A growing body of empirical evidence is revealing the value of nature experience for mental health. With rapid urbanization and declines in human contact with nature globally, crucial decisions must ...be made about how to preserve and enhance opportunities for nature experience. Here, we first provide points of consensus across the natural, social, and health sciences on the impacts of nature experience on cognitive functioning, emotional well-being, and other dimensions of mental health. We then show how ecosystem service assessments can be expanded to include mental health, and provide a heuristic, conceptual model for doing so.
Rodríguez-Pose A. and Garcilazo E. Quality of government and the returns of investment: examining the impact of cohesion expenditure in European regions, Regional Studies. This paper sets out to ...examine the relationship between the quality of local and regional governments and regional economic performance, linking government quality to the returns of European Union Structural and Cohesion Funds. Using primary data on government quality collected by the Quality of Government Institute, combined with World Bank Global Governance Indicators data, a two-way fixed effect panel regression model is conducted for a total of 169 European regions during the period 1996-2007. The results of the analysis underline the importance of government quality both as a direct determinant of economic growth as well as a moderator of the efficiency of Structural and Cohesion Funds expenditure. The analysis finds that both European Union investments targeting regions and quality of government simultaneously make a difference for regional economic growth, but that above a threshold of cohesion expenditure - calculated at more than €120 of cohesion expenditure per capita per year - government quality improvements are a far more important and realistic option for regional development than additional public investment. In many of the regions receiving the bulk of Structural Funds, further improvements in economic growth would require massive amounts of additional investment, unless the quality of government is significantly enhanced.
The article examines the modern realities of the functioning of the State Regional Development Fund as a budget program within the State Budget of Ukraine. The purpose of the study is to reveal the ...key features of the Fund functioning in modern conditions, to assess the current state of financial support of regional development projects, to identify the main problems in this field, and to develop possible solutions. The article substantiates the importance of sustainable development of territories as a mode of functioning of the region, characterized by harmonious positive changes in the most important spheres of life of the individual, society, and state, considering the interests of present and future generations. The change of the tendency of the gap between the declared and approved volumes of financing of regional development projects in 2015-2021 is estimated and the possible consequences of such gap are outlined. The volume and number of development projects in the regional and district dimension, funded by the Ukrainian State Regional Development Fund in 2020, are marked on the map of Ukraine. The need for uniform distribution of project financing based on the new zoning and elimination of "white spots" on the project map is emphasized. The ratio of the number of regional development projects in terms of settlements of implementation by their status was studied. Structural analysis of the use of funds of the Ukrainian State Regional Development Fund by purpose and type of work is performed; the average cost of regional development projects by category and in general are calculated and compared. Based on the analysis, the "bottlenecks" of the Ukrainian State Regional Development Fund functioning at the present stage are identified and the ways to solve them are proposed.
This paper examines the extant research progress of the common prosperity in China. Centrals on the topic of common prosperity, the author reviews the progress of Chinese common prosperity from a ...couple of perspectives: namely the relations between common prosperity and the essence of 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China; the path and measures to achieve the common prosperity; the nexus among digital economy transition, financial inclusion, household consumption, regional coordinative development and common prosperity; and finally the measurement of the current level of common prosperity. In general, the theme of common prosperity has aroused wide focus in the academic community at home and abroad. From the perspective of literature review in particular, this paper summarizes the current research progress associated with common prosperity in China.
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