The significance of infrastructure for economic growth and the welfare of a country has become a burning issue for the last three decades. This research examines the impact of infrastructure on economic growth across selected developed and developing countries. The dependent variable is economic growth, measured by the growth rate of gross domestic product, and the independent variables to measure infrastructure are transportation, communication, education, and electricity. The data set for analysis is collected from online sources of World Development Indicators for eighteen years (2000-2018). The panel data set of this study is evaluated by constructing fixed and random effects models. The findings reveal that infrastructure plays a significant role in the economic growth of developing countries, with less contribution in the case of developed countries. Because the infrastructure of developed countries is already well established, and if they invest more in infrastructure, the economic growth will rise slightly. So, they invest more in innovations and technology rather than in infrastructure. In developing countries, transportation, communication, and electricity have a positive impact, but education is insignificant in the growth rate. This study's findings align with the Solow Growth Theory, which states that public capital, in which infrastructure is included as necessary input in the production process, contributes to economic growth.
PurposeThis study examined 46 articles in total, which yielded 5 recurring themes: perceived discrimination, language barriers, socioeconomic barriers, cultural barriers and educational/knowledge barriers. The two most dominant themes found were the inability to speak the country's primary language and belonging to a culture with different practices and values from the host country. The review provides vital insights into the numerous challenges that immigrants and refugees encounter as they navigate through the primary care systems of English-speaking (E-S) countries and potential solutions to overcome these barriers.Design/methodology/approachAccess to adequate healthcare plays a central part in ensuring the physical and mental wellbeing of society. However, vulnerable groups such as immigrants and refugees, face numerous challenges when utilizing these healthcare services. To shed further light on the barriers impacting healthcare quality, the authors' team performed a scoping thematic review of the available literature on immigrant and refugees' experiences in primary healthcare systems across E-S countries. Articles were systematically reviewed while focusing on healthcare perceptions by immigrants, potential barriers and suggestions to improve the quality of primary care.FindingsThis work looked at qualitative and quantitative information, attempting to combine both paradigms to give a rich and robust platform with which to devise a further study through focus groups. Qualitative inquiry accounted for 28/46, or 61%, of studies, and quantitative inquiry made up 9/46, or 20%, while 9/46 or 20% combined both qualitative and qualitative. Emerging themes are -perceived ethnic discrimination faced by immigrants accessing primary care, language barriers, socioeconomic barriers, cultural barriers and educational barriers.Research limitations/implicationsMost medical journals rely on quantitative data to relate "results" and cases. The authors set out to change ways in which medical reports can be done. Most of the authors were solely trained in quantitative research; consequently, they had to learn to isolate themes and to use a narrative approach in the article.Practical implicationsResearch implications clearly indicated that using a qualitative (phenomenological) approach with quantitative data created a human and reachable discourse around patient comfort and the realities of immigrants and refugees to E-S countries. The use of this research opens medical practitioners (and patients) to a richer understanding within a usually difficult arena.Social implicationsBy understanding the qualitative nature of medical research, practitioners, students and mentors are able to bridge medical quantitivity to the human, widening doors to social science and medical collaboratory research.Originality/valueAs stated above, this work is important as it understands the human/patient element and de-emphasizes the medical obsession with quantifying the lives of patients through hard data. This is a unique collaboration that relies on the qualitative to pinpoint and define the difficulties of newcomers to E-S countries.
