Search

This article investigates economic convergence in terms of real income per capita between the autonomous regions of Spain over the period 1955–2020. In order to converge, the series should be cointegrated. This necessary condition is checked using two testing strategies recently proposed for fractional cointegration, finding no evidence of cointegration, which rules out the possibility of convergence between all or some of the Spanish regions. As an additional contribution, an extension of the critical values of Nielsen's (2010) test of fractional cointegration is provided for a different number of variables and sample sizes from those originally provided by the author, fitting those considered in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether—and if so, to what extent—religious scripture and values can promote inclusionary attitudes towards refugees. Sacred texts across faiths call on believers to embrace foreigners, suggesting that religious discourses can be harnessed to promote refugees' inclusion in host societies. To test this possibility, I implement a survey experiment in which citizens of Lebanon—a religiously diverse country that has received the most Syrian refugees per capita globally—are exposed to various forms of pro-refugee religious messaging. I find that inclusionary religious messaging can shift refugee-related attitudes towards tolerance, particularly for members of sectarian communities with the highest baseline anti-refugee animosity. The study's findings have important implications for understanding religion's consequences for both the dynamics of refugee integration and intercommunal relations more generally, especially in the Middle East and North Africa and the broader developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retrospective voting theory suggests that citizens vote for governing parties in response to distributive benefits. Knowing this, governments may reward voters by providing particularistic benefits—i.e., pork—prior to elections. Previous studies, however, do not account for the endogeneity. We address this problem by focusing on disaster relief and exploiting exogeneity of disaster. In particular, by using maximum hourly rainfall as an instrumental variable for disaster relief, we analyze the causal effect of disaster relief on incumbent's electoral outcomes. Our analyses of Japanese data in the past few decades indicate that disaster relief increased governing parties' vote share. Specifically, when the disaster relief per capita increases from zero to its mean, the predicted value of the governing parties' vote share increases by 2.8 and 5.4% points in the lower and upper chambers, respectively. The finding is consistent with retrospective voting behavior. Moreover, our results imply that the incumbent's electoral gain is brought about by persuading voters from oppositions to governing parties rather than by mobilizing supporters of governing parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influences of biomass energy, fossil fuel, and some controlled variables on CO2 emission in African countries over the 1980–2014 period. The study employs pool mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and dynamic fixed effect (DFE) estimators. In addition, it employs weighted fully modified ordinary least squares and weighted dynamic ordinary least squares to validate the robustness of estimates. The results reveal that the relation of fossil fuel with CO2 is positively significant. Conversely, biomass energy exerts a significant negative impact on CO2. In addition, the dampening effect of biomass energy utilization on CO2 emission helps to validate the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study re-examines the stationarity properties of per capita electricity consumption in 18 MENA countries from 1980–2021. We use a novel panel stationarity test with a Fourier approximation to capture structural breaks and nonlinearities in the data. This Fourier panel test accounts for cross-sectional dependence and allows heterogeneity across cross-sections in the panel. Moreover, we apply several new panel stationarity tests that complement the aforementioned Fourier test. The study finds strong empirical evidence supporting the stationarity of per capita electricity consumption in the MENA region when considering smooth structural breaks, and our results remain unchanged using sharp structural breaks panel stationarity test. Therefore, we conclude that policies to manage energy demand will have no long-run effect as per capita electricity consumption will, after a shock, return to its long-run trend path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Odisha has experienced three distinct growth regimes during 1991-2019, namely, 1991-2002, 2003-10 and 2011-19. Odisha outshone the national economy and the 15 other major states in terms of growth rates in Gross State Domestic Product per capita (GSDPPC) and Human Development Index (HDI) during 2003-10. However, during 2011–2019, Odisha witnessed a significant growth slowdown vis-à-vis the national economy but such downslide in GSDPPC and HDI is not significantly different from the major states. The first Naveen Patnaik decade saw an upsurge which was possibly due to good luck rather than good policy, and the second one marked a downslide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the causal association between Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure development, measured by an ICT index, and the economic growth of 42 African economies between 2000 and 2019. Whether ICT development has contributed to real per capita GDP growth or ICT infrastructure expansion has just been a consequence of growth in real per capita GDP has been overlooked in prior studies concerning Africa. The econometric techniques used to analyse the data included robust second-generation tools to investigate cross-sectional dependence, slope homogeneity, and panel causality. The findings detected significant independence between the variables across countries, the slope was heterogeneous, and there was a long-run association between all of the economies in the sample. Dumitrescu and Hurlin’s panel causality analysis indicated a unidirectional causal association between per capita income and the ICT index. The results also demonstrated that capital and employment were the leading causes of per capita GDP growth. The findings suggested that accelerating economic growth in developing economies was essential to promoting ICT investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental sustainability is a key issue in the current economic situation. Political and governance factors play an important role in formulating good environmental policy. This paper investigates the effect of governance, political stability, and energy consumption on per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as a measure of environmental sustainability. Using data from 1996 to 2021 and employing the ARDL model, this study found that governance has improved environmental quality by reducing GHG emissions in India. The governance variables contributing to this improvement include government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and accountability. In contrast, energy consumption and corruption levels positively affect GHG emissions. Political stability shows a long-term positive effect on GHG emissions and supports environmental sustainability. Further, this study shows that governance instruments are sustainable in the long run, whereas energy consumption positively affects GHG emissions in both the short and long run. GHG emission per capita is also responsible for the further spreading of emission levels in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper examines the spatiotemporal inequality in electricity consumption at the subnational level of Bangladesh using nighttime light (NTL) data. The NTL data, sourced from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) day/night band (DNB) for the period from 2013 to 2020, reveals persistent variability in electricity consumption among the districts. Notably, the gap between urban and non-urban areas has widened. While within district inequality (measured by NTL Gini) has declined over time, it remains high in several districts. Convergence analysis confirms that while lagging districts are showing a catching up effect, the sub-districts are diverging among themselves (in terms of mean NTL per capita). Interestingly, the rural sub-districts are converging among themselves despite urban sub-district divergence. The study also identifies regions with significant imbalance between NTL, population, and built-up area density values. These findings have implications for policymakers aiming to ensure electricity for all and reduce inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying fair national shares of the remaining global carbon budget has proven challenging. Here, we propose an indicator—additional carbon accountability—that quantifies countries' responsibility for mitigation and CO2 removal in addition to achieving their own targets. Considering carbon debts since 1990 and future claims based on countries' emission pathways, the indicator uses an equal cumulative per capita emissions approach to allocate accountability for closing the mitigation gap among countries with a positive total excessive carbon claim. The carbon budget is exceeded by 576 Gigatonnes of fossil CO2 when limiting warming below 1.5 °C (50% probability). Additional carbon accountability is highest for the United States and China, and highest per capita for the United Arab Emirates and Russia. Assumptions on carbon debts strongly impact the results for most countries. The ability to pay for this accountability is challenging for Iran, Kazakhstan and several BRICS+ members, in contrast to the G7 members. In addition to national climate targets, the authors estimate countries' additional accountability to stay within the 1.5-degree carbon budget. They account for G7 countries having the highest carbon debts while several BRICS+ countries have high future claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding appropriate measures to drive industrial agglomeration is particularly urgent for Africa, which has been facing a decline in industrial production activities. Therefore, this study contributed by developing a multi-level spatial analysis framework that explored the global driving mechanisms and local heterogeneity of industrial agglomeration in Africa through various critical factors. The findings are as follows: (1) From 2009 to 2019, the industry in Africa has always been highly concentrated in a few countries, but the degree of agglomeration has been declining, with some countries in the East and West African regions showing a significant increase in the level of industrial agglomeration and a high potential for development. (2) Industrial agglomeration in African countries was driven by several factors, of which GDP per capita, highway network density, and electricity supply were the strongest and most consistent drivers. The impact strength of factors varied considerably across regions. (3) The drivers didn’t act independently and directly on the dependent variable, but were the product of synergy after the interaction between the two factors. Synergies between access to electricity and GDP per capita and other factors dominated the pattern of industrial agglomeration in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the outcome of a study to investigate the regional public transport spend in each state of Australia. The objective is to derive a reliable figure for comparison and the core metric used is spend per capita. The study assessed publicly available data on public transport spend, followed by a series of consultations with key staff from state bus associations and governments. The analysis was conducted separately for metropolitan (metro) and regional areas and then the regional data were further examined. While the Northern Territory (NT), Tasmania (TAS) and regional South Australia (SA) completely rely on bus services, Victoria (VIC) stands out as the state with the highest public transport spend per head in regional areas with robust train and bus networks which deliver the highest patronage. Western Australia (WA) is the state with the highest bus transport spend per head ensuring relatively high patronage despite the low population density. The study identifies low public transport patronage in regional areas as being influenced by low spending per capita and poor connectivity. It recommends prioritizing improvements in connectivity, multi-modal networks, and opening school buses to the general public. Additionally, funding strategies should focus more on patronage trends linked to spend rather than overemphasizing population density. Further, the study reveals that publicly available data seldom clearly segregates public transport spending in terms of regional and metro expenditure, which would lead to inefficiencies when assessing spatial equity in public transport provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the determinants of climate-related development finance flows to the transportation sector and their relationship with CO2 emission levels. The mitigation fund allocation is particularly correlated with the demographic characteristics of recipient countries; however, the correlation with per capita income and emissions seems to be weak. In contrast, equity considerations appear to be the main determinants of adaptation fund allocation. Finally, we find some evidence of a significant negative relationship between mitigation investments and emissions per capita and while the overall effect is modest, it tends to be most marked in countries with the highest per capita emissions. Thus, the fact that countries with the highest emissions per capita are not receiving relatively more investments may be hampering the effectiveness of climate finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does China's growing economic presence pose an opportunity or a threat to regional economic integration? The authors answer this question by analyzing longitudinal and cross-country evidence from three regions, Central, South, and Southeast Asia. A unique panel dataset detailing bilateral economic cooperation and each economy's political-economic factors from 2000 to 2019 was examined. This study concludes that (1) inbound foreign direct investment from China is positively associated with a country's intra-regional integration, (2) trade ties to China show a negative relationship with intra-regional integration, and (3) the level of a country's regional economic integration is conditioned by domestic economic and political factors such as transportation and information connectivity, per capita GDP, population size, trade openness, and public governance. This article contributes to the literature by using fresh cross-regional evidence to decipher the China effect on regional integration, embedding the political economy at both national and regional levels, and identifying variations and significance of various political-economic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five national-level urban agglomerations in China, namely the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), middle reaches of the Yangtze River (MRYR), Pearl River Delta (PRD), and Chengdu-Chongqing (CY), have undergone rapid economic development, accompanied by a surge in carbon emissions. Notably, there exists a gap in existing research that hinders comprehensive comparative studies on the carbon emissions of these urban agglomerations during the 12th and 13th Five-Year Plan periods, respectively. In this study, we comparatively analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics and spatial clustering characteristics of carbon emissions and their driving factors across the five urban agglomerations during the 12th and 13th Five-Year Plan periods using spatial autocorrelation and multiple spatial econometric models. The main results are as follows: firstly, the total carbon emissions across the YRD are the highest, while the average carbon emissions in BTH are higher than those across other urban agglomerations. Secondly, during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the main related socioeconomic factors for carbon emissions of the BTH, PRD, YRD, MRYR and CY are per capita GDP, general public budget expenditure, urbanization rate, population density, and industrial structure, respectively. Thirdly, during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, industrial structure have a close link with carbon emissions across BTH and MRYR; the carbon emissions across PRD have close correlations with urbanization rate and general public budget expenditures; across YRD and CY, the key associated driver was the general public budget expenditures. All in all, these findings offer valuable insights for shaping effective emission reduction policies tailored to the unique characteristics of each urban agglomeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the lessons learned from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, which faced complex challenges due to jihadist movements, geopolitical influences, and multiple layers of conflict. The author, who served as the Force Commander, highlights the importance of clarity in the mission's mandate, adapting the peacekeeping mindset to new realities, understanding the host nation's perspectives, addressing human rights issues pragmatically, improving logistical support, and coordinating military efforts effectively. The withdrawal of European nations from the mission and increased cooperation between Mali and Russia also influenced the mission's dynamics. The author emphasizes the need for a thorough evaluation of peacekeeping missions to draw appropriate conclusions for the future. [Extracted from the article]

After decades of war, Mozambique experienced sustained economic growth and poverty reduction from the mid-1990s. However, these positive dynamics started to revert from 2015. Meanwhile, inequality stagnated in the period 1996/97–2008/09, before markedly increasing afterwards. In this study, we analyse some of the most relevant indicators of inequality for Mozambique and their trends over the last 25 years. Using real per capita consumption as the main welfare aggregate, we look at various indicators of inequality, including the consumption distribution, percentiles and percentile ratios, growth incidence curves, Lorenz curves, and Gini indices. In addition, we discuss spatial inequality. Overall, we find that until 2014/15, consumption increased for the whole population, but it did so much more for richer households; conversely, in the last few years, consumption has reduced across the distribution, but the relative consumption-gap between better- and worse-off people has continued to increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare drink driving and related road safety issues in 2 urban areas of 6 countries and develop an equation for estimating the rate of crash underreporting to the police in urban areas of countries that lack this information. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of 1 to 2 waves of surveys in pairs of matched medium-sized cities in Belgium, Brazil, China, Mexico, South Africa, and Ohio, United States; the surveys supported evaluation of local alcohol harm reduction efforts. Data were from 2017 to 2019 except 2023 for Mexico. Mailed surveys in Ohio and household interviews elsewhere of quota samples matched to census data yielded 23,240 completed interviews. Relevant questions covered drinking, driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), DUI enforcement, and, except in South Africa, road crashes. GLM regression provided an equation for estimating police reporting rates of urban injury and no-injury crashes from a country's purchasing-power parity–adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Results: The percentage of drivers driving unlicensed was 30% in Mexico and South Africa, 15% in Brazil, 8% in China, and <1% elsewhere. Among adults who both drove and drank, self-reported urban DUI rates ranged from 12% in China to 53% in South Africa, with 4 countries between 18% and 26%. Among those reporting DUI, the percentage stopped by police for doing so was 14% in Belgium, 15% in Brazil, 25% in China, 31% in Mexico, 45% in South Africa, and only 3% in Ohio. The surveys yielded data on 380 urban crashes. Past-year crash involvement was 2% to 3% in Belgium and China and 5% to 6% elsewhere. The 10% injury rate in Ohio crashes was significantly below the 24% to 35% rates elsewhere. Injury crashes were almost universally reported except in Brazil (60% reported). Only 49% to 56% of non-injury crashes were reported, except in Ohio (73%). Perceived alcohol-involved crash rates of 18% to 19% in Belgium and Ohio were significantly lower than the 32% reported in Brazil, 41% in China, and 57% in Mexico. In the regression, GDP per capita and injury involvement were positively associated with police crash reporting. Conclusions: Our equation more closely approximates urban police crash reporting rates than prior studies that assumed that they matched U.S. data. DUI enforcement is weak/ineffective in urban Ohio. With suggested adjustments, our survey questions should be usable in other international road safety and DUI studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-country disparities in labour productivity are more pronounced in agriculture than other sectors. I posit that the misallocation of female talent between sectors distorts productivity and formalise a general equilibrium Roy model with gender-specific frictions. If female workers encounter greater barriers in non-agricultural sectors, female workers who are better skilled at non-agricultural jobs may select into the agricultural sector. Analysis of data from sixty-six countries reveals that low-income countries have higher frictions against female workers in non-agricultural sectors. By aligning these frictions with those of the United States, agricultural labour productivity sees gains of 2.5%–7.6%, with GDP per capita rising by 0.5%–1.5% on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Per capita rates of homelessness are higher in many rural communities than Canada's largest cities, yet little attention has focused on strategies to address rural homelessness. This study compared experiences and lessons learned from three models of homeless shelters in a small town in rural Ontario: a church, motel, and warming center. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 individuals who stayed in or administered any of three emergency shelters that ran between 2019 and 2022. Results: Participants described challenges resulting from insufficient structure, policies, partnerships, funding, and training that led the church and motel shelters to be unsustainable. The warming center had more sustainable funding but lacked supports and had short operating hours. Several aspects of participants' experiences were unique to the rural context, including the lack of infrastructure, precarity of services, and feelings of being surveilled and pushed out of their community. Informal supports and a sense of connection to their hometown meant most had no intention of leaving. Conclusion: The strengths of each model and lessons learned offer opportunities to improve and adapt emergency shelters to the rural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to review the relationship between per capita income and aggregate emission in an economy populated by rational agents. According to the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, pollution–income relationship is an inverted U-shaped curve. This paper aims to derive that relationship in an endogenous way and extends the relevant literature in an important way. Design/methodology/approach: This paper formulated a general equilibrium model of homogenous population with identical tastes and preferences. Production side is modelled with firms operating in a monopolistically competitive environment. The approach is modelling the economy in an analytical way so that closed form solutions can be achieved. Model simulations have also been performed to get a clear view of results. Findings: This study shows that increasing returns to scale in abatement technology ceases to be a sufficient condition for the generation of the EKC hypothesis. The general equilibrium structure of the model allows studying the endogenous evolution of income, emissions and prices of the abatement goods in a unified setting. Originality/value: The paper is novel and original in nature. The results are new in the literature. These results extend and generalise the previous research work in this area in an important way. The sufficient condition that is obtained in this study limits the applicability of EKC in an otherwise identical economy as used in previous literature. Therefore, this paper adds value to the ongoing research related to EKC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralization is an important and commonplace type of reform, yet our understanding of its effects remains limited. This paper documents the effects of the 2009–10 wave of district creation in Uganda, which increased the country's districts by 42 percent, using rich data on subdistrict units to assess the effects of district creation on a broad range of post-decentralization outcomes in a difference-in-differences framework. The effects of decentralization are concentrated in newly split off—rather than split from—districts, and are heterogeneous across outcome types. Newly split-off districts have more per capita frontline workers, but appear to have worse quality infrastructure and lower economic development. The study also presents suggestive evidence that administrative capacity decreases for newly formed districts post-split. These findings demonstrate the importance of considering a broad range of outcomes when thinking about decentralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As global warming increases the frequent occurrences of natural disasters, the reduction of carbon emissions has become an important issue around the world. The chemical industry is an important source of carbon emissions in China. The carbon emissions of the chemical industry are calculated from 2000 to 2019 by using the emission factor method. The logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) method is exploited to analyze the factors that influence carbon emissions, and the emissions variations are attributed to the contributions of carbon intensity, energy structure, energy intensity, industrial value-added rate, per capita industrial output value, and industrial scale. The results of decomposition show that per capita industrial output value is the main driving factor, and energy intensity is the main inhibiting factor of the chemical industry's carbon emissions. In order to quantify the variation of carbon emissions, the extended stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) model is constructed and examined. Using the STIRPAT model, the basic scenario and energy intensity control scenario are set, and the carbon emissions are predicted, which shows that under a strict energy intensity control scenario, carbon emissions may reach a peak around 2031. The factors influencing the decomposition and prediction of carbon emissions should be helpful in reducing the carbon emissions of the chemical industry in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To examine the resource utilization in different phases such as development and sales within China's real estate industry, this paper employs a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to measure the production efficiency of the real estate industry across 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions of China from 2014 to 2022. By examining both overall and phase-specific trends, the study utilizes a panel Tobit model to explore the factors affecting efficiency. Empirical results indicate that the leverage ratio of companies, per capita GDP of regions, and real estate regulatory policies significantly impact production efficiency. Further analysis of regional heterogeneity and its effect on production efficiency revealed that the per capita residential building area, which reflects the housing stock configuration in different regions, exhibits a significant single threshold effect. This not only objectively assesses the utilization of real estate resources in different areas but also delves deeper into the principal factors and their mechanisms affecting the production efficiency of the real estate industry, thus providing theoretical support and policy recommendations for effectively enhancing production efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the convergence of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by examining the stationarity of the relative per capita CO2 emissions of 18 selected countries on the Silk Road for the period 1990–2020. To examine the stationarity of relative per capita CO2 emissions for those 18 countries, we applied a large battery the newly proposed nonlinear panel unit root tests that allow for several forms of state-dependent and time-dependent nonlinearities. We also applied conventional linear panel unit root tests. The linear and nonlinear panel unit root tests account for cross-country dependencies, and the SPSM procedure is applied to these tests in order to see how many countries in the panel sample are converging to the steady state. The test results of linear and nonlinear panel unit root test reveal that the relative per-capita CO2 emissions of 10 out of 18 countries are stationary meaning that the CO2 emissions of these 10 countries converge to the steady-state level over time. Especially, size and sign nonlinearities better capture the convergence dynamics of per capita CO2 emissions towards the steady-state level for seven countries. As we have found that 56% of countries' per capita CO2 emissions are converging, this result has important policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long tradition of research on cooperation includes a well-established finding that individuals respond to the degree of conflict between self-and collective interests (that is, the relative benefits from cooperation) in providing public goods. Existing empirical evidence builds upon settings where participants make multiple decisions or strategically consider alternative scenarios. Here, we consider a decision setting where participants face a one-time (single-decision) setting. One-time cooperative encounters often occur in volunteering or donating to immediate needs for crisis relief. For these distinct and highly relevant settings, we report a lack of responsiveness to increases in cooperation benefits, thereby highlighting limits to our understanding of the determinants of one-time cooperation encounters. Across two studies, n = 2,232 individuals participate in treatments where we vary across participants the relative benefit from contributing to a public good (that is, the marginal per capita return, the MPCR). We examine decisions from alternative participant pools (UK general population vs. students), implementations varying the physical distance between participants (online vs. in the laboratory), and more complex decision settings considering group-to-group interactions including not only providers but also donors to public goods. Throughout, neither average contribution levels, nor the distribution of contributions are significantly affected by the increases in cooperation benefits. The mechanism behind these results can be explained by the close correlation between expectations of other's cooperation and own cooperation, and the fact that these expectations do not increase with higher benefits from cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The food crisis is a real problem in various regions around the world, including Indonesia. This phenomenon is influenced by the rate of population growth which is increasing while farmlands are depleting due to the conversion of land into settlements, especially in Riau Province which is experiencing food security threats. Food security projections are made to provide an overview of the future condition of food security in Riau Province to support sustainability. The basic data used are data for 2018 and 2019. The measurement method used is the scenario method and then the availability calculation method according to Minister of Agriculture Regulation Number 43/Permentan/OT.140/7/2010. Meanwhile, the calculation of food needs uses a formula taking into account the average consumption per capita per year from the regional agriculture service multiplied by the population in the year concerned. Then, the projections are measured using the arithmetic population growth formula approach for food availability and the geometric population growth formula for the food needs of the population. The food commodity in Riau Province used in the analysis is rice. The calculation results show that in the future food availability in Riau Province will not be able to meet its food needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To analyze the types, origins, fluoride content of brick tea available in the Sanjiangyuan region, and the local residents' consumption of milk tea, providing a scientific basis for assessing the safety of fluoride intake from brick tea. Methods In 2022, based on historical data, a survey was conducted in 11 counties (cities) in the Sanjiangyuan region where residents habitually consume milk tea. Villages with a brick tea consumption habit were selected as the unit of investigation within each county. Ten households were randomly sampled from each village to collect demographic data and information on milk tea consumption. Samples of drinking water, brick tea, and milk tea were collected to measure fluoride content, calculating the daily per capita fluoride intake from milk tea for individuals over 16 years of age. The fluoride content in water and tea was measured using ion-selective electrode methods. Results A total of 82 drinking water samples were collected, with an average fluoride concentration of 0.22 mg/L, ranging from 0.10 to 0.74 mg/L. A total of 873 brick tea samples were collected, primarily consisting of Kang brick and Fu brick, accounting for 42.96% (375/873) and 34.48% (301/873) of the total, respectively. Other varieties included Jin Jian (11.80%, 103/873), Da tea (4.81%, 42/873), Hei brick (4.35%, 38/873), and Qing brick (1.60%, 14/873). There were 69 brands of brick tea available, predominantly produced in Sichuan Province (56.24%, 491/873), followed by Hunan Province (37.46%, 327/873). The average fluoride content in brick tea was 752.3 mg/kg, with a range of 242 to 1 836 mg/kg, with Jin Jian and Kang brick showing significantly higher fluoride levels (P < 0.001). Only three samples of brick tea had fluoride content ≤300 mg/kg, representing 0.34% of all samples. The annual per capita consumption of brick tea for individuals over 16 years was 3.40 kg (1.05-5.37 kg). A total of 554 milk tea samples were collected, with an average fluoride concentration of 2.25 mg/L, ranging from 0.82 to 12.18 mg/L. The daily per capita consumption of milk tea was 2 575 ml, leading to a daily per capita fluoride intake from milk tea of 5.79 mg, with a range of 2.92 to 13.06 mg. In ten counties, the daily per capita fluoride intake from milk tea exceeded the national health standard for total daily fluoride intake (3.50 mg). Conclusion The brick tea circulating in the Sanjiangyuan region is mainly composed of Kang and Fu bricks produced in Sichuan and Hunan, with excessive fluoride content in both brick tea and milk tea. The fluoride intake among the population exceeds safe levels, posing widespread health risks, necessitating the prompt implementation of effective preventive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing traffic energy consumption is crucial for smart cities, and vehicle carbon emissions are a key energy indicator. Traffic signal control (TSC) is a useful method because it can affect the energy consumption of vehicles on the road by controlling the stop-and-go of vehicles at traffic intersections. However, setting traffic signals to reduce energy consumption will affect traffic efficiency and this is not in line with traffic management objectives. Current studies adopt multi-objective optimization methods with high traffic efficiency and low carbon emissions to solve this problem. However, most methods use static weights, which cannot adapt to complex and dynamic traffic states, resulting in non-optimal performance. Current energy indicators for urban transportation often fail to consider passenger fairness. This fairness is significant because the purpose of urban transportation is to serve people's mobility needs not vehicles. Therefore, this paper proposes Multi-objective Adaptive Meta-DQN TSC (MMD-TSC), which introduces a dynamic weight adaptation mechanism to simultaneously optimize traffic efficiency and energy saving, and incorporates the per capita carbon emissions as the energy indicator. Firstly, this paper integrates traffic state data such as vehicle positions, velocities, vehicle types, and the number of passengers and incorporates fairness into the energy indicators, using per capita carbon emissions as the target for reducing energy consumption. Then, it proposes MMD-TSC with dynamic weights between energy consumption and traffic efficiency as reward functions. The MMD-TSC model includes two agents, the TSC agent and the weight agent, which are responsible for traffic signal adjustment and weight calculation, respectively. The weights are calculated by a function of traffic states. Finally, the paper describes the design of the MMD-TSC model learning algorithm and uses a SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility) v.1.20.0 for traffic simulation. The results show that in non-highly congested traffic states, the MMD-TSC model has higher traffic efficiency and lower energy consumption compared to static multi-objective TSC models and single-objective TSC models, and can adaptively achieve traffic management objectives. Compared with using vehicle average carbon emissions as the energy consumption indicator, using per capita carbon emissions achieves Pareto improvements in traffic efficiency and energy consumption indicators. The energy utilization efficiency of the MMD-TSC model is improved by 35% compared to the fixed-time TSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

In Pakistan, due to low per capita income and weak socio-economic policies the poverty has remained core problem in every era. Thus, as per sensitivity of the issue, the present study key objectives are to empirically address the dilemma of multidimensional poverty among agrarian and non-agrarian communities of Agro-environmental Regions of Pakistan. For assessment of comprehensive outcomes, one decade survey data (2010/11 to 2019/20) of Pakistan social and living standard measurement and globally acknowledged Alkire and Foster (Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement, 2007) indexing methodology has been adopted. Stepwise outcomes under dual cut-off K = 2 logically reveal that multidimensional poverty is purely an agrarian phenomenon at the national level and across all the nine agro-environmental regions of Pakistan. Further, at the national level in each study year, residents of the agrarian community with poverty estimates 46.40, 39.00, 34.90, and 31.90% are harshly victimized by precise menace compared to their non-agrarian counterparts with poverty measures 23.00, 20.60, 19.10, and 17.70%, respectively. Like national measure, similar trend has also been observed across each agro-environmental region where agrarian community is severely victimized of multiple attributes poverty menace compared to non-agrarian counterpart. Moreover, a comparative analysis of current valuations highlights that over time, especially in the short run, 2010/11 to 2012/13; 2012/13 to 2014/15, and 2014/15 to 2019/20, multiple aspect poverty at national level and across each zone in Pakistan presents fluctuating trend for both communities. However, in the long run, with the time gap of complete decade since to 2010–11 to 2019–20, multidimensional poverty reveals a declining trend at the national level as well as across each study zone in Pakistan. These valuations indicate a noteworthy improvement in all three attributes; education, health, and housing services specifically in longer span of time. Precise improvements are appreciable but still a strong policy like adoption of modern technology as per advance countries in all three aspect is essentially needed to achieve the UNDP agenda within the prescribed time limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of rural revitalization, identifying the functional characteristics of rural homesteads and clarifying the relationship among various functions are important scientific issues for the transformation of homestead utilization. Taking Jilin Province as an example, this paper analyzes the problems existing in rural homestead utilization from the aspects of quantitative characteristics, human–land matching degree, and the current situation of idle homesteads. An evaluation index system is constructed to measure the functional values of homesteads to identify the advantageous functions of homesteads. The results are as follows: (1) in some areas of the Jilin Province, the per capita homestead area is relatively large, with a high vacancy rate, and there is a phenomenon of inefficient use of homesteads, (2) according to the calculation results of the homestead functional index, the overall performance of the four functions of rural homesteads is in the order of living function > security function > production function > asset function, indicating that traditional living function remains predominant in the study area, (3) based on the relationship between the comprehensiveness and coordination of the four functions of homesteads, villages are classified into "moderate optimization area", "key improvement area", "collaborative optimization area", and "potential improvement area". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the effects of war on human resource development in Afghanistan using non-linear autoregressive distributed lags (NARDL) and asymmetric causality analysis. The results of the NARDL bound test support an asymmetric long-run relationship between predictors. It reveals that positive and negative shocks from the per capita cost of war, child mortality rate, and population growth rate asymmetrically affect the school enrollment rate in both the short and long runs. Furthermore, it shows that positive shocks from per capita GDP and per capita government expenditures on education increase the school enrollment rate, while their negative shocks have adverse effects, in both the short and long runs. This implies that school enrollment is highly sensitive to changes in the per capita cost of war and reacts swiftly. Moreover, the results reveal significant causality from both the positive and negative components of the per capita cost of war, per capita GDP, per capita government expenditures on education, and population growth to both the positive and negative components of the school enrollment rate. However, there is only a causal nexus from the negative component of the child mortality rate to the school enrollment rate. Based on these findings, relevant policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article empirically explores the potential effects of CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) on per capita emissions of 4 air pollutants. It shows statistically significant evidence suggesting that more trade between the EU and Canada could help reduce per capita emissions of C O 2 , C H 4 , and N 2 O in a typical CETA member, respectively. However, it finds unambiguous empirical evidence implying that Canada may act as Pollution Haven for C H 4 because it has more land per capita than any EU member. Moreover, it provides clear empirical evidence suggesting that 8 former Communist EU members (and Malta only for F-Gases may act as Pollution Havens for N 2 O and F-Gases because they are poorer than Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the globe has been facing several challenges, and environmental deterioration has become more prominent. Therefore, to deal with such environmental issues, the globe has tried to introduce several green initiatives via the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals, but the problem remains intact. However, practitioners have no more choice but to exclude emerging economies from this race. For instance, to understand the response of emerging economies toward a sustainable environment, this study considers BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) economies. Similarly, the current empirical study utilizes innovative environmental determinants such as real income, urbanization, entrepreneurial activities, per capita renewable energy, financial innovation and environmental policy for selected regions from 2000 to 2021. However, the findings of the advanced estimators' series show the significant contribution of per capita green energy consumption, environmental policy and entrepreneurial activities toward environmental sustainability. In contrast, income, financial inclusion and urbanization contribute to environmental damage. Because of green energy supportive behavior, this study makes an additional step to investigate the mediating effect on financial inclusion, environmental policy and entrepreneurship. However, the mediating effect only supports environmental policy and entrepreneurship activities to reduce environmental pressure. From the policy perspective, the specified economies should allocate their financial resources to clean & green projects to attain the desired level of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world population grows, the need to meet greater resource demands leads to a proportional increase in solid waste generation. This trend has been difficult to reverse in the last decade, but when it comes to minimizing waste generation, there is an innovative model that has successfully reduced per capita production (PPC) in the medium term called the "Volume-based Tariff System". South Korea implemented this model since 1995 under the motto "polluter pays", managing to decrease PPC from 2,3 to 1,1 kilograms of waste per day per inhabitant in just 5 years, in a country with an average of 51 million inhabitants. Inspired by this success, the canton of Santa Cruz in the Galápagos province replicated the Volume-based Tariff System, adapting it to local realities. They justified its implementation with the goals of reducing local PPC, increasing recycling, creating incentives, complying with the reform of the Organic Law of the Public Service of Electric Energy (2019), and implementing a variable tariff based on volume. The results mirrored those of South Korea: since its implementation in May 2021, Santa Cruz reduced per capita waste generation from 0,77 kilograms per day per inhabitant in 2019 to 0,44 kg by 2022. Additionally, within 6 months, recyclable materials increased from 78,17 tons in May to 132,47 tons in December 2021, these achievements led the Municipal GAD of Santa Cruz to win the 2022 Green Award from the Development Bank of Ecuador. This experience demonstrates that the Volume-based Tariff Model could be successfully replicated in Santa Cruz. While challenges remain for improvement, being the first replication in Ecuador has yielded excellent results.

Data indicate that carbon dioxide emissions from residential buildings in China constitute 60% of the country's total, making carbon reduction efforts in residential construction crucial for achieving dual carbon goals. From the perspective of eight major economic regions, this paper selects energy consumption, per capita residential area, and residential population as input indicators, per capita disposable income as the output indicator, and carbon dioxide emissions as the undesired output indicator. It employs the super-efficiency model based on the directional distance (super-DDF) function and the Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) index to measure the static and dynamic carbon emission efficiencies of residential buildings (RBCEE) during their operational phase from 2010 to 2020. After analyzing the differences and equity in RBCEE among regions using the Theil index and Gini coefficient, the σ-convergence, absolute β-convergence, and conditional β-convergence methods are utilized to explore the changing trends of RBCEE across the eight major economic regions. Results show that the static RBCEE in China is at a medium level; dynamic efficiency has improved across all eight regions, though at varying rates; overall, RBCEE exhibits poor equity and significant differences, with intra-group differences being a major cause. In terms of convergence, all eight economic regions display significant absolute β-convergence and conditional β-convergence. Finally, based on the research findings, this paper proposes corresponding emission reduction recommendations for the eight major economic regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to better allocate water resources and maintain sustainable development, we selected Jining City as a specific research area and used the coefficient of variation entropy weight GM (1,1) research method to systematically evaluate the water resource carrying capacity. The results showed that the water resource carrying capacity system in the Jining area exhibited and will exhibit obvious economic ecological characteristics during the two periods of 2016-2021 and 2022-2026. From 2016 to 2021, the ecological environment water consumption rate, agricultural value-added water consumption per 10000 yuan, and industrial value-added water consumption per 10 000 yuan had become strong influencing factors. From 2022 to 2026, the weight of per capita GDP and per capita domestic water consumption would increase, becoming strong influencing factors along with the top three. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health of older adults is crucial for the overall health of the entire life cycle. Based on population sampling survey data and census data from 131 prefecture level units in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) during 2010–2020, this study used exploratory spatial data analysis, geographical detector, stepwise regression analysis, and GTWR model to analyze the spatiotemporal pattern and influencing factors of the health level of older adults in the YREB. The results show that the health level of older adults in the YREB slightly increased from 2010 to 2020, with the most significant improvement in the upstream region and the most significant decline in the midstream region. The older adults' health level in the YREB displays a gradient decreasing pattern of the downstream, midstream, and upstream regions. The health level of older adults in the YREB is influenced by a combination of natural and social environment factors. Areas with lower altitude and moderate humidity climates are more conducive to the health of older adults. The increase in influencing factors such as population migration rate, per capita GDP, average years of education, per capita housing construction area, per capita park green area, and green coverage rate in built-up areas is conducive to improving the health level of older adults, while lower number of health institutions per 1,000 people and higher household support rate are not conducive to improving the health level of older adults. In addition, over time, the health-promoting effect of natural environmental factors is enhanced from 2010 to 2020, and the influence of annual precipitation on shaping the spatial pattern of older adults' health level became more obvious. Although the promoting effect of population migration on the health level of older adults tends to weaken, it remains the primary factor affecting the spatiotemporal differentiation of older adults' health level in the YREB. The impact of social development on the health level of older adults has changed from a positive health effect (improvement) to a negative health effect (loss). The health-promoting effect of living environment factors is enhanced. The health-inhibitory effect of household support rate increased, and showed a gradient decreasing pattern from downstream to midstream to upstream. The findings of this study can provide a more in-depth understanding of the spatiotemporal pattern of the health level of older adults in the YREB and the factors influencing it, improve the health level of older adults in the region, and promote the development of healthy and active aging in the YREB, and improve the human health. At the same time, this study also supplements the related research on aging and the health level of the elderly. Firstly, it can provide reference for the research on the health of old adults in other countries and regions around the world. Secondly, it can also provide a basis for research on aging and the health of old adults in cities and counties under YREB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilizes data from A-share listed companies between 2011 and 2020 to empirically investigate the impact and mechanism of public welfare donations on the internal income gap of enterprises. The research findings indicate that public welfare donations significantly increase the per capita salary of management, while their impact on the per capita salary of ordinary employees is not significant, thus leading to an expansion of the internal income gap within enterprises. The results from mechanism testing reveal that the income tax benefits resulting from charitable donations and the rise in corporate operating income have contributed to an increase in excess rent shared by enterprises and employees. Due to a stronger bargaining power, management shares more excess rents, thereby widening the income gap within the enterprise. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that public welfare donations have a greater impact on the internal income gap of non-state-owned enterprises; however, limiting executive compensation and enhancing employees' bargaining power can mitigate this widening effect caused by public welfare donations on enterprise's internal income gap. The research value of this study is threefold. Firstly, there is a scarcity of studies on the impact of public welfare donations on the income gap within enterprises, and this study contributes to enriching the research in this area. Secondly, this paper examines the effect of tax incentives for public welfare donations on the internal income gap of enterprises, thereby deepening the research on the impact of tax reduction and fee reduction, as well as expanding our understanding of corporate income tax preferential policies. Thirdly, it offers insights into improving enterprise compensation systems and enhancing corporate governance. Senior executives can potentially allocate more excess rent through their strong bargaining power. If their compensation remains unrestricted, it may lead to a widening internal income gap and negatively affect company operational efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions has been analyzed testing the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis, but traditional econometric methods may be flawed. An alternative method is proposed using segmented-sample regressions and implemented in 164 countries (98.34% of world population) over different periods from 1822 to 2018. Results suggest that while the association between GDP per capita and CO2 emissions per capita is weakening over time, it remains positive globally, with only some high-income countries showing a reversed association in recent years. While 49 countries have decoupled emissions from economic growth, 115 have not. Most African, American, and Asian countries have not decoupled, whereas most European and Oceanians have. These findings highlight the urgency for effective climate policies because decoupling remains unachieved on a global scale, and we are moving away from, rather than approaching, the Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature increase to 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To present a proposal to estimate healthcare resource requirements for the population with no social security in Mexico City and the domestic projection, including access and coverage. Materials and methods. The gross domestic product percentage for healthcare is calculated using the Medical-Technical Baseline Cost (MTBC) or the Medical Economic Card (MEC) standard according to diagnosis and care treatment for the population with no social security, thus projecting the prospective resource requirements. Results. There is a shortfall of resources for 2024; the prospective per capita for the first level of healthcare is $3 813 and the historical one is $1 933; and the corresponding values for the second level are $4 430 and $3 861. The %GDP-healthcare for Mexico City in 2024 exhibits a 42% difference between the historical and prospective categories. The shortfall of resources for the three levels of healthcare in the entire country is 19%. Conclusions. The prospective budget makes it possible to calculate healthcare resource requirements with a higher degree of certainty and graduality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study mainly focuses on the relationship between development aid and growth as well as examines the role of the institutional development levels of countries in this relationship and makes economic inferences. Methods: The analysis is conducted for 64 countries receiving official development assistance in the 2000–2020 period. To provide robust estimates in these studies, the Driscoll and Kraay estimator is used after fixed and random effects models. Results: In almost all of the estimated models, a significant relationship between official development assistance per capita and growth is found. Moreover, the models with institutional factors and interaction terms also support the results. According to the robust estimation results, official development assistance per capita positively affects growth. Conclusion: The results for all countries do not mean that good policies and strong institutions are unnecessary. In contrast, they show that the priority is the sum of aid per capita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing trend towards utilizing nickel as a raw material for non-steel products due to the increasing demand for nickel up to 2040. Data shows that global nickel production and reserves will increase until 2021. As one of the countries with the largest reserves in the world, this country contributes significantly to global nickel production. This paper will discuss Indonesia's nickel resources, reserves and production related to the distribution of locations, number of resources, number of reserves, grade, sustainability of reserves and their impact on the economy as well as efforts to maintain this sustainability. Previous articles only presented data on Indonesia's nickel reserves and production and an overview of global nickel. The data on nickel resources and reserves come from the 2021 inventory by the Geological Agency, which covers ore resources and reserves and their grades across several classifications. If there is no new data on reserve deposits or planned production rates, it is estimated that the ore reserves with nickel grades ≥ 1.7% will be depleted by 2036, while the ore reserves with Ni grades < 1.7% will be exhausted by 2056. Efforts to increase reserves include increasing exploration activities in brownfield areas, exploring remaining ultrabasic regions, and conducting detailed geological mapping of areas where ultrabasic rock is expected. Apart from raising the issue of the magnitude of nickel potential and mining value, this paper also discusses economic indicators in each nickel producing community using Gross Regional Domestic Product per capita. Based on the results of this analysis, it shows that there are differences in GDP per capita and the value of the mines owned by each region as a nickel producer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precarious nature of climate change and its consequences on the resilience of economies require examination. This study investigated climate change resilience in the "big three" economies in Africa—Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa—using macroeconomic data. Results indicated that Nigeria had the highest vulnerability score and South Africa had the highest resilience score. Readiness for climate change was low in all countries, especially in Nigeria. Climate vulnerability had a significant dampening effect on per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the three economies. In addition, reducing inflation is associated with increased welfare and resilience by raising per capita GDP, although the effect needs to be magnified with sound economic policies. The low adaptive capacity presents policy direction to develop human resource capacities, improve safety net delivery, and ensure effective early warning systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation can lead to wage inequalities through different channels. This paper explores this relationship, focusing on the direct and spillover (indirect) effects of these channels on personal wage inequalities in Brazilian regions. Product and process innovation are measured by patents and the acquisition of foreign technology through imports of capital goods respectively. Based on data that covers 482 regions from 2003 to 2014, we use the Spatial Durbin Model with spatial fixed effects to control spatial dependence and heterogeneity across regions. The results point to a positive association between our measures of innovation and wage inequalities. However, as we found a non‐linear relationship between imports of capital goods and wage inequality, an increase in imports of capital goods may reduce wage inequality. Other variables may also cause inequality to fall, such as the share of the population with a higher education degree and social skills. Drivers behind an increase in inequality are female participation in the workforce and the level of GDP per capita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]