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Rapid economic growth requires more activities that affect the environment negatively. The production process from economic activities yields goods and services and wastes. The waste can be contained by hazardous elements that can cause health problems and endanger the quality of the environment. Thus, the environmental quality should be maintained to create ideal conditions and minimize negative externalities. The issue regarding environmental quality induces some studies to develop policies on maintaining the environment’s quality. Studies on environmental quality are investigated not only by using a natural science perspective but also from social science, such as economics. Many studies have discussed environmental quality using different approaches from a social science perspective. However, only a few studies have covered Indonesia by province in the past five years. This study aims to estimate the determinants of the Environmental Quality Index in 34 provinces in Indonesia. The current research treats forest, land fire, and economic variables as independent variables, including Gross Domestic Regional Product (GDRP), provincial environmental budget, and investment. The secondary data are generated from Statistics Indonesia from 2016-2022. This study employs static panel regression with a Fixed-Effect model to estimate the data. The results revealed that forest and land fires and the provincial budget for the environment significantly affect the environmental quality index in Indonesia. This implies that budget allocation for environmental spending is one of Indonesia’s policies that control environmental quality.

This study analyzes the impact of Special Autonomy Funds (SAF) on poverty levels in Papua Province. Despite the increase in regional development budgets due to the SAF, the poverty level in Papua remains high, reaching 27.38% in September 2021. This study employs time series regression analysis to examine data from 2010 to 2021. The results indicate that SAF significantly contributes to poverty reduction, with each increase in SAF resulting in a 6.558% decrease. However, poverty rates continue to stagnate because of other unidentified factors. Therefore, better management of these funds is essential to enhance the welfare of the Papuan people and effectively address poverty.

Planning for the right number and mix of health workers--in the right place, at the right time--is an ongoing struggle in Canada's health care systems. Health workers represent these systems' greatest financial input, accounting for more than 70% of direct health care costs in Canada, and as much as 8% of a provincial budget for physicians only. Considering the cost of not just employing but also training health workers, and how important this workforce is to overcoming important health care problems like improving patient access to medical services and reducing wait times, it is time Canada made collection and analysis of accessible, high-quality health workforce data and strategic health workforce planning a critical priority. However, despite numerous calls for a coordinated approach to planning the health workforce, and the availability of adaptable models for data collection and workforce planning among peer nations, little action has been taken.

 The paper aims to investigate the Provincial Open Budget Index (POBI) situation and its impacts on income per capita and the poverty rate in Vietnam. This study utilized secondary data from websites to conduct panel data analysis across all 63 Vietnamese provinces/cities from 2018 to 2022. By employing ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, various factors, especially POBI scores, are analyzed to see how they affect income per capita and poverty rates. The main findings are: (i) Transparency, particularly budget transparency, represents one of the eight pillars of good governance; (ii) Published annually since 2017, the POBI provides a standardized measurement framework; (iii) The POBI scores have steadily improved during the study period, positively correlated with increased income per capita and contributing to poverty reduction efforts.

Background Chinese government has been adjusting its strategies in response to rapid domestic and international changes to devise effective health policies and enhance public health. However, with the rapid socio-economic development and the COVID-19 outbreak, many researchers have identified issues of inefficiency and uneven distribution in health resource allocation within China. Therefore, how to scientifically allocate and efficiently use Chinese health resources has become an urgent issue. Methods The super-efficiency SBM model and global Malmquist model were used to measure and dynamically monitor the health resource allocation efficiency of 31 provinces in China from 2008 to 2020. Moran’s I was applied to test the spatial autocorrelation of the efficiency, and the spatial Dubin model was constructed to analyze influencing factors. All data were collected from the China Health Statistical Yearbook and China Statistical Yearbook from 2008 to 2020. Results The super-efficiency SBM model revealed an average health resource allocation efficiency score of 0.632. The average Malmquist productivity index for the same period was 1.090, indicating a generally positive growth. Moran’s I test showed a notable spatial autocorrelation in efficiency distribution. And the regression results of the spatial Dubin model showed that the efficiency was affected by the dependency ratio, illiteracy rate, per capita disposable income, per capita public health budget expenditure, number of medical insurance participants, and the balance of medical insurance fund revenue and expenditure. Discussions The results revealed that China’s health resource allocation exhibited low efficiency and regional disparities, primarily driven by uneven regional development. From 2008 to 2020, overall productivity increased by 9%, which were predominantly attributable to technological advancements. Under conditions of strong spatial autocorrelation, the efficiency of health resource allocation was shaped by multiple factors operating through distinct spatial channels. Conclusion Given the challenges of health resource allocation efficiency in China, it is vital to implement targeted strategies. These include strengthening policy support for inefficiency regions, relying on technological progress and scientific management, fostering cross-regional collaboration to leverage spatial effects, and considering multiple factors for rational health resource allocation to ensure the sustainability of the health services.

For almost 60 years, the Canadian Tax Foundation published an annual monograph, Finances of the Nation, and its predecessor, The National Finances. In a change of format, the 2014 Canadian Tax Journal introduced a new \"Finances of the Nation\" feature, which presents annual surveys of provincial and territorial budgets, and topical articles on taxation and public expenditures in Canada. This article surveys the 2016-17 provincial and territorial budgets. The underlying data for the Finances of the Nation monographs and the articles in this journal will be published online in the near future.

Political budget cycles in democracies have been extensively analyzed, but few studies of non-democracies exist. This paper explores political budget cycles in China’s provinces. Using data from Chinese provinces from 1980 to 2006, the analysis finds that the effects of a provincial leader’s tenure on political budget cycles are minimal, implying a weak causal relationship between spending composition and a politician’s time in office at the provincial level. However, there exists a national coordinated cycle associated with the timing of the National Congress of the Communist Party (NCCP). Two years prior to the NCCP, politicians are likely to shift public spending toward capital expenditures, such as innovation funds and capital construction, and away from current expenditures, such as agricultural subsidies. The opposite pattern occurs during the year of the NCCP, when politicians increase current expenditures, such as social expenditures and government administration, and decrease capital expenditures. The increased capital expenditures 2 years prior to the NCCP are accompanied by an increase in taxation and total aggregate spending. The empirical results indicate that provincial budget cycles are mainly driven by national policies rather than by provincial leaders’ personal career incentives. Chinese leaders’ fiscal behaviors are constrained by the dynamics of the national leadership transition, resulting in similar distortions to those found in the democratic countries.

* Climate change's urgency demands that rigorous cost-benefit analysis be performed on each energy transition expenditure. This publication calculates if there is a potential funding shortfall for Ontario's net zero targets relative to its current cost projections and the available sources to pay for it. * Under an aggressive adoption scenario, annual available funding in Ontario totals $14.2 billion against an annual need of $29.0 billion - resulting in a potential shortfall of $14.8 billion. Meanwhile, an extreme scenario shows a shortfall of $6.1 billion with available funding for Ontarios net zero goals totaling $19.0 billion against an annual need of $25.1 billion. * Budget constraints for clean energy investments arc real and need to be considered in policy design. This suggests the need for a strong focus on least-cost planning, retaining optionality in system buildout, and sober thinking with regards to the expected pace of heating and transportation electrification.

Canada's universities each receive an annual operating grant from their provincial government to partially finance operating expenses. This paper estimates the sensitivity of provincial operating grants to the business cycle by disentangling the effects of procyclical income on government revenue and the countercyclical effect on student demand by utilizing an economic regression model composed of three equations. Our panel data include the total real operating grant paid to all universities within a province, total student enrolment, real per capita government revenue, and real per capita gross domestic product for Canada's ten provinces over the 1992-2019 sample period. The results confirm that real per capita government revenues are procyclical and that full-time equivalent student enrolments are counter-cyclical. The total real operating grant is only weakly associated with cyclical changes in provincial government revenue. Instead, the total real operating grant is mainly determined by countercyclical changes in student demand. This partially offsets the potential reduction in funding to universities during an economic downturn. Provincial governments in Canada can smooth the total allocation over the business cycle by adjusting other expenditures and using debt financing. Our results suggest they do this to some extent, but not enough to avoid a net reduction in real operating grants during an economic downturn.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the fiscal measures undertaken by the Pakistani government to counter the recessionary pressures of the coronavirus pandemic. The authors analyse the economic, social and political factors that have shaped the government's fiscal policy response to this economic shock.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyse the federal and provincial budget documents for the fiscal year 2020–21 to study the fiscal response of the government. The authors review recent research articles and news pieces to examine the determinants of these budgetary measures.FindingsThe government adopted expansionary fiscal policy measures such as reduced taxation and increased government expenditure to counter the recessionary pressures of the pandemic. These measures, however, were largely constrained by macroeconomic issues of high fiscal debt, slow economic growth and low fiscal space and political influences from the military and religious groups.Research limitations/implicationsThe coronavirus pandemic is an ongoing issue which may pose more threats and elicit more policy responses as it evolves. This research may be extended as the pandemic progresses, to include further policy responses.Originality/valueThis research provides insight into the unique problems faced by the Pakistani government during the pandemic, and how it steers the economy despite these limitations.