Air Pollution in Poland: A 2022 Narrative Review with Focus on Respiratory Diseases

According to the World Bank Group, 36 of the 50 most polluted cities in the European Union are in Poland. Thus, ambient air pollution and its detrimental health effects are a matter of immense importance in Poland. This narrative review aims to analyse current findings on air pollution and health in Poland, with a focus on respiratory diseases, including COVID-19, as well as the Poles’ awareness of air pollution. PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were searched. In total, results from 71 research papers were summarized qualitatively. In Poland, increased air pollution levels are linked to increased general and respiratory disease mortality rates, higher prevalence of respiratory diseases, including asthma, lung cancer and COVID-19 infections, reduced forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC). The proximity of high traffic areas exacerbates respiratory health problems. People living in more polluted regions (south of Poland) and in the winter season have a higher level of air pollution awareness. There is an urgent need to reduce air pollution levels and increase public awareness of this threat. A larger number of multi-city studies are needed in Poland to consistently track the burden of diseases attributable to air pollution.

Impact assessment of country risk on logistics performance using a Bayesian Belief Network model

PurposeThis paper aims to assess the impact of different drivers of country risk, including business environment, corruption, economic, environmental, financial, health and safety and political risks, on the country-level logistics performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes three datasets published by reputed international organizations, including the World Bank Group, AM Best and Global Risk Profile, to explore interactions among country risk drivers and the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) in a network setting. The LPI, published by the World Bank Group, is a composite measure of the country-level logistics performance. Using the three datasets, a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model is developed to investigate the relative importance of country risk drivers that influence logistics performance.FindingsThe results indicate a moderate to a strong correlation among individual risks and between individual risks and the LPI score. The financial risk significantly varies relative to the extreme states of the LPI score, whereas corruption risk and political risk are the most critical factors influencing the LPI score relative to their resilience and vulnerability potential, respectively.Originality/valueThis study has made two unique contributions to the literature on logistics performance assessment. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to establish associations between country risk drivers and country-level logistics performance in a probabilistic network setting. Second, a new BBN-based process has been proposed for logistics performance assessment and operationalized to help researchers and practitioners establish the relative importance of risk drivers influencing logistics performance. The key feature of the proposed process is adapting the BBN methodology to logistics performance assessment through the lens of risk analysis.

Fintech: A Literature Review

This article analyzes the Fintech evolution. After describing the process of this phenomenon, some of the main definitions are provided both nationally and internationally. Finally, six main models of Fintech are analyzed. Through a systematic literature, 14 articles have been selected that deal with the phenomenon of Fintech. Six Fintech business models implemented by the ever growing number of Fintech startups have been identified, payment, wealth management, crowdfunding, loan, capital market and insurance services. Internationally, Fintech has already been defined by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group (WBG), the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). On a national level, on the other hand, Fintech has been analyzed by various countries, USA, United Kingdom, Singapore, China, Switzerland, China, Australia and the European Union. Fintech refers to a broad set of innovations - observable in the financial field in a broad sense - which are made possible by the use of new technologies both in the offer of services to end users and in the internal production processes of financial operators as well as in the design of market enterprises, without thereby compromising new possible configurations of intersectoral activities. Fintech appears to be representative of innovative methods - based on technology - of carrying out activities directly or indirectly connected to financial services rather than being a pre-defined industrial sector. Following the logic of the digital economy, Fintech contributes to designing an open and continuous network of modular services for businesses, individuals and banking, financial and insurance intermediaries, becoming a powerful acceleration force for the integration policies of the financial services markets in the EU.

The World Bank in Asia: An assessment of COVID-19-related investments through a care lens. Care-responsive investments and development finance

International financial institutions (IFIs) and multilateral development banks have been playing a vital role in the response, recovery and ‘build back anew’ agenda from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is especially true of the World Bank Group (WBG), given its high volumes of committed investments across sectors, especially in low-income and vulnerable countries. This report presents, through case studies, how care-responsive the World Bank’s COVID-19-related investments have been in four member countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal and the Philippines. It does so by using the Care Principles and Care-Responsive Barometer for IFIs to assess the nature of the WBG’s post-COVID recovery investments in these select countries, and by building evidence through a gender- and care-responsive budget review. The foundation for care inclusion has already been laid in WBG policy. The report uses this as an entry point to urge it to bring women’s unpaid, underpaid and paid work to the centre of the IFI agenda in order to move towards rebuilding a more gender-just and equal future.

An Investigation into the Nexus Between Human Development and Carbon Dioxide Emissions? A Global Panel Analysis

A fact is that the environment remains an open-ended topic of paramount importance and interest in the literature. This is also true among decision-makers and the average person on “Main Street.” Another fact is that the momentum of human development is ongoing in most parts of the globe with higher wealth creation capabilities, better education and access to it, and better healthcare, all of which translates into a higher life expectancy. In that global context, it becomes a worthwhile endeavor to empirically assess the relationship between human development and pollution in the form of carbon dioxide emissions. Towards this end, the study considers different statistical and econometric methods involving granger-causality, panel vector error correction, and impulse responses. Using a broad panel of 139 countries sourced from the World Bank Group and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) over the 1995-2018 period, results indicate some key takeaways and a material policy implication. Improvements in human development exacerbate pollution in the short run. However, in the long run, pollution is contained, even lessened, with improvements in human development. This latter outcome could be due to a growing class of environmentally conscious economic agents and decision-makers over time as economies mature. Such results should not constitute grounds for the pursuit of unchecked and incautious policies. To the contrary, all stakeholders should redouble their efforts in either devising or scrupulously implementing greener policies.

Water-related infrastructure investments in a changing environment: a perspective from the World Bank

At present, there is a global deficit in infrastructure and the World Bank Group (WBG) is one of the major sources of financing to reduce this gap worldwide. The WBG has policies and protocols for approving investments taking into consideration financial and economic indicators while ensuring social and environmental safeguards. In recent years, these safeguards have been updated to include the effects of climate change and robustness and resilience to support climate-informed project investment decision-making. A series of tools for screening projects for climate vulnerabilities and identification of risk management options have been developed to help project teams comply with these requirements. One of these tools is the hierarchical four-phased Decision Tree Framework (DTF) that, beyond screening, helps to analyze plans and project vulnerabilities, climate-related or otherwise, using a decision scaling approach, and explore risk management options, if necessary. The four phases of the DTF are (i) project screening, (ii) initial analysis, (iii) stress test, and (iv) climate risk management. This paper reviews applications of the DTF from the climate change screening phase to non-climate uncertainty screening and decision-making for project investments and prioritization. A peek into work in progress for incorporating resilience in the decision-making process, both for projects and through projects, is also provided, as well as next steps, looking forward.

Economic Multilateralism in Peril

The Doha Round of multilateral negotiations is at a stalemate. The aid situation is changing as many countries are graduating from the soft loan arm of the World Bank Group. Developing countries built up their foreign exchange reserves to avoid borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), leading the IMF to retrench. This article explores the evolution of multilateralism from, essentially, its political roots to the economic area after the First World War (FWW), though in a limited way, and more fully after the Second World War (SWW). We then discuss how the workings of these economic multilateral institutions resulted in the current situation, where they risk becoming irrelevant. Finally, the article discusses the possible role of theG20 in the revival of multilateralism and, in particular, the role that developing countries might play in the revival.

URBAN COMMUTERS’ EXPECTATION LEVELS ON THE e-VTOL VERTICAL AIRPORT DESIGN IN KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

The world’s urban dwellers are rapidly growing by 60.3% over six decades (1960-2019) (The World Bank Group, 2020), and two third of the world’s population is projected to reside in the urban setting by 2050. The same issue occurred in Malaysia, where the shifting from 73% rural to 73% urban population is real (Mohd Hussain, N. H.; Byrd, H.; & Ahmad, N. A., 2017), and this phenomena contributed to the increasing number of population in big cities such as Kuala Lumpur. Therefore, it is expected that the existing challenging traffic congestion will worsen if a better traffic dissemination planning strategy is not developed. Hence, the development of an e-VTOL (electrical vertical take-off landing) vehicle is a possible strategy to ease the urban traffic congestion problem. Serious collaboration among the departments such as planning, engineering, architecture, aviation developers, policy makers, and the sponsors, is important to establish sustainable future urban mobility and connectivity. This study aims to obtain information on the needs and expectations of urban commuters on the development of a vertiport in the city of Kuala Lumpur. A series of surveys involving 157 commuters using public transportation within the city centre, and a case study analysis, were conducted to gain an understanding of the viability of building a vertiport in Kuala Lumpur. Initially, findings show that nearly 50% of the respondents totally agree with the proposed development idea, while approximately 13% are really against this future urban air mobility strategy.

On the failure of systems of economic indicators on the example of indicators of the knowledge economy of the World Bank

To assess the state and the possibility of development of the economy, countries, regions, due to neglect of the basic principles of the methodology of economic science, without empirical justification, various systems of indicators and indicators are introduced. To assess the consistency of the World Bank Group's knowledge economy index system, a correlation analysis of data on the value of knowledge indices, institutions, innovations, education, ICT, GDP per capita and economic growth rates of countries of the world was carried out, and the corresponding econometric models were constructed. A close positive correlation has been established between the values of all five indices for the countries of the world, per capita GDP. The close relationship between the values of all indices and per capita GDP shows that, due to multicollenarity, it is impossible to assess the complex im-pact of indices on per capita GDP. Thus, the system of indices can be considered redun-dant, and the problem of the cause-and-effect relationship remains unresolved. In addition, the values of all five indices are associated with a significant negative correlation with the magnitude of the growth rates. The results obtained indicate that the system of indicators - indicators of the knowledge economy, proposed by the World Bank Group, is untenable and cannot be productively used to reasonably assess the possibility of economic develop-ment of a country or region.