Gauging economic conditions in real time is challenging, in part because economic data are difficult to measure and subject to subsequent revision as more information becomes available. This article investigates the pattern and size of revisions to real gross domestic product (GDP) over the past decade or so. Revisions to early estimates of GDP can be large and, over the past 15 years, have ten...

This study is unique as it considers industry value added as a possible source of economic growth in addition to export and import. The key research questions of this study are: to what extent trade and industry value added contribute to the economic growth of Bangladesh? Are there any causal and long run relationships among export, import, industry value added and gross domestic product in Ban...

Introduction Until recent years a country’s aggregate output, or gross domestic product (GDP), was used almost exclusively as the primary measure of economic development. Both comparative (i.e. between countries) and over time, growth in GDP per capita was commonly used to describe changes in well-being. Recognizing the inadequacy of this measure of well-being , the United Nations began to devi...

The recently published World Health Organisation strategy document on road safety starts with the startling statistic that over 1.2 million people die each year on the world’s roads and, not surprisingly lowand middle-income countries have much higher road traffic fatality rates than high-income countries. Almost half of those who die on the roads are pedestrians, cyclists or users of motoriz...

Over the last decade macroeconomic studies have established a clear link between student achievement on science and math tests and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth, supporting the widely held belief that science, technology, engineering, and math(STEM) education are important factors in the production of economic prosperity. We critique studies that use science and math tests to p...

Transport accounted for around 23% of carbon emissions in 2013, which cannot be ignored in terms of global greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. With levels of urbanization and motorization increasing rapidly worldwide, carbon emitted in the transport sector, especially passenger traffic, is projected to keep growing. Without the implementation of aggressive and sustained policy interven...

Child burn mortality differs widely between regions and is closely related to material deprivation, but reports on their global distribution are few. Investigating their country level distribution in light of economic level and income inequality will help assess the potential for macro-level improvements. We extracted data for child burn mortality from the Global Burden of Disease study 2013 an...

Developing nations like Namibia are aiming to industrialize much like developed nations and use the gross domestic product to measure their progress. However, this development path has been largely unsustainable. For Namibia to develop into a sustainable society, a different approach is needed. This study aimed to find entry points toward such an approach. Surveys were conducted in Windhoek, Na...

Metrics on resource productivity currently used by governments suggest that some developed countries have increased the use of natural resources at a slower rate than economic growth (relative decoupling) or have even managed to use fewer resources over time (absolute decoupling). Using the material footprint (MF), a consumption-based indicator of resource use, we find the contrary: Achievement...

In this study, we hypothesize that the worldwide distribution of cognitive ability is determined in part by variation in the intensity of infectious diseases. From an energetics standpoint, a developing human will have difficulty building a brain and fighting off infectious diseases at the same time, as both are very metabolically costly tasks. Using three measures of average national intellige...