Addressing Interconnected Global Crises Through Coordinated Economic Development
Earlier progress in one system predicts faster later progress in others (9 of 42 pairs significant against 2 by chance, mean standardised coefficient +0.095, stable across four time windows), with water and sanitation, power and income the strongest leading systems and health almost isolated; lopsided development is associated with worse survival in the pandemic (−0.33 standard deviations of life expectancy against trend per standard deviation of imbalance) but not with growth risk or disaster mortality, and water and sanitation is the highest-leverage bottleneck in 47 of 124 countries.