scholarly journals Corruption, Economic Development and Haze Pollution: Evidence from 139 Global Countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yajie Liu ◽  
Feng Dong

Long-term exposure to haze pollution will not only affect citizens’ health and shorten their life expectancy, but also cause unpredictable economic losses. In addition, it has become the focus of worldwide concern whether and how institutional quality affects haze pollution. In this study, we explored the impacts of political corruption on haze pollution in 139 global countries. We employed a geographical detector model to identify the driving factors of spatial differentiation in global haze pollution. In addition, corruption degree and per capita gross domestic production (GDP) were used as threshold variables to analyze whether there is a nonlinear relationship between corruption and haze pollution. The main results are as follows. (1) The corruption perception index (CPI) was negatively correlated with haze pollution and had a strong and stable explanatory power for the heterogeneity of haze pollution. Besides, the degree of corruption had a significant triple threshold effect on haze pollution. When the CPI crossed the double threshold value, strengthening institutional quality could inhibit haze pollution. (2) Per capita GDP significantly determined how institutional quality exerted an effect on haze pollution, which was also a key factor affecting spatial heterogeneity of PM2.5 concentration. In high-income countries, choosing a more honest ruling party could substantially reduce haze pollution, while in low-income countries, an incompetent government could increase the degree of haze pollution. (3) The “Matthew effect” was manifested in our study. It indicated that the higher was the level of economic development, the lower was the severity of haze pollution. Based on these results, we state that policy makers cannot simply alleviate haze pollution through anti-corruption construction. For low-income countries, ensuring economic growth is the prerequisite for the substantial alleviation of haze pollution. On the contrary, high-income countries should pay more attention to the integrity of government institutions and strengthen the awareness of anti-corruption.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon Heo ◽  
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen ◽  
Nguyen Khanh Doanh

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze the impacts of institutional quality on trade flows of NAFTA with a panel data set of 105 countries spanning the period 2006–2017.Design/methodology/approachWe applied the system generalized method of moment (GMM) estimator to investigate the impacts.FindingsThe results show that institutional quality is a positive and significant determinant of international trade flows of the NAFTA bloc and its trading partners. Our results also indicate that the impact of institutional quality depends on the level of economic development of NAFTA's trading partners. Specifically, the trade elasticity of institutional quality is the highest for NAFTA’s trade with middle-income countries and the lowest for NAFTA's trade with low-income countries. In the long run, the trade elasticity of institutional quality increased significantly, with the highest increase in the case of NAFTA's trade with medium-income countries and the lowest increase in the case of NAFTA's trade with low-income countries.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing literature in three different ways. First, we examine the differential impact of institutions on NAFTA's trade according to the level of economic development of NAFTA's trading partners. Second, we compare the differential trade elasticity of institutional quality in the long run. Finally, we support our findings through an improved research methodology by using the system GMM estimation. This method allows us to overcome the potential sample bias, omitted variable problems and endogeneity of explanatory variables.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 512-531
Author(s):  
Laxmi Koju ◽  
Ghulam Abbas ◽  
Shouyang Wang

Abstract This paper explores the macroeconomic determinants of non-performing loans (NPL) in 19 Asian countries (low to high income economies) using the Generalized Method of Moments estimation approach based on the economic data for the period between 1998 and 2015. The categorization of the economies is based on the average gross national income per capita as set by the World Bank. Specifically, the paper aims to evaluate if the determinants of NPL vary with the income levels of the countries. The results indicate that the NPL is strongly influenced by the inflation rate. The effect is, however, negative in the high-income and the middle-income countries and positive in the low-income countries. The GDP per capita has a dynamic negative relationship with the NPL in the high-income and the low-income countries. The remittance has a significant positive association in the high-income and a significant negative association in the low-income countries. Similarly, the unemployment rate has a positive effect on NPL in the middle-income and the low-income countries. With the rise in the official exchange rate, the NPL level increases in the low-income countries. The overall estimation results suggest that the NPL in Asian banking system depend on some key macroeconomic variables, such as unemployment rate, inflation rate, official exchange rate, remittance received and gross domestic product per capita, and these associations vary with the income level of the countries. Therefore, economic level of a country should be carefully considered while formulating credit policy to minimize credit risks in the banking system.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 139-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Korotayev ◽  
Julia Zinkina

Purpose – A substantial number of researchers have investigated the global economic dynamics of this time to disprove unconditional convergence and refute its very idea, stating the phenomenon of conditional convergence instead. However, most respective papers limit their investigation period with the early or mid-2000s. In the authors’ opinion, some of the global trends which revealed themselves particularly clearly in the second half of the 2000s call for a revision of the convergence issue. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Several methodologies for measuring the global convergence/divergence trends exist in the economic literature. This paper seeks to contribute to the existing literature on unconditional β-convergence of the per capita incomes at the global level. Findings – In the recent years, the gap between high-income and middle-income countries is decreasing especially rapidly. The gap between high-income and low-income countries, meanwhile, is decreasing at a much slower pace. At the same time, the gap between middle-income and low-income countries is actually widening. Indeed, in the early 1980s GDP per capita in the low-income countries was on average three times lower than in the middle-income countries, and this gap was totally overshadowed by the more than ten-time abyss between the middle-income and the high-income countries. Now, however, the GDP per capita in low-income countries lags behind the middle-income ones by more than five times, which is largely the same as the gap (rapidly contracting in the recent years) between the high-income and the middle-income countries. This clearly suggests that the configuration of the world system has experienced a very significant transformation in the recent 30 years. Research limitations/implications – The research concentrates upon the dynamics of the gap in per capita income between the high-income, the middle-income, and the low-income countries. Originality/value – This paper's originality/value lies in drawing attention to the specific changes in the structure of global convergence/divergence patterns and their implications for the low-income countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wisarut Suwanprasert

Abstract While recent studies use asymmetric trade costs and non-homothetic preference to explain why trade grows strongly with income per capita, this paper proposes a new explanation using a random search framework based on Burdett and Judd (1983). I show that the values of international trade flows as a share of income are generally larger in high-income countries because the markups in high-income countries are generally larger than those in low-income countries. In addition, firms’ price setting strategy creates an endogenous wedge between bilateral trade flow and gains from trade.


2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Violeta Achim ◽  
Sorin Nicolae Borlea ◽  
Viorela Ligia Văidean

AbstractThis paper investigates the influence of culture on the level of entrepreneurship and the possible moderating role of the level of economic development upon this relationship. For our purpose, an initial sample of 125 countries (43 high-income and 82 low-income countries) is used, over the 2006–2016 time period. At first, we use a panel analysis of the reduced sample which is furthermore completed by a hierarchical regression analysis. Our main results provide clear evidence that culture represents an important predictor of the level of entrepreneurship. Among the dimensions of culture, uncertainty avoidance and indulgence versus restraint are found to have the highest influence upon the level of entrepreneurship. Moreover, our empirical findings reveal that the relationship between culture and entrepreneurship is moderated differently by economic development. Thus, high-income countries face a three times higher rate of entrepreneurship than low-income countries. Our findings suggest that culture is more valued in high-income countries offering a higher social support in entrepreneurial activities than in low-income countries. We also find that some cultural patterns such as individualism, femininity, low uncertainly avoidance, short-term orientation or restrain may stimulate entrepreneurship in high-income countries but may be very dysfunctional in low-income countries. Our findings are also useful for policy makers to acknowledge the relationship between the cultural values of a country and its entrepreneurial activities, in order to adjust their policy measures for a better stimulation of the business environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. E13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Dewan ◽  
Ronnie E. Baticulon ◽  
Abbas Rattani ◽  
James M. Johnston ◽  
Benjamin C. Warf ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVEThe presence and capability of existing pediatric neurosurgical care worldwide is unknown. The objective of this study was to solicit the expertise of specialists to quantify the geographic representation of pediatric neurosurgeons, access to specialist care, and equipment and training needs globally.METHODSA mixed-question survey was sent to surgeon members of several international neurosurgical and general pediatric surgical societies via a web-based platform. Respondents answered questions on 5 categories: surgeon demographics and training, hospital and practice details, surgical workforce and access to neurosurgical care, training and equipment needs, and desire for international collaboration. Responses were anonymized and analyzed using Stata software.RESULTSA total of 459 surgeons from 76 countries responded. Pediatric neurosurgeons in high-income and upper-middle-income countries underwent formal pediatric training at a greater rate than surgeons in low- and lower-middle-income countries (89.5% vs 54.4%). There are an estimated 2297 pediatric neurosurgeons in practice globally, with 85.6% operating in high-income and upper-middle-income countries. In low- and lower-middle-income countries, roughly 330 pediatric neurosurgeons care for a total child population of 1.2 billion. In low-income countries in Africa, the density of pediatric neurosurgeons is roughly 1 per 30 million children. A higher proportion of patients in low- and lower-middle-income countries must travel > 2 hours to seek emergency neurosurgical care, relative to high-income countries (75.6% vs 33.6%, p < 0.001). Vast basic and essential training and equipment needs exist, particularly low- and lower-middle-income countries within Africa, South America, the Eastern Mediterranean, and South-East Asia. Eighty-nine percent of respondents demonstrated an interest in international collaboration for the purposes of pediatric neurosurgical capacity building.CONCLUSIONSWide disparity in the access to pediatric neurosurgical care exists globally. In low- and lower-middle-income countries, wherein there exists the greatest burden of pediatric neurosurgical disease, there is a grossly insufficient presence of capable providers and equipped facilities. Neurosurgeons across income groups and geographic regions share a desire for collaboration and partnership.


The Lancet ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 390 (10113) ◽  
pp. 2643-2654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott A Lear ◽  
Weihong Hu ◽  
Sumathy Rangarajan ◽  
Danijela Gasevic ◽  
Darryl Leong ◽  
...  

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