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Reducing catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) and increasing the rates of institutional deliveries are part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). India has made significant progress on the maternal and child health front in recent years. India’s National Health Mission (NHM) has been able to increase rates of institutional deliveries. In the present study, we aim to ascertain district-level patterns of percentage of health insurance coverage in the National Family Health Surveys NFHS 4 and NFHS 5. We also aim to ascertain district-level patterns of out-of-pocket expenditure on C-section deliveries in public health facilities in NFHS 4 and NFHS 5. The present study explores district-level data associated with health insurance coverage (%) and out-of-pocket expenditure in a public health facility (in INR) observed across NFHS 4 and NFHS 5. A spatial analysis was carried out using QGIS 3.26 (Mac version) and GeoDA 1.20.0.8. A visual assessment of the maps across NFHS 4 and NFHS 5 shows improvement in insurance coverage at the district level across the two surveys. Despite an increase in insurance coverage, North East India has experienced an increase in OOPE for C-section deliveries. Rajasthan and various parts of South India have experienced a decrease in OOPE for C-section deliveries. Kerala has experienced a rise in insurance coverage and OOPE for C-section deliveries. Univariate LISA cluster and significance maps revealed that Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the eastern coast of India and parts of Mizoram are hot spots, whereas Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat are cold spots. Both these findings are significant. Rajasthan emerges as a significant hot spot along with parts of Assam and a few districts on the eastern coast of India in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka have emerged as significant cold spots. The South Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are no longer hot spots indicating geospatial variations across time. An increase in the number of hot spots across NFHS 4 and NFHS 5 indicates rising out-of-pocket expenditure for C-sections despite growth in health insurance coverage. The present study does not offer any evidence to suggest that health insurance coverage decreases OOPE on C-section deliveries at government facilities. With RSBY having been launched in 2008 and Ayushman Bharat in 2018, high levels of OOPE on C-section deliveries at government facilities raise serious concerns about the efficacy of PFHIs in reducing OOPE. The government would need to plug the well-documented weaknesses of PFHIs, such as fraud, double charging, poor enrolment, and lack of awareness in addition to the unfortunate phenomena of “tips” and “tie ups” mentioned earlier that plague the public healthcare system, if we are to see any reduction in OOPE in the foreseeable future.

This study examines the effectiveness of non-linear monetary policy interest rate channel shocks for the Turkish economy using the threshold VAR analysis in the period of 2006-2019. The interest channel is examined with the two models for both consumption transfer and investment transfer models. The results show that the interest rate channel is effective in the high regime (high macroeconomic instability) for the consumption transfer model, and it is partially effective in the low regime (low macroeconomic instability). On the other hand, for the model with investment expenditures flow, the interest rate channel is partially effective in both high and low regimes.

A substantial part of production and trade now takes place through global value chains (GVC), making it an essential conduit of knowledge spillover and technology transfer. Yet, extant studies examining how countries become productively efficient and catch-up to the global efficiency frontier through international trade have ignored the possible role of GVC in fast-tracking this process. This paper provides the first empirical evidence that fills this knowledge gap. We propose a two-stage empirical strategy to this end. First, we use a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to compute a measure of productive efficiency—defined herewith as a country’s relative productive efficiency to the global productive efficiency frontier. Second, we use the productive efficiency index as an outcome variable in a reduced-form equation that controls for GVC participation and its interaction with country characteristics that influence the gains from GVC participation. In addition to using the panel fixed effect method, we estimate the reduced-form equation with the difference-GMM to address endogeneity issues, and the Tobit and Fractional Response models to address the bounded nature of the productive efficiency index. We find strong evidence suggesting that GVC participation enables technology-lagging countries to become more productively efficient as well as catch-up to the global efficiency frontier. We also find that the productive efficiency and catch-up gains from GVC participation accrue more strongly to countries that have a high human capital stock, a well-functioning financial market, maintain stable macroeconomic conditions, and specialize in downstream activities in the value chain.

We use a randomised field experiment to study short-term and medium-term impacts of a training intervention that aims to increase employability of Rwandan (underemployed) youths. The training includes networking and mentorship as well as modules on developing entrepreneurship, technical skills and soft social skills. We evaluate intended outcomes of the training on attitudes towards work, employability and labour market outcomes. We also consider unintended social impacts of the training. The outcomes of the intervention are modest. While on the short term the training positively impacted ‘work readiness’ and networking, we do not document significant effects on employment status or income. In the medium term, we do not find any significant effect. Non-compliance and attrition reduced statistical power of our analysis.

Background Diarrhoea remains a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in low-income countries (LICs). The frequency of diarrhoeal episodes may vary by season, yet few prospective cohort studies have examined seasonal variation among various diarrhoeal pathogens using multiplex qPCR to analyse bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens.Methods We combined our recent qPCR data of diarrhoeal pathogens (nine bacterial, five viral and four parasitic) among Guinea-Bissauan children under five years old with individual background data, dividing by season. The associations of season (dry winter and rainy summer) and the various pathogens were explored among infants (0-11 months) and young children (12-59 months) and those with and without diarrhoea.Results Many bacterial pathogens, especially EAEC, ETEC and Campylobacter, and parasitic Cryptosporidium, prevailed in the rainy season, whereas many viruses, particularly the adenovirus, astrovirus and rotavirus proved common in the dry season. Noroviruses were found constantly throughout the year. Seasonal variation was observed in both age groups.Conclusion In childhood diarrhoea in a West African LIC, seasonal variation appears to favour EAEC, ETEC, and Cryptosporidium in the rainy and viral pathogens in the dry season.Childhood diarrhoea, a major cause of mortality in low-income countries (LICs), is known to be influenced by seasonal variations. Studies on the seasonality of diarrhoeal pathogens have mostly been conducted in the temperate zone where the seasons differ by temperature. In Guinea-Bissau and many other LICs, seasonality is characterized by precipitation changes with negligible temperature variations. The monsoon-type rainy season lasts from June to October and the dry season from November to May. We expect this seasonality to influence stool pathogen distribution.To investigate the associations between various diarrhoeal pathogens and seasonality in childhood diarrhoea in Guinea-Bissau, we explored a large variety of bacterial, viral and parasitic agents among children with and without diarrhoea during the rainy versus dry seasons.We found diarrhoeal pathogens not to be equally present over the year but show seasonal variation with respect to age and precipitation. The waterborne Cryptosporidium showed highest prevalence during the wetter months, while viral pathogens (adenovirus, astrovirus and rotavirus) were found most frequently during the arid months. Of bacterial pathogens, EAEC, ETEC, and Campylobacter prevailed in the rainy season. Such data add to our understanding of childhood diarrhoea in LICs and serve as a tool for devising preventive measures.

PurposeEmbracing a large set of innovation objectives and collaborating with diverse partners have been promoted as a means to improve innovation performance. However, empirical evidence on the relationships between breadth of objectives, breadth of cooperation and innovation performance is limited, particularly in the context of emerging economies. A larger number of objectives and cooperation partners inevitably increases the complexity in organizational alignment, and cooperation eventually leads to diminishing returns. This study adds to the debate on the costs and benefits of cooperation for innovation. Understanding the optimal levels of the breadth of objectives and cooperation supports managerial decision-making and productivity in the practice of cooperation for innovation.Design/methodology/approachOperationalizing breadth of innovation objectives and cooperation via the Turkish Community Innovation Survey data, self-reports reflecting 5,863 firm-level responses between 2006 and 2008 are analysed using tobit and probit models. The maximum likelihood estimator is used to find the optimal levels for breadth of objectives and cooperation.FindingsFirms with greater breadth of innovation objectives experience higher innovation performance; those with greater breadth of cooperation also experience higher innovation performance, but our results indicate the existence of optimal levels of breadth for both innovation objectives and cooperation.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors extend the logic that there is no safety in numbers in cooperation for innovation. If the aim is to enhance innovation performance, managers and policymakers need to pay attention to the number of innovation objectives and the amount of cooperation pursued by firms. However, innovation success may be closely associated with a firm's dynamic capabilities and ability to mobilize its resources. Drawing on organizational learning theories, future research could explore why a lower than maximum level of cooperation may be more conducive to reaching levels of enhanced innovation performance and whether this level is influenced by cognitive processes.Originality/valueThe authors draw attention to the ideal number of innovation objectives and number of cooperating partners required to enhance innovation performance, thus contributing to the debate on the complex relationships between innovation, performance and cooperation in the unique setting of a large developing economy.

This study investigates the causality relationships among the economic freedom, foreign direct investment (FDI), and economic growth for top FDI attracting countries during 1995-2019. Apart from the previous studies, we examine these three sets of causal links simultaneously and use the panel Granger causality test of Konya [2006. Exports and Growth: Granger Causality Analysis on OECD Countries with a Panel Data Approach. Economic Modelling 23: 978-992], which considers heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependency across panel members. The findings provide weak evidence for the causal links between economic freedom, FDI, and economic growth for the overall score of economic freedom index. We also conduct causality tests for freedom vs. FDI, freedom vs. growth, and FDI vs. growth by using sub-components of the freedom index and reveal too many causality linkages among these variables. Thereby, we conclude that the direction of causality seems to be country and economic freedom indicator specific. These results have important implications for policymakers.

Innovation trajectories in global value chains (GVCs) can take differentiated pathways. In this article, we address the question: do stylized trajectories emerge from the analysis of countries’ relative innovative capacity (IC) and GVC participation? We draw explorative insights from a cluster analysis of 45 countries on the two subsectors of the information technology industry: hardware and software. Our analysis uncovers remarkable differences between hardware and software and across countries. We identify different trajectories and discuss the sectoral specificities that contribute explaining their existence. The association between the strengthening of IC and a deeper insertion in GVCs applies only to a handful of countries and only in the software subsector. The specificity of this association raises questions for future research on innovation trajectories in GVCs.

This article uses a field experiment to evaluate effects of monetary treatments on usage intensity of an important improved biomass-burning cookstove promoted in Ethiopia. Understanding whether, how much and why improved stoves are used are important, because use frequency critically determines fuelwood savings and related benefits. We find that distributing stoves free-of-charge is at least as effective for promoting short-run adoption as requiring payments or offering usage incentives. Free distribution is most effective at promoting both high and increasing levels of longer-run regular use. First period incentives do not better promote usage habits compared with the other two treatments.

Introduction: Endocrine therapy for breast cancer (BC) patients is highly underutilized in rural Ethiopia and other African countries. Objective: This study aims to assess the feasibility of and adherence to tamoxifen therapy in rural Ethiopia. Methods: We ascertained the hormone receptor (HR) status in 101 women diagnosed with BC from January 2010 to December 2015 and who had surgery in Aira Hospital, in rural Ethiopia. From 2013, tamoxifen was offered to patients with HR-positive (HR+) tumors. Prescription refill records and a structured questionnaire were used to assess receipt of and adherence to tamoxifen. Results: Of the 101 BC patients tested for HR status during the study period, 66 (65%) patients were HR+ and were eligible for tamoxifen treatment. However, 15 of the HR+ patients died before tamoxifen became available in 2013. Of the remaining 51 HR+ patients, 26 (51%) initiated tamoxifen but only 9 of them (35%) adhered to therapy (medication possession rate ≥80%, median observation 16.2 months). After 1 year, 52% of the patients were still adherent, and 9 patients had discontinued therapy. The reasons for non-initiation of tamoxifen included patient factors (n = 5), including financial hardship or lack of transportation, and health care provider factors (n = 12). Conclusions: Endocrine therapy for BC patients seems feasible in rural Western Ethiopia, although non-adherence due to financial hardship and a less developed health care infrastructure remains a major challenge. We postulate that the implementation of breast nurses could reduce patient and health system barriers and improve initiation of and adherence to endocrine treatment.

The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are emergency services generally been designed to provide urgent treatment of patients with life-threatening conditions outside medical facilities. Even though the EMS belongs to the category of socio-economic rights, it nevertheless has great significance in safeguarding one of the most fundamental human rights, the right to life. In fact, international humanitarian law has recognised this important connection by establishing explicit legal rules that oblige states to ensure urgent medical care for the wounded and sick. International human rights law, on the other hand, has no such expressed provisions. However, the problem is not the lack of legal rules applicable to the EMS as such but rather the challenges in human rights perception, which hinder the EMS being perceived as a valuable human right. Therefore, this article essentially argues that international human rights law does not recognise the EMS as a human right sufficiently and that more thorough actions are required from the UN Committee of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in this regard.

This RCT examines the effect of a new style finance training during which participants are given personalized feedback on their financial business outcomes in addition to a “rules-of-thumb” training approach. We compare this to the effects of a “rules-of-thumb” training by itself and to a control group. Targeting about 500 small and micro entrepreneurs in Kampala, Uganda, we find that the personalized feedback training significantly improves outcomes at the six-months horizon. The index of primary outcomes increases by 0.258 SD units and overall savings improve by 0.257 SD units. Analyzing the feedbacks provided we find evidence that feedback works by increasing motivation, in line with “feedback-intervention-theory.” (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Since the 1990s, South Africa, like many other countries from the Global South, has provided extensive social assistance for the poor. The literature on these policies, however, is largely dominated by structuralist accounts, and it largely overlooks political factors. We conducted quantitative analyses regarding the South African flagship Child Support Grant (CSG) program and investigated how contentious and electoral political dynamics jointly shape the provision of this program. Based on a logistic regression analysis, we measured the effect of protest participation, voting preference, and their interaction on the likelihood of CSG receipt. Our analysis showed that CSG receipt is much higher among "uncontentious supporters" of ANC and "contentious nonsupporters," as well as those who join violent protests. This lends support for our argument that CSG is being used as a tool for electoral politics and containment of unrest, providing fresh evidence for political mediation theories of social policy., "European Union (EU); Horizon 2020; European Research Council (ERC); ERC Starting Grant; EmergingWelfare "

Document Information Language:English Accession Number: WOS:000529776000002 PubMed ID: 32358749, Globalization is the paradigm shift to a more integrated world economy broadly shaping economies and societies around the globe. The wave of globalization is much more eminent on its impact on increased energy demand, knowledge and technology transfer, trade, and financial capital flows. The present study focuses on Turkey, a fast-emerging economy that is no exception to the wave of globalization. This current study explores the dynamics between ecological footprints, energy consumption, and real income level for the case of Turkey in a carbon-income function while accounting for other covariate like globalization to avoid omitted variable bias. The study data spans from 1970 to 2017 on an annual frequency basis. The stationarity properties of the outlined variables were investigated. Subsequently, the equilibrium relationship between the variables is confirmed by the battery of recent robust estimation techniques. While to detect the causality of direction among the variables, the Modified Wald test causality test is utilized. This study reveals that an increase in energy consumption in Turkey reduces environmental pollution by a magnitude of 0.37% in the short run and 0.43% long run, while an increase in economic expansion dampens the quality of the environment 0.42% and 0.72% on both short and long-run basis. This is indicative given that Turkey is more energy conscious and energy efficient, while a positive statistically significant relationship is observed between real income level and ecological footprint and globalization index. The causality analysis also supports the growth-induced energy consumption hypothesis. The study further offers policy direction for the energy sector in Turkey in the face of global interconnectedness.

The Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development embody highly intertwined targets to act for climate in conjunction with sustainable development. This, however, entails different meanings and challenges across the world. Kenya, in particular, needs to address serious sustainability threats, like poverty and lack of modern and affordable energy access. This study uses a multi-criteria group decision aid and consensus measuring framework, to integrate both agendas, and engages with Kenyan stakeholders to help inform future mitigation research and policy in the country. Results showed that stakeholders highlight topics largely underrepresented in model-based mitigation analysis, such as biodiversity preservation and demand-side transformations, while pointing to gaps in cross-sectoral policies in relation to access to modern energy, agriculture, life on land, and climate change mitigation. With numerous past and recent policies aiming at these issues, persistent stakeholder concerns over these topics hint at limited success. Sectoral and technological priorities only recently emphasised in Kenyan policy efforts are also correlated with stakeholders' concerns, highlighting that progress is not only a matter of legislation, but also of coordination, consistency of targets, and comprehensibility. Higher bias is found among the preferences of stakeholders coming from the country's private sector. Results from this exercise can inform national policymakers on effectively reshaping the future direction of the country, as well as modelling efforts aimed at underpinning Kenya's energy, climate and sustainable development policy. © 2022 The Authors This work was supported by the H2020 European Commission Project “PARIS REINFORCE,” under grant Agreement No. 820846 . The sole responsibility for the content of this paper lies with the authors; the paper does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission.

Obesity is considered one of the major health concerns of the 21st century and is frequently associated with economic development. This paper reviews evidence on internal (within countries) and external (across countries) relationships between obesity, income and gender. Obesity changes with income, but in a non-linear way. On average, obesity increases with income in poor countries, has no relationship with income in middle-income countries and decreases with income for rich countries. Within countries, obesity is concentrated among richer groups in low-income countries and evenly distributed in middle-income countries. In high-income countries, the poor are the most obese. The relationship differs for men and women. Women are more obese in low-income countries and much more obese in middle-income countries. The gender obesity gap disappears in high-income economies. The geographic concentration of obesity also changes with income growth: from urban areas in poor countries to rural areas in rich countries. Despite these patterns, total obesity rates continue to increase in all countries, and for the world as a whole.

Background Childhood diarrhoea, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in low-income regions, remains scarcely studied in many countries, such as Guinea-Bissau. Stool sample drying enables later qPCR analyses of pathogens without concern about electricity shortages. Methods Dried stool samples of children under five years treated at the Bandim Health Centre in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau were screened by qPCR for nine enteric bacteria, five viruses, and four parasites. The findings of children having and not having diarrhoea were compared in age groups 0–11 and 12–59 months. Results Of the 429 children– 228 with and 201 without diarrhoea– 96.9% and 93.5% had bacterial, 62.7% and 44.3% viral, and 52.6% and 48.3% parasitic pathogen findings, respectively. Enteroaggregarive Escherichia coli (EAEC; 60.5% versus 66.7%), enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC; 61.4% versus 62.7%), Campylobacter (53.2% versus 51.8%), and enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC; 54.4% versus 44.3%) were the most common bacterial pathogens. Diarrhoea was associated with enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC)/Shigella (63.3%), ETEC (54.4%), astrovirus (75.0%), norovirus GII (72.6%) and Cryptosporidium (71.2%). The only pathogen associated with severe diarrhoea was EIEC/Shigella (p, Author summary Diarrhoeal diseases rank second as cause of childhood mortality and morbidity in low-income countries, yet prospective cohort studies in children with and without diarrhea covering the large variety of diarrhoeal pathogens are limited. While some studies have been conducted among Guinea-Bissauan children, many of them were from the 1990s, when the coverage of the various pathogens was less extensive and the diagnostic methods less sensitive than the modern qPCR methods. We conducted an observational study with a large cohort and covered concomitantly the various bacterial, viral and parasitic agents, and analyzed their associations with the presence/absence of diarrhoeal symptoms and age groups. Importantly, the assay performed well with dried stool samples and, therefore, appears applicable for epidemiological studies in resource-poor regions. A pathogen finding was recorded for almost all (98%) children: bacteria in 97%, viruses in 59% and parasites in 51%. Ongoing diarrhoea was associated with findings of enteroninvasive Escherichia coli/Shigella, enterotoxigenic E. coli, astrovirus, norovirus GII and Cryptosporidium. Differences were seen between age groups, infants and young children. The only pathogen associated with severe diarrhoea was enteroninvasive E. coli/Shigella.

Background: Prior evidence shows that inequalities are related to overweight and obesity in South Africa. Using data from a recent national study, we examine the socioeconomic inequalities associated with obesity in South Africa and the factors associated with it. Methods: We use quantitative data from the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES-1) carried out in 2012. We estimate the concentration index (CI) to identify inequalities and decompose the CI to explore the determinants of these inequalities. Results: We confirm the existence of pro-rich inequalities associated with obesity in South Africa. The inequalities among males are larger (CI of 0.16) than among women (CI of 0.09), though more women are obese than men. Marriage increases the risk of obesity for women and men, while smoking decreases the risk of obesity among men significantly. Higher education is associated with lower inequalities among females. Conclusions: We recommend policies to focus on promoting a healthy lifestyle, including the individual’s perception of a healthy body size and image, especially among women.

As universities are considered living laboratories with the practical learning of today\"s students and tomorrow\"s decision makers, practitioners, as well as parents, it is important to understand to what extent separate waste collection can be achieved in universities. This study aims to determine the amount, composition, and recycling potential of the generated waste in the Marmara University Anadoluhisari campus in Turkey, in order to develop a waste management strategy in line with national legislation and sustainable global practices. In addition, this study aims to evaluate the knowledge, awareness, behavior, and motivation of campus stakeholders towards this strategy. A separate waste collection application was carried out on the campus. In order to determine the amount of mixed waste before this application and the amount of fractionated waste after this application, daily waste weighing was carried out in certain periods between November 04, 2019 and November 01, 2020. For the social aspect of the study, a survey was conducted on campus students, administrative officers and academic personnel studying and working at different faculties. From the technical aspect, it was found that the recycling potential of campus waste was high (69%). However, when the social aspect of the study was examined, it was determined that only 16% of campus occupants had knowledge of Zero Waste Regulation. Furthermore, none of the group felt directly responsible for separated waste collection. Only 26% of the campus population, who carried out this practice on campus, stated that waste is separately collected on campus. Based on plastic bottle discarding behavior reported, only 16% of participants were found to be very conscious about waste recycling. It was concluded that recyclable waste separation was carried out by students who were unaware of its purpose. Among the studied groups, the academic personnel were relatively more conscious than the other groups. Ac-cording to campus stakeholder\"s opinions, incentives and basic education were the main factors for improving solid waste management.

Despite the huge potential for milk production, interventions to improve productivity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are barely based on specified farm classifications. This study aimed to develop robust and context-specific farm typologies to guide content of extension farm advice/services in Uganda. From a sample of 482 dairy farmers, we collected data on farmer socio-demographics, farm management practices, ownership of farm tools and facilities, willingness to pay for extension services, milk production, and marketing. Farm typologies were obtained based on principal component and cluster analyses. Thereby, of the three dairy production systems that emerged, small-scale, largely subsistence yet extensive and low productive farms were more prominent (82.6%). Farms that were classified as large-scale, less commercialized yet extensive with modest productive systems were more than the medium-scale commercial farms with intensive and highly productive systems. However, the later were considered to potentially transform dairy farming in Uganda. It was also predicted that the validity of our farm classification may persist until half of the farms have moved between clusters. The study gives new insights on dairy production systems in Uganda, which can be used to organize more targeted research on farmers’ extension needs for facilitating delivery of relevant and effective extension services and designing appropriate extension policies.

IntroductionInadequate care during early childhood can lead to long-term deficits in skills. Parenting programmes that encourage investment in young children are a promising tool for improving early development outcomes and long-term opportunities in low-income and middle-income regions, such as rural China.MethodsWe conducted a systematic review and a meta-analysis to investigate the prevalence of early developmental delays and stimulating parenting practices as well as the effect of parental training programmes on child development outcomes in rural China. We obtained data in English from EconPapers, PubMed, PsycARTICLES, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Scopus (Elsevier) and in Chinese from China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data and VIP Information. We conducted frequentist meta-analyses of aggregate data and estimated random-effects meta-regressions. Certainty of evidence was rated according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach.ResultsWe identified 19 observational studies on the prevalence of developmental delays and stimulating parenting practices for children under 5 years of age (n=19 762) and ten studies on the impact of parental training programmes on early child development (n=13 766). Children’s risk of cognitive, language and social-emotional delays in the rural study sites (covering 14 provinces mostly in Central and Western China) was 45%, 46%, and 36%, respectively. Parental training programmes had a positive impact on child cognition, language and social-emotional development.ConclusionThere is evidence to suggest that early developmental delay and the absence of stimulating parenting practices (ie, reading, storytelling and singing with children) may be prevalent across rural, low-income and middle-income regions in Central and Western China. Results support the effectiveness of parental training programmes to improve early development by encouraging parental engagement.Trial registration numberThis study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020218852).

Although biogas technologies in Brazil have a huge potential and a long history few studies have examined biogas in Brazil as a technological field. Accordingly, this paper aims to understand which conditions enabled or constrained the diffusion of biogas technologies. More specifically, this research applies and adapts the Technological Innovation System (TIS) framework to examine biogas-specific and context-related conditions as well as their interplay. Data were collected by performing an event history analysis from 1979 to 2016 along with 24 in-depth expert interviews. Our findings indicate that the evolution of geographically embedded sectoral regulations and infrastructures as well as their interactions have been responsible for major changes in the biogas field in Brazil. By demonstrating how this occurred, this research has opened up new possibilities to promote biogas technologies in Brazil. This study also provides an important analytical method that focuses on exploring activities and their background conditions to consider contextual influences in TIS. Consequently, three major ways of contextual influences for TIS studies are suggested – evolution of contextual structures, interaction of contextual structures and translation of external events by these interactions.

This article provides a critical interrogation of the Brazilian tax on foreign exchange derivatives deployed between 2011 and 2013. It analyses the drivers of the policy‐making process that led to implementation of the measure, locates it within the broader policy response regarding the management of cross‐border capital flows and speculative finance, and assesses its political economy significance in light of class dynamics. The author makes three arguments. First, this innovative policy tool must be interpreted in terms of the emergence of a specific form of state power allowing for the continuation of finance‐led strategies of accumulation, while mitigating some of their worst consequences. Second, this form of state power internalizes the subordinate positionality of Brazil in the global financial and monetary system. Third, while financialization processes have eroded the efficiency of a number of policy tools, this policy experiment demonstrates the possibility of regulating complex financial markets, provided that appropriate resources are dedicated to the task, and that there is the political will to do so. The article concludes by discussing theoretical implications, for how to theorize state and financialization, as well as political implications.

Using unique innovation survey data collected among a homogenous sample of firms active in the textiles and apparel sector in Pakistan, this paper analyses the role of innovation for employment growth. In particular, it develops and tests the hypothesis that innovation is conducive to employment creation, and that this is especially the case for smaller and younger firms, supporting the hypothesis that young innovative companies grow faster by engaging in riskier and more radical innovation to catch up with incumbent firms. We find empirical evidence for these hypotheses, which is robust to different model specifications and estimation techniques and to different measures of innovation. Young innovative companies also perform well in absolute employment creation making them interesting targets from a policy perspective.

Low-quality electricity service constitutes a significant obstacle in achieving sustainable development. Governments in low-income countries and donors are increasingly seeking to invest in improving electricity service quality and reliability. Understanding households’ and firms’ willingness to pay (WTP) for quality improvements is key to designing investments in the electricity sector. In this paper, we provide new evidence on WTP for service quality improvements from a nationally-representative survey in Senegal. We find that households and firms are willing to pay a premium over current tariffs for high-quality electricity service without outages. However, WTP for marginal service improvements is significantly lower than WTP for uninterrupted service, suggesting that, for households and firms, any increase in electricity tariff must be accompanied by substantial quality improvements. We discuss the multi-round bidding game built in our data to emphasize the importance of design choices in eliciting the WTP and draw some policy implications.

In several developing countries, including Ethiopia, the change from a subsistence-oriented production system to a market-oriented production system as a means of raising smallholder incomes and mitigating growing rural deprivation has been at the center of the agenda. Therefore, the purpose of this analysis was to evaluate the determinants of smallholder livestock commercialization in Tigray, Ethiopia. One hundred and eighty-three households were selected using a simple random sampling technique. The data were gathered through a structured survey. The data obtained were evaluated using econometric models of both concise and Heckman two-step collections. The results of the binary probit model revealed that in the decision to sell, household head education level, family size, distance from the nearest market center, and the total livestock ownership played a significant role. Heckman second-step selection estimation indicated that the education level of the household head, the extension agents' visit, the total livestock owned and the owned land size significantly affected the level of commercialization measures. The findings of this study will contribute to enhancing the efficient utilization of the existing limited farmland. In this study, smallholder farmers' access to the agricultural markets with higher value is seen as a critical opportunity to improve and diversify the livelihoods of lower-income farm households. As a result, better market participation is required to connect smallholder farmers to markets and increase demand for livestock products and income generation. The findings of this study may help in the development of appropriate policy intervention mechanisms to promote smallholder livestock commercialization in Ethiopia.

This paper investigates the role of university intermediary organisations in entrepreneurially orientated universities, in terms of their patent performance based on a large-scale survey of such organisations in Turkey. The findings from 1236 responses indicate that intermediary organisations, regardless of their type, are crucial in increasing the patenting performance of universities, although this also had a regional dimension. The research also charts the organisational evolution of university innovation intermediaries in Turkey suggesting that the success of organisational forms in promoting industry-academic links and university research commercialisation will vary according to the wider institutional and socio-economic frameworks of the national and regional systems of innovation in which the universities are posited.

Diarrheal disease, still a major cause of childhood illness, is caused by numerous, diverse infectious microorganisms, which are differentially sensitive to environmental conditions. Enteropathogen‐specific impacts of climate remain underexplored. Results from 15 studies that diagnosed enteropathogens in 64,788 stool samples from 20,760 children in 19 countries were combined. Infection status for 10 common enteropathogens—adenovirus, astrovirus, norovirus, rotavirus, sapovirus, Campylobacter, ETEC, Shigella, Cryptosporidium and Giardia—was matched by date with hydrometeorological variables from a global Earth observation dataset—precipitation and runoff volume, humidity, soil moisture, solar radiation, air pressure, temperature, and wind speed. Models were fitted for each pathogen, accounting for lags, nonlinearity, confounders, and threshold effects. Different variables showed complex, non‐linear associations with infection risk varying in magnitude and direction depending on pathogen species. Rotavirus infection decreased markedly following increasing 7‐day average temperatures—a relative risk of 0.76 (95% confidence interval: 0.69–0.85) above 28°C—while ETEC risk increased by almost half, 1.43 (1.36–1.50), in the 20–35°C range. Risk for all pathogens was highest following soil moistures in the upper range. Humidity was associated with increases in bacterial infections and decreases in most viral infections. Several virus species' risk increased following lower‐than‐average rainfall, while rotavirus and ETEC increased with heavier runoff. Temperature, soil moisture, and humidity are particularly influential parameters across all enteropathogens, likely impacting pathogen survival outside the host. Precipitation and runoff have divergent associations with different enteric viruses. These effects may engender shifts in the relative burden of diarrhea‐causing agents as the global climate changes., Key Points Many pathogens cause diarrhea in children and are affected in different ways by weather conditions like rainfall, temperature, and humidityDiarrhea‐causing bacteria infections increase in warm, humid weather and when soil is moist, though ETEC is sensitive to rainfall extremesHigh humidity decreases prevalence of several viruses, though only rotavirus increases in cold weather and following heavy surface runoff

Although infection with the human enteropathogen Giardia lamblia causes self-limited diarrhea in adults, infant populations in endemic areas experience persistent pathogen carriage in the absence of diarrhea. The persistence of this protozoan parasite in infants has been associated with reduced weight gain and linear growth (height-for-age). The mechanisms that support persistent infection and determine the different disease outcomes in the infant host are incompletely understood. Using a neonatal mouse model of persistent G. lamblia infection, we demonstrate that G. lamblia induced bile secretion and used the bile constituent phosphatidylcholine as a substrate for parasite growth. In addition, we show that G. lamblia infection altered the enteric microbiota composition, leading to enhanced bile acid deconjugation and increased expression of fibroblast growth factor 15. This resulted in elevated energy expenditure and dysregulated lipid metabolism with reduced adipose tissue, body weight gain, and growth in the infected mice. Our results indicate that this enteropathogen's modulation of bile acid metabolism and lipid metabolism in the neonatal mouse host led to an altered body composition, suggesting how G. lamblia infection could contribute to growth restriction in infants in endemic areas.

How do systemic intermediaries obtain legitimate roles for themselves in innovation systems and transition processes? This is still an understudied question in the study of systemic intermediaries. We start from the observation that roles, or positions, are not given, but emerge in interactions as a negotiated set of rights and obligations. Inspired by positioning theory, which has its roots in symbolic interactionism, we analyse how positions are invoked in the actors’ various actions and statements (‘speech acts’) and how they draw from the mutually constructed narratives (‘storylines’) that enable and constrain the range of possible positions. We analyse, over time, the positioning of three Dutch systemic intermediaries in agriculture, energy production, and healthcare. We conclude that systemic intermediaries move together with the promise of the field and, as a consequence, have to reposition themselves. In different phases, they both profit and suffer from the dilemma between initiating and sustaining innovative systemic changes.

Identification of the causes of poor oral vaccine immunogenicity in low-income countries might lead to more effective vaccines. We measured mucosal and systemic immune parameters at the time of vaccination with oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) in 292 Indian infants aged 6–11 months, including plasma cytokines, leukocyte counts, fecal biomarkers of environmental enteropathy and peripheral blood T-cell phenotype, focused on gut-homing regulatory CD4+ populations. We did not find a distinct immune phenotype associated with OPV immunogenicity, although viral pathogens were more prevalent in stool at the time of immunization among infants who failed to seroconvert (63.9% vs. 45.6%, p = 0.002). Using a machine-learning approach, we could predict seroconversion a priori using immune parameters and infection status with a median 58% accuracy (cross-validation IQR: 50–69%) compared with 50% expected by chance. Better identification of immune predictors of OPV immunogenicity is likely to require sampling of mucosal tissue and improved oral poliovirus infection models.

Military burdens in hostile environments may be high, as countries choose to spend on the military for deterrence purposes. In this study, we test whether the convergence hypothesis is valid for military burdens of a panel of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. The results of the analysis suggest that there is unconditional beta-convergence for the panel; however, individual convergence is valid for only Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. We also test whether the military burdens of Israel and the United States influence the military burdens of the countries in the panel. The results suggest that only the military burdens of Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey converge to that of Israel, while individual convergence to the United States is only valid for Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, and Tunisia.

Private sustainability standards are spreading rapidly in global value chains, especially in the coffee sector, and commonly aim at promoting environmental, economic and social sustainability. The social sustainability component is often overlooked in studies on the impact of private standards. In this paper, we investigate a particular social outcome and analyse how adoption of private sustainability standards affects the welfare of children in coffee-producing farm-households in Ethiopia and Uganda. We specifically analyse school enrolment and schooling efficiency of primary and secondary school-aged children. We find that participation in Fairtrade certification schemes increases the likelihood of children to be enrolled in secondary school and improves their schooling efficiency, although it is not associated with higher incomes nor with a reduced child labour time in the farm-household. We find that participation in Rainforest Alliance certification schemes has no effect on schooling outcomes of boys and slightly reduces the schooling of girls, while it does correlate with higher incomes and a reduced workload of children. Results suggest that effects on schooling emerge through social capital and awareness-raising about the importance of schooling among Fairtrade certified households, rather than from the mere prohibition of child labour and the enforcement of a child-labour-free production process.

The fast-paced urbanization of recent decades entails that many regions are facing seemingly uncontrolled land-use changes (LUCs) that go hand in hand with a range of environmental and socio-economic challenges. In this paper, we use an integrated cellular automata&ndash, Markov chain (CA&ndash, MC) model to analyze and predict the urban expansion of and its impact on LUC in the city of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. To this end, the research marshals high-resolution Landsat images of 1991, 2002, 2011, and 2018. An analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method is then used to identify the biophysical and socioeconomic factors underlying the expansion in the research area. It is shown that, during the period of study, built-up areas are rapidly expanding in the face of an overall decline of the farmland and vegetation cover. Drawing on a model calibration for 2018, the research predicts the possible geographies of LUC in the Bahir Dar area for 2025, 2034, and 2045. It is predicted that the conversions of other land-use types into built-up areas will persist in the southern, southwestern, and northeastern areas of the sprawling city, which can mainly be traced back to the uneven geographies of road accessibility, proximity to the city center, and slope variables. We reflect on how our findings can be used to facilitate sustainable urban development and land-use policies in the Bahir Dar area.

Understanding the convergence of energy intensity helps in assessing whether policies targeted at reducing energy intensity are effective and should thus be continued or reinforced. This paper analyzes the convergence of cross-province energy intensity in China based on panel data of 29 provinces for the period 2003–2015 by means of sigma convergence, kernel density analysis, and unconditional and conditional beta convergence. The empirical results show that the omission of spatial spillovers underestimates conditional beta convergence. We thus argue that the implementation of effective policy for reducing energy intensity depends not only on the driving forces in the own province but also on the spatial spillover effects in neighboring provinces, particularly technology transfer, knowledge spillovers, and the input-output relationship. From the analysis, it follows that adopting low-energy capital, attracting more FDI inflows and developing indigenous innovation capabilities are major policy handles.

The paper investigates new opportunities for innovation and linkages associated to mining activities in Brazil, Chile and Peru. Three types of opportunities were researched: demand side, supply side and local specificities. The last source of opportunities is key for natural resource related activities. The evidence shows that an increasing demand is introducing important incentives for innovation and local suppliers. Nevertheless, a hierarchical value chain, dominated by few large firms, and poor linkages is blocking the diffusion of innovations and hindering suppliers’ development. The emergence of a group of highly innovative suppliers, which were identified in the three countries, is explained mostly by new technological and knowledge opportunities, which are not exploited by large incumbents and open spaces for new entrants. Local specificities are also key in the explanation of local suppliers. It remains a challenge however, how these, most of which were created to satisfy local needs, will move from local to global.

Purpose Realizing value from information and communication technology (ICT) in procurement in developing countries is complex due to diverse stakeholders and intertwined procurement processes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the experience of the Government of Jamaica in leveraging ICTs as an intervention to transform its procurement operations and combat corruption. Design/methodology/approach The study examines conversations with employees in the Government of Jamaica to understand key milestones in its procurement history. Based on the view that the intervention context is an ecosystem where multiple and inconsistent views of the e-procurement system evolve over time, the study analyzes milestones to reveal key actions that contributed either to the initial success of or introduced challenges to the e-procurement system. Findings The findings suggest that inducing positive sentiments about the intervention through transparency will overcome a long history of negative sentiments about the initiatives of government bodies in general. Furthermore, positive sentiments may not be directly related to the e-procurement system. Research limitations/implications The study offers important insights that government bodies in similar contexts can apply to guide initiatives for transforming procurement operations. For instance, training should emphasize not only the technical aspects of the system from the perspective of different stakeholders but also their job descriptions. Future research may examine other initiatives in developing countries to compare the role of sentiments over time. Originality/value The study adopts a unique approach to understand the experience of a developing country in harnessing ICTs to transform procurement operations.

While extant research has examined the separate influences of dynamic capabilities and institutions on international performance, their interactive role has received limited attention. Therefore, we examine the role of host-country institutional conditions in the relationships between emerging-market firms’ (EMFs) innovation-related dynamic capabilities and their international performance. We use multi-source secondary data and primary data from multiple informants from 254 Turkish international firms to test our framework. The study finds that the linkages between three innovation-related dynamic capabilities (innovativeness, supply-chain agility, and adaptability) and international performance are positively and negatively moderated by institutional development and institutional distance, but that their influences are opposite. These influences demonstrate that host-country institutional conditions shape the link between dynamic capabilities and EMFs’ international performance in a multifaceted and paradoxical fashion. Post-print / Final draft

Access to energy for cooking is one of the major challenges that rural India faces. Most of the rural households of North-Eastern India rely heavily upon fuelwood and traditional open-fire cookstoves for cooking activities. And everyday collection of fuelwood is time-consuming. Hence, women often gather fuelwood to make charcoal. While the use of charcoal has some advantages, it is not clear whether the investment of time in making charcoal is worthwhile. In this paper, we compare household time investments for fuelwood and charcoal production. The study is done using survey data on Napaam village situated in Sonitpur District of Assam, Northeast India. We developed a model to analyse fuelwood needed and time spent upon the introduction of improved cookstoves and/or charcoal production. This analysis reveals that improved cookstoves using fuelwood results in the least time expenditure on the production of cooking fuel. Whilst introducing charcoal marginally reduces the amount of fuelwood, but increases time spent on cooking, due to the time required to produce the charcoal. Hence, rural households who make their own charcoal spend more time on producing cooking fuel than those households relying on direct use of fuelwood. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper re-examines the impact of remittance inflows on growth using data for developing countries over the period 1970–2010. We relax the hypothesis that all countries follow the same unique growth regime in favor of multiple regimes, and test whether the impact of remittances on growth depends on the growth regime to which an economy belongs. We follow the recent literature that has applied the finite-mixture-of-regressions method in other circumstances to endogenously identify growth regimes, correcting for unobserved heterogeneity. We find that our data are best described by an econometric model with two different growth regimes: one in which remittances have a positive and significant marginal impact on growth; and another in which the impact of remittances is insignificant. The analysis of the determinants of the probability of being in the remittances growth-enhancing regime shows that being a Sub-Saharan African country increases significantly this probability, while financial development moderately reduces this probability but with strong reservations on the statistical significance of the estimates on the different indicators of financial development.