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Livestock product prices serve as a barometer and bellwether for the agricultural market. However, traditional point prediction techniques focus mainly on tracking or fitting, resulting in limited information and challenges in evaluating the uncertainty of future prices. A comprehensive livestock price prediction model with joint point and interval prediction capabilities is proposed, with fuzzy mathematics and long short-term memory. Three main steps are taken: (1) data composition and reconstruction, to extract a set of relatively stationary subsequence components by complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMD) from original signal, and divide these components into three groups according to fuzzy entropy (FE) value. (2) characteristics categorization, determining the lower bound, mean, and upper bound of the rebuilt data via fuzzy information granulation (FIG) to better characterize the price fluctuation range. (3) price prediction, including point and interval predictions with attention mechanism long short-term memory (AM-LSTM). An empirical study was conducted on the weekly price data of pork, beef, and mutton in China from 2009 to 2023, incorporating discussions on different embedding dimensions, prediction step, fuzzy granulation window sizes, decomposition techniques, and prediction algorithms. The results indicate that the proposed interval prediction model can not only achieve high accuracy in point prediction, but also better capture price change intervals., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Ma et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Import restrictions on deforestation-linked commodities have been enacted with the goal of reducing global deforestation and emissions. However, the limited market share of importers imposing such restrictions and the potential for emissions leakage could reduce their effectiveness. Moreover, they could result in negative economic implications for producers and consumers. We quantify future emissions and economic implications of oil palm and soybean import restrictions. Current EU restrictions are likely to have minimal impact due to the EU's otherwise small and declining share of global palm and soy demand. If extended beyond the EU, import restrictions could lead to reductions in cumulative land use change (LUC) emissions by 2050 in key oil crop exporting regions - up to 1.6% in Indonesia, 2.1% in the rest of Southeast Asia, 4.6% in Argentina, and 8.3% in Brazil compared to a no restrictions scenario. Globally, however, direct forest protection could be more effective than indirect protection through import restrictions due to emissions leakage. Meanwhile, import restrictions could cause major exporters to lose $0.1-$280 billion in cumulative agricultural production revenues by 2050. More broadly, our study highlights that the effectiveness of import restriction policies in reducing global emissions will likely depend on coordinated action across major oil crop producing and consuming regions., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Due to dedollarization and deglobalization trends, countries are pursuing currency diversification to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar and mitigate currency risks. The research on the drivers of currency internationalization still faces problems such as small sample sizes, fewer methods, and incomplete theoretical frameworks. This study aims to investigate the effects of economic development, money confidence, and the financial market on currency internationalization. It also explores whether purchasing power mediates the relationships between the first two exogenous variables and currency internationalization. The Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method is used to analyze secondary data from 9 of the 10 most used currencies (excluding the euro) from 2000 to 2020 to examine these relationships. The findings show that economic development and money confidence have negative and significant relationships with currency internationalization, while financial market and purchasing power have positive and significant relationships with currency internationalization. The relationships between economic development and currency internationalization, as well as between money confidence and currency internationalization, are both mediated by purchasing power. These mediation effects are partially complementary mediation effects. Accordingly, to promote currency internationalization, this study recommends governments should adopt policies to develop the financial market, increase openness, and reduce capital controls. It also highlights the importance of managing inflation, diversifying reserve assets, and maintaining a flexible exchange rate to prevent currency depreciation. This study is limited by the exclusion of the euro, reliance on hard data, a small sample size, and a narrow focus on economic factors., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Cao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

As an important part of improving the socialist market economic system, the social credit system focuses on the market's micro behavior, which emphasizes the credit self-discipline of enterprises in financial management and checks the orientation for enterprises' investment decisions. This study selected Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies for 2012-2023 as samples and used the pilot reform of China's social credit system as a quasi-natural experiment to test the impact and mechanisms of the construction of the social credit system on enterprises' overinvestment. The main findings show that the social credit system construction alleviates enterprises' overinvestment behaviors, realized by the inhibiting effect of internal controls, the reverse effect of risk monitoring, and the guiding effect of business environment optimization. Heterogeneity analyses illustrate that the social credit system construction has a more obvious inhibitory effect on overinvestment for enterprises that are less subject to financing constraints, have higher internet penetration, have better financial development levels, are eastern, non-manufacturing, and large-scale. The conclusions provide new perspectives and references for the government and enterprises to re-examine the economic effects of the social credit system construction, which can promote capital usage efficiency and guide enterprises toward rational management., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Zhang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

While higher interest rates increase the cost of credit financing for businesses, this study finds that the direct impact of this traditional credit transmission mechanism on corporate bankruptcy risk is limited. Instead, our research reveals that changes in corporate behavior induced by rising debt financing costs are the root cause of bankruptcy risk. In the short term, an increase in interest rates drives businesses to substitute supply chain financing for credit financing in pursuit of profit maximization. This mismatch of short-term debt and long-term investments undermines the sustainability of the supply chain, ultimately reducing financial security-sacrificing safety for profitability. In the long term, higher interest rates exacerbate the overcapacity problem in industries, increasing the unsustainability of the production and sales balance. Using data from China's construction industry, this study empirically tests these findings and, based on the main conclusions, provides policy suggestions regarding the long- and short-term effects of monetary policy on the sustainable development of China's construction industry: (1) focus on short-term interest rate risks and be vigilant against commercial credit bubbles; (2) long-term monetary policy should prioritize industrial structure optimization., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes have gained significant popularity as an alternative to traditional cigarettes, yet limited research has examined the factors influencing their adoption, particularly in developing nations like the Philippines, where usage is rising. This study investigates the behavioral drivers of e-cigarette use, with a particular focus on the role of knowledge, alongside social influence, perceived price impact, perceived health impact, and perceived usefulness. Using purposive sampling, 310 valid responses were collected from current e-cigarette users, traditional cigarette users, or individuals with prior experience with these products. A structured questionnaire with 21 indicators was administered, and data were analyzed using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that knowledge is the strongest predictor of behavioral intention, highlighting the critical role of informed awareness about the risks and impacts of e-cigarettes in shaping user decisions. Social influence, perceived price impact, and perceived health impact also significantly influence behavioral intention, demonstrating the interconnectedness of cognitive, social, and economic factors. Interestingly, perceived usefulness did not have a significant effect, challenging assumptions about the importance of functional benefits in driving e-cigarette adoption. These results underscore the importance of education and awareness campaigns in addressing misconceptions about e-cigarettes. Policymakers, regulators, and health professionals should prioritize knowledge-driven interventions to empower individuals to make informed decisions and mitigate e-cigarette use, particularly among younger and economically vulnerable populations., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Belmonte et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

In recent years, the international community has witnessed many crisis events, and the Russia-Ukraine war, which broke out on 24th February 2022, has increased international policy uncertainty and impacted the current world commodity and financial markets. Thus, we try to capture how the Russia-Ukraine war has affected the correlation structure of international commodity and stock markets. We study six groups of commodity daily returns and one group of stock daily returns and select the sample from 24th February 2022 to 1st June 2022 as the sample during the Russia-Ukraine war; in addition, we select the sample from 1st December 2019 to 31st December 2020 as the sample during COVID-19 control group, and the sample from 1st January 2014 to 31st December 2017 as the non-extreme event control group, to explore the correlation structure of international commodity and stock markets before the war, and to compare and uncover the impact of the uncertain event of the Russia-Ukraine war on the commodity and stock markets. In this paper, the marginal density function of each series is constructed using the ARMA-GARCH-std method, and the R-Vine copula model is built based on the marginal density function to analyze the correlation relationship between each market. From the Tree1 of the Vine copula, it is found that crude oil becomes the core connecting each commodity market and the stock market during the Russia-Ukraine war. The price fluctuations of crude oil may be contagious to agricultural and precious metal markets in the same direction, while the stock market price fluctuations are inversely correlated with commodity markets. Comparison with the selected control group sample reveals that the Russia-Ukraine war increases the correlation between the markets and enhances the possibility of risk transmission. The core of the correlation structure shifts from agricultural commodities and precious metals to crude oil after the Russia-Ukraine war., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Zhang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: This study aims to gain insight into the effect of banks' financial performance on their market performance. We conceptualized the research subject on the assumption that the financial performance of an organization is the most important criterion for triggering movement in its stock price. We explored various models and parameters to evaluate financial performance of banks and found CAMELS being one of the most comprehensive and appropriate model. We considered share price growth of banks to measure their stock market performance., Methods: We collected financial and stock market data pertaining to 32 listed Indian banks for the period 2018 to 2022. The study has employed multiple linear regression analysis of panel data for evaluating the relationship between independent and dependent variables. We adopted panel regression for data analysis and used the Prais- Winsten regression with panel corrected standard errors, as the data suffers from contemporaneous cross-sectional correlation., Results: The results show that net non-performing assets, net interest margins, and return on capital have a significant negative impact on share price growth. The capital adequacy ratio and the current and savings account deposit ratios have a positive insignificant impact. The liquid asset-to-total asset ratio has a negative, insignificant impact. The coefficient of determination indicates that the share price growth of banks is more dependent on other factors which are not included in the regression analysis of this study., Conclusion: This study helps investors and bankers understand the limited impact of financial parameters on banks'stock prices and to look for other parameters which explain the stock price movement better., Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed., (Copyright: © 2025 Sar A and Panigrahi K.)

Financial convergence is a process for establishing a relationship among the financial markets of different countries; as a result of such process the rates of similar financial assets in different markets and countries become very close to each other. Some factors might create financial convergence. of which the trade and international capital flows among countries, the presence of banks and other financial institutions in the international arena, the availability of clear and accurate information of markets and financial organizations, and the existence of similar infrastructure and their characteristics from economic, legal and cultural perspectives can be mentioned. The issue of financial convergence with the aim of achieving global financial markets and taking advantage of its capabilities and characteristics would be very important for all countries, especially the emerging countries. This study examines financial convergence in the money and capital markets of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and BRICS countries in the period of 2007-2020. The study utilizes the Panel Convergence Methodology and Cluster Analysis (Philips and Sul methodology) along with a clustering algorithm. The findings indicate a lack of overall convergence between OECD and BRICS countries in both financial markets (money and capital) this is due to the lack of similar economic infrastructure, differences in the size of the economy, and variations in trade, financial and monetary freedom indicators, trade relations, and capital transfers. The cluster test in the money market confirms the existence of 3 convergence clubs among the studied countries. The convergence of emerging BRICS countries in the money market, with a large number of OECD developed countries, is a confirmation of the development of their banking sector in the recent years. On the other hand, the capital market survey also shows the presence of 5 convergence clubs between OECD and BRICS countries. Besides, it's been shown that South Africa, along with Lithuania, Turkey, Slovakia and Latvia, has established a divergent group., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Nasim Iranmanesh. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Objective: To examine the relationship between market dynamics, in the form of commercial prices paid to urologists, and utilization of services, as measured by Medicare spending, in men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer., Methods: We performed a retrospective national cohort study of Medicare beneficiaries with newly diagnosed prostate cancer between 2014 and 2019, with follow-up through 2020. The primary exposure was the commercial price index (ie, the ratio of commercial prices to Medicare prices for a common set of services performed by urologists). The primary outcome was Medicare spending for prostate cancer in the 12-month period after diagnosis., Results: Across zip codes, commercial prices were, on average, 190% of Medicare prices (range 102%-421%), with mean spending per beneficiary of $16,704. There was an inverse relationship between the price index and Medicare spending for men for prostate cancer. Specifically, standardized Medicare spending was $1485 (95%CI $939 to $2030) higher per beneficiary among those managed in zip codes at the bottom decile for commercial prices compared to the top decile. This effect was similar in the subgroup of men who underwent treatment, where standardized Medicare spending was $1461 (95%CI $848 to $2073) higher per beneficiary among those managed in zip codes in the bottom decile for commercial prices compared to the top decile., Conclusion and Relevance: Commercial prices for a set of frequently performed services are substantial higher than those paid by Medicare and vary widely across zip codes. Higher commercial prices were associated with significantly lower utilization, as measured by standardized Medicare spending, in men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. All authors have no conflicts of interest to report., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Corporate financialization is a growing concern in China, and its impact on the main business of real enterprises is a crucial topic. This paper uses data from all A-share non-financial listed companies in China between 2013 and 2022 to establish a dynamic panel threshold model and test the effect of corporate financialization on enterprise performance. The empirical results indicate a threshold effect between the two variables, corporate financialization has both positive and negative effects on main business performance, with a threshold of 5.82%. Additionally, significant heterogeneous results are found for the nature of ownership, asset maturity, industry and regional distribution., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This research mainly explored the effects of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on the financial performance of Chinese listed companies and the determinants of post-M&A financial performance of mergers by incorporating adjustments for business cycle fluctuations. The research was divided into two parts. The first part applied data envelopment analysis (DEA) models for the calculation of the financial performance scores of mergers and non-mergers in six major sectors before and after M&As. Comparative analyses of financial performance trends between mergers and non-mergers in similar sectors revealed that M&As often decrease financial performance scores of mergers compared with non-mergers. The second part adopted regression analyses and robustness test to evaluate the effects of listing duration, financial leverage level, free cash flow and target type on post-M&A financial performance. The results showed that mergers' sufficient listing duration, high financial leverages, adequate free cash flow and asset as target had significant positive impact on the post-M&A performance of mergers. Opposite to the free cash flow hypothesis, this study revealed that free cash flow is beneficial for mergers in China. These findings emphasized that lack of experience and managerial hubris are the primary factors contributing to the underperformance observed within the Chinese M&A market., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Zhang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

High trade costs pose substantial barriers to the process of trade liberalization. This study aims to measure trade costs and explore the driving forces behind the growth of bilateral trade between Cambodia and its top 30 trading partners from 1993 to 2019. Using a micro-founded measure of trade costs derived from the gravity model, we find that Cambodia's average trade costs decreased by 35.43 percent between 1993 and 2019. Fluctuations in average trade costs persisted until 2014, despite Cambodia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2004. Since then, these costs have declined more rapidly. Cambodia's bilateral trade costs are lower with its major trading partners in Southeast Asia and East Asia than with those in South Asia, Oceania, Europe, and North America. Cambodia's average trade costs with developing and emerging economies are lower than those with developed economies. Between 2014 and 2019, Cambodia experienced a notable decline in average trade costs with trading partners along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) corridors by 34.78 percent, twice as fast as with non-BRI trading partners. Regarding the decomposition of trade growth, we find that the expansion of Cambodian trade over the period from 1993 to 2019 was driven by three factors: the rise in income (59.65 percent), the decline in trade costs (56.69 percent), and the decline in multilateral resistance (-16.34 percent). The findings of this study have significant implications for a better understanding of Cambodia's development process toward global trade integration over the past two decades. Our results suggest that Cambodia can optimize its trade expansion potential by focusing on its relations with trading partners exhibiting high economic growth potential and those showing substantial reductions in trade costs., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Keo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Climate change has heightened the need to understand physical climate risks, such as the increasing frequency and severity of heat waves, for informed financial decision-making. This study investigates the financial implications of extreme heat waves on stock returns in Europe and the United States. Accordingly, the study combines meteorological and stock market data by integrating methodologies from both climate science and finance. The authors use meteorological data to ascertain the five strongest heat waves since 1979 in Europe and the United States, respectively, and event study analyses to capture their effects on stock prices across firms with varying levels of environmental performance. The findings reveal a marked increase in the frequency of heat waves in the 21st century, reflecting global warming trends, and that European heat waves generally have a higher intensity and longer duration than those in the United States. This study provides evidence that extreme heat waves reduce stock values in both regions, with portfolio declines of up to 3.1%. However, there are marked transnational differences in investor reactions. Stocks listed in the United States appear more affected by the most recent heat waves compared to those further in the past, whereas the effect on European stock prices is more closely tied to event intensity and duration. For the United States sample only, the analysis reveals a mitigating effect of high corporate environmental performance against heat risk. This study introduces an innovative interdisciplinary methodology, merging meteorological precision with financial analytics to provide deeper insights into climate-related risks., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Schuster et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This research freshly investigates the effect of business competition on national welfare in Indonesia. This research uses business competition index data obtained from the Indonesia Competition Commission (KPPU) and welfare indicators data collected from the Indonesian Bureau of Central Statistics (BPS) at the economic sectoral and provincial levels for the period 2018-2020. The relationship between business competition and welfare is estimated using pooled regression model combining year, economic sector, and province. This research also uses business competition index applying both same weights for all dimensions of competition and the weights derived from principal component analysis. This research finds that business competition has a positive effect on welfare as represented by gross regional domestic product, regional productivity, productivity growth, wages, and human development index. Furthermore, the regions with high scores on the competition index mostly come from Java Island. Therefore, Indonesian government must encourage the mainstreaming of business competition in all provinces in Indonesia., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Setiawan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Even though the effect of oil price shocks on macroeconomics has been extensively investigated, the literature on how efficiency in household energy use affect crude oil price volatility is yet explored. This study unveils whether household energy efficiency lower crude oil price volatility asymmetrically in the United States using the historical and forecast dataset that spans from 1970:Q1-2040:Q1. Applying the multivariate case of Quantile-on-Quantile Regression, the empirical results show that household energy efficiency dampens crude oil price volatility with a stronger connection in quantiles before the median quantiles of crude oil price volatility. However, the effect of household energy efficiency decreases with an increase across quantiles of the crude oil price volatility. The results further show that energy-related CO2 emissions and retail electricity price intensify crude oil price volatility with varying effects across quantiles. These findings are similar to the sensitivity analysis and robustness checks. Overall, the policy implication of our findings is that government and policymakers need to demonstrate unequivocal commitments to improving not only energy-efficient practices at household level but also to mitigate energy-related environmental disasters., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright: © 2025 Usman et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

With the popularity of circular economy around the world, transactions in the second-hand sailboat market are extremely active. Determining pricing strategies and exploring their regional effects is a blank area of existing research and has important practical and statistical significance. Therefore, this article uses the random forest model and XGBoost algorithm to identify core price indicators, and uses an innovative rolling NAR dynamic neural network model to simulate and predict second-hand sailboat price data. On this basis, we also constructed a regional effect multi-level model (RE-MLM) from three levels: geography, economy and country to clarify the impact of geographical areas on sailboat prices. The research results show that, first of all, the price of second-hand sailboats fluctuates greatly, and the predicted value better reflects the overall average price level. Secondly, there are significant regional differences in price levels across regions, economies and ethnic groups. Therefore, the price of second-hand sailboats is affected by many factors and has obvious regional effects. In addition, the model evaluation results show that the model constructed in this study has good accuracy, validity, portability and versatility, and can be extended to price simulation and regional analysis of different markets in different regions., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Huang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The paper analyzes the problem of entropy in the moments of transition from a normal economic situation (2015-2019) to the Pandemic period (2020-2021) and the period of Russia's attack on Ukraine (2022-2023). The research in the article is based on the analysis of electricity, oil, coal, and gas prices in 27 countries of the European Union and Norway. The daily data cover the period from January 1, 2015, to March 30, 2023, and were analyzed using two-dimensional sets of electricity and commodity prices. The work uses the time dependent James-Stein estimator of the Shannon informational entropy., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Papla, Siedlecki. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study investigates the impact of board, CEO, and audit committee chairman busyness on the value relevance of accounting information in Saudi listed firms from 2018 to 2022. Utilizing a data of 125 Saudi firms, the research investigates how the busyness of these key governance figures influences the relevance of earnings per share (EPS) and book value per share (BVPS). The findings reveal that board and audit committee chairman busyness significantly enhance the value relevance of EPS, suggesting that their broader networks and strategic oversight improve financial reporting. Conversely, CEO busyness negatively affects the value relevance of BVPS, indicating that divided attention and reduced managerial oversight hinder performance monitoring. These results underscore the dual roles of governance figures and their influence on financial reporting quality. These results highlight the dual effects of governance busyness on financial reporting quality. The study provides novel insights into an emerging market context, offering practical recommendations for policymakers and corporate leaders in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030. It emphasizes the need for regulatory frameworks to manage director workloads, ensuring enhanced financial reporting and governance effectiveness., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Alomair, Al Naim. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This paper investigates optimal ordering strategies in supply chains under two-level price fluctuations and initial profit allocation. By utilizing Copula functions to model the complex relationship between fluctuating prices and uncertain demand, the study develops both continuous and discrete decision models for practical applications. A discrete algorithm is proposed to approximate the optimal solution, with its convergence rigorously proven. Numerical experiments demonstrate that profit allocation ratios significantly impact optimal order quantities and overall supply chain profit. Price fluctuations, particularly at the discount level, present critical challenges, necessitating flexible and adaptive ordering strategies. The study also investigates the influence of different Copula relationships on optimal ordering decisions, revealing how varying market conditions-from moderate price sensitivity to high volatility-affect optimal order quantities. By examining ordering strategies in the context of profit allocation contracts, this research offers a new perspective on how supply chain members can collaboratively navigate uncertain markets. The findings provide actionable insights for managers to mitigate risks, improve coordination, and seize new opportunities. Extending traditional models to incorporate price fluctuations and profit allocation, this study makes theoretical and practical contributions to supply chain management, offering robust strategies to strengthen supply chain resilience., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Zheng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study investigates the effects of fuel price hikes on the livelihoods of small-scale coastal fisherfolk in Ghana. The study applied a mixed-methods approach consisting of a questionnaire survey of 320 fisherfolk and 20 interviews with stakeholders in the fisheries sector. Increase in expenses, reduced frequency of fishing, an upsurge in social vices, and declining small-scale fisheries opportunities were found to be the main effects of fuel price hikes on fisherfolk livelihoods. The results reveal that fisherfolk experienced financial, emotional and psychological shocks due to the high cost of fuel. Dependency on savings, borrowing, petty trading, migration and farming were found to the main coping strategies. However, the various livelihood coping strategies deployed by fisherfolk were not sufficient to ameliorate their economic hardship. The findings show that fuel price hikes can contribute to reduction in fishing pressure and overcapacity despite the current socioeconomic hardship experienced by fishing households. The study recommends interest-free loans to support fisherfolk who are already engaged in small businesses. The provision of supplementary livelihoods could also improve fisherfolk's income and well-being., Competing Interests: The author/s declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper, (Copyright: © 2025 Victor Owusu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Trade unions and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are important institutional mechanisms through which corporations undertake responsibility for their for-profit as well as not-for-profit actions. This study explores the roles of trade unions, management, and shareholders in influencing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) controversies and CSR reporting. Drawing on instrumental stakeholder theory, we argue that while management and shareholders typically focus on governance, profitability, and operational efficiency, trade unions act as critical relational stakeholders advocating for employee welfare and social sustainability. Using a sample of 416 firms over a period of 10 years, our findings reveal that trade unions significantly reduce ESG controversies and enhance CSR reporting by advocating for employee welfare and social sustainability. In contrast, management significantly impacts CSR reporting but notably does not influence ESG controversies. Lastly, shareholders, who are important for governance and profitability, exhibit minimal impact on both ESG controversies and CSR reporting., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Mandliya et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The development of cross-border e-commerce platform promotes the new channel model between domestic and international. How to determine the dual-channel pricing decision of manufacturers and retailers under the condition of tariff and transportation heterogeneity has become an important and realistic problem. Based on the perspective of cross-border e-commerce dual-channel supply chain, this paper considers the impact of import tariff, transport heterogeneity and export tax rebate, compares and analyzes the performance difference between decentralized decision-making and centralized decision-making, and analyzes the impact of import tariff, export tax rebate and transport heterogeneity on cross-border e-commerce dual-channel pricing, demand and profit. The results show that the tariff is positively correlated with the manufacturer's direct selling price and the retailer's retail price, while the tariff is negatively correlated with the wholesale price, the demand and profit of direct selling channel and the retail channel. Export tax rebate rate is positively correlated with manufacturers' demand and profit and retailers' demand and profit, and negatively correlated with manufacturers' wholesale price, direct selling price and retail price. The increase of unit freight in direct channel is unfavorable to manufacturers and beneficial to retailers; The increase in unit freight rates in retail channels is bad for both manufacturers and retailers. Centralized decision-making is beneficial to supply chain demand and profits, and can improve the overall performance of the supply chain., Competing Interests: The authors have stated that there is no competing interest., (Copyright: © 2025 Guo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study examines the pricing policies and the dual-channel strategies in a two-tier supply chain where a manufacturer distributes products through a retailer and considers the opening of a traditional direct online channel or a live-streaming sales channel The manufacturer has three sales modes, i.e., traditional retail channel only, opening a traditional direct online channel and opening a live-streaming direct sales channel, to consider. The manufacturer and the retailer play a Stackelberg game wherein the manufacturer has the first mover advantage. The two supply chain members can follow two decision sequences where the manufacturer decides the direct online retail price before the retailer does in one, and the manufacturer and the retailer cooperate to decide the retail prices simultaneously in the other. The profit optimization models for the three sales modes are formulated, and the closed forms of the optimal solutions are then derived through backward induction. The optimal pricing decisions and profits with different decision sequences are compared and analyzed among the three sales modes. The results suggest that the manufacturer should introduce a live-streaming direct sales channel when facing fierce competition, and should not introduce a dual channel to create a win-win situation for the two supply chain members when facing mild competition. The manufacturer should increase the wholesale and the direct online retail prices and make more live-streaming sales effort, and the retailer should also increase the retail price, if the streamer has good sales skills when introducing a live-streaming sales channel. The manufacturer and the retailer should decide the retail prices simultaneously when a live-streaming sale channel is introduced., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Yu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Environmental pollution has become a global concern, so it is critical to find out the elements that influence it. Is the urban business credit environment influencing urban environmental conditions? The study takes the entropy method for calculating the environmental pollution index of 276 prefecture-level cities across China from 2010 to 2021, the CE1 index to describe the urban business credit environment, and a spatial Durbin model to empirically analyze the mechanism and transmission path of the urban business credit environment on environmental pollution. The findings demonstrate that: (1) there is an important positive spatial association between China's urban pollution index and urban business credit index, and that the level of spatial clustering of the two is increasing over time. (2) the urban business credit environment and environmental pollution have an inverted "U" shape relationship and a significant spatial spillover effect, which means that once a certain threshold is reached, improving the urban business credit environment reduces environmental pollution in local and neighboring areas. (3) The influence of the urban business credit environment on environmental deterioration varies by region. The extra heterogeneity test results for the different regions show that the relationship between business credit level and environmental pollution is consistent with the overall situation in the eastern and western regions, the opposite effect was observed in the central region. (4) Changes in the urban business credit environment have an indirect impact on environmental conditions due to the amount of regional financial development and technological innovation potential. To reduce pollution in the region, prefectural-level cities must strengthen the construction of urban business credit systems, strive to create a favorable business credit environment, strengthen the spatial spillover effect, and guide the resource elements of business credit planning to flow into the central and western parts of China reasonably. The study's findings have significant practical implications for modifying the government's development strategy and improving the urban environment., Competing Interests: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose., (Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Guo. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been widely discussed. However, the existing literature does not delve into the theoretical mechanism to show how companies adjust their CSR in the face of minimum wage increases. This may be due to the lack of a theoretical framework that clarifies the relationship between minimum wage increases and CSR adjustments. The objectives of this study is to fill this gap by investigating the impact of minimum wage increases on CSR, employing both cost stickiness and optimal distinctiveness theories. We use the data from the CSMAR database, the Human Resources and Social Security Administration, and Hexun rating system. The subject of this study is China's A-share listed companies during 2010-2020. This study employs fixed-effects models for a panel data. The findings reveal that minimum wage increases are significantly associated with a reduction in both strategic CSR and responsive CSR. Notably, the decrease in responsive CSR outweighs that of strategic CSR. Furthermore, our results indicate that customer concentration or CSR sensitivity significantly moderates this relationship. More particularly, firms with higher customer concentration are less responsive to minimum wage increases in their CSR activities. Firms with higher sensitivity in CSR are more likely to mitigate the reducing effect of the minimum wage on CSR. By revealing how minimum wage increases affect CSR and its economic consequences, our study provides scientific recommendations for policymakers to measure the impact of minimum wage policies at the firm level., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

In conclusion, aligning crop development with market demands is not just a strategic move for economic stability; it is a requisite for building resilient, profitable, and sustainable agricultural systems. By doing so, the sector can provide stability for farmers and affordability for consumers and contribute to the socio-economic resilience of communities worldwide., (Copyright © 2024 The Author. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Our goal is to improve Project Management (PM) profitability and reduce discrepancies in information among stakeholders, which can result in conflicts. This will be accomplished by incorporating Earned Value Management (EVM) with the Income Statement and incorporating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) with the work breakdown structure (WBS). These incorporations will streamline information sharing between PM, other management professionals, and the stakeholders, ultimately fostering the application of PM within broader business and management contexts. We drew on theories from Project, Operations, Financial Management, Agency Theory, and the Theory of Performance Frontiers. We conducted multiple case studies in a shipbuilding corporation with 25 projects and an aircraft manufacturing corporation with 20 projects. Our analysis involved both qualitative and quantitative methods, ensuring the accuracy and practicality of our hypotheses and instilling confidence in our research findings. This integration addresses the information gap on profitability for non-project management professionals, empowering stakeholders to enhance project performance. This integration benefits the company by allowing the project manager and stakeholders to gain real-time insights into the project's profitability, which enables continuous optimization of daily EBITDA by improving efficiency and productivity to achieve the project's profitability target. This study and its innovative findings originate from the author's unique approach, which is a significant contribution to the field of Project Management. This research focused on project management using EVM in for-profit organizations. Integrating EVM in the income statement also facilitates PM application in other management systems., Competing Interests: I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: The author was a consultant to the Indonesia Aerospace Corporation (PT. Dirgantara Indonesia) and Indonesian Ship Building Corporation (PT.PAL Indonesia) to improve the operating performance of both Indonesian Strategic Defense Industry companies in 2023 and received a consultancy fee. As a Ph.D. student at Bandung Institute of Technology, the author requested permission from both companies to conduct the research. The companies permitted the author to conduct research, including data collection, but they did not provide financial support for the research. In addition, the given letter mentions that all information obtained from this research activity is confidential and should only be used for academic purposes. The permit letters from the companies are attached This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials., (Copyright: © 2025 Setyopurnomo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Introduction: Tobacco taxation is only effective in reducing consumption when it is translated into higher prices. This study aims to investigate to what extent the tobacco industry (TI) passes tax increases over to consumers by increasing the retail price of cigarettes in 12 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries., Methods: African Cigarette Prices Project and WHO's Global Tobacco Epidemic Reports data were used to calculate the rate of tax pass-through by decomposing the retail price of cigarettes into tax and net prices between 2016 and 2020. Percentage change in net price was used to identify industry pricing behaviour, in both packs and single-stick sales. TI pricing strategies were examined by country, producer type, producers, and cigarette price segment., Results: There were mixed TI strategies, with taxes primarily overshifted (Botswana, Madagascar, Tanzania, Zimbabwe), undershifted (Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia) or a mix of both (Malawi, Nigeria). The detail varied between countries, over time, and between the different brands/segments offered. Patterns for single-stick sales were broadly similar to that of packs but with some differences observed in particular countries/years. Pricing strategies for the various transnational tobacco companies and domestic producers were similar but the changes in net price for the latter were larger. The country tax level/type and the size of tax change did not seem to be an obvious influence., Conclusion: This paper provides an overview of TI pricing strategies in response to tax increases in SSA. Governments must monitor how the TI responds to tax changes to ensure that tax increases are effective in impacting price., Competing Interests: Competing interests: JRB owns 10 shares in Imperial Brands for research purposes. The shares were a gift from a public health campaigner and are not held for financial gain or benefit. All dividends received are donated to health-related charities and proceeds from any future share sale or takeover will be similarly donated., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ Group.)

Objective: To use a standardised e-cigarette tax measure to examine the impact of e-cigarette taxes on the price and sales of e-cigarettes and cigarettes in the USA., Design: We used State Line versions of NielsenIQ Retail Scanner data from quarter 4 of 2014 through quarter 4 of 2019 to calculate e-cigarette and cigarette prices and sales in 23 US states. We then estimated how these outcomes are associated with standardised state-level e-cigarette taxes, controlling for state fixed effects, quarter-by-year fixed effects, cigarette taxes, other tobacco control policies and other state-level time-varying characteristics., Results: A real $1 increase in the e-cigarette standardised tax increases the price of 1 mL of e-liquid between $0.43 and $0.59 depending on specification. Controlling for fixed effects and cigarette taxes, a 10% increase in e-cigarette taxes is estimated to reduce e-cigarette sales by 0.5% and increase cigarette sales by 0.1%, though both results are attenuated and statistically insignificant in a model with full controls., Conclusions: Our study finds that e-cigarette taxes increase e-cigarette retail prices by approximately half of the tax. Further, e-cigarette taxes are associated with reduced sales of e-cigarettes and increased sales of cigarettes in some specifications. Our estimates are sizably lower than from other studies using sales and survey data., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group.)

This paper examines the revenue implications of trade deregulation in a panel of Pacific Island countries from 2010 to 2021. First, we undertake a cross-country analysis of tax revenue, trade, and tax structure. Secondly, we empirically analyze the effect of trade deregulation on trade tax and overall government tax revenue. We find that as the countries have become more deregulated over the decade, the trade tax revenues and direct income tax revenues have declined whereas domestic indirect tax revenues have increased. The empirical estimation reveals the potential Laffer effect for trade tax revenues with respect to trade openness. The effect of regional trade agreements also shows some support for trade tax revenues. Further, the external public debt has a significant positive effect on aggregate tax revenues, while foreign aid has been significant in explaining the decline in both aggregate tax revenues as well as trade tax revenues in the selected Pacific Island countries., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Makun, Singh. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The development of China's National Carbon Market has strengthened the inherent link between the carbon market and the broader energy market, providing a potential for cross-market risk transmission resonance. Studying the risk spillover effects between China's National Carbon Market and the crude oil futures market is of significant practical importance, both in terms of carbon market development and carbon risk management. Based on the Maximal Overlap Discrete Wavelet Transform (MODWT), the price series are decomposed across multiple scales, and the risk spillover effects between the carbon market and the crude oil futures market are examined from both the time domain and the frequency domain. Methods such as wavelet energy decomposition, wavelet correlation, lead-lag analysis, and wavelet coherence are used to explore the mean spillover effects and volatility spillover effects (collectively referred to as risk spillover effects) across various scales. The study finds that China's National Carbon Market exhibits a clear compliance-driven effect, with relatively low market liquidity. The crude oil futures market experiences frequent price fluctuations, primarily driven by long-term factors. In the time domain, the risk transmission resonance between the carbon market and the crude oil futures market is high, with significant positive correlations observed at the D1 to D4 scales, and noticeable mean spillover effects. In the frequency domain, at the D3 to D4 scales, the carbon market and the crude oil futures market exhibit similar volatility frequencies, indicating strong volatility spillover effects. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the trading volume of the carbon market be gradually increased to improve market liquidity. Furthermore, the risk monitoring and early warning mechanisms of China's National Carbon Market should be improved. For carbon-emitting companies, enhancing awareness of carbon asset management and making informed investment and hedging decisions based on the correlation between the two markets is crucial., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Bai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Taxes on sweetened beverages have become an important policy response to growing obesity rates and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the U.S. and other nations. Since 2015, eight U.S. cities have implemented these taxes, but so far direct evidence of their impacts on household purchasing behavior is scarce. Of particular interest to many researchers and policy makers is the response of lower-income consumers to these taxes, both because they have higher sweetened beverage consumption on average and because of concerns that sweetened beverage taxes are regressive. This project investigates the income-stratified household response to SSB taxes using a data set containing the purchasing behavior of approximately 400 households in the cities of Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, and Philadelphia, all of which have recently introduced beverage taxes. Using doubly-robust estimation of dynamic and heterogeneous treatment effects relative to a propensity-matched set of households in three comparison cities, we find that households in taxed cities experience increased prices and reduce their purchases of those beverages, with no evidence of cross-border shopping. We further find differential tax impacts by income level, with lower-income households (households with income <200% of the federal poverty line for their size) reducing their purchases of taxed beverages by nearly 50% - more than double the 18% reduction found in higher-income households (households with income >400% of the federal poverty line for their size). Our finding that lower-income households decrease their consumption more than twice as much as higher-income households suggests that these taxes may reduce health disparities and promote population health., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Retail involves directly delivering goods and services to end consumers. Natural disasters and epidemics/pandemics have significant potential to disrupt supply chains, leading to shortages, forecasting errors, price increases, and substantial financial strains on retailers. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for retail sectors to prepare for crisis impacts on sales forecasts by regularly assessing and adjusting sales volumes, consumer behavior, and forecasting models to adapt to changing conditions., Methods: This study explores strategies for adapting sales forecasts and retail approaches in response to such crises. By employing different machine learning (ML) methods, we analyze consumer behavior changes and sales impacts across various product categories, including bottom wear, top wear, one piece, accessories, outwear, and shoes during the COVID-19 pandemic., Results: The gradient boosting and CatBoost algorithms excelled in product groups with significant sales changes during the pandemic. The Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) algorithm performed well in low-volume categories like accessories and footwear. Meanwhile, MLP, LightGBM, and XGBoost were effective in medium-volume categories such as outerwear and underwear., Conclusion: The findings highlight the efficacy of these models in adapting sales forecasts to crisis conditions, offering a practical approach to enhancing retail resilience against future disruptions. This study offers an effective approach for adapting sales forecasting to shifting consumer behaviors during crises., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Despite the growing accessibility of international grain and oilseed markets, high production costs and trade frictions are still prevalent, contributing to regional heterogeneities in the landed cost of grain imports. Here we quantify the landed cost for six grain commodities across 3,500 administrative regions, capturing regional cost differences to produce grain and transport it across international borders. We find large heterogeneities in the costs of imported grain, which are highest in Oceania, Central America and landlocked Africa. While some regions have uniform landed costs across sourcing locations, others face cost variations across trading partners, showing large inequalities in access. We find that most regions could benefit from a targeted approach to reduce landed cost while others benefit from a mixed strategies approach. Our results highlight that spatial information on production, trade and transport is essential to inform policies aiming to build an efficient and resilient global agricultural commodity trade system., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Introduction: A minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol of £0.50 per unit (1 UK unit = 10 mL/8 g alcohol) was introduced in Scotland in May 2018. Few previous studies have examined the impact of alcohol pricing policies on people who are alcohol dependent. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of MUP on people who are alcohol dependent including changes in alcohol consumption and health status, as well as potential unintended consequences., Methods: Three waves of cross-sectional data were collected in Scotland (intervention) and Northern England (control) at 0-6 months pre-implementation then 3-9 months and 18-22 months post-implementation. The sample was N = 706 people receiving treatment related to their alcohol use. We collected structured interview data including recent drinking information via a 7-day timeline-follow-back drinking diary. Difference-in-difference analyses estimated change in indicators in Scotland compared to England at both post-implementation timepoints., Results: The proportion of participants consuming alcohol costing on average <£0.50 per unit in Scotland decreased from 60.6% at 0-6 months prior to MUP implementation to 6.3% at 3-9 months post-implementation (p < 0.0004). There was no significant change in the indicators for alcohol consumption, severity of dependence, health status, other substance use, deprivation level or parenting., Discussion and Conclusions: The introduction of MUP in Scotland was associated with increases in the prices paid for alcohol by people with dependence and presenting to treatment services. There was no evidence of changes in their alcohol consumption or health status. There was also no evidence of harmful unintended consequences for this population., (© 2024 The Author(s). Drug and Alcohol Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)

Agricultural production costs represent less than half of total food prices for higher-income countries and will likely further decrease globally. Added-value components such as transport, processing, marketing and catering show increasing importance in food value chains, especially as countries undergo a nutrition transition towards more complex and industrial food systems. Here, using a combined statistical and process-based modelling framework, we derive and project the value-added component of food prices for 136 countries and 11 different food groups, for food-at-home and food-away-from-home. We identify the declining but differentiated producer share in consumer food prices across food products, and provide scenarios of future consumer prices under a business-as-usual as well as climate mitigation scenarios. Food price increases from policies targeting agricultural producers, such as greenhouse gas taxes, are not as stark when transmitted to consumers owing to higher value added in higher-income countries, while a pronounced effect remains in lower-income countries, even in coming decades., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Background: For men with prostate cancer, there is substantial variation in the use of conservative management, such as active surveillance. Commercial prices, which vary across urology practices, may afford incentives that foster physician behaviors associated with utilization. Such behaviors may "spillover" to the Medicare population and affect quality. This study evaluated the effects of practice-level commercial prices on health care utilization and quality in men with prostate cancer insured by traditional Medicare., Methods: From a 20% Medicare sample, the authors identified men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer between 2014-2019 (n = 44,653). Using commercial payments from the MarketScan database, they developed a practice-level commercial price index (ratio of commercial prices to Medicare prices). They examined the association of the price index with price standardized spending, overtreatment (treatment among those with >50% noncancer mortality within 10 years), and underuse of diagnostic testing in active surveillance (at least one prostate-specific antigen test and one confirmatory test-MRI, prostate biopsy, genomic test-within 12 months of diagnosis)., Results: Practice-level commercial price indices varied from 1.34 (134% of Medicare prices), for practices in the bottom decile, to 3.00, for practices in the top decile. Increasing price index was associated with lower odds of overtreatment (odds ratio, 0.86; 95% confidence interval, 0.76-0.97; p = .01), but not price standardized spending or underuse of diagnostic testing in active surveillance., Conclusions: Commercial prices vary markedly across urology practices. Among newly diagnosed men with traditional Medicare, those managed by practices with higher commercial price indices had lower odds of overtreatment, suggesting improved prostate cancer care quality., (© 2024 American Cancer Society.)

For decades, fossil fuels have accounted for 70% to 80% of global primary energy demand. Far from ending this trend, O&G companies continue to be the main fore-runners in providing secure, versatile and widespread energy to the entire world. The relevance of this sector in the economic-financial landscape and the concern for its stability, makes that the high interest of the scientific community to explore the factors that explain the O&G cross-sectional expected returns remains intact. Through a new approach from the Random Matrix Theory, the aim is to know how many are the factors that explain the market performance of the O&G subsectors (upstream, midstream & downstream), and also if the Brent price can be considered an explanatory factor. We will show that for certain periods, Brent becomes the only factor explaining the movements in the upstream and midstream subsectors, while for most of the time the only factor is the market. Other interesting finding is that no significant factors are found for the downstream subsector, except in certain periods. With a purely statistical approach, we show the factors that explain the cross-sectional expected return of the O&G companies, providing information of special relevance for the decision making of investors, executives and politicians., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Garcia-Amate et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study explores the intricate dynamics of volatility within high-frequency financial markets, focusing on 225 of Chinese listed companies from 2016 to 2023. Utilizing 5-minute high-frequency data, we analyze the realized volatility of individual stocks across six distinct time scales: 5-minute, 10-minute, 30-minute, 1-hour, 2-hour, and 4-hour intervals. Our investigation reveals a consistent power law decay in the auto-correlation function of realized volatility across all time scales. After constructing cross-correlation matrices for each time scale, we analyze the eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and probability distribution of Cij based on Random Matrix Theory. Notably, we find stronger correlations between stocks at higher frequencies, with distinct eigenvector patterns associated with large eigenvalues across different time scales. Employing Planar Maximally Filtered Graphs method, we uncover evolving community structures across the six time scales. Finally, we explore reaction speed across multiple time scales following big events and compare industry-specific reactions. Our findings underscore the faster reaction speed at higher frequency scales, shedding light on the multifaceted dynamics of high-frequency financial markets., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Ouyang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This paper examines the impact of environmental management system (EMS) certification, a significant voluntary participatory environmental regulation, on the risk of stock price collapse. The study is based on sample data of heavily polluting listed companies from 2008-2020. The study demonstrates that certification of environmental management systems has a significant impact on preventing share price collapse. This finding remains consistent even after controlling for endogeneity and conducting robustness tests. The analysis also reveals that the inhibitory effect of EMS certification is more pronounced for state-owned enterprises and firms with a higher degree of marketisation. Exploring the mechanism of its influence, it is found that environmental management system certification mainly suppresses the risk of stock price collapse by improving the environmental performance of enterprises and the transparency of corporate information, suggesting that environmental management system certification can be used as both an "environmental governance tool" for suppressing stock price collapse and an "information transfer tool" for improving the transparency of corporate information, thus suppressing the risk of stock price collapse. Meanwhile, the media's attention has been found to moderate the effect of environmental management system certification on stock price crash risk. These findings validate the inhibitory effect of environmental management system certification on stock price crash risk, expand our understanding of the economic consequences of environmental management system certification and the factors that influence stock price crash risk. They also provide a theoretical basis and practical support for environmental regulators., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

As a significant new mode of trade export in the digital economy era, cross-border e-commerce injects new momentum into trade cooperation among the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) member countries. This paper utilizes multi-dimensional panel data constructed from World Bank databases and UNCTAD databases from 2012 to 2021 to analyze the impact mechanism of RCEP member countries' digital economy development on China's cross-border e-commerce export through direct and indirect channels and conducts empirical tests on it. The research results show that, in terms of direct impact, the development of the digital economy in RCEP member countries has promoted China's cross-border e-commerce export, and its impact is heterogeneous. Regarding indirect impact, improving the quality of RCEP member countries' transportation infrastructure and institutional quality is a moderating factor promoting China's cross-border e-commerce export. This study provides important insights for deepening the development of the digital economy in RCEP countries and promoting China's cross-border e-commerce export., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Introduction: Numerous studies worldwide have investigated the impact of tobacco tax increase on household welfare, focusing on concerns regarding potential tobacco taxation regressivity and its effects on the poorest, whereas their scope was limited to the working population., Aims and Methods: To explore the effects of tax changes on household budgets, accounting for the retired population as well, we employed the modified Extended Cost-Benefit Analysis framework, assuming a 43.6% specific tax increase that fits the European Union (EU) Tobacco Tax Directive recommendation of minimum EUR 90 excise taxes per 1000 cigarettes. Our analysis encompassed changes in (1) tobacco expenditure (accounting for price elasticities by income groups: low-, middle-, and high-income), (2) medical costs linked to smoking-related diseases (utilizing relative risk of morbidity or mortality and smoking-attributable fractions), (3) years of working life (considering the years of working life lost among the working population), and (4) years of pension receipt (accounting for the years of retirement life lost due the premature death)., Results: Under an assumed specific excise increase leading to a 22.4% retail tobacco price rise, the net gains in disposable household budgets would be 0.01% for high-income, 1.3% for middle-income, and 2.9% for low-income households., Conclusions: A tax increase would yield a progressive effect on income distribution, benefiting the most economically disadvantaged population thereby contributing to a more equitable income distribution., Implications: To effectively reduce tobacco consumption, subsequent smoking-related medical costs, and associated productivity and pension losses, it is recommended that Serbia implement a minimum 43.6% increase in the specific tobacco excise tax., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.)

Introduction: In recent years tobacco taxation in Spain has regressed, with its Tobacconomics tax scorecard falling from 3.9 points (out of 5) in 2014, to only 2.625 in 2020. The objective of this research is to provide a detailed analysis of the causes behind this deterioration and identify possible ways forward for reversing this trend., Aims and Methods: A retrospective 2014-2022 analysis of manufactured cigarettes (FM) and roll-your-own tobacco (RYO) markets including tax structure/rates, affordability, retail price gaps across products, and price differentials with bordering countries. A market-level simulation model for 2028 studied the impact of various tax policy scenarios on smoking prevalence, premature deaths averted, smoking intensity, product substitution, government revenue, sales, and industry profit., Results: A lack of tax increases in a context of inflation and income growth during the past 8 years means FM and RYO have become 13% more affordable, with a constant differential of €2 between 20 FM and RYO sticks, and the price gap between Spain and neighboring France increased. Modeling of two realistic reform scenarios that reduce/eliminate the price gap between FM and RYO suggest substantial increases in government revenues and up to 700 000 fewer smokers and 210 000 fewer premature deaths., Conclusions: Current European Union (EU) legislation on tobacco taxes leaves ample room for much-needed tobacco tax reform. For the sake of both public health and the economy, Spain should increase its Minimum Excise Tax. This would not only save lives, but also bring much-needed revenue for the government., Implications: The stance of Spain on tobacco taxes has deteriorated recently. This study argues that the failure of successive governments to raise minimum taxes in an inflationary context has made tobacco products more affordable, and quantifies the improvements in smoking prevalence and excise revenue that would accrue if the authorities act urgently increasing rates within realistic limits. Spain is representative of European countries where government inaction has rendered minimum tobacco taxes obsolete. Given the postponement of the revision of the EU Tobacco Tax Directive, this study highlights the need to act unilaterally within the existing legal framework., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Maintaining the stability of foreign trade in an uncertain environment is crucial to building a new development pattern. By combing through the existing literature, this paper analyzes the impact of economic policy uncertainty on enterprise export recovery from the perspective of market integration. Firstly, theoretical analysis shows that economic policy uncertainty is expected to attenuate enterprise export recovery levels by amplifying export transaction costs. Secondly, the escalation in market integration is anticipated to mitigate the attenuation above effect through the mechanism of "enhanced production efficiency", while simultaneously amplifying it through the mechanism of "intensified market competition". Based on the empirical test of China's micro-level data, it is found that the rise of market integration generally alleviates the weakening effect of economic policy uncertainty on enterprise export resilience, and this mitigation effect is more obvious for high-efficiency enterprises; The test results of further mechanism analysis and heterogeneity analysis are also consistent with the logic of theoretical analysis., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright: © 2024 Zhu, Gao. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

In order to improve the operation efficiency and market competitiveness, how to optimize the ticket pricing strategy of high-speed railway to match the dynamic supply-demand relationship was an urgent problem to be studied. Taking differentiated passenger demand and supply trains as the research object, the space-time service network based on train timetable was constructed. The generalized cost formula and travel utility formula of passenger travel were proposed, which contained economy, rapidity, convenience, comfort, and route correlation cost. A multi-objective dynamic pricing model was proposed. The model aimed at maximize the corporate revenue and maximize passenger travel benefit, and was solved by large neighborhood search heuristic algorithm and path size logit assignment based on capacity constraint-passenger flow increment accurate algorithm. Based on real data, the Shandong circular high-speed railway case compared the average total revenue under different ticket price adjustment ranges and the ticket price for different classes of trains under different OD levels. The case proved the practicability of dynamic pricing adjustment strategy considering train classification, which could provide a reference for the ticket price management of high-speed railway., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 CAO et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Efforts to promote sustainable resource use through reduced meat consumption face challenges as global meat consumption persists. The resistance may be attributed to the lower sales price of meat compared to most plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs). Addressing this, our research delves into the pivotal question of which PBMAs resonate most with consumers and how pricing affects demand. In a hypothetical restaurant context, we conducted 2 representative studies among 2,126 individuals in the United States to scrutinize preferences for meat, analog, semi-analog, and non-analog burgers. First, in a survey, we assessed rankings of the four burgers, alongside evaluating participants' genuine consideration of these choices to discern a diverse preference distribution. Subsequently, in an experiment, we examined the influence of prices on participants' consideration and choice of PBMAs, thereby capturing both phases of the decision-making process. Our survey shows that meat has considerably higher utility and consumer preference than all PBMAs on average, but we also find substantial heterogeneity (i.e., some consumers prefer PBMAs over meat). In the experiment, we establish that there is a negative association between the consideration of meat and PBMA burgers, though consideration of any one PBMA is positively associated with considering other PBMAs. A noteworthy increase in consideration and choice is observed when prices of PBMAs are reduced, while changing the price of the meat burger only has minimal effect on demand. Such findings underscore the importance of affordability beyond price parity in catalyzing the shift toward plant-based diets., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest

This study aims to investigate the simultaneous relationship between bank risk and capital, specifically examining how competition and ownership jointly influence this relationship. We employed the two-step system generalized method of moments to address concerns regarding endogeneity and unobserved heteroscedasticity. Based on data from 44 commercial banks in Bangladesh from 2010 to 2021, our findings reveal several key insights: (I) There is a significant non-linear bidirectional relationship between bank risk and capital: capital exhibits a U-shaped effect on risk, while risk has a non-linear negative impact on capital; (II) in highly contested markets, banks hold higher levels of capital, and heightened competition reduces the risk appetite of commercial banks; while less competition has the opposite effect; (III) private and Islamic commercial banks are more risk-averse than state-owned and conventional ones, and (IV) Private and Islamic banks with strong capital positions in a competitive market can better manage risks than state-owned and conventional banks. However, maintaining higher capital ratios in competitive environments is more challenging for state-owned and Islamic banks than private-owned and conventional commercial banks. These results align with the moral hazard hypothesis, competition fragility hypothesis, and the political view of state ownership. Significant insights from the study will fuel the regulators in shaping policies and regulations surrounding emerging countries like Bangladesh, particularly regarding risk, capital, competition, and ownership policies., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Zheng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Research on productive structures has shown that economic complexity conditions economic growth. However, little is known about which type of complexity, e.g., export or industrial complexity, matters more for regional economic growth in a large emerging country like Brazil. Brazil exports natural resources and agricultural goods, but a large share of the employment derives from services, non-tradables, and within-country manufacturing trade. Here, we use a large dataset on Brazil's formal labor market, including approximately 100 million workers and 581 industries, to reveal the patterns of export complexity, industrial complexity, and economic growth of 558 micro-regions between 2003 and 2019. Our results show that export complexity is more evenly spread than industrial complexity. Only a few-mainly developed urban places-have comparative advantages in sophisticated services. Regressions show that a region's industrial complexity is a significant predictor for 3-year growth prospects, but export complexity is not. Moreover, economic complexity in neighboring regions is significantly associated with economic growth. The results show export complexity does not appropriately depict Brazil's knowledge base and growth opportunities. Instead, promoting the sophistication of the heterogeneous regional industrial structures and development spillovers is a key to growth. This study demonstrates that industrial complexity, which accounts for all employment sectors, provides a more accurate basis for designing effective and inclusive industrial policies in emerging economies like Brazil, compared to export-based complexity., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Cardoso et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study investigates the impact of environmental uncertainty on the digital transformation of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2022. Our empirical analysis reveals that environmental uncertainty negatively affects digital transformation by inducing managerial myopia, hindering research and development (R&D) investment, and exacerbating financial constraints. However, these negative effects can be mitigated by increasing management shareholding, which aligns managers' interests with long-term goals, providing digital transformation subsidies to lower financial barriers, and fostering a favorable legal environment to protect digital investments and innovation. These findings offer valuable insights for understanding how environmental uncertainty influences digital transformation strategies and provide practical implications for enterprises and policymakers in dynamic business environments., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Luo, Tang. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)