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91. Worldwide Cost of Living 2012

Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
For the first time in at least two decades of reporting the worldwide cost of living survey Zurich sits atop the ranking as the world's most expensive city. An index swing of 34 percentage points pushed the Swiss city up 4 places compared to last year to overtake Tokyo which remains in 2nd place. Geneva, the other Swiss city surveyed saw a 30 percentage point rise in the cost of living to move up six places into joint third alongside Osaka.
Topic:
International Relations, Demographics, Economics, Markets, and Urbanization
Political Geography:
Tokyo

92. e-Health for Japanese Health Services

Author:
Masanori Akiyama and Ryozo Nagai
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
As Japan faces rapid aging, a declining birthrate, widening income disparity, expanding fiscal debt, and remarkable hikes in health care costs, the sustainability of its health care system is at stake. Despite the need to allocate limited medical resources optimally, Japan lacks a common platform for sharing medical data, ideally over the Internet. The potential benefits of health information technology, or health IT, are not well known among patients, practitioners, or policymakers. Electronic patient records are not available from one hospital to another and are isolated from the Internet due to privacy concerns. Clinical practitioners have no remote access to patients' information when away from a particular hospital or clinic. Unique medical data, stored individually in each hospital or clinic, is vulnerable to accidents and natural disasters. The Tohoku disaster demonstrated the absence of a reliable backup for health data, the challenge of data management during an emergency, and the dangers of prescribing drugs with insufficient access to medical records.
Topic:
Demographics, Health, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Japan and Israel

93. Beyond Federalism: Estimating and Explaining the Territorial Structure of Government

Author:
Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
Abstract:
This paper suggests that the basic distinction between federal and unitary government has limited as well as served our understanding of government. The notion that variation in the structure of government is a difference of kind rather than degree has straight-jacketed attempts to estimate the authority of intermediate government. One result has been the claim that a country\'s footprint, not its population, is decisive for government. Analyzing data for 39 countries since 1950, and comparing our own findings with those of alternative measurements, we find evidence for the causal effect of population. This can be theorized in terms of a trade-off between responsiveness to soft information and per capita economies in public good provision.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

94. Family Planning Promotes the Demographic Dividend

Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The relationship between population dynamics and economic expansion is complex, but demographic changes play an important role in national development. While it is widely accepted that population growth rates do not have any consistent effect on economic growth, there is one set of population changes that can result in major economic benefits, as well as improved well - being for families and societies. This powerful opportunity is known as the demographic dividend, and it offers the potential to boost economic growth and poverty reduction — but only if government leaders implement sound policies.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, Government, and Health Care Policy

95. US Agricultural Exports to ASEAN Grow - But Face Competition

Author:
Michael McConnell
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
ASEAN countries have long been an important international market for US agricultural exports. The United States, in 2011, exported almost $9.6 billion of agricultural products to ASEAN, making it the sixth-largest export destination for US farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses—behind Japan ($14 billion) and just behind the European Union ($9.6 billion), but well ahead of South Korea ($7 billion). Moreover, the value of agricultural trade between the United States and ASEAN almost doubled between 2007 and 2011, with the top four ASEAN markets in 2011 for the United States being Indonesia ($2.8 billion), the Philippines ($2.1 billion), Vietnam ($1.7 billion), and Thailand ($1.3 billion). With a population of 614 million and strong economic growth, it is expected that ASEAN will continue to be an important market for US agricultural products. However, the United States is likely to face increasing competition, particularly from China, Australia, and New Zealand, all of which have free trade agreements (FTAs) with ASEAN.
Topic:
Agriculture, Demographics, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Food
Political Geography:
United States, China, Europe, East Asia, South Korea, Australia, Southeast Asia, and New Zealand

96. Adolescent Fertility in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Effects and Solutions

Author:
Amanda Glassman, Kate McQueston, and Rachel Silverman
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Adolescent fertility in low- and middle-income countries presents a severe impediment to development and can lead to school dropout, lost productivity, and the intergenerational transmission of poverty. However, there is debate about whether adolescent pregnancy is a problem in and of itself or merely symptomatic of deeper, ingrained disadvantage. To inform policy choices and create a revised research agenda for population and development, this paper aggregates recent quantitative evidence on the socioeconomic consequences of and methods to reduce of teenage pregnancy in the developing world. The review finds variable results for all indicator types with the partial exception of knowledge-based indicators, which increased in response to almost all evaluating interventions, though it is not clear that such interventions necessarily lead to short- or long term-behavior change. The evidence base supporting the effectiveness of conditional cash transfers was relatively strong in comparison to other interventions. Similarly, programs that lowered barriers to attending school or increased the opportunity cost of school absence are also supported by the literature. On the basis of these findings, the authors argue that donors should adopt a rights-based approach to adolescent fertility and shift their focus from the proximate to distal causes of pregnancy, including human rights abuses, gender inequality, child marriage, and socioeconomic marginalization. Further research should be conducted to strengthen the evidence base by 1) establishing causality, 2) understanding the differential impacts of adolescent fertility in different contexts, and 3) investigating other the impact of adolescent fertility on other socioeconomic outcomes, such as labor participation, productivity, and the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
Topic:
Democratization, Demographics, Development, Economics, Foreign Aid, and Youth Culture

97. Sahel Markets Under Pressure

Author:
Jean Denis Crola
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Harvests in Africa's Sahel region from the 2011/12 season are down sharply compared with last year and have been later than usual, extending the previous 'hunger gap' period. A further aggravating factor for the people of the region is that local grain prices failed to drop as they generally do in the period after the harvest. In December 2011, prices reached levels that were 80% above their five-year averages and remained at high levels, compromising access to adequate food for vulnerable populations. Together with the main agencies involved in the crisis, Oxfam, ROPPA, RBM, APESS, POSCAO and WILDAF estimate that more than 18 million people are currently in a situation of food insecurity in the Sahel.
Topic:
Agriculture, Demographics, Poverty, Food, and Famine
Political Geography:
Africa

98. Global Urban Market-Based Livelihoods in Oxfam GB: Lessons and experiences from Kenya, Bangladesh, Guatemala, Colombia, Haiti, and Russia

Author:
Sheilah Meikle, Tim Chambers, Alex Frediani, and Tom Goodfellow
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
More people in the world now live in urban areas than in rural areas. It is estimated that as many as one billion people, 15 per cent of the world's total of seven billion, currently live in urban slums, and this number will likely double within 20 years. Until recently however, Oxfam, like other development agencies, focused primarily on rural poverty.
Topic:
Demographics, Poverty, and Urbanization
Political Geography:
Bangladesh, Kenya, Russia, Colombia, Haiti, and Guatemala

99. Best cities ranking and report

Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
Earlier this year the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) teamed up with data sharing company BuzzData to host a competition offering users the opportunity to combine data from the Worldwide Cost of Living and Liveability surveys with other sources to provide a ranking of their own. Here Jon Copestake, the Editor of the EIU's Cost of Living and Liveability surveys, discusses his experience of the competition.
Topic:
Demographics, International Trade and Finance, Culture, and Urbanization

100. Supersized cities: China's 13 megalopolises

Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
The rise and decline of great cities past was largely based on their ability to draw the ambitious and the restless from other places. China's cities are on the rise. Their growth has been fuelled both by the large-scale internal migration of those seeking better lives and by government initiatives encouraging the expansion of urban areas. The government hopes that the swelling urban populace will spend more in a more highly concentrated retail environment, thereby helping to rebalance the Chinese economy towards private consumption.
Topic:
Communism, Demographics, Development, Economics, Migration, and Urbanization
Political Geography:
China and Israel