The Relationship between Renewable Energy and Human Development in OECD Countries: A Panel Data Analysis

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most challenging nosocomial pathogens due to the emergence and widespread of antibiotic resistance. We aimed to provide the first analysis of global prevalence of antibiotic resistance in A. baumannii infections, by synthesizing data and knowledge through a systematic review. We searched studies reporting antibiotic resistance in A. baumannii infections using the Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases from January 2000 to December 2016. Studies were eligible if they investigated and reported antibiotic resistance in A. baumannii infections with inpatients or outpatients in hospital. Our investigation showed a high prevalence of resistance to the common prescribed antibiotics in A. baumannii infections in both OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and non-OECD countries. Strikingly, though OECD countries have substantially lower pooled prevalence of resistance compared to non-OECD countries based on the data during 2006–2016, a further investigation in a time scale disclosed a faster increase in OECD countries during the past 11 years, and currently both of them have a comparable prevalence of resistance (2011–2016). Tigecycline and colistin are still active but their resistances are expected to become common if the preventative measures are not taken. Antibiotic resistance in A. baumannii infection developed fast and is a crisis for both OECD and non-OECD countries. A “post-antibiotic era” for A. baumannii infection is expected in the next 10–20 years without immediate actions from pharmaceutical companies and governments.

Does economic level similarly matter for injury mortality in the OECD and non-OECD countries?

Discussion

The study examines the effects of governance quality and religiosity on tax evasion (TE) in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. Further, the study investigates which government qualities and religiosities affect TE significantly. Ordinary least squares has been used to analyze the data gathered from 36 OECD countries covering the period of 2002–2015 based on the latest data of TE. The results show the negative impact of governance quality and religiosity on TE; it implies the higher level of governance quality and religiosity, and the lower level of TE across the countries. Among the governance qualities, the higher the government effectiveness (GE), the rule of law (RL), and regulatory quality (RQ), the lower the level of TE as they have a negatively significant impact on TE. On the contrary, the positive impact of the voice of accountability (VA) and political stability (PS) on TE implies that with increasing the VA and PS, TE also increases. Moreover, during the investigation of religiosities on TE, the study found that Catholics (CATH) have a significant and negative effect on TE, while Muslim (MUSL) is found to be positively significant. Overall findings of the study suggest the government of the OECD countries to emphasize enhancing the governance quality and practicing of peoples' religious activities freely, which demotivates people to evade tax.

This chapter will explore the impact of cognitive skills on education. In the case of OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, it will be examined the relation between the level of education to the economic situation of a state. Case study work is based on a statistical approach of OECD countries ranking, based on The Global Index of Cognitive Skills and Educational Attainment (GICSES) and Ivanovic distance (I-distance). The chapter will be presented to rank these countries based on the value of the global index. Using I-distance method it will be formed a new order, and then it will be carried out a comparative analysis of these two ways of ranking. The aim of the chapter is to present a new approach to the evaluation of a composite indicator based on the multivariate statistical analysis.

IntroductionAdolescents are considered the healthiest population of all age groups, yet they are vulnerable to illnesses and deaths from preventable causes. We aimed to investigate the burden of morbidity, mortality and risk factors for mortality among adolescents and young adults (10–24 years) in Australia compared with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.MethodsWe accessed the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2021 data for OECD countries, including Australia, between 2000 and 2021. Country and age-specific estimates with 95% uncertainty intervals were obtained from the GBD Compare and Results Tool for all-cause mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The top 15 level 3 risk factors for mortality for adolescents and young adults were investigated, with rates reported per 100 000 population. Annualised rates of change (ARoC) in mortality and DALY rates were estimated using a log-linear model to quantify temporal trends between distinct time periods. Causes of death by age groups, sex and year for other diseases were measured using the Cause of Death Ensemble model.ResultsBetween 2000 and 2021, mortality rates in adolescents and young adults decreased in Australia and across OECD regions, with substantial reductions (47.1 in 2000 vs 27.9 in 2021) in Australia. DALYs decreased slightly (11 850.2 in 2000 vs 10 363.9 in 2021), ranking Australia eighth among OECD countries in 2021. The ARoC in Australia showed a decline in the rate of mortality and DALYs by 2.48% and 0.64%, respectively. Overall, OECD countries experienced a slower decline, with an ARoC of 0.92% for mortality and 0.04% for DALYs from 2000-2021. Young adults (20–24 years) had higher mortality and DALYs than other age groups. In 2021, males in Australia and OECD countries had higher mortality rates, while Australian females had more DALYs than males. Alcohol and drug use were the leading risk factors for death.ConclusionAdolescent and young adult mortality in Australia has declined more than the OECD average, with minimal reduction in disease burden. Disparities in mortality rates and morbidity burden continue to grow across countries, age groups and genders due to the limited focus on males and young adults. This study calls for comprehensive health strategies that address these disparities to reduce the disease burden in young adults, specifically among males.

Rent-seeking is a non-productive activity and is formed mostly following government intervention in the economy. In rent-seeking activities, resources and efforts are spent on achieving a monopoly position, and instead of being provided with productive activities, it is spent on distributive struggles that in the long run change the structure of economic and social incentives and lead to heavy welfare losses and heavy social costs. Therefore, identifying the factors affecting Rent-seeking helps us to reduce it and achieve economic growth. Property rights is one of the influential institutional variable that effect on rent-seeking. Property rights affect the motivation of individuals and the use of resources and can encourage productive activities such as the accumulation of skills, the development of new products and the creation of production technology, or can lead people to addictive, corrupt and crime behaviors. In countries where private property rights are well defined and enforced, the legal rights of investors are protected and investors are more willing to invest in financial institutions and the financial market flourishes. But if property rights are not well defined and enforced, people's motivation is distorted, people turn to rent-seeking, and their motivation to participate in productive work is greatly reduced.Due to the importance of property rights in the formation of rent-seeking, in this study, this issue is examined in addition to the impact of other variables such as education , democracy, economic growth, militarization, inflation and oil rent on rent-seeking. For this purpose, two groups selected member countries of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have been studied from 1996 to 2017. To achieve this goal, a panel data model has been used. First, with the Hadri-Rao test, which considers structural breaks, the stationarity of the data was investigated, pre-estimation tests were performed, and then due to cross-sectional dependency, variance heterogeneity and autocorrelation between the residual errors in each selected Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) countries and selected member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are estimated by the Driscoll-Cray method. The results show that in both groups, democracy and property rights and economic growth have a significant negative impact, both inflation and militarization has a positive and significant effect on rent-seeking. Also in the selected member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the rent-seeking decreases as the state of education improves. However, this variable has a significant and positive effect on the rent-seeking in oil-exporting countries. On the other hand, in oil-exporting countries, oil rent have a positive and significant effect on rent-seeking, when oil rent increase, people have less motivation to do productive work and they do more distributive activities.

PurposeHealthcare alliances are a mechanism for developing collaborative and integrated care governance and service delivery arrangements. Yet is not known how widespread alliance arrangements are in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, how alliances function or how effective they are. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of alliances in OECD countries, including key areas covered and how performance is measured.Design/methodology/approachA structured narrative review of literature published between 2010 and 2018 was undertaken, focussed on OECD countries. The literature included peer-reviewed articles as well as publications from key policy analysis organisations.FindingsMany OECD countries have implemented integrated care models but only a small number had explicitly adopted health alliances that link primary and secondary providers under joint governance arrangements. Most alliances are pilot initiatives and not broadly adopted. Most had not adopted a unified performance measurement framework.Practical implicationsPolicy makers and service providers interested in joint governance arrangements that support integration must consider the range of potential options overviewed in this paper, as well as how to create supportive performance measurement frameworks.Originality/valueThis is the first narrative review of alliance arrangements in OECD countries. It provides an overview of arrangements, while illustrating that there is considerable scope for further alliance development.

This study aims to evaluate the sustainable energy performance of 36 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. The sustainable energy performance evaluation of the countries was made with linear programming-based “DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis)” and multi-criteria decision-making-based “PROMETHEE (The Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation)”. Spearman Correlation Coefficients were calculated for the relationships between the rankings obtained from all methods. According to the Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficients (R) calculated for the performance rankings of OECD countries, the relations between all rankings of OECD countries were positive moderate (R = +0.6952) and positive high (R = +0.7959; R = +0.8919). The novelty of this article is to verify that DEA models and PROMETHEE technique, which are different from each other in terms of structure, algorithms, and basic purposes, can be used as an alternative performance evaluation tool.

This paper studies the impact of real effective exchange rate volatility on economic growth as well as the euro’s impact on real effective exchange rate volatility. We first show that after a plausible endogeneity correction, real effective exchange rate volatility is negatively associated with growth in a 1980~2011 panel of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. A one standard deviation volatility decrease is associated with a two percentage points growth increase. Second, we find that the euro adoption was associated with a decline of 0.4 standard deviations in long-run real effective exchange rate volatility before the Great Recession in 2008~2009. Moreover, while the Great Recession increased real effective exchange rate volatility by 38~189% of the sample mean for the countries outside the eurozone, the real effective exchange rate of the euro adopters were almost completely insulated. We conclude that real effective exchange rate stability may be growth-enhancing in the OECD countries and that the euro have played a growth-enhancing role at least before the recent eurozone debt crisis.

Modeling the relative efficiency of national innovation systems

This article examines the decline in labor productivity growth within OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries since 2005. It is hypothesized that the aging labor force throughout OECD countries contributes to this. To test this, two-panel regressions were run on two different time periods for the OECD countries. The first regression was run on the period from 1991 to 2004. The second regression was run on the period from 2005 to 2020. Data on the average age of the labor force for OECD countries consistently increases annually from 1991 to 2020; however, starting in 2005, the increase in the age of the labor force for OECD countries became more pronounced, and this continued through 2020. It was found that starting in 2005, the aging labor force had a significant impact on the decline in labor productivity growth.

BackgroundGlobally, 71% of deaths occur due to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Poor diet quality and physical activity have a significant impact on NCDs. At present, behavior change interventions using smartphone apps have rapidly increased worldwide to prevent NCDs. However, most previous studies on the use and effectiveness of apps have been conducted in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. As such, relevant research in low-income countries is scarce.ObjectiveThis retrospective cohort study aims to investigate the characteristics of adherence to the use of the Noom app. We also aim to compare the effects of using the app on body weight changes over time according to adherence to the use of the app between users in low-income and OECD countries. In addition, the differences in weight loss are compared among users who use the free and paid versions of the app.MethodsA secondary data analysis was conducted using repeated measures. The data were collected from users in low-income countries (n=312) and OECD countries (n=8041) who used the app for 12 months. The app provided programs for the self-monitoring of physical activity, dietary intake, and body weight. Descriptive statistics, independent two-tailed t tests, chi-square tests, and linear mixed models were used for the analysis.ResultsDuring the first 3 months of using the Noom app, users from OECD countries entered data into the app more frequently; however, users in low-income countries entered data more frequently from 3 months to 12 months. Users in OECD countries consumed significantly more calories than those in low-income countries for 12 months. The body weight of all users significantly decreased over time (−1.8 kg; P<.001); however, no statistically significant differences in the change in body weight for 12 months were observed between users from low-income and OECD countries (β=−.2; P=.19). The users who frequently monitored their lunch (β=−.1; P<.001), dinner (β=−.1; P<.001), body weight (β=−.1; P<.001), evening snack (β=−.1; P<.001), and exercise (β=−.03; P<.001) exhibited significant weight loss over time. We found no significant differences in the body weight changes between users who used the free and paid versions of the app (β=−.2; P=.19).ConclusionsThis study found that using the app has a significant effect on weight loss regardless of users’ country of residence. The results of this study suggest that the frequency of monitoring health-related behaviors by entering data into the app plays a pivotal role in losing weight. In conclusion, regardless of where users live and what versions of the app they use, it is important to monitor health-related behaviors by frequently entering data into the app to efficiently lose weight.

The cost of childbirth has been confirmed as a vital factor in families’ fertility decision-making, and family welfare policies are capable of compensating for the increase in household living expenses regarding childbirth, such that the country’s fertility situation can be optimized. In this study, the fertility promotion effects of family welfare policies in OECD(Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries are investigated through regression analysis, grey correlation (GRA), and the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis fsQCA method. As indicated by the results: (1) Family welfare policies notably boost fertility, and the boosting effect is long-lasting. However, this boost will be weakened in countries where fertility rates remain below 1.5. (2) The contribution of welfare policy measures to the fertility-promotion effect varies by country. The contribution of cash benefits is highest in over half of the countries worldwide, the contribution of relevant services and in-kind expenditure is highest in 29% of the countries, and that of tax incentive expenditure is highest in 14% of the countries. (3) The policy mix to boost fertility also varies according to the social context, with three policy groups derived using the fsQCA method. To be specific, the core antecedent conditions comprise cash benefits, relevant services, and in-kind expenditure. On that basis, China should pay attention to the following three points when formulating family welfare policies to tackle their demographic challenges. First, a system of family welfare policies should be developed as early as possible in the context of increasingly severe demographic issues since the incentive effect of family welfare policies will be weakened in countries with chronically low fertility rates. Second, the effects of improvements vary by country, and China should comprehensively consider its national circumstances when formulating and dynamically adjusting the mix of government fertility support policies in accordance with its social development. Third, employment is the main means of securing family income and takes on critical significance to sustaining families. Unemployment exerts a significant disincentive effect, such that it is imperative to reduce youth unemployment and enhance the quality of youth employment. On that basis, the disincentive effect of unemployment on fertility can be reduced.

In this paper, we seek to find a balanced structure of energy sources that can simultaneously achieve two essential goals: (i) the environmental (degradation) goal and (ii) the economic (growth) goal. This study combines quantitative and qualitative methods to estimate and then rank each of the energy sources (including coal, gas, oil, hydropower, and renewable energy) to achieve the above two goals. This paper uses the weighted scoring method, the most popular method in multi-criteria decision-making techniques, to combine the rankings using five energy sources and two goals from panel data of 28 countries from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for the period 1980–2017. Techniques for estimating the mean group long-run effect, including fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), are used. The empirical findings of this paper reveal that, in the long term, in achieving both environmental goals and economic goals, the OECD countries should consider adopting a balanced energy mix in which the following structure is preferred: (i) hydropower, (ii) renewables and (iii) fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal).