Assessing Factors for Occurrence of Road Accidents in Tanzania Using Panel Data Analysis: Road Safety Perspective

This study assessed critical factors for road traffic accidents and associated mitigation to reduce the accidents by the year 2030. The study was guided by research questions, what are the major causatives of road accidents and how to mitigate the problem. The study used secondary data collected from the repository database of traffic police at the division of Tanzania Road Safety Squad. Data were collected at the events of accident occurrences and reported annually by regions. Panel data analysis was used to allow for controlling variables which cannot be observed over time and across areas such as regions. Pooled Poisson model, fixed effect and random effect Poisson model was applied to assess factors for road traffic accidents. Fixed effect model was the best model with a reasonably good fit. Results indicated that all predictors are significant under fixed effect Poisson model with a p-value less than 0.05 but Passengers and Railway crossing road was found insignificant and dropped in the final model. Laws and regulatory frameworks should be formulated and enforced promptly for Tanzania may reach the target of 2nd decade of action for roads safety 2021-2030.

Role of nurses in improving patient safety: Evidence from surgical complications in 21 countries

Objectives: To analyze the role of nurse staffing in improving patient safety due to reducing surgical complications in member countries of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).Methods: The number of practicing nurses' density per 1000 population and five surgical complications indicators including foreign body left in during procedure (FBL),postoperative pulmonary embolism (PPE) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after hip and knee replacement,postoperative sepsis after abdominal surgery (PSA) and postoperative wound dehiscence (PWD) were collected in crude rates per 100,000 hospital discharges for age group of 15 years old and over within 30 days after surgery based on surgical admission-related and all admission-related methods.The observations of 21 OECD countries were collected from OECD Health Statistics during 2010-2015 period.The statistical technique of panel data analysis including unit root test,co-integration test and dynamic long-run analysis were used to estimate the possible relationship between our panel series.Results: There were significant relationships from nurse-staffing level to reducing FBL,PPE,DVT,PSA and PWD with long-run magnitudes of-2.91,-1.30,-1.69,-2.81 and-1.12 based on surgical admission method as well as-6.12,-14.57,-7.29,-1.41 and-0.88 based on all admission method,respectively.Conclusions: A higher proportion of nurses is associated with higher patient safety resulting from lower surgical complications and adverse clinical outcomes in OECD countries.Hence,we alert policy makers about the risk of underestimating the impact of nurses on improving patient safety as well as the quality of health care services in OECD countries.

Geography of Talent in China During 2000-2015:An Eigenvector Spatial Filtering Negative Binomial Approach

The increase in China’s skilled labor force has drawn much attention from policymakers,national and international firms and media.Understanding how educated talent locates and re-locates across the country can guide future policy discussions of equality,firm localization and service allocation.Prior studies have tended to adopt a static cross-national approach providing valuable insights into the relative importance of economic and amenity differentials driving the distribution of talent in China.Yet,few adopt longitudinal analysis to examine the temporal dynamics in the stregnth of existing associations.Recently released official statistical data now enables space-time analysis of the geographic distribution of talent and its determinants in China.Using four-year city-level data from national population censuses and 1%population sample surveys conducted every five years between 2000 and 2015,we examine the spatial patterns of talent across Chinese cities and their underpinning drivers evolve over time.Results reveal that the spatial distribution of talent in China is persistently unequal and spatially concentrated between 2000 and 2015.It also shows gradually strengthened and significantly positive spatial autocorrelation in the distribution of talent.An eigenvector spatial filtering negative binomial panel is employed to model the spatial determinants of talent distribution.Results indicate the influences of both economic opportunities and urban amenities,particularly urban public services and greening rate,on the distribution of talent.These results highlight that urban economic-and amenity-related factors have simultaneously driven China’s talent’s settlement patterns over the first fifteen years of the 21st century.

Impact of Natural Forest Protection Program policies on forests in northeastern China

This study analyzes the effects of the Natural Forest Protection Program （NFPP） on the restoration of forest resources in the northeastern forest region of China, an important region because of its ecological and geographical location and timber supply in China, by using panel data sets of 35 forest farms of state-owned forest enterprises. Panel data analysis results show that related policies under the NFPP have had positive effects on forest resources. Planting activity had a statistically significant effect on forest growth and could be reinforced continually by planting tree species suitable for a warming climate in temperate forests. Forest management and protection played a powerful role in increasing the growing stock of the forests. In NFPP areas timber harvests, after implementation of the NFPP, were a positive factor in increasing forest resources if the harvests combined effective tending and thinning under a carefully guided management plan.

Nurse staffing and life expectancy at birth and at 65 years old:Evidence from 35 OECD countries

Objective: To measure the possible magnitude of the role nurse staffing has on increasing life expectancy at birth and at 65 years old.Methods: The statistical technique of panel data analysis was applied to investigate the relationship from the number of practicing nurses' density per 1000 population to life expectancy at birth and at 65 years old.Five control variables were used as the proxies for the levels of medical staffing,health care financial and physical resources,and medical technology.The observations of 35 member countries of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) were collected from OECD Health Statistics over 2000-2016 period.Results: There were meaningful relationships from nurse staffing to life expectancy at birth and at 65 years with the long-run elasticities of 0.02 and 0.08,respectively.Overall,the role of nursing characteristics in increasing life expectancy indicators varied among different health care systems of OECD countries and in average were determined at the highest level in Japan (0.25),followed by Iceland (0.24),Belgium (0.21),Czech Republic (0.21),Slovenia (0.20) and Sweden (0.18).Conclusion: A higher proportion of nursing staff is associated with higher life expectancy in OECD countries and the dependency of life expectancy to nursing staff would increase by aging.Hence,the findings of this study warn health policy makers about ignoring the effects nursing shortages create e.g.increasing the risk of actual age-specific mortality,especially in care of elderly people.

Evaluation of the Effects of Corporate Governance on Financial Reporting Quality

Corporate governance is designed to stimulate the investment environment and to create a stable financial situation in the capital markets by increasing the level of reliability,transparency,and accountability at the firm level.This study aims to examine whether corporate governance leads to higher quality financial reporting.This research has been performed using companies listed on Borsastanbul(BIST).For this purpose,two samples from the publicly held companies on BIST,which are included in the Corporate Governance Index and which are not included in this index,have been formed.Thus,we examined whether there is any difference between the financial reporting quality of the companies listed in Borsastanbul Corporate Governance Index and the financial reporting quality of the enterprises that are not included in this index.Since the quality of financial reporting is a multi-dimensional concept,it can be evaluated by different measurement methods focusing on different dimensions in the literature.One of these approaches used to measure the quality of financial reporting is the quality of earnings.The evaluation of the financial reporting quality of the enterprises included in the BIST Corporate Governance Index and the enterprises not included in the index were evaluated through different methods to compare two different samples in the context of the earnings quality approach.Panel data analysis was used to evaluate the financial reporting quality of the two samples by means of earnings quality methods.The data related to the models used in the assessment of financial reporting quality were obtained from the Public Disclosure Platform(KAP)and Equity RT database.The research covers 72 enterprises,36 of which are in the Corporate Governance Index and 36 of which are not in the Corporate Governance Index.

Financial and non-financial determinants of the indebtedness of hospitals:the case of Poland

The performance of Polish healthcare is still far from satisfactory,which is connected with growing indebtedness that adversely affects not only the development of healthcare but also the quality of medical services provided.In turn,the financial situation of hospitals depends on various indicators and the relationship between them.This paper investigates the determinants of healthcare sector functioning in the context of hospitals’financial situation(dependent variable measured by total debt ratio).321 individual public units were examined between years 2007–2017.More specifically,the fixed effects panel data model in question measures and evaluates the impact of economic,regional,institutional,and social factors in determining the dependent variable.This study confirmed dependencies between financial and non-financial ratios along with their impact on the financial condition of studied entities.The management implications of our study lay the groundwork for the improvement of efficient resource management for public hospitals.

A Novel Methodological Approach to Estimate the Impact of Natural Hazard-Induced Disasters on Country/Region-Level Economic Growth

With the increased frequency of extreme weather events and large-scale disasters, extensive societal and economic losses incur every year due to damage of infrastructure and private properties, business disruptions,fatalities, homelessness, and severe health-related issues. In this article, we analyze the economic and disaster data from1970 through 2010 to investigate the impact of disasters on country/region-level economic growth. We leveraged a random parameter modeling approach to develop the growth-econometrics model that identifies risk factors significantly influencing the country/region-level economic growth in the face of natural hazard-induced disasters,while controlling for country/region-and time-specific unobserved heterogeneities. We found that disaster intensity in terms of fatalities and homelessness, and economic characteristics such as openness to trade and a government's consumption share of purchasing power parity(PPP), are the significant risk factors that randomly vary for different countries/regions. Other significant factors found to be significant include population, real gross domestic product(GDP), and investment share of PPP converted GDP per capita. We also found that flood is the most devastating disaster to affect country/region-level economic growth. This growth-econometrics model will help in the policy and decision making of governmentsrelated to the investment needs for pre-and post-disaster risk mitigation and response planning strategies, to better protect nations and minimize disaster-induced economic impacts.