social welfare Archives

What tangled webs we weave: Measuring federal public expenditure

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The researchers found that social assistance has little effectiveness in improving the social wellbeing of households.

The Social Accounting Model (SAM) is used in social and economic analyses to explain the transfers made between institutional sectors. It quantifies these exchanges to analyse the financial and economic structure of a country, as well as the resulting social benefits. Dr Marcela Astudillo Moya and Dr Raúl Porras Rivera at the National Autonomous University of Mexico apply the recommendations […]

How do power imbalances influence national corruption and welfare?

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A deep-rooted culture of equality provides high living standards for most citizens.

Professor Wolfgang Scholl of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, has built a detailed model that shows how and where corruption thrives and the damage it causes to social welfare. The social-psychological, cultural, and economic causes and effects are disentangled, and the ethical imperatives are discussed that support a positive outcome. The model confirms empirically that unequal power relations induce corruption […]

Nature as an asset: Natural capital in ‘FutureCity’ Shimokawa

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Professor Mitsuru Osaki and Mr Takashi Kasuga have developed a way to quantify natural capital, measuring the town of Shimokawa in Japan.

Natural capital provides the goods and services that sustain humankind, but accurately quantifying it remains problematic. Professor Mitsuru Osaki (Hokkaido University) and Mr Takashi Kasuga (NPO FutureForest Institute) have addressed this issue by focusing on Shimokawa, a town in northern Hokkaido, Japan. Shimokawa aims to achieve economic stability by using its forest resources. Quantifying 19 variables related to agriculture and […]