues. Most employers are quietly setting an expiration date on the career progress of every single woman in the office, says the paper, in what amounts to "maternal profiling" of double-X-chromosomes young and old. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Volkswirtschaft is the property of State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A new report from the School of Nursing discusses the strategies employed by developed countries to facilitate the transition of internationally qualified nurses' specialty skills into clinical practice. The research highlights the challenges faced by internationally qualified nurses in utilizing their specialty skills in their new countries of practice. The study conducted an integrative review to identify common themes, patterns, and best practices in order to inform policy development and improve the successful integration of internationally qualified nurses into the healthcare systems of developed countries. The research concludes that there is a need for further research in this area to better utilize the abilities of internationally qualified nurses, especially in the context of a global pandemic. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Volkswirtschaft is the property of State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores how admissions tests are used in different higher education systems around the world. This is a relatively new area of research, despite the fact that admissions processes are a key component of university practices and given the ever- increasing globalisation of higher education. This paper shows that aptitude and achievement tests, for example, are used in many developed countries. In some of them, a specific test is nationally instituted and generalised, consequently, the function of the test is well embedded in the education landscape of the country. Elsewhere, tests exist but are administered in an ad hoc fashion with little consistency across the sector. This paper provides an important reference tool for national systems and individual institutions interested in examining their position within the realm of international practice in the utilisation of admissions testing for uniuersity selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins with a definition of dumping, and then offers an overview of anti-dumping measures and their economic impacts. First, it describes the concept of dumping and explains that anti-dumping measures are quite ineffective. Next, it documents the raise of anti-dumping measures over time. It demonstrates that, nowadays, developing countries are using this protectionist tool as much as traditional industrial countries. Finally, the paper comments the WTO regulation in order to examine the effectiveness of dispute settlement cases involving anti-dumping measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing importance and necessity of foreign direct investment (FDI) for achieving economic development in developed and developing nations has generated interest in foreign investment decisions of multinational corporations (MNCs). Specifically, factors that prompt MNCs to increase or decrease FDI in individual countries have intrigued and evaded researchers for many years. The findings of survey-based studies indicate that MNCs consider the sociopolitical stability of the host country as one of the most important considerations in allocating funds to foreign projects. Such concern is due to the belief that the absence of sociopolitical stability in a country is likely to make foreign investments subject to the vagaries of forces beyond the investors' control. This paper presents a detailed discussion of the problems that have likely contaminated the findings of cross-national studies. The analysis of political risk and its link to the flow of FDI comprise a relatively new field. Political events of recent years have precipitated interest in the research and contributions to this field. The past research, in addition to shedding light on various aspects of political risk, has made important contributions to the design of future research experiments. This paper has purported to elaborate on the implications of the past studies for carrying out future research.

The article focuses on size and development of the global shadow economy and several methods for estimating the size of the shadow economy of highly developed countries. Topics discussed include methods such as microeconomic approaches, indicator approaches and transactions approaches, size and development of shadow economy of countries such as the U.S., Switzerland and Canada over the period of 2003–2016, and incentive-oriented measures to reduce the size of a shadow economy.

Efforts to improve education outcomes often involve lengthening the school day or the school year in hopes that spending more time in school will boost student learning. Yet, as Frederick Hess explains, U.S. students spend as much or more total time in school as their peers in other industrialized nations. What matters more than the amount of time is how that time is used. Although research into time usage at school is limited, existing studies have shown that much time spent in school time does not involve actual learning time, either because of interruptions or other non-learning activities or because students are not engaged. Hess suggests that, before adding time to the school day or year, it's important to understand what schools are doing with their time, rethink their routines, and seek to ensure that they are using time wisely and well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a research by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington according to which developed countries and funding agencies are putting brakes on growth in development assistance for health. The research reveals that the global financial crisis has led to a slowdown in growth of funding to improve health in many developing countries. It also shows that the U.S. has slowed the pace of growth to 2 percent from 2010-2011.

Reports on British records about a cabal of developed nations known as the Brussels Group, which conspired to limit the United Nations' first conference on the environment, held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972. Reasons why the Brussels Group was opposed to the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP); Opposition to any international standards regulating environmental quality or polluting emissions.

(Bloomberg View) -- Learning to Live in a Low Rate World: Barry Ritholtz Chart Are all the EU member states piggybacking on Germany's credit? If the Federal Reserve has sucked up so much fixed income paper that rates have become distorted, why are yields higher in the U.S. than in Europe?. [Extracted from the article]

The relationship between environmental degradation and economic growth has become a prominent topic in recent decades, increasing multidisciplinary approaches across a wide range of studies. Analyzing the economy-environment nexus is significant because most countries attempt to limit environmental deterioration while pursuing economic growth. This paper studies the non-linear cross-correlations between economic growth and environmental degradation on a sample of five developed European countries - France, Germany, Spain, Norway, and the United Kingdom. The study is performed using two approaches: multifractal detrended cross-correlation analysis and wavelet-based analysis. According to the empirical tests, there are non-linear cross-correlations between economic growth and environmental degradation in all five countries. For each country, multifractal metrics such as Hurst exponents, scaling exponents, and multifractal spectra are computed to show the significance of all time-series pairs. The strongest multifractal features have been observed in France, Norway, and Spain. Shuffling the series suggests that multifractality in the cross-correlations arises both from a broad probability density function and from different long-term correlations. Wavelets are applied to detrend all data sets before computing the cross-correlation. Moreover, the wavelet coherence is computed as a measure for analyzing interdependencies across time and frequencies. Except for France and Spain, Wavelet-detrended cross-correlation values are considerably lower than cross-correlation values of the raw data sets, which indicates that the interdependence between growth and environmental degradation is rather long-term. In terms of wavelet coherence, results vary among the countries, with France and Spain showing the highest and most persistent coherence values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A report from the University of Toronto discusses the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on developed countries, using Canada as an example. The research examines the effects on the labor market, employment, unemployment, and consumer consumption. The study concludes that the pandemic has significantly impacted developed countries, with noticeable effects on national GDP, unemployment rates, and the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The report provides insights into the economic consequences of the pandemic in developed countries. [Extracted from the article]

A recent study conducted at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) explores the relationship between inflammation and chronic diseases such as diabetes. The research suggests that inflammation is a key factor in understanding the impact of social and environmental factors on health. The study contrasts previous models that focused on social signals with a new perspective that emphasizes the role of chronic inflammation in the body. The findings highlight the importance of considering the metabolic and psychosocial conditions that contribute to inflammatory states and health disparities. [Extracted from the article]

Abstract: This work aims at determining the factors affecting economic output in developed countries. However, the definition of development depends on the criteria by which different principles provide different criteria of level of development. Therefore, there exists uncertainty about choice of sample or real development country and if the selected samples are not representative of the underlying population of real developed countries then the ordinary least squares coefficients may be biased. This paper examines the determinants of economic output in the panel data of 22 developed countries from 1996 to 2008 utilizing econometric techniques that take into account the selective nature of the samples. In general, there are two approaches to estimate the sample selection model, namely the maximum likelihood method and the method proposed by Heckman (1979) [21]. Moreover, these two approaches require that the joint distribution to be known. In general the multivariate normal distribution is assumed. However, this assumption can often be seen as excessively restrictive and this lead to uncertainty about the structure or assumption of joint distribution. Smith (2003) [37] suggests applying the copula approach, especially the Archimedean copula to the sample selection model and the result also shows that the copula approach is well suited to apply to a model where the sample selection is biased, using cross-section data. In our work, we employ the copula approach to construct the sample selection model in the case of panel data, resulting in the identification of significant factors affecting economic output. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The building of the present tangled network of mutual dependency and conditioning amongst the subjects operating in the international environment may be roughly dated back to the 1970s. In that time, several major shifts occurred in the functioning of the international system, allowing thus the emerging of a genuinely 'supranational' environment of the global politics. Along with these changes, first efforts of various involved actors emerged to control and coordinate this new, chaotic, and complex environment, or, in other words, to govern on the global level. One of such attempts became the G7/8 - the group of so-called most developed industrial countries of the world of that time. In this text, I will try to show the G7/8 and other similar groups, especially the G20, as a specific means of global governance. I consider these groups an attempt of nation states to answer the fact that the ever growing number of economic transactions, security threats, and political issues passes from the national or international spheres into the so-called transnational sphere, i.e. beyond the borders and authority of the nation states. This paper focuses on evolution and transformation of this type of international governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the findings of a survey conducted by economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers to know what money can and cannot buy. Stevenson and Wolfers claimed that rich people are happier than poor people and rich countries are happier than poor countries. They also claimed that as countries get richer, people get happier. Their paper runs counter to a large body of evidence suggesting that economic growth has failed to translate into greater subjective well-being.

The article presents a study which examines the impact of government policies on the migration of locally owned companies from a developed country to a less-developed nation. It also explores the effects on the economic growth of each country with regards to home bias and the preference of firms and investors to operate in their own countries. Results show that harsh policy towards entering companies can result in improved long-term economic performance compared to free-entry policies.

The article presents a study which aims on considering control ideas and systems in analyzing human science problems. The study uses the three kinds of dictatorship which include dictatorship in developing, and developed countries, and in global dictatorship. Results show the two arts of democracies on each dictatorships,, and the role of the people on the said democracies.

We flatten the money curve and start building toward frictionless money flows. Making money off of money is a little bit of magic. Was it in the Middle Ages, when the goldsmiths who were storing money for folks in their vaults realized they could crib a bit and issue receipts for money they didn't actually have in the vaults? In his marvelous book The Structures of Everyday Life: Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century, historian Fernand Braudel wrote of the gradual insinuation of the money economy into the lives of medieval peasants: "What did it actually bring?. [Extracted from the article]

A study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health examines the efforts of four developed countries - Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Sweden, and the United States - in addressing food system resilience. The study found that these countries are taking multi-pronged policy actions to address food system resilience issues and are focused on both retrospective reviews and prospective models of disruptive events to inform their decisions. However, the study also identified potential gaps and concentrations in national food system resilience, suggesting the need for further policy development and implementation. The findings of this study can be used to inform future policies, programs, and planning in the field of public health. [Extracted from the article]

The decade of the eighties will be recorded as the period when governments throughout the world embarked on an ambitious program to transfer ownership of government enterprise to the private sector. The magnitude of this change in ownership structure is enormous the World Bank reports over 80 nations have programs underway involving the transfer of ownership of thousands of government owned enterprise. This process, called privatization, will have significant impact on how these enterprise are managed, the goals and objectives they pursue, and the task environment of managerial decisions. The objectives of this paper are to provide examples of privatization from the Pacific Basin, to identify the rationales for these programs in different nations, and to highlight the differences in privatization programs of less developed, recently developed and developed nations. The challenge of managing privatized enterprise is explored. Accepting privatization as a determined public policy, the task of management researchers is to understand the managerial implications of the difference in state ownership and privatized ownership. For management researchers the objective should be to understand privatization as a public policy, but to then move on to generating solutions to the problems faced by the managers of the newly privatized enterprise.

Over the last twenty years government owned, controlled, and subsidized businesses in many of the noncommunist industrialized countries have gained significant market shares in a wide variety of industries, as of September 1, 1981. Among the industries where this has happened are aerospace, airlines, chemicals, computers, electronics, electricity, gas and oil, motor vehicles, mining and metals, paper and wood products, mail services, ship building, steel, telecommunications, etc. Even in West Germany, which is sometimes considered a bastion of the private free enterprise system, there is extensive government ownership of business. For example, in addition to the railways and post office, which employ over 900 000 people, the central government owns all or part of various companies including Volkswagen AG and Lufthansa German Airlines AG. At the end of 1977 the central government had direct ownership of over 100 large corporations. If the number of companies in which the central government has at least 25 % ownership is included, the total rises to over 915 businesses. The regional and local governments also own many businesses, particularly banks which in turn own many other businesses.

Substantial advances have been achieved in various aspects of debris-flow hazard assessments over the past decade. These advances include sophisticated ways to date previous events, two- and three-dimensional runout models including multi-phase flows and debris entrainment options, and applications of extreme value statistics to assemble frequency–magnitude analyses. Pertinent questions have remained the same: How often, how big, how fast, how deep, how intense, and how far? Similarly, although major life loss attributable to debris flows can often, but not always, be avoided in developed nations, debris flows remain one of the principal geophysical killers in mountainous terrains. Substantial differences in debris-flow hazard persist between nations. Some rely on a design magnitude associated with a specific return period; others use relationships between intensity and frequency; and some allow for, but do not mandate, in-depth quantitative risk assessments. Differences exist in the management of debris-flow risks, from highly sophisticated and nation-wide applied protocols to retroaction in which catastrophic debris flows occur before they are considered for mitigation. Two factors conspire to challenge future generations of debrisflow researchers, practitioners, and decision makers: Population growth and climate change, which are increasingly manifested by augmenting hydroclimatic extremes. While researchers will undoubtedly finesse future remote sensing, dating, and runout techniques and models, practitioners will need to focus on translating those advances into practical cost-efficient tools and integrating those tools into long-term debris-flow risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of CFA Newsletter is the property of Commonwealth Forestry Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Three central banks from the Group of 20 developed nations have expressed interest in underwriting a special-purpose vehicle that would allow African countries to reduce their immediate debt burden without the risk of default, according to a United Nations body. Why There's a Looming Debt Crisis in Emerging Markets: QuickTake The potential debt exchange is similar to the 1980s Brady plan that converted bank loans mostly owed by Latin American countries into new securities backed by U.S. Treasuries. [Extracted from the article]

Focuses on the efforts of the government to reduce poverty in Cambodia. Refusal of the World Bank to recognize the poverty plan of the government as basis for its own funding and debt relief; Details of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) rolled out by the World Bank in other least developed countries; Doubt over the effectiveness of the poverty plan; Optimism of World Bank spokesman Phnom Penh Bou Saroeun over the capability of the PRSP to reduce poverty; Views of Economic and Finance Minister Keat Chhorn on ways to reduce poverty.