| Literature DB >> 29220352 |
Julius Alexander McGee1, Christina Ergas2, Patrick Trent Greiner3, Matthew Thomas Clement4.
Abstract
This study examines how the relationship between urbanization (measured as the percentage of total population living in urban areas) and the carbon intensity of well-being (CIWB) (measured as a ratio of carbon dioxide emissions and life expectancy) in most nations from 1960-2013 varies based on the economic context and whereabouts of a substantial portion of a nation's urban population. To accomplish this, we use the United Nations' (UN) definition of slum households to identify developing countries that have substantial slum populations, and estimate a Prais-Winsten regression model with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE), allowing for disturbances that are heteroskedastic and contemporaneously correlated across panels. Our findings indicate that the rate of increase in CIWB for countries without substantial slum populations begins to slow down at higher levels of urbanization, however, the association between urbanization and CIWB is much smaller in countries with substantial slum populations. Overall, while urbanization is associated with increases in CIWB, the relationship between urban development and CIWB is vastly different in developed nations without slums than in under-developed nations with slums.Entities:
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Year: 2017 PMID: 29220352 PMCID: PMC5722283 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189024
Source DB: PubMed Journal: PLoS One ISSN: 1932-6203 Impact factor: 3.240
Fig 1Dotted and solid lines represent, respectively, countries with and without substantial slum populations.
To draw the graph in Fig. 1, we first used slope estimates from Model 4 to get predicted values of CIWB (within the range of observations) and then exponentiated these values. Second, we identified a baseline, which equals the unlogged predicted value of the CIWB at the minimum level of urbanization for countries with and without substantial spopulations, respectively, around 2% urban and around 3% urban. Third, we divided the unlogged predicted value of the CIWB for each (higher) level of urbanization by this baseline, yielding a ratio equal to the proportional change in CIWB as urbanization increases, compared to the baseline. For instance, with a substantial slum population, when the country is 50% urban, its predicted CIWB is roughly 10 times greater than the predicted CIWB at the minimum level of urbanization (again, around 2% urban). Without a substantial slum population, at 50% urban, the CIWB is approximately 40 times greater than the predicted CIWB at the minimum level of urbanization (around 3% urban). Compared to countries with substantial slum populations (dotted line), the proportional change in CIWB for countries without substantial slum populations (solid line) is much higher at lower levels of urbanization. While, at higher levels of urbanization, the rate of increase in CIWB for countries without substantial slum populations begins to slow down, there is no turning point at which the CIWB begins to decrease. Moreover, as we also see from the estimates in Model 4, having a substantial slum population actually moderates the association between urbanization and CIWB, although the relationship is more approximately linear.
Prais-Winsten regression models with panel-corrected standard errors of influences on carbon intensity of well-being.
| Model 1 | Model 2 | Model 3 | Model 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
*** p < .001
** p < .01
* p < .05
Note: Including country specific and time specific intercepts in panel corrected standard errors models inflates R-squared estimates because these variables account for any unobserved year to year changes and unobserved changes across countries, which is most of the variation in our model. As a result, including additional variables only slightly changes R-squared estimates because most of the variation is accounted for in the country and year specific variables.
Note: Analyses are across nations 1960–2013. All variables are in natural logarithmic form. All models include year and country intercepts (not shown).