RESUMEN
Although 30 years have passed since the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was adopted in 1992, few attempts have been made to evaluate its impact on protected areas. This study investigates the relationship between participation in the CBD and conservation effort in member countries, using an original dataset of 169 countries from 1992 to 2015. Our measure of conservation effort is the percentage of a country's terrestrial area under protection, which is the primary mechanism for achieving the CBD's conservation as distinct from its sustainable use or access and benefit-sharing objectives. We consider how protected area expansion relates to membership of the CBD, and a set of socio-economic and political variables that measure both the opportunity cost of conservation and national responsiveness to the demand for public goods. We find a positive and significant relationship between the area under protection, membership of the CBD, and a dummy for the Aichi biodiversity targets-Nagoya protocol. We also find that the area under protection is negatively related to measures of economic development and education (proxies for the opportunity cost of conservation), and positively associated with forest area (a proxy for species richness and endemism). We conclude that, at least for this measure of conservation effort, the CBD has had a significant impact, albeit moderated in predictable ways by the opportunity cost of conservation.
Asunto(s)
Biodiversidad , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales/métodos , BosquesRESUMEN
The bundling of clinical expertise in centralised treatment centres is considered an effective intervention to improve quality and efficiency of acute stroke care. In 2010, 8 London Trusts were converted into Hyper Acute Stroke Units. The intention was to discontinue acute stroke services in 22 London hospitals. However, in reality, provision of services declined only gradually, and 2 years later, 15% of all patients were still treated in Trusts without a Hyper Acute Stroke Unit. This study evaluates the impact of centralising London's stroke care on 7 process and outcome indicators using a difference-in-difference analysis with two treatment groups, Hyper Acute and discontinued London Trusts, and data on all stroke patients recorded in the hospital episode statistics database from April 2006 to April 2014. The policy resulted in improved thrombolysis treatment and lower rates of pneumonia in acute units. However, 6 indicators worsened in the Trusts that were meant to discontinue services, including deaths within 7 and 30 days, readmissions, brain scan rates, and thrombolysis treatment. The reasons for these results are difficult to uncover and could be related to differences in patient complexity, data recording, or quality of care. The findings highlight that actual implementation of centralisation policies needs careful monitoring and evaluation.
Asunto(s)
Atención a la Salud/métodos , Hospitales/estadística & datos numéricos , Evaluación de Procesos y Resultados en Atención de Salud , Accidente Cerebrovascular/terapia , Anciano , Femenino , Política de Salud , Humanos , Londres , Masculino , Modelos EconométricosRESUMEN
School transitions are a regular feature of the educational career. While they are of general interest as instances of academic change, they also represent instances of peer environment and influence change. Previous theoretical and empirical work suggests peer influence is important for students' academic and educational outcomes, especially for the complex decision-making processes leading up to those outcomes. In this manuscript, we study the impact of peers on educational expectation formation at the 8th-to-9th-grade school transition. In doing so, we test a theoretical model that links institutional settings, social influence, and individual decision-making. We find the 9th grade transition likely represents a negative shock for students' college attendance expectations. Independent of this transition, however, stable peer environments further depress expectations. A more equal mixture of new and old peers in the 9th grade likely increases students' educational expectations in contrast. These effects of peer perturbations and the re-organization of social ties they imply mainly apply to female students. But, both male and female students revise their educational expectations in light of changing peer intelligence comparisons, albeit in countervailing ways.