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Recent work on Region Innovation Systems (RIS) has emphasised the importance of universities. Until recently, however, related insights into the dynamics of this relationship in respect of the specific role of the science park have been limited. This paper presents a systematic review identifying the key roles of each actor in relation to innovation. We link the dynamic roles performed by the university between science parks and the RIS. Our results enable us to identify how the key activities performed by the university change during its interrelations within the RIS and with the science park. Our analysis of the literature distinguishes between three sets of relationships through which the university plays differing roles: RIS-university, RIS-university-science park, and university-science park. Respectively, the University's relationships between these different RIS actors focuses on: resource sharing, brokerage, and commercialisation-exploitation. Secondly, we find that within each of these relationship types the university can perform three types of roles: on knowledge co-creation, acting as conduit, and inter-organisational relationship building. Distinguishing between these differing relationships and roles enables us to identify a total of nine dynamic roles performed by the University, which include: provision of information, channels of communication, infrastructure, regional networking, building research collaboration, acting as knowledge intermediaries, economic development, technological change and commercialisation processes, and start up creation and commercialisation. The review identifies several gaps in the literature in need of further research, and suggests that university relationships with RIS, interlinked with those between the university and science park itself, are important factors affecting science park innovation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic relationship has been the cornerstone of the China-EU relation as well as the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership which was established in 2003. On the other side of the coin, economic relations have been main sources of disputes between China and the EU since the 2005–2006 textile disputes. This paper examines their mutual perceptions in this field as one way of explaining the development of the bilateral relationship, supported by substantial empirical data. It is found that the successful economic development of China has generated different perceptions between the EU and China. With the difference in the development level reducing, the EU side was concerned more about the rise of China, while the Chinese side emphasised more the relative decline of the EU's economic might. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid economic development has attracted worldwide attention, but the resulting environmental problems also cannot be ignored. Whether environmental regulations can achieve a win–win situation between "green" and "economic growth" has become the focus of academic circles. While related studies have examined environmental regulation through the "Cost-following theory" and "Porter hypothesis", they have mostly focused on a particular region or province, thus neglecting the spatial effects. The spatial effects of environmental regulation are important to study because of the overall environmental correlation across regions and especially adjacent provinces. This paper extends the "cost-following theory" and the "Porter hypothesis" to the spatial perspective and proposes two hypotheses, respectively. Through the spatial expansion of environmental regulation theory, this paper not only analyses the direct effect of local environmental regulation on local economic growth, but also the spatial spillover effect of adjacent provinces' environmental regulation on local economic growth. The empirical results show that the relationship between environmental regulation and economic growth in China is consistent with the spatial perspective of "Cost-following theory", but not with the spatial perspective of "Porter hypothesis". Through the above analysis, this paper is able to address the issues of how to make environmental regulation policies in adjacent provinces or regions as a whole, and how to coordinate environmental regulation with economic growth in adjacent regions. The findings of this paper also suggest that spatial effects need to be sufficiently considered in future studies on environment-related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of global urban development, there are urgent ecological security and environmental pollution problems, green development is the fundamental way for urban sustainable development, economic transformation and mitigation of ecological and environmental problems. Based on the panel data of 283 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2017, this paper analyzes spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of urban green development efficiency (UGDE) and the peer effects of UGDE between cities of different grades. It is found that during the study period, in terms of temporal evolution, the average UGDE in China increased from 0.47 in 2003 to 0.61 in 2017, with a cumulative growth rate of 29.79%, showing a rising trend in general. In terms of spatial evolution, the number of low-efficiency cities and medium-efficiency cities continued to decrease. The eastern region has always been the main distribution area of higher-efficiency cities and high-efficiency cities; in the central region, UGDE in most cities improved significantly; in the western region, UGDE has always lagged behind that in the eastern and central regions. In addition, the center of gravity of UGDE presented a trend of northwest migration in general, with a total displacement of 100.07 km, and UGDE showed a spatial dispersion trend. The empirical results indicate that the improvement of UGDE in large cities has a driving effect on that in neighboring medium cities and small cities through the positive peer effect, and the growth of UGDE in medium cities has a promoting effect on that in neighboring small cities through the positive peer effect; the increase of UGDE in medium cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring large cities, and the growth of UGDE in small cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring medium cities; UGDE promotes each other between large cities through the positive peer effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible to measure the green performance of the manufacturing sector? Which world regions are doing better in terms of green industrialization? This paper develops a novel methodology to respond to these questions by improving the green industrial performance (GIP) index through the refinement and expansion of the green product list that lies at its core. The paper constructs a new database using international comparable data sources such as the UNIDO's industrial statistics database and the UN COMTRADE, to compute the GIP index and rank 116 economies in terms of their ability to produce and export green industrial products. The paper shows that industrialized economies outperformed other economies with Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Czechia and Austria topping the GIP ranking of industrial green performance in 2019. Then it estimates and compares the relative green industrial performance of eight country groupings to conclude that Northern America, Europe and Eastern Asia perform significantly better than the other country groupings. Our analysis of Europe and Eastern Asia serves to display significant differences in green industrial performance of economies even within these two leading country groupings. Finally, the paper puts forward recommendations for future research and measurement of the green performance of the manufacturing sector of the world's economies and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University–Industry Collaborations (UIC) are increasingly recognized as crucial drivers of economic growth and development. While numerous studies have been conducted on this topic, this paper specifically focuses on UIC in the Arab World. The aim of this study is to explore the establishment of successful UIC by conducting a review of existing literature to identify and synthesize key factors that enable collaborative innovation between industry and universities. The findings are summarized into six main themes: the importance of UIC, barriers to UIC, gaps between universities and industry in the Arab World, partnerships and sustainable growth, current trends and perspectives, and future agenda for Arab countries. These themes are elaborated on and used to summarize results from the reviewed studies regarding facilitators of collaborative innovation. The contribution of this work lies in enhancing the existing body of literature and knowledge regarding collaboration between higher education and industry in the Arab World. This research presents specific measures that can be implemented to ensure successful UIC in the future. Its outcomes are significant for policymakers, academics, and industry experts in the Arab region, who aspire to form productive UIC partnerships that encourage economic development and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most important macroeconomic regulation methods, fiscal and tax policy is supposed to play an active role in green economic transformation. Industrial structure optimization is a fundamental approach to address environmental problems, which has been fully demonstrated in the current studies. It is necessary to identify whether the fiscal and tax policy can promote the green economic transition through optimizing industrial structure. Taking property tax policy as an example, this paper investigates whether fiscal and tax policy promotes the green transformation of the urban economy from the perspective of industrial structure upgrading. The results show that the fiscal and tax policy implemented for a certain industry has a significant positive spillover effect on the optimization of the city's overall industrial structure. Scientific and reasonable fiscal and tax policy accelerates the intensive development of urban economy by promoting the upgrading of urban industry. These findings suggest that in terms of cities in the new and old kinetic energy transformation period, government should consider the upgrading of industrial structure in the formulation of fiscal and tax policy and attach great importance to the green development of urban economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the role shipping and logistics foreign direct investment (FDI) plays in developing country export performance, exemplified by the case of the large multinational corporation (MNC) Maersk's investments in Vietnam. The paper aims to generate a deeper understanding of how the introduction of advanced shipping and logistics services by a foreign investor contributed to export growth. The paper is based on a longitudinal case study of Maersk in Vietnam employing more than 100 interviews from Maersk, Maersk's clients, subcontractors, and industry experts conducted between 2003 and 2016, complemented and validated by primary commercial data from Maersk, and secondary industry- and market data. The paper finds that during that period, Maersk impacted Vietnam's export performance through five mechanisms: 1. Building infrastructure; 2. Creating connectivity and market access; 3. Reducing transaction and logistics costs; 4. Bringing buyers and sellers together; and 5. Upgrading export capabilities. While transport and logistics MNCs' role in building infrastructure and reducing trade costs is described in the literature, the paper provides novel insights into their role as intermediaries in trade that provide value chain access and transparency, reduce transaction costs for buyers and producers, and upgrade export capabilities. The paper suggests that Maersk's contributions to Vietnam's export growth from 2003 to 2016 in part can be attributed to its unique competitive advantages originating from its superior organization, technology, and capital intensity. The paper contributes to the literature by deepening it's understanding of the mechanisms through which large shipping and logistics MNCs influence developing countries' export-led industrialization; by proving novel insights into the role of Maersk in Vietnam's development path; and by providing and validating an analytical framework for analyzing shipping and logistics MNCs' role in export led development that may inspire future research, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada has long sought to disperse skilled immigration across the country, with the goal of promoting economic development, improving cultural diversity, and mitigating population decline. The Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) are one mechanism for achieving regionalized immigration: they allow Canadian provinces and territories to use labor market information (LMI) to identify in-demand skills and offer visas to newcomers who match local needs. However, even when LMI is accurate, many factors can prevent newcomer access to local labor markets, particularly in third-tier cities (populations of 100,000 to 500,000), including credential recognition, discrimination, and a lack of settlement infrastructure. This paper centers the stories of three newcomers to Canada, each with senior technology sector experience and arriving through PNPs into third-tier cities. Amidst well-established themes in settlement narratives, such as housing affordability, family, lifestyle, and the role of Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs), this paper suggests that newcomers arriving under programs such as the PNPs may experience LMI congruence or incongruence: the degree to which expectations of a labor market (shaped by being selected for immigration based on particular in-demand skills) match or do not match newcomers' real experiences of labor market access. Policymakers and institutions that use LMI to guide decisions may consider two lessons from the narratives offered in this study: one, the continued importance of reducing barriers to labor market entry for newcomers, and two, the possibility that LMI congruence and accurate expectations play a role in retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing carbon emissions has become an urgent task in China. As the category with the largest economic and emissions contribution to the industry, the carbon emissions research of the manufacturing industry is particularly important. This paper uses the LMDI method to decompose manufacturing carbon emissions into seven influencing factors (i.e., population, urbanization, economic development, investment share, energy intensity, energy structure and emission intensity), in order to explore the factors driving manufacturing carbon emissions during 2003–2018. Then, the paper analyzes the decoupling relationship between manufacturing investment and carbon emissions in 30 provinces. Finally, three scenarios are developed to project future manufacturing emissions at the provincial level up to 2035, and whether manufacturing emissions in 30 provinces can realize peak is discussed. The paper results in three main findings. First, we find that energy intensity played the most important role in decreasing the manufacturing emissions during the whole study period, while the economic development and investment share were the main effect promoting manufacturing carbon emissions. Second, China experienced a process from weak decoupling to strong decoupling between manufacturing invest and emissions. Third, China's manufacturing carbon emissions can only achieve the carbon peaking target in 2030 under the High scenario, and 7 provinces cannot reach the peak before 2035 under the three scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is designed to investigate the effect of corruption as a representative of institutional factors on environmental quality for a panel of Commonwealth of Independent States. Data is mostly from World Development Indicators of World Bank covering the period from 2003 to 2013. Corruption data is from World Governance Indicators of World Bank. Panel two-stage least squares considering the endogeneity problem between corruption and economic growth and panel generalized least squares analysis were conducted to estimate the direct and indirect effects of corruption on CO2. The result shows that corruption has been shown to increase CO2 directly while decreasing it indirectly by obstructing economic growth. The total effect of corruption on environmental quality for a panel of Commonwealth of Independent States is estimated to be negative. It confirms the severity of the corruption problem and the necessity for considerable efforts to overcome it for transitional economies to prepare for the low-carbon economy. Also, evidence of the N-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve is confirmed, showing the possibility of re-degradation after reducing the CO2 level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's environment of the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI), debate continues about whether it has beneficial effects on economic development. However, there is only a fragmented perception of what role and place AI technology actually plays in economic development (ED). In this paper, we pioneer the research by focusing our detective work and discussion on the intersection of AI and economic development. Specifically, we adopt a two-step methodology. At the first step, we analyze 2211 documents in the AI&ED field using the bibliometric tool Bibliometrix, presenting the internal structure and external characteristics of the field through different metrics and algorithms. In the second step, a qualitative content analysis of clusters calculated from the bibliographic coupling algorithm is conducted, detailing the content directions of recently distributed topics in the AI&ED field from different perspectives. The results of the bibliometric analysis suggest that the number of publications in the field has grown exponentially in recent years, and the most relevant source is the "Sustainability" journal. In addition, deep learning and data mining-related research are the key directions for the future. On the whole, scholars dedicated to the field have developed close cooperation and communication across the board. On the other hand, the content analysis demonstrates that most of the research is centered on the five facets of intelligent decision-making, social governance, labor and capital, Industry 4.0, and innovation. The results provide a forward-looking guide for scholars to grasp the current state and potential knowledge gaps in the AI&ED field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has prompted closer cooperation in aquatic products trade between China and Vietnam. Studying the aquatic trade situation and export trade growth dynamics of China and Vietnam can help clarify the aquatic trade relationship between China and Vietnam and promote the sustainable development of bilateral aquatic trade cooperation. This paper analyzes the trade growth dynamics of aquatic products exported from China and Vietnam from 2002 to 2020 using the ternary marginal method. The trade growth pattern of aquatic products exported from China to Vietnam is "both quantity and price growth," and the trade growth pattern of aquatic products exported from Vietnam to China is "quantity growth mainly, extensive growth supplemented." The two countries have apparent differences in the growth dynamics of aquatic products export trade. Moreover, there is a higher complementarity when exporting Vietnam's aquatic products to China than China's aquatic products to Vietnam. Based on these, analyze the factors affecting the growth dynamics of Vietnam's aquatic products export to China: Vietnam's economic development level negatively affects the price index and quantity index of Vietnam's aquatic products exported to China, and Vietnam's aquatic product output affects the price index. China's trade freedom positively affects the price index and negatively affects the quantity index. Finally, this paper put forward suggestions to promote the sustainable development of bilateral aquatic products trade between China and Vietnam to facilitate the formulation of relevant policies between the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands the research on how shared prosperity is achieved in East Asian countries (regions). Based on welfare production regime theory, this paper advances a theoretical framework to link economic growth to income distribution. The main argument is that the match between the skills developed by social protection systems and the needs of product market strategies is key to economic progress. The skills and the social protection systems could also influence income allocation through distribution and redistribution. The net effect of the two channels determines the result of income equality. A longitudinal exploration of Japan, Taiwan and Korea in the export-led growth period (1961–1979) and the knowledge economy period (1980–1996) supports the argument. A policy implication of the argument is that China could strategically adjust its welfare production regime to achieve shared prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the efficiency of factor allocation, breaking the resource curse, and achieving high-quality economic development are an urgent concern in resource-based cities. Using the panel data of 116 prefecture-level resource-based cities in China from 2005 to 2020, this paper constructs the data envelopment analysis-Malmquist index model to measure the level of high-quality economic development; to construct a resource misallocation growth accounting model based on the total production function to measure the distortion coefficient, the threshold panel model is employed to explore the threshold effect of factor market distortion on high-quality economic development. The results yielded three important findings: (1) The green total factor productivity of resource-based cities in China presents spatial heterogeneity and type heterogeneity. (2) Factor market distortion gradient standards are proposed innovatively, and the factor market distortion level shows the spatial heterogeneity and type heterogeneity. (3) The influence of factor market distortion on high-quality economic development in resource-based cities presents a double threshold effect. According to the above research conclusions, this paper gives several policy recommendations to promote the factor marketization allocation and high-quality economic development of resource-based cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance is key in supporting industries' green transformation and helping achieve low-carbon economic (LCE) development. This paper constructs an LCE development index using panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020. Based on the establishment of the first five pilot green finance zones in China in 2017 as a quasi-natural experiment, the synthetic control method (SCM) is applied to explore the impact of green finance policies on the level of LCE development and to analyze the mechanism and evaluate the policy effects. The empirical results show that (1) the synthetic analysis unit better fits the development trend before the implementation of the pilot. (2) After the implementation of the pilot reform, the level of LCE development in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Guizhou provinces has a more significant enhancement effect, but the enhancement in Xinjiang is not significant, which indicates that the reform effect in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Guizhou is significantly better than that in Xinjiang to a certain extent. (3) The samples were statistically significant and passed the placebo and ranking tests. Additionally, this paper analyzes the mechanism of policy effectiveness in terms of sci-tech innovation (STI) and energy consumption structure: green finance as a grip for economic transformation can provide financial support for regional STI and energy consumption structure upgrade and promote the capital flow to green low-energy industries, ultimately achieving sustainable economic development. Based on the above findings, policy insights can be provided for the improvement of green finance pilot regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donors have strongly advocated decentralization on the grounds that it broadens the participation of citizens in development processes, thereby increasing government responsiveness to their needs. Although there have been studies seeking to establish the veracity of this claim, they remain weak on two fronts. One, while wealth differentials affect citizen participation, these studies approach citizens as a homogenous group. Two, participation is mostly viewed narrowly—participation in elections. Drawing on empirical data from Ghana's decentralization reform, this paper addresses these gaps by questioning how pro-poor citizen participation in decentralized development planning has been. I argue that although Ghana's decentralization was propagated on championing pro-poor grassroots participation in governance and development, in reality, participation is elitist and has failed to reflect the voices of the poor. My findings demonstrate that the participation structures and processes used in local development planning are unfavourable to the poor in many respects. Elite and representative participation is promoted to the detriment of broad citizen participation. This exclusion is resulting in surging apathy of citizens towards the district assemblies—institutions hitherto trusted as their development champions. This paper concludes that the poor will remain voiceless despite decentralization unless the structural barriers to their participation are tackled in decentralization design and praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of population agglomeration on urban economic development quality in various cities of China. The results show that population agglomeration significantly contributes to the improvement of urban green total factor productivity by increasing population diversification, promoting knowledge spillovers, and reducing pollution emission intensity. Moreover, we find that population agglomeration in type II big cities and type I large cities significantly improves green total factor productivity, while the impact of population agglomeration in metropolises and mega-cities on green total factor productivity is not significant. On the one hand, type II big cities and type I large cities are in the period of rising economic development, the population has not yet reached saturation, and there is still a large demographic dividend space. On the other hand, excessive population agglomeration also brings about "urban diseases" such as population congestion and traffic congestion, especially in the metropolises and mega-cities. Finally, using data on producer services and its sub-sectors, we identify a more significant driving effect of high-end talent agglomeration on green total factor productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constraints and incentives of the ecological policy have an important impact on the coordinated development of ecological areas. Based on the panel data of 1613 counties in 23 provinces in China from 2002 to 2019, this paper analyzes the impact of this policy on economic development using the quasi-natural experiment of the transfer payment in national key ecological functional areas (TPNKEFA) and studies the impact of the transfer payment scale on economic development based on the panel threshold model. First, the results reveal that the TPNKEFA can significantly boost economic development, compared with the control group, TPNKEFA can increase gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita GDP by 6.14% and 10.72%, the results have been validated by some placebo tests, and the impact of this policy on economic development is sustained and effective. Second, heterogeneity results show that TPNKEFA has the greatest positive effect on the economic development in the eastern region, followed by the central region, and the least positive effect on the western region. Furthermore, the TPNKEFA facilitates local economic development primarily by increasing human capital in ecological functional areas. Third, the capital scale of TPNKEFA has the double-threshold effect on economic development, the larger the scale is, the stronger the effect is. The capital size of TPNKEFA has the greatest impact on regional economic growth in eastern region, whereas it has the weakest impact in western region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most Latin American countries entered the ranks of middle-income levels almost simultaneously with Japan and South Korea. However, while Japan and South Korea embarked on the path of economic development through technological innovation and industrial upgrading, Latin America fell into the middle-income trap. By examining the history of industrial and technological development in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, three representative countries in Latin America, this paper finds that the fundamental reasons for Latin America falling into the middle-income trap lie in the tension between the choice of industrialization path and primitive accumulation, as well as the institutional deficiencies in technology and industrial development. Latin America, which has fallen into the middle-income trap, finds it hard to upgrade its technology and is trapped in premature industrialization and the middle-technology trap. It can be said that Latin America has fallen into a double trap, which reinforces each other and forms a solid trap pattern. The warning from the Latin American experience is that late-developing countries need to maintain an open attitude during the process of technological catching up, build a complete technological innovation system, enhance industrial and technological governance capabilities, and seize the window of opportunity for technological and industrial upgrading. Otherwise, there is a significant risk of falling into the middle-income trap and even the double trap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green transformation of industry and sustainable economic development both require considerable investment. In this regard, green finance that is compatible with economic development can help cope with the massive demand for capital. Taken China's Yangtze River Delta (YRD) as an example, this study is to measure the coordination degree between green finance and economic development. First, the concept, content and scope of green finance is defined based on the new financial regulation mechanism. Second, a green finance measurement index is built to calculate the green finance index for 30 Chinese provinces by the CFA test. Third, based on the economic structure index, an economic development index is built. Testing the rationality of green financial index and the economic development index, this paper finally measures the degree of coordination between green finance and economic development in the YRD. The results reveal that, first, green finance is a financial instrument that integrates financial industry development, environmental improvement, and economic growth. The measurement of the green financial development index includes the sum of regional green credit, green investment, green securities, and green insurance. Second, after years' development, the comprehensive score of YRD's coupling coordination degree exceeds 0.8 in 2020, which shows a high level of coordinated development between green finance and economic construction. However, there is a 2-year timing effect between the economic development and green finance index increase, which reveals that green finance development in the YRD requires further policy guidance and support. This study's findings can provide a theoretical reference and case support for the further development of green finance and related policies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have given enormous attention to the roles of energy use and trade in economic growth strategies; however, recent international trade literature suggests that not merely the volume of trade but the diversification of goods may have a potential effect on economic growth. Thus, this paper uses the diversification of export goods and diversification of import goods as explanatory variables along with energy consumption and assessed the role of these important variables in economic development. The empirical results from Westerlund's (J Appl Econom 23:193–233, 2008) and Westerlund's (Oxf Bull Econ Stat 69:709–748, 2007) tests disclosed the existence of cointegration. The long-run estimations obtained from the CUP-FM technique revealed that both import and export product diversifications positively influence economic growth. This presents a vital opportunity for emerging nations to expand growth by diversifying export and import products. Likewise, energy use, labor, and capital contribute to increasing economic growth. The estimates from the causality test illustrated bidirectional causality between export diversification and economic growth and unidirectional causality from energy to export diversification. Finally, policy suggestions to expand economic progress are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political uncertainty has become an essential factor affecting the development of the substantial economy in recent years. It has also become a focal issue debated in the macroeconomic and microfinance circles. Apparently, in China, which is currently coexisting with transitioning and emerging markets, on the one hand, regular replacement of local government officials, the current administrative system coexists with an irregular replacement for various reasons. This paper empirically tests the influence of political uncertainty on the risk of stock price crashes based on the annual sample of 9091 Chinese-listed companies from 2007 to 2020. The empirical results suggest that corporate share price crash risk is lower when faced with political uncertainty. We further find that the inhibitory effect of political uncertainty on the risk of a stock price crash does not take effect until a new official takes office for about a year or so. Moreover, officials who took office from a different place, especially new officials transferred by provincial departments, significantly reduce the risk of stock price crashes within their jurisdiction. Meanwhile, the abnormal departure of outgoing officials increases the risk of the stock prices crash of enterprises in their jurisdiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the nineteenth century, federal Indian policy oscillated between two extreme positions: assimilation versus isolation. While scholars have often been interested in the impact of past federal policy on current levels of economic development among American Indian tribes, none have explicitly examined the influence of federal assimilation policy on long-run economic development. In this paper, I take advantage of tribal-level variation in the application of federal policies to estimate the effect of assimilation on long-run economic performance. To quantify the impact of such policies, I introduce a novel measure of cultural assimilation: the prevalence of traditional indigenous names relative to common American first names. To calculate the distribution of name types, I have gathered the names and locations for all American Indians enumerated in the 1900 United States census. After classifying each name, I calculated the reservation-specific share of non-indigenous names. I estimate the relationship between cultural assimilation in 1900 and per capita income from 1970 through 2020. I find that historical levels of assimilation are consistently associated with higher levels of per capita income in all census years. The results are robust to the inclusion of a variety of cultural and institutional controls and regional fixed effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water security in arid and semi-arid Middle Eastern climates has been severely impacted by effects of climate change such as reduced precipitation, diminished storage, increased evapotranspiration, and prolonged heat waves. These climate effects are compounded in Iraq, where populations, agriculture, industry, and energy rely heavily on varying transboundary water flows to meet water demands. Iraq's most profitable sector, energy, is especially threatened by insufficient water supply, which complicates government decision making in energy infrastructure development. The goal of this paper is to develop a scenario-based multi-criteria analysis framework to prioritize infrastructure investments in the context of climate change and scarcity of natural resources. Infrastructure facilities are evaluated against social, economic, climate, and hydrologic criteria across a set of disruptive climatological, economic, and social scenarios to identify robust initiatives and the most and least disruptive scenarios to the system. A particular innovation of this paper is the evaluation of hydrology data derived from satellites in determining water scarcity impact on individual energy facilities. The methods are demonstrated for a critical sector of Iraq's economy: oil and natural gas. The demonstration includes 13 system-order criteria, 44 oil and gas initiatives within Iraq, and seven risk scenarios. The results include an accounting of the most and least disruptive scenarios to energy sector priorities and scenario-based system orderings to guide stakeholders in investment prioritization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although land-use change driven by general economic factors has been discussed substantially, rarely has any work been done within the perspective of economic geography – considering the impact of economic spatial differences. This study applies the 3Ds (Density, Division and Distance) framework published by the World Bank to explore their impacts on urban land-use change – focusing on urban land and stand-alone industrial land. Employing the dynamic system-GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) model and a mediating effect model, we examine the direct and indirect effects of 3Ds on land-use change in cities with different income levels and in different regions. Our results find that deepening spatial differences facilitate the expansion of urban land and stand-alone industrial land use. Furthermore, the 3Ds has indirect effects on land use through the interactions between density and distance, as well as between division and distance. These impacts are divergent in cities with different income levels and region-specific. The main contribution of this paper is twofold. Theoretically, the study develops a new systematic framework to explain land-use change within the field of economic geography. Empirically, we examine the theoretical framework of spatial inequality by considering both direct and indirect effects. This study also has important policy implications for improving the economic value of land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance can promote economic transformation and technological innovation and play a key role in solving the ecological environment and energy crisis. This paper constructs a comprehensive ecological livable environment evaluation system based on the provincial panel data in China from 2011 to 2019. At the same time, the panel mediation effect and spatial econometric model are used to test the impact of green finance on the ecological and livable environment. The main research conclusions include the following: (1) green finance has significantly improved China's ecological and livable environment; (2) green finance improves the ecological and livable environment by improving the level of technological innovation; (3) the impact of green finance on the ecological livable environment has regional heterogeneity, and green finance in the central provinces has a better effect on the improvement of the ecological livable environment; and (4) the ecological livable environment among Chinese provinces has a significant positive spatial correlation. Among them, green finance has significantly improved the local ecological livable environment but reduced the ecological livable environment of surrounding provinces. Based on the above conclusions, this paper suggests that the government should pay more attention to green finance and technological innovation and coordinate the development of the ecological livable environment among provinces. The research results provide empirical evidence for better developing green finance and improving the ecological livable environment and also provide certain theoretical guidance for China's coordinated regional development and high-quality economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic and technological development zone (ETDZ) serves an essential role in driving green development and ecological civilization. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the impact of ETDZs on eco-efficiency for sustainable development. This paper investigates the impact of the establishment of ETDZs on eco-efficiency by constructing a differences-in-differences (DID) model on the basis of 253 cities in China from 2004 to 2017 as the dataset. This paper also explores the possible intrinsic impact mechanisms through the channels of industrial structure and technological innovation by constructing a mediating effect model, and the heterogeneous effects of ETDZs on eco-efficiency from the perspectives of regional imbalance and city class heterogeneity. Statistical results report that ETDZs significantly positively affect eco-efficiency and such effects are most significant in the first year after the establishment of ETDZs. Industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation are essential role mechanisms for ETDZs to enhance eco-efficiency. Besides, the enhancement effect of ETDZs on eco-efficiency is only observed in the eastern part of the city, with an insignificant inhibitory effect in central and western parts of the cities. However, the establishment of ETDZs in cities with higher city classes is more beneficial to improve eco-efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Baidu migration data to obtain the intercity trips between cities in China. Taking intercity travel as a functional connection between cities, taking into account the internal and external intercity travel connections of urban agglomerations, an improved rank scale distribution method was used to quantitatively measure the form and function of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Chengdu-Chongqing, Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Harbin-Changchun urban agglomerations. It is found that, firstly, there are differences in the Functional Polycentricity presented by the internal and external connections of urban agglomerations, which are related to the economic development of urban agglomerations and central cities. Secondly, there are differences between Morphological Polycentricity and Functional Polycentricity of the eight urban agglomerations measured by the internal and external connections, indicating that the external connections have a significant impact. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections of urban agglomerations. The study of urban agglomerations should not ignore the internal or external connections, and the overall consideration can more comprehensively reflect the polycentric characteristics of urban agglomerations. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections, and the study of urban agglomerations should not ignore internal or external connections. Overall consideration can better reflect the polycentirccharacteristics of urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the green belt and road is an inevitable choice to conform to and lead the green and low-carbon cycle development and an inherent requirement for sustainable development. Therefore, we establish an evaluation system of green development oriented to carbon neutrality, and calculate the green development level (GDL) of the provinces along the belt and road in China from 2003 to 2018 by using a three-dimensional evaluation model. In addition, this paper employs the Obstacle Degree Model to identify the main obstacle factors that affect GDL, and provides targeted and differentiated countermeasures and suggestions for improving the regional GDL. Our results suggested that the overall GDL has improved, but not obvious, with a low level. The GDL and coordination degree between different regions exist certain differences, and its spatial pattern is characterized by "high in southeast and northeast, low in southwest and northwest". From a regional perspective, innovation capacity is the key factor that affects the green development of the region in southeast, northeast, northwest and southwest China. Driving economic green transformation and promoting industrial energy conservation and emission reduction through technological innovation are the internal driving forces to achieve regional green sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economy has developed rapidly since the implementation of its reform and opening-up policy. However, the long-term extensive development has also brought serious ecological problems to China. Ecological crises, such as air pollution, water pollution and land desertification occur frequently. Green finance has become a path to promote China's sustainable economic development as an economic activity to deal with climate change, improve the ecological environment and make rational use of resources. This paper will construct a spatial econometric model and coupling coordination degree model to carry out empirical research. Based on the data from 1999 to 2020, this paper constructs an evaluation index system of green finance and an economic ecology system. First, the spatial autocorrelation model is used to analyze the spatial relationship. Second, the coupling coordination degree model is used to measure the evolution of the coupling coordination relationship between green finance and economic ecology. The results show that green finance has a strong spatial agglomeration. Economic and ecological development has maintained a stable spatial positive correlation. The spatial difference of economic ecological development is more obvious than the development of green finance. The development of green finance has a significant positive role in promoting the economic and ecological development of its province. The degree of coupling and coordination of green finance and economic ecology shows an increasing trend, changing from transition type to coupling and coordination type. It shows that China's green finance can effectively promote the overall optimal development of economic ecology to a certain extent. However, no high-quality coordination was observed in the result of coupling coordination, and thus, there is still some room for progress in the development of the two. China needs to change the current mode of economic development comprehensively and take the road of harmonious development suited to the economy and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the effects of money laundering (ML) and corruption on socioeconomic development in Iran as a case study for developing countries. We also investigate the complex interactions among socioeconomic development, ML, corruption, private expenditure, and dependence of the Iranian economy on oil production. The paper uses the partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to estimate an index of Iranian ML over the period 1997–2017. The results show that in the short run, there is a positive overall effect of ML on economic development. This effect is due to the multiplicative effect of the reinvestment of criminal proceeds in the national economy. We estimate that, in the last decade, a plausible estimate of Iranian ML is approximately 10% of official GDP. From a methodological perspective, this research applies a new calibration approach to convert the latent scores calculated by PLS-SEM into actual values of ML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background that economy and urbanization of China are gradually entering the stage of high-quality development, clarifying the influence of economic development on urban livability is of significant academic and practical value. In this paper, regarded as one "factor", livability was introduced into the research framework of production function, and a theoretical model of the impact of economic development on urban livability was established. Based on the panel data of 40 cities in China from 2005 to 2019, the System GMM, panel threshold model and other methods were further adopted to carry out an empirical analysis. The results show that: (1) The livability level of large and medium-sized cities in China from 2005 to 2019 has been rising generally, but they present obvious characteristics of dimensional and spatial differentiation. (2) In general, economic development has an inhibiting effect on the improvement of urban livability, but this logical effect shows obvious heterogeneity in different time periods and diverse city scales. This inhibitory effect is more significant for the cities before entering the new normal phase of economy, and large-scale municipalities and economically-developed provincial capitals (namely Class-A cities). (3) There are significant threshold effects in the impact of economic development on urban livability, where the threshold variables are income level and economic development. With the increase of city dwellers' income, this effect presents an inverted N-shaped nonlinear feature. When the development of economy makes the average wage of employees between 60,000 and 80,000 yuan, economic development can significantly improve urban livability. Also, there is a significant single threshold inhibitory effect when economic development is taken as a threshold variable. However, its negative impact shows a law of diminishing marginal efficiency. In addition, a similar threshold effect is found in smaller-scale Class-B cities. The findings of this research can provide some insights for urban planners and policymakers in both China and vast developing countries to understand better the relationship between economic development and urban livability. Finally, according to the research findings, we proposed the corresponding policy enlightenment from both "macro guidance" and "micro action". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, China's economy is transforming from rapid development to high-quality development, and environmental pollution stands out as an urgent need to be addressed. Fiscal decentralization is considered to confer economic incentives on local governments to obtain the right to gain and spend in economic growth. However, at the same time, political incentives are given to local officials under the promotion mechanism based on gross domestic product (GDP) assessment, and these two incentives become key to the environmental performance of the jurisdictions. Therefore, this paper incorporates fiscal decentralization, promotion incentives, and environmental pollution into a unified framework and theoretically analyzes the effects of fiscal decentralization, promotion incentives on environmental pollution, and the intrinsic mechanism of action. Using panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2002 to 2018, we examine that fiscal decentralization significantly promotes environmental pollution, and this performance is more obvious in economically underdeveloped regions. In terms of its mechanism of action, fiscal decentralization affects environmental pollution by increasing the demand for foreign direct investment, inhibiting technological progress, and enhancing environmental regulation, while foreign direct investment and technological progress significantly inhibit environmental pollution, but environmental regulation does not present a role of pollution control. Further study finds that under the consideration of "GDP-based promotion incentives," local officials will generate "competition for investment," relax environmental standards for FDI, and generate "competition for growth", which will inhibit technological progress and incomplete enforcement of environmental regulations, thus exacerbating local environmental pollution. On this basis, this paper proposes to further deepen the fiscal system reform, promote the optimization of local government competition system, and effectively restrain the vicious competition behavior of local officials under the fiscal decentralization system, so as to provide relevant insights for realizing China's economic transformation as well as high-quality economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the panel data of 16 cities in Hubei Province from 2009 to 2019 (excluding the data during Covid-19 pandemic period), we construct multi-temporal difference-in-differences model (DID) and Spatial Durbin model (SDM) to explore the impact of the High-speed Railway (HSR) construction on the regional economic development in terms of direct economic effect, indirect economic effect and spatial spillover effect. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: firstly, HSR construction promotes the economic development of cities in Hubei Province in a long time and in a large spatial scope. And the impacts on the economic development are significantly heterogeneous among different types of cities. Also, HSR construction has widened the economic development gap among cities to some extent. Secondly, the upgrading of an industrial structure and the improvement of urbanization level both play mediating roles in the economic impact of HSR construction. Thirdly, the HSR construction has significant spatial spillover effect on economic development, but the spillover effect becomes insignificant with the increase of distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that technology transfer provides an important boost for promoting national economic development, technology transfer policy (TTP) has attracted more and more attention from academia and industry. The government issued many policies. However, the implementation effect of TTP still needs to be clarified. This study is carried out from the progressive level of "text content-influence path-implementation effect." It aims to adopt a systematic analysis method to analyze policy tools and policy implementation stages, then builds a conceptual framework of the influence path of TTP. Then the relationship between variables in the qualitative model was clarified, and the system dynamics (SD) model was used to build a quantitative model with four feedback loops. Finally, taking Liaoning, China as an example, the system simulation and sensitivity analysis of the main parameters are implemented in Vensim PLE. Different policy tools have different roles in the TTP impact stages of research, transfer, and industrialization. Based on the data of 2013–1019, the SD model constructed in this paper can be used to predict the implementation effect of TTP during 2020–2015. Simulation and sensitivity analysis results provide practical enlightenment for government departments to improve the implementation effect of the existing TTP. This study also provides other researchers with a systematic understanding for improving the implementation effect of TTP with a "text content-influence path-implementation effect" conduction chain and provides new insights for further research on TTP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth. To do so, we analyze whether entrepreneurial activity (based on data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM) affect the economic activity in a given country (as measured by the Gross Domestic Product, GDP). A key methodological contribution of this paper is that the relationship between entrepreneurial activity and GDP growth considers that a relevant part of economic growth is explained by exogenous variables. For this reason, the empirical analysis is based on data on South American Countries, where external factors are more relevant to drive GDP. We found that for the countries analyzed there is a positive and significant relationship between intrapreneurial activity and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As lignite mining protests and #FridaysForFuture demonstrations gained momentum in Germany and further protests have been developing over time, this paper investigates the various causes and effects of the country's energy transition. Society and politics alongside economic, environmental, and technological developments have led to a profound and continuous transformation of the energy system, a transformation which is remarkable in terms of reach and speed for an economy of the size of Germany's. Pressure to transform the country's entire energy system even faster has recently been levelled due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Results: From the perspective of the different pillars of sustainability and various stakeholder groups, this paper discusses the influences and their interdependencies towards the status quo of the German energy sector. We have used the cause-and-effect analysis method to answer the question of why major energy generators in Germany are still struggling with the energy transition, as well as the question of why a strategy towards more sustainability is needed to maintain Germany's industrial strength in the long run. We found that energy transition in Germany is substantially driven by society, which pushes political decisions that lead to an economic transition, while environmental incidents are only triggers for further societal and political doings. Furthermore, technological developments fulfil only needs and do not necessarily hurry ahead of time. Conclusions: Overall, the article creates a profound understanding of the factors influencing the German energy transition which is deeply embedded in the European energy system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though health expenditures are one of the significant determinants of accumulation of human capital and economic growth, researchers have paid less attention to unveiling interactions between health care expenditures and economic performance. The main objective of this study is to investigate disaggregated health care expenditures and economic growth nexus in Türkiye from 1979 to 2019 by using an asymmetric causality approach. The main empirical findings could be briefly summed up as follows: there exist asymmetric causal effects running from total health expenditures, out-of-pocket health expenditures and voluntary health expenditures to economic growth, while there is no asymmetric causal effect from compulsory health expenditures to economic growth. The policy inferences of empirical results for enhancing the productivity of health expenditures are stated in the body of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies have examined only the unidirectional impact of cultural diversity on the economic performance of countries, regions, and cities, not the other ways. They have assumed the diversity as given, while it may also grow, due to in-migration of workers and entrepreneurs, with economic growth and may be dependent on it. This paper models diversity and economic growth in a bi-directional causal frame and demonstrates that economic growth has a substantial impact on religious, language, and overall cultural diversities in the major states of India. However, the Granger causality between economic growth to language diversity and overall cultural diversity is found to be stronger and more widespread across the states than the causality from economic growth to religious diversity. The findings of this paper may have significant theoretical and empirical implications, as mainly the unidirectional way the impact of cultural diversity on economic growth has been advocated and the empirical studies have been modelled to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of published scientific papers and patent applications are indicators of a country's research and development (R&D) capabilities. Since the 2010s, these indicators have declined in Japan. One important reason for this decline is the change in science and mathematics education provided in schools. Education in school can greatly impact the quality of future researchers in science. To examine the impact of the number of class hours in science and mathematics that researchers received in school over the past 50 years, this study analysed data from two surveys conducted in 2016 and 2020. The results show that there is a decline in the number of patents for the younger generation that cannot be explained by age differences, and it is highly correlated with a decline in the total number of hours of science and math in junior high school. Educational policies influence student attitudes towards learning. Changes should be implemented only after validating their effects from a long-term perspective because education policies may have unintended negative impacts on a country's economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that immigrants' dual embeddedness within their host and home countries in the context of transnational immigrant entrepreneurship (TIE) represents an engagement with dual (host and home country) entrepreneurial ecosystems (DEEs). There is increasing recognition among researchers and policymakers of TIEs' contribution to economic development in both their host and home country. This paper aims to contribute to the rapidly growing field of TIE by exploring the theoretical relationship between TIE and DEEs. The research proposes a TIE analytical framework and corresponding research agenda based on the integration of TIE and DEEs. It argues that the DEEs' embeddedness determines the TIE processes and success. This research makes a theoretical contribution to the TIE literature and has practical implications for policymakers and the immigrant community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having previously analyzed the relationship between tourism and economic growth from distinct perspectives, this paper attempts to fill the void existing in scientific research on the relationship between tourism and economic development, by analyzing the relationship between these variables using a sample of 123 countries between 1995 and 2019. The Dumistrescu and Hurlin adaptation of the Granger causality test was used. This study takes a critical look at causal analysis with heterogeneous panels, given the substantial differences found between the results of the causal analysis with the complete panel as compared to the analysis of homogeneous country groups, in terms of their dynamics of tourism specialization and economic development. On the one hand, a one-way causal relationship exists from tourism to development in countries having low levels of tourism specialization and development. On the other hand, a one-way causal relationship exists by which development contributes to tourism in countries with high levels of development and tourism specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional view is that local governments are inclined to ease environmental regulations in response to fiscal pressure (FP) and alleviate FP by sacrificing the environment for economic development (ED). This paper takes Chinese Mainland resource-based cities (RBC) as the research sample but draws different conclusions. The research results are as follows: firstly, for RBC, although FP reduces environmental pollution (EP), it is not conducive to ED. Compared with non-resource-based cities (NRBC), the economic negative effect of FP in RBC is more obvious. Secondly, FP is detrimental to ED by reducing EP, and RBC have not sacrificed the environment to promote ED in the context of FP. This paper summarizes that the development path of RBC should be "optimizing government behavior → increasing FP → improving environmental quality → reducing ED level." Thirdly, the impact of FP on cities with slower economic growth and smaller economic gap is greater, and the impact of FP on cities with better environment is more obvious. This paper argues that facing FP, RBC in China will not trade EP for ED; at the same time, we suggest RBC in other countries in the face of the FP, not only thinking of promoting ED at the expense of the EP and ease the FP, but also the development of green ecological requirement, overall consideration of the relationship between EP and ED, and then achieve green and sustainable ED without degrading the environment as far as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water resources are the source of life for people to survive, especially in agriculture. Water resources provide necessary support for agricultural economic development and irrigation management. Using the panel data from 2013 to 2019, this paper uses the coupled coordination model to explore the degree of synergy between agricultural water resources efficiency (AWRE) and agricultural economic development level (AEDL), and analyzes the spatial correlation of coupling coordination degree (CCD) between the AWRE and AEDL, and further predicts the relationship between the two. The results are as follows: (1) There are superb variations in the CCD among provinces, and the diploma of coordination is greater in the south than in the north; (2) In the spatial correlation pattern, high–high agglomeration areas exhibit an growing trend, and the variety of low–low agglomeration areas is small; and (3) Through the prediction, it is found that in the further, the CCD will show a trend of slow increase in future. For purpose of the coordinated perfection of the two systems, we need to completely discover the connotation of coordinated improvement and promote regional cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between political instability (PI) and economic development has been extensively debated in the social sciences, yielding contrasting empirical results. In this article, we synergise two novel techniques—synthetic control (SC) and matrix completion (MC)—to study the economic effects of PI events on the sub-Saharan African scene. Our identification strategies capture potential spatial and temporal heterogeneities of treatment effects. We show that PI inflicts statistically and economically significant collateral damage, albeit heterogeneous across economies and over time. Notably, the group average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) reveals output shrinkage of approximately 17–20 percentage points. Exploiting the temporal dimension of the two techniques, we find that although output loss persists into the long run, the bulk of the damage is wrecked in the short run. This finding particularly casts doubt on the full economic recovery hypothesis in the near aftermath of a PI episode. Furthermore, we unearth spatial heterogeneities of the effects where we show that the negative effects are disproportionately more pronounced for economies which experience protracted PI episodes. Lastly, our paper demonstrates that while both methods provide reliable counterfactuals, the MC estimator yields significantly better pre-treatment fit in our data than the SC framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small- and mid-sized cities in Canada, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand have increasingly looked to international migration to boost economic growth, address population decline, and fill labour shortages. Policies and strategies adopted to attract but especially retain migrants are often deemed unsuccessful, however, as most migrants continue to show a preference for larger cities. The retention of migrants is generally seen as a goal that can be achieved by meeting specific criteria at the city level such as providing jobs and services and creating a welcoming environment. In this special issue we aim to move beyond this view to consider migrant retention in a broader frame. In this editorial introduction we raise three key analytical points. Firstly, we conceptualise the temporal and spatial dimensions of retention, noting how retention is not only about how long migrants stay in a place but also why they stay there, where they move on to, and whether they return. Secondly, we consider how migrants decide to move or stay, and the extent to which these processes can be considered purely rational, or also subjective and inter-subjective. In this sense, we consider what migrants "do" with policies, rather than how policies shape their decisions to stay or leave. Thirdly, we explore how not only formal but also informal policies and practices play a role in making cities welcoming and attractive to migrants. We then present a place-based perspective and offer some comparative insights. The contents of the Special Issue are subsequently presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Italy, shrinking regions cover more than 60% of the national territory. Although these areas are in demographic and economic decline (Accordo di Partenariato, 2014), many resilient initiatives have been developed over the years (Moss, 1996; Meloni, 2015). Among these experiences, several are aimed at welcoming the migrant population (Corrado, 2013), becoming privileged spaces for more equitable and inclusive modes of territorial regeneration (Van der Ploeg et al., 2003; Oostindie et al., 2010). Drawing upon these premises, the paper intends to reflect on the presence of non-EU migrants in shrinking Italian areas and on their role in local sustainable development. The contribution presents some of the first results of the Horizon 2020 project "WELCOMING SPACES", with a specific focus on the municipality of Camini, one of the most shrinking areas in Southern Italy, to highlight how migration can lead to local development and rural regeneration processes. Camini is a good case study, as the reception centre managed by the social cooperative 'JungiMundu' hosts 118 migrants out of a total population of 810. Thanks to the presence of this number of people, several public services (i.e., post office, school, etc.) have been (re)activated. In the first part of this article, we introduce the case study, while in the second part, we reflect on how the reception of migrants contributes to the implementation of collective and public services for the whole community. The increase in population, both in terms of newcomers and Italian returnees, has also allowed for the regeneration of the village, economically and socially, creating connections between different cultures and traditions that had almost disappeared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the Economic Fitness (EF) indicator from the World Bank Database that measures the nations level of international competitiveness. At the same time, using input–output tables, we present our estimations of this new metric, replacing the revealed comparative advantages (RCA) from exports in gross value with an estimate of RCA from exports in domestic value-added (DVA). We find that between 1995 and 2015, there is a positive relationship between Economic Fitness and per capita GDP for low and middle-income countries. Besides, we also show that the estimations of the EF using the domestic value-added content of exports changed significantly from 2000 to 2014 since there has been a widening gap between global exports in gross value and exports in value-added. The latter suggests that, given the increasing levels of productive links at the international level, the competitiveness of nations is also conditioned by how they participate in global production networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development requires social development and economic construction to be coordinated with the carrying capacity of the ecological environment. It necessitates adhering to the concept of sustainable development while pursuing economic development and social progress, improving the effective utilization rate of natural resources, and protecting and improving the ecological environment in which people live. This paper takes the e-commerce trade ecological industrial park in Dalian Economic Development Zone as an example to comprehensively evaluate its sustainable development ability using the state-of-the-art techniques of soft computing. Soft computing has recently gained appeal over traditional hard computing because it can cope with uncertainty just as easily as a human can. The basic aim of the study is to avoid excessive resource and environmental pressure hindering the coordinated development of various subsystems of the park. First, an evaluation index system containing four subsystem elements of the environment, society, economy, and resources was constructed, and the importance of each index in the evaluation index system was calculated. Second, the distance model and fuzzy logic of soft computing were used to comprehensively evaluate the sustainability of the selected industrial park. Six criteria were established to describe the sustainability of the industrial park based on the opinions of industry professionals, with references to the research findings of local and international forerunners. The finding of the paper shows that the development level index of each subsystem of the industrial park has continued to rise, except for a few cases. The result also demonstrates that the overall coordinated development degree of the park has increased year by year from 2010 to 2019. This means that the coordinated development level has improved from the initial barely coordinated level in 2010 to the high-quality coordinated development level in 2019; however, the overall coordinated development degree is still less than 0.9. Through this study, it is possible to judge the sustainable development ability of the four subsystems of the industrial park and whether it meets the relevant standards of resource consumption and environmental protection stipulated by the state. It is of great practical significance for promoting the formation of a good ecological chain between enterprises in the park, realizing resource recycling, and reducing waste discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]