Search

The existence of multinational firms and the rise of global value chains raise the question how international trade contributes to a country's income. Ownership relations between, for example, headquarters and subsidiaries result in international income transfers. These transfers are ignored in standard trade data. Taking them into account in a global input-output analysis allows us to assess how much income is generated in one country due to the consumption of final products in another country. This provides a new perspective compared to the concept of value-added exports introduced by Johnson and Noguera (2012). For the US, we find that the income generated by foreign consumption of final products is 51% higher than the value added generated by foreign consumption of final products. Similar findings hold for other countries as well, but to a lesser extent. The implication is that the current account deficit of the US almost disappears from the income perspective.

Background In the absence of accessible, good quality eye health services and inclusive environments, vision loss can impact individuals, households and communities in many ways, including through increased poverty, reduced quality of life and reduced employment. We aimed to estimate the annual potential productivity losses associated with reduced employment due to blindness and moderate and severe vision impairment (MSVI) at a regional and global level. Methods We constructed a model using the most recent economic, demographic (2018) and prevalence (2020) data. Calculations were limited to the working age population (15–64 years) and presented in 2018 US Dollars purchasing power parity (ppp). Two separate models, using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI), were calculated to maximise comparability with previous estimates. Findings We found that 160.7 million people with MSVI or blindness were within the working age and estimated that the overall relative reduction in employment by people with vision loss was 30.2%. Globally, using GDP we estimated that the annual cost of potential productivity losses of MSVI and blindness was $410.7 billion ppp (range $322.1 - $518.7 billion), or 0.3% of GDP. Using GNI, overall productivity losses were estimated at $408.5 billion ppp (range $320.4 - $515.9 billion), 0.5% lower than estimates using GDP. Interpretation These findings support the view that blindness and MSVI are associated with a large economic impact worldwide. Reducing and preventing vision loss and developing and implementing strategies to help visually impaired people to find and keep employment may result in significant productivity gains Funding MJB is supported by the Wellcome Trust (207472/Z/17/Z). JR's appointment at the University of Auckland is funded by the Buchanan Charitable Foundation, New Zealand. The Lancet Global Health Commission on Global Eye Health was supported by grants from The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, Moorfields Eye Charity (GR001061), NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, The Wellcome Trust, Sightsavers, The Fred Hollows Foundation, The SEVA Foundation, The British Council for the Prevention of Blindness and Christian Blind Mission. The funders had no role in the design, conduct, data analysis of the study, or writing of the manuscript.

Population aging is arguably one of the most significant demographic transformations of the 21st century, which will have far-reaching social, economic, and public health implications. Asia is home to 60% of the world’s total population. Even though this is a diverse region with multiple ethnicities and religions, many countries in Asia share common economic and cultural aspects. Most countries in this region are low and middle income, according to the World Bank’s classification based on gross national income (GNI) per capita. As of the 2018 thresholds, low-income economies are those with GNI less than US$995, lower-middle-income economies have GNI between US$996 and US$3895, and upper-middle-income economies have GNI between US$3896 and US$12055.

Little has been documented in literature concerning the manner of occurrence and spread of COVID-19 in Africa. Understanding the geographic nature of the corona virus pandemic may offer critical response signals for Africa. This paper employed analysis of variance (ANOVA) to show that significant variations exist among African countries', particularly total population as well as those using basic drinking water services, gross national income, expenditure on health, number of physicians and air transport passengers. Although we have only considered the number of confirmed corona virus infections noting that the fatality may be too early to discuss, we have relied on data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to establish a significant association between international mobility based on average annual air passenger carried (r ​= ​0.6) which also successfully predicted (R 2 ​= ​0.501) the number of COVID-19 cases reported in each country along with the population density (R 2 ​= ​0.418). We also detected that COVID-19 cases report y geometrically increased daily x (R 2 ​= ​0.860) with a 2nd order polynomial equation in the form of y ​= ​0.3993 â€‹× â€‹2-8.7569 x and a clustered spatial pattern with a nearest neighbour ratio of 0.025 significant at 0.05 α-level. African countries have responded to the pandemic in different ways including partial lockdown, closure of borders and airports as well as providing test centres. We concluded that 40% of Africa are categorized as emerging hot spots while responses differ significantly across regions.

According to recent studies on the trends of BMI worldwide, the prevalence of obesity has doubled in more than 80 countries since 1980. Moreover, nearly every country—excluding parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia—has observed an increase in obesity every year since 1975. Worldwide, 10.8% of adult males and 14.8% of adult females have obesity. Overall, this represents 3.4- and 2.3-fold increases in obesity in adult males and females, respectively, in 40 years. However, these trends are heterogeneous across countries with regard to the steepness of increase. The prevalence of a BMI ≥ 30 varies by country from 58% in the Micronesian island of Nauru. This wide range reflects the economic, environmental, ethnic, and social differences throughout the world. Moreover, the tabulation of the prevalence of obesity in each country is not conducted annually, as in the United States and other high-income countries. As a result, this chapter will focus on the trends of obesity in the United States and other affluent countries—defined in this chapter as the top 25 countries according to gross national income.

The authors believe that money alone will rarely solve problems encountered in a disaster or recovery period, and in many instances can further complicate situations. There are just too many variables, including difficulties in early information gathering and decisions making that resource allocation rarely results in expected and useful outcomes. A major underlying cause is that too much of the implementation of federal services and purchasing has been outsourced by Congressional action: to contracts and long-standing agreements to various state and local agencies, private nonprofit corporations, and for-profit corporations without enough skilled federal employees to adequately manage and monitor the huge expenditures involved. Few believe that total US federal expenditures as percentages of Gross National Income often meet or exceed those of many nations presumed to have higher levels of social expenditures. Unfortunately, FEMA and other federal agencies charged with disaster response typify these long-standing federal resource allocation problems.

The residential energy sector is crucial to achieving CO2 emission reductions as it has an important energy-saving potential, and its environmental controls are difficult to displace to other countries. Using the latest available data, this short paper provides a concise analysis of residential energy consumption trends for the period 1993–2013 in a double perspective, by main world regions and by per capita gross national income levels in 2013. Residential energy has been divided into three types: non-renewable, direct renewable and indirect renewable. Annual rates of change, energy intensity, energy in per capita terms and some ratios have been analyzed. Notable regional differences and trends were observed in the studied variables. Therefore, different energy policies are recommended for the regions. Eastern and Southern Asian countries, the EU15 and other developed countries, are the regions which should make the greatest effort to reduce residential energy consumption. The promotion of direct and indirect renewable energies is recommended. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad ECO2014 – 56399-R Fundación Roger Torné, Universidad de Sevilla, Cátedra de Economía de la Energía y del Medio Ambiente 1394/0103

There is a widespread feeling that the underground economy is of substantial size and, compared to the officia economy, has been growing rapidly. This holds in particular for developing and transition economies, but also for developed economies. The major concern is that government revenue is thereby lost and the cement of society is undermined. On the other hand, underground economies are value-creating and introduce a dynamic element into the economy. The underground economy is variously defined, but the predominant definition is to comprise all at present not officially recorded productive (i.e., value-adding) activities, which should be part of gross national income. This definition excludes activities not in the GNP (e.g., housework), and it is not identical to tax evasion (which is mostly redistributive) nor to illegal activities (some activities are legal but not subject to taxes, and therefore tend to escape being recorded). Economists have devised a considerable number of approaches to measure the size of the underground economy. The direct approaches are based on surveys and the examination of tax returns. The indirect approaches analyze the discrepancies between what would be ‘normal’ and what is actually observed with respect to spending, employment, the use of money, and physical input (such as electricity). A more refined approach constructs a model identifying the incentives to work in the underground economy: the burden of taxation and social security contributions, expected punishment, and the moral cost of being active in the illegal economy. Empirical estimates of the size and the development of the underground economy relative to official recorded GNP are presented for developed, transition, and developing economies. In most countries and periods, the underground economy has been negatively evaluated and therefore considerable efforts have been expended in fighting it. Most policies seek to increase deterrence by stepping up controls and raising punishment, often with doubtful success. More promising policies are to lure people from the underground economy into the official economy by legalizing part of the respective activities, improving the efficiency of public services and the relationship of the state to its citizens, thereby raising civic virtue, and thus reducing the incentive to work in the underground economy.

Summary Background Stillbirths do not count in routine worldwide data-collating systems or for the Millennium Development Goals. Two sets of national stillbirth estimates for 2000 produced similar worldwide totals of 3·2 million and 3·3 million, but rates differed substantially for some countries. We aimed to develop more reliable estimates and a time series from 1995 for 193 countries, by increasing input data, using recent data, and applying improved modelling approaches. Methods For international comparison, stillbirth is defined as fetal death in the third trimester (≥1000 g birthweight or ≥28 completed weeks of gestation). Several sources of stillbirth data were identified and assessed against prespecified inclusion criteria: vital registration data; nationally representative surveys; and published studies identified through systematic literature searches, unpublished studies, and national data identified through a WHO country consultation process. For 2009, reported rates were used for 33 countries and model-based estimates for 160 countries. A regression model of log stillbirth rate was developed and used to predict national stillbirth rates from 1995 to 2009. Uncertainty ranges were obtained with a bootstrap approach. The final model included log(neonatal mortality rate) (cubic spline), log(low birthweight rate) (cubic spline), log(gross national income purchasing power parity) (cubic spline), region, type of data source, and definition of stillbirth. Findings Vital registration data from 79 countries, 69 nationally representative surveys from 39 countries, and 113 studies from 42 countries met inclusion criteria. The estimated number of global stillbirths was 2·64 million (uncertainty range 2·14 million to 3·82 million) in 2009 compared with 3·03 million (uncertainty range 2·37 million to 4·19 million) in 1995. Worldwide stillbirth rate has declined by 14·5%, from 22·1 stillbirths per 1000 births in 1995 to 18·9 stillbirths per 1000 births in 2009. In 2009, 76·2% of stillbirths occurred in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation This study draws attention to the dearth of reliable data in regions where most stillbirths occur. The estimated trend in stillbirth rate reduction is slower than that for maternal mortality and lags behind the increasing progress in reducing deaths in children younger than 5 years. Improved data and improved use of data are crucial to ensure that stillbirths count in global and national policy. Funding The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth, Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children, and the International Stillbirth Alliance. The Department of Reproductive Health and Research, WHO, through the UN Development Programme, UN Population Fund, WHO, and World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction.