scholarly journals An Assessment of the Relationship between Defence Expenditure and Sustainable Development in the Baltic Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6916
Author(s):  
Gitana Dudzevičiūtė ◽  
Svajone Bekesiene ◽  
Ieva Meidute-Kavaliauskiene ◽  
Galina Ševčenko-Kozlovska

As geopolitical instability increases and new threats emerge, a number of countries are increasing their respective allocations for defence expenditure in order to take greater responsibility for their citizens in terms of defending and protecting their values and way of life. Small states such as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia must evaluate certain economic, political, and strategic factors when increasing their respective defence expenditure. While they do tend to increase expenditure on national defence matters, budgetary constraints often force them to cut funding in some civilian domains or to increase their borrowing on international markets. Therefore, the security and defence of small states must be addressed in an integrated way, taking into account economic, social, and environmental factors. The aim of this article is to assess the relationships between defence expenditure and sustainable development indicators during the period between 2000 and 2018 in the Baltic states. The authors of this article aimed to determine which sustainable development indicators have a significant impact upon a country’s expenditure when it comes to defence matters. The study was conducted using econometric methods, including Spearman’s correlation analysis and Automatic Linear Modelling (ALM). The research results revealed some differences amongst the Baltic countries. In Lithuania, the employment rate and R&D personnel as a share of the active population demonstrated a significant impact upon defence expenditure. In Latvia, defence expenditure was found to be affected by disposable household income per capita and environmental taxes as a share of total tax revenue. In Estonia, defence expenditure was mainly influenced by disposable household income per capita and energy import dependency. The study’s findings may be used to ensure both the security of the country and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

2020 ◽  
Vol 185 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Sushchenko ◽  
◽  
Ievgen Volkovskyi ◽  
Viktor Fedosov ◽  
Nadiya Ryazanova ◽  
...  

The concept of sustainable development brought new constraints for the old-fashioned business models. At the same time, it created new opportunities for those who have a forward-looking strategy and strive to overcome «the limits to growth», in other words, to ensure a long-term blended value creation with economic and non-economic benefits. There are numerous sets of the sustainable development indicators and indices, but the weights of each particular component are different and need further clarification. Nowadays, the environmental risks in general and climate-related in particular are priced (e.g. environmental taxes) and have a strong impact on the social and economic relations by creating negative and positive externalities for our daily life. For this reason, economic agents are forced to become sustainable to the non-financial risks through switching to the new environmental and social business models. For this reason, better sustainable development indicators are crucial for an improved management of the non-financial risks and sustainable blended value creation. Hence, the aim of this paper is to examine the role of environmental risks in shaping sustainable development conditions on the macrolevel and to elaborate the ways for a better management of the non-financial risks (Environmental, Social and Governance - ESG). For this purpose, the impact of the most important environmental risks on the main economic and social indicators has been examined (e.g. Human Development Index and GDP per capita). Such an approach allowed us to identify the extent to which specific environmental factors influencing social and economic development can reshape the sustainable development conditions. In course of research, two sets of countries have been singled out to verify statistical significance of elaborated models. To achieve this goal, the authors have split an available dataset into two groups: EU and non-EU countries. The reason behind it is the fact that EU countries are among the leaders in the area of sustainable development and have already undertaken related environmental improvements in the last decades. Moreover, the above-mentioned countries are continuing such successful pathways today and with the new European Green Deal could go even far beyond this frontier. The results of current research suggest that existing indicators cannot fully encompass all the aspects of sustainable development and should be revised. Such findings relate both to the composition of the indicators and the weights attributed to each particular component. The application of regression analysis showed that such factors as water and air quality and biodiversity have the strongest explanatory power - 67% of the fluctuations in GDP per capita and 87% in case of HDI. The R -squared is ranging from 0.7 to 0.8 in both cases and confirms consistency of the elaborated models. To verify the results achieved, the similar models have been prepared only for the EU countries. As a result, all independent variables demonstrated the same significant impact on GDP per capita also for the EU countries. However, in this case the R -squared is only 0.27 due to the fact that ESG indicators within the EU area are rather homogenous. The impact of environmental factors on the level of HDI for the EU countries is much stronger comparing to GDP per capita. An overall explanatory power of the model for the EU countries exceeds 0.45 (R -squared). The most influential factor is the quality of water resources. Other important independent variables in the model for the EU member states are biodiversity and air quality. The authors argue that it is necessary to incorporate the above-mentioned environmental factors into the updated version of the Human Development Index as the most appropriate indicators of sustainable development. Consequently, the weights of the components should be recalculated to improve management of the non-financial risks on macrolevel, facilitating the blended value creation process.


Author(s):  
Indrė Lapinskaitė ◽  
Patrikas Janulevičius

Purpose – is to analyse the different investment sources for sustainable development of a country and reveal the interaction between investment sources for sustainability and a country's sustainable development. Research methodology – analysis of scientific sources, collection and systematization of statistical data, a method for sustainable development index calculation, correlation regression analysis. Findings – each analysed country's progress of sustainable development is expressed as integrated sustainable development index revealed that all analysed countries are gradually increasing their sustainable development results. All three analysed investment sources are strongly affecting countries sustainable development, and stochastic relationship exists between variables. Research limitations – statistical data with incomplete time series, for which not all the most important sustainable development indicators were selected. The case of three Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) is used for the period 2003–2017. The three main investment sources for sustainable development of a country: assignations of the state budget, EU structural funds, and direct investments, are chosen for the research. Practical implications – results can be used in calculations for other countries sustainable development and investments interactions. They can be used to evaluate the impact of the different source and contribute to the modelling of their use. Originality/Value – this article is unique because it reveals the interaction of multiple sustainability sources, in terms of investment sources for sustainability and the results of a country's sustainable development. These sources can be supplemented and adapted to other countries (at least in developed countries EU level). Keywords: sustainability, sustainable development indicators, integrated sustainable development index, assignation of the budget, EU funds, direct investment


2015 ◽  
pp. 147-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Bobylev ◽  
N. Zubarevich ◽  
S. Solovyeva

The article emphasizes the fact that traditional socio-economic indicators do not reflect the challenges of sustainable development adequately, and this is particularly true for the widely-used GDP indicator. In this connection the elaboration of sustainable development indicators is needed, taking into account economic, social and environmental factors. For Russia, adaptation and use of concepts and basic principles of calculation methods for adjusted net savings index (World Bank) and human development index (UNDP) as integral indicators can be promising. The authors have developed the sustainable development index for Russia, which aggregates and allows taking into account balanced economic, social and environmental indicators.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-178
Author(s):  
Ilie Banu ◽  
Ioana Madalina Butiuc

AbstractRegarding the economic crises and the slow recovery that still continues, we believe that a solution can be improving the capacity to research and innovate in order to achieve sustainable development. Another key issue of the paper is about developing the cooperation between academia and business. The challenge of this development is how to increase the amount to finance research and innovation that can be implemented in the economy. As a global solution, to this problem we can recommend, for example, reducing tax evasion and by fiscal education. Also particular sources have to be found in order to develop innovation on SME level. It is essential for innovation to make quality research in order to be better prepared and increase adaptability to economic cycles. The aim of the paper is to find out how service innovation and cooperation between academia and business can enhance sustainable development indicators. The conclusions of the paper are structured in particular proposals and recommendations.


Gaia Scientia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 182-194
Author(s):  
Paulo Sérgio Fagundes Araujo ◽  
Maria Cristiana da Silva Souto ◽  
Paulo Roberto Medeiros de Azevedo ◽  
Maria de Fatima Freire de Melo Ximenes

This study aimed to correlate sustainable development indicators with the occurrence of mosquitoes from the genus Aedes and phlebotominae sand flies, vectors of dengue fever, American visceral leishmaniasis and American tegumentary leishmaniasis, in order to establish a relationship between infestation indices and sustainability conditions in southern and northern neighborhoods of Natal, Brazil, adjacent to environmental protection zones 5 and 9, respectively. Data were obtained on Aedes aegypti and A. albopictus breeding sites and captures of phlebotominae sand flies of the genus Lutzomyia in the study area between 2006 and 2008, from the Center of Zoonosis Control of the Municipal Health Secretariat, and correlated with environmental and social indicators. Factorial analysis was applied to transform these indicators into a sustainability index for each neighborhood studied (Neighborhood Sustainability Index – NSI). Relating these indices with the occurrence of insect vectors at these sites shows a high positive correlation between SID and the Breteau index of A. aegypti (p=0.028) and with the index of household infestation by phlebotominae sand flies (p=0.01). This reveals a pattern allowing the association of sustainability conditions in the study areas with the occurrence of these insects. Analyses demonstrate the occurrence of a larger number of A. aegypti breeding sites and higher indices of household infestation by phlebotominae sand flies in neighborhoods with lower sustainability indices. Knowledge of the relationship between sustainable development indicators and the occurrence of zoonotic vectors may contribute to public health programs as well as to a restructuring of public policies in the study areas.


Author(s):  
Pham Viet Hai ◽  
Nguyen Dinh Hoang Long ◽  
Nguyen Thi Diem Thuy ◽  
Le Hoang Anh ◽  
Dao Nguyen Khoi

The objective of this study was to develop a set of sustainable development indicators on environmental aspects and apply them to assess the level of environmental sustainability in Phu Quy district, Binh Thuan province. The set of sustainable development indicators was built based on the screening of indicators from some previous studies, as well as developing new indicators to match the research area. The indicators were then be grouped into topics based on the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals to 2030. In terms of environment, the set of sustainable development indicators includeed 6 topics (main components), 19 indicators (sub-components), of which 6 new indicators were researched and developed for the island and sea area. The result showed that the level of environmental sustainability of the Phu Quy district was good (0.846). In addition, the results showed that the local environmental aspects attained levels of sustainability. Accordingly, main components including clean water - sanitation (MT1), habitat (MT3), natural disaster prevention (MT4) and ocean conservation - sustainable use (MT5) reached the good level of sustainability and tend to keep stable. While sustainable energy (MT2) and forest protection and development (MT6) are quite sustainable. However, the MT6 component tended to decrease that indicated the forest degradation and the impacts on environmental sustainability in Phu Quy district in the future.


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