Employing the Gini coefficient to measure participation inequality in treatment-focused Digital Health Social Networks

Digital Health Social Networks (DHSNs) are common; however, there are few metrics that can be used to identify participation inequality. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the Gini coefficient, an economic measure of statistical dispersion traditionally used to measure income inequality, could be employed to measure DHSN inequality. Quarterly Gini coefficients were derived from four long-standing DHSNs. The combined data set included 625,736 posts that were generated from 15,181 actors over 18,671 days. The range of actors (8–2323), posts (29–28,684), and Gini coefficients (0.15–0.37) varied. Pearson correlations indicated statistically significant associations between number of actors and number of posts (0.527–0.835, p < .001), and Gini coefficients and number of posts (0.342–0.725, p < .001). However, the association between Gini coefficient and number of actors was only statistically significant for the addiction networks (0.619 and 0.276, p < .036). Linear regression models had positive but mixed R2 results (0.333–0.527). In all four regression models, the association between Gini coefficient and posts was statistically significant (t = 3.346–7.381, p < .002). However, unlike the Pearson correlations, the association between Gini coefficient and number of actors was only statistically significant in the two mental health networks (t = −4.305 and −5.934, p < .000). The Gini coefficient is helpful in measuring shifts in DHSN inequality. However, as a standalone metric, the Gini coefficient does not indicate optimal numbers or ratios of actors to posts, or effective network engagement. Further, mixed-methods research investigating quantitative performance metrics is required

The Social Wellbeing of New York City's Neighborhoods: The Contribution of Culture and the Arts

This report presents the conceptual framework, data and methodology, and findings of a two-year study of culture and social wellbeing in New York City by SIAP with Reinvestment Fund. Building on their work in Philadelphia, the team gathered data from City agencies, borough arts councils, and cultural practitioners to develop a 10-dimension social wellbeing framework—which included construction of a cultural asset index—for every neighborhood in the five boroughs. The research was undertaken between 2014 and 2016.The social wellbeing tool enables a variety of analyses: the distribution of opportunity across the city;identification of areas with concentrated advantage, concentrated disadvantage, aswell as "diverse and struggling" neighborhoods with both strengths and challenges; and analysis of the relationship of"neighborhood cultural ecology" to other features of a healthy community

Civic Community, Structural Disadvantage, and Suicide: An Ecological Analysis of Middle-Age Non-Hispanic White Male Suicide Across the Rural-Urban Continuum

This dissertation is a county-level sociological examination of middle-age (35-64) non-Hispanic white male suicides. Although an extensive amount of literature exists on ecological suicide, studies have largely ignored the correlates of suicide among this population group because this stage of the life course has historically demonstrated relatively low and stable rates of suicide. However, suicide rates among middle-age adults have increased dramatically over the last decade, calling for an examination of the correlates of suicide specific to this group. Moreover, the extant suicide literature has largely ignored the possibility of a structural disadvantage-suicide link, as well as the influence of macro-structural characteristics of the social and economic environment on variations in ecological suicides. Guided by these issues, the objectives of this dissertation have been to examine whether variations in county-level middle-age non-Hispanic white male suicides can be explained by the differential presence of indicators of civic communities and/or by structural disadvantage and how these relationships vary across the rural-urban continuum. The results show an association between bridging congregations and lower levels of middle-age non-Hispanic white male suicide across micropolitan counties, an association between civic and social organizations and lower rates of suicide across non core counties, and an association between structural disadvantage and higher rates of suicide across all urbanization levels except non core counties

The Social Wellbeing of New York City\u27s Neighborhoods: The Contribution of Culture and the Arts

This research report presents the conceptual framework, data and methodology, findings and implications of a three-year study of the relationship of cultural ecology to social wellbeing across New York City neighborhoods. The team gathered data from City agencies, borough arts councils, and cultural practitioners to develop a 10-dimension social wellbeing framework—beginning with construction of a cultural asset index—for every neighborhood in the City’s five boroughs. The social wellbeing tool enabled a variety of analyses: the distribution of opportunity across the City; identification of areas with concentrated advantage, concentrated disadvantage, and “diverse and struggling” neighborhoods with both strengths and challenges; and analysis of the relationship of “neighborhood cultural ecology” to other features of community wellbeing. Major findings include: 1) Cultural resources are unequally distributed across the city, with many neighborhoods having few resources. 2) At the same time, there are a significant number of civic clusters—that is, lower-income neighborhoods with more cultural resources than their economic standing would lead us to predict. 3) Although lower-income neighborhoods have relatively few resources, these neighborhoods demonstrate the strongest relationship between culture and social wellbeing. Notably, if we control for socio-economic status and ethnic composition, the presence of cultural resources is significantly associated with improved outcomes around health, schooling, and personal security. Qualitative study highlighted how neighborhood cultural ecology also contributes to other dimensions of wellbeing—in particular, social connection, political and cultural voice, and the public environment and public sphere

The Impact of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) on Firm Location

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Geography, 2010Recent innovations in information and communications technologies (ICTs), particularly those related to the Internet, have fundamentally changed the environment in which businesses and regions compete around the globe. Despite widespread recognition of this change, several aspects of the manner in which ICTs have impacted business location and regional development remain unexplored. The papers that comprise this dissertation seek to provide some initial quantitative insights about ICTs, firm location, and regional development, to a literature that remains largely theoretical and speculative. The first paper explores the utility of short and mid-range broadband forecasts as potential tools for local economic development officials to flag problematic areas where broadband provision via traditional market mechanisms is doubtful. The piece finds short and mid-range spatial forecasts of broadband provision offer improved results over aspatial forecasts, which is especially important for ICT studies, given the historical lack of available data for use in empirical work. Forecasts can also be used by economic development officials to craft proactive rather than reactive intervention strategies to rollout broadband in unserved areas. The second paper examines similarities in the spatial distribution of broadband provision and firms in a variety of industries. Results indicate the relationship between the location of broadband and the location of firms varies by firm size and industry. This suggests firm size and industry membership are critical considerations when evaluating the impact of ICTs on firm location decisions. The third and final paper examines the challenges associated with benchmarking regional development given the pervasive and related technological and industrial changes in the U.S over the past thirty years. Findings suggest multivariate approaches for benchmarking regional development are preferred over univariate approaches given the demonstrated divergence in univariate indicators in recent years. In sum, these three studies provide important information regarding the measurement of regional competitiveness in the global information economy, as well as information about the spatial relationship between firm location and broadband provision; which is likely to be a critical locational consideration for firm in specific sectors of the U.S economy

The Impact of Technological Change on Inequality, Health and Crime: Evidence from Thailand

In most developing countries, technological advancements have occurred rapidly in recent years. These economies emphasise technological changes contributing to their economic growth, especially information and communication technology (ICT). ICT policies have been launched since 2001 to improve Thai people's quality of life. ICT has several benefits for both the economy and society. However, it can also have adverse effects. One of the Thai government's goals is to reduce inequality using ICT policies. The first chapter evaluates the impact of technology policy on inequality from different perspectives, including labour force, education, and healthcare. Results prove that ICT policies increase earnings and improve educational achievements. Such inequality has decreased. However, expenditure disparities in education and healthcare persist, and more healthcare investments exist. Whether the increased healthcare expenditures are due to increased access to healthcare information via ICT or increased morbidity remains questionable. The second chapter investigates and quantifies the impact of ICT usage behaviour on physical and mental health problems. The findings imply that Thai people are more likely to have some health problems from ICT use. ICT adoption at different times begins to affect health at various times and has different likelihood of illnesses. The effects on mental health occur faster than physical health. Time spent on ICT affects physical health, while some ICT activities, such as learning, social media, and entertainment, impact both physical and mental health. Another issue that could be a consequence of ICT is crime. Certain ICT activities, such as social media, have risks that could lead to crime. However, ICT is also an effective tool for deterring crime. Chapter 3 results reveal that social media has decreased reported crime rates while increasing convicted crime rates. Fraud and prostitution are the most concerning forms of crime, possibly stimulated by social media

Essays on regional inequalities, innovation and global connectivity

This dissertation studies how global connectivity shapes local economic development, looking at regional inequalities and innovation. It empirically contributes to our current understanding of the local distributional effects of economic globalisation and the effects of international disintegration. This dissertation comprises five chapters, with the first one introducing and motivating the overarching theme and the four remaining being self-contained empirical papers. It refers to literature from economic geography, international economics, innovation studies, and economics of inequality, exploring the regional perspective in Europe and the US. In the first part, in Chapter 1, the overarching theme of the local distributional effects of economic globalisation is introduced. It describes the evolution of the current wave of economic globalisation, measured by trade, global value chains and the role of global companies such as multinational enterprises. While during this initial phase a stark upward trend in economic globalisation has been observed, concerns over its benefits have been increasingly voiced. In this period of “hyperglobalisation” the costs of economic globalisation have become more salient, spurring a backlash against globalisation. This dissertation provides evidence on globalisation-induced inequality at the regional level for the US and Europe and emphasises the need to address the local distributional effects. This specifically means compensating those that are adversely affected by economic globalisation, in order to avoid potential costs stemming from international disintegration. The second part contains three empirical papers, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, which provides evidence on the local distributional effects of economic globalisationin the US and Europe. The regional perspective regarding the effects of economic globalisation on inequality has often been neglected, which is one of the main intended contributions of this dissertation. Analysing the relationship at the regional level is particularly relevant as economic activity significantly varies across space and it can offer valuable insights that are only possible to uncover when examining at a more granular level. In this dissertation, distributional effects describe either inter-firm dynamics like innovation concentration or interpersonal income inequality. Chapter 2 looks at the relationship between multinational enterprises and intra-regional innovation concentration within US states. While patenting concentration measured by the Gini coefficient has increased for more than three decades, we still lack evidence on the role of global firms such as multinationals. Thus, the paper analyses to what extent the presence of multinationals influences inter-firm innovation concentration, showing a positive link between the presence of domestic-owned multinationals and patenting concentration, which is more pronounced with a high share of MNEs and for non-MNEs. Concentration between firms might also affect inequality between people. The second and third paper focus on the distribution of income, showing that engaging more in trade and global value chains is linked to higher interpersonal income inequality within European regions at the NUTS-2 level. Chapter 3 analyses how trade affects income inequality, finding a positive association between trade and regional income inequality changes, which varies based on trading partners. Chapter 4 studies the link between global value chain participation and income inequality, showing that it matters how regions participate in global value chains and in which sectors. In the third and final part of this dissertation, in Chapter 5, I focus on the effects of international disintegration, by looking at the effect of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. It examines the effect of Brexit on the adoption of digital technologies by small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK from 2013-2019. By providing timely and detailed measures for digital technology adoption, it offers novel and deeper insights into SMEs’ reactions to this shock

United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Kenya

The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2014-2018) for Kenya is an expression of the UN's commitment to support the Kenyan people in their self-articulated development aspirations. This UNDAF has been developed according to the principles of UN Delivering as One (DaO), aimed at ensuring Government ownership, demonstrated through UNDAF's full alignment to Government priorities and planning cycles, as well as internal coherence among UN agencies and programmes operating in Kenya. The UNDAF narrative includes five recommended sections: Introduction and Country Context, UNDAF Results, Resource Estimates, Implementation Arrangements, and Monitoring and Evaluation as well as a Results and Resources Annex. Developed under the leadership of the Government, the UNDAF reflects the efforts of all UN agencies working in Kenya and is shaped by the five UNDG programming principles: Human Rights-based approach, gender equality, environmental sustainability, capacity development, and results based management. The UNDAF working groups have developed a truly broad-based Results Framework, in collaboration with Civil Society, donors and other partners. The UNDAF has four Strategic Results Areas: 1) Transformational Governance encompassing Policy and Institutional Frameworks; Democratic Participation and Human Rights; Devolution and Accountability; and Evidence-based Decision-making, 2) Human Capital Development comprised of Education and Learning; Health, including Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Environmental Preservation, Food Availability and Nutrition; Multi-sectoral HIV and AIDS Response; and Social Protection, 3) Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth, with Improving the Business Environment; Strengthening Productive Sectors and Trade; and Promoting Job Creation, Skills Development and Improved Working Conditions, and 4) Environmental Sustainability, Land Management and Human Security including Policy and Legal Framework Development; and Peace, Community Security and Resilience. The UNDAF Results Areas are aligned with the three Pillars (Political, Social and Economic) of the Government's Vision 2030 transformational agenda

Privatization, State Militarization through War, and Durable Social Exclusion in Post-Soviet Armenia

In the literature focusing on various aspects of the twin transitions from socialism, development and social well-being are mainly analyzed with respect to privatization process (Stark and Bruszt 1998, Applegate 1994); economic growth and institutional design (North 1990; Elster, Offe, and Preuss 1998; Kolodko 1999; Norgaard 2000); party and election politics, the development of social networks and deliberative associations (Stark and Bruszt 1998); and the bargaining power of labor (Bandelj and Mahutga 2005). While the importance of these factors is not underestimated, this study addresses a significantly understudied theme – social exclusion as a consequence of overweening state power. The problem of social exclusion cuts to the core of the distribution of power in society; and in most of the post-Soviet societies, there has occurred predominantly negative change in societal power after 1990s, with vast power concentrated in the hands of governing elites. In the case of Armenia, the problem is specifically striking. This dissertation centers around durable social exclusion in post-Soviet Armenia generated as a consequence of the twin transition and explores the conditions that explain the high degree of social exclusion in contemporary Armenian society. It aims to answer the following research question: what factors contributed to the development of durable social exclusion in post-Soviet Armenia from 1988-2008? As an exploratory case study based on the examination of recent socio-economic and, more notably, political developments of post-Soviet Armenian state, this dissertation generates new hypotheses to study social exclusion. Appending to the mainstream literature that focuses on primarily the socio-economic drivers of social exclusion, I emphasize that not only consequences of economic reform affect the level of social exclusion, but also, and more significantly, the historic trajectory of the society. I argue that privatization was an important but not a sufficient factor in the emergence of social exclusion in post-Soviet Armenia. State militarization through war was another necessary and largely overlooked condition for the persistence of social exclusion in Armenia. The assessment of these hypotheses provides evidence that allows a test of whether privatization and militarization are plausible factors for the persistence of social exclusion in other developing countries