Waste gas emissions, air pollution treatment, and industrial profit: evidence from China and global implications of green development

This paper proposes a simple model to theoretically analyze the impacts of emissions of waste gases on industrial profit and mainly finds that industrial producers yield products to pursue profit but emit waste gases, protecting atmospheric environment demands for decline in waste gases, emissions impact profit when the process of production is altered as result of public regulations, and actively treating emissions ease the distortions of production and maintain profit. As a comparison, industrial profit is not impacted by emissions when producers are allowed to emit freely. After theoretical analysis, this study also empirically tests the relationship between the emissions of waste gases and profit as evidenced in China and finds that emissions do not significantly impact profit, except for sulfur dioxide with significantly negative impact; industrial producers with increased capacity for treating waste gases obtained more profits. As a result, the cost expended on treating pollution was compensated in the Chinese industrial sector. Successfully declining waste gases for atmospheric environmental protection and maintaining industrial profit for economic output and social development in the Chinese local economy has global implications because many other countries and regions primarily pursue green and sustainable development.

Austerity by Design Comment on "Ensuring Global Health Equity in a Post-pandemic Economy"

Several scholars across many disciplines argue that neoliberal, free-market economic conditions drive inequalities, generating poverty and misery due to unfair austerity, ultimately affecting human health. Professor Labonté's prescription is that we jettison these policies targeting economic growth and development for generating greater fairness for the world's poor. This rejoinder argues contrarily that the criticism of neoliberal policies are misplaced, and that degrowth is really "self-imposed austerity," which will not benefit the poor. This rejoinder scrutinizes some simple stylized fact and assesses the soundness of the broader arguments. The evidence suggests clearly that becoming wealthy and following prudent economic policies is the best path to improving population health, equity, and other progressive outcomes. Badly required growth for the poor comes from free markets and good governance, and equity for the sake of fairness neither results in better health outcomes, nor an improved environment.

The Role of Institutional, Cultural, and Economic Factors on the Effectiveness of the Lockdown Measures

Objective

This study considered the role of institutional, cultural and economic factors in the effectivemess of lockdown measures during the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier studies focusing on cross-sectional data found an association between low case numbers and a higher level of cultural tightness. Meanwhile, institutional strength and income levels revealed a puzzling negative relationship with the number of cases and deaths.

Methods

Data available at the end of September 2021 were used to analyse the dynamic impact of these factors on the effectiveness of lockdowns. The cross-sectional dimension of country-level data was combined with the time-series dimension of pandemic-related measures, using econometric techniques dealing with panel data.

Findings

Greater stringency of lockdown measures was associated with fewer cases. Institutional strength enhanced this negative relationship. Countries with well-defined and established laws performed better for a given set of lockdown measures compared with countries with weaker institutional structures. Cultural tightness reduced the effectiveness of lockdowns, in contrast to previous findings at cross-sectional level.

Conclusion

Institutional strength plays a greater role than cultural and economic factors in enhancing the performance of lockdowns. These results underline the importance of strengthening institutions for pandemic control.

Policy Stringency, Handwashing and COVID-19 cases: Evidence from Global dataset

Objective

: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments globally have introduced policy measures to contain the spread of the virus. Popular COVID-19 containment measures include lockdowns of various forms (aggregated into government response stringency index [GRSI]) and handwashing (HWF). The effectiveness of these policy measures remains unclear in the academic literature. This study, therefore, examines the effect of government policy stringency and handwashing on total daily reported COVID-19 cases.

Method

: We use a comprehensive dataset of 176 countries to investigate the effect of government policy stringency and handwashing on daily reported COVID-19 cases. In this study, we apply the Lewbel (2012) two-stage least squares technique to control endogeneity.

Results

: Our results indicated that GRSI significantly contributes to the increase in the total and new confirmed cases of COVI-19. Sensitivity analyses revealed that the 1st, 4th, and 5th quintiles of GRIS significantly reduce total confirmed cases of COVID-19. Also, the result indicated that while the 1st quintile of GRIS contributes significantly to reducing the new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th quintiles of GRSI contribute significantly to increasing the new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The results indicated that HWF reduces total and new confirmed cases of COVID-19; however, such effect is not robust to income and regional effects. Nonlinear analysis revealed that while GRSI has an inverted U-shaped relationship with total and new confirmed cases of COVID-19, HWF has a U-shaped relationship.

Conclusion

: We suggest that policymakers should focus on raising awareness and full engagement of all members of society in implementing public health policies rather than using stringent lockdown measures.

Surgical 'Safari' vs. Educational Program: Experience with International Cardiac Surgery Missions in Nigeria

INTRODUCTION

In any country, the development and growth of open-heart surgery parallel stable political climate, economic growth, good leadership, and prudent fiscal management. These were lacking in Nigeria, which was under a military rule. The enthronement of democratic rule, in 1999, has caused desirable changes. The objective of this study is to report our experience with foreign cardiac teams that visited the National Cardiothoracic Center of Excellence, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, for seven years, in order to restart its open-heart surgery program.

METHODS

To achieve the desired open-heart surgery training, our center received regular and frequent visits from foreign cardiac teams who would perform open-heart surgery with the local team.

RESULTS

During the period of seven years, a total of 266 open-heart operations involving both adults and children were performed, with a mean of 38 cases per year; 150 (54.4%) males and 116 (43.6%) females were treated, with a ratio of 1.0:0.8. Six different teams visited the center at different periods.

CONCLUSION

After these years of cardiac missions to our center, the experience of the local team, especially the surgeons, is far from desirable because each team visit usually lasted about a week or two and each team, with exception of the CardioStart International/William Novick Global Cardiac Alliance, adopted the surgical 'safari' method.

A Macromarketing View of Sustainable Development in Vietnam

The authors apply methods and perspectives from several disciplines to explore the effects of Vietnam's economic development on various ecosystems, to offer a macromarketing view of sustainable development in Vietnam. An adapted version of the Sustainable Society Index was used to assess Vietnam's sustainability, how Vietnam's measures compare to other countries, with implications for future sustainable-development. Among several findings, Vietnam earns favorable sustainability ratings in absolute terms for water resources, healthy living, energy use, greenhouse gases, genuine savings, and employment. Ominously, Vietnam and some of its nearby neighbors post poor scores for energy savings and education. Going forward, energy savings, a well-educated population, and a coordinated marketing system will be required to ensure favorable sustainability measures. Drawing on macromarketing explorations of complex and interdependent systems, key factors are considered to redress unsustainable resource exploitation and degradation. Particular attention is given to the complexities and dilemmas inherent to waterways, such as the Mekong River Basin and Delta. The authors argue for multi-win goals, systemic understanding, stakeholder inclusion, and resolutions via cooperation and constructive engagement-including projects, products, services, and institutional leadership for best practices designed and administered to enhance sustainability and citizen/societal well-being.

Did family size affect differences in body height in non-urbanized societies? Evidence from the Lemko community in Poland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of economic changes in the Polish territories under Austrian partition at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries on the trend in adult body height, and to examine the effect of number of children in a family, as a socioeconomic factor, on the differences in heights of males and females. Data collected in a 1939 survey for a group of 350 Lemkos living in Polish lands under the Austrian partition were obtained from archive material. Individual data were obtained for body height and number of siblings, to calculate family size. Linear regression analysis confirmed an increase in body height in males by about 1.2 cm per decade over the period 1860 to 1922. The number of children in a family did not appear to influence the mean body height of men and women. The observed positive mean body height trend probably resulted from the improvement in the economic conditions in the Austrian sector over the survey period.

Shrinking in a growing economy is not so puzzling after all

Bodenhorn, Guinnane, and Mroz (2017) argue that the diminution of heights during the Industrial Revolution and in the Antebellum U.S. is an artefact of the biased nature of the samples analyzed. We demonstrate that it would be an unfathomable coincidence if men and women all self-selected into scores of completely independent samples in such a way as to bias them in the identical direction. Instead, wWe show that BGM's periodization is flawed and that their statistical models are misspecified, because they fail to consider the extent to which they introduce severe multicollinearity into their regressions. In addition, they fail to specify how they selected the samples they included in their analysis. In contrast, we argue that the economic transition from a predominantly agricultural to an increasingly industrial society was not a smooth process and lags in adjustment led to nutritional stresses. Height of a typical man in the U.S. decreased by 0.75 inches at a time when incomes were growing at a rate of 1.2% per annum. The developing human body of children and youth was sensitive enough to these nutritional stresses to register their effect better than monetary measures could. While nutritional status did decline during the Industrial Revolution in Europe and at the onset of modern economic in the U.S., by the second half of the 19^th century agricultural productivity caught up with the increased demand for foodstuffs and height reversals became a rarity. Thus, although markets adjusted, they did not do so instantaneously. Consequently, physical stature declined during this adjustment process although the wealthy were shielded from the increased price of nutrients. So, the divergence in average incomes and average heights at the threshold of the modern age is not so puzzling after all.

A Quarter Century of Emerging Infectious Diseases - Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?

A quarter century ago the landmark report from the U. S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine entitled "Emerging Infections, Microbial Threats to Health in the United States" was released. This classic study captured the societal changes then underway in our rapidly growing world: The growth of the world's population and changing human behavior; the advances and globalization of technology and industry; the changes in economic development and land use; the dramatic increase in speed and frequency of international travel and commerce; the adaptation of microbes and the appearance of never before seen pathogens; and the breakdown of traditional public health measures. This societal evolution has only increased and the growing frequency of outbreaks foretold in the report has come to pass. Each new disaster has precipitated changes and adaptations in our global response to infectious diseases designed to reduce risks and avoid future outbreaks. We discuss these past events and how each led to change in an effort to mitigate future threats. We also look to the future to consider what challenges might lay ahead.

CONCLUSION

Major outbreaks over the past quarter century validated the concept of emerging infectious diseases and led to improvements in global policies and national public health programs; however, there will likely always be new diseases and the threat of reemergence of diseases once thought controlled leading to a constant need for vigilance in public health preparedness.

Developing Hope Among Impoverished Children: Using Child Self-Portraits to Measure Poverty Program Impacts

The role of psychological attributes such as hope in escaping poverty has attracted increasing attention. Crucial questions include the impact of early development of positive psychological attributes on socioeconomic outcomes, and whether interventions to reduce poverty increase such attributes. We examine the impact of international child sponsorship on the psychology of Indonesian children by employing a novel program evaluation technique-a quantified analysis of children's self-portraits. To identify causal effects, we exploit an eligibility rule that established a maximum age for participation. We find that international sponsorship significantly raises sponsored children's levels of happiness (0.42σ), self-efficacy (0.29σ), and hope (0.66σ).

The Agricultural Origins of Time Preference<sup/>

This research explores the origins of observed differences in time preference across countries and regions. Exploiting a natural experiment associated with the expansion of suitable crops for cultivation in the course of the Columbian Exchange, the research establishes that pre-industrial agro-climatic characteristics that were conducive to higher return to agricultural investment, triggered selection, adaptation and learning processes that generated a persistent positive effect on the prevalence of long-term orientation in the contemporary era. Furthermore, the research establishes that these agro-climatic characteristics have had a culturally embodied impact on economic behavior such as technological adoption, education, saving, and smoking.

Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India

Why do many households remain exposed to large exogenous sources of non-systematic income risk? We use a series of randomized field experiments in rural India to test the importance of price and non-price factors in the adoption of an innovative rainfall insurance product. Demand is significantly price sensitive, but widespread take-up would not be achieved even if the product offered a payout ratio comparable to U.S. insurance contracts. We present evidence suggesting that lack of trust, liquidity constraints and limited salience are significant non-price frictions that constrain demand. We suggest contract design improvements to mitigate these frictions.

HEALTH, TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY, AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN INDIAN DISTRICTS

We investigate whether better population health may impact economic performance through improvements in technical efficiency in agricultural production. Using district-level data from India, we employ a random-coefficients approach to estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function, computing overall and input-specific technical efficiencies for each district. We then model health (district infant mortality rate) as a determinant of (in)efficiency in a second stage, controlling for a range of other socioeconomic variables. In the preferred specifications, we find that decreases in the infant mortality rate are associated with substantively and statistically significant increases in overall technical efficiency, and that a good portion of this association is likely due to improvements in the efficiency of labor use.

Reproductive health, population growth, economic development and environmental change

World population will increase by 1000 million, or by 20%, within 10 years. Ninety-five per cent of this increase will occur in the South, in areas that are already economically, environmentally and politically fragile. Morbidity and mortality associated with reproduction will be greater in the current decade than in any period in human history. Annually, 40-60 million pregnancies will be terminated and 5-10 million children will die within one year of birth. AIDS-related infections, e.g. tuberculosis, will undermine health care in Africa (and elsewhere) and in places AIDS-related deaths will decimate the work-force. The growth in population and associated morbidity will inhibit global economic development and spawn new problems. The key issues are migration, the spread of disease, the supply of water and the degradation of land, and fiscal policies with respect to family planning, pharmaceuticals and Third-World debt. Full education, particularly of women, and more effective family planning in the South have the power to unlock the problem. Failure will see the developed countries, with their 800 million population, swamped by the health, economic and environmental problems of the South, with its projected population of 5400 million people for the year 2000.

[Regional demographic trends in France: an examination at the level of the "zones d'emploi"]

"The paper studies the regional demographic trends in France from 1968 to 1990.... The study follows two main objectives: (1) Analysis of the main regional migration and population trends over the three census periods from 1968 to 1990. (2) Analysis of the growth trends of different types of regions on the basis of typifying the ¿zones d'emploi' (labour market regions) according to economic criteria and settlement structure criteria. The large-scale patterns of the population and migration trends seem to be relatively stable in comparison to the massive change in the general economic and political framework in France and Western Europe.... The different region types, however, show more distinct changes." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND FRE AND RUS)

Economic development and family size

Falling mortality has in Latin America failed to reduce family size; this result is not theoretically surprising as reduced mortality makes children cheaper and is expected to reduce fertility but to increase the number of survivors. Development and modernization encouraged family limitation in Western Europe; changes similar in nature have attended the mortality decline in Latin America, but often these changes have been modest in size. Deviations from the Western European transition follow a pattern: least developed countries deviate the most, while most developed countries deviate the least.

[Thirty years of urban dynamics in Romania: between homogeneous and specific regional development]

"It is necessary to give a brief account of the major characteristics of recent urban dynamics in Bucharest (a) because of the impact of images on urban changes and (b) because urbanisation in Romania took place at a late stage and at a very moderate pace (50% in 1985). The urbanisation policy tended towards uniformity, which has resulted in medium-sized cities being over-represented in the urban network.... The first urban changes to emerge as a result of the post-socialist transition are a consequence of the effects of the size of cities on the one hand, and of the revival of historical provinces on the other." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND RUM)

Determinants of migration values and expectations in rural Thailand

"Based on the argument that values and expectations underlie behavioral motives, this study explores the determinants of migration-related values and expectations, and whether they are intervening factors in explaining intentions to move among residents of rural northeast Thailand. Data from the 1992 National Migration Survey of Thailand identify four migration-related value-expectancy dimensions: income, affiliation, stimulation, and comfort. Logistic regression analysis shows that landownership and being married are associated with higher expectations, while a diversified village economy, a village economy development program, and a younger and extended household structure are associated with lower expectations of attaining valued goals in the local rural village. The analysis also shows that value-expectancy concepts are only partial intervening explanations for intentions to move or stay."

Australia's population: is stability uneconomic?

"A review of the interlinkages between population growth and its economic, social and environmental consequences [suggests that] a range of advantages across all three dimensions would follow from the stabilisation of Australia's population....[The article reflects] on connections between economic performance and population policy which suggest the need for a more balanced perspective."

The crisis of international migration in an integrating West Africa: a case study of Nigeria and Ghana

The mass expulsions of illegal immigrants that have taken place in recent years in Western Africa are examined, with particular reference to those in Ghana in 1969 and Nigeria in 1983. The author considers "the context within which they have taken place, including some of the longterm causes, and the systematic nature of the migrations which preceded them; the ways in which these have been handled by the states concerned; and their implications for the rights and status of migrants as a particular form of exploited labour within the development process in the subregion." (SUMMARY IN FRE)

[Families is transformation: a Polynesian case (Maatea, Moorea, Society Islands)]

"Using a survey of a set of households in a village community in Moorea (Society Islands, French Polynesia), the author examines family transformations using a 'substantive' approach. Analysis of the resources of each household in the context of the recent opening up to the consumer society gives information on the evolution of incomes, the subsistence level, the building up of surpluses and the degree of 'equipment'. Analysis of the social form of households reveals the multiplicity of family types and variable cycles of transformation from one type to another. This information, which cuts across the social form and mode of management of the households, leads the author to identify five distinct types of household, each with a coherent model of operation. Far from observing a uniform evolution of the extended family towards the nuclear family, the author shows that the opposite evolution is just as possible. The plural, fluctuating nature of the family institution in Polynesia today is noted above all." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Asian urbanization and development: a comparative view

A comparative perspective on urbanization trends in Asia is provided. "The trends for the different Asian regions are first presented in the context of the world's more developed and less developed regions. Comparative data on the constituent countries in each of the regions are next shown. Then a modified urbanization-development model is proposed and subsequently tested empirically. The concluding section summarizes the findings and implications." The data are taken primarily from published U.N. sources.

[Consanguineous marriage in Turkey and its effects on infant mortality]

The authors examine the effects of consanguineous marriage on infant mortality in Turkey. An attempt is made to distinguish the influence of consanguineous marriage from that of selected regional and socioeconomic factors. It is found that "the differences of the average infant mortality rates between consanguineous and non-consanguineous marriages are parallel to the development differences between the regions as well as the conditions of the house which are thought to signify the socioeconomic differences. Although the differences in averages are insignificant statistically, this trend [indicates] that consanguineous marriages [affect] infant mortality." Data are from the 1983 Turkish Fertility, Contraceptive Prevalence and Family Health Status Survey. (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Forecast of labour force in Poland to the year 2020: methodology and results

"In 1995 the Labour Statistics Division of the Central Statistical Office (CSO) started methodological work on the preparation of a forecast of the labour force in Poland to the year 2020.... Variant ¿intermediate' assumes a slow reconstruction of the economic activity of population from the level of the period 1978-88 (census 1978 and census 1988). The main part of this ¿reconstruction' will take place in the years 1995-2010. The greatest anticipated changes concern youths (18-24 years), persons of immobility age (males 45-64 years and females 45-59 years) and the first groups of the retirement age. Variant ¿maximum' assumes that the anticipated ¿reconstruction' labour force participation rate will be faster (compared with variant ¿intermediate')."