Spearman's rank correlation coefficient is a nonparametric (distribution-free) rank statistic proposed by Charles Spearman as a measure of the strength of an association between two variables. It is ...a measure of a monotone association that is used when the distribution of data makes Pearson's correlation coefficient undesirable or misleading. Spearman's coefficient is not a measure of the linear relationship between two variables, as some "statisticians" declare. It assesses how well an arbitrary monotonic function can describe a relationship between two variables, without making any assumptions about the frequency distribution of the variables. Unlike Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient, it does not require the assumption that the relationship between the variables is linear, nor does it require the variables to be measured on interval scales; it can be used for variables measured at the ordinal level. The idea of the paper is to compare the values of Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient as well as their statistical significance for different sets of data (original - for Pearson's coefficient, and ranked data for Spearman's coefficient) describing regional indices of socio-economic development.
This study aims to analyze the disparities in socio-economic development in the North-Western region of Bangladesh from a micro-spatial perspective, as well as to uncover the underlying factors that ...generate disparities. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used in this study. Secondary data from Government organizations was compiled for 67 spatial units (upazila) to regionalize the study area based on 22 indicators from seven socio-economic sectors, and to identify the underlying factors, a structured questionnaire survey was conducted, followed by a literature review, group discussion, interviews, and field observation methods. According to the results, severe disparity in socio-economic development in the study area has been identified. Almost half of the study area, 46 percent (27 upazilas), has been classified as a very low-developed region, while the remaining 29 percent (19 upazilas), 22 percent (18 upazilas), 2 percent (2 upazilas), and 0.6 percent (1 upazilas) have been classified as low, moderate, high, and very high developed regions, respectively. Service and business-oriented professions, high income, easy accessibility to resources, developed transportation system, and technological advancement functions as factors of development, contrariwise, agro-based professions, low income, lack of accessibility to resources, a technological lag, transport system, and low-quality human resources are functioning as constraints of development. Few recommendations to reduce the disparity have been made based on the severity of disparity and underlying factors of different sectors.
This article relates the lively debate about inequality-induced status concerns in affluent societies to the broader theoretical perspective on changing existential dispositions in modern society, ...which we reconstruct from the sociological theories of David Riesman, Gerhard Schulze and Ronald Inglehart. We conceptualise experience seeking – aspiring to an enjoyable life – alongside status seeking – aspiring to a successful life – as a presumably increasing life orientation. Using extensive data from the European Social Survey, for 27 countries and over 350,000 respondents over the period 2002–2018, we examine the extent and relationship of these orientations over time, their associations with socio-economic development and income inequality, as well as their social stratification according to individual-level characteristics. The results show that the populations of wealthy and economically more equal societies increasingly prefer an exciting life to a successful one. Within societies, men, younger people and the highly educated value both experiences and status.
•Higher CWB avg. scores are associated with land management regime type in the order of IALM, FNLM and SGLM respectively.•A significant statistical difference was found between IALM and, FNLM and ...SGLM land management regimes CWB scores.•First Nations experienced a differential increase in CWB scores over time depending on their initial score and land management regime.•Higher CWB scores were found in all 3 land management regimes with communities that have a formal property rights system.•FNLM communities increased in CWB score both before and after transition to FNLM but increase slowed after transition.
The presented paper synthesizes and reviews the history of Fist Nation land management, forming the background of three land management regimes types; the Indian Act land management (IALM), First Nations land management (FNLM) and frameworks of self-government land management (SGLM). The three regimes are compared to the Community Well-Being (CWB) index, being a measure of socio-economic development of communities across Canada. Statistical analysis was done on CWB scores by land management regime to determine if there are significant differences between land management regime and CWB scores, and where rates of increase in CWB are found. Results of these efforts identified five key findings; 1) while higher levels of CWB score are found in all three land-management regimes, there is an increasing trajectory in CWB average scores from IALM, to FNLM, to SGLM communities; 2) there is a significant statistical difference between CWB average scores of the IALM with FNLM and SGLM land management regimes, 3) higher levels of CWB scores were found among communities having a formal versus an informal land tenure system; 4) rates of increase in CWB scores were found in higher scoring communities, however, the rates were higher at the lower quartile; 5) increase in CWB scores was observed in FNLM communities both prior and after transition to FNLM, however, the rate of increase slowed down after transition.
Worldwide, anthropogenic activities threaten surface water quality by aggravating eutrophication and increasing total nitrogen to total phosphorus (TN:TP) ratios. In hydrologically connected systems, ...water quality management may benefit from in-ecosystem nutrient retention by preventing nutrient transport to downstream systems. However, nutrient retention may also alter TN:TP ratios with unforeseen consequences for downstream water quality. Here, we aim to increase understanding of how nutrient retention may influence nutrient transport to downstream systems to improve long-term water quality management. We analyzed lake ecosystem state, in-lake nutrient retention, and nutrient transport (ratios) for 3482 Chinese lakes using the lake process-based ecosystem model PCLake+. We compared a low climate change and sustainability-, and a high climate change and economy-focused scenario for 2050 against 2012. In both scenarios, the effect of nutrient input reduction outweighs that of temperature rise, resulting in more lakes with good ecological water quality (i.e., macrophyte-dominated) than in 2012. Generally, the sustainability-focused scenario shows a more promising future for water quality than the economy-focused scenario. Nevertheless, most lakes remain phytoplankton-dominated. The shift to more macrophyte-dominated lakes in 2050 is accompanied by higher nutrient retention fractions and less nutrient transport to downstream waterbodies. In-lake nutrient retention also alters the water's TN:TP ratio, depending on the inflow TN:TP ratio and the ecosystem state. In 2050 higher TN:TP ratios are expected in the outflows of lakes than in 2012, especially for the sustainability-focused scenario with strong TP loading reduction. However, the downstream impact of increased TN:TP ratios depends on actual nutrient loadings and the limiting nutrient in the receiving system. We conclude that nutrient input reductions, improved water quality, higher in-lake nutrient retention fractions, and lower nutrient transport to downstream waterbodies go hand in hand. Therefore, water quality management could benefit even more from nutrient pollution reduction than one would expect at first sight.
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•Anthropogenic activities aggravate eutrophication in hydrologically connected systems.•We show how nutrient retention affects downstream nutrient loading.•Nutrient retention fractions are higher in macrophyte-dominated lakes.•Outflow TN:TP ratios depend on lake ecosystem state and inflow TN:TP ratios.•Nutrient pollution reduction may stimulate reinforcing feedbacks on water quality.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight the importance of poverty reduction, and call for policy implementation that leads to the socio-economic development of impoverished people. However, ...there is a lack of knowledge about assessing individual-level socio-economic development, and how financial inclusion through microfinance can contribute to it. Therefore, the role of commercially operated Microfinance Banks (MFBs) is also considered to be controversial in the literature. This study assesses the overall socio-economic development by considering different sustainable livelihoods, multidimensional poverty, living standards, and social development measures. Thus, the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), and Living Standard Index (LSI) have been estimated to gauge poverty and improvements in living standards. Data comprising 503 customers of MFBs, and 500 control respondents, has been gathered through a survey to signify this impact for two years. This paper substantiates that the microfinance obtained from MFBs contributes positively towards sustainable livelihoods, multidimensional poverty reduction, and living standards. However, microfinance does not contribute to social development. Impoverished people, mainly women living in urban areas, reap more benefits from microfinance, than their rural counterparts. Overall, financial inclusion shall be a gateway to achieve the SDGs in the long run through the socio-economic development of an impoverished segment of the society.
Sustainable Development Goals are formed based on social, economic, and environmental factors, which are primarily driven by technical and financial progression. However, little is known regarding ...the impact of climate technologies in realizing socio-economic and environmental factors in a multivariate framework of renewable energy. Therefore, this study examines the role of climate technologies, financial development, and renewable energy in determining the social, economic, and environmental goals for top-ten developed economies in terms of human development during 2000–2019. This study adopts advanced panel estimation techniques such as cross-sectional dependence, slope heterogeneity, and cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) model. The findings confirm that climate technologies, financial development, and renewable energy significantly and positively contribute to human development and economic growth. Moreover, climate technologies and renewable energy help achieve environmental sustainability by reducing ecological footprints in the targeted economies. In contrast, more ecological damages have been recorded due to financial development during the study period. These findings implied that renewable energy and climate technologies are imperative to achieve social, economic, and ecological goals.
•SDGs are evaluated based on social, economic, and environmental factors.•Advance panel techniques are employed.•Renewable energy and Climate technologies facilitate SDGs.•Financial development leads to higher ecological damages.
In this book, Vladimir Gel’man considers bad governance as a distinctive politico-economic order that is based on a set of formal and informal rules, norms, and practices quite different from those ...of good governance. Some countries are governed badly intentionally because the political leaders of these countries establish and maintain rules, norms, and practices that serve their own self-interests. Gel’man considers bad governance as a primarily agency-driven rather than structure-induced phenomenon. He addresses the issue of causes and mechanisms of bad governance in Russia and beyond from a different scholarly optics, which is based on a more general rationale of state-building, political regime dynamics, and policy-making. He argues that although these days, bad governance is almost universally perceived as an anomaly, at least in developed countries, in fact human history is largely a history of ineffective and corrupt governments, while the rule of law and decent state regulatory quality are relatively recent matters of modern history, when they emerged as side effects of state-building. Indeed, the picture is quite the opposite: bad governance is the norm, while good governance is an exception. The problem is that most rulers, especially if their time horizons are short and the external constraints on their behavior are not especially binding, tend to govern their domains in a predatory way because of the prevalence of short-term over long-term incentives. Contemporary Russia may be considered as a prime example of this phenomenon. Using an analysis of case studies of political and policy changes in Russia after the Soviet collapse, Gel’man discusses the logic of building and maintenance of politico-economic order of bad governance in Russia and paths of its possible transformation in a theoretical and comparative perspective.
Regional economic resilience (RER) remains the state-of-the-art concept in economic geography to investigate regional development in times of disturbance. We seek to contribute to a transformative ...notion of RER, which unfolds in light of global environmental change. In our review of conceptual and empirical RER applications, we reveal three unresolved issues: a focus on firms rather than diverse actors, trivial reflections on social–ecological interdependencies, and the need for more fluid understandings of socio-spatial relations. Based on these insights from neighboring geographical disciplines, we provide concrete propositions for theoretical enhancement to make RER fit for purpose.
Background
A comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors that are linked to student engagement requires research that includes cross‐cultural perspectives.
Aims
This study investigated how ...student engagement in school is associated with grade, gender, and contextual factors across 12 countries. It also investigated whether these associations vary across countries with different levels of individualism and socio‐economic development.
Samples
The participants were 3,420 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students from Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Methods
The participants completed a questionnaire to report their engagement in school, the instructional practices they experienced, and the support they received from teachers, peers, and parents. Hierarchical linear modelling was used to examine the effects at both student and country levels.
Results
The results across countries revealed a decline in student engagement from Grade 7 to Grade 9, with girls reporting higher engagement than boys. These trends did not vary across the 12 countries according to the Human Development Index and Hofstede's Individualism Index. Most of the contextual factors (instructional practices, teacher support, and parent support) were positively associated with student engagement. With the exception that parent support had a stronger association with student engagement in countries with higher collectivism, most of the associations between the contextual factors and student engagement did not vary across countries.
Conclusions
The results indicate both cultural universality and specificity regarding contextual factors associated with student engagement in school. They illustrate the advantages of integrating etic and emic approaches in cross‐cultural investigations.
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