Economy Trade-off Research Articles

Quantifying the Health–Economy Trade-Offs: Mathematical Model of COVID-19 Pandemic Dynamics

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a complex situation that requires a balance between control measures like lockdowns and easing restrictions. Control measures can limit the spread of the virus but can also cause economic and social issues. Easing restrictions can support economic recovery but may increase the risk of virus transmission. Mathematical approaches can help address these trade-offs by modeling the interactions between factors such as virus transmission rates, public health interventions, and economic and social impacts. A study using a susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model with modified discrete time was conducted to determine the cost of handling COVID-19. The results showed that, without government intervention, the number of patients rejected by health facilities and the cost of handling a pandemic increased significantly. Lockdown intervention provided the least number of rejected patients compared to social distancing, but the costs of handling the pandemic in the lockdown scenario remained higher than those of social distancing. This research demonstrates that mathematical approaches can help identify critical junctures in a pandemic, such as limited health system capacity or high transmission rates, that require rapid response and appropriate action. By using mathematical analysis, decision-makers can develop more effective and responsive strategies, considering the various factors involved in the virus’s spread and its impact on society and the economy.

Rally and Rage: The Gap between Specific and Pandemic-Specific Support for Governments in Europe

In times of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public generally expressed high pandemic-specific support for their governments. Analysis based on ESS Round 10 COVID-19 module data from 20 countries shows, however, that there was a gap between pandemic-specific and specific support for governments in European states. A positive gap in favor of pandemic-specific support for governments was found among 52.7% of the respondents, while a negative trend was observed among 24.0% of the respondents. Younger people, those self-employed or working for family businesses, students, those with better subjective health, and people who tested positive for or thought they had suffered from COVID-19 expressed less satisfaction with the government’s handling of COVID-19 in their country compared to general satisfaction with national government performance. Political opinions affected the support gap too; people who were satisfied with the way democracy works, were less trusting of their government’s ability to control the spread of the pathogen, preferred their own decisions over compliance with government restrictions, and perceived that their government failed to manage the health–economy trade-off restrained their pandemic-specific support for the government as well.

Economic Considerations and Public Support for Environment Policy in East and Southeast Asia

AbstractThe “environment–economy trade-off” is a key question in research on public opinion on environmental policies. While evidence from Western economies suggests that individuals are more supportive of environmental initiatives when the macroeconomic situation is favorable, little is known about how environmental policy preferences are shaped by economic factors in East and Southeast Asian countries. Using a survey dataset consisting of 12 countries based on the fourth wave of the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS), we investigate how environmental policy preferences are associated with multiple aspects of economic consideration. In a pooled multilevel analysis, we find that personal economic conditions and perceptions are more consistently associated with greater support for environmental initiatives than objective and subjective national economic conditions. However, an analysis of the heterogeneous effect shows that the effect of individual economic situations is only partially identifiable among lower-middle or upper-income countries in our sample, signaling the complexity of qualifying the relationship between economic considerations and environmental attitudes in a cross-country context.

Is there an environment and economy tradeoff for the National Key Ecological Function Area policy in China?

China implemented the National Key Ecological Function Area (NKEFA) policy, the world's largest ecological compensation program, aimed to breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation. However, previous studies have often overlooked the poverty and environment impact of the policy and paid little attention to the distortions it may have inadvertently fostered. This study used panel data from 1749 county-level units from 2002 to 2020, supplemented with remote sensing and Geographical Information System data, to quantify ecological poverty indicators. Subsequently, a multi-period difference-in-differences model was deployed to identify the impact of the NKEFA policy on ecological poverty and rural residents' incomes in the pilot counties. Finally, the mechanisms of policy effectiveness were examined from the perspective of administrative constraints and fiscal incentives. The results show that, firstly, the NKEFA policy has exerted a substantial positive impact on both ecological poverty and rural residents' income growth. However, ecological poverty reduction displayed a rebound effect characterized by initial improvement followed by deterioration, primarily due to inadequate incentives, leading to local government distortion behavior. Meanwhile, rural residents' incomes exhibited a consistent upward trend. Secondly, the improvement of ecological poverty is premised on weakening industrial development incentives and aided by some level of ecological migration. However, this also leads to reduced fiscal revenues, increased fiscal expenditures, and expanded fiscal deficits. The significant increase in rural residents' income largely depends on the financial intervention of local governments, especially the non-agricultural income brought about by the transfer and transformation of non-agricultural labor, as well as the agricultural income brought about by the improvement of agricultural production and efficiency. Thirdly, the NKEFA policy has yielded more apparent improvements for ecologically impoverished, resource-dependent, economically strong, and industrial backbone counties. However, resource-dependent and industrial backbone counties have experienced negative income effects. These findings provide a practical Chinese-style example of global eco-poverty reduction policies in developing countries.

Coronavirus pandemic in the South Asia region: Health policy and economy trade-off

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) covers Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. We conducted a comparative analysis of the trade-off between the health policies for the prevention of COVID-19 spread and the impact of these policies on the economies and livelihoods of the South Asia populations. We analyzed COVID-19 data on epidemiology, public health and health policy, health system capacity, and macroeconomic indicators from January 2020 to March 2021 to determine temporal trends by conducting joinpoint regression analysis using average weekly percent change (AWPC). Bangladesh had the highest statistically significant AWPC for new COVID-19 cases (17.0; 95% CI = 7.7-27.1, P < 0.001), followed by the Maldives (12.9; 95% CI = 5.3-21.0, P < 0.001) and India (10.0; 95% CI = 8.4-11.5, P < 0.001). The AWPC for COVID-19 deaths was significant for India (6.5; 95% CI = 4.3-8.9, P < 0.001) and Bangladesh (6.1; 95% CI = 3.7-8.5, P < 0.001). Nepal (55.79%), and India (34.91%) had the second- and third-highest increase in unemployment, while Afghanistan (6.83%) and Pakistan (16.83%) had the lowest. The rate of change of real GDP had the highest decrease for Maldives (557.51%), and India (297.03%); Pakistan (46.46%) and Bangladesh (70.80%), however, had the lowest decrease. The government response stringency index for Pakistan had a see-saw pattern with a sharp decline followed by an increase in the government health policy restrictions that approximated the test-positivity trend. Unlike developed economies, the South Asian developing countries experienced a trade-off between health policy and their economies during the COVID-19 pandemic. South Asian countries (Nepal and India), with extended periods of lockdowns and a mismatch between temporal trends of government response stringency index and the test-positivity or disease incidence, had higher adverse economic effects, unemployment, and burden of COVID-19. Pakistan demonstrated targeted lockdowns with a rapid see-saw pattern of government health policy response that approximated the test-positivity trend and resulted in lesser adverse economic effects, unemployment, and burden of COVID-19.

Sustainable economy trade-offs and conflicts in and with the forest (Research Trend)

Sustainable economy trade-offs and conflicts in and with the forest (Research Trend)

Hydro-economic model framework for achieving groundwater, food, and economy trade-offs by optimizing crop patterns

When allocating water resources, stakeholders (such as water departments, agricultural sector actors, and farmers) aim to maximize their benefits. This leads to conflicts between water savings, food security, and profit growth, causing major challenges for water managers. A hydro-economic model was developed to alleviate groundwater sustainability, food security, and economic growth (GFE) conflicts through crop pattern optimization. This model combines groundwater, agronomic, and economic sub-models to simulate spatiotemporal variations in groundwater level, irrigation requirement, crop production, and net profit. The NSGA-II algorithm was used to maximize net profits while minimizing groundwater extraction and food reduction through crop pattern optimization in irrigation areas and under crop production constraints. Then, using the Baoding Plain as the study area, three scenarios with no external water supply and nine scenarios with an external water supply of 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 km3/y were designed. The present crop pattern caused a groundwater decline of 0.32 m/y and an overdraft of 0.61 km3/y. The three scenarios without external water supply showed different options for maximizing net profit, minimizing groundwater extraction, and minimizing food reduction without affecting food production, food self-sufficiency or groundwater sustainability. All three scenarios cannot simultaneously satisfy the GFE target. With an external water supply of 0.3 km3/y, only one scenario met the GFE target; with that of 0.6 km3/y, all scenarios met the GFE target; and with that of 0.9 km3/y, groundwater levels increased, profits overflowed, and food overproduction occurred.

Coronavirus pandemic in the Nordic countries: Health policy and economy trade-off.

BackgroundCountries making up the Nordic region – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden – have minimal socioeconomic, cultural, and geographical differences between them, allowing for a fair comparative analysis of the health policy and economy trade-off in their national approaches towards mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThis study utilized publicly available COVID-19 data of the Nordic countries from January 2020 to January 3, 2021. COVID-19 epidemiology, public health and health policy, health system capacity, and macroeconomic data were analysed for each Nordic country. Joinpoint regression analysis was performed to identify changes in temporal trends using average monthly percent change (AMPC) and average weekly percent change (AWPC).ResultsSweden’s health policy, being by far the most relaxed response to COVID-19, was found to have the largest COVID-19 incidence and mortality, and the highest AWPC increases for both indicators (13.5, 95% CI = 5.6, 22.0, P < 0.001; 6.3, 95% CI = 3.5, 9.1, P < 0.001). Denmark had the highest number of COVID-19 tests per capita, consistent with their approach of increased testing as a preventive strategy for disease transmission. Iceland had the second-highest number of tests per capita due to their mass-testing, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation response. Only Norway had a significant increase in unemployment (AMPC = 2.8%, 95% CI = 0.7-4.9, P < 0.009) while the percentage change in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was insignificant for all countries.ConclusionsThere was no trade-off between public health policy and economy during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nordic region. Sweden’s relaxed and delayed COVID-19 health policy response did not benefit the economy in the short term, while leading to disproportionate COVID-19 hospitalizations and mortality.

Deciphering the COVID-19 Health Economic Dilemma (HED): A Scoping Review.

Lessons learnt from the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak indicate the need for a more coordinated economic and public health response. While social distancing has been shown to be effective as a non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) measure to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the economic costs have been substantial. Insights combining epidemiological and economic data provide new theoretical predictions that can be used to better understand the health economy tradeoffs. This literature review aims to elucidate perspectives to assist policy implementation related to the management of the ongoing and impending outbreaks regarding the Health Economic Dilemma (HED). This review unveiled the need for information-based decision-support systems which will combine pandemic spread modelling and control, with economic models. It is expected that the current review will not only support policy makers but will also provide researchers on the development of related decision-support-systems with comprehensive information on the various aspects of the HED.

On the effectiveness of tracking and testing in SEIR models for improving health vs. economy trade-offs

We study the effectiveness of tracking and testing policies for suppressing epidemic outbreaks. We evaluate the performance of tracking-based intervention methods on a network SEIR model, which we augment with an additional parameter to model pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, and study the effectiveness of these methods in combination with or as an alternative to quarantine and global lockdown policies. Our focus is on the basic trade-off between human-lives lost and economic costs, and on how this trade-off changes under different quarantine, lockdown, tracking, and testing policies. Our main findings are as follows: (1) Tests combined with patient quarantines reduce both economic costs and mortality, however, an extensive-scale testing capacity is required to achieve a significant improvement. (2) Tracking significantly reduces both economic costs and mortality. (3) Tracking combined with a moderate testing capacity can achieve containment without lockdowns. (4) In the presence of a flow of new incoming infections, dynamic “On–Off” lockdowns are more efficient than fixed lockdowns. In this setting as well, tracking strictly improves efficiency. The results show the extreme usefulness of policies that combine tracking and testing for reducing mortality and economic costs, and their potential to contain outbreaks without imposing any social distancing restrictions. This highlights the difficult social question of trading-off these gains against patient privacy, which is inevitably infringed by tracking.

A Spatially Explicit Decision Support System for Assessment of Tree Stump Harvest Using Biodiversity and Economic Criteria

Stump harvesting is predicted to increase with future increasing demands for renewable energy. This may affect deadwood affiliate biodiversity negatively, given that stumps constitute a large proportion of the coarse deadwood in young managed forests. Spatial decision support for evaluating the integrated effects on biodiversity and production of stump harvesting is needed. We developed a spatially explicit decision support system (called MapStump-DSS), for assessment of tree stump harvesting using biodiversity and economic criteria together with different scenarios for biodiversity conservation and bioenergy market prices. Two novel key aspects of the MAPStump-DSS is that it (1) merges and utilizes georeferenced stump-level data (e.g., tree species and diameter) directly from the harvester with stand data that are increasingly available to forest managers and (2) is flexible toward incorporating both quantitative and qualitative criteria based on emerging knowledge (here biodiversity criteria) or underlying societal drivers and end-user preferences. We tested the MAPStump-DSS on a 45 ha study forest, utilizing harvester data on characteristics and geographical positions for &gt;26,000 stumps. The MAPStump-DSS produced relevant spatially explicit information on the biodiversity and economic values of individual stumps, where amounts of “conflict stumps” (with both high biodiversity and economical value) increased with bioenergy price levels and strengthened biodiversity conservation measures. The MAPStump-DSS can be applied in practice for any forest site, allowing the user to examine the spatial distribution of stumps and to obtain summaries for whole forest stands. Information depicted by the MAPStump-DSS includes amounts, characteristics, biodiversity values and costs of stumps in relation to different scenarios, which also allow the user to explore and optimize biodiversity and economy trade-offs prior to stump harvest.

Effective methodology of sustainability assessment of concrete mixtures

Sustainability approach is a key conceptual principle to be considered in cement and concrete production all around the world. This study aims to enhance the methodology of a versatile effective sustainability assessment in a simple manner. The feasibility of proposed methodology is demonstrated on selected field application related to reinforced concrete bridge deck slabs where strength and durability are of prime interest. Various high-performance concrete (HPC) mixtures suitable for effective utilization in science and practice are selected as an example of the sustainability evaluation. The focus is paid to a complex sustainability assessment considering major important indicators: performance, durability, eco-costs and concrete mixtures costs and they are combined efficiently into one complex indicator applied at the early stage of design process. The enhancement in the form of such a general approach allows the consideration of these indicators and its normalization with the reference values is proposed. The results of experimental investigation on twenty-four various HPC mixtures are utilized to demonstrate the feasibility of proposed approach considering concrete’s compressive strength and its resistance against chloride-induced corrosion to serve as both performance and durability indicator. The results indicate the sustainability level of concrete mixtures and demonstrate the optimum possible choice of concrete mixtures with best performance/eco-costs/durability and economy trade off in the view of sustainability assessment.

Are Environment Versus Economy Trade-Off Questions More About Environmental or Economic Attitudes?

Are Environment Versus Economy Trade-Off Questions More About Environmental or Economic Attitudes?

Towards climate justice: How do the most vulnerable weigh environment–economy trade-offs?

The world’s poor are especially vulnerable to environmental disasters, including the adverse consequences of climate change. This creates a challenge for climate justice advocates who seek to ensure that those least responsible for causing climate change do not bear unwanted burdens of mitigation. One way to promote climate justice could be to pay particular attention to the environmental policy preferences of citizens from poorer, lower-emitting countries. This paper examines opinions on environment–economy trade-offs and willingness to make personal financial contributions to protect the environment among residents of 42 developed and developing countries using data from the 2005–2008 World Values Survey, the 2010 Climate Risk Index, and World Bank development indicators. Results reveal that individuals in developing countries are less likely to support policies to prioritize environmental protection over economic growth but are more willing to donate personal income for pro-environmental efforts compared to citizens of more developed nations.

Sustainability Trajectories of Asian and African Small and Large Enterprises

Research on sustainability has grown considerably over the past 25 years. Sustainability science research so far has revolved around four areas: biological research; geophysical research; technological research; and social research, with the last two being the foci of this special edition. The technological research niche focuses on the design of devices and systems to produce more social goods with less environmental harm, whereas social research is interested in how human institutions, economics systems and beliefs shape the interactions between societies and the environment (Kates, 2000). Most of the present efforts in these areas concentrate on multinational enterprises and large organizations, especially those of Western origin. According to Ndubisi (2008), this trend has left a wide gap in our understanding of sustainability trajectories of firms in Asia and Africa. According to Porter and van der Linde (1995), on one side of the ecology–economy trade-off are the social benefits that arise from strict environmental standards, and on the other are industry’s private costs for prevention and clean-up – costs that lead to higher prices and reduced competitiveness. Many developing nations on Asian and African continents are viewed as non-competitive, which makes strict adherence to social environmental standards a remote goal, as it is capable of worsening the existing state of non-competitiveness. Nonetheless, the growing environmentfriendly initiatives by some Asian and African businesses are beginning to challenge this idea. As such, it is timely to report the outcomes of rigorous research on sustainability trajectories, namely the nature, models, initiatives, distinct patterns over time, variability and outcomes of technological and social sustainability by Asian and African enterprises. This special issue of the Journal of Asian and African Studies focuses on technological and social research with the aim of understanding how for-profit and not-for-profit small and mediumsize enterprises (SMEs) and their larger counterparts in Asia and Africa approach the subject of sustainability and contribute towards sustainability of the business and the environment. We solicited cutting-edge research articles in the form of theoretical, empirical or case study research focusing on sustainability of Asian and African SMEs based on the following (but not limited to) topics: Business Sustainability and Succession Planning; Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Governance; Economic Development; Environmental Marketing; Environmental Quality; Ethical Business Practices; Globalization and Environmental Implications; Green Entrepreneurial Orientation; Green Production and Supply Chain; Green Technology and Innovation; Internal Marketing and Productivity Sustainability; Management of Environmental Quality; Resources Acquisition and Utilization; Sustainability of Born Global Firms; Sustainable Performance and Competitive Advantage; and Strategy and Sustainability. 493600 JAS48410.1177/0021909613493600Journal of Asian and African StudiesNdubisi 2013

Real-Time Implementation and Hardware Testing of a Hybrid Vehicle Energy Management Controller Based on Stochastic Dynamic Programming

An energy management controller based on shortest path stochastic dynamic programming (SP-SDP) is implemented and tested in a prototype vehicle. The controller simultaneously optimizes fuel economy and powertrain activity, namely gear shifts and engine on–off events. Previous work reported on the controller's design and its extensive simulation-based evaluation. This paper focuses on implementation of the controller algorithm in hardware. Practical issues concerning real-time computability, driver perception, and command timing are highlighted and addressed. The SP-SDP controllers are shown to run in real-time, gracefully handle variations in engine start and gear-shift-completion times, and operate in a manner that is transparent to the driver. A hardware problem with the test vehicle restricted its maximum engine torque, which prevented a reliable fuel economy assessment of the SP-SDP controller. The data that were collected indicated that SP-SDP controllers could be straightforwardly designed to operate at different points of the fuel economy tradeoff curve and that their fuel economy may equal or exceed that of a baseline industrial controller designed for the vehicle.

Using Multiple Injection Strategies in Diesel Combustion: Potential to Improve Emissions, Noise and Fuel Economy Trade-Off in Low CR Engines

Using Multiple Injection Strategies in Diesel Combustion: Potential to Improve Emissions, Noise and Fuel Economy Trade-Off in Low CR Engines

Service Life Assessment of Existing Highway Bridges with No Planned Regular Inspections

Safety of a highway infrastructure system depends very much on the proper maintenance of bridges. The level of required maintenance is, typically, determined through a series of regular field inspections with the guidance of safety–economy trade-off. In Turkey, bridge maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation are currently performed on an as-needed basis. Time-dependent reliability analysis cannot be utilized for Turkish bridges for the time being since the majority of the bridges are either not regularly inspected or not inspected at all. The purpose of this paper is to propose a simple method to assess the remaining service life of a bridge by defining a relationship between its current condition rating and its age by evaluating a set of bridges at different ages. In a case study, 28 bridges were inspected for the first time to assess the average life expectancy. The average life of a bridge was predicted to be 80years, and for this set of bridges, the main body components were found to deteriorate more than earth retaining and serviceability components.

Risk-Based Security and Economy Tradeoff Analysis for Real-Time Operation

This letter describes a new perspective on balancing system security level with cost for real-time operation. Security level is quantified using risk, which provides that security may be optimized. A risk-based multiple-objective (RBMO) model, considering security and economy together, is compared with the traditional security-constrained OPF (SCOPF) model. A six-bus test system is used to show the merits of RBMO.

Emissions and fuel economy trade-off for hybrid vehicles using fuzzy logic

In this paper, a generalized fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is used to optimize the fuel economy and reduce the emissions of hybrid vehicles with parallel configuration. Using the driver input, the state of charge (SOC) of the energy storage, the motor/generator speed, the current gear ratio and vehicle speed, a set of 44 rules have been developed, in a fuzzy controller, to effectively determine the power split between the electric machine and the internal combustion engine (ICE). The underlying theme of the fuzzy controller is to optimize the fuel flow and reduce NOx emission. The parameters in the fuzzy rules can be adjusted to trade-off the fuel economy and the NOx emission of the vehicle. Simulation results are used to assess the performance of the controller. A forward-looking hybrid vehicle simulation model is used to implement the control strategies. By using fuzzy logic, trade-off between fuel economy and emission improvement has been shown.