Search Results (254)

This article examines the persistence of structural racism and the process of ethno-stratification affecting immigrants from the Global South in Spain. Drawing on national survey data and recent research, it analyses the socio-economic incorporation of immigrants in the aftermath of the Great Recession and subsequent economic recovery, emphasising both their rootedness in Spanish society and their continued segregation. The findings indicate that immigrants remain disproportionately concentrated in low-wage and temporary employment, positioned beneath the native-born precariat and distant from average living standards. This persistent segmentation cannot be explained solely by immigrants’ qualifications or cultural adaptation, but rather by an interplay of structural, institutional, social, and ethnic factors. At the core lies the Spanish “Mediterranean” development model, characterised by a low-productivity economy dependent on cheap labour, a limited welfare state, and strong family-based social protection, which together generate continuous demand for flexible immigrant workers. Additional drivers include migration and labour policies, gendered labour segmentation, and ethnic discrimination, all reinforcing immigrants’ vulnerability. The article concludes that immigrant labour has become essential to Spain’s economic and demographic model, yet its enduring segregation underscores the need for renewed public policies that promote social cohesion and intercultural integration. Full article

The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, in southeastern Mexico, is a major conservation area known for its tropical forests, emblematic wildlife species, and long history of Maya occupation. Established in 1989 as a federal Natural Protected Area, it was incorporated into UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program in 1993 and designated a mixed World Heritage Site in 2014. Its socioecological trajectory is distinctive: conservation efforts advanced alongside the contemporary rural settlement resulting from agrarian reform and subsequent development and welfare policies. This article examines the persistent imbalance between ecological conservation and socioeconomic development surrounding the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, focusing on water vulnerability in adjacent communities. The study integrates environmental history with household-level survey data on water access and vulnerability among 200 households in eight communities in the Biosphere Reserve’s transition zone, complemented by interviews with key water-management stakeholders. We document the consolidation of conservation through management plans, advisory councils, payments for ecosystem services, scientific research, and expanding voluntary conservation areas. Yet these advances contrast sharply with everyday socioeconomic realities: 68% of households face prolonged water scarcity, with an average of more than 30 days annually without water. Calakmul’s case highlights structural mismatch between conservation and local human well-being in Natural Protected Areas contexts. Full article

Working equids support millions of people globally, especially in low-income, lower-middle-income, and upper-middle-income countries. However, they commonly suffer from poor welfare and are typically overlooked in policy and funding decisions. This scoping review aimed to collate evidence on two topics related to working equid use in low- and middle-income countries: their socioeconomic value to their owners and the impact of educational interventions for owners/handlers aiming to improve equid welfare. Original research published from 2014 onwards was eligible for inclusion. This scoping review followed the JBI methodology and PRISMA-ScR framework. One search strategy encompassing both topics was applied to five databases (CAB Abstracts, MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and IBSS) on 24.04.24. Key characteristics and findings of eligible studies were charted. In total, 3514 sources were independently screened by two reviewers. In total, 61 socioeconomic value studies (47 journal articles, 2 reports, and 12 conference contributions) and 23 educational intervention studies (11 journal articles and 12 conference contributions) were included. Working equids supported their owners’ livelihoods in wide-ranging ways and contributed to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Educational interventions employed varied approaches, and most reported success. Multilevel initiatives and those developed through participatory engagement may be more likely to directly improve equid welfare in the long term. These aspects should be prioritised during intervention development. The included studies used inconsistent terminology and were of variable quality. This review highlights the importance of including working equids within policy and funding strategies and provides recommendations to increase the discoverability, quality, and impact of working equid research. Full article

The current refugee crisis has revealed flaws in existing systems. Factors such as socioeconomic background, access to housing, and urban policies influence refugees’ abilities to fully participate in city life. The research objective is to analyze the interplay between housing access for adult refugees residing in Curitiba, Brazil, and the city’s targeted public policies and strategies for refugees. The research methodology adopts a case study approach centered on Curitiba, Brazil, with the city shown as a key destination for refugees in Brazil. This study combines qualitative and quantitative techniques, following a structured research protocol that guides the processes of data collection and analysis. The innovation and originality lie in offering a new perspective on how urban strategies intersect with the rights and inclusion of refugees, exploring the relationship between refugees’ housing access and its interconnection with the strategic digital city framework. The results highlight the importance of a multifaceted approach to addressing housing access challenges for refugees, which includes safeguarding their rights, promoting stability, integration, and ensuring their participation in shaping public policies. The conclusion outlines the urgent need to promote integration by reassessing housing affordability, ensuring access to services, engaging refugees in decision-making processes, and improving their social welfare. Full article

Urban welfare can deteriorate over a few weeks, yet most official indicators are only updated quarterly. This mismatch in time scales leaves city administrations effectively blind to the early stages of emerging crises, especially in areas where vulnerable residents generate few administrative or digital records. We cast urban socioeconomic monitoring as a systems problem: a six-dimensional welfare state on a spatial grid, observed through sparse delayed administrative data and noisy digital traces whose reliability declines with digital exclusion. On top of this latent state, we design a four-layer cyber–physical–social (CPSS) architecture centered on a stochastic state-space model with empirically guided couplings. This is supported by a semantic sensing layer where large language models (LLMs) convert daily geo-referenced public text into noisy welfare indicators. These signals are then fused with quarterly administrative records via an extended Kalman filter (EKF). Finally, a lightweight convex post-processing layer enforces fairness, differential privacy, and minimum representation as hard constraints. A key ingredient is a state-dependent noise model in which the LLM observation variance grows exponentially with digital exclusion. Under this model, we study finite-horizon observability and obtain an exclusion threshold beyond which several welfare dimensions become effectively unobservable over 30–60 day horizons; EKF error bounds scale with the same exponent, clarifying when semantic sensing is informative and when it is not. Finally, a 100,000-agent agent-based model of a synthetic city with daily shocks suggests that, relative to a quarterly-only baseline, the LLM-augmented fusion pipeline substantially reduces detection lags and multi-dimensional cascade failures while keeping estimation error bounded and satisfying the explicit fairness and privacy constraints. Full article

Background/Objectives: The relationship between household tobacco expenditure and child health has attracted considerable attention from both academic and policy communities, as tobacco expenditure can influence children’s health, nutrition, and overall well-being in multiple ways, particularly in rural and low-income settings. This study examines the causal impact of household tobacco expenditure on child health outcomes in a transitional economy. Methods: Using nationally representative microdata from the most recent Household Living Standards Survey, the authors employ Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Random Effects (RE), and Instrumental Variable (IV) estimations to identify the effects of tobacco spending on children’s healthcare utilization and health status. Results: The results consistently show that higher household tobacco expenditure significantly increases the likelihood of hospitalization among Vietnamese children, with the effects being most pronounced for those under six years of age. Moreover, the authors uncover substantial heterogeneity across gender, maternal age at childbirth, and regional contexts, highlighting persistent socioeconomic inequalities in health outcomes. Conclusions: This study provides compelling evidence of the adverse effects of household tobacco expenditure on children’s health in Vietnam. Theoretically, the study contributes to the literature on the economics of health and intra-household resource allocation by providing micro-level causal evidence from a transitional setting. From a policy perspective, the findings underscore the need for targeted fiscal and public health interventions to mitigate tobacco-related welfare losses and to promote equitable access to healthcare among vulnerable populations. Full article

The present study provides a socio-economic characterization of an endangered turkey population in Europe for the first time, using the example of a southern Spanish population. To this end, 10 Andalusian turkey breeders were subjected to a 102-item survey, which included the following sections: personal and educational profile, the role of women in breeding, availability and conditions of facilities, welfare conditions, other equipment, maintenance and hygiene, farm access, feeding management, reproductive and replacement management, mortality, market value, and motivations for breeding. The results exhibited a wide variety in the breeder and rearing system attributes. However, the respondents agreed that rearing local breeds was a non-professionalized hobby. Farmers have generally old facilities and makeshift equipment for breeding the animals, which show strong ancestral instincts and a low requirement for breeding. The main purpose of their rearing is for self-consumption; however, there is an established sale demand for meat associated with Christmas. Breeders show a strong emotional motivation for the preservation of this ancestral population, which shares the rearing system with other endangered breeds. Three different profiles of breeders, traditional, neo-rural, and new-peasant, are responsible for maintaining the population selflessly and without administrative support. Full article

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted social interactions, family dynamics, and economic stability, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations. Tuberculosis and leprosy perpetuate poverty and, once manifested, hinder socioeconomic development due to their high potential for disability. Methodology: This study analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic using DATASUS health data and assessed the influence of socioeconomic interventions (SAGICAD data) on tuberculosis and leprosy case notifications in Brazil. A correlation analysis was performed between regional diagnoses and variables such as Bolsa Família (a national social welfare program), BCG vaccination coverage, and COVID-19 immunization rates, applying Pearson’s correlation test. Results: No significant correlations were found between COVID-19 vaccination rates and tuberculosis/leprosy diagnoses. However, a strong negative correlation (p < 0.05) was observed between BCG (Bacillus Calmette–Guérin) vaccination coverage and leprosy incidence in the Northern region. The findings also suggest that social assistance programs such as Bolsa Família play a pivotal role in preventing infectious diseases in vulnerable areas. Conclusions: Understanding the complex interplay between socioeconomic determinants and public health outcomes is essential for guiding future research and informing health policies, including potential revisions to social programs and vaccination protocols. Full article

Traffic accidents remain a major global burden, causing mortality, disability, and socio-economic losses that hinder sustainable development. Beyond human suffering, crashes place long-term pressures on health systems, labor markets, and national economies, disproportionately impacting low- and middle-income countries. Estimating the true societal costs of accidents is therefore essential for designing effective, equitable, and sustainable road safety policies. This study applies the Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) method to evaluate the external costs of traffic-related deaths and injuries in Türkiye between 2008 and 2018. By incorporating material and immaterial losses, the WTP framework captures a broader spectrum of impacts than traditional approaches, offering valuable insights into the scale of welfare losses and the value of risk reduction. The findings reveal that external costs rose substantially over the decade, from 1.63% to 2.72% of national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), underscoring that economic losses from road crashes are growing faster than the economy. These results highlight the need for systematic interventions that integrate road safety into national sustainability agendas, including safer infrastructure, behavioral programs, advanced vehicle technologies, and efficient emergency response systems. The evidence presented strengthens the case for prioritizing traffic safety as a fundamental component of sustainable transport and public health strategies. Full article

Background and Objectives: Hepatic steatosis is associated with an increased risk of liver-related morbidity and mortality. Although numerous studies have reported associations between depression, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease, the relationship between depression and hepatic steatosis has not yet been fully elucidated. Moreover, obesity is a shared risk factor for hepatic steatosis and depression; however, few studies have adequately adjusted for obesity as a potential confounder. In this study, we investigated the association between depression and hepatic steatosis stratified by obese and non-obese status. Materials and Methods: This study used data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare between 2010 and 2019, which was a cross-sectional and nationally representative study of non-institutionalized civilians using a stratified, multistage, clustered probability sampling design. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the association between depression and hepatic steatosis in the groups stratified by obese status. Results: Of 80,861 participants, data from 45,307 were included in the analysis. The prevalence of non-obese and obese hepatic steatosis was 3.1% and 19.3%, respectively, and the prevalence of diagnosed depression was 4.6%. Individuals with hepatic steatosis showed less favorable metabolic profiles, including higher rates of diabetes and elevated liver enzyme levels. Those with depression were older, predominantly female, and had lower socioeconomic status. After fully adjusting for confounding factors, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that non-obese hepatic steatosis was significantly associated with an increased risk of depression, and obese hepatic steatosis was significantly associated with suicidal ideation and attempts. Conclusions: This study suggests a significant association between depression and hepatic steatosis with and without obese status. Given the significant impact of hepatic steatosis on depression outcomes, healthcare providers should screen patients with hepatic steatosis for depression and provide appropriate treatment as needed. Full article

Biotechnological applications in animals are increasingly developed for use in agriculture and aquaculture to tackle breeding challenges in animal production. By examining two case studies of genetically modified (GM) farmed animals relevant to the European Union, slick-haired cattle and growth-enhanced carp, we highlight the challenges for environmental risk assessment and discuss available assessment approaches to address broader societal concerns. We find that the existing guidance for environmental risk assessment of GM animals available in the European Union faces several challenges. Assessing risks of GM animals in agriculture and aquaculture requires consideration of the farming systems of these animals. In addition, we find that there is a lack of guidance and practical implementation to address wider issues, including cultural, societal, ethical, and socio-economic issues, as well as animal health and welfare issues, related to GM farmed animals. We propose using existing assessment frameworks to address the sustainability of GM farmed animals beyond environmental risk assessment. Sustainability assessment approaches should also address potential farm-level sustainability claims of GM animal applications. We note that issues related to animal health and welfare are cross-disciplinary topics that require special attention when commercializing GM farmed animals. We recommend developing a comprehensive framework, including risk assessment, sustainability assessment, and technology assessment, that will enable policymakers to better anticipate and address the societal, legal, ethical, and governance issues associated with emerging biotechnologies in farmed animals. Full article

Plastic from abandoned fishing gear can persist in the marine environment for extended periods, worsening the problem of ghost fishing and highlighting the urgent need for sustainable solutions. This research aims to develop a theoretical model that defines the socio-economic costs and benefits of fisheries within the context of the circular economy. The theoretical foundations of the model are based on moral risk theory, externality theory, and welfare economics. Marginal analysis, cost–revenue function analysis, and investment efficiency analysis were also used. According to the results, the costly process of catching, transporting, and collecting lost fishing gear carried out by fishermen can be replaced or offset by implementing several proactive measures. These include introducing compensation to encourage fishermen to adopt pro-ecological practices related to reducing the amount of used fishing equipment. The proposed model could be a helpful tool in determining the optimal level of subsidies for sustainable fisheries. The model could also help determine the costs and methods of reducing the pollution associated with fishing gear, which is vital for all entities currently operating in the fishing sector. Full article

To achieve the sustainable development of nature reserves, the public welfare associated with these areas has been assessed based on ecological supply and social demand. The Public Welfare Index comprehensively incorporates ecological factors, such as landforms, resource endowment, and ecological quality, as well as socio-economic factors, including travel costs, economic base, and population distribution. This index reflects both the ecological supply capacity of nature reserves and the equity with which they provide welfare to different groups. The findings indicate that the Public Welfare Index is an effective measure of the rationality of welfare distribution. Currently, the public welfare of nature reserves in China exhibits a spatial pattern of high welfare in the west and low welfare in the east. This issue of welfare inequality in nature reserves is highly pronounced. The primary objective of this research is to identify the characteristics of welfare distribution and to offer novel perspectives and strategies for optimizing the spatial layout of nature reserves and informing policy decisions. Full article

This paper examines a prospect scenario of adopting Child Development Accounts (CDAs) as a social welfare innovation in Jordan. CDAs are considered as an asset-building policy aimed at enhancing financial inclusion and socio-economic well-being. This paper discovers the feasibility of CDAs that have proven successful in several countries, as their potential in Middle Eastern countries, particularly in Jordan, remains unexplored. The application of CDAs in the social welfare system aims to support sustainable asset accumulation and improve the living standards of diverse segments in Jordan by integrating CDAs within the efforts made by Jordan to achieve financial inclusion, alleviate poverty, and supplement household income through asset development. There are opportunities to implement the program in Jordan, including expanding the scope of microfinance, public–private partnerships, and targeted programs for women, youth, and refugees. However, several challenges may hinder its application, including limited financial literacy, high unemployment rates, income inequality, regulatory obstacles, and difficulties in implementing social reforms. The paper contributes to the debate on social welfare policies adopted in developing countries by providing solutions based on global practices in CDA execution and has implications and recommendations for decision makers to achieve economic development. Future research in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries should target pilot projects and comparative studies to refine CDA strategies. Full article

China’s healthcare expenditure tripled during 2010–2019, prompting the nationwide implementation of centralized volume-based procurement (CVBP). While effective in reducing drug prices, CVBP introduces sustainability challenges including supply chain vulnerabilities and welfare trade-offs. This study develops a pharmaceutical sector-embedded computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to quantify CVBP’s multidimensional sustainability impacts. Using China’s 2020 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) with simulated 10–50% price reductions, key findings reveal that (1) >40% price reductions trigger sectoral output reversal; (2) GDP exhibits an inverted U-shape; (3) household income declines despite corporate/government gains; and (4) industrial contraction impairs innovation capacity and employment stability. Our analysis identifies potential sustainability risks, emphasizing the need for rigorous empirical validation prior to implementing aggressive price reduction policies, and underscores the importance of integrating supply chain considerations into procurement policy design. This approach maximizes resource allocation efficiency while advancing socioeconomic resilience in healthcare systems. Full article