The level of public health as an intermediary variable between environmental factors and their impact on unemployment rates in the Kingdom
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37375/jfssu.v2i1.3784Keywords:
Life expectancy, Environmental resources, Harmful emissions, Unemployment rates, Sustainable developmentAbstract
This study explores the relationship between public health levels (life expectancy at birth) as an intermediary variable and the impact of environmental factors, including per capita availability of freshwater resources, methane emissions, value added in the agricultural sector, and per capita carbon dioxide emissions, on unemployment rates in Saudi Arabia. The study hypothesises that both per capita environmental resources and value added in the agricultural sector positively influence public health levels, while methane emissions and per capita carbon dioxide emissions negatively affect public health levels. Furthermore, public health levels positively impact unemployment rates, as improvements in health conditions increase productivity and help create new job opportunities. The study also emphasises that effective management of environmental resources, such as improving water quality and reducing harmful emissions, contributes to increasing life expectancy, which is positively associated with reducing unemployment rates. Thus, this study focuses on the importance of adopting comprehensive policies that integrate health and environmental aspects to promote sustainable development in the Kingdom, improve quality of life, and increase job opportunities across various sectors.
References
Abd El-Aal, M. F. (2024). Determinants of Egypt’s unemployment rate with machine learning algorithms. Data Science in Finance and Economics, 4(3), 333-349. https://2u.pw/rk7B16Gn
Alsalem, K., Steinmetz, A., Muhammad, N., Frierson, D., & Nashed, M. (2020, October). Predicting life expectancy at birth. In 2020 2nd International Conference on Computer and Information Sciences (ICCIS) (pp. 1-6). IEEE. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9257630
Chen, S., & Wang, C. (2023). Distributional employment impacts of the nationwide emission trading scheme in China. Journal of Environmental Management, 334, 117526. https://2u.pw/J0BIiYzZ
Cui, Y., Wang, G., Irfan, M., Wu, D., & Cao, J. (2022). The effect of green finance and unemployment rate on carbon emissions in China. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10, 887341. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2022.887341/full
DeNicola, E., Aburizaiza, O. S., Siddique, A., Khwaja, H., & Carpenter, D. O. (2015). Climate change and water scarcity: The case of Saudi Arabia. Annals of global health, 81(3), 342-353. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214999615012217
Ebhota, O. S., Hongxing, Y., & Sampene, A. K. (2023). Air pollution and life expectancy: New evidence from the MINT economies. Heliyon, 9(12). https://www.cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(23)09604-4
Environmental Health & Engineering, Inc. (2011). Emissions of hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired power plants (EH&E Report No. 17505). Prepared for Paul Billings, Vice President for National Policy and Advocacy, American Lung Association. https://2u.pw/eKTvbeNF
Lazaro, L. L. B., Grangeia, C. S., Santos, L., & Giatti, L. (2023). What is green finance, after all? –Exploring definitions and their implications under the Brazilian biofuel policy (RenovaBio). Journal of Climate Finance, 2, 100009. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2949728023000056
Liu, Y. Q., & Feng, C. (2022). The effects of nurturing pressure and unemployment on carbon emissions: Cross-country evidence. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29(34), 52013-52032. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-022-19515-1
Mahalik, M. K., Le, T. H., Le, H. C., & Mallick, H. (2022). How do sources of carbon dioxide emissions affect life expectancy? Insights from 68 developing and emerging economies. World Development Sustainability, 1, 100003. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X22000039
Mazhar, M., Hayat, A., Ghauri, S. P., & Aijaz, U. (2023). THE IMPACTS OF AIR POLLUTANTS, CLIMATE CHANGE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH ON THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF PAKISTAN, INDIA, BANGLADESH, AND CHINA. Journal of Economics, 4(2), 101-119. https://2u.pw/KIXYfptW
McNeill, D. (2004). The concept of sustainable development. Development Studies and Political Ecology in a North South Perspective, 5, 26-46. https://2u.pw/iNoK2z7w
Mendoza-Cano, O., Trujillo, X., Huerta, M., Ríos-Silva, M., Lugo-Radillo, A., Bricio-Barrios, J. A., ... & Murillo-Zamora, E. (2023). Assessing the relationship between energy-related methane emissions and the burden of cardiovascular diseases: a cross-sectional study of 73 countries. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 13515. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-40444-7
Musaiger, A. O., Hassan, A. S., & Obeid, O. (2011). The paradox of nutrition-related diseases in the Arab countries: the need for action. International journal of environmental research and public health, 8(9), 3637-3671. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/9/3637
OECD (2013), "Unemployment rates", in OECD Factbook 2013: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://2u.pw/ZvxXRGpv
Olowu, G., Olasehinde-Williams, G., & Bein, M. (2019). Does financial and agriculture sector development reduce unemployment rates? Evidence from Southern African countries. Agricultural Economics/Zemědělská Ekonomika, 65(5). http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/pdfs/age/2019/05/03.pdf
Omri, A., Kahouli, B., Afi, H., & Kahia, M. (2023). Impact of environmental quality on health outcomes in Saudi Arabia: does research and development matter? Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 14(4), 4119-4144. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13132-022-01024-8
Oyinkepreye, P. E. The Impact of Demographic Structure and Environment on Unemployment in Nigeria. https://www.ijmsssr.org/paper/IJMSSSR00700.pdf
Rahman, M. M., Rahman, S. M., Rahman, M. S., Hasan, M. A., Shoaib, S. A., & Rushd, S. (2021). Greenhouse gas emissions from solid waste management in Saudi Arabia—Analysis of growth dynamics and mitigation opportunities. Applied Sciences, 11(4), 1737. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/4/1737
Rahman, M. M., Rana, R., & Khanam, R. (2022). Determinants of life expectancy in most polluted countries: Exploring the effect of environmental degradation. PloS one, 17(1), e0262802. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0262802
Rahman, R., & Qattan, A. (2021). Vision 2030 and sustainable development: state capacity to revitalize the healthcare system in Saudi Arabia. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 58, 0046958020984682. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0046958020984682
Saidmamatov, O., Saidmamatov, O., Sobirov, Y., Marty, P., Ruzmetov, D., Berdiyorov, T., ... & Day, J. (2024). Nexus between Life Expectancy, CO2 Emissions, Economic Development, Water, and Agriculture in Aral Sea Basin: Empirical Assessment. Sustainability, 16(7), 2647. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2647
Sede, P. I., & Ohemeng, W. (2015). Socio-economic determinants of life expectancy in Nigeria (1980–2011). Health economics review, 5, 1-11. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/S13561-014-0037-Z
Singh, G. K., & Siahpush, M. (2016). Inequalities in US life expectancy by area unemployment level, 1990–2010. Scientifica, 2016(1), 8290435.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1155/2016/8290435
Tafran, K., Tumin, M., & Osman, A. F. (2020). Poverty, income, and unemployment as determinants of life expectancy: Empirical evidence from panel data of thirteen Malaysian states. Iranian journal of public health, 49(2), 294. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7231709/
Tanveer, A., Song, H., Faheem, M., & Chaudhry, I. S. (2022). Validation of environmental Philips curve in Pakistan: a fresh insight through ARDL technique. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1-18. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-021-17099-w
Taşkaya, S., & Demirkiran, M. (2016). Environmental determinants of life expectancy at birth in Turkey. International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 4(4), 995. https://www.msjonline.org/index.php/ijrms/article/view/634/622
Tavakoli, A. S., & Heiney, S. (2013). Examining mediator and indirect effects of loneliness in social support on social well-being using Baron and Kenny and a bootstrapping method. In SAS Global Forum 2013 Statistics and Data Analysis (pp. 1-12). https://2u.pw/Mz4hj
Traore, O., Wei, C., & Rehman, A. (2022). Investigating the performance of agricultural sector on well-being: New evidence from Burkina Faso. Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences, 21(4), 232-241.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1658077X21001132
Triyono, T., Ariyani, D., & Sasongko, N. (2021). The effect of fiscal decentralization and foreign direct investment on regional income inequality: economic growth as a mediating variable. Riset Akuntansi dan Keuangan Indonesia, 268-279.
https://journals2.ums.ac.id/index.php/reaksi/article/view/9675/3052
United Nations Statistics Division. (2015). Components, sub-components, and statistical topics of the FDES 2013: Component 2: Environmental resources and their use. Workshop on Environment Statistics in support of the implementation of the Framework for the Development of Environment Statistics (FDES 2013). Arusha, Tanzania, 6-10 July 2015. https://2u.pw/vrauOyi6
Wang, Q., & Li, L. (2021). The effects of population aging, life expectancy, unemployment rate, population density, per capita GDP, urbanization on per capita carbon emissions. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 28, 760-774.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352550921001950
Xin, Y., Yang, S., & Faisal Rasheed, M. (2023). Exploring the impacts of education and unemployment on CO2 emissions. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja, 36(2). https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/442695
