WTI, Brent or implied volatility index: Perspective of volatility spillover from oil market to Chinese stock market.

This study investigates the impact of oil market uncertainty on the volatility of Chinese sector indexes. We utilize commonly used realized volatility of WTI and Brent oil price along with the CBOE crude oil volatility index (OVX) to embody the oil market uncertainty. Based on the sample span from Mar 16, 2011 to Dec 31, 2019, this study utilizes vector autoregression (VAR) model to derive the impacts of the three different uncertainty indicators on Chinese stock volatilities. The empirical results show, for all sectors, the impact of OVX on sectors volatilities are more economically and statistically significant than that of realized volatility of both WTI and Brent oil prices, especially after the Chinese refined oil pricing reform of March 27, 2013. That implies OVX is more informative than traditional WTI and Brent oil prices with respect to volatility spillover from oil market to Chinese stock market. This study could provide some important implications for the participants in Chinese stock market.

Monitoring to detect changes in water quality to meet policy objectives.

Detecting change in water quality is key to providing evidence of progress towards meeting water quality objectives. A key measure for detecting change is statistical power. Here we calculate statistical power for all regularly (monthly) monitored streams in New Zealand to test the effectiveness of monitoring for policy that aims to decrease contaminant (phosphorus and nitrogen species, E. coli and visual clarity) concentrations to threshold levels in 5 or 20 years. While > 95% of all monitored sites had sufficient power and samples to detect change in nutrients and clarity over 20 years, on average, sampling frequency would have to double to detect changes in E. coli. Furthermore, to detect changes in 5 years, sampling for clarity, dissolved reactive phosphorus and E. coli would have to increase up to fivefold. The cost of sampling was predicted to increase 5.3 and 4.1 times for 5 and 20 years, respectively. A national model of statistical power was used to demonstrate that a similar number of samples (and cost) would be required for any new monitoring sites. Our work suggests that demonstrating the outcomes of implementing policy for water quality improvement may not occur without a step change in investment into monitoring systems. Emerging sampling technologies have potential to reduce the cost, but existing monitoring networks may also have to be rationalised to provide evidence that water quality is meeting objectives. Our study has important implications for investment decisions involving balancing the need for intensively sampled sites where changes in water quality occur rapidly versus other sites which provide long-term time series.

Examination of the factors contributing to environmental degradation: does LPG consumption still matter?

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is one of the energy resources that deserve to be qualified as a transition fuel for developing countries that cannot abandon their dependence on non-renewable energy use and adopt renewable alternatives. The current study examines how environmental degradation is affected by financial development, LPG use, and economic growth in the BRICS-T countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Turkiye) in the period of 1993-2018. For this purpose, four models were tested with Pedroni, Kao, PMG Panel ARDL cointegration and Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality methods. The results show that LPG consumption has a positive effect on the ecological footprint and an adverse influence on the CO2 emission of BRICS - T countries. The financial institutions exhibited to have a positive and significant impact on ecology. Economic growth displayed negative effects on environmental degradation and a positive influence on CO2. Additionally, there is significant evidence for the validity of the EKC hypothesis. Unidirectional causality exists between ecological footprint, LPG, financial market, and economic growth. The financial institution index shows bidirectional causality with the ecological footprint. There is also unidirectional causality between ecological footprint, LPG, financial market, and economic growth. Furthermore, the financial institutions' index shows a bidirectional causality with the ecological footprint. Also, economic development and financial institution index have a bidirectional relationship with CO2 emissions. On the other hand, the financial market index showed unidirectional causality with CO2 emissions. In short, our study highlights the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to sustainable development in BRICS - T countries. Policymakers must balance economic growth with environmental protection and consider the potential trade-offs between policy options to promote sustainable and inclusive development.

Green Social Prescribing in Practice: A Case Study of Walsall, UK.

This paper presents a case study of Green Social Prescribing (GSP) in Walsall, a medium-sized urban area located in the West Midlands, UK. GSP is a means of enabling health professionals to refer people to a range of local non-clinical nature-based activities, e.g., community gardening and conservation volunteering. As a new practice to address multiple challenges in health and sustainability, GSP has been promoted by the UK government and the NHS in the past few years. There is as yet limited evidence and knowledge about how this approach is implemented at a local level. This paper addresses this gap of knowledge, by exploring how GSP is implemented in Walsall as a case study. Based on extensive engagement and research activities with the local partners to collect data, this paper reveals the local contexts of GSP, the referral pathways, and people's lived experience, discussing the challenges, barriers, and opportunities in delivering GSP at the local level. This study suggests that a more collaborative and genuine place-based approach is essential, and alongside GSP, investment into infrastructure is needed to move the health paradigm further from 'prevention' to 'promotion' so that more people can benefit from what nature can offer.

Dynamic risk connectedness of crude oil price and sustainable investment in the United States: evidence from DCC-GARCH.

Sustainable investment is widely regarded as an important market-based approach to achieving inclusive green growth. To achieve the inclusive green growth objective, companies providing sustainable products must be profitable enough to attract private capital. Oil price changes can however affect the profitability of such companies. This study assesses volatility transmission between crude oil prices and sustainable investment in the USA. Using the dynamic conditional correlation-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (DCC-GARCH) method, daily data from September 28, 2012, to October 19, 2022, is analyzed. There are several key findings from this analysis. The risk connectedness of crude oil and sustainable investment is found to vary with time. Results further show that the risk connectedness increases in periods of important economic and geopolitical events. The greatest risk connectedness of crude oil and sustainable investment is observed during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Moreover, the result shows that crude oil is the main risk transmitter, whereas, both the energy efficiency and pollution mitigation indices (i.e., sustainable investment) are risk receivers, and crude oil is constantly dominating sustainable investment. The study findings provide valuable insights for investors and policymakers alike.

CVS Health's Acquisition of Oak Street Health Reconfirms Market Viability of Private Equity Investment in Value-Based Payment Models for Primary Care.

For over a decade and for the foreseeable future, federal agencies have made efforts to promote value-based care through various incentive schemes, such as the recent "Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care." Federal incentive schemes and other "macro tailwinds" have brought in private equity investors, especially in the context of primary care for Medicare beneficiaries. Oak Street Health and its private equity backers were pioneers in this space, applying buy-and-build strategies to create "next-generation" primary care networks "that focus largely or entirely on Medicare Advantage enrollees." Although Oak Street Health persuasively established a workable "playbook" for private equity investment in value-based care, and forecasts have been favorable, the ultimate market viability of this value-based playbook hinges on whether or not private equity investors can locate corporate buyers. The market viability of such a strategy has now been reconfirmed by the acquisition of Oak Street Health by CVS Health ("CVS"), announced February 8, 2023, and closed May 2, 2023, especially given that the incentives and the efficiencies associated with this deal are likely to be applicable to large-scale vertically integrated "payvider" corporations more generally. This Recent Transaction Comment examines CVS's acquisition of Oak Street Health to consider what factors might lead vertically integrated health care corporations to acquire value-based primary care networks in the future, and what knock on effects such acquisitions might have on future private equity buyouts in health care.

Analyzing the innovation ability of listed companies in the core area of the Huaihai economic zone.

The strategic position of the core area of the Huaihai Economic Zone is very important. The evaluation and analysis of the listed companies' innovation ability in this core area effectively reflect the level of innovation ability of regional enterprises and uncover the differences and influencing factors of the enterprise innovation ability level across different cities and industries; this would provide a reference for further improving the enterprise innovation ability level in the Huaihai Economic Zone. Given this context, data are collected from the CSMAR database on 37 listed companies in eight cities in the Huaihai Economic Zone core area from 2017 to 2021, and an innovation ability evaluation index is constructed from the innovation input and innovation output dimensions of listed companies. The results show that the innovation ability of listed companies in the region is weak; the main reason for the lack of innovation ability of listed companies is the lack of capital investment and talent investment; the innovation primacy of Xuzhou listed enterprises is not high. Finally, in view of the improvement of the innovation ability of listed enterprises in the core field, corresponding suggestions are put forward from the aspects of increasing innovation investment, optimizing the innovation environment and improving the innovation leading force in Xuzhou.

Meditation for role of productive capacities and green investment on ecological footprint in BRI countries.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a development strategy with a focus on enhancing connectivity, promoting economic growth, and improving people's livelihoods. However, it has also raised concerns about its effect on the environment. This study explores the impact of productive capacities and green investment in mitigating the ecological footprint of BRI countries. The role of productive capacities on ecological footprint is very little discussed in earlier studies. This study investigates the effect of productive capacities index and green investment on ecological footprint for 42 BRI participating countries covering the time span of 2000-2018. Different methods are applied to tackle the problem of dependence of cross sections; then Lagrange multiplier bootstrap method is applied to find co-integration. The long run relationship is uncovered by "augmented mean group" (AMG) and "common correlated effects mean group" (CCEMG). The findings of the study show that both productive capacities and green investment have a significant negative impact on ecological footprint, depicting that promoting sustainable development and environmental protection is feasible through increasing productive capacities and investing in green technologies. The findings of this study have important implications for policymakers, who should focus on promoting sustainable environment by prioritizing productive capacities and green technologies.

Advancing socioecological mental health promotion intervention: A mixed methods exploration of Phase 1 Agenda Gap findings.

Introduction: Protecting and promoting the mental health of youth under 30 years of age is a priority, globally. Yet investment in mental health promotion, which seeks to strengthen the determinants of positive mental health and wellbeing, remains limited relative to prevention, treatment, and recovery. The aim of this paper is to contribute empirical evidence to guide innovation in youth mental health promotion, detailing the early outcomes of Agenda Gap, an intervention centering youth-led policy advocacy to influence positive mental health for individuals, families, communities and society. Methods: Leveraging a convergent mixed methods design, this study draws on data from n = 18 youth (ages 15 to 17) in British Columbia, Canada, who contributed to pre- and post-intervention surveys and post-intervention qualitative interviews following their participation in Agenda Gap from 2020-2021. These data are supplemented by qualitative interviews with n = 4 policy and other adult allies. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed in parallel, using descriptive statistics and reflexive thematic analysis, and then merged for interpretation. Results: Quantitative findings suggest Agenda Gap contributes to improvements in mental health promotion literacy as well as several core positive mental health constructs, such as peer and adult attachment and critical consciousness. However, these findings also point to the need for further scale development, as many of the available measures lack sensitivity to change and are unable to distinguish between higher and lower levels of the underlying construct. Qualitative findings provided nuanced insights into the shifts that resulted from Agenda Gap at the individual, family, and community level, including reconceptualization of mental health, expanded social awareness and agency, and increased capacity for influencing systems change to promote positive mental health and wellbeing. Discussion: Together, these findings illustrate the promise and utility of mental health promotion for generating positive mental health impacts across socioecological domains. Using Agenda Gap as an exemplar, this study underscores that mental health promotion programming can contribute to gains in positive mental health for individual intervention participants whilst also enhancing collective capacity to advance mental health and equity, particularly through policy advocacy and responsive action on the social and structural determinants of mental health.

Development, effective governance and environmental sustainability risk: emerging markets perspective.

The study examines the extent to which development and other key factors influence environmental sustainability risk among developing economies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Empirical analyses were carried out using panel corrected standard error (PCSE), an estimation technique by Beck and Katz, Am Polit Sci Rev, 634-647, (1995). The results suggest that development, defined by a more holistic index, has significant positive impact on CO2 emissions, but negative impact on ecological footprint among economies in the sub-region. The results further show that effective governance, corruption control and regulatory quality tend to minimize adverse impact of development on CO2 emissions, all other things being equal. Additionally, the study finds that political instability exacerbates the adverse effect of development on CO2 emissions.

Asymmetric effects of climate policy uncertainty, geopolitical risk, and crude oil prices on clean energy prices.

We investigate the asymmetric effects of climate policy uncertainty (CPU), geopolitical risk (GPR), and crude oil prices (WTI) on the realized volatility of the returns of clean energy prices (CEP) in the USA. Using the non-linear autoregressive distributed lags (NARDL) model on data from January 2001 to December 2021, we provide evidence that the effects of CPU, GPR, and WTI on CEP's returns and realized volatility differ in the short and long run and are asymmetric. An increase and decrease in CPU affect CEP's realized volatility more than returns in the long run. Notably, an increase in CPU positively affects the CEP's returns, and a decrease negatively affects CEP's returns in the short run. Moreover, an increase in GPR exerts higher effects on returns in the short run, while both an increase and a decrease in GPR have significant long-run effects. An increase or decrease in WTI shows higher effects on CEP's returns and realized volatility in the long run, while an increase in WTI shows short-run effects. Our findings provide valuable information for making investment decisions while considering the asymmetric effects of climate policy uncertainty, geopolitical risks, and crude oil prices.

Exploring the social value of Public Health Institutes: An international scoping survey and expert interviews.

Introduction: Making the case for investing in preventative public health by illustrating not only the health impact but the social, economic and environmental value of Public Health Institutes is imperative. This is captured by the concept of Social Value, which when measured, demonstrates the combined intersectoral value of public health. There is currently insufficient research and evidence to show the social value of Public Health Institutes and their work across the life course, population groups and settings, in order to make the case for more investment. Methods: During July 2021, a quantitative online self-administered questionnaire was conducted across international networks. Semi-structured interviews were also carried out with nine representatives to gain a deeper understanding. A thematic analysis was undertaken on the data collected. Results: In total, 82.3% (n = 14) were aware of the terminology of social value and 58.8% (n = 10) were aware of the economic method of Social Return on Investment. However, only two Institutes reported capturing social and community impacts within their economic analysis and only 41.2% (n = 7) currently capture or measure the social value of their actions. Interviews and survey responses indicate a lack of resources, skills and buy-in from political powers. Finally, 76.5% (n = 12) wanted to do more to understand and measure wider outcomes and impact of their actions. It was noted this can be achieved through enhancing political will, developing a community of best practice and tools. Conclusion: This research can inform future work to understand how to measure the holistic social value of Public Health Institutes, in order to strengthen institutional capacity and impact, as well as to achieve a more equitable society, and a more sustainable health system and economy, making the case for investing in public health, as we recover from COVID-19.

On the dynamic return and volatility connectedness of cryptocurrency, crude oil, clean energy, and stock markets: a time-varying analysis.

The high energy consumption of cryptocurrency transactions has raised concerns about the environment and sustainability among green investors and regulatory authorities. The current study examines the connectedness among clean energy, Bitcoin, the stock market, and crude oil empirically. The time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) is used to estimate the dynamics of connectedness in a daily dataset spanning the period November 11, 2013 to September 30, 2021. We find that the clean energy and traditional stock markets transmit shocks to Bitcoin and oil in terms of return, and they receive shocks in terms of volatility from Bitcoin and oil. Additionally, Bitcoin and other financial markets are only tenuously linked during non-crisis periods. Nonetheless, their connection strengthens substantially during times of crisis, such as the great cryptocurrency crash of 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. We believe that these findings can help explain how clean energy and cryptocurrency markets are linked during times of crisis.

Assessing the impact of oil and gas trading, foreign direct investment inflows, and economic growth on carbon emission for OPEC member countries.

The exploration of oil and gas contributes to green-house-gas. While exploring countries ensures economic growth, their activities also contribute to environmental pollution through carbon emissions. The 13-member states of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are the world's most important oil-producing and exporting countries. Since the safety of a country's oil and gas resources is related to the country's economic growth and environmental protection, this study aims at assessing the impact of oil and gas trading, foreign direct investment inflows, and economic growth on carbon emission for OPEC member countries. Using secondary data from 2000 to 2018, the authors utilized Stata and EViews statistical software for the empirical studies. The fully modified least squares (FMOLS) and the generalized methods of moments estimators were used for the multiple regression. The findings from the multiple regression analysis revealed a positive but statistically insignificant relationship between oil and gas export and carbon emissions. On the contrary, an inverse relationship that is statistically significant was found between foreign direct investment inflows and carbon emissions. Also, a positive and statistically significant relationship was found between economic growth and carbon emissions for OPEC member countries. The research findings contribute to previous literature on petroleum exploration activities and give clues to policy-makers and stakeholders in putting in measures to ensure economic growth while promoting environmental protection for OPEC member countries.

Does investment in palm oil trade alleviate smallholders from poverty in Africa? Investigating profitability from a biodiversity hotspot, Cameroon.

In this study we investigate whether the increasing investment in smallholder oil palm plantations that contributes to deforestation is motivated by financial gains or other factors. We evaluate the financial viability of smallholder farmers selling fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) to intermediaries or agro-industrial companies with mills, or processing the FFBs in artisanal mills to produce palm oil. We use data collected in four oil palm production basins in Cameroon and carried out a life cycle assessment of oil palm cultivation and CPO production to understand financial gains. We use payback period (PBP), internal rate of return (IRR), benefit cost ratio (BCR) and net present value (NPV) for 1 ha of oil palm plantation over 28 years at a base discount rate of 8% to asses viability. Our results show that smallholders make more money processing their FFBs in artisanal mills to produce CPO than selling FFBs to intermediaries or agro-industrial companies with mills. The sensitivity analysis show that land ownership is the single most important parameter in the profitability of investment in palm oil cultivation and trade. In addition to land cost, smallholders suffer from borrowing at high interest rates, high field management costs, while recording low on-farm FFB/processing yields. To improve the financial viability of smallholders investing in oil palm cultivation, measures are needed to encourage them to access land, get loans at reduced interest rates, reduce the cost of field management, adopt good agricultural practices to improve on-farm FFB/processing yields, as well as to generate additional revenue from the sale of other products.

One CGIAR and the Integrated Agri-food Systems Initiative: From short-termism to transformation of the world's food systems.

Agri-food systems are besieged by malnutrition, yield gaps, and climate vulnerability, but integrated, research-based responses in public policy, agricultural, value chains, and finance are constrained by short-termism and zero sum thinking. As they respond to current and emerging agri-food system challenges, decision makers need new tools that steer toward multi-sector, evidence-based collaboration. To support national agri-food system policy processes, the Integrated Agri-food System Initiative (IASI) methodology was developed and validated through case studies in Mexico and Colombia. This holistic, multi-sector methodology builds on diverse existing data resources and leverages situation analysis, modeled predictions, and scenarios to synchronize public and private action at the national level toward sustainable, equitable, and inclusive agri-food systems. Culminating in collectively agreed strategies and multi-partner tactical plans, the IASI methodology enabled a multi-level systems approach by mobilizing design thinking to foster mindset shifts and stakeholder consensus on sustainable and scalable innovations that respond to real-time dynamics in complex agri-food systems. To build capacity for these types of integrated, context-specific approaches, greater investment is needed in supportive international institutions that function as trusted in-region 'innovation brokers.' This paper calls for a structured global network to advance adaptation and evolution of essential tools like the IASI methodology in support of the One CGIAR mandate and in service of positive agri-food systems transformation.

The scale and structure of government financial investment in traditional medicine based on optimal efficiency: evidence from public traditional Chinese medicine hospitals (PTHs) of Henan province, China.

BACKGROUND: Traditional medicine has been widely used to address relatively common illnesses. In this regard, Chinese government has been continually topping up its investments on public Traditional Chinese Medicine hospitals (PTHs) in recent years. This study aimed to assess the optimal scales and structure of the investments in Henan province by analyzing the contribution of Government Financial Investment (GFI) to the efficiency and revenue growth of PTHs as well as recommending proper investment strategies for implementation to policy-makers. METHODS: This study was a panel data study, conducted in Henan Province, China. By collecting 143 PTHs' operational data from the year 2005 to 2017, Barro Economic Growth (BEG) model, Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model were used to assess the efficiency and PTHs revenue. RESULTS: The study observed the positive contribution of GFI to PTHs' revenue growth (average MPG = 2.84), indicating that the GFI had not reached the required optimal level of "Barro Law". In order to maximize the input-output efficiency, the scales of GFI on Grade III, Grade II A, Grade II B PTHs need to be increased by - 5.96, 4.88 and 11.51%, respectively. The third year following the first investment may be a more essential period for conducting an effective GFI evaluation in Henan Province. CONCLUSIONS: GFI on PTHs usually has a long-term impact on PTHs. Governments can adjust its GFI policy so as to maximize the input-output efficiency.

For the children? A mixed methods analysis of World Bank structural adjustment loans, health projects, and infant mortality in Latin America.

BACKGROUND: The World Bank wields immense financial and normative power in health in the developing world. During the 1980s and 1990s, in the face of intense criticism of its structural adjustment policies, the World Bank purportedly turned its attention to "pro-growth and pro-poor" policies and new lending instruments. One focus has been an investment in maternal and infant health. My analysis uses a mixed methods approach to examine the relationship between traditional structural adjustment and health loans and projects and infant mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean from 2000 to 2015. RESULTS: My answer to whether the World Bank's projects in Latin America worked "for the children" is: somewhat. The results are heartening in that quantitatively, health projects are associated with lower infant mortality rates, net of controls, whereas traditional structural adjustment loans do not appear to be negatively associated with infant mortality, though examined across a short time horizon. Qualitative data suggest that infants, children, and mothers are considered in World Bank loans and projects in the context of an economic logic: focusing on productivity, economic growth, and human capital, rather than human rights. CONCLUSION: Taken together, my results suggest that the World Bank appears to, at least partially, have amended its approach and its recent work in the region is associated with reductions in infant mortality. However, the World Bank's economistic approach risks compartmentalizing healthcare and reducing people to their economic potential. As such, there remains work to do, in Latin America and beyond, if health interventions are to be effective at sustainably and holistically protecting vulnerable groups.

Dynamic interactions between oil price and exchange rate.

This paper contributes to better understand the dynamic interactions between effective exchange rate (EER) and oil price for an oil-importing country like the U.S. by considering a Time-Varying Parameter VAR model with the use of monthly data from 1974:01 to 2019:07. Our findings show a depreciation after an oil price shock in the short-run for any period of time, although the pattern of long-run responses of U.S. EER is diverse across time periods, with an appreciation being observed before the mid-2000s and after the mid-2010s, and a depreciation between both periods. This diversity of response should lead policy makers to react differently in order to counteract such shocks. Furthermore, the reaction of oil price to an appreciation of U.S. EER is negative and different over time, which may generate different adverse effects on investment. The knowledge of such effects may help financial investors to diversify their investments in order to optimize the risk-return profile of their portfolios.