Climate change and household welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa: empirical evidence from Swaziland

The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and several studies suggest that climate change is expected to increase food insecurity and poverty in many parts of the world. In this paper, we adopt a microeconometric approach to empirically estimate the impact of climate change-induced hikes in cereal prices on household welfare in Swaziland (also Kingdom of Eswatini). We do so first by econometrically estimating expenditure and price elasticities of five food groups consumed by households in Swaziland using the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), based on data from the 2009/2010 Swaziland Household Income and Expenditure Survey. Second, we use the estimated expenditure and compensated elasticities from the AIDS model, food shares from the household survey, and food price projections developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to estimate the proportionate increase in income required to maintain the level of household utility that would have prevailed absent an increase in food prices. Our results show increases in cereal prices due to climate change are expected to double extreme poverty in urban areas and increase poverty in rural areas of the country to staggering levels - between 71 and 75%, compared to 63% before the price changes. Income transfers of between 17.5 and 25.4% of pre-change expenditures are needed to avoid the welfare losses

Hypercholesterolaemia in pregnancy as a predictor of adverse pregnancy outcome

Background: Prevention of viable spontaneous preterm birth and low birth weight through screening is one of the key aims of antenatal care as these have implications for the child, mother and society. If women can be identified to be at high risk of these adverse birth outcomes in early pregnancy, they can be targeted for more intensive antenatal surveillance and prophylactic interventions.Objectives: This study is therefore aimed to determine the association between elevated maternal serum cholesterol level in pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcome.Methods: It was a prospective observational cohort study in which eligible participants were enrolled at gestational age of 14 to 20 weeks. Blood samples were obtained to measure total serum cholesterol concentrations and the sera were then analyzed enzymatically by the cholesterol oxidase: p-aminophenazone (CHOD PAP) method. Pregnancy outcomes were obtained by extraction from medical records and the labour ward register.Results: The incidences of the two adverse pregnancy outcomes examined in the study (preterm births and low birth weight (LBW) in term neonates) were 8.0% and 14.4% respectively. Preterm birth was 6.89-times more common in mothers with high cholesterol than in control mothers with normal total cholesterol level (38.5% versus 5.4%, P=0.029) while LBW was 7.99-times more common in mothers with high total maternal cholesterol than in mothers with normal cholesterol (87.5% versus 10.5%, P=0.019).Conclusion: We can infer that the high maternal serum cholesterol hypercholesterolaemia) is associated with preterm delivery/ low birth weight (LBW) in term infants. However, further validation of these findings with more robust prospective and longitudinal characterization of maternal serum cholesterol profiles is required in subsequent investigations.Keywords: Adverse birth outcome, cholesterol, hypercholesterolaemia, LBW, preterm birth

Controlling for Observed and Unobserved Site Characteristics in RUM Models of Recreation Demand

Recreation demand models are typically plagued by limited information on site attributes. If these unobserved site attributes are correlated with the observed characteristics and/or the travel cost variable, the resulting parameter estimates are likely to be biased. We develop a Bayesian approach to estimating a model that incorporates a full set of alternative-speci c constants, insulating the key travel cost parameter from the in uence of unobservables. The proposed posterior simulator can be used in the mixed logit framework in which some parameters of the conditional utility function are random. We apply the estimation procedures to data from the Iowa Lakes Project.Hatch Act and State of Iowa, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program.Grant R830818.http://ajae.oxfordjournals.org/hb201

Factors hindering external stakeholder management in construction projects of developing countries : case study of Ghana

202009 bcrcVersion of RecordPublishe

Climate change and household welfare in sub-Saharan Africa : empirical evidence from Swaziland

The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and several studies suggest that climate change is expected to increase food insecurity and poverty in many parts of the world. In this paper, we adopt a microeconometric approach to empirically estimate the impact of climate change-induced hikes in cereal prices on household welfare in Swaziland (also Kingdom of Eswatini). We do so first by econometrically estimating expenditure and price elasticities of five food groups consumed by households in Swaziland using the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), based on data from the 2009/2010 Swaziland Household Income and Expenditure Survey. Second, we use the estimated expenditure and compensated elasticities from the AIDS model, food shares from the household survey, and food price projections developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to estimate the proportionate increase in income required to maintain the level of household utility that would have prevailed absent an increase in food prices. Our results show increases in cereal prices due to climate change are expected to double extreme poverty in urban areas and increase poverty in rural areas of the country to staggering levels - between 71 and 75%, compared to 63% before the price changes. Income transfers of between 17.5 and 25.4% of pre-change expenditures are needed to avoid the welfare losses.http://link.springer.com/journal/12571hj2022Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen

Young adults and homeownership in Jakarta, Indonesia

Purpose – Homeownership, especially for young adults, is a significant challenge in nearly every country, and Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world is not exempted. Its capital city, Jakarta, has the lowest homeownership rate when compared with other cities, and if this challenge remained unresolved, it could lead to more social and economic issues in the country. Hence, this research is conducted to investigate the homeownership of young adults in Jakarta, focusing on young adults’ opinions, perceptions and experiences regarding homeownership opportunities.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from young adults in the study area. The collected data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 24.0 software. Descriptive analysis, Cronbach’s alpha test, Pearson’s correlation test and Mean Score (MS) ranking were adopted to analyse the collected data.Findings – The result shows that homeownership is driven by factors that are more functional and realistic (in terms of a place to live, marriage, and parenthood) rather than those related to pride or social status representation (as a personal or career accomplishment). Unaffordability and insufficient income were ranked as crucial barriers to homeownership. Increasing the supply of affordable housing, controlling housing prices through the government’s intervention, and reducing mortgage interests are potential solutions to address this issue. Practical implications – The result of this research would be useful to young adults who are the participants of this study, property developers, lending institutions, and the government concerning homeownership policy formulation, loan provision, affordable housing supply, among others.Originality/value – Specific studies that focused on the young adults’ homeownership in Jakarta, Indonesia is limited, therefore, this research provides an insight into the issue of young adults’ homeownership in the country. Also, the findings could be applicable in other developing countries that have similar characteristics to Indonesia

Cardiovascular reactivity in healthy subjects with variations in body mass index

Background: Overweight and obesity are on the rise in Africa and might attain epidemic proportion in the near future. Objective: To assess and compare the cardiovascular reactivity to cold pressor test (CPT) in subjects with variations in body mass index (BMI). Methods: Forty- five apparently healthy subjects, aged 18 to 38 years, were divided into normal weight (NW), overweight (OW) and obese (OB) groups based on their BMI. Heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were determined at rest and after exposure to CPT in all the study groups. The total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglyceride (TG) in relation to the subjects\u27 BMI values were also determined. Results: The basal values of HR, SBP and DBP of the subjects in all the study groups were not statistically significant (p \u3e 0.05). However, the HR, SBP and DBP were significantly increased (p \u3c 0.05) in all the groups after exposure to CPT. The magnitude of the cardiovascular responses differed across the study groups, SBP being significantly less (p \u3c 0.05) in obese group when compared with that of the normal. The TC, LDL, HDL and TG were similar (p\u3e0.05) in all the groups even though these values except HDL, were found to be highest in the obese group. Conclusion: The study has shown cardiovascular autonomic reactivity to CPT in subjects with variations in BMI values and the magnitude of the responses was observed to be less in obese group when compared with that of the normal, signifying cardiac autonomic dysfunction in this group of subjects

Prevalence and predictors of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in a sample of patients with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Nigeria

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and Diabetes Mellitus (DM) are growing health challenges worldwide. However, the relation of OSA with type 2 diabetes is not well understood in developing countries. This study described the prevalence and predictors of OSA in type 2 DM patients using a screening questionnaire. Materials and Methods: Patients aged 40years and above with type 2 diabetes mellitus were recruited into the study consecutively from the outpatient clinics of a university hospital. They were all administered the Berlin questionnaire and the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) to assess the risk of OSA and the tendency to doze off, respectively. Anthropometric details like height, weight and body mass index (BMI) were measured and short-term glycaemic control was determined using fasting blood glucose. Results: A total of 117 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were recruited into the study. The mean (SD) age, height and BMI was 63 years (11), 160 cm (9) and 27.5 kg/m2 (5.7), respectively. Twenty-seven percent of the respondents had a high risk for OSA and 22% had excessive daytime sleepiness denoted by ESS score above 10. In addition, the regression model showed that for every 1 cm increase in neck circumference, there is a 56% independent increase in the likelihood of high risk of OSA after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, waist, hip circumferences and blood glucose. Conclusion: Our study shows a substantial proportion of patients with type 2 diabetes may have OSA, the key predictor being neck circumference after controlling for obesity.Keywords: Diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, slee