Healthy ageing has gained substantial global attention, prompting the United Nations to initiate the Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)—a worldwide effort aimed at advancing the well-being, dignity, and social inclusion of older persons. Several studies, particularly those originating from high-income countries, have proposed strategies to enhance the implementation of the United Nations’ Decade of Healthy Ageing initiative. The purpose of this study was to contribute a Ghanaian perspective to the global discourse by investigating the impact of intergenerational coresidence on the cognitive health of older adults. Utilising a recursive bivariate probit model applied to data from the 2021 Population and Housing Census, the analysis revealed that coresidence with adult children mitigates cognitive health decline among older adults in Ghana. The study therefore concludes that policy measures encouraging intergenerational coresidence may significantly strengthen Ghana’s implementation of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing initiative, while also advancing the country’s progress on key Sustainable Development Goal indicators focused on enhancing the well-being of older populations.
This study examines the effects of digital financial inclusion (DFI) and social security systems on multidimensional relative poverty (MRP) in China, using data from Peking University’s DFI index and China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). The integrated theoretical and empirical analysis yields four key findings. First, both DFI and social security demonstrate significant MRP-alleviating effects. Second, dimensional analysis reveals that the breadth of DFI coverage and the depth of its usage substantially mitigate the MRP. Third, heterogeneity analysis indicates stronger poverty alleviation effects among low-income and urban households, with the most pronounced impact observed in central China. Fourth, moderation analysis reveals that social security significantly amplifies the MRP-alleviating effect of DFI by buffering risks to household financial and educational capabilities. These findings provide theoretical foundations and policy insights for addressing the MRP and advancing common prosperity in China.
This study evaluates the degree of financial inclusion across Ecuador’s cantons in 2021 by constructing a composite index based on Spatial Principal Components Analysis. The index is designed to preserve spatial structure, enabling a territorial coherent interpretation of access and usage patterns. Cantons are subsequently classified into high and low levels of business and financial density, which serve as indicators of local economic and financial stratification. In addition, to examine the determinants of cantonal financial inclusion, the study estimates benchmark Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and instrumental-variable Two-Stage Least Squares (IV–2SLS) models, the latter addressing the potential endogeneity of financial density. The results reveal non-random spatial clustering and territorial disparities in financial inclusion across cantons. In the determinants analysis, financial density emerges as the most robust positive predictor, while business density is also positively associated with financial inclusion in the benchmark OLS specification. By contrast, once territorial covariates are incorporated, the baseline Queen spatial diagnostics do not indicate residual spatial dependence. These findings suggest that the spatial structure of financial inclusion in Ecuador is primarily associated with territorial uneven covariates rather than with a robust residual spatial process. The results underscore the importance of territorial differentiated policies to address cantonal disparities in financial inclusion.
Stabilizing and expanding the development process in the post-World War II economic and socio-cultural context is influenced by two global geoeconomic and geopolitical momentums: (a) the last wave of globalization since 1980 and the expansion of capital in the Global South (geoeconomic momentum); and (b) the end of the Cold War in the 1990s and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc (geopolitical momentum). Many developing and southern countries entered the category of developed countries, and the World Bank—as one of the most influential policy-making organizations in global development—was forced to revise its dominant paradigm frameworks over the past three decades. The present study aims to determine the combined effect of the two events above on World Development Reports (WDRs) by analyzing the reports published between 1991 and 2020 through a kind of document analysis. The study seeks to answer how political, social, and economic events influence development policy within a global organization. The underlying assumption is that transitioning from market-oriented approaches to a more institution-based perspective, considering countries’ geographical and spatial conditions necessitates significant changes in current development policy. The study’s findings indicate that influenced by two above-mentioned momentums, the World Bank has moved away from its two previous positions, namely a smaller government and a free market economy as a driver of economic growth, and has acknowledged approaches including the significance of government and institutional policies, regulation in infrastructure, spatial and geographical criteria of development, and the possibility of capital-production activism of southern countries through the promotion of global value chains.
