Search

In the context of some multi-criteria decision-making methods, such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process, an expert is required to compare entities, e.g. alternatives and criteria. However, often, for various reasons, the expert cannot provide judgments on all pairs of entities. For these cases, several completion methods have been proposed in the literature to estimate the missing values of pairwise comparison matrices. In this paper, we study the similarity of eleven completion methods on the basis of numerical simulations and hierarchical clustering. We perform simulations for matrices of different orders considering various numbers of missing comparisons. Finally, the results suggest the existence of a cluster of five extremely similar methods, and a method significantly dissimilar from all the others.

Despite sustained nutrition education, consumption of animal source foods (ASFs) has been hindered by their low availability, accessibility and affordability. Drying eggs into powder can reduce transport/storage costs, increase shelf‐life and allow easier dosage for use of smaller portions. This study aimed to evaluate the contribution of integrating egg powder to the nutrient adequacy and affordability of diets. Using the 'cost of the diet' analysis, we simulated the incorporation of egg powder into households' and children's diet and evaluated its contribution to the nutrient adequacy and affordability of diets. Analysis of the household consumption and expenditure survey (HCES 2016) revealed that only 0.2% of the total consumption expenditure was allocated for eggs, far below the 2.2% and 4.3% required to allow the consumption of one egg a day by the average and the poorest households, respectively. However, the minimum‐cost nutritious diet required only 2.5 g of egg powder/person/day to reduce the cost of the optimized diet by 14% (0–24%), allowing an additional 1.2 million households (~4–6 million individuals) afford the optimized diet. The optimized diet for a child 6–23 months of age could be afforded by all households, except by those in the poorest wealth quintile. But, free distribution of egg powder to households in the poorest wealth quintile, if supplemented by effective nutrition education, can allow them to afford the minimum‐cost nutritious diet for their 6‐ to 23‐month child. The simple dehydration of egg into egg powder can have a substantial contribution towards increased egg consumption by increasing the affordability of the minimum‐cost nutritious diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine whether there are significant gender differences in the adoption of climate‐smart agricultural (CSA) practices in sub‐Saharan Africa. Using individual‐level data from four sites in Kenya, Uganda and Senegal, our empirical analysis provides robust evidence that men have a higher likelihood of adopting high‐return CSA practices including modern chemical fertiliser, improved high‐yielding varieties and drought/pest tolerant livestock practices. In contrast, women tend to have a higher likelihood of adopting low‐risk and low‐return traditional CSA practices such as water harvesting, crop covering, rangeland management and pest management. Our subsample analysis shows significant heterogeneity in the gender gap across countries. The results of the decomposition of the observed gender gap show that personal values and norms, access to weather and production information and farm characteristics are important factors that explain the gender differential in the likelihood of CSA adoption. Our findings imply that equalising access to key resources such as plots of land, information and decision making power will be crucial to close the gender gap in the adoption of CSA practices. This is particularly important given the differential impacts of climate change between men and women in sub‐Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the long-run effect of higher education, measured in average years of tertiary schooling, on the level and growth rate of national per capita income. It uses an improved dataset on educational attainments which not only reduces measurement error but also overcomes data comparability issues and allows us to estimate the long-run effect of human capital through higher education on economic development. Using unique long panel data for 36 advanced and emerging economies spanning over the period 1870-2010, we find that higher education has a positive and significant effect on the level and the growth rate of national per capita income. Specifically, our empirical results indicate that a 1% increase in educational attainment at higher education level would raise the growth rate of per capita income by about 0.01% to 0.02% over a five-year period. That is, at the sample mean, an increase in average tertiary education by one year would raise output growth by about 6% to 11% in five years. We find that the returns to female education are lower than the returns to male education at tertiary schooling levels. Our results are robust to alternative specifications.

This paper examines the effect of national income on the total fertility rate (children born per woman). We estimate the effects on fertility of shocks to national per capita income using plausibly exogenous variations in oil price shock as an instrument for income and using instrumental variable generalized quantile regressions (IV-GQR). Using data for a panel of 122 countries spanning the period 1965–2020, our results show that national per capita income has generally a negative and significant effect on the total fertility rate. Looking at the entire spectrum of the fertility distribution, the IV-GQR estimates exhibit considerable heterogeneity in the impact of income on fertility. The income elasticity of fertility is relatively low at the upper tail of the distribution (for countries with high fertility) compared to the value at the median. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pairwise comparison matrices play a prominent role in multiple-criteria decision-making, particularly in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Another form of preference modeling, called an incomplete pairwise comparison matrix, is considered when one or more elements are missing. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed for the optimal completion of an incomplete matrix. Our intention is to numerically minimize a maximum eigenvalue function, which is difficult to write explicitly in terms of variables, subject to interval constraints. Numerical simulations are carried out in order to examine the performance of the algorithm. The results of our simulations show that the proposed algorithm has the ability to solve the minimization of the constrained eigenvalue problem. We provided illustrative examples to show the simplex procedures obtained by the proposed algorithm, and how well it fills in the given incomplete matrices.

The study examines how progress towards a circular economy (CE), patents related to recycling and secondary raw materials as a proxy for innovation, affect tourism receipts. The study uses Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Error Correction Method (ECM) to analyse time series data from EU countries from 2000 to 2020. Our estimates show that there exist long-run and short-run equilibrium relationships. In sum, evidence shows that promoting circular innovative practices, including recycling and using secondary raw materials in tourist destinations, could improve environmental quality and positively impact tourism receipts. The study concludes with policy and practical suggestions for circular economy innovation towards green tourism, destination management, and sustainable tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of pandemic-induced uncertainty on the changes in the level and volatility of tourism demand. We estimate a structural VAR model using U.S. monthly data from January 2000 to December 2021 and find that pandemic-induced uncertainty shock has a negative and significant impact on inbound tourism. Our results reveal that, in the long run, a one-standard-deviation shock in the index of uncertainty induced by global pandemic shock explains about 50 per cent of the variations in the demand for tourism. Our findings on the predictive power of pandemic-induced uncertainty on tourism demand has important policy implications for tourism and hospitality management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments and policymakers worldwide have been setting targets to achieve an ambitious net‐zero emission target by 2050 to tackle the pressing issue of climate change. However, achieving the net‐zero emission target by 2050 depends on the factors determining the transition from traditional fossil fuel energy sources to renewables. In connection with this, policymakers have emphasised the need to transition from a linear to a circular economy. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of the progress towards a circular economy in reducing CO2 emissions and promoting environmental sustainability. To do so, we use annual historical data for a panel of 29 European countries from 2000 to 2020. Using an identification strategy that adopts heteroscedastic‐based instrumental variables and addresses endogeneity issues, we find that progress towards a circular economy significantly improves environmental quality via reducing CO2 emissions. Our findings suggest that business strategies promoting recycling and circular economy practices play an important role in environmental sustainability by reducing emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted significant damage to the world economy, and the tourism and leisure industry is no exception. This article investigates the effect of COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rollouts, and government policy responses on Australia's tourism and leisure industry. To do so, we use data on stock market performances of the travel and leisure industry as key indicators. Our findings show that while vaccine rollouts help for a partial recovery of the travel and leisure industry, full and speedy recovery remains a challenge under stringent policies related to COVID-19 safety, suggesting the enormous magnitude of the task ahead in terms of policy responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article models the endogenously interrelated relationship between global economic policy uncertainty (EPU), world industrial production (WIP), and the demand for US tourism net export (TNX) expenditures. To do so, we apply an identified structural vector autoregression model over monthly data spanning from January 1999 to October 2020. Our findings reveal that a positive shock in WIP has a significant positive effect on demand for TNXs. In contrast, unanticipated increases in price and EPU have a statistically significant negative effect on TNXs. Our results show that, in the long run, a one standard deviation shock in global EPU explains about 26.05% of the variations in tourism net service exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive number of studies uses trade-to-GDP as a proxy for globalisation in environmental research. Globalisation encompasses much more than just trade in goods. Globalisation is the integration of various countries and includes spillovers of ideas and technology, financial flows, the worldwide movement of labour, and national governments meeting on an international level in a bid to solve social and political problems. This study considers the effect of globalisation on carbon dioxide emissions by using a more flexible and comprehensive measure based on the KOF globalisation index for a panel of 21 OECD nations covering the period 1970–2014. Since the globalisation process is not uniform across countries and time, we use a fully-fledged nonparametric technique to estimate the time-varying coefficient and trend functions. Our results show that the effect of globalization on CO2 emissions is positive up until 2000, then switches to turns negative thereafter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the relationship between income inequality and house prices for a panel of 17 OECD countries over the period 1870 to 2015. Our identification strategy takes advantage of exogenous variation in culturally weighted communist influence to instrument for within‐country variations in income inequality. Controlling for endogeneity, time, and country fixed effects, our results suggest that an increase in income inequality has a significant negative effect on real house prices. This finding is robust to the use of both the Gini coefficient and top income share as measures of income inequality and the use of absolute and relative income inequality measures, as well as a range of other robustness checks. We examine crime as a mechanism through which income inequality influences housing prices and find that the theft rate is a channel via which higher income inequality contributes to lower house prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between income inequality and economic growth in a broad panel of countries over the period from 1965 to 2014. We utilize an improved dataset for inequality with reduced measurement errors, which fosters cross-country comparability. In addition, we investigate whether accounting for heterogeneity across countries alters the estimated effect of inequality on growth, and whether the inequality-growth nexus varies with the level of income inequality. Our estimates show that after accounting for heterogeneity, the nonlinear growth effect of income inequality remains statistically and economically significant. We find a threshold effect of inequality on economic growth, and this threshold is higher for developing economies than for developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between income inequality and economic growth in a broad panel of countries over the period from 1965 to 2014. We utilize an improved dataset for inequality with reduced measurement errors, which fosters cross-country comparability. In addition, we investigate whether accounting for heterogeneity across countries alters the estimated effect of inequality on growth, and whether the inequalitygrowth nexus varies with the level of income inequality. Our estimates show that after accounting for heterogeneity, the nonlinear growth effect of income inequality remains statistically and economically significant. We find a threshold effect of inequality on economic growth, and this threshold is higher for developing economies than for developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of fiscal equalization payments on the composition of government spending under endogenous growth theory. Analytical conjectures stemming from the model are tested empirically. As an instrumental variable for within-province variations in provinces' equalization entitlements, we use plausibly exogenous variations in the grant eligibility rule for the Canadian fiscal equalization system. We find that fiscal equalization payments have a significant negative effect on the share of productive expenditures and a significant positive effect on the share of unproductive government expenditures. Furthermore, the results show that fiscal equalization lowers the speed of cross-regional convergence in real gross domestic product per worker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the long-run effect of higher education, measured in average years of tertiary schooling, on the level and growth rate of national per capita income. It uses an improved dataset on educational attainments which not only reduces measurement error but also overcomes data comparability issues and allows us to estimate the long-run effect of human capital through higher education on economic development. Using unique long panel data for 36 advanced and emerging economies spanning over the period 1870-2010, we find that higher education has a positive and significant effect on the level and the growth rate of national per capita income. Specifically, our empirical results indicate that a 1% increase in educational attainment at higher education level would raise the growth rate of per capita income by about 0.01% to 0.02% over a five-year period. That is, at the sample mean, an increase in average tertiary education by one year would raise output growth by about 6% to 11% in five years. We find that the returns to female education are lower than the returns to male education at tertiary schooling levels. Our results are robust to alternative specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Child malnutrition remains high in Ethiopia, and inadequate complementary feeding is a contributing factor. In this context, a community‐based intervention was designed to provide locally made complementary food for children 6–23 months, using a bartering system, in four Ethiopian regions. After a pilot phase, the intervention was scaled up from 8 to 180 localities. We conducted a process evaluation to determine enablers and barriers for the scaling up of this intervention. Eight study sites were selected to perform 52 key informant interviews and 31 focus group discussions with purposely selected informants. For analysis, we used a framework describing six elements of successful scaling up: socio‐political context, attributes of the intervention, attributes of the implementers, appropriate delivery strategy, the adopting community, and use of research to inform the scale‐up process. A strong political will, alignment of the intervention with national priorities, and integration with the health care system were instrumental in the scaling up. The participatory approach in decision‐making reinforced ownership at community level, and training about complementary feeding motivated mothers and women's groups to participate. However, the management of the complex intervention, limited human resources, and lack of incentives for female volunteers proved challenging. In the bartering model, the barter rate was accepted, but the bartering was hindered by unavailability of cereals and limited financial and material resources to contribute, threatening the project's sustainability. Scaling up strategies for nutrition interventions require sufficient time, thorough planning, and assessment of the community's capacity to contribute human, financial, and material resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pairwise comparison matrices play a prominent role in multiple-criteria decision-making, particularly in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Another form of preference modeling, called an incomplete pairwise comparison matrix, is considered when one or more elements are missing. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed for the optimal completion of an incomplete matrix. Our intention is to numerically minimize a maximum eigenvalue function, which is difficult to write explicitly in terms of variables, subject to interval constraints. Numerical simulations are carried out in order to examine the performance of the algorithm. The results of our simulations show that the proposed algorithm has the ability to solve the minimization of the constrained eigenvalue problem. We provided illustrative examples to show the simplex procedures obtained by the proposed algorithm, and how well it fills in the given incomplete matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ a non-parametric modelling technique to examine the time-varying impact of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on economic growth. The specific nonparametric method that we employ is the local linear dummy variable estimation (LLDVE) method, which we apply to OECD and non-OECD panels for the period 1990 to 2015. While previous studies employing parametric models have recognised the existence of non-linearities and instability in the relationship between renewable (and non-renewable) energy consumption and economic growth, the LLDVE method has the advantage that it does not make any assumptions about functional form and, hence, is better able to approximate the non-linear relationship. Our estimates suggest that non-renewable energy consumption exerts a positive and significant impact on economic growth across OECD nations with the coefficient function exhibiting an upward trajectory over time. The impact of renewable energy consumption on economic growth, however, is statistically indistinguishable from zero in these countries for most of the study period. Both renewable and non-renewable energy consumption promote economic growth in non-OECD countries, suggesting that developing countries may play an important role in the transition process to renewables despite constraints in technical progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]