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Abstract Background Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data are an important source of maternal, newborn, and child health as well as nutrition information for low- and middle-income countries. However, DHSs are often unavailable at the administrative unit that is most interesting or useful for program planning. In addition, the location of DHS survey clusters are geomasked within 10 km, and prior to 2009, may have crossed district boundaries. We aim to use DHS surveyed information with these geomasked coordinates to estimate district assignments for use in health program planning and evaluation. Methods We developed three methods to assign a district to a geomasked survey cluster in two DHS surveys from Malawi: 2000 and 2004. Method A assigns districts of origin in proportion to the likelihood that results from repeated simulated geomasking, allowing more than one possible district of origin. Method B assigns a single district of origin which contains the greatest proportion of simulated geomasked survey clusters. Method C maps the geomasked survey cluster’s location to a district polygon. We used these method assignments to estimate a selection of commonly used coverage indicators for each district. We compared the district coverage estimates, confidence intervals, and concordance correlation coefficients, by each of the methods, to those which used validated district assignments in 2004, and we looked at coverage change from 2000 to 2004. Results The methods we tested each approximated the validated estimates in 2004 by confidence interval comparison and concordance correlation coefficient. Estimated agreement for method A was between .14 and .98, for method B the estimated agreement was between .97 and .99, and for method C the agreement ranged from .93 to .99 when compared with the validated district assignments. Therefore, we recommend the protocol which is the simplest to implement—method C—overlaying geomasked survey cluster within district polygon. Conclusions Using geomasked survey clusters from DHSs to assign districts provided district level coverage rates similar to those using the validated surveyed locations. This method may be applied to data sources where survey cluster centroids are available and where district level estimates are needed for program implementation and evaluation in low- and middle-income settings. This method is of special interest to those using DHSs to study spatiotemporal trends as it allows for the utilization of historic DHS data where geomasking hinders the generation of reliable subnational estimates of health in areas smaller than the first-order administrative unit (ADM1).

Background: Evidence on local disease burden and the completeness of case detection represent important information for TB control programs. We present a new method for estimating subnational TB incidence and the fraction of individuals with incident TB who are diagnosed and treated in Brazil. Methods: We compiled data on TB notifications and TB-related mortality in Brazil and specified an analytic model approximating incidence as the number of individuals exiting untreated active disease (sum of treatment initiation, death before treatment, and self-cure). We employed a Bayesian inference approach to synthesize data and adjust for known sources of bias. We estimated TB incidence and the fraction of cases treated, for each Brazilian state and the Federal District over 2008–2017. Findings: For 2017, TB incidence was estimated as 41.5 (95 % interval: 40.7, 42.5) per 100 000 nationally, and ranged from 11.7–88.3 per 100 000 across states. The fraction of cases treated was estimated as 91.9 % (89.6 %, 93.7 %) nationally and ranged 86.0 %–94.8 % across states, with an estimated 6.9 (5.3, 9.2) thousand cases going untreated in 2017. Over 2008–2017, incidence declined at an average annual rate of 1.4 % (1.1 %, 1.9 %) nationally, and −1.1%–4.2 % across states. Over this period there was a 0.5 % (0.2 %, 0.9 %) average annual increase in the fraction of incident TB cases treated. Interpretation: Time-series estimates of TB burden and the fraction of cases treated can be derived from routinely-collected data and used to understand variation in TB outcomes and trends.

A specific challenge related to infrastructure creation that is faced by several countries has to do with the lack of participation to an optimal level of subnational governments in the development of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects which, in turn, could offset the existing infrastructure limitations. In this article, we analyze the Mexican case, whose main feature is that, despite implementing the PPP scheme for almost 10 years and having technical assistance from international organizations to establish the required institutional framework (i.e. legal and technical dimensions), local governments have not been able to create the necessary competencies to carry out this type of project. In order to assess local governments on this subject, we conducted an analysis based on the model designed by the OECD in relation to the execution of PPP projects. A proposal to explain the lack of local government participation in PPP schemes, rests on the foundations of so-called "subnational authoritarianism." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Maternal health affects the lives of many women and children globally every year and it is one of the high priority programs of the Government of Nepal (GoN). Different evidence articulate that the equity gap in accessing and using maternal health services at national level is decreasing over 2001-2016. This study aimed to assess whether the equity gap in using maternal health services is also decreasing at subnational level over this period given the geography of Nepal has already been identified as one of the predictors of accessibility and utilization of maternal health services.Methods: The study used wealth index scores for each household and calculated the concentration curves and indexes in their relative formulation, with no corrections. Concentration curve was used to identify whether socioeconomic inequality in maternity services exists and whether it was more pronounced at one point in time than another or in one province than another. The changes between 2001 and 2016 were also disaggregated across the provinces. Test of significance of changes in Concentration Index was performed by calculating pooled standard errors. We used R software for statistical analysis.Results: The study observed a progressive and statistically significant decrease in concentration index for at least four antenatal care (ANC) visit and institutional delivery at national level over 2001-2016. The changes were not statistically significant for Cesarean Section delivery. Regarding inequality in four-ANC all provinces except Karnali showed significant decreases at least between 2011 and 2016. Similarly, all provinces, except Karnali, showed a statistically significant decrease in concentration index for institutional delivery between 2011 and 2016.Conclusion: Despite appreciable progress at national level, the study found that the progress in reducing equity gap in use of maternal health services is not uniform across seven provinces. Tailored investment to address barriers in utilization of maternal health services across provinces is urgent to make further progress in achieving equitable distribution in use of maternal health services. There is an opportunity now that the country is federalized, and provincial governments can make a need-based improvement by addressing specific barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Family planning is fundamental to women's reproductive health and is a basic human right. Global targets such as Sustainable Development Goal 3 (specifically, Target 3.7) have been established to promote universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services. Country-level estimates of contraceptive use and other family planning indicators are already available and are used for tracking progress towards these goals. However, there is likely heterogeneity in these indicators within countries, and more local estimates can provide crucial additional information about progress towards these goals in specific populations. In this analysis, we develop estimates of six family indicators at a local scale, and use these estimates to describe heterogeneity and spatial-temporal patterns in these indicators in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Nigeria., Methods: We used a Bayesian geostatistical modelling framework to analyse geo-located data on contraceptive use and family planning from 61 household surveys in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Nigeria in order to generate subnational estimates of prevalence and associated uncertainty for six indicators from 2000 to 2020: contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR), modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR), traditional contraceptive prevalence rate (tCPR), unmet need for modern methods of contraception, met need for family planning with modern methods, and intention to use contraception. For each country and indicator, we generated estimates at an approximately 5 × 5-km resolution and at the first and second administrative levels (regions and provinces in Burkina Faso; counties and sub-counties in Kenya; and states and local government areas in Nigeria)., Results: We found substantial variation among locations in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Nigeria for each of the family planning indicators estimated. For example, estimated CPR in 2020 ranged from 13.2% (95% Uncertainty Interval, 8.0-20.0%) in Oudalan to 38.9% (30.1-48.6%) in Kadiogo among provinces in Burkina Faso; from 0.4% (0.0-1.9%) in Banissa to 76.3% (58.1-89.6%) in Makueni among sub-counties in Kenya; and from 0.9% (0.3-2.0%) in Yunusari to 31.8% (19.9-46.9%) in Somolu among local government areas in Nigeria. There were also considerable differences among locations in each country in the magnitude of change over time for any given indicator; however, in most cases, there was more consistency in the direction of that change: for example, CPR, mCPR, and met need for family planning with modern methods increased nationally in all three countries between 2000 and 2020, and similarly increased in all provinces of Burkina Faso, and in large majorities of sub-counties in Kenya and local government areas in Nigeria., Conclusions: Despite substantial increases in contraceptive use, too many women still have an unmet need for modern methods of contraception. Moreover, country-level estimates of family planning indicators obscure important differences among locations within the same country. The modelling approach described here enables estimating family planning indicators at a subnational level and could be readily adapted to estimate subnational trends in family planning indicators in other countries. These estimates provide a tool for better understanding local needs and informing continued efforts to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

An important aspect of economic reforms in Russia and China over the last several decades has been the transformation of their public finances and, in particular, the revision of the status and the capacities of the two countries' regional budgets. In search of effective approaches to the division of revenues and expenditures between national and subnational authorities, the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China have chosen different paths. While China's central authorities have delegated more responsibilities and provided more resources to local governments, Russian regions' role in the budget system have diminished. These differences are outlined and explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of politics on economic policy is not fully understood. The challenge to ensure political inclusiveness and economic prosperity remains. Perhaps, one way to attain this objective is by increasing political competition. This paper gathers empirical evidence from Pakistan, a country with a checkered political history characterized by episodes of representative, non-representative, and indirectly elected governments. In recent years, the country has witnessed a gradual strengthening of democratic rules with economic progress. Focusing on nine elections held over 1970 to 2015 the authors measure political competition and estimate its impact on economic policy. Contrary to popular conceptions about Pakistan’s economy, they find a positive association between lack of political competition and poor economic policy. This finding holds at national as well as subnational levels in Pakistan and withstands a number of robustness tests.

Abstract Background The under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) is an important metric of child health and survival. Country-level estimates of U5MR are readily available, but efforts to estimate U5MR subnationally have been limited, in part, due to spatial misalignment of available data sources (e.g., use of different administrative levels, or as a result of historical boundary changes). Methods We analyzed all available complete and summary birth history data in surveys and censuses in six countries (Bangladesh, Cameroon, Chad, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia) at the finest geographic level available in each data source. We then developed small area estimation models capable of incorporating spatially misaligned data. These small area estimation models were applied to the birth history data in order to estimate trends in U5MR from 1980 to 2015 at the second administrative level in Cameroon, Chad, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia and at the third administrative level in Bangladesh. Results We found substantial variation in U5MR in all six countries: there was more than a two-fold difference in U5MR between the area with the highest rate and the area with the lowest rate in every country. All areas in all countries experienced declines in U5MR between 1980 and 2015, but the degree varied both within and between countries. In Cameroon, Chad, Mozambique, and Zambia we found areas with U5MRs in 2015 that were higher than in other parts of the same country in 1980. Comparing subnational U5MR to country-level targets for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), we find that 12.8% of areas in Bangladesh did not meet the country-level target, although the country as whole did. A minority of areas in Chad, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia met the country-level MDG targets while these countries as a whole did not. Conclusions Subnational estimates of U5MR reveal significant within-country variation. These estimates could be used for identifying high-need areas and positive deviants, tracking trends in geographic inequalities, and evaluating progress towards international development targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals.

En esta investigación se analizan algunos determinantes de la expansión del endeudamiento subnacional en México, de 2006 a 2015, cuyo crecimiento fue provocado por factores regulatorios, políticos, económicos y financieros. Es importante valorar los límites de la regulación del endeudamiento, durante y después de la crisis financiera de 2009, una de las mayores de los últimos años. A partir de 2010, el costo del crédito disminuyó y generó más incentivos para contratar deuda; de tal forma que el mercado fomentó su expansión. La verificación empírica de los determinantes se realiza por medio de un modelo de regresión con datos en panel, con información para las 32 entidades federativas de México. Los resultados más robustos indican que una regulación fiscal severa restringe el endeudamiento, además de que la disminución del costo del crédito, la capacidad de pago más grande y el ciclo electoral inciden en que el endeudamiento sea mayor.

The article has identified the right subnational interpretation of the principle of national treatment (NT) as a cornerstone determining the policy flexibility of subnational authorities. The purpose is to analyse measures of national and subnational authorities affecting the application of the principle of NT vis-à-vis the foreign investor, which allows to recommend certain approaches to investment policy making at the subnational level. The following issues are discussed in the article: concepts of foreign investors and foreign investment in the Russian Federation; NT in bilateral investment agreements; NT of investment in the context of the WTO agreements; a framework for the description of NT at the subnational level; classification of exceptions from NT; exceptions from NT according to GATS obligations; NT at the subnational level. In the Russian Federation the foreign investor has full legal protection equal to the protection of local firms if it is a legal entity in which the foreign shareholder owns at least 10%, but no more than 20% of the authorized capital, or if the foreign investor does not create a new legal entity, but opts for a branch or a representation office. The model bilateral investment treaty of the Russian Federation follows approaches similar to those of developed countries. Questions were identified which should be answered during the investment policy making at the subnational level: For what kind of investors and how is market entry regulated? What represents post-establishment? Is it possible to expand NT for affiliated and dependent firms? In our opinion, nothing prevents the extension of support to small and medium sized enterprises to the entities with 100% (but not 49%) participation of the foreign equity. At the same time it is that type of exceptions from NT which practices in developed countries as well.

Background Most vaccines in the Expanded Program on Immunization are universal childhood vaccines (eg, measles and rotavirus vaccines). Other vaccines such as typhoid conjugate (TCV) and Japanese encephalitis vaccines are risk based and only used in countries where populations are at risk of these diseases. However, strategies to introduce risk-based vaccines are becoming complex due to increasing intracountry variability in disease incidence. There is a need to assess whether subnational vaccine strategies are appropriate. Criteria, challenges, and benefits Subnational strategies consider intracountry heterogeneous risk and prioritize vaccination only in those areas that are at risk; there is no intent to introduce the vaccine nationally. The following variables should be considered to determine appropriateness of subnational strategies: disease burden, outbreak potential, treatment availability and costs, cost-effectiveness, and availability of other preventive interventions. We propose criteria for each variable and use a hypothetical country considering TCV introduction to show how criteria are applied to determine if a subnational strategy is appropriate. Challenges include granularity of disease-burden data, political challenges of vaccinating only a portion of a population, and potentially higher costs of introduction. Benefits include targeted reduction of disease burden, increased equity for marginalized populations, and progress on development goals. Conclusions In the absence of perfect information at the national level, adopting a subnational vaccine strategy can provide country decision makers with an alternative to national vaccine introduction. Given the changing nature of communicable disease burden, subnational vaccination may be a tool to effectively avert mortality and morbidity while maximizing the use of available health and financial resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralization has triggered widespread use of the subnational comparative method in the study of Latin American politics. Simultaneously, it has created challenges for this method that deserve careful attention. While subnational governments after decentralization can often be treated as potentially autonomous policy jurisdictions, their autonomy is also subject to new constraints and incursions, which may limit scholars' ability to treat them as relatively independent units. By taking stock of the vibrant literature that has emerged in recent years, this article explores three major challenges that complicate the use of the subnational comparative method. Two are vertical in nature: how to theorize national causes of subnational variation, and how the varied linkages between subnational governments and transnational actors can be conceptualized in work that compares subnational units. The third challenge is horizontal, referring to interactions between governments at the same subnational level that can either enhance or subvert autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method to estimate soil surface phosphorus (P) budgets for 243 subnational regions in EU28. This is about the maximum spatial resolution that can be achieved mainly using international datasets that are regularly updated. Similar subnational budgets could be established for nitrogen (N) with some additions to this method. Increasing the spatial resolution from national to subnational is one way to address the well-known issue that national nutrient budgets sometimes mask considerable heterogeneity, i.e., regional surpluses and deficits that are not seen in national averages. Our results indeed show how a rich structure of different P budgets emerges when moving from national to subnational level. Another approach is to exclude the most extensively managed areas from the budgets, to better represent the surplus in intensive agriculture areas. Here, we show that both approaches are useful and sometimes important as they can affect P surplus estimates by about 10 kg P ha− 1 y− 1 or more. The choice of spatial resolution is a trade-off between accuracy and precision. National budgets are the most accurate thanks to good data coverage, but they sometimes fail to identify considerable P surpluses and deficits at subnational level. Increasing the precision (spatial resolution) gradually reveals this heterogeneity but comes at the cost of growing data gaps, which we discuss in detail. These subnational P surpluses represent a middle ground which may prove useful as one indicator among others to monitor the development of environmental risks and resource problems over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That poorer countries face higher risk of civil war is among the most robust findings in the literature on internal conflicts. However, we lack knowledge about whether a similar correlation exists on a more local level. Research into the local poverty–conflict nexus has largely relied on objective proxies of poverty that are only loosely related to the rationale for conflict. The results have been mixed, thus highlighting the need for more effective juxtaposition of theory and data. Using a subjective measure of poverty that determines whether individuals' basic needs are being met, this article presents new empirical evidence for existing propositions linking local poverty and conflict-based violence. The study analyzes georeferenced survey data from the pan-African Afrobarometer survey for 4008 subnational districts across 35 African states, producing results that show how areas with high levels of poverty are indeed more likely to experience conflict. However, the correlation is likely to be indirect. Interaction models demonstrate that poverty is more likely to exacerbate violence if an area's local institutions are weak or when impoverishment overlaps with group grievances against the government. Robustness tests, using coarsened exact matching and region-level fixed effects, provide considerable empirical support for a strong relationship between poverty and conflict at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Incremental democratic decline is evident in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), but measures of democracy conceal an uneven subnational distribution of autocratization. So far there has been limited research on the drivers and constraints to subnational autocratization. This paper aims to contribute to the literature on power-sharing by exploring instances of illiberal politics enacted by parties in government at the subnational level in BiH. Evidence is gathered through semi-structured interviews and analysis of three specific cases of illiberal politics. We find that the political contest in BiH is purposefully contained within ethnic and subnational boundaries and constrained through several layers of institutionalized multilevel and ethnic checks and balances. The main drivers of subnational autocratization are opportunities that arise from the institutional framework established during early democratization and postwar structures that blend executive dominance with economic power and informal party networks, and occasionally from an individual actor's perceptions of threat. Democratization in BiH will need to address subnational politics and deep-rooted power structures if it is to be successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data are an important source of maternal, newborn, and child health as well as nutrition information for low- and middle-income countries. However, DHSs are often unavailable at the administrative unit that is most interesting or useful for program planning. In addition, the location of DHS survey clusters are geomasked within 10 km, and prior to 2009, may have crossed district boundaries. We aim to use DHS surveyed information with these geomasked coordinates to estimate district assignments for use in health program planning and evaluation. Methods: We developed three methods to assign a district to a geomasked survey cluster in two DHS surveys from Malawi: 2000 and 2004. Method A assigns districts of origin in proportion to the likelihood that results from repeated simulated geomasking, allowing more than one possible district of origin. Method B assigns a single district of origin which contains the greatest proportion of simulated geomasked survey clusters. Method C maps the geomasked survey cluster's location to a district polygon. We used these method assignments to estimate a selection of commonly used coverage indicators for each district. We compared the district coverage estimates, confidence intervals, and concordance correlation coefficients, by each of the methods, to those which used validated district assignments in 2004, and we looked at coverage change from 2000 to 2004. Results: The methods we tested each approximated the validated estimates in 2004 by confidence interval comparison and concordance correlation coefficient. Estimated agreement for method A was between.14 and.98, for method B the estimated agreement was between.97 and.99, and for method C the agreement ranged from.93 to.99 when compared with the validated district assignments. Therefore, we recommend the protocol which is the simplest to implement—method C—overlaying geomasked survey cluster within district polygon. Conclusions: Using geomasked survey clusters from DHSs to assign districts provided district level coverage rates similar to those using the validated surveyed locations. This method may be applied to data sources where survey cluster centroids are available and where district level estimates are needed for program implementation and evaluation in low- and middle-income settings. This method is of special interest to those using DHSs to study spatiotemporal trends as it allows for the utilization of historic DHS data where geomasking hinders the generation of reliable subnational estimates of health in areas smaller than the first-order administrative unit (ADM1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lately, Argentine Political Science has begun to focus on the influence of governors on national legislators. In general, these investigations have given by certain the influence of the governors, either by the "intuitivist" way, or by measuring nominal votes. But none of them realized the perspective of the actors involved. Do national deputies consider themselves influenced by the governors when voting bills? And how much? These questions are answered in this article, based on the 2016 Subnational Political Survey, performed to Argentinean national deputies. The results complement the previous investigations in a novel way: using the perspective of the same object of study (the national legislator). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-income countries often outsource material demands to poorer countries along with the associated environmental damage. This phenomenon can also occur within (large) countries, such as China, which was responsible for 24 to 30% of the global material footprint (MF) between 2007 and 2010. Understanding the distribution and development of China's MF is hence critical for resource efficiency and circular economy ambitions globally. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of China's MF at the provincial and sectoral levels. We combine provincial-level input-output data with sector- and province-specific trade data, detailed material extraction data, and the global input-output database EXIOBASE. We find that some provinces haveMFs equivalent to medium-sized, highincome countries and limited evidence of material decoupling. Lower-income regions with high levels of material extraction can have an MF per capita as large as developed provinces due to much higher material intensities. The higher-income south-coastal provinces have lower MF per capita than equally developed provinces. This finding relates partly to differences in economic structure but indicates the potential for improvement across provinces. Investment via capital formation is up to 4 times more resource-intensive than consumption and drives 49 to 86% of provincial-level MFs (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average is 37%). Resource-efficient production, efficient use of capital goods/infrastructure, and circular design are essential for reductions in China's MF. Policy efforts to shift to a high-quality development model may reduce material intensities, preferably while avoiding the further outsourcing of high-intensity activities to other provinces or lower-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• UN's new indicator PHDI integrates environmental factors into development measures. • PHDI reveals additional north-south disparities in China. • The environmental inequality among provinces is larger than development inequality. • Development indicators vary in significance based on regional development stages. The UN's Planetary Pressure-Adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI) incorporates environmental footprints into development indicators. If footprints are high, PHDI is reduced compared to HDI. Many nations have seen stagnating HDI and declining PHDI. When using PHDI, >50 countries drop below the very-high development category. China has seen unprecedented development but with large inequalities. We investigate PHDI across provinces and put this in global contexts. While there is a well-known east-west regional divide, we reveal an additional significant north-south divide by PHDI. Environmental inequalities across provinces are larger than development inequalities. China reflects global extremes where under-developed provinces can have continuingly declining PHDI due to extractive activities, similar to oil- or mining-focused nations. Innovation-oriented provinces, such as Guangdong, have high PHDIs similar to European nations. We explore metric choice issues for PHDI and the need for approaches that incorporate the lag between capital stock accumulation and HDI – the stock-development problem. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El presente artículo tiene como objeto el estudio de una función considerada fundamental dentro del amplio proceso de la organización y la admi-nistración de las elecciones: el empadronamiento electoral. Lo anterior, con el objetivo de aproxi-marse a la cuestión de hasta qué punto influye el carácter (des)centralizado del Estado en los procesos de registro de electo-res. Tras una revisión teórica y algunas precisiones metodológicas, el trabajo aborda los casos de Argentina y Bolivia desde el rol de las provincias y los departamentos. Los resultados sugieren una baja iniciativa y eficacia por parte de las provincias argentinas, y un fuerte protagonismo y eficacia por parte de los departamentos bolivianos. / This paper analyzes a fundamental function within the broader process of organizing and administering elections: voter registration. The objective is to examine the extent to which the (de)centralized character of the state affects voter registration processes. After a theoretical review and some methodological details, the article addresses the cases of provinces and de-partments in Argentina and Bolivia, respectively. The results suggest the Argentinian provinces show weak initiative and are not very effective, and Bolivian departments are strongly pro-active and efficient.

This article has three main objectives, each in the spirit of broadening the study of subnational politics to include the juxtaposition of policy regimes and not just political regimes. First, it identifies the causes that help explain why we are seeing more territorial heterogeneity within countries in terms of the pursuit of ideologically disparate development models at different levels of government. Second, the article assesses the importance of this trend by analyzing the chief advantages and disadvantages of policy regime juxtaposition. Third, I turn to the question of why subnational officials are able to defend ideologically deviant policy regimes in some cases, but not in others. Based on the Bolivian, Ecuadorian, and Peruvian cases, my argument emphasizes the importance of two key factors: capacity and coalitions.

This article sheds light on the role of subnational governments in health systems across OECD countries. The views in this article show a move away from traditional measures of decentralisation, such as the share of subnational government expenditure of total expenditure, to measures capturing a range of responsibilities in the health sector. The data comes from the 2017 OECD Survey on Performance Measurement Systems in the Health Sector and Responsibilities across Levels of Government. The results show that despite health representing a large sector of subnational government expenditure, central governments still have considerable decision-making power. This power applies to key policy-making and budgeting decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale carbon emissions reductions in the United States likely require national-level policy, but political and institutional constraints restrict the scope of policy that can be enacted in Washington. State governments, on the other hand, have demonstrated a remarkable willingness to enact climate policies, despite the global nature of the problem. Although it is limited in directly reducing carbon emissions, state policy has the potential to make the terrain of U.S. climate politics more fertile for future policy. I discuss mechanisms by which climate policies enacted at the state level can influence climate politics across the states and at the national level. Finally, I make policy and political strategy recommendations that take these multilevel policy feedback dynamics into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers today have access to an unprecedented amount of geo-referenced, disaggregated data on political conflict. Because these new data sources use disparate event typologies and units of analysis, findings are rarely comparable across studies. As a result, we are unable to answer basic questions like 'what does conflict A tell us about conflict B?' This article introduces xSub – a 'database of databases' for disaggregated research on political conflict (www.x-sub.org). xSub reduces barriers to comparative subnational research, by empowering researchers to quickly construct custom, analysis-ready datasets. xSub currently features subnational data on conflict in 156 countries, from 21 sources, including large data collections and data from individual scholars. To facilitate comparisons across countries and sources, xSub organizes these data into consistent event categories, actors, spatial units (country, province, district, grid cell, electoral constituency), and time units (year, month, week, and day). This article introduces xSub and illustrates its potential, by investigating the impact of repression on dissent across thousands of subnational datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the effects of institutions on FDI spillovers considering firm heterogeneity and various spillover mechanisms. We test our hypotheses using data on Chinese manufacturing firms from 1998 to 2013. We find that intellectual property rights protection lowers the positive demonstration effect of FDI on local productivity, while such negative effect is smaller for local firms with higher technological competence. Government interference reduces the negative competition effect of FDI on the productivity of local firms and this effect is even stronger for state-owned firms. For firms with high relationship-specificity, vertical spillovers through the backward and forward linkages are larger in regions with better rule of law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments and NGOs establish aid projects in order to improve the quality of life for local residents around the world. While recent news stories about aid workers being kidnapped or killed by terrorist groups are alarming, they mask a broader question: Are aid projects effective in promoting humanitarian aims and pacifying the areas to which it is sent? Or, conversely, does their presence actually attract more violence? Although humanitarian assistance is ostensibly non-political, aid projects themselves may make popular targets for terrorist groups. In addition to increasing resources available to plunder, aid provides an appealing foreign target, allowing terrorist groups to reach wider audiences with their attacks and to reinforce the narrative that the government lacks capacity to protect and provide for civilians. In this paper we combine subnational, project-level aid data with newly-assembled subnational data on transnational terrorism to explore terrorist targeting of aid locations. After presenting our matched-sample analysis of terrorist targeting of aid, we outline avenues for future inquiry using high-resolution, subnational data to investigate the strategic vulnerabilities of foreign aid projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, Tanzania launched the One Health Coordination Desk (OHCD) in a country that operates a centralized public health system with limited privatization. In contrast, the animal health system is decentralized, with huge reliance on privatization. Subnational level implementation of health services are sometimes at odds with national-level planning due to inherent challenges. To bridge these gaps, One Health rapid response teams (OHRRTs) were set up and pilot tested in selected districts and regions of Tanzania. These teams serve the community directly through the delivery of community-oriented One Health activities. We discuss the OHRRT set-up process as an example of good practice for adoption in developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journalists in Mexico face hundreds of attacks each year, ranging from online harassment and physical intimidation to outright murder. The official narrative typically claims that murdered journalists are the victims of general criminal violence. This article finds that despite the rampant violence in Mexico, the murder of journalists cannot be attributed to the country’s general criminal violence problem alone. Instead, the evidence points to the targeting, and even political targeting of journalists. First, journalists are at a much higher risk of being murdered than the general population. Second, the divergence between homicide rates among the general population and among journalists varies considerably between Mexican states. While recent scholarship has shown that subnational governments can successfully remain authoritarian despite democratization at the central or federal level, this literature has largely ignored the use of political killings in subnational undemocratic regimes. This article attempts to understand the murder of journalists not just as a problem of criminal violence, but also of political violence, and thereby connects the findings to the existing scholarship on subnational authoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2018, leaders in climate action within and outside the U.S. will convene in San Francisco for the Global Climate Action Summit. They plan to demonstrate strong ongoing commitment to exceeding the goals set out in the Paris Agreement, despite U.S. federal opposition under President Trump, and to spur greater ambition among subnational governments and the private sector. Now that the Trump Administration is working to undo the progress made under President Obama, it is more important than ever that states and cities, as well as the private sector, redouble their efforts. Since the 2016 election, many U.S. states have demonstrated leadership by establishing ever-more ambitious clean energy and electric vehicle targets through legislation and executive action; by pushing back on the Trump Administration in public forums and in the courts; and by banding together to realise greater effectiveness through collective action. The commitment of leading states, cities, and businesses alone will not be enough to achieve the rapid reductions needed to keep planetary warming to 1.5 degrees C in the absence of U.S. federal efforts. But coming after a summer of extreme weather events, the Summit represents a critical opportunity to re-energise constituencies, highlight the need for urgent and ambitious action, and bring climate change to the forefront of policy conversations across the U.S. and beyond. Key policy insights The reversal of U.S. ambitious clean energy and transportation policy, including replacing the Clean Power Plan, freezing fuel standards, and withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, have created a gap at the federal level under President Trump that will be difficult - but perhaps not impossible - to fill with subnational action. States, local governments, and the private sector have shown a strengthened commitment to combating climate change and to the goals set out in the Paris Agreement through more ambitious legislative and executive targets, and regional initiatives like RGGI and cross-jurisdictional zero emissions vehicle programmes. The Global Climate Action Summit in September 2018 is a pivotal moment to energise a broader coalition within and outside the U.S. towards catalysing the level of ambition needed to exceed goals set out in the Paris Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the next decade India is expected to surpass China as the world's most populous country due to still higher fertility and a younger population. Around 2025 each country will be home to around 1.5 billion people. India is demographically very heterogeneous with some rural illiterate populations still having more than four children on average while educated urban women have fewer than 1.5 children and with great differences between states. We show that the population outlook greatly depends on the degree to which this heterogeneity is explicitly incorporated into the population projection model used. The conventional projection model, considering only the age and sex structures of the population at the national level, results in a lower projected population than the same model applied at the level of states because over time the high-fertility states gain more weight, thus applying the higher rates to more people. The opposite outcome results from an explicit consideration of education differentials because over time the proportion of more educated women with lower fertility increases, thus leading to lower predicted growth than in the conventional model. To comprehensively address this issue, we develop a five-dimensional model of India's population by state, rural/urban place of residence, age, sex, and level of education and show the impacts of different degrees of aggregation. We also provide human capital scenarios for all Indian states that suggest that India will rapidly catch up with other more developed countries in Asia if the recent pace of education expansion is maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spain is a highly decentralized country where water governance is a multi-level institutional endeavor requiring effective intergovernmental coordination—in terms of objectives and actions. The paper revisits the evolution of vertical and horizontal intergovernmental interactions in Spain, with a special focus on four interregional river basins. We build on a historical analysis of the evolution of water governance institutions, a mapping of existing interactions over water, careful document analysis, and interviews with selected public officials that are at the interface between the political and the technical spheres. Intergovernmental interaction occurs through different mechanisms that are slowly evolving to adapt to new challenges posed by changing power dynamics and water policy goals. Since the start of political decentralization in 1978, key institutional reforms within and outside of the water sector have opened windows of opportunity for regions to seek new spheres of influence and power. Disputes over water allocation, environmental flows, inter-basin transfers, and even basin boundaries delineation emerge as an expression of a struggle over power distribution between the regions and the central government. The physical and institutional geography of water and diverging visions and priorities (over water and beyond) are among the factors that contribute to shape conflict and cooperation in intergovernmental relations over water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background This article examines the narrative strategies used by fossil fuel industries in responding to and shaping Alberta and BC's climate leadership plans. Analysis This article makes inferences about fossil fuel industry influence by examining submissions of industry players to both regions' public consultation processes. Conclusions and implications Key themes include: a need to take a leadership stance, a balance between environmental protection and economic growth, an appeal to protect industry competitiveness, and an emphasis on demand-side policies. These themes align with a policy discourse of weak ecological modernization and are central to advisory panel recommendations and subsequent subnational climate policies that facilitate market expansion and increased oil and gas production at a time when strong greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation efforts are urgently required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite playing a key contributing role in China's economic reforms and the Party's regime durability, there has been a noted reduction in local policy experimentation. Using semi-structured interviews with policymakers in Beijing, Zhejiang and Shenzhen, we find that although recentralization efforts at the central-level are impacting local officials, a great deal of variation in policy experimentation outcomes still exists. Thus, the puzzle motivating this study is how do local officials react to these institutional changes to decide whether or not to engage in local policy innovation? Our study offers three potential explanations for why local officials vary in their willingness to continue policy experimentation: (1) the ineffectiveness of the vertical reward and punishment systems operated by the Party-state; (2) differing base preferences of local officials; and, (3) the presence of a cohort effect. These factors 'filter' institutional changes to result in variation at the local level. As such, we find strong support for an evolutionary process predicated on individual preferences interacting with institutional incentives such as the evaluation system and the networked-structure of cadre knowledge. Although some officials are still conducting policy experimentation, the overall reduction in innovation strongly suggests that potential solutions to governance problems remain trapped at the local level, and that the central government might lose this 'adaptable' governance mechanism that has contributed to its past economic and political successes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic conflicts constitute a major source of violence in most of the developing countries of the world. Ethnicity has been the most crucial concept of the modern world. Pakistan being no exception suffers from ethnic conflicts. The ethnic groups have been existing almost in every part of the world and ethnicity itself is not the cause of conflicts. In reality the states are plural societies with many national, sub-national, religious, professional, racial, linguistic and geographic identities. The apparent and pre-dominant cause of conflict among ethnic identities is politico-economic imbalance. For example, the monopolization of power by West Pakistan before 1971 disintegrated Pakistan and lead to the creation of Bangladesh. Ethnic identities come into conflict when their grievances are not addressed properly by the political system. According to various analysts human beings have certain basic and universal needs such as: identity, security, autonomy, recognition, creativity, self-esteem, a sense of affiliation and belongingness. These needs are very important for the growth of an individual and a society. Denial of these needs will become a major reason of violent behavior among individuals. It is essential to avoid violent behavior among individuals that political system has ability to identify those needs which are becoming source of tension and initiate various strategies to accommodate those needs. In this paper researcher will examine different aspects of Human Needs Theory and briefly discuss the root causes of ethnic conflicts and delineate various possible options to resolve ethnic conflicts in Pakistan with special reference of Human Needs Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing large-scale deforestation is a key objective of global efforts to mitigate climate change. An important debate concerns the levels of governance at which deforestation can be reduced effectively. Political economic theory and evidence suggests that national governments are more likely than subnational governments in agricultural frontiers to adopt restrictive forest conservation policies, due to differences in political constituencies and capacity. Here we examine the validity of this claim using an impact study of provincial-level land use planning in Argentina's main deforestation frontier, the Dry Chaco. In 2007, Argentina's provinces were obliged to define land use zoning for their native forests, but had considerable leeway in its implementation. We use data from 30,126 properties in the provinces of Salta, Santiago del Estero, and Chaco, and a rigorous counterfactual estimation strategy to quantify the extent to which adopted zoning plans affected deforestation. We find evidence that provincial-level land use zoning reduced deforestation in all three provinces, but not in all zones and periods. Differences in impact are associated with differences in the location of zones and the timing of planning. Our findings suggest that subnational governments can make important contributions to reducing large-scale deforestation in agricultural frontiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has three main objectives, each in the spirit of broadening the study of subnational politics to include the juxtaposition of policy regimes and not just political regimes. First, it identifies the causes that help explain why we are seeing more territorial heterogeneity within countries in terms of the pursuit of ideologically disparate development models at different levels of government. Second, the article assesses the importance of this trend by analyzing the chief advantages and disadvantages of policy regime juxtaposition. Third, I turn to the question of why subnational officials are able to defend ideologically deviant policy regimes in some cases, but not in others. Based on the Bolivian, Ecuadorian, and Peruvian cases, my argument emphasizes the importance of two key factors: capacity and coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]