Labor Embodied in Trade

Global production chains carry environmental and socioeconomic impacts embodied in each traded good and service. Even though labor and energy productivities tend to be higher for domestic production in high‐income countries than those in emerging economies, this difference is significantly reduced for consumption, when including imported products to satisfy national demand. The analysis of socioeconomic and environmental aspects embodied in consumption can shed a light on the real level of productivity of an economy, as well as the effects of rising imports and offshoring. This research introduces a consumption‐based metric for productivity, in which we evaluate the loss of productivity of developed nations resulting from imports from less‐developed economies and offshoring of labor‐intensive production. We measure the labor, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions footprints in the European Union's trade with the rest of the world through a multiregional input‐output model. We confirm that the labor footprint of European imports is significantly higher than the one of exports, mainly from low‐skilled, labor‐intensive primary sectors. A high share of labor embodied in exports is commonly associated with low energy productivities in domestic industries. Hence, this reconfirms that the offshoring of production to cheaper and low‐skilled, labor‐abundant countries offsets, or even reverts, energy efficiency gains and climate‐change mitigation actions in developed countries.     

The Rationality of Shifting Cultivation Systems: Labor Productivity Revisited

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on labor productivity in shifting cultivation systems, and relationships between labor productivity and production parameters are analyzed in two case studies of Iban communities in Sarawak, Malaysia, during two farming seasons. In addition, the labor productivity in shifting cultivation compared to off-farm wage labor opportunities is explored. Establishing firm relationships between labor productivity and production parameters, such as fallow length, fertilizer use, and herbicide use was not possible. We are thus unable to verify or reject the thesis that more labor is required for managing fields after short fallow compared to long fallow periods. We do demonstrate that shifting cultivation of hill rice can compete economically with common off-farm employment opportunities, and conclude that farmers’ decisions to maintain their practices is based as much on economic rationales as on tradition.     

Veterinary medicine in the 21st century: the challenge of biosecurity

The veterinary profession is presently challenged with developing and maintaining on-farm biosecurity protocols to protect the nation's food supply from acts of bioterrorism, from the growing threat of foreign animal diseases, and from multidrug resistance among pathogenic organisms. This challenge comes at a time when the supply of food animal veterinarians in the United States is progressively in decline, and raises the possibility that the profession is not adequately prepared to fulfill its responsibilities to the health and productivity of the US livestock and poultry populations. Causes of the decline in demand for veterinary services are discussed. They include consolidation of the food animal industries and a trend toward transferring performance of tasks traditionally carried out by veterinarians to the province of lay staff. This development potentially reduces veterinary surveillance of food animal populations. It also runs the risk of delay in recognizing and controlling serious health problems when they arise. Several remedies are proposed, including profound changes in the curriculum for educating food animal veterinarians to serve the consolidated but vulnerable livestock and poultry industries suitably. Also advocated is the initiation of training programs for herdsmen on the symptoms of foreign animal diseases, together with advice on when to call a veterinarian. Significant investment of federal or state resources will be required if these changes are to become reality.     

Occupational medicine programs for animal research facilities

Occupational medicine is a key component of a comprehensive occupational health and safety program in support of laboratory animal research and production facilities. The mission of the department is to maximize employee health and productivity utilizing a population health management approach, which includes measurement and analysis of health benefits utilization. The department works in close cooperation with other institutional health and safety professionals to identify potential risks from exposure to physical, chemical, and biological hazards in the workplace. As soon as exposures are identified, the department is responsible for formulating and providing appropriate medical surveillance programs. Occupational medicine is also responsible for targeted delivery of preventive and wellness services; management of injury, disease, and disability; maintenance of medical information; and other clinic services required by the institution. Recommendations are provided for the organization and content of occupational medicine programs for animal research facilities.     

A Quantitative Health Evaluation of an Eco-Economy in the Semi-Arid Loess Plateau of China

Understanding the factors that affect the health of a semi-arid region's eco-economy is necessary for its sustainable development. The health evaluation, or diagnoses, of an eco-economy at the small watershed scale requires the integrated analysis of ecological, economic, and social factors, yet few studies have achieved this. The health of an eco-economy comprises three components: vigor, organization, and resilience. We use an analytic hierarchy process to develop a health evaluation index system that evaluates the health of an eco-economy system. We then use this diagnostic method to explore the factors affecting the health status of a semi-arid loess watershed in China in 2007 and 2009. The results show that between 2007 and 2009 the health status of the eco-economy improved from the “better” stage to the “benign circle” stage. The primary productivity of grassland, land productivity, rural per capita net income, number of livestock per household, input–output ratio, commodity rate of farm produce, and labor productivity were the main factors influencing the health of this eco-economy. Furthermore, this study shows that the eco-economy depends on material input from regions outside the watershed.     

Labor productivity: A biophysical definition and assessment

A model of energy analysis is presented to study the concept of labor productivity from a biophysical perspective. It is argued that current methods of defining and assessing labor productivity in the fields of work physiology and input/output energy analysis are relatively poor operational tools for assessing productivity in the economy and society. We propose to adopt society as the hierarchical level of analysis rather than the individual, as labor productivity can best be studied as a function of parameters related to the technological development of society. Parameters considered are: the ratio exosomatic/endosomatic energy used in society, the ratio working/non-working population, the return on the circulating energy investment, and the profile of human time allocated to the economic process. The links between patterns of human time allocation, population structure, standard of living, technological development, and demand on natural resources are analyzed. The results suggest that the role and meaning of human labor differ widely in societies with different levels of technological development.     

Labor market consequences of childhood onset type 1 diabetes

This paper examines the effect of the onset of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) before 15 years of age on labor market outcomes and contributes to the literature on effects of childhood health on adult socioeconomic status. Using national Swedish socioeconomic register data 1991–2010 for 2485 individuals born 1972–1978 with onset of T1DM in 1977–1993, we find that T1DM in childhood has a negative effect on labor market outcomes later in life. Part of the T1DM effect is channeled through occupational field which may be related to both choice and opportunities. Although the magnitude of the effect is only directly generalizable to illnesses with similar attributes as T1DM, the results suggest that causality in the often observed correlation between health and socioeconomic status, at least partly, is explained by an effect running from health to earnings. This has implications for research and policy on strategies to reduce socioeconomic-related health inequality. Our findings also shed light on productivity losses, measured by employment status and earnings due to childhood onset T1DM, which have implications for both the individual and society.     

Some observations on the needs of ergonomics in industries in Hong Kong.

The author's interest in ergonomics lies in the common ground it shares with occupational health, since ergonomics aims to make work easier, safer, and more productive and to promote efficiency, comfort, and health. In Hong Kong, owing to lack of natural resources and guaranteed markets, industrialization has not taken a smooth course. Only light industries exist, and one industry flourishes after another. Occupational health and safety tends to be neglected not only by the employers but by the employees. The government becomes the promoter of labor legislation. There is almost no information on occupational diseases. There are some elementary official statistics on occupational accidents. There is practically no research activities on this area going on. There is a very critical lack of occupational health, workers in Hong Kong. Ergonomics may help in improving the present situation because its aims are more positive to the industrialists and the workers who should be converted into educated consumers of ergonomics. In the long run, advancement in occupational health and safety practice will be made.     

Peri-urban sheep production in West Africa: Do smallholders benefit from proximity of the urban centres?

Economic decline accompanied by high population growth rates in sub-Saharan African cities has led to an increase in the importance of small-scale agriculture as a survival strategy. These crop or livestock producers should benefit from the urban infrastructure by easier access to inputs and services. This assumption was tested for sheep keeping in Maroua, Cameroon. An intensive survey of 38 urban and peri-urban flocks conducted between November 1994 and March 1995 revealed that management practices and flock productivity differed little from those in rural areas. No significant influence of more intensive management practices on flock productivity was found. A parallel study explored the availability and adequacy of livestock services for urban sheep producers and the effect of these on animal productivity. The main areas of livestock services, i.e. veterinary services, consultation, extension and supply of inputs, were provided by the nine organisations offering livestock services in Maroua. However, the focus of the organisations was on rural cattle rearing and urban sheep producers gained little from the existing knowledge and competence. Among the services used by the 58 sheep owners interviewed in the second study, ‘informal contact with a veterinarian’ was the only factor showing a significant, albeit weak, effect on flock productivity. Nevertheless, flock productivity increased with the frequency of use of most services. In order to fully realize the potential benefits from urban infrastructure, small-scale sheep production needs to be formally accepted as an economic activity and supported by adequate services and an institutional environment.     

Abundance of pest and benign Cerambycidae both increase with decreasing forest productivity

• 1 The sustainable use of forest resources requires an understanding of the influence of site conditions and forest health on both pest species and those species providing ecosystem services such as pollination and decomposition.
• 2 The beetle family Cerambycidae is diverse and contains both pest and nonpest species, with many species performing such ecosystem services.
• 3 We predicted that as hardwood tree productivity decreased, the proportion of pest Cerambycidae present would increase at a site. We used site index as a measure of hardwood tree productivity.
• 4 The proportion of species that were pests did not change with productivity because the abundance of both pest and nonpest species increased with declining productivity.
• 5 The findings of the present study have implications for both managing pest species and conserving the biodiversity of nonpest species.

     

Economic returns to investment in AIDS treatment in low and middle income countries

Since the early 2000s, aid organizations and developing country governments have invested heavily in AIDS treatment. By 2010, more than five million people began receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART)--yet each year, 2.7 million people are becoming newly infected and another two million are dying without ever having received treatment. As the need for treatment grows without commensurate increase in the amount of available resources, it is critical to assess the health and economic gains being realized from increasingly large investments in ART. This study estimates total program costs and compares them with selected economic benefits of ART, for the current cohort of patients whose treatment is cofinanced by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. At end 2011, 3.5 million patients in low and middle income countries will be receiving ART through treatment programs cofinanced by the Global Fund. Using 2009 ART prices and program costs, we estimate that the discounted resource needs required for maintaining this cohort are $14.2 billion for the period 2011-2020. This investment is expected to save 18.5 million life-years and return $12 to $34 billion through increased labor productivity, averted orphan care, and deferred medical treatment for opportunistic infections and end-of-life care. Under alternative assumptions regarding the labor productivity effects of HIV infection, AIDS disease, and ART, the monetary benefits range from 81 percent to 287 percent of program costs over the same period. These results suggest that, in addition to the large health gains generated, the economic benefits of treatment will substantially offset, and likely exceed, program costs within 10 years of investment.     

Managing marine mollusc diseases in the context of regional and international commerce: policy issues and emerging concerns

Marine mollusc production contributes to food and economic security worldwide and provides valuable ecological services, yet diseases threaten these industries and wild populations. Although the infrastructure for mollusc aquaculture health management is well characterized, its foundations are not without flaws. Use of notifiable pathogen lists can leave blind spots with regard to detection of unlisted and emerging pathogens. Increased reliance on molecular tools has come without similar attention to diagnostic validation, raising questions about assay performance, and has been accompanied by a reduced emphasis on microscopic diagnostic expertise that could weaken pathogen detection capabilities. Persistent questions concerning pathogen biology and ecology promote regulatory paralysis that impedes trade and which could weaken biosecurity by driving commerce to surreptitious channels. Solutions that might be pursued to improve shellfish aquaculture health management include the establishment of more broad-based surveillance programmes, wider training and use of general methods like histopathology to ensure alertness to emerging diseases, an increased focus on assay assessment and validation as fundamental to assay development, investment in basic research, and application of risk analyses to improve regulation. A continual sharpening of diagnostic tools and approaches and deepening of scientific knowledge is necessary to manage diseases and promote sustainable molluscan shellfish industries.     

Life-Cycle Assessment in the Service Industries

Despite the dominant role service industries play in modern society, those industries have by and large not been involved in the strong efforts underway to create environmentally responsible operations. Part of the reason is that the role of these industries as driving factors in resource flows has not been recognized. Perhaps more important, no common framework for assessing the environmental responsibility of service industries has been established. This article provides such a framework and applies it to a generic service industry: automotive repair. Among the results are that evaluation must take different forms for different types of services, and that the approaches of service industries to the use of buildings and equipment will require innovative solutions quite unlike those advocated for the "greening" of manufacturing operations.     

Quantifying GHG emissions enabled by capital and labor: Economic and gender inequalities in France

Many studies have investigated the carbon footprint of households. They rely on consumption-based responsibility and focus on how many emissions are embodied in a product. Here we open a new field by discussing the emissions that individuals enable by providing labor and capital to companies, using the framework of income-based (downstream) responsibility. This perspective focuses on the emissions enabled by providing inputs to production processes, and is relevant for discussion of sustainable work and the carbon impact of investment and financial portfolios. We compute the downstream carbon intensity of primary inputs for 35 industries in France using the multi-regional input–output database EXIOBASE. We provide a detailed picture of enabled emissions, disaggregating those by industry and primary inputs. On average, capital inputs are more carbon intensive than labor inputs. Finally, we couple downstream carbon intensities with an extensive national survey on wages to obtain a distribution of the income-based emissions of employees. Income-based emissions are much more unequally distributed than wages due to the huge variability of carbon intensity across industries: a truck driver enables far more emissions than a social-care worker. Inequalities in emissions do not strongly interact with economic inequality. Yet they are gendered because women work disproportionately in low-carbon-intensive industries such as healthcare. As a result, women contribute less to GHG emissions than their wage share would seem to indicate.     

Coexistence Opportunities for Coal Seam Gas and Agribusiness

Australia's prospects to become a key energy exporter in the Asia‐Pacific region has driven rapid development and expansion of its coal seam gas (CSG) industry, particularly in regional Queensland, Australia. The vast majority of Australia's current CSG developments and reserves are situated in agriculture‐rich, cattle‐grazing regions; therefore, it is critical to identify symbiotic relationships between agri‐based industries and the CSG industry to achieve beneficial coexistence. The CSG industry has generated infrastructure such as gas and water pipelines, water storage and treatment facilities, transportation and electricity networks, and other CSG‐associated services (e.g., accommodation, education, and medical facilities), which have the potential to improve regional communities and facilitate economic growth. This article aims to investigate these coexistence opportunities, including the use of by‐products (mainly water produced during CSG extraction), infrastructure, and services generated from the CSG industry, which can provide value to the local industries. Focusing on the cattle value chain, the authors suggest an agri‐based industrial coexistence model that indicates material‐water flows and optimized utilization of infrastructure that not only promote coexistence between the agribusiness and CSG industries, but expand the cattle value‐chain productivity in rural Queensland. A water balance has been conducted around the suggested coexistence model with the aim of quantifying water flows, to indicate the supply versus demand scenario associated with CSG‐sourced water production. The results of the water balance indicate that CSG water supply has the potential to meet the requirements of agribusiness promoting industries.     

农牧交错带系统生产力概念及其对生态重建的意义

论证了黄土高原农牧交错带在全球所有同纬度(39°～41°N)地区中是作物生长盛期内光、温及降水条件组合最好的地带,并以初步的实证和观测支持了这一论点,阐述了通过开发能很好地适应自然条件,特别是能扬长避短,充分利用总体上虽较严酷而局部具有优势的气候资源的“系统生产力”的新思路;中心选择和应用生物量高、水分效率高、覆盖作用好的新作物和相应的种植制度,围绕生物量“为牧而农”式地实行农牧结合;重“料”于粮草,相应改变传统农业的格局,以大幅度地提高黄土高原地区的系统生产力,探索走出一条生态重建和支柱产业协调发展新路的可能性。     

Does behavioral flexibility compensate or constrain colony productivity? Relationship among age structure,labor allocation,and production of workers in ant colonies

Temporal change in colonial labor allocation, age structure, eclosion of workers, and numbers of eggs, larvae, and pupae in colonies of the ponerine ant,Diacamma sp., from Japan was surveyed for more than a year. Fluctuation of brood indicated that temporal variation in eclosion is caused by brood raising, not by cessation of egg supply. Labor allocation patterns at a given moment were related to subsequent colonial productivity by multiple linear regression. Fluctuating eclosion patterns can be predicted from labor allocation patterns extrapolated from their age structure, without considering behavioral flexibility. The predictions agree with observed patterns. This suggests that behavioral flexibility does not fully compensate for the deterioration in productivity caused by the fluctuation in age structure.     

Ergonomics policy in Indonesia

Workers' conditions in accordance with their place of work are different from one area to another, especially in this reformation era where there are immense alterations in politics shown from the centralized government shifting to decentralization and district autonomy. Ergonomics problems in Indonesia are reviewed. In home industries, workers have to adjust themselves to their jobs, and ergonomic improvement may face significant impediments especially in small-scale industries. It is necessary to create or identify the most plausible model to be implemented in accordance with the conditions of districts, including low awareness about the relation between ergonomics and workers' productivity in producing goods and services and working processes scattered often at their own houses. As conditions conducive to ergonomics programs, district-level willingness to improve and increase the wealth of their society, recognition by businesses about the impacts of ergonomics on productivity and reduction of medical treatment costs may be mentioned. Labor unions support ergonomic improvements at production processes, and professionals and academicians are ready to assist, whereas national banks and foreign investment may encourage new technologies including ergonomics aspects. It is important to strengthen ergonomic improvement efforts in Indonesia through establishing district ergonomics improvement networks and ergonomics peer leaders with the support of continual training starting from the training of core leaders at the province level and extending to peer leaders at district level. This training should be made as simple as possible in order to facilitate innovations toward changes. Finally assistance is needed by the mentor teams in order to periodically monitor the improvements undertaken.     

The Impact of Land Privatization on Cooperation in Farm Labor in Kenya

Establishing private property in land through registration and titling has been promoted in developing countries due to the anticipated benefits of private ownership in access to credit, productivity enhancing investments, and productivity gains. Evidence of such benefits is limited, however. In this paper, we examine a related question: What is the impact of privatization on cooperation in farm labor? Data collected in 2005 from Samburu District in Kenya is analyzed, comparing one community where land has been privatized to a second where land is communally held in a group ranch. It is hypothesized that households with title deeds are less likely to cooperate in farm labor than households without deeds. The hypothesis was confirmed, as the odds of cooperating in communal farm labor are 93.0% lower for households with deeds compared to those without. This effect has negative implications for collective action efforts in Siambu.     

Health and economic benefits of achieving hepatitis C virus elimination in Pakistan: A modelling study and economic analysis

BackgroundModelling suggests that achieving the WHO incidence target for hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination in Pakistan could cost US$3.87 billion over 2018 to 2030. However, the economic benefits from integrating services or improving productivity were not included.Methods and findingsWe adapt a HCV transmission model for Pakistan to estimate the impact, costs, and cost-effectiveness of achieving HCV elimination (reducing annual HCV incidence by 80% by 2030) with stand-alone service delivery, or partially integrating one-third of initial HCV testing into existing healthcare services. We estimate the net economic benefits by comparing the required investment in screening, treatment, and healthcare management to the economic productivity gains from reduced HCV-attributable absenteeism, presenteeism, and premature deaths. We also calculate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted for HCV elimination versus maintaining current levels of HCV treatment. This is compared to an opportunity cost-based willingness-to-pay threshold for Pakistan (US$148 to US$198/DALY).Compared to existing levels of treatment, scaling up screening and treatment to achieve HCV elimination in Pakistan averts 5.57 (95% uncertainty interval (UI) 3.80 to 8.22) million DALYs and 333,000 (219,000 to 509,000) HCV-related deaths over 2018 to 2030. If HCV testing is partially integrated, this scale-up requires an investment of US$1.45 (1.32 to 1.60) billion but will result in US$1.30 (0.94 to 1.72) billion in improved economic productivity over 2018 to 2030. This elimination strategy is highly cost-effective (ICER = US$29 per DALY averted) by 2030, with it becoming cost-saving by 2031 and having a net economic benefit of US$9.10 (95% UI 6.54 to 11.99) billion by 2050. Limitations include uncertainty around what level of integration is possible within existing primary healthcare services as well as a lack of Pakistan-specific data on disease-related healthcare management costs or productivity losses due to HCV.ConclusionsInvestment in HCV elimination can bring about substantial societal health and economic benefits for Pakistan.

Aaron G Lim and colleagues model the health and economic benefits of eliminating hepatitis C in Pakistan.