No abstract

Based on data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), this paper calculates the health distribution of the elderly using the Quality of Well-Being Scale (QWB) score, and then estimates health inequality among the elderly in rural China using the Wagstaff index (WI) and Erreygers index (EI). Following this, it compares health inequalities among the elderly in different age groups, and finally, uses the Shapley and recentered influence function-index-ordinary least squares (RIF-I-OLS) model to decompose the effect of four factors on health inequality among the elderly in rural China. The QWB score distribution shows that the health of the elderly in rural China improved with social economic development and medical reform from 2002 to 2014. However, at the same time, we were surprised to find that the health level of the 65–74 years old group has been declining steadily since 2008. This phenomenon implies that the incidence of chronic diseases is moving towards the younger elderly. The WI and EI show that there is indeed pro-rich health inequality among the rural elderly, the health inequality of the younger age groups is more serious than that of the older age groups, and the former incidence of health inequality is higher. Health inequality in the age group of 65–74 years old is higher than that in other groups, and the trend of change fluctuated downward from 2002 to 2014. Health inequality in the age group of 75–84 years old is lower than that in the group of 65–74 years old, but higher than that in the other age groups. The results of Shapley decomposition show that demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status (SES), health care access, and quality of later life contributed 0.0054, 0.0130, 0.0442, and 0.0218 to the health inequality index of the elderly, which accounted for 6.40%, 15.39%, 52.41%, and 25.80% of health inequality index. From the results of RIF-I-OLS decomposition, this paper has analyzed detailed factors’ marginal effects on health inequality from four dimensions, which indicates that the health inequality among the elderly in rural China was mainly caused by the disparity of income, medical expenses, and living arrangement.

Ecological footprint (EF) is created by human demands for water, infrastructure, energy and food, among other things, resulting in pollution, depletion of resources and ecological disturbance. The sustainability goal in relation to EF is to reduce the impact of climate change on natural resources for long‐term growth. Pakistan is a country facing an ecological deficit and has difficulty striking a balance between economic development and environmental protection worldwide. As a result of its significant role in achieving sustainability, which is essential for human life, EF has become a global phenomenon. The study considered the nexus of economic growth, EF and its subcomponents for the economy of Pakistan. The Johansen co‐integration technique was used to analyse the short‐run (ECM) and long‐run relationship. The results showed that urbanisation, financial development, economic growth and temperature have positive effects on EFs, whereas rainfall and carbon dioxide emissions have a negative effect on EFs. The ECM test demonstrates that studied variables are responsible for 46% of disequilibrium in EF, which is less than the moderate threshold. On the contrary, in the model of EF, the coefficient of temperature in the long‐run speed is negative, indicating that the system is diverging from equilibrium and correcting its prior period disequilibrium at a rate of 663% a year, while that of CO2 emissions is positive, indicating that the system is converging towards equilibrium and correcting its prior period disequilibrium at a rate of 77.2% a year.