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In the present economic context, one of the most important topics of discussion is that regarding sustainable development. According to the agenda developed by the United Nations, one of the most important objectives for the present decade is represented by the list of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals can be divided into five pillars: people, planet, prosperity, partnership and peace. One of the first stipulated goals of the UN agenda is the eradication of poverty and famine. We consider that a significant influence on the eradication of poverty is represented by the development of technology. In this paper, the authors aim to establish a connection between the rate of technological development and the poverty headcount rate. To measure the digital development of the analyzed countries, we decided to compose an index of digital development by taking into account indicators made available by the International Telecommunication Union and the poverty headcount ratio, as was calculated by the World Bank database. This empirical study is of interest for the implications that it has in shaping governmental policies regarding easing the access to digital technology. The method used to quantify the influence of digital development on poverty was the panel data GMM vector autoregressive model for a dataset composed of 35 countries for the period between 2005 and 2018. The results indicate that an increase in digital development will lead to a reduction in the poverty headcount rate. These results imply that by increasing access to technology, countries could help reduce their level of poverty. In this paper, we will also analyze the way in which adopting digital development leads to better economic performance when faced with the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the present study are of great interest to the scientific community and the public due to the implications of digital development in the field of economics and the combined effect of this phenomenon and the COVID-19 pandemic. We thus conclude that by encouraging digital development and through adopting new technologies, the government can lead to the eradication of poverty. This seems counterintuitive due to the fact that investment in shelter and primary goods can be seen as one of the primary ways of developing the economy. We conclude that better and more consistent results regarding the reduction of poverty can be obtained by increasing the digital development of a country.

The impacts of transportation infrastructure on sustainable economic development are multifaceted. The existing literature works on the assumption that transportation infrastructure influences sustainable economic development by influencing production behavior. By observing the increasingly common phenomenon of family tourism, this paper finds that transportation infrastructure not only affects production behavior, but also directly impacts residents’ consumption behavior. Based on this, this paper constructs a growth model in which the traffic infrastructure affects both production and consumption in order to reveal the mechanism by which railway infrastructure changes residents’ consumption structures and ultimately promotes sustainable economic growth by promoting private tourism. In order to verify this theoretical proposition, this paper also constructs panel data from the provinces of China from 2008 to 2018 and conducts an empirical study. It was found that railway and railway infrastructure investments can not only directly promote sustainable economic development through the multiplier effect, but can also indirectly promote economic growth by increasing the amounts of private tourism and their proportions.

Context: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to a turbulent business environment, resulting in market uncertainties, frustrations, and rumors. Wrongly held beliefs—or myths—can hinder startups from turning new market opportunities into their favor (for example, by failing at diversification decisions) or undertaking wrong business decisions, e.g., diversifying in industries that have products of no real market value). Objectives: The objective of the paper is to identify the beliefs that drive the business decisions of startups in a pandemic and to isolate those beliefs that are merely myths. Further, this paper proposes strategic guidelines in the form of a framework to help startups make sound decisions that can lead to market success. Method: The two-step research method involved multiple case studies with five startups based in India, France, Italy, and Switzerland, to identify perceptual beliefs that drove strategic business decisions, followed by a case study of 36 COVID-19-solution focused startups, funded by the European Union (EU). The findings were validated through a survey that involved 102 entrepreneurs. The comparative analysis of two multiple case studies helped identify beliefs that were merely “myths”, myths that drove irrational strategic decisions, resulting in business failures. Results: The results indicate that startups make decisions in pandemic situations that are driven by seven myths, pertaining to human, intellectual, and financial resources. The decision on whether to diversify or continue in the same business operation can be divided into four strategic options of the Competency-Industry Relatedness (C-IR) framework: ignore, delay, phase-in, and diversify. Diversification in the same (or different industry) is less risky for startups if they have the skills, as needed, to diversify in related industries. Diversification in related industries helps startups leverage their experiences and learning curves (those associated with existing product lines) to adapt their existing products in new markets, or utilize their technologies to solve new problems via new products. The desired outcome for these startups should be sustainable business growth—to meet sustainability goals by contributing to the society and the economy. Conclusion: The C-IR framework is a strategic guide for startups to make business decisions based on internal factors, rather than myths. Accurately assessing skill diversity and the nature of new industries (or markets) will help startups leverage their existing resources optimally, without the need for (pricey) external funding. This will foster sustained business growth resulting in a nation economic development. Knowledge transfer from the Innovation ecosystem will further strengthen the C-IR framework effectiveness.

It is of great significance to study the impact of innovation-driven strategy on high-quality development. This paper investigates the relationship between the economic development quality index (EDQI) and the innovation-driven index (IDI) using the entropy method based on China’s macroeconomic data from 2000 to 2019. It examines the impacts of innovation-driven strategy on the economy using systematic cluster analysis and the impact of innovation on economic development quality through regression analyses. Results of empirical analyses illustrate that the innovation-driven strategy of China has played an important role in the quality of economic development. Still, the lack of hard innovation leads to primary and secondary industries’ insufficient development quality. Different innovation indicators have different effects, and the overall efficiency of financial research funds is insufficient. Further, the results also show that the positive role of innovation-driven strategy is mainly realized through high-tech markets in China. Therefore, R&D investment should focus on high-tech industries or fields related to the national economic lifeline or strategic industries, such as environmental protection, microchips, and high-end instruments industries in China. This paper attempts to study the effect of China’s innovation-driven strategy on the quality of economic development to provide reference experience for developing countries’ sustainable economic development.

As an important way to innovate the pattern of land reform, the land system pilots serve as the crucial driving force in promoting rural economic development under the background of rural revitalization. Based on the panel data of 10 pilots along the Yellow River basin, this paper chose 111 near and distant neighboring regions from 2009 to 2018. This paper tested the spillover effects and regional heterogeneity characteristics of the land system pilots using the propensity score matching-difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) method and regression discontinuity design (RDD). The results are as follows: first, the land system pilots have a significant and general impact on regional economic development, second, the establishment of the land system pilots has different impacts on the economic development of near and distant neighboring regions, which shows obvious policy-effect spillovers, and third, the land system pilots have the strongest stimulating effect on the economic development of the middle reaches of the Yellow River basin, as well as the weakest stimulating effect on upstream regional economic development, which shows the significant spatial heterogeneity of policy effects. The results of the research study are of great significance for the exploration of regionally differentiated system-supply pilots under the background of rural revitalization. Additionally, this study has important implications for further land system improvements and rural economic developments.

This paper&rsquo, s aim is to analyze the challenges that may arise to the harmonious and inclusive economic development of EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe in the larger context of the European Common Market and the free movement of capital. The theoretical framework on which this paper is based is represented by the thesis of &ldquo, structural dependence on international capital&rdquo, and &ldquo, race to the bottom&rdquo, competition to attract foreign investment and increase the convergence speed in the catching-up process. We have also tackled the consequences arising from the social cohesion perspective, pointing out that a country cannot have at the same time (1) a high degree of social equity, (2) free movement of capital, amid structural consequences that manifest themselves as a result of this freedom, and, (3) a robust position of foreign companies as a share of value added.

This paper consists of a detailed comprehensive analysis of the client company satisfaction of services received at business incubator centers in the United States (USA) and Poland. This paper also includes how clients rated the importance of different services, which were provided to them at two business incubator centers, clients were generally satisfied with the services they received from the business incubators. Some services were not offered at both incubators to the same extent, which created discrepancy in the assessment results. The clients at the CAN-BE business incubator center already received extensive help from volunteers as well as Penn State faculty and students. However, the highest priority is still assigned to further increase those services. The client companies at the TECHNOPARK business incubator center received very limited help from volunteers, faculty, and students, as they assigned a low priority to those resources. The reason for that may be a lack of exposure and lack of understanding of the extremely valuable services provided by an incubation center. The aim of this article is to compare, analyze, and evaluate the operation of the GLIWICE TECHNOPARK and Hazleton, PA, USA incubation centers from a client satisfaction point of view.

Mainstream competitiveness and international development analyses pay little attention to the significance of a country&rsquo, s resource security for its economic performance. This paper challenges this neglect, examining the economic implications of countries resource dynamics, particularly for low-income countries. It explores typologies of resource patterns in the context of those countries&rsquo, economic prospects. To begin, the paper explains why it uses Ecological Footprint and biocapacity accounting for its analysis. Data used for the analysis stem from Global Footprint Network&rsquo, s 2018 edition of its National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts. Ranging from 1961 to 2014, these accounts are computed from UN data sets. The accounts track, year by year, how much biologically productive space is occupied by people&rsquo, s consumption and compare this with how much productive space is available. Both demand and availability are expressed in productivity-adjusted hectares, called global hectares. Using this biophysical accounting perspective, the paper predicts countries&rsquo, future socio-economic performance. This analysis is then contrasted with a financial assessment of those countries. The juxtaposition reveals a paradox: Financial assessments seem to contradict assessments based on biophysical trends. The paper offers a way to reconcile this paradox, which also elevates the significance of biophysical country assessments for shaping successful economic policies.

The topic of economic development has been addressed in recent decades from more and more points of view in order to identify the factors with significant impact on this phenomenon. Identifying the factors and measuring their impact on economic development are essential starting points for adopting the necessary public policies. Similar types of research for the Western Balkan countries and comparative analyses between the Western Balkans and the European Union countries are limited in number. Hence, the main purpose of this paper is to empirically test the impact of corruption, economic freedom, and urbanization on the economic development for both the Western Balkan countries and the EU countries for the period 2009&ndash, 2018 to provide a comparative analysis for these two groups. The corruption perception index, economic freedom index, and urban population growth are chosen as independent variables, whereas the dependent variable of the human development index (HDI) represents economic development. Using the Random Effects model, which falls under the Panel Generalized Least Square method, the empirical analysis suggests that corruption has a negative impact on economic development, while economic freedom and urbanization have a positive impact on the economic development for both groups of countries. However, the impact of corruption is more destructive in the Western Balkans, and they appear to benefit more from economic freedom and urbanization as compared to the EU countries. Whether the impact of the chosen independent variables is restricted to any component of the HDI in particular is left open for further studies in the future, though the results of this paper are highly significant and in accordance with the reviewed literature.

China has been suffering from serious air pollution for years due to rapid industrialization. However, the relationship between China’s air pollution and pollution control schemes remains understudied in the Chinese air pollution literature. Using the Environmental Theory Model, this paper studies the relationship between air pollution and control investment in China for the period 2005–2014 and applies the inverse distance weighted interpolation (IDW) and Pearson correlation methods. As a result, this paper puts forward some policy suggestions for the governance of air pollution in China. The results are as follows: (1) The Pearson correlation coefficient between China’s air pollution index (API) and control investment is 0.466 (p < 0.01). This shows that the phenomenon of ‘Treatment after Pollution’ still exists in China’s economy; (2) there is an inverted U-shaped relationship that is in accordance with the environmental Kuznets curve between China’s air pollution control investment and air pollution; (3) the high-effectiveness of governmental air pollution control is reflected in the 2013–2014 period, where the API of year 2014 decreased by 10.45 from 2013. This shows a one-year lag between exposure to air pollution and the start of control investment. Future research is warranted to concentrate on establishing a model of the relationship between air pollution and control investment or an air pollution risk assessment based on the proportional hazards model (COX) model.

This paper applies the pressure-state-response (PSR) model to establish environmental quality indices for 30 administrative regions in China from 2003 to 2011 and employs panel data analysis to study the relationships among the urbanization rate, economic development and environmental change. The results reveal a remarkable inverted-U-shaped relationship between the urbanization rate and changes in regional environmental quality; the “turning point” generally appears near an urbanization rate of 60%. In addition, the degree and mode of economic development have significant, but anisotropic effects on the regional environment. Generally, at a higher degree of economic development, the environment will tend to improve, but an extensive economic growth program that simply aims to increase GDP has a clear negative impact on the environment. Overall, the results of this paper not only further confirm the “environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis”, but also expand it in a manner. The analysis in this paper implies that the inverted-U-shaped evolving relationship between environmental quality and economic growth (urbanization) is universally applicable.

The innovativeness boosted by incubator centers has an important role in the sustainable development of the country and its regions. The paper describes a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of the business incubator center on the economic growth of a region. The goal of the paper is a comparison between two business incubators, CAN-BE in Hazleton, PA USA and Technopark in Gliwice, Poland. A number of indicators were used to measure economic growth. These selected indicators reflected social, organizational, technical, and financial aspects of economic growth.

Balancing sustainable economic growth and environmental protection in developing countries is an important way to mitigate climate change. Based on panel data from nine provinces along the Silk Road Economic Belt between 2004 and 2021, this paper takes Chongqing, a pilot city for carbon trading rights, as the experimental group and the remaining eight provinces as the control group; we mainly analyze the impact of the carbon emissions trading policy on Chongqing’s carbon emissions and economic development after its implementation in 2013 using the difference-in-differences method (DID) and propensity score matching difference-in-differences method (PSM-DID). Then we use the synthetic control method (SCM) to test its robustness. The results showed that while maintaining the economic development speed, carbon trading helps to reduce carbon emissions. In addition, we also found that the economic activity effect and the energy intensity effect are the mediating effects of the carbon emissions reduction. Finally, taking the policy effect of the carbon emissions trading in Chongqing as a reference, this article confirmed the importance of aligning the carbon trading pathway with targeted green policies from the government. The government should drive the establishment of a regional carbon market in the nine provinces along the Silk Road Economic Belt, which could help to achieve sustainable development.

The world’s transition to green economic growth, considering the Agenda for Sustainable Development, provokes relevant structural changes in the world market. Consequently, it boosts the business sector’s ability to incorporate green dimensions into their development policies to intensify their green competitiveness in the market. In this case, it is necessary to identify the appropriate indicators that affect a company’s green competitiveness. Thus, stakeholders and management could intensify or decline a company’s green competitiveness depending on the efficiency of communication between them. The paper aims to analyze the role of stakeholders’ engagement in the company’s management in enhancing green competitiveness. The research data were compiled from a questionnaire of 75 respondents, who represent the Ukrainian company’s management. The study applies PLS-SEM to test the hypotheses of the investigation. The empirical results allow us to conclude that stakeholders’ engagement in the company’s management positively affects the company’s green competitiveness. The most statistically significant impact on the company’s green competitiveness is experience in communication with stakeholders and managing stakeholders’ conflicts, with loading factors of 0.802 and 0.806, respectively. The findings show that to improve green competitiveness, the company’s management should develop targeted stakeholder communications and extend knowledge and awareness of stakeholder interests and values. At the same time, management should incorporate stakeholders’ suggestions and recommendations when promoting a company’s green competitiveness.

In recent years, tourism has established itself as one of the most important economic sectors worldwide. Given the economic importance of this activity, different international organizations have decided to bet on tourism as a development tool. However, the expansion of tourism, on many occasions, can cause significant environmental deterioration, so it is necessary to analyze the costs and benefits generated by tourism in those territories that host this activity. To deepen our knowledge about the relationship between tourism, environmental sustainability and economic development, the objective of this work is to analyze the relationships that may exist between these three variables, which will allow us to determine if tourism influences economic development, and if there are factors pertaining to environmental sustainability that influence this relationship. In this paper, a comparative analysis of cases is used to analyze how environmental sustainability influences the relationship between tourism and economic development. The analysis carried out shows that tourism, although with some limitations, can be configured as an instrument of economic development.

New Structural Economics (NSE) predicts that structural change in energy production would follow different patterns during different development stages and across different sectors. These variations require a range of policy responses. In this paper, we investigate this assertion by modeling China’s energy transition and economic development based on provincial panel data from 2000 to 2012. By using static models (Fama–MacBeth, OLS, fixed effect) and dynamic models (difference and system GMM), we find the relationship between low-carbon energy transition and economic development presents a U-shaped curve at the national level, but it is an inverted-U curve at the residential level. Furthermore, it is ambiguous in the agricultural sector and independent of economic development in the industry and service sectors. Institutional factors, natural resource endowment, environmental policy, and technological change influence China’s energy transition. Our findings supports NSE application in the Chinese energy economy and diversify energy transition policy by adjusting to the local conditions.

The rapid economic development (ED) of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) has had a significant negative impact on regional ecosystem services (ES). Accurately understanding and properly handling the relationship between ES and ED is critical to achieving coordinated regional development of the YREB. Restricted by a minimal number of research units, traditional studies have not fully considered the spatial heterogeneity of the influencing factors, leading to results with poor accuracy and applicability. To address these problems, this paper introduces a spatial econometric model to explore the impact of influencing factors on the level of coordinated development in the YREB. For the 1013 counties in the YREB, we used the value equivalent method, the entropy weight method, and the coupling coordination model to quantify the coupling coordination relationship between the ecosystem services value (ESV) and ED from 2010 to 2020. The multi-scale geographically weighted regression model (MGWR) was adopted to analyze the role of influencing factors. The results showed the following: (1) The coupling coordination degree (CCD) of ESV and ED along the YREB demonstrated significant spatial heterogeneity, with Sichuan and Anhui provinces forming a low-value lag. The average CCD from high to low were found in the Triangle of Central China (TOCC), the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA), and the Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration (CCUA). (2) There was spatial autocorrelation in the distribution of CCD, with high–high clustering mainly distributed in Hunan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang provinces. The counties with high–high clustering were expanding, mainly centering on Kunming City in Yunnan Province and expanding outward. (3) There was significant spatial heterogeneity in the impact of each influencing factor on CCD. Per capita fiscal expenditure was sensitive to low–low clustering areas of CCD; per capita, food production was a negative influence, and the rate of urbanization transitioned from negative to positive values from west to east.

Based on the panel data of 278 cities in China from 2010–2019, this paper uses the spatial Durbin model to investigate the effect of urban agglomeration on urban economic development under the distance factor. The results show that the impact of urban agglomeration on urban development is sensitive to geographic distance. A moderate geospatial scale can help cities overcome scale deficiencies and the problem of overcrowding. The spillover effect of urban agglomeration is no longer limited to geographical proximity, showing an inverted U-shaped curve with the expansion of distance. It also exhibits heterogeneity across different regions, and integrated development reinforces the positive impact of agglomeration spillovers. The economic distance moderation effect and the core-periphery structure suggest that the direction of spatial interaction is more reflected between high-ranking cites and low-ranking cities, while cities with similar development levels show competitive effects. Specialized agglomeration and diversified agglomeration have differential influences on urban growth. From the perspective of network externalities, the spillover effect of urban agglomeration increases significantly with the expansion of spatial scale, which is distinct from the results using geographical distance.

Societal safety is the result of the coordinated development of several subsystems; the coupling–coordination relationship among economic development (ED), social stability (SS), and ecological environment (EE) is the premise of realizing sustainable societal safety (SSS). Taking Qinghai Province as an example, this paper quantitatively evaluates the development index of each subsystem by constructing ED-SS-EE evaluation index system, then analyzes the spatio-temporal evolution of ED, SS, and EE coupling coordination levels based on the coupling coordination model, and finally predicts the coupling coordination level of ED, SS, and EE by using the GM(1.1) model. The findings are as follows: (1) The economy is developing rapidly, but the regional development is extremely uneven; ED is driving SS, and SS lags behind ED and slowly improves; EE is improving continuously, and the spatial pattern is relatively stable. (2) The ED, SS, and EE systems have a high degree of coupling, showing a fluctuating upward trend. Coordination level is low, showing a slow upward trend, and the regional differences are obvious. (3) In the future, the coordination level of ED, SS, and EE systems in different regions will be upgraded from the level of near imbalance and barely coordination to the level of intermediate coordination, good coordination, and even high-quality coordination. The spatio-temporal description of ED, SS, and EE coupling coordination level not only reveals the development trend and problems of SSS in Qinghai, it also proves the feasibility of evaluating societal safety level based on the coupling coordination level of sustainable social structure system. publishedVersion

Promoting the coordinated development of population health and the economy is an important part of building a “Healthy China” and promoting high-quality economic development. Based on the systematic construction of the population health and economic development evaluation index system, this paper uses the coupled coordination model, geodetector, and geographically weighted regression (GWR) to comprehensively measure the population health level and economic development level at the provincial scale in China in 2000 and 2015, and reveals the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of the coupled coordination relationship between the population health level and economic development level at the provincial scale in China from 2000 to 2015 and its driving factors. The results show the following: (1) China’s population health and economic development are in a high-level coupling stage, and the coupling level increases slightly with time; spatially, two types of running-in coupling and high-level coupling coexist; the coupling degree in the eastern and central regions tends to increase, while the coupling degree in the western region tends to weaken. (2) China’s population health and economic development are in a good coupling coordination stage as a whole, and the coupling coordination degree has an increasing trend; spatially, the coupling coordination degree shows high spatial differentiation characteristics in the east and low in the west; the good and high-quality coupling coordination type area tends to expand to the west, while the moderate coupling coordination type area tends to shrink to the west; there is also positive spatial agglomeration of coupling coordination degree, and the spatial agglomeration is gradually enhanced. (3) The coupling coordination of China’s population health and economic development is driven by multiple factors such as natural conditions, health resources, culture quality, and urbanization level; the interaction between factors is stronger than that of a single factor, and the driving effect of each factor also shows significant spatial heterogeneity. This study is intended to provide a scientific basis for promoting harmonious population health and economic development.

Intense global urbanization, including spatial planning development, is an essential area that determines sustainable development. It is known that urban development is typically tied to an increase in socioeconomic productivity while also creating considerable inequalities. Despite mounting evidence of intense urban area development, little is known about its consequences on the sustainable development of territories adjacent to said areas. Despite the positive and negative consequences of urbanization and their impact on sustainable development often being highlighted, there is little understanding of and a dearth of analyses on sustainability processes that include spatial planning development. To fill this gap, it must be assessed where sustainable development is actually taking place. Such analyses should not only be confined to the four essential areas: economic development, social development, environmental development, and institutional development, that are tied to sustainable development index calculations. They should also determine the transformations experienced by the areas and factor in a fifth analysis area: spatial planning development. In this paper, detailed data sourced from the Statistics Poland were used to formulate sustainable development indices for urban, rural–urban, and rural communes of the Podkarpackie region of Poland. The data concerned the five areas listed above. Using data standardization and the averaged index method, sustainable development index values were quantified to demonstrate that they displayed various levels of inequalities for the two reference periods of 2015 and 2020. These statistics indicate the key role of spatial planning development in assessing sustainability indices. The findings show that it is not only possible to enhance standard calculation methods to include other data and use them in time and space to create a simple and general quantitative rating of sustainable development, but urbanization can also be factored in that includes spatial planning development. The findings show that a modified computation approach is a reliable and relatively complete index of sustainable development that compensates for the deficiencies of current metrics.

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the tools provided by the internet (social networks, websites, etc.) and traditional media (television, newspapers, word of mouth, etc.) in terms of their impact on the promotion of a tourism resource in a rural area: the Roman villa of Noheda (Cuenca). Both of the aforementioned sources of information play a relevant role in promoting such archaeological destinations and influencing tourists’ decision-making when planning their visit. The literature suggests that social networks as well as other electronic channels can attract large numbers of tourists, however, this has not happened in the case of the archaeological site under study. It has become known through coverage in more traditional media such as television and the national and international press. Knowledge of the use of internet tools to promote these heritage sites is still very limited, thus, this study collected information through a questionnaire on the different sources of information (traditional and online) that tourists used when deciding to visit this site. An ANOVA analysis has been used to determine the relationship between the different sources of information and the place of residence and between said information sources and the overnight stays near Noheda. The results point to strategies that can be developed to promote these cultural resources in order to achieve the economic development of rural regions such as the Alcarria of Cuenca.

Green credit is regarded as an important means to promote sustainable growth. Based on the provincial panel dataset of China from 2007 to 2017, this paper investigates the dual impacts of green credit on the economy and environment, and it establishes mediating effect models to analyze the Porter hypothesis. The results show that the green credit policy significantly improves economic performance and reduces pollutant emissions. The above results are robust to employing methods with alternative variables and instrumental variables. Second, the green credit policy contributes to innovation, that is, the green credit increases the innovation scale and improves innovation efficiency. The results of mediating effect models suggest that the Porter effect of green credit can be achieved by improving innovation efficiency. The findings of the current study indicate that the green credit policy helps achieve the win–win situation for economic goals and environmental targets.

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a typical resource-rich but economically backward region in western China, and it is of great urgency to improve human well-being. Combined with previous scholars&rsquo, research and the characteristics of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, this paper constructs an index system of human well-being including four dimensions: income and consumption, means of production, means of subsistence, and resource acquisition ability. Then, it uses generalized matrix method estimations to measure the influence of energy utilization and economic development on human well-being and makes a regression analysis on the influence of energy utilization and economic development on human well-being in various provinces in this region. It is found that per capita GDP and coke utilization promote the well-being of all dimensions, while the urban registered unemployment rate only promotes the well-being of means of subsistence. The utilization of gasoline and natural gas promotes income and consumption and inhibits the means of subsistence and resource acquisition ability, but they have opposite effects on means of production. The impacts of energy utilization and economic development in different provinces on human well-being are different. This study is of great significance to the related research aiming at improving people&rsquo, s livelihood and promoting regional development.

Household incomes, their level and dynamics are one of the factors that ensure the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, stable development of the banking sector, which is impossible without steady earnings, determines economic growth, which also positively affects reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. The paper examines the impact of household income on the return on assets of the banking sector in Russia using annual time series from 2003 to 2019. The study was conducted using formalized economic and mathematical methods of analysis by linear regression with least squares tests on the significance of the model, with tests for redundancy of insignificant variables (Wald test), Ramsey test on the functionality of the model, White and Breusch Pagan test for heteroscedasticity (heterogeneity of observations) and multicollinearity by method of inflation factors, graphic method. The Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model was used. The results show that (1) an increase in the growth rate of household income and deposits in the non-financial sector has a positive effect on the return on assets of the banking sector; (2) an increase in the growth rate of the price of Brent crude oil and non-performing loans negatively affect the dependent variable; and (3) the regions that have the greatest (positive and negative) impact on profitability of whole bank sector in Russia were identified. Increasing household incomes and eliminating inequality in the incomes of the population of different regions will have a positive impact not only on social well-being but will also provide the banking sector with the opportunity for profitable operation and create conditions for sustainable growth. Our conclusions are useful for the regulator and individual banks and can be taken into account when developing and implementing policies aimed at sustainable development.

The need has arisen to implement a circular economic model that enables economic growth and prosperity in accordance with environmental protection and sustainable development because of the current unsustainable linear means of production in the economy. The aim of this paper is to determine the application of the circular economy concept in member countries of the European Union from 2008 to 2016. The purpose is to analyse whether economic development measured by GDP (gross domestic product) affects the analysed circular economy variables. Based on the hypotheses set, an econometric model was formed where GDP was identified as an independent variable, while the dependent variables were the production of municipal waste per capita, the recycling rate of municipal waste, the recycling rate of packaging waste by type of packaging, the recycling of bio-waste, and the recycling rate of e-waste. The first part of the statistical analysis conducted using the Stata software package shows the Pearson correlation between the abovestated variables, while the second part explores the univariate regression model. The results point towards the conclusion that the application of the circular economy concept can ensure economic growth and GDP growth while reducing the use of natural resources and ensuring greater environmental protection.

Under the influence of climate change and human activities, sediment load in rivers has changed significantly, which has a profound impact on the stability of ecosystems and the sustainable development of human beings. Taking the Yanhe River watershed as a case, this paper expounds the dynamic relationship among the Grain for Green Project, social and economic development, population migration, and sediment transport. The variability of sediment load was detected by Pettitt test, the double cumulative curve method, and the regression analysis method, and the effects of climate and human activities on sediment load were quantitatively analyzed. The results showed that 1) from 1956 to 2016, the precipitation of Yanhe River watershed rose slightly in the past 10 years, but the sediment load decreased significantly, 1996 was identified as the catastrophic year of the study period, when the contribution of climate change and human activity to reduced sediment load was 14.1% and 85.9%, respectively. 2) The Grain for Green Project increased the vegetation coverage of the study area from 40.6% to 78.5%. 3) The proportion of agricultural GDP in total GDP decreased from 52.26% to 7.3%, and the proportion of agricultural GDP was positively correlated with sediment transport and cultivated land area (p &lt, 0.01). 4) Population migration resulted in the urbanization rate reaching 40.23%, and the urbanization rate is negatively correlated with sediment load and cultivated land area (p &lt, 0.01), while the cultivated land area is positively correlated with sediment load (p &lt, 0.01). The decrease of cultivated land area makes the sediment load gradually decrease. Therefore, socio-economic factors promote the sustainable development of the river basin.

Chongli, an internationally renowned ski mecca, is famous for hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics. As a booster of local economic development, ski tourism facilitates Chongli in moving away from poverty, and provides a new model for the economic development of other impoverished areas in China. The aim of this research is to analyze the impact of ski tourism in Chongli on local economic development in detail, to clarify the relationship between ski tourism and its related industries, and propose improvement measures, using the methods of the literature review, Delphi and investigation. This paper presents a detailed analysis of indicators which reflect ski tourism and its economic development, and calculates the degree of influence of skiing tourism on local economic development. The results show that, except for transportation, storage and postal services, the local economy of Chongli is positively affected by the income of ski tourism and the number of ski tourists. The influence coefficient of ski tourism has exceeded the average level of social influence. Based on the place of ski tourism in Chongli, some strategies, such as extending the industrial chain and improving product quality to strengthen the economic impact of ski tourism, are proposed.

The correlations between investments in transport infrastructure and territorial development continue to concern public authorities. They are responsible for optimising the allocation of financial resources, and they are interested in the correct short- and long-term estimations of investments in transport infrastructure’s consequences for development. The direct and indirect effects of transport infrastructure are present in the socio-economic assessment methodologies of projects. Despite the recorded progress, uncertainties remain in technical assessments, especially socio-economic ones, and they do not remove decision-makers’ concerns regarding the necessity and appropriateness of investments. Based on these aspects, this paper aimed to clarify the effects of new infrastructure on socio-economic development.

Approximately 90% of the sediment yield of the Yellow River is derived from the Loess Plateau. In this paper, the Loess Plateau was used as the research object. To investigate the influence of economic and social development on reducing sediment load of the Yellow River, a mathematical method was employed with hydrological and sediment data from three hydrological stations (Toudaoguai and Sanmenxia at the Yellow River, and Ganguyi at the Yan River) as well as per capita GDP data from the Yan River basin. The results showed that the reduction in runoff in the reaches between the Toudaoguai and Sanmenxia stations accounted for 39.3% of the decrease in the sediment load of the Yellow River, and the other 60.7% of the decrease may have resulted from economic and social development. Using the Yan River basin as an example, there was an inverse relationship between per capita GDP and sediment delivery during the period from 1984 to 2018. Grey relational analysis revealed a relatively high relation between the sediment load of the Yan River and the number of rural laborers transferred from the area, the afforestation area, and the tertiary industry value of Yan’an city. Thus, economic development and social transformation are highly related to sediment delivery in the basin, which may result in a decrease in sediment delivery to some extent.

An important policy cornerstone for China to reduce poverty includes China&rsquo, s goal of achieving complete poverty alleviation in its state-owned forest farms by 2020. This study describes and documents the poverty reduction effect in impoverished Chinese state-owned forest farms. Based on a sample of 4855 state-owned forest farms in 31 provinces in China from 2008 to 2017, this paper uses the difference-in-difference method to study the dynamic process of poverty reduction by policies for impoverished state-owned forest farms. The results show that the implementation of the policy significantly promoted the economic development of impoverished state-owned forest farms and caused the treatment group to increase by approximately 10.6% over the control group. Moreover, the establishment of a list of impoverished state-owned forest farms had an indirect impact on the economic performance of forest farms, through channels such as infrastructure poverty alleviation, human capital investment, and per capita income of forest farm employees. Additionally, the effects of the policy on non-impoverished counties were stronger than that on impoverished counties, and impoverished state-owned forest farms may not appear in impoverished counties. The degree of financial dependence of the local government had a significant positive impact on the economic development of impoverished state-owned forest farms. The effects of the policy on different forest farms were heterogeneous. Our study provides recommendations for the future development of impoverished Chinese state-owned forest farms and for the improvement of poverty alleviation efficiency.

An enterprise carrying out operations according to the sustainable development (SD) concept should maximize its business goals without affecting interest groups. It requires not only a rethinking, but also a partial allocation of profit to social goals—used to contribute to and create a positive image of the enterprise and improve its competitiveness—over the long-term. Operations should result in an increase in profit—indirectly—by way of demand. This paper explores the sustainable supply chain (SSC) concept and the interplay of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within business objectives. The concept of SSC-compliant CSR is primarily stressed as an executive, top-down centric role. Businesses and societies at large that foster an SD continuum are considered healthy economies. The SD of enterprises and CSR in business are explored in relation to social investment and considered a viable long-term strategy for doing business. A pilot case study of Poland is carried out as a value analysis of the SSCs of enterprises. The key findings illustrate the benefits and problems of SSCs applied at the enterprise level. The problems of applying the principles of SSC within the enterprise and the connection between its levels of strategy and social value in terms of CSR and entrepreneurial operations are examined. Comparative studies indicate a number of overlapping trends in which positive SSC is cross-functional toward business partners, suppliers, customers, investors, and local communities.

This paper investigates the international trade role in economic development and sustainability. Specifically, a trade agreement is one of the most popular ways for a country to participate in trade, therefore we aim to estimate the relationship between a free trade agreement (FTA) and economic development on a country level, using the North American Free Trade Agreement as an example. Sustainability on an industrial level is also discussed in parallel. To achieve this, a counterfactual analysis is used to generate the welfare with and without the trade agreement to draw inference on the sustainability analysis. We find that the FTA does facilitate a country&rsquo, s sustainability. However, it is less clear on an industrial level. This finding provides important evidence relating to a country&rsquo, s sustainable development and has broadened the study scope regarding the impact of participating in an FTA with regard to economic sustainability.

Publisher's version (útgefin grein), It is of vital importance that nature-based tourist destinations maintain their natural resources in a sustainable way. Nature and wilderness are the main attractions for tourism in Iceland. The Central Highlands are uninhabited with little visible evidence of human influence except for some huts, gravel roads, and a small number of hydroelectric power plants. However, there are plans for further hydroelectric power development in the area. The Blanda Power Station was constructed in 1991 at the edge of the North Central Highlands. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire survey conducted among tourists in the area in the summer of 2016 with a total of 1078 answered questionnaires. The objective was to estimate the impact of the power station on the experience of tourists and to assess whether their attitude differs from that of tourists in locations where power plant construction has been proposed. The results show that the power plant infrastructure at Blanda, with the exception of transmission lines, does not seem to disturb the experience of the majority of tourists. Tourists at Blanda are also more positive towards power plants than at locations where there are no power plants but where they have been proposed., Landsvirkjun funded the data gathering used in the study. The University of Iceland and Landsvirkjun covered the costs of open access publishing

While the recent political transition in Egypt has delayed much-needed policy reforms, our paper suggests that under certain conditions, fostering the national renewable energy strategy may be a promising way of giving an ailing economy an urgently needed impetus. Based on the literature and results of a renewable-energy focused computable general equilibrium model, we recommend that Egypt supports the generation of wind power. While some energy may be exported to generate foreign exchange, a substantial part of the newly produced energy should be sold domestically to ease existing supply constraints and to avoid Dutch disease effects. In addition, and in order to maximize the benefits of renewable energy sources, the renewable energy strategy should be accompanied by a (further) reduction of energy subsidies. Finally, lessons from other countries suggest that sound institutions, appropriate, clear and lasting regulations, careful technology transfer, and cross-ministerial coordination are important for success.

We argue that a new type of adaptive change management is needed in Romania, in which social and territorial cohesion are key elements of governance, in accordance with sustainable development requirements. Based on critical analysis and comparative study, the paper investigates, using several approaches, the possibility to select those elements that enable determining a viable managerial sustainable development “model” for communities in Maramures County, Romania. New trends worldwide, and the multidimensional aspects of sustainable development of communities, were the subject of examination, through a regional polycentric approach, which led to a new model proposed by the authors. The result is a conceptual integrated model which promotes a balance of interaction between systems—economic, human, environmental and technological—in a dynamic, flexible and functional process.

International agri-food trade has expanded rapidly during the past decades and changed considerably in structure with important implications, especially for developing economies. One of the main environmental concerns regarding international trade is the exploitation and redistribution of water resources. In this paper, we use the virtual water approach for analyzing the relationship between global agri-food trade, its structure and virtual water flows in the period of 1986–2011. Specifically, for five regions and the world, we calculate growth rates of interregional trade values and virtual water volumes, the contribution of different product groups to trade and the economic water efficiency of imports and exports. Our findings show that, over time, trade values have generally increased more rapidly than virtual water volumes. In Africa and Southern America, virtual water outflows have roughly quadrupled since 1986. In all regions, staples and industrial products account for the largest share in virtual water trade. The recent shift towards high-value exports is beneficial for low-income countries from a regional economic water efficiency perspective due to high trade values and low associated virtual water volumes. Economic water efficiency of trade has increased in all regions since 2000 and the return to virtual water outflows is especially high in Europe. ispartof: Sustainability vol:7 issue:5 pages:5542-5563 status: published

Biofuels are considered part of the potential sources of mitigation for the serious threat of global warming, by reducing human reliance on oil imported from unsafe sources at ever increasing costs. For the classic fuel supplier countries, biofuels are a source for the future, as local materials are used in their production. They generate jobs for the local population and do not require the importation of costly equipment and relevant expertise. A pioneer in the use of biofuels, Brazil has eliminated all oil imports and become energy independent. Recognising the positive effects of biofuel use, the EU and other countries are rapidly developing potential sources of their own biofuels. One of these sources could be agricultural cultures that are able to be developed under optimum conditions by endorsing and using modern and sustainable means and techniques in the rural economy. The sustainable use of the resources and the maintenance of the ecosystems in a good working order claims both the protection of the environment itself and the success of the farmers via the provision of fertility and productivity of the agricultural ecosystems, which will give them the leverage of competitiveness on the market and food safety in the long term. The paper herein intends to point out at a sustainable manner of having the economy’s engine function—i.e., agriculture—by means of advocating for the efficient use of the resources within the farms and their associations, along with the support for the transition to a low-carbon economy, thanks to the progress in the bioethanol production.

In developing countries, where political instability, former conflicts and social breakdown take place, heritage can be included in urban regeneration processes as a driver for economic development but also for social cohesion and cultural identity. This paper presents a heritage-based method for urban regeneration, developed for the city of Luanda (Angola), within the elaboration of its Metropolitan Plan (2016). Actions focus on the rehabilitation of buildings and public spaces, creating the conditions to implement effective financial mechanisms able to cover the costs of urban regeneration by results. Here, rehabilitation measures are combined with the implementation of mixed-use development models, addressing one of the key issues of urban regeneration: attracting private investments. From a practical perspective, the proposed approach focusses on the elaboration of heritage preservation, valorization and requalification strategies, moving from a geographical urban delimitation of Heritage Sets to a regeneration process based on a radius of influence that goes beyond the single building. From the regeneration of the built environment and public spaces in these Heritage Sets, the surrounding area is naturally affected. Strategic actions applied to Heritage Sets aim to produce a domino effect of regeneration that involves multiple spatial scales: from buildings and public spaces to neighbourhoods and, consequently, to the entire city. The implementation of this approach to several Heritage Sets delimited across the city, would, in the long-term, create a connected heritage network that results in an integrated urban regeneration process. Criteria for the delimitation of Heritage Sets are proposed, dealing with the concept of diversity, namely: time, historical, symbolic and functional diversity. The results from this study aim to support decision-makers in integrating heritage-based urban regeneration approaches into public policies and local planning practice.

Climate change is not only an environmental issue but also a development problem. Maintaining rapid economic development while simultaneously mitigating climate change is a pivotal and challenging task. Previous studies mainly focused on testing the validity of the environmental Kuznets hypothesis but ignored the internal influencing mechanism. This paper extends the past work in three aspects. First, we theoretically discuss the interaction of the scale, structure and technology effects of economic development and their impact on carbon emissions based on a classic model and the general equilibrium theory. Second, the relationship between carbon emissions and these three effects are examined by considering the quadratic term, and the interactive mechanism among them is evaluated by applying multiple mediating analysis. Due to the important role of the technology effect, we further divide it into different sources to reveal its impact on carbon emissions and discuss the rebound effect. Finally, the policy effect is considered, and the results demonstrate that the implementation of effective environmental regulations can mitigate the adverse impact of economic development on carbon emissions. Our research is an initial attempt to thoroughly explore the pathways to balance the trade-off between development and environment from the perspective of internal influencing mechanisms. The empirical results can serve as an important reference for making policies about energy conservation and emission reduction.

In the late 1990s, the author conducted research entitled “Modeling the demand and supply structure for food in Asia”. The research was based on a system dynamics method and, using time series datasets up to 1998 to estimate the parameters, tried to figure out the demand and supply structure for food until the year 2010. In this paper, the author introduces an overall research structure and compares previous study results with the latest statistical data provided by the Food and Agricultural Organization, United Nations (FAO).

This paper explores how sustainability influences financial returns and economic development in the Asia-Pacific region and North America, utilizing real data empirically. It is controversial that sustainable activities are related to financial performance. For clarification, we tested hypotheses analyzing sustainability index, seven stock markets, financial data such as ROI, ROIC, and ROA from eleven companies, and GDP/GNI per capita, based on the Asia-Pacific region and North America. The results indicate that both financial return for companies and economic development in the two regions are positively germane to sustainable investment. Besides, we found evidence that sustainable investment impacts economic development based on variance decomposition analysis, depending on GDP per capita between the two regions. This implication will be interesting for both practitioners and researchers regarding the measurement of sustainable performance.

This research examines several modellers of immigration flows deployed within the European Union (EU), as well as their economic consequences upon the most targeted ten migrant receiving countries. The paper’s aim is to identify specific ways in which migrants can contribute to host countries’ sustainable development through positive spillover upon natives, labour market performance, and the overall economic activity. A set of methods and macro-econometric models, based on country fixed effects, spatial analysis, and structural equations modelling, was applied on a balanced panel formed by ten EU host economies. We analysed distinctly the labour and humanitarian (asylum seekers) migration flows, considered throughout two separate time periods, namely 2000–2015 and 2000–2019 (2019 being the deadline for Brexit negotiations). The results highlight that the immigration flows were mainly shaped by labour market outcomes, while the primary positive immigration impact was induced upon the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and employment levels, both for natives and the foreign population.