Andile Dube , Roderick Crompton , Jones Odei-Mensah
{"title":"Link between household welfare and solar electricity demand in sub-Saharan Africa: A quantile approach","authors":"Andile Dube , Roderick Crompton , Jones Odei-Mensah","doi":"10.1016/j.wds.2024.100124","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wds.2024.100124","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study investigates the link between household welfare and solar electricity demand in sub-Saharan Africa for the period between 2010 and 2019. Welfare was proxied by HDI, inequality in income, infant mortality, education, mobile phone subscriptions, internet users and unemployment rate. The study employed a Quantile regression with nonadditive fixed effects and the adaptive Markov Chain Monte Carlo optimisation method. The findings show that HDI has a negative and significant effect on solar electricity consumption at all quantiles except for the 30th quantile where the effect is positive. This implies that as welfare improves, consumers’ demand for solar electricity declines due to a shift to other fuels or stacking of multiple fuels. Moreover, the findings show varying effects of inequality in income, education, mobile phone subscriptions, internet connectivity and unemployment rate on solar electricity demand at different quantiles. Lastly, the findings reveal that infant mortality has a negative effect on solar electricity demand across all quantiles. In overall, the findings imply that policy makers should develop strategies that will promote and incentivise solar electricity consumption across all income groups.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101285,"journal":{"name":"World Development Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100124"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X24000028/pdfft?md5=3981a3fb8a46be1b83f38a3463f5cd4a&pid=1-s2.0-S2772655X24000028-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139635223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hold your breath! Air pollution and cognitive performance in Colombia","authors":"Erik Merkus","doi":"10.1016/j.wds.2024.100123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wds.2024.100123","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Air pollution is a known health hazard, and evidence of negative effects beyond the health dimension is rapidly emerging. This paper studies the effect on one non-health dimension, namely cognitive performance. It exploits exogenous variation in exposure to air pollution during secondary school exams and estimate the contemporaneous effect on students’ cognitive performance in Colombia between 2012 and 2018. The results indicate that exposure to air pollution on the day of the exam itself negatively impacts students’ performance. Using variation in wind direction as an instrument for air pollution, I find that a one standard deviation increase in air pollution reduces overall test scores by 0.05 standard deviations. For students who continue to tertiary education, there is no evidence that this distorted signal of their cognitive abilities at the secondary school exam translates into differences in college attendance, as proxied by college graduation rates.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101285,"journal":{"name":"World Development Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X24000016/pdfft?md5=0fa37728871a172556449b2a6067c44c&pid=1-s2.0-S2772655X24000016-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139473275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Relationship between regional economic development and its associated land use changes: A case study of Shaanxi province in China","authors":"Peijun Sun , Linna Linghu , Meng Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wds.2023.100122","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Land use (LU) policies exert a profound influence on socio-economic dynamics. However, the intricate relationship between these two aspects has yet to receive comprehensive examination, especially when focusing on specific LU types and smaller-scale geographical regions. We, therefore, elucidate the complex interplay between economic development, urbanization levels, and LU changes, drawing from extensive datasets concerning LU and economic activities in Shaanxi, China. This region holds particular significance as it represents an emerging economy with a strategic role in the national economic landscape. The LU change was assessed by two indicators, comprehensive index of land use degree (CILUD) and single land use dynamic degree (SLUDD). Three findings were yielded. First, the rapid progress in socio-economic indicators is significantly underpinned by environmentally sustainable economic development practices, thereby underscoring the potential resolution of the perennial dilemma between economic growth and environmental conservation. Second, the tension between the conversion of arable land and the process of urbanization, which stimulates regional economic growth, poses a considerable challenge to maintaining sustainable agriculture and ensuring future food security. Third, the reserved land area should not be occupied without constrains for inland regions. We consequently propose suggestions aimed at addressing these dilemmas by constructing environment-friendly economy, halting urbanization expansion by increasing LU density, halting the occupation of reserved land, and increasing cropping efficiency. Together, these strategies potentially do not only advance progress towards the Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals but also greatly boost the regional economy.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101285,"journal":{"name":"World Development Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100122"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X23000770/pdfft?md5=808322621047da4685c42d6533aa58a3&pid=1-s2.0-S2772655X23000770-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139107158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Humaira Husain , Mohammad Ashraful Ferdous Chowdhury , Zunaidah Sulong
{"title":"Do political and social globalization promote female labour in Bangladesh? An empirical reassessment","authors":"Humaira Husain , Mohammad Ashraful Ferdous Chowdhury , Zunaidah Sulong","doi":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100121","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100121","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study unfolds inverted -U nexus between female labour and political globalization through the lens of autoregressive distributed lag bounds test approach based on annual data from 1984 -2019 in Bangladesh. Political globalization initially fosters female workforce and after attaining a maximum threshold level, this slowly declines. This reinforces the evidence that, initially female absorption in labour market ascends via creation of employment opportunities in service sector for educated female labour and in industrial sector for the less educated. Consequently, the demand for female labour reduces significantly as the country becomes reliant more on import- based automated industries. This non- linear quadratic inverted U relation holds in short run and in the long run. This study also divulges that social globalization has negative and significant impact on female labour in the short- run, possibly corroborating persistent gender inequality in ICT for uneducated female labour. This research disentangles that interactive term of political and social globalization has positive and significant impact on female labour in the short- run. This positive effect is strongly significant in long run as well, supporting the fact that political globalization has the moderating role to subside gender disparity in the ICT sector for educated women. This research obtains conclusive evidence for stable long run inverted U relation between female labour and political globalization. This co-integrating relation holds under presumption of endogenous structural break. Findings of this study are important for formulating right policies to promote female labour in Bangladesh.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101285,"journal":{"name":"World Development Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100121"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X23000769/pdfft?md5=caa518800c3a4b2c971fe8017af4170c&pid=1-s2.0-S2772655X23000769-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139026196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Household solid waste management in a recently established municipality of Bangladesh: Prevailing practices, residents’ perceptions, attitude and awareness","authors":"Anirban Sarker , Tarit Kumar Baul , Tapan Kumar Nath , Shyamal Karmakar , Alak Paul","doi":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100120","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100120","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Increasing population, economic activities, and the associated factors put a serious strain on municipal solid waste management in developing nations. We assessed the amount of solid waste generated and elucidated the existing management practices at household level in Mymensingh City Corporation, Bangladesh. We also investigated residents’ perceptions and attitudes on waste management and their awareness on waste-induced health and environmental problems. Data were gathered by a questionnaire survey of 352 households and two key informants’ interviews. The Kruskal-Wallis H and Pearson Chi-Squared tests were used for statistical analysis. Results show that a household generated about 0.62 kg of waste per day of which 99% was organic. Following the door-to-door approach, the city corporation collects unsegregated waste. More than 50% of the households reused fresh food waste as green fertilizer, and either reused or sold paper, metal, and plastic waste. Small, higher-income, and educated households generated higher amounts of organic waste than their counterparts. Respondents were satisfied with the existing door-to-door waste collection system, like to use of bioenergy and organic fertilizer, and were willing to pay for sustainable and eco-friendly waste management. More than 80% of respondents were aware of public health and environmental issues caused by waste mismanagement. The corporation has a plan to establish an energy and compost plant for which we suggest providing incentives for source segregation and designated bins to households. The city planners can take the findings of this study as useful baseline information for planning sustainable municipal solid waste management.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101285,"journal":{"name":"World Development Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X23000757/pdfft?md5=4b131799994a2c037e845889189a7a0d&pid=1-s2.0-S2772655X23000757-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139018636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A statistical approach to evaluate the effect of obstacles on green building development in Northeast India","authors":"Mayur Shirish Jain , Jubaraj Kakati","doi":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100119","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100119","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The practice of \"green building\" (GB) is gaining popularity in the building sector as a practical means of meeting the rising demand for eco-friendly or sustainable structures. However, the adoption of GB has been slower than it ought to have been. This study examines the significance of several obstacles to the widespread acceptance of GB. The findings gathered through statistical analysis of the responses received from a questionnaire survey provided to experts in the field of GB throughout the Northeastern states, are provided. A thorough review was done to identify 18 possible barriers to GBD in Northeast India. Descriptive and inferential statistical studies (ANOVA and Exploratory Factor Analysis) were done to evaluate the effects of different obstacles on GBD and categorize them into manageable factors. To examine the impact of various obstacles on GBD, a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) was established. The results revealed that poor geographic location, rating system limitations, enormous financial consequences, inadequate market conditions and policies, project viability, and poor public perception of GB contribute to Northeast India's GBD challenges. The conclusions of this paper might assist policymakers in identifying issues in GB adoption and developing appropriate measures for their wider acceptance.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101285,"journal":{"name":"World Development Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X23000745/pdfft?md5=b28c692c0c5a54baa996d969d2516c12&pid=1-s2.0-S2772655X23000745-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139026153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Energy poverty and mental distress in South Africa: Assessing linkages and potential pathways","authors":"Isaac Koomson","doi":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wds.2023.100116","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Despite the increasing attention on energy poverty due to its health implications, the South African story is yet to be told, while pathways of influence have received little empirical investigation in the extant literature. This study examines how energy poverty affects mental distress in post-apartheid South Africa and explores gender and locational heterogeneities in outcomes as well as potential pathways. We use five years of longitudinal data extracted from the National Income Dynamics Survey (NIDS). We employ the Lewbel instrumental variable method to resolve endogeneity and apply causal mediation analysis to identify potential channels of effect. The findings suggest that energy poverty is associated with an increase in mental distress. This outcome is consistent across different estimation methods and conceptualisations of energy poverty. The deteriorating effect of energy poverty on mental distress is more pronounced among females and rural residents. We further establish that experiences of persistent cough and chest pains/tightness serve as potential pathways in the link between energy poverty and mental distress. We encourage the South African government to increase budgetary allocations to the free basic electricity policy and provide connection subsidies to poor households, which have the potential to alleviate energy poverty and reduce mental distress as a result.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101285,"journal":{"name":"World Development Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X2300071X/pdfft?md5=0aef54fe31f563836cf138f332afee55&pid=1-s2.0-S2772655X2300071X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138548988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Geospatial investigation of site suitability for ecotourism development using AHP and GIS techniques in Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka state, India","authors":"Harishnaika N, Arpitha M, S.A. Ahmed, Ashwini KS","doi":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wds.2023.100114","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The study aimed to spatially examine the viability and site suitability of ecotourism in the Uttara Kannada district, India. Karnataka is a fantastic destination for a variety of travel and has a lot of potentials to promote ecotourism, which has acquired popularity in recent years. Ecotourism is important to the conservation and safeguarding of biodiversity. Consequently, the current research aims to find potential ecotourism areas in the Uttara Kannada district, utilizing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Geographical Information System-Remote sensing (GIS-RS) methodologies. The study is based on the application of GIS-RS factors for landscape naturalness, climatic features, accessibility parameters, topographic attributes, protected and reserved regions, and natural attractiveness in the GIS platform via a weighted overlay method. To analyze and appraise the ecotourism potential in the study area, the research uses satellite and weighted overlays of auxiliary data from AHP. As an outcome, 53.54 % of the highly suitable land was found over the forest regions and finally, the Unsuitable regions were mainly indicated over the miscellaneous area (47.46 %). The majority of the most suitable ecotourism sites that fall under category S1 are located in the Taluks like Joida (27 %) and Karwar (15 %). The outcome of this paper as expected is that very high and moderately suitable regions were initiated in the forest region. The study's findings and methodology will be useful to decision-makers and planners.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101285,"journal":{"name":"World Development Sustainability","volume":"3 ","pages":"Article 100114"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X23000691/pdfft?md5=59f77e431ad07548607da9c8867c8bc8&pid=1-s2.0-S2772655X23000691-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138570138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Development of policy measures for diffusing human pro-environmental behavior in social networks—Computer simulation of a dynamic model of mutual learning","authors":"Shinsuke Kyoi , Koichiro Mori","doi":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100118","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wds.2023.100118","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Pro-environmental behavior does not diffuse sufficiently in society. Is there a way to enhance the degree of people's pro-environmental behavior? This study aims to develop a dynamic model of mutual learning in social networks to simulate the diffusion of pro-environmental behavior and to search for promising policies for promoting it. This study considers two policy measures: enhancing pro-environmental behavior of target people and changing the learning patterns of target people. The people targeted for intervention are determined by random selection, selection in descending order of degree centrality, and selection in descending order of eigenvector centrality. Centralities measure an influence of a node on other nodes through a network, based on the number of direct or indirect links. An interesting finding is that changing individual learning patterns is much more effective for enhancing the degree of pro-environmental behavior in social networks than trying to directly enhance its degree. In addition, selection of target people based on the centralities is more influential in encouraging environmentally friendly behavior than random selection, particularly in the policy of changing learning patterns. Multiplier effects are also measured: the ratio of the net increase in the number of people who enhance their degree of pro-environmental behavior at the end of a certain number of time steps beyond business as usual to the number of people intervened. Multiplier effects are always positive when learning patterns are changed. Six potential approaches to changing learning patterns are discussed: persuasion, reputation, competition, awareness of economic returns, information provisioning, and education.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101285,"journal":{"name":"World Development Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X23000733/pdfft?md5=bdb7a8d38ed6fe56fa7178e776bbb9b9&pid=1-s2.0-S2772655X23000733-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138548990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Participation, development and tensions in New Zealand donor engagement with non-secular recipients: A case for recognising post-secularity in practice","authors":"Walter Lewthwaite , David Fisher , Hamish Rennie","doi":"10.1016/j.wds.2023.100117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wds.2023.100117","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Many authors argue that we live in a post-secular world where religion persists, and where, in public affairs, religious views should have an equal voice with secularity. This article examines participation in international development through that post-secular lens: To what extent do the differing worldviews of the partners affect their relationships when designing and implementing development projects? Fieldwork for the research was conducted mainly through interviews with global donor and practitioner organisations working from New Zealand and with recipients on one project in Bangladesh. We used a typology of three different parties: recipients; secular donor and practitioner organisations; and faith-based donor and practitioner organisations (FBOs). In that triangle of relationships we found the three parties’ beliefs are intensely important to them. But we also found participation tends to be transactional in that the topic of religion is generally avoided, leading to unexplored assumptions and adverse consequences to development of trust between the parties. However, we observed that FBOs and recipients can, through religion, and regardless of what that religion is, have a natural rapport. This is important as less-developed countries are generally profoundly religious. Further, in an extension to some concepts of post-secularity, our research indicated there is value in not just listening but also in debating views in-depth as a pathway to creating common ground. This may be challenging for secular organisations, but facilitators who are accepted by the three parties as understanding and respecting their views could help achieve productive relationships.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101285,"journal":{"name":"World Development Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X23000721/pdfft?md5=252e843e505ba6f599296f6ae29f318f&pid=1-s2.0-S2772655X23000721-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138549167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}