A growing body of academic literature has been assessing how effective foreign aid is in an average country, as well as the conditions that allow such aid to have its intended impact and spur development. Called “conditional aid effectiveness,” this research has in the past focused on factors such as geographic location and the size of a country’s local elite, and examined how such variables are associated with foreign aid’s impact on economic growth.

Broadband access is widely regarded as a critical driver of economic growth and a potentially transformative force in education, government services, public safety and health care. Nevertheless, the United States lags other developed nations in broadband Internet access, particularly in rural areas.

The United States has traditionally led the world in the manufacture of advanced technological products, but in recent decades global patterns have shifted. The country recorded a trade surplus in terms of such products as recently as 2001, but by 2010 that trade balance was a deficit of $81 billion. Overall, from 1998 to 2010 the U.S. lost some 6 million general manufacturing jobs and now has only 11.6 million such jobs, representing just 11% of the labor market.

Because wolves were considered to be the primary threat to the dwindling woodland caribou population in the petroleum-rich Alberta oil sands region, the Canadian government implemented an aggressive wolf eradication policy in 2010. However, human encroachment has also been exerting pressure on the caribou population, as part of expanding natural resources extraction efforts in that region.

Television and radio anti-drug campaigns — including the well-known “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” and “Just Say No” ads from the 1980s — have long warned youth about the perils of illicit substances. Millions of dollars have been spent on such efforts, but are they effective? Drugs continue to be a significant public health problem among youth, and the patterns of usage continue to evolve.

Cap and trade is a market approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The government sets a cap for a particular pollutant and then allows companies to negotiate among themselves on how to meet the limit; those that are most efficient at reducing emissions are rewarded for doing so.

There are four primary options for urban transit systems: bus, bus rapid transit, light rail and heavy rail. There has been considerable debate over the systems’ comparative advantages, from lower construction costs to greater carrying capacity.