Non-farm employment, natural resource extraction, and poverty: evidence from household data for rural Vietnam.

Natural resources are important in sustaining the livelihoods of rural households and the environment. However, over-exploitation is causing an alarming depletion of natural resources in many developing countries. At the same time, rapid economic growth has created non-farm employment opportunities for local people. In this context, examining the interrelationship between non-farm employment and natural resource extraction provides useful information for reducing resource extraction and improving rural households' welfare. In this study, we use a dataset of 1780 identical households from three survey waves undertaken in 2010, 2013, and 2016 in Vietnam to (i) identify the determinants of rural households' participation in non-farm activities, (ii) examine the interrelationship between non-farm employment and natural resource extraction, and (iii) investigate the impact of non-farm employment on rural households' welfare. The findings from pooled sample estimations reveal that (i) cable internet at home and rural road quality positively affect households' decisions to participate in non-farm employment; (ii) non-farm income and income from natural resource extraction have a negative association; and (iii) non-farm income significantly contributes to poverty reduction in both relative and absolute terms. Our findings suggest that improved provision of non-farm opportunities and increased investment in infrastructure and telecommunication are needed to improve rural households' welfare and consequently reduce their natural resource exploitation.

The impact of economic growth on environmental efficiency of the electricity sector: A hybrid window DEA methodology for the USA.

This paper estimates the efficiency of the power generation sector in the USA by using Window Data Envelopment Analysis (W-DEA). We integrate radial and non-radial efficiency measurements in DEA using the hybrid measure while we extend the proposed model by considering good and undesirable outputs as separable and non separable. Then in the second stage, we perform parametric and non-parametric econometric techniques in order to model the relationship between the calculated environmental efficiencies and economic growth in attaining sustainability. Our empirical findings indicate a stable N-shape relationship between environmental efficiency and regional economic growth in the case of global and total pollutants but an inverted N-shape in the case of local pollutants. This implies that attention is required when considering local and global pollutants and the extracted environmental efficiency scores. A clear message to policy makers and government officials is that climate change which calls for economic, environmental and social concern should be analyzed according to its dispersion and regional dimension.

Sustainable development in an N-rich/n-poor world.

Sustainable development requires that per capita inclusive wealth-produced, human, and natural capital-does not decline over time. We investigate the impact of changes in nitrogen on inclusive wealth. There are two sides to the nitrogen problem. Excess use of nitrogen in some places gives rise to N-pollution, which can cause environmental damage. Insufficient replacement of nitrogen in other places gives rise to N-depletion, or loss of nutrient stocks. Neither is explicitly accounted for in current wealth measures, but both affect wealth. We calculate an index of net N-replacement, and investigate its relationship to wealth. In countries with low levels of relative N-loss, we find that the uncompensated loss of soil nitrogen in poorer countries is associated with declining rates of growth of inclusive per capita wealth. What is less intuitive is that increasing fertilizer application in both rich and poor countries can increase per capita inclusive wealth.

Evaluation of the genetic damage to workers in a Greek shipyard.

Shipyards are industrial areas where workers are likely exposed to environmental pollutants such as welding fumes, fine organic solvent and dye dust, that render the occupational environment a high risk one. Assessing the risk that workers are exposed to is a high critical factor in improving their working conditions. The present study aims to investigate the potential genetic damage to workers exposed to a harsh environment in a Greek shipyard. It is focused on assessing the percentage of induced micronuclei, as well as on changes in the various cell types of shipyard workers' oral mucosa epithelium by implementing the buccal micronucleus cytome assay. Exposed workers appeared with statistically significant induced micronuclei as compared to office employees. Statistically, significant cell lesions were detected and are related to workers' exposure to environmental conditions. The workers' smoking habit contributed as well to the observed buccal epithelial cell alterations. The observed data signify the high-risk workers are exposed; resulting in the shipyard's management the need to implement measures improving the working environment conditions and to reevaluate the workers' personal protective equipment requirements.

Can We Hedge an Investment Against A Potential Unexpected Environmental Disaster?

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is a possible hedging technique against a potential unexpected hazard, that can secure the capital invested by individuals or corporations. More specifically, the traditional hedging techniques are presented and illustrating whether they can be applicable against unexpected environmental disasters. Moreover, the evolution of hedging techniques regarding the catastrophe disasters are presented in the papers. After illustrating hazard-prone areas with the use of mapping visualization, techniques or catastrophe risk management and risk minimizations are proposed in an attempt to reduce the direct and indirect losses after a disastrous events while at the same time increase the trustworthiness of corporations and governments. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41885-021-00085-4.

The relationship between MSW and education: WKC evidence from 25 OECD countries.

Nowadays municipal solid waste (MSW) has become a vital part of the economy, both as an output of human activities and as an input in the economy through material or energy recovery. Education has been shown to be closely related to the amount of MSW generated. The present research uses panel data obtained for 25 world counties for the years 1995-2016 and the examined variables include MSW, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and education level. Through econometric methods, the present paper accounts for the presence of cross section dependence and uses appropriate panel unit root tests to discover feasible cointegrated relationships. Also it strongly accounts for the interdependence between MSW, economic growth and education level. Based on these, the validity of the Waste Kuznets Curve (WKC) hypothesis is redefined. Specifically, an inverted U-shape relationship is observed both in the static and dynamic analyses for MSW. The calculated turning points although quite high they are in all cases within the sample. In all specifications the sign of education level is negative as expected. Therefore it is shown that education can act as an effective tool to enhance pro-environmental behaviour leading in turn to lower MSW arisings.

A conditional nonparametric analysis for measuring the efficiency of regional public healthcare delivery: an application to Greek prefectures.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to measure the Greek public healthcare delivery efficiency from a regional perspective by applying conditional nonparametric models. METHODS: The study reviews the existing literature on performance measurement and proposes models on these grounds. By using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and free disposal hull (FDH) models, the performance of public health delivery services of the Greek prefectures is evaluated. The efficiency levels of the Greek prefectures are compared and analyzed in a regional context. By using convex and non-convex models alongside with bootstrap techniques and conditional full frontier applications the paper develops models for regional public health delivery policy evaluation. RESULTS: The paper shows that higher levels of GDP per capita (GDPc) have a negative influence on the efficiency of regional healthcare delivery, indicating that regional economic growth does not ensure better healthcare delivery service. Furthermore the results reveal that population density increases the prefectures' efficiency of public health provision, indicating the over-supply of health services by urban hospitals. Finally, several healthcare delivery inefficiencies have been reported among the Greek prefectures emphasizing a poor state of healthcare delivery. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that after the reform of the Greek national healthcare system in 2000-2002, the absence of a unified healthcare policy was accompanied with misallocation of healthcare resources among the Greek prefectures creating socioeconomic health inequalities.