Social Health Indicators and Economic Growth: Evidence from East Asia and Pacific,Middle East and North Africa,South Asia,and Sub-Saharan Africa

The objective of this study is to empirically investigate a two-way statistical relationship between the social health indicators and economic growth in the context of four major regions of the world i.e., East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. To recognize the relationship between the two variables, a time series, co-integration and Granger causality tests have been employed. Aggregate secondary data pertaining to these four regions from 1975 to 2011 on economic growth and social health indicators i.e., infant mortality, child abuse, child poverty, unemployment, weekly wages, health insurance coverage, teenage suicide, teenage drug abuse, high school dropouts, poverty, out-of-pocket health costs, homicides, alcohol related traffic fatalities, food insecurity, income inequality, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, basic health units and rural health centers has been used for analysis. This study evaluates four alternative but equally plausible hypotheses, each with different policy implications. These are: (1) social health indicators Granger cause economic growth, (2) economic growth Granger cause social health indicators (the conventional view), (3) There is a bi-directional causality between the two variables and (4) Both variables are causality independent (although highly correlated). The empirical results only moderately support the conventional view that economic growth has significant long run casual effect on social health indicators in East Asia and Pacific, MENA, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The present study find evident of unidirectional causality running towards economic growth to social health indicators, although, there are some bidirectional causality also exists between the variables. The percentage of unidirectional causality between economic growth and social health indicators is larger than bidirectional or neutrality hypothesis.     

Where Deer Roam: Chronic Yet Acute Site Exposures Preclude Ecological Risk Assessment

Global positioning system (GPS) technology has made possible the detailed tracking of the spatial movements of wildlife. Using GPS tracking collars placed on female white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) over a protracted period, we illustrate that this species is spatially irrelevant for consideration in ecological risk assessments (ERAs) for commonly assessed contaminated sites. Specifically, deer movements do not allow for a sufficiency of chemical exposures to occur such that toxicological endpoints would be triggered. Deer are spatially irrelevant not only because their home ranges and overall utilized areas dwarf prototypical hazardous waste sites. They are also inappropriate for assessment because they only minimally contact reasonably sized preferred locations, this while demonstrating a confounding high degree of site affinity for them. Our spatial movements analysis suggests that deer introduce the ERA novelty of a species displaying elements of both chronic and acute site exposure. We further suggest that other large commonly assessed high‐profile mammals could also be found to be spatially irrelevant for ERAs were they to submit to the GPS tracking and subsequent data analysis we performed for the deer. Recognizing that certain receptors need not be considered in ERAs can help to simplify the ERA process.