Asymmetric Determinants of CO2 Emissions in China: Do Government Size and Country Size Matter?

CO2 emission reduction is a long-term strategy for China to promote its government and country size. However, this study examines the asymmetric impact of government size and country size on CO2 emissions in China. The study embraces the nonlinear ARDL framework of time series data analysis as proposed by Shin et al. (2014), which disentangles the positive and negative shocks to government size and country size. We find that the response of CO2 emissions to government size and country size positive shocks differs from the negative shocks. Empirical outcomes revealed that a positive shock of government size exerts an insignificant positive on CO2 emissions, while a negative shock of government size reduces CO2 emissions. More specifically, a positive shock of country size mitigates the CO2 emissions of China in long run. Policymakers should redesign the energy and environment policies in the framework of government size and country size.

Noncompliance risk, asymmetric power and the design of enforcement of the European economic governance

In the European Union, states can distribute enforcement prerogatives between a supranational agency, over which they exercise equal influence, and a Council of ministers, where power resources mostly vary by country size. What shapes attitudes towards different enforcement designs? States at greater risk of noncompliance should eschew deeper cooperation and prefer procedures over which they can exercise more influence. Employing an original data set of positions on relevant contested issues during the negotiations over fiscal governance rules from 1997 to 2012, we show that governments at greater risk of noncompliance prefer greater discretion and, if they have higher voting power, more Council involvement in enforcement. These factors only partially explain positions on Commission empowerment. Given their greater indeterminacy, attitudes are also shaped by national public opinion.

A cross-country comparison of malaria policy as a premise for contextualized appropriation of foreign aid in global health

Background Foreign aid continues to play an essential role in health sector development in low-resource countries, particularly in terms of providing a vital portion of their health expenditures. However, the relationship between foreign aid allocation and malaria policy formulation and/or implementation among state aid recipients remains unknown. Methods Publicly available data were collected with the country as observational unit to set up the conceptual framework. The quality and strength of relationships between socioeconomic, environmental and institutional parameters were estimated by Pearson and polychoric correlations. A correlation matrix was explored by factor analysis. Results The first policy index captured policy variation related to malaria burden and development assistance. Funding per capita from all international agencies was correlated with malaria burden, whereas governmental funding for national malaria programmes per capita was not. The second policy index captured variation beyond malaria endemicity and country size. Variation was found to be related to international country risk instruments and funding from the United States Agency for International Development President’s Malaria Initiative. Conclusions Not all agencies involved in malaria policy allocate assistance in alignment with the gross domestic product and malaria burden. While the country size does not negatively impact malaria burden, it does account for greater development assistance per capita from selected international agencies. Novel policy indexes describe complex relationships between malaria policy, international foreign aid and socioeconomic parameters. Small countries have distinct environmental and sociopolitical properties.

Export credit insurance in a transitional economy: Evidence from China

China is the world’s largest exporter, and is also one of the few economies that have successfully transitioned from central-planned to market-oriented economy. In this paper, we analyze the effect of China’s official export credit insurance on Chinese exports to countries in the world. We describes the background of official export insurance in general and the development of China’s ECI. Meanwhile, we discuss the data and model used to examine the relationship between China’s ECIs and exports. We estimate both the static and dynamic gravity models where exports are a function of country size, transportation costs, and country-risk. Our results of static model suggest that that a 1 percent increase in China’s official ECI coverage stimulates its exports volume by 0.34 percent. Furthermore, Chinese companies export 1.5 times more to countries with ECIs than to those countries where ECIs are not available. Our estimates from the dynamic model are similar to the static model, to a lesser extent, of ECI impacts on exports to trading partners.

Country size bias in global health: cross-country comparison of malaria policy and foreign aid

Background Foreign aid has been shown to be favourably biased towards small countries. This study investigated whether country size bias also occurs in national malaria policy and development assistance from international agencies. Methods Data from publicly available sources were collected with countries as observational units. The exploratory data analysis was based on the conceptual framework with socio-economic, environmental and institutional parameters. The strength of relationships was estimated by the Pearson and polychoric correlation coefficients. The correlation matrix was explored by factor analysis. Results Malaria burden is strongly correlated with GDP per capita, total health expenditure per capita, HDI; moderately with latitude, weakly with elevation, urban population share, per capita funding from the Global Fund, PMI USAID, UK government and UNICEF. Small country status is strongly correlated with population size, land area, island status; moderately with development assistance received per capita, weakly with funding per capita from Global Fund, government NMP and PMI USAID. Policy score 1, a variable derived from our factor analysis and related to malaria endemicity, is significantly strongly correlated with the malaria burden, moderately with HDI, GDP per capita, total health expenditure per capita, PMI USAID funding; weakly with island status, urban population share, latitude, coastal population share, total government expenditure and trade openness, Global Fund funding, World Bank funding, UK government funding, and UNICEF funding per capita. Policy score 2, which captures variation not related to malaria endemicity, is significantly weakly related to the ICRG index, PMI USAID funding per capita and small country status. Conclusions The results suggest that malaria burden and economic development are bidirectionally related. Economic development can contribute to a reduction in the malaria burden. Country size does not negatively impact malaria burden, but it does account for greater development assistance per capita from selected international agencies. National malaria policy is associated with parameters related to public governance and is modified in small countries. Small country bias is present in the distribution of socio-economic resources and the allocation of foreign aid. Small countries are characterized by distinct environmental and socio-political properties.