Regional Disparities In Terms Research Articles

Geospatial mapping of 2-hour access to timely essential surgery in the Philippines

ObjectivesTimely access to safe and affordable surgery is essential for universal health coverage. To date, there are no studies evaluating 2-hour access to Bellwether procedures (caesarean section, laparotomy, open fracture...

Regional Differences in Chinese Female Demand for Childcare Services of 0-3 Years: The Moderating and Mediating Effects of Family Childcare Context.

There are multiple reasons to consider the use of formal childcare: parental employment, child development, fertility choices, elderly health, generational relations, etc. This study explores the relationship between regional differences (urban/rural; eastern/central/western) and demand for childcare services (quantity, price, quality) from birth to three years of age, moderated and mediated by the family childcare contexts among Chinese women. Altogether, 1770 mothers of children aged 0-3 were selected from a national survey and analyzed. There are three major findings: (1) Urban mothers show a willingness to spend on the higher monetary cost of center-based childcare compared to rural mothers, as a result of more severe work-child conflicts faced by urban women. Urban-rural gaps in individual and household income also contribute to the differences in affordability. (2) Mothers in eastern China have a more substantial need to place their infants or toddlers in nurseries before the age of three than their counterparts in central and western China, primarily due to a lack of grandparental and paternal childcare support and an expectation of higher quality programs. (3) There is no significant regional disparity in terms of care-related or education-related quality preferences. The paper proposes regional prioritized strategies and targeted services to address the "3A" problems of childcare provision.

The impact of China's high-speed rail investment on regional economy and air pollution emissions

The high-speed rail (HSR) network in China has experienced rapid development since the 2000s. In 2016, the State Council of the People's Republic of China issued a revised version of the “Mid- and Long-term Railway Network Plan”, detailing the expansion of the railway network and construction of an HSR system. In the future, the HSR construction efforts in China will further increase, which is considered to impact regional development and air pollutant emissions. Therefore, in this paper, we apply a transportation network-multiregional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to estimate the dynamic effects of HSR projects on economic growth, regional disparities, and air pollutant emissions in China. The results indicate that HSR system improvement could generate a positive economic impact but could also increase emissions. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth per unit investment cost stimulated by HSR investment is found to be the largest in eastern China but the smallest in the northwest regions. Conversely, HSR investment in Northwest China contributes to a substantial reduction in regional disparities in terms of the GDP per capita. In regard to air pollution emissions, HSR construction in South-Central China results in the largest increase in CO2 and NOX emissions, while for CO, SO2, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions, the largest increase occurs due to HSR construction in Northwest China. At the regional level, the provinces with large changes in accessibility also experience large changes in their air pollutant emissions.

Potential Risk of Automation for Jobs in Slovakia: A District- and Industry-Level Analysis

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to examine the impacts of automation on the Slovak labor market by applying automatability estimates to detailed employment data at the levels of districts and occupations. The district- and industry-level analysis shows that automation has the potential to significantly disrupt the Slovak labor market. Employees with lower incomes face greater risk of losing their jobs. The risk of automation is lower in districts with higher unemployment levels and vice versa, which indicates that technological progress does not have the potential to increase existing regional disparities in terms of employment opportunities. Policymakers should therefore consider differences among districts and industries when directing their job creation efforts.

Peer Effects in Housing Size in Rural China

In recent decades, rural China has witnessed a housing construction boom. In order to control the rapid growth of rural housing, both central and local governments have established quantitative restrictions on the floor numbers and total housing area; however, these have been relatively ineffective. Current research to explain this rapid growth in rural housing tends to consider independent household behavior, while social interactions among villagers are neglected. Therefore, the aim of this article is to examine the existence of peer effects in the housing size of villagers and whether they differ among different regions to better understand the influence of social interactions on individual housing behaviors, especially in the context of rural China. A spatial autoregressive model with autoregressive disturbances (SARAR) was used to analyze data from the 2014 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). The results confirm that villagers’ peer effects do exist, indicating that rural households build housing not only to satisfy their dwelling needs but also to keep up with the other villagers’ housing size. Moreover, there are regional disparities in terms of peer effects in rural housing size. Among the three regional parts, the undeveloped region in the western parts showed the largest peer effects. Therefore, local governments, especially from the underdeveloped region, should pay attention to the villagers’ inner motivations behind housing behavior.

Regional Innovation Profiles: A Comparative Empirical Study of Four Chinese Regions Based on Expert Knowledge

Abstract In emerging economies such as China, marked by profound regional disparities in terms of socio-economic wealth and technology, different regions use not only different levels of inputs into the innovation process, but also produce different outputs with qualitative diversity that is seldom sufficiently acknowledged. This paper uses structured expert interviews (AHP) to provide insights into the innovation profiles of four selected Chinese regions: Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Kunming. It combines information on drivers of innovation as well as innovation characteristics and objectives to establish and compare regional innovation profiles.

Regional Growth, Domestic and Foreign Tourism in NUTS Regions: New Insights from the Old Continent

Using regional data encompassing 155 Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) regions across the EU-28 member states, we estimate the effect of tourist arrivals (total, domestic, and foreign) on regional growth over 2000-2018. Our empirical strategy tackles three data properties that cripple common econometric approaches: cross-section dependence, nonstationarity, and the endogeneity of the regressors. In addition to “pooled” models that assume common parameters across regions, we run “heterogeneous” models where parameters are allowed to differ between regions. Results of the pooled estimations show that domestic and total tourism inflows have positively and significantly contributed to growth, and the positive effect of foreign tourism is statistically discernible in regions that are mainly destinations for foreign tourists. Findings based on region-specific regressions reveal that the average impact on regional growth of tourist inflows is positive and significant, and large regional disparities in terms of the growth impact of domestic/foreign tourism exist.

Regional Disparities in the European Union from the Perspective of Environmental Context Indicators

Abstract The agricultural sector is one of the most important sectors of the countries’ economies and agricultural production has a huge socio-economic importance. In the current conditions of globalization and diversification of production, agriculture tries to achieve continuous development, realization of the potential, growth of the quantity and quality of the agricultural production, ensuring food security of the country. The quantitative and qualitative development of the agricultural sector takes place within a certain system, which is created under the influence of economic, social, and environmental factors based on innovations associated with transformation. These components of the current development of the agricultural sector are undergoing constant transformations, leading to the imbalances and the emergence of destructive processes within the complex system of the agricultural sector. Exploring regional disparities in terms of environmental and economic context indicators of CAP is strategically important for the stable rural and regional development of countries, increasing the competitiveness of agriculture, and sustainable and integrated development of regions. Based on the results of the calculations, we confirmed the effect of catching up between poorer and richer EU countries and identified the future trends in the occurrence and reduction of regional disparities.

Harnessing cross-region disparities to assess the impact of tourism on regional growth in Europe

ABSTRACT We use regional data across 27 European countries and look into the effect of tourist arrivals on regional growth during 2000–2017. The research is set in an augmented Solow model estimated via a rich and flexible empirical strategy, with different underlying assumptions about the impacts of the regressors and unobservables. A first demarcation line across our set of estimators is between the ‘pooled’ estimators (assuming common parameters across regions) and the ‘heterogeneous’ ones (allowing for region-specific parameters). An additional axis of differentiation lies in the way the impact of unobservables is accounted for via the estimation method: some methodologies hypothesize a common impact of the latter across space, while others make room for a possible differentiated effect over the regions. Among the pooled estimators, our preferred one reveals a positive and significant contribution of tourism to regional growth. Among the heterogeneous estimators, our favored one corroborates the previous result and uncovers vast regional disparities in terms of the effect of tourist arrivals on growth. A preliminary investigation suggests that regions endowed with a large share of highly educated population experienced the greatest growth-impact of tourist arrivals.

Regional Disparities In Human Development: The Case Of Moroccan Regions

Purpose of the study: This study has three objectives: a) to draw up a typology of the 10 regions of Morocco according to their level of human development; b) to develop a synthetic regional indicator, and c) to measure the extent of regional disparities in terms of human development.
 Methodology: The analysis uses statistical indicators from the household panel survey conducted in 2017 by the National Human Development Observatory in Morocco. The Principal Component Analysis (conducted using the SPSS statistics V23 software) is used to draw a typology of regions according to their level of human development. It is also used to develop a regional composite indicator. As regards the measurement of the degree of regional inequalities, the Gini index is adopted.
 Main Findings: The typological cartography and the composite index developed showed the coexistence of three strata of regions with three levels of human development: low, medium, and high. The calculation of a fairly strong Gini index raises the gravity of these inequalities. The main sources of inequality are an inequitable distribution of living standards and unbalanced access to basic social amenities.
 Research implications: Today, in Morocco, an ad hoc committee responsible for the new development model is collecting, arranging, and structuring the recommendations of the various actors and drawing up their conclusions. The present study is a contribution that aims to place the human being at the heart of this model. The eradication of regional disparities in terms of human development, particularly in terms of standard of living and access to basic equipment is a priority.
 Novelty/Originality: This paper examines regional disparities through the prism of human development. The works which have dealt with this subject at the level of Morocco have focused on income as a standard for measuring inequalities. This study does not abandon income, but it aims to be multidimensional as soon as it integrates other no less decisive dimensions on people’s lives.

Financial Inclusion in India-A Review

Financial inclusion has been widely recognized as an engine of economic and social development. World Bank group laid stress on the role of financial inclusion in poverty reduction and boosting shared prosperity. Increasing the importance of financial inclusion for inclusive growth has gained the attention of researchers and academicians across the world. This review deals with the findings of research studies conducted on the extent and status of financial inclusion in India. A review of empirical findings revealed that despite many initiatives taken jointly by the Government and Reserve Bank of India, financial services outreach was not been very satisfactory. People particularly in rural areas, still did not have access to banking services. Evidence of gaps in financial inclusiveness in the country could also be perceived from the review. Lack of awareness and financial literacy, high cost of financial services, continued dependence of rural people on moneylenders, regional disparities in terms of outreach, etc. emerged as some of the critical issues. Hence, the study suggested that some concrete steps need to be taken by the government to improve the status of financial inclusion

Regional disparities in health care resources in traditional Chinese medicine county hospitals in China.

ObjectiveWe aimed to analyze regional disparities of health care resources in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) county hospitals and their time trends, and to assess the changes of regional disparities before and after 2009 health care reforms.MethodsWe used hospital-based, longitudinal data from all TCM county hospitals in China between 2004 and 2016. To measure the key development features of TCM county hospitals, data were collected on government hospital investment, hospital numbers (the average number of TCM hospitals per county), hospital scale (the number of medical staff and hospital beds) and doctors’ workload (the daily visits and inpatient stays per doctor). We used segmented linear regression to test the time trend for outcome variables. We set a breakpoint at 2011, dividing the pre-reform (2004–2011) and post-reform (2012–2016) periods.ResultsAfter the 2009 health reforms, TCM hospitals continued to display large disparities in the number, scale, and doctors’ workload across the three regions. In the pre-reform period, yearly government subsidies for TCM hospitals in western area were roughly RMB0.6 million (US$89 thousand) more than those in central and eastern region, which increased under the 2009 reforms to roughly RMB2 million (US$298 thousand) more per yer in post-reform period. These increased subsidies saw an increase in the number of TCM hospitals in the western area, partly addressing regional disparities. But there was no improvement in the regional disparities in terms of scale (number of beds) and the doctors’ workload (daily outpatient visits and inpatients per doctor) increased or remained unchanged between the western and other regions.ConclusionAlthough TCM hospital number, scale, and doctors’ workload increased over the past 13 years, substantial regional disparities remained. The 2009 health reforms did not significantly change the regional disparities in health care resources, especially between the eastern and western regions.

Working from Home, Wages, and Regional Inequality in the Light of COVID-19

We use the most recent wave of the German Qualifications and Career Survey to reveal a substantial wage premium in a Mincer regression for workers performing their job from home. The premium accounts for more than 10% and persists within narrowly defined jobs as well as after controlling for workplace characteristics. In a next step, we provide evidence on substantial regional variation in the share of jobs that can be done from home in Germany. Our analysis reveals a strong, positive relation between the share of jobs with working from home opportunities and the mean worker income in a district. Assuming that jobs with the opportunity of remote work are more crisis proof, our results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic might affect poorer regions to a greater extent. Hence, examining regional disparities is central for policy-makers in choosing economic policies to mitigate the consequences of this crisis.

Sectoral and spatial patterns of Chinese cities’ export structures

ABSTRACTIn the light of evolutionary economic geography, a city’s export structure can reflect its capacity. Based on China’s export data during 2001–2011, this paper examines the evolution of 338 Chinese cities’ export structures, and their spatial patterns and product dynamics. By employing hierarchical clustering analysis and new indicators to measure Chinese’s export product and destination structures, this paper shows that regional disparity in terms of export product and destination structures exists. More importantly, the evolution of Chinese cities’ export structure is co-shaped by the process of convergence and divergence. We argue that regional disparity can be alleviated by reducing market segmentation and facilitating inter-city knowledge spillovers. Furthermore, the export product structures of Chinese cities are highly correlated with their export destination structures, indicating that export promotion policies should take into account both export product diversification and export market diversification.

The impact of industrial structure efficiency on provincial industrial energy efficiency in China

Regional disparity in terms of industrial energy efficiency is noticeable in China due to the unbalanced economic progress in past decades. Analyzing the provincial industrial energy efficiency and its influencing factors is of great significance to formulate differentiated policies. To date, the influence of many social-economic factors on the industrial energy efficiency have been examined but the impact of the inter-industry structure has almost been ignored. In this paper, the slacks-based measure model incorporating undesirable output is applied to evaluate the industrial energy efficiency both at the provincial level and the sectoral level in China for the period 2010 to 2016. Then, industrial structure efficiency is introduced, which reflects the inter-industry structure and takes the sectoral-level energy efficiency into consideration. And the impact of the industrial structure efficiency on provincial industrial energy efficiency is tested by Tobit regression model. The results show that huge discrepancies of provincial industrial energy efficiency exist and the industrial structure efficiency is confirmed to be a determinative factor to the provincial industrial energy efficiency, with the coefficient of 0.525. Policy recommendations are provided for adjusting the provincial inter-industry structure and improving the industrial energy efficiency.

Анализ баланса финансовых потоков между центром и регионами в РФ

<span>В статье рассматриваются сложившиеся особенности распределения «прямых» расходов федерального бюджета, на основе которых составляется баланс встречных финансовых потоков по регионам (в том числе с учетом численности населения) и выявляются регионы-«доноры». Определена степень участия регионов в формировании федерального и региональных бюджетов, показаны существенные различия между субъектами Федерации по концентрации налогов и доле финансовой помощи в их доходах.</span>

Knowledge Economy and Industry Performance in China: A Provincial Level Analysis

We construct a framework for investigating the effects of knowledge on industry performance. Using Chinese provincial industry data from 2000 to 2012, we decompose total factor productivity (TFP) change into the four components of embodied technical change, disembodied technical change, scale efficiency change, and technical efficiency change. Our results show a considerably stronger positive effect of advanced knowledge on production technology than of basic knowledge. International knowledge spillovers, particularly trade-induced spillovers, are more effective in inducing TFP growth than domestic spillovers. Our analysis further illustrates a discrepancy in TFP growth rates between regions. We also find TFP of the Central and West Region to be catching-up with the East Region. On average, scale efficiency change is the major contributing factor to regional disparities in terms of TFP change. From a policy point of view, the government should improve, for example, the level of knowledge through educational programs, and further focus on policies on urbanization or the development of regional centers to develop a competitive labor market, as well as on policies encouraging international trade.

Panorama régional de la contribution du genre aux inégalités dans la fonction publique ,

Les différences observées entre les régions françaises quant au manque à gagner moyen des femmes par rapport aux hommes en termes de salaire dans le secteur privé conduit à s’interroger également sur la situation du secteur public. L’identification et la mesure de la contribution du genre aux inégalités de rémunération au sein de la fonction publique révèlent effectivement l’existence d’un biais systématique en défaveur des femmes, et ce dans toutes les régions françaises. Pour aller au-delà de ce simple constat, la comparaison des résultats obtenus dans les différentes régions suppose de proposer un indice d’intensité des inégalités de genre susceptible de les ramener à une même échelle. Les intensités déterminées dans chaque catégorie et dans chaque versant désignent les régions du sud et de l’est de la France métropolitaine comme celles où les femmes de la fonction publique supportent les inégalités de rémunération les plus élevées. A l’inverse les DOM ou le Limousin sont peu touchés par ces inégalités. La mise en parallèle de ces résultats et des estimations faites sur le secteur privé révèle une concordance géographique très importante entre les uns et les autres.

Determinants of new drugs prescription in the Swiss healthcare market

BackgroundDrug markets are very complex and, while many new drugs are registered each year, little is known about what drives the prescription of these new drugs. This study attempts to lift the veil from this important subject by analyzing simultaneously the impact of several variables on the prescription of novelty.MethodsData provided by four Swiss sickness funds were analyzed. These data included information about more than 470,000 insured, notably their drug intake. Outcome variable that captured novelty was the age of the drug prescribed. The overall variance in novelty was partitioned across five levels (substitutable drug market, patient, physician, region, and prescription) and the influence of several variables measured at each of these levels was assessed using a non-hierarchical multilevel model estimated by Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods.ResultsMore than 92% of the variation in novelty was explained at the substitutable drug market-level and at the prescription-level. Newer drugs were prescribed in markets that were costlier, less concentrated, included more insured, provided more drugs and included more active substances. Over-the-counter drugs were on average 12.5 years older while generic drugs were more than 15 years older than non-generics. Regional disparities in terms of age of prescribed drugs could reach 2.8 years.ConclusionsRegulation of the demand has low impact, with little variation explained at the patient-level and physician-level. In contrary, the market structure (e.g. end of patent with generic apparition, concurrence among producers) had a strong contribution to the variation of drugs ages.

Issue of SaraikiStan: Post 18th Amendment

The paper primarily focuses on salient dynamics voiced for division of Punjab and establishment of Saraiki Province and is aiming to aware coming parliamentarians regarding the sensitive issue so that they can make themselves capable to develop skill to resolve such generic issues. The non-justifiable allocation and distribution of resources by the federal government not only created hatred between East and West Pakistan in 1971 but later on among four provinces of Pakistan as well. For the last more than seventy years, the inspirations of ethnicity and regionalism evoked by Pukhtoons, Baluchis, Muhajirs and Saraikis made the process of national integration complex and so politicized different socio-economic and issues concerning different people of different regions which sometimes led to civil war situations in Pakistan. Though state's constitution provided equal rights and opportunities to all nationalities in all spheres of life. However the feeling of provincialism or regionalism awakens in the minds when the people of a particular area are continuously neglected by the ruling class and so they are politically educated as backward and discriminated people by their local leaders. In this way, these leaders keep political hold over the specified area and its people. Regional disparities in terms of revenue and consumptions have awakened the perception of ignorance and discrimination and this is the reason that PML (N) faced severe hurdles and the repatriation of its own parliamentarians as the Saraiki community has been continuously neglected by the Punjabi dominated Political Party in the National legislature.