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1 – 10 of over 106000Ernest Sogah, John Kwaku Mensah Mawutor and Freeman Christian Gborse
The aim of the quantity study is to investigate the cost of living and food security nexus in Ghana. Time series secondary quarterly data from 2012Q1 to 2018Q4 were examined.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the quantity study is to investigate the cost of living and food security nexus in Ghana. Time series secondary quarterly data from 2012Q1 to 2018Q4 were examined.
Design/methodology/approach
The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) to cointegration bound test was employed for the econometrics analysis. Time series secondary quarterly data from 2012Q1 to 2018Q4 were examined. Food security data based on the Global Food Security Index score were employed.
Findings
The result revealed that the variables are cointegrated in the long run. The study also revealed that the cost of living worsens food security in Ghana both in the short run and the long run. This could imply that people may not have enough money to afford adequate and nutritious food, which can lead to food insecurity. As the cost of living increases, people may have to spend more of their income on basic necessities such as housing, healthcare and transportation, leaving less money for food. This can result in people choosing cheaper and less nutritious options, or even skipping meals, which can have negative impacts on their health and well-being.
Practical implications
For policy implications, it is recommended that effort should be made by the Ministry of Finance Ghana, financial analysts and other economic agents to stabilize prices of goods and services in the country.
Originality/value
The study is among the few to have investigated the nexus between the cost of living and food security in non-Western economy using the secondary data.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2023-0309
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Richard Cebula, James E. Payne, Donnie Horner and Robert Boylan
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of labor market freedom on state-level cost of living differentials in the USA using cross-sectional data for 2016 after…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of labor market freedom on state-level cost of living differentials in the USA using cross-sectional data for 2016 after allowing for the impacts of economic and quality of life factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses two-stage least squares estimation controlling for factors contributing to cost of living differences across states.
Findings
The results reveal that an increase in labor market freedom reduces the overall cost of living.
Research limitations/implications
The study can be extended using panel data and alternative measures of labor market freedom.
Practical implications
In general, the finding that less intrusive government and greater labor freedom are associated with a reduced cost of living should not be surprising. This is because less government intrusion and greater labor freedom both inherently allow markets to be more efficient in the rationalization of and interplay with forces of supply and demand.
Social implications
The findings of this and future related studies could prove very useful to policy makers and entrepreneurs, as well as small business owners and public corporations of all sizes – particularly those considering either location in, relocation to, or expansion into other markets within the USA. Furthermore, the potential benefits of the National Right-to-Work Law currently under consideration in Congress could add cost of living reductions to the debate.
Originality/value
The authors extend the literature on cost of living differentials by investigating whether higher amounts of state-level labor market freedom act to reduce the states’ cost of living using the most recent annual data available (2016). That labor freedom has a systemic efficiency impact on the state-level cost of living is a significant finding. In our opinion, it is likely that labor market freedom is increasing the efficiency of labor market transactions in the production and distribution of goods and services, and acts to reduce the cost of living in states. In addition, unlike previous related studies, the authors investigate the impact of not only overall labor market freedom on the state-level cost of living, but also how the three sub-indices of labor market freedom, as identified and measured by Stansel et al. (2014, 2015), impact the cost of living state by state.
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Khee Giap Tan, Nguyen Trieu Duong Luu and Le Phuong Anh Nguyen
Cost of living is an important consideration for the decision-making of expatriates and investment decisions of businesses. As competition between cities for talent and capital…
Abstract
Purpose
Cost of living is an important consideration for the decision-making of expatriates and investment decisions of businesses. As competition between cities for talent and capital becomes global instead of national, the need for timely and internationally comparable information on global cities’ cost of living increases. While commercial research houses frequently publish cost of living surveys, these reports can be lacking in terms of scientific rigour. In this context, this paper aims to contribute to the literature by formulating a comprehensive and rigorous methodology to compare the cost of living for expatriates in 103 world’s major cities.
Design/methodology/approach
A cost of living index for expatriates composed of the ten consumption categories is constructed. The results from the study covers a study period from 2005 to 2014 in 103 cities. More than 280 individual prices of 165 goods and services have been compiled for each city in the calculation of the cost of living index for expatriates. New York has been chosen as the base city for the study, with other cities being benchmarked against it. A larger cost of living index for expatriates implies that the city is more expensive for expatriates to live in and vice versa.
Findings
While the authors generate the cost of living rankings for expatriates for 103 cities worldwide, in this paper, the authors focus on five key cities, namely, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Zurich, as they are global financial centres. In 2013, the latest year for which data are available, Zurich was the most expensive for expatriates among the five cities, followed by Singapore, Tokyo, London and Hong Kong. These results pertain to the cost of living for expatriates, and cities compare very differently in terms of cost of living for ordinary residents, as ordinary residents follow different consumption patterns from expatriates.
Originality/value
Cost of living in the destination city is a major consideration for professionals who look to relocate, and organisations factor such calculations in their decisions to post employees overseas and design commensurate compensation packages. This paper develops a comprehensive and rigorous methodology for measuring and comparing cost of living for expatriates around the world. The value-addition lies in the fact that the authors are able to differentiate between expatriates and ordinary residents, which has not been done in the existing literature. They use higher quality data and generate an index that is not sensitive to the choice of base city.
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Khee Giap Tan, Hui Yin Chuah and Nguyen Trieu Duong Luu
Malaysia and Singapore had parted more than five decades ago. Much of the existing literature concerned about the bilateral ties between two economies focusing on the political…
Abstract
Purpose
Malaysia and Singapore had parted more than five decades ago. Much of the existing literature concerned about the bilateral ties between two economies focusing on the political economy perspective. This paper aims to provide insights on the economic development and prospects of Malaysia and Singapore at the national level. In addition, this paper also makes a pioneering attempt at conducting a comprehensive comparative analysis between Malaysia and Singapore at the city level.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper offers a case study of Malaysia and Singapore by assessing their national economic competitiveness, urban standards of living and quality of life. The paper leverages on a series of indices such as the competitiveness index for ASEAN-10, the cost of living, wages and purchasing power of ordinary residents, as well as the liveable cities index to perform the analysis.
Findings
In terms of national competitiveness, the analysis shows that Singapore and Malaysia have been leading the ASEAN region from 2000 onwards, being the top- and second-ranked, respectively. Malaysia still lags Singapore in several aspects such as attractiveness to foreign investors and standard of living, education and social stability despite insignificant differences in the ranking. City-level analysis shows that the cost of living in Singapore is almost double of that in Kuala Lumpur, although living in Singapore is more affordable owing to the higher wage rate received by the ordinary citizens.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature in several ways. First, this paper assesses economic development in Singapore and Malaysia instead of focusing on cross-straits relations. Second, the study reflects the view that the improvement of standards of living and quality of life for ordinary residents is paramount to economic development. The competitiveness index and city-level benchmarks used in the paper reflect the standards of living and the quality-of-life dimensions. Third, the focus on city-level analysis in addition to conventional national-level analysis helps to provide policymakers with practical policy implications against the backdrop of rapid urbanisation.
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Thaleia Konstantinou, Tim de Jonge, Leo Oorschot, Sabira El Messlaki, Clarine van Oel and Thijs Asselbergs
Decarbonising the housing stock is one of the largest challenges in the built environment today, which is getting the attention not only from policymakers but also from social…
Abstract
Purpose
Decarbonising the housing stock is one of the largest challenges in the built environment today, which is getting the attention not only from policymakers but also from social housing corporations, financial organisations and users. In line with the international Paris-Climate-Change-Conference 2015, Dutch cities and housing associations have embraced this challenge with the ambitions to become carbon neutral in 2050. To reach such goals, both the rate and depth of renovation need to increase. Several technical solutions to eliminate the energy demand in dwelling have been developed and tested. Nevertheless, the intake rate of deep retrofitting is low. Despite recent developments, there are still significant barriers related to financing, lack of information and user acceptance. To address those barriers, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between energy efficiency upgrades and the cost of living.
Design/methodology/approach
Focusing on walk-up apartments in the Netherlands, a framework of refurbishment measures that affect the energy efficiency was identified, and their performance was calculated. Furthermore, the rental price adjustment was estimated, taking into account the refurbishment investment and the exploitation cost of the renovated dwellings.
Findings
The comparison of the energy use and rental price for the different options demonstrated how the different renovation measures affect the energy cost, the energy use, rent and cost of living. The tenants are more likely to accept the solutions that take into account the total cost of living and sustainability benefits. The study gives a holistic standpoint to the issue of energy upgrades, by quantifying the effect of the potential measures for the whole exploitation period. It has shown the potential of the different interventions to improve the performance and living conditions, without necessarily increasing the total cost of living.
Practical implications
Such results aim at supporting the decision making between the stakeholders, primarily housing associations and tenants.
Originality/value
The importance of the study is that it gives a holistic standpoint to the issue of energy upgrades, by quantifying the effect of the potential measures for the whole exploitation period. The cost, as a key, if not the more most decisive, issue, is put into perspective in relation to the benefit, in order to give a direction to the renovation design and arguments for the stakeholders’ dialogue. The approach of the study goes beyond cost-optimality of measures and investigated the relation between energy upgrades and cost, as a way to evaluate design variation and address the lack of information barrier in renovations. Moreover, it also proves that deep renovation is feasible without increasing in the total cost of living, which is a principal argument to promote renovations.
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Oznur Ozdamar, Eleftherios Giovanis and Sahizer Samuk
In this study, we attempt to estimate the disability costs of households employing the Standard of Livings (SoL) approach and evaluate the impact of the Universal health system…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, we attempt to estimate the disability costs of households employing the Standard of Livings (SoL) approach and evaluate the impact of the Universal health system reform implemented in Turkey in 2008.
Design/methodology/approach
We apply a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), which simultaneously estimates the disability and living standard equations, including unobserved latent variables. Moreover, we apply a difference-in-differences (DiD) framework to investigate the impact of the universal health insurance (UHI) system and the Green Card programme on living standards. The empirical analysis relies on data derived from the cross-sectional Household Budget Surveys (HBS) during the period 2002–2013.
Findings
Our findings suggest a negative and significant impact of disability on SoL, where disability costs reach the 23% of the household income, which is equivalent almost to $2,600 (USD). Furthermore, the disability costs are reduced from $4,450 to $2,260 due to the UHI and the Green Card programme.
Research limitations/implications
A major limitation of the study is the data structure, which is based on repeated cross-sectional surveys. By using panel data, it is possible to follow the same individual across time and to implement panel data models to control for unobserved heterogeneity and omitted-variable bias.
Social implications
Disability has adverse effects on living standards. The estimation of the disability-related costs may provide a useful guide on policy planning and the design of social benefits.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is that it is the first study estimating the disability-related costs in Turkey. Furthermore, the contribution lies in the investigation of the 2008 health reform and the Green Card programme and its impact on disability costs.
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The chapter reviews and extends the theory of exact and superlative index numbers. Exact index numbers are empirical index number formula that are equal to an underlying…
Abstract
The chapter reviews and extends the theory of exact and superlative index numbers. Exact index numbers are empirical index number formula that are equal to an underlying theoretical index, provided that the consumer has preferences that can be represented by certain functional forms. These exact indexes can be used to measure changes in a consumer's cost of living or welfare. Two cases are considered: the case of homothetic preferences and the case of nonhomothetic preferences. In the homothetic case, exact index numbers are obtained for square root quadratic preferences, quadratic mean of order r preferences, and normalized quadratic preferences. In the nonhomothetic case, exact indexes are obtained for various translog preferences.
Details
Keywords
- exact index numbers
- superlative index numbers
- flexible functional forms
- Fisher ideal index
- normalized quadratic preferences
- mean of order r indexes
- homothetic preferences
- nonhomothetic preferences
- cost of living indexes
- the measurement of welfare change
- translog functional form
- duality theory
- Allen quantity index
Differences in the cost of living and the general attractiveness of communities lead to significant, regional differences in the prices school districts must pay for their most…
Abstract
Differences in the cost of living and the general attractiveness of communities lead to significant, regional differences in the prices school districts must pay for their most important resource – people. According to the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics, labor costs differ by more than 50% from the lowest-cost district to the highest-cost district within California, Florida, New York, Texas, and West Virginia. Furthermore, all states but Hawaii and Rhode Island face at least a 7.7% internal differential in labor cost. Most states fail to account for such cost differences in their school finance formulas, leading to inequitable differences in school district purchasing power. This chapter compares and contrasts the various strategies states use to make geographic cost adjustments to their school funding formula, describes the implications of geographic adjustment for interstate and intrastate measures of school finance equity (and corresponding litigation), and discusses the impact that such adjustments could have on the distribution of federal aid for economically disadvantaged students under Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
The theoretical base for cost‐of‐living comparisons between geographical areas is examined and developed. The interpretation of bilateral comparisons is discussed within a…
Abstract
The theoretical base for cost‐of‐living comparisons between geographical areas is examined and developed. The interpretation of bilateral comparisons is discussed within a framework of a matrix of cost‐of‐living comparisons with all countries being listed in both columns and rows. The use of multilateral comparisons is questioned.
Eric Emerson, Janet Robertson, Nicky Gregory, Chris Hatton, Sophia Kessissoglou, Angela Hallam, Martin Knapp, Krister Järbrink, Ann Netten and Patricia Walsh
This paper provides an overview of the main results of a Department of Health‐funded research project which investigated the quality and costs of residential supports for people…
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the main results of a Department of Health‐funded research project which investigated the quality and costs of residential supports for people with learning disabilities. The main findings were that the adjusted costs of community‐based supports were higher than residential campuses and village communities; within community‐based provision there were no statistically significant differences between the adjusted costs of supported living, small group homes and group homes for 4‐6 people; community‐based provision and village communities offered better care than residential campuses; there appeared to be distinct benefits associated with community‐based provision and village communities; within community‐based provision there were benefits associated with smaller size and supported living arrangements.