Official Government Statistics Research Articles

Extravagance in the commons: Resource exploitation and the frontiers of ecosystem service depletion in the Amazon estuary

Estuaries hold major economic potential due their strategic location, close to seas and inland waterways, thereby supporting intense economic activity. The increasing pace of human development in coastal deltas over the past five decades has also strained local resources and produced extensive changes across both social and ecological systems. The Amazon estuary is located in the Amazon Basin, North Brazil, the largest river basin on Earth and also one of the least understood. A considerable segment of the population living in the estuary is directly dependent on the local extraction of natural resources for their livelihood. Areas sparsely inhabited may be exploited with few negative consequences for the environment. However, recent and increasing pressure on ecosystem services is maximised by a combination of factors such as governance, currency exchange rates, exports of beef and forest products. Here we present a cross methodological approach in identifying the political frontiers of forest cover change in the estuary with consequences for ecosystem services loss. We used a combination of data from earth observation satellites, ecosystem service literature, and official government statistics to produce spatially-explicit relationships linking the Green Vegetation Cover to the availability of ecosystems provided by forests in the estuary. Our results show that the continuous changes in land use/cover and in the economic state have contributed significantly to changes in key ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, climate regulation, and the availability of timber over the last thirty years.

Catastrophe modelling: deriving the 1-in-200 year mortality shock for a South African insurer’s capital requirements under Solvency Assessment and Management

This paper investigates catastrophe risk for South African life insurers by considering the additional deaths that could arise from a 1-in-200 year mortality shock. Existing South African academic research on catastrophic risk has mostly focused on property losses and the resulting impact on property insurance companies. Life catastrophe risks have not been extensively modelled in a South African context. Local research would be beneficial in terms of quantifying these catastrophic risks for South African life insurers, and would assist firms when assessing their own catastrophe mortality solvency requirements under the new Solvency Assessment and Management (SAM) regime by providing a summary of data relating to various past catastrophes. In this paper we model a wide range of catastrophes to assess such mortality risk faced by life insurance companies in South Africa. An extensive exercise was undertaken to obtain data for a wide range of catastrophes and these data were used to derive severity and frequency distributions for each type of catastrophe. Data relating to global events were used to supplement South African data where local data were sparse. Data sources included official government statistics, industry reports and historical news reports. Since, by nature, catastrophic events are rare, little data are available for certain types of catastrophe. This means there is a large degree of uncertainty underlying some of the estimates. Simulation techniques were used to derive estimated distributions for the potential number of deaths for particular catastrophic events. The calculated overall shock for the national population was 2.6 deaths per thousand, which was lower than the SAM Pillar 1 shock of 3.2 deaths per thousand for the same population. It has been found that a worldwide pandemic is by far the main risk in terms of number of deaths in a catastrophe and, given that this is the most significant component of catastrophe risk, prior research on this risk in an South African context is summarised and revisited.

One side of the story: Examining newspaper coverage of workplace injury and fatality in Ontario, 2007–2012

News coverage in popular media can shape public perspectives on occupational issues. Few studies exist concerning how occupational injury and fatality are represented in the news. This study examined how injuries, fatalities and worker characteristics were represented in newspapers compared with official government statistics. It also examined what individuals or organizations were most often included by reporters to provide interpretations of injuries and fatalities. Quantitative content analysis was used to examine 304 newspaper articles from between 2007 and 2012 representing the nine most populous cities in the province of Ontario, Canada. Government data came from reports compiled by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario. Compared to workers' compensation board records, physical characteristics of injuries and fatalities were skewed toward the acute traumatic. Women were dramatically underrepresented in newspaper articles. Age distributions were represented. Goods-producing, transportation and resource extraction occupations were overrepresented while services were underrepresented. Worker voices were largely absent in newspaper accounts compared with law enforcement, the State and management. How workplace injury and fatality are framed, and who contributes to these frames, serves to shape public interpretations of occupational injury and fatality and how occupational health and safety issues might be addressed in the future.

Color-Blind and Color-Visible Identity Among American Whites

Many signs point to the contemporary period as a color-blind era, one in which Whites purport to be unaware of race in social or political life. At the same time, White ethnic and racial identity continues to be measured in official government statistics such as the decennial U.S. Census and the annual American Community Survey (ACS). To adjudicate between the two, the ACS ancestry question response can be used not just as a means to measure the actual size of national origin populations but can also be a way to understand what it means to be “White” in an era of color blindness and optional ethnicity. White identities can provide the mechanisms by which color-blind ideologies are understood and expressed. Whites whose primary identity is “American” will understand race in a different way than a White respondent who identifies with a European ethnicity—yet each identity can lead to the same color-blind beliefs. To assess the appeal of different varieties of White identity, the responses of 16,632 non-Hispanic Whites to the ancestry question on the 2011 ACS are used. Based on these data, one can discern four primary types of White identity prevalent in the United States today: “White” (6%), “American” (10%), “ethnic” (62%), and “none” (12%). Each identity is most appealing to a different segment of the population—for example, older, urban Whites are most likely to claim an ethnic identity, while younger Whites living in rural areas with larger Hispanic populations are most likely to claim simply that their ethnic ancestry is “White.” Each identity also suggests a different pathway to color blindness.

An analysis of Poverty Situation in Different Regions of Iran and its Reduction Strategies

Poverty is a bitter reality, that there is no way to escape from it in all over the history and among all nations it has been observed in intensity or weakness. Although in past centuries due to less production and revenue of communities and classified system governance, poverty has become to a naturally and obvious phenomenon, but nowadays with stunning improvements in the field of science and technology and usage of new tools and increasing production and creating new employment opportunities in most of communities, it is expected to poverty situation improves year by year and poverty percentage will decrease. In this paper, absolute and relative poverty situation have been evaluated in Iran in different years and for this purpose official government statistics were taken. In terms of the impact on type of income distribution on relative and absolute poverty, by using analytical coefficient from income distribution have been provided, and to evaluating poverty situation in different regions of country, developed degree of provinces have calculated in two time periods and level of provinces development was determined. To provide relatively complete image of provinces status human development indicators and health indicators were used. The study was indicated that during past years, absolute poverty level has reduced obviously but reduction in relative poverty hasn't been much significant, that it can representing the failure of government policies in equitable distribution of incomes and reduce in degree of inequality. (Despite spending enormous costs, support from poor people in various supporting organizations).On the other hand, rank and position of humans have been changed in terms of developing in different years, so that the rank of some provinces has been better prominently, and others have faced with descend of rank and status. It seems that developing and construction policies of government and injection of public resources are effectively in this among.

Direct and indirect costs of smoking in Vietnam

ObjectiveTo estimate the direct and indirect costs of active smoking in Vietnam.MethodA prevalence-based disease-specific cost of illness approach was utilised to calculate the costs related to five smoking-related diseases: lung...

Regional collaborations and indigenous innovation capabilities in China: A multivariate method for the analysis of regional innovation systems

In this study we analyse the emerging patterns of regional collaboration for innovation projects in China, using official government statistics of 30 Chinese regions. We propose the use of Ordinal Multidimensional Scaling and Cluster analysis as a robust method to study regional innovation systems. Our results show that regional collaborations amongst organisations can be categorised by means of eight dimensions: public versus private organisational mindset; public versus private resources; innovation capacity versus available infrastructures; innovation input (allocated resources) versus innovation output; knowledge production versus knowledge dissemination; and collaborative capacity versus collaboration output. Collaborations which are aimed to generate innovation fell into 4 categories, those related to highly specialised public research institutions, public universities, private firms and governmental intervention. By comparing the representative cases of regions in terms of these four innovation actors, we propose policy measures for improving regional innovation collaboration within China.

Population-level associations between antiretroviral therapy scale-up and all-cause mortality in South Africa

Our aim was to describe the association between increasing access to antiretroviral therapy and all-cause mortality in South Africa from 2005 to 2009. We undertook a longitudinal, population-level study, using antiretroviral monitoring data reported by PEPFAR implementing partners and province-level and national all-cause mortality records from Statistics South Africa (provider of official South African government statistics) to analyse the association between antiretroviral therapy and mortality. Using mixed effects models with a random intercept for province, we estimated the contemporaneous and lagging association between antiretroviral therapy and all-cause mortality in South Africa. We also conducted subgroup analyses and estimated the number of deaths averted. For each 100 HIV-infected individuals on antiretroviral therapy reported by PEPFAR implementing partners in South African treatment programmes, there was an associated 2.9 fewer deaths that year (95% CI: 1.5, 4.2) and 6.3 fewer deaths the following year (95% CI: 4.6, 8.0). The associated decrease in mortality the year after treatment reporting was seen in both adults and children, and men and women. Treatment provided from 2005 to 2008 was associated with 28,305 deaths averted from 2006 to 2009. The scale-up of antiretroviral therapy in South Africa was associated with a significant reduction in national all-cause mortality.

Factoryless Goods Producers in the US

This paper documents the extent and characteristics of plants and firms in the US that are outside the manufacturing sector according to official government statistics but nonetheless are heavily involved in activities related to the production of manufactured goods. Using new data on establishment activities in the Census of Wholesale Trade conducted by the US Bureau of the Census in 2002 and 2007, this paper provides evidence on so-called “factoryless goods producers” (FGPs) in the US economy. FGPs are formally in the wholesale sector but, unlike traditional wholesale establishments, FGPs design the goods they sell and coordinate the production activities. This paper documents the extent of FGPs in the wholesale sector and how they differ from traditional wholesalers in terms of their employment, wages, productivity and output. Reclassifying FGP establishments to the manufacturing sector using our definition would have shifted at least 595,000 workers to as many as 1,311,000 workers from wholesale to manufacturing sectors in 2002 and at least 431,000 workers to as many as 1,934,000 workers in 2007.

Big Brother's Shadow: Historical Decline in Electronic Surveillance by Canadian Federal Law Enforcement

Despite popular perception of increased government surveillance, a longitudinal study of the Annual Reports on the Use of Electronic Surveillance published by Public Safety Canada between 1973 and 2011, demonstrates the opposite trend. This paper first outlines this decline to situate the use of electronic surveillance by federal law enforcement. The second section of the paper advances legal, political, and practical influences which are likely contributing to diminished use of wiretapping by police. The purpose of this paper is to present quantitative evidence to better inform the ongoing debate around extending “lawful access” regimes in Canada. By using official government statistics as a foundation, this paper provides a practical grounding to the theoretical academic and legal research which often informs law, legislation and public policy governing the use of surveillance technology.

Factoryless Goods Producers in the US

This paper documents the extent and characteristics of plants and firms in the US that are outside the manufacturing sector according to official government statistics but nonetheless are heavily involved in activities related to the production of manufactured goods. Using new data on establishment activities in the Census of Wholesale Trade conducted by the US Bureau of the Census in 2002 and 2007, this paper provides evidence on so-called factoryless goods producers (FGPs) in the US economy. FGPs are formally in the wholesale sector but, unlike traditional wholesale establishments, FGPs design the goods they sell and coordinate the production activities. This paper documents the extent of FGPs in the wholesale sector and how they differ from traditional wholesalers in terms of their employment, wages, productivity and output. Reclassifying FGP establishments to the manufacturing sector using our definition would have shifted at least 595,000 workers to as many as 1,311,000 workers from wholesale to manufacturing sectors in 2002 and at least 431,000 workers to as many as 1,934,000 workers in 2007.

The railroad strike of 1927: labor and law after the Mexican Revolution

Mexico's rail workers’ struggle of 1926–27 encompassed one of the largest strikes following the 1910–20 revolution, yet contemporary official government statistics omitted any mention of it. The labor struggle involved an independent, militant confederation of transport workers and, opposed to it, the largest rail company in the country (heavily indebted to foreign creditors), the state, and its principal labor ally. While the strike was broken, the confederation leading it obtained an impressive judgment from the nation's supreme court against the authoritarian federal executive power, which, moreover, vindicated the right to strike affirmed in the 1917 Constitution. But the judicial and administrative decisions reached in connection with the strike subsequently served to structure and limit labor's right to strike. This article analyzes the railroad strike of 1927, the judicial and administrative response to it, and its legal significance, which together have contributed to the formation of the nation's post-revolutionary system of regulating industrial conflict.

A complementary measurement of changes in China’s forestry area using remote sensing data

Based on the official government statistics, during 1980s until 2000 China's forest cover and the forest quality has been improved steadily. Despite this is a seemingly optimistic trend, however, China's leaders have been introducing new forest policies to restrict timber harvest and increase forest cover. In light of this seemingly contradictory setting, we adopt another methodology to measure the increase or decrease of the forestry area by providing the first detailed statistics for changes in forestry area for the entire China using remote sensing data (Landsat TM/ETM digital images), and attempt to complement the official government statistics. We tracked the changes in forest cover from late 1980s through 2000 and estimated rates of forest cover changes and conversions between forestry areas and other land uses during this period. Our results reveal that during this period, the forest cover in China continued to decrease by approximately 1.15 million ha, or 0.5%. This result is in stark contrast with the official government statistics which reveal that the forestry area increased during this period. Importantly, we find that the two data sets are more consistent for provinces with large areas of forests, while the discrepancy is larger for provinces with small forest areas. We analyzed that some reasons identified may explain this discrepancy. Our results suggest that the two data sources are complementary for future monitoring of forest cover in China.

Sickness Absence as an Indicator of Health in Sweden

AbstractFor many years Sweden has experienced high rates of sickness absence among employees. Sickness absence is often regarded as an indicator of health in a population, with low rates of absence associated with good health and high degrees of absence associated with poor health. The aim of this article is to examine this hypothesis — that the high rates of sickness absence in Sweden is an indicator of poor health. Sickness absence and health data was obtained from official government statistics in order to compare Sweden with six other European countries and a number of health-related variables. The hypothesis was not supported by the results of this study. While Sweden has a high rate of sickness absence, it ranks highly on a range of health variables when compared to other European countries. Instead, sickness absence may be more strongly associated with rates of unemployment. In times of high unemployment, sickness absence is low, and in times low unemployment, sickness absence is high. While public health programs are essential components of primary health care initiatives, the evidence from this study indicates that they are unlikely to have significant impact on sickness absence in Sweden. Instead more effort should be made to intervene early following sickness absence through providing timely vocational rehabilitation and disability management programs.

Lives on the border: language and culture in the lives of ethnic Russian women in Baltinava, Latvia

This study draws on ethnographic research conducted in a small village, Baltinava in Latvia, 2.5 kilometres from the border with Russia. The research examines how ethnic Russian women create a specific Latvian Russian identity by contrasting themselves from ethnic Latvians and Russians who live in Russia and identifying with both groups at the same time. To narrate their lives and to make them meaningful, real and/or perceived “attributes” are combined to draw boundaries between “us” and “them.” Thus, the same thing such as language can be used not only both to distinguish themselves from Russians in Russia or Latvians but also to form coherent identities and to emphasize similarities. This study suggests that ethnicities cannot be reduced to a list of set ethnic groups that are very often used in official government statistics. Ethnic identities have to be viewed as fluid and situational. Moreover, this study shows the dialectic nature of ethnicity. On the one hand, external political, historical and social processes create and recreate ethnic categories and definitions. Yet, on the other hand, the women in this study are active agents creating meaningful and symbolic ethnic boundaries.

Agricultural Development and Household Incomes in Central Asia: A Survey of Tajikistan, 2003-2008

Two noted specialists on the agricultural economies of the former Soviet Union examine the effects of land reform on agricultural production and the income of rural house-holds in Tajikistan. The authors utilize official government statistics to discern trends of agricultural output at the national level, and the results of three extensive surveys conducted in 2007-2008 (N > 2,000) and one in 2003 (N = 4,000 respondents) by international organizations (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Asian Development Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank) to identify household-level changes. They also review the legislative framework for agrarian reform in the country; examine national-level trends in farm structure and organization, livestock production, farm productivity, and cropping patterns; and analyze shifts in size of land holdings and rural family incomes at the household level. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D130, O130, P320, Q150. 11 figures, 10 tables, 42 references.

Living on the margin: disabled Iranians in Belgian society

This paper explores the antecedents, experiences and consequences of marginalization as reported and dealt with by disabled Iranian immigrants in Belgium. This work extends the work of Gallie and colleagues and Siegrist demonstrating that the forces of marginalization applicable to all immigrants are particularly pertinent to disabled immigrants. The research is based on 26 in‐depth, face‐to‐face interviews, focus groups, interviews with government officials and immigration experts, ethnographic work and official government statistics. The findings detail how the combined forces of history, context and reasons for immigration; isolation, vulnerability and perceived loss of control; religion and rejection; lack of reciprocity in social exchanges; problems in obtaining jobs; and difficulties in negotiating an entry into Belgian society combine to sustain marginizalation. As a consequence, disabled immigrants in this group are generally excluded from society and discriminated against in terms of citizenship, education, jobs and general acceptance.

Assessment of out-of-state truck activity in California

The continued growth of interstate freight trucking brings with it the potential for inaccuracies in official government statistics on trucks’ road use and pollutant emission contributions. State government agency emission estimates for states within the US commonly rely on in-state truck and fuel use records. Consequently, these records can incompletely reflect overall truck activity and emissions by neglecting the trucks that are registered and/or are fueled out of state. An in-person interview survey of 433 heavy-duty truck drivers was conducted at select points of entry into California to better understand the contribution of out-of-state trucks, their fuel use, and their emissions in California. The results indicate that non-California-registered trucks and non-California-diesel fuel make up approximately 30% of Class 8 heavy-duty truck mileage on California roads. Non-California-registered-truck mileage is disproportionately concentrated in four California air basins that have significant air quality issues.

Where are the women in leadership in Australia?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the current representational position of women in leadership in Australia, using management and board appointments as the relevant domains.Design/methodology/approachUses past and current official government statistics as the source of information.FindingsThe review reveals that despite 30 years of considerable legislative, policy and social change in the equity area, women have not attained leadership positions in any significant numbers in Australia. Their position vis‐à‐vis women in other developed countries is also not at the cutting‐edge. There is no one reason as to why this is so, although a lack of line management and profit centre experience is currently being touted as a major drawback. The paper suggests that other factors, such as Australia's “macho” culture and lack of acceptance of women as leaders, women's ways of communicating in the workplace, overall changes in the workplace, and generational change, also need discussion and debate. The paper recommends that governments, both Federal and State, re‐engage in the equity area for further progress to take place in women's representation in leadership. Otherwise, women's leadership representation may continue to have low penetration in the workplace.Originality/valueGives a current snapshot of women's leadership status in Australia, a fact not well known or understood by women probably because of newer emphasis on “work and family” policies.

Decline in the British small shop independent retail sector: exploring European parallels

In this paper we start by outlining the continued decline of the small shop in Britain. The decline is seen as especially severe in the truly independent/non-affiliated sector and we look at trends in decline but also the methodologies used to analyse this. Since a key current theme in European integration policy is for exchange of experience and best practise we then report on how an EU-funded (ESF) project is seeking lessons and parallels in the small shop sector in Britain and Spain. By examining official government statistics we see how the sector is monitored in Britain and Spain and then identify one clear one common factor in the rise of organised town centre management. We suggest that future research may usefully begin to develop a more euro-centric approach ensuring that the small shop sector EU-wide learns from transnational experiences. Accordingly, we also present the preliminary findings from a transnational survey of small retailers. The paper ends with a summary of ways in which we have sought to bring together the experiences of small retailers in both countries.