A pervasive issue in social and environmental research has been how to improve the quality of socioeconomic data in developing countries. Given the shortcomings of standard sources, the present study examines luminosity (measures of nighttime lights visible from space) as a proxy for standard measures of output (gross domestic product). We compare output and luminosity at the country level and ...

The total cost of fire in the United States in 2008, as defined by NFPA, is estimated at $310 B, or roughly 2 % of U.S. gross domestic product. Structure fires and fire protection account for $170 B. To reduce the U.S. fire burden, the Fire Risk Reduction in Buildings program focuses on the development and application of measurement science and standards directly on the two largest components o...

Livestock sector plays a critical role in the welfare of India's rural population. It contributes nine percent to Gross Domestic Product and employs eight percent of the labour force. This sector is emerging as an important growth leverage of the Indian economy. As a component of agricultural sector, its share in gross domestic product has been rising gradually, while that of crop sector has be...

The recent economic and financial crisis and the current slow recovery highlight that homeownership plays a critical role in the U.S. economy. The estimated “equivalent rent” implicitly paid by homeowners accounts for more than 8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Investment in single-family housing also represents a significant share of GDP and is closely tied to the business cycle. Over...

Health care expenditures are escalating in Western societies. In Belgium health care represented 3.4% of gross domestic product in 1960, whereas in 2003 health care expenditures were 10.1% of gross domestic product (1). The determinants of these increasing costs are multiple. However, there is agreement that technologic improvements and the growing and ageing population are the most important c...

www.phil.frb.org Business Review Q1 2004 23 www.phil.frb.org ver the past 20 years, the U.S. economy has had fewer and shorter recessions. In addition, over time, swings in the growth of many macroeconomic variables, such as gross domestic product, have become smaller. Why this decline in economic volatility? In this article, Keith Sill highlights some of the facts about the increased stability...

Since its release in early December 2006, the Iraq Study Group’s (ISG) military, political and diplomatic recommendations have generated wide-spread discussions. Unfortunately, the country’s economic recovery has received considerably less attention. Yet the country’s economic situation is quite dire. The ISG correctly notes that: (a) instead of meeting a target of 10 percent growth for 2006 on...

The integration of central and Eastern Europe into both the European and the world economy was in the last decade associated with a relatively high growth of gross domestic product and with a gradual increase in the economic level. The processes of convergence at the national level, however, were accompanied by an unbalanced spatial development. The paper analyzes, on the basis of the empirical...

The structural sustainability of the Brazilian health system refers to the country's pattern of development according to how this pattern is expressed and reproduced in the Brazilian population. This derives not only from its social dimension, but also from the economic one, as it accounts for a significant part of the gross domestic product and of job creation, and produces a great impact on t...

Deltas are highly sensitive to increasing risks arising from local human activities, land subsidence, regional water management, global sea-level rise, and climate extremes. We quantified changing flood risk due to extreme events using an integrated set of global environmental, geophysical, and social indicators. Although risks are distributed across all levels of economic development, wealthy ...