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Firms that stand to gain from the institutional framework of a free trade zone (FTZ) usually opt for locations in the FTZ region where they could expect higher returns on investment. This concentration of industries in FTZs can result in a reallocation of productivity, potentially leading to the "hollowing out" effect in existing industries, which can have a beggar-thy-neighbour effect on regional growth. Over the long term, the outcome, whether it leads to prosperity or detriment, hinges on the delicate balance between the immediate static loss associated with resource reallocation and the dynamic gains based on traditional manufacturing sector's growth along the evolving FTZ environment.

Firms that stand to gain from the institutional framework of a free trade zone (FTZ) usually opt for locations in the FTZ region where they could expect higher returns on investment. This concentration of industries in FTZs can result in a reallocation of productivity, potentially leading to the "hollowing out" effect in existing industries, which can have a beggar-thy-neighbour effect on regional growth. Over the long term, the outcome, whether it leads to prosperity or detriment, hinges on the delicate balance between the immediate static loss associated with resource reallocation and the dynamic gains based on traditional manufacturing sector's growth along the evolving FTZ environment., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Du 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.)

Green credit is an innovative financial instrument that aims to promote environmentally friendly innovations. However, financial institutions, as carriers of green credit, exhibit noticeable regional differences in the effects of implementation, leading to disparities in the distribution of green credit across regions, which will have a differentiated impact on inter-regional innovation. Unfortunately, the existing literature overlooks the impact of inter-regional differences in green credit distribution on technological innovation. Therefore, this study utilized panel data from 30 provinces and cities in China from 2012 to 2021, and adopted the spatial Durbin model to study the impact of regional differences in green credit development on green technology innovation. Additionally, this paper explores the moderating effect of green credit on the spatial impact of green innovation from the perspectives of environmental regulation and digital finance. The results of this paper indicate that the development of green credit promotes green technology innovation at the local level but has a negative impact on neighboring regions. And the negative spatial spillover effect is more significant in the central and western regions and polluting industries. Through mechanism testing, this study finds that the negative spatial spillover effect on green technology innovation is primarily driven by the migration of polluting industries across regions and the turnover of green technology R&D staff in response to the pressure of green credit. Furthermore, this paper finds that marketization and public participation in environmental regulation, as well as the presence of digital finance, significantly enhance the promotion of local green technology innovation and mitigate the negative spatial spillover effect. This study provides valuable insights for the Chinese government in implementing a regional linkage strategy for green credit within the context of the green economy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the first examination of competitive devaluation in the 1930s using data on exchange rates. It analyses the impact of currency changes on foreign trade flows of fourteen industrialized countries 1929–1939. It reviews the development of nominal and real effective exchange rates together with trade and economic growth and conducts a disaggregated analysis of trade and bilateral exchange rates with trade partners. Tests show that the beggar-thy-neighbour effects of exchange rate adjustments were few and temporary. Moreover, it is argued that currency depreciations were expansionary not only for countries that devalued but for the international economy as a whole. This argument draws on Ragnar Nurkse (Nurkse, International currency experience, Lessons of the Inter-War Period. League of Nations, 1944) who undeservingly has been associated with the notion of "competitive devaluation". Nurkse showed that currency depreciations increased global monetary reserves, an observation that has gone remarkably overlooked in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a two‐country model with heterogeneous firms, we show that the optimal level and welfare gains of foreign direct investment (FDI) subsidies critically depend on how they are funded. In a setting that resembles tax distortions in emerging markets, we compare the effects of distortionary taxes that are imposed to fund FDI subsidies and examine their cross‐country spillovers. We find that the optimal level of FDI subsidies and the associated welfare gains are much lower than those for non‐distortionary taxes. FDI subsidies funded by distortionary taxes are also found to be beggar thy neighbour, although they generate positive cross‐country spillovers if funded by non‐distortionary taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the spillover effects of Chinese real and monetary sector shocks on the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) economies. The study adopted a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) estimation technique to analyse the dynamic propagation of Chinese shocks in the real sector (gross domestic product (GDP) and trade openness (OPEN)) and monetary sector (nominal interest rate (NIR)) for a sample of 50 BRI countries from 2000 to 2017. The main results revealed that Chinese income shocks positively spill over to all macroeconomic variables except BRI countries' consumer price index (CPI). However, the Chinese trade openness shock only has a temporary positive spillover to BRI international trade and a temporary negative spillover on its monetary policy. In addition, the Chinese monetary policy shock has a negative spillover on GDP and a positive spillover on CPI in BRI economies. Chinese shocks, however, do not constitute a significant source of variation in any interest variable. As explained by the Chinese income shock, the BRI interest rate is the highest percentage of variable variation accumulated over time. Further, the highest variation of Chinese trade shock is BRI trade openness, and lastly, the highest variation of Chinese interest rate shock is CPI in BRI economies. The beggar-thy-neighbour effect may dominate the positive trade effect and is a negative impact of the Chinese shocks. Hence, BRI economies should alleviate the adverse shocks since the upcoming rapid growth from the Chinese has disturbed the BRI economies. Our results reveal the importance of Chinese development on BRI partners' economies and the significance of Chinese shocks in real and monetary sectors in assisting policymakers in designing international and monetary policy for BRI economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper examines the effect of U.S monetary policy spillovers on macroeconomic conditions in Nigeria by estimating a time-varying parameter-VAR (TVPVAR). Design/methodology/approach: The model is applied mainly due to its ability to capture possible nonlinearities and stochastic volatility of real and financial variables used. The impulse response of Nigeria's GDP, CPI inflation, exchange rate and monetary policy to U.S monetary policy proxy by shadow policy rate reveals that the effect on GDP and CPI inflation in Nigeria vary across the three major phases of U.S monetary policies (conventional, unconventional, and normalization). Findings: While the effect appeared to be positive during conventional monetary policy phase, evidence of beggar-thy-neighbour was found during unconventional and monetary policy normalization phases. The negative effect appears to be more significant and last longer than the positive effect. We, therefore, conclude that U.S monetary policy substantially explains the cyclical fluctuations in the Nigeria economy. Practical implications: The results may be used by the macroeconomic policy-makers in their attempt to capture U.S. monetary policy spillovers on macroeconomic conditions in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, Nordic countries have seen a general move towards stricter migration policy, including in the area of refugee family reunification. While the body of literature on family reunification in these countries is growing, we lack a broad overview of research on policy and practice, as well as the impact of policy on refugee wellbeing. We conducted a scoping review of the academic literature on family reunification policy, practice and impact on refugees in the Nordic countries. The objective of this study was twofold: to collect and review academic literature on family reunification policy in the Nordic countries and on the experiences of and strategies used by refugees to navigate this process. We used a key concept in the theory of salutogenesis, a sense of coherence, to frame the analysis of refugee experiences. The findings of the review indicated that there is an uneven coverage of the Nordic countries in the literature, both in terms of geography and thematic focus. Much research reports on the negative impact on refugee wellbeing, but qualitative approaches allow for more nuanced insights into refugee experiences and responses. The use of a sense of coherence helped identify refugee use of resources and strategies in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) revenues are increasingly being discussed as a potential new EU own resource. The aim of this paper is to quantify the revenue potential of the CBAM for the EU budget until 2035. Furthermore, this paper examines the distributional implications of CBAM revenues for Member States. It proposes a methodology to quantify the revenue potential of CBAM and calculates a number of revenue scenarios. The distribution of CBAM revenue among all Member States is compared with the distribution of the GNI-based resource in order to illustrate the distributional effects. According to these results, the annual revenue potential of the CBAM is of the order of €1 billion in the first years after its introduction, rising to around €14 billion by 2035. The distributional effects compared to GNI proportionality are small. The scenario analysis shows the sensitivity of the CBAM revenue forecasts, as they depend crucially on various parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interregional inequality of public services is accompanied by their combined supply by government and market. This study investigates whether the spatial allocation of regional investment influences inequality and explores the differentiated source of such influence, distinguishing between government investment and private investment in China. Results suggest that the interregional inequality of public services is spatialised by the distorted spatial allocation of investment, which manifests itself as capital market segmentation, and it is aggravated by government investment but relieved by private investment. Such effects derive from differences in local protectionism, interregional competition and capital flow between government investment and private investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present some ideas on the tools and financing of a truly supranational industrial policy in the European Union (EU). We begin by reviewing the evolving rationales for and attitudes towards industrial policy, and highlight the growing acceptance of a pro-active role of the State in the economy as a response to external challenges of global scale and transformative impact. At this historical juncture, a polycrisis and a permacrisis are reshaping globalisation, fuelling rivalries and interventions aimed at increasing autonomy and sovereignty over strategic assets as well as to facilitate the green transition. The EU can institutionalise a permanent European industrial policy through the establishment of instruments characterised by a pure European public good nature. We suggest a framework fund on the model of NextGenerationEU package, featuring the 'Europeanisation' of the Important Projects of Common European Interest and better designed centrally managed programmes. We underline the importance of linking the design of industrial policy with the discussion of the EU's own resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing concepts of water political economy focus on political bargaining within relatively static institutional and climactic environments. This article adds 'post' to water political economy to explore how non-stationary climate interacts with endogenous political institutions to create and magnify policy and behavioural uncertainties. These post-water political economy ideas are then applied to food security to explore potential future scenarios. The implications are terrible for poor people living in water-scarce, food-importing countries, but not much better for everyone else. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German Government's growth initiative aims to strengthen immigration into the labour market. In the first three years, 30 %, 20 % and 10 % of the gross income of newly arrived skilled workers will be tax-free. The target group has not yet been precisely defined, but it is likely to be workers with professional and university qualifications under the Residence Act. This Act focuses on the immigration of skilled workers, including the EU Blue Card and the regulations for IT specialists. Under certain conditions, tax rebates can trigger additional migration. However, there are also disadvantageous deadweight and distributional effects. The aim must be to avoid a race to the bottom between international tax rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, digital changes have occurred in various areas, such as production, circulation, and exchange, triggering efficiency and quality changes in the entire economic system and bringing new opportunities for China's energy conservation and carbon reduction policies. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2020, this paper uses ArcGIS software and the Moran index method to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics and agglomeration effects of the digital economy and carbon emissions and uses the spatial Durbin model to analyze the impact mechanism of the digital economy on carbon emissions. The results show that the development of the digital economy can significantly suppress provincial carbon emissions, and the carbon reduction effect of the digital economy has a significant positive spatial spillover effect. The digital economy can reduce carbon emissions by promoting technological innovation and optimizing the industrial structure. However, the carbon emission reduction effect of energy structure optimization is uncertain due to energy rebound effects. The digital economy has a suppressive effect on carbon emissions in both the eastern and western regions, while the development of the digital economy in the central region increases carbon emissions due to factors such as the "resource curse", income effects and energy rebound effects. Digital economy development plays an inhibitory role in the carbon emissions of regions, with the greater the digital economy level, the more significant the inhibitory effect. Based on the above results, corresponding suggestions are proposed to strengthen the development of the digital economy and promote carbon reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance plays a critical role in promoting regional green innovation. However, the precise influence of green finance on diverse facets of green innovation remains underexplored. This study empirically analyses the diverse effects of green finance on heterogeneous green innovation by applying the negative binomial model, the threshold model, andthe spatial error model using China's regional data from 2010 to 2019. The results indicate that green finance has a positive impact on regional green innovation performance, primarily through significant contributions to fossil energy carbon reduction, energy conservation and recovery, and clean energy technology innovation. The effect of green finance is also influenced by the level of local environmental supervision, exhibiting a significant threshold effect. In addition, the development of green innovation in the region can have a siphoning effect on the resources of surrounding areas, hindering their innovation development. These findings highlight the necessity for strategic government policy-making, which should leverage the diverse impacts of green finance on various forms of green innovation. Customizing green financial instruments to suit regional environmental regulatory conditions and the green innovation levels of neighboring regions could significantly aid in promoting regional green transformation and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the shift in Europe's approach to cyber defense, moving from a reactive to a proactive stance. Germany is considering changing its laws to allow for active cyber defense measures, while NATO has adopted a new concept that emphasizes cooperation between military and civilian entities. The article emphasizes the importance of establishing norms for the use of active defense measures and the need for international cooperation in holding cyber criminals accountable. The US has already adopted a proactive approach, focusing on countering threats before they can cause harm. The article discusses the challenges and considerations associated with implementing active defense measures, including the need for transparency, legitimacy, and accountability. It suggests that European states engage in critical discussions and develop evaluation frameworks to ensure responsible and effective use of these measures. The article also highlights the potential risks and benefits of active cyber defense and emphasizes the importance of a common understanding and transparency in disclosing the rationale and effects of these measures. It suggests that empirical research and public data collection can contribute to responsible discussions and democratic support for cyber defense considerations. [Extracted from the article]

Advanced economies have started to engage more pro-actively in designing, promoting and implementing a range of policies that aim to address the concurrence of two powerful and irreversible forces: one is the urgency of addressing societal and existential threats (including income inequality, joblessness, deindustrialisation, climate change, health and aging), and the other is the disruptive unfolding of new technologies (4.0 technologies). Responding to these challenges marks a pivotal moment for the global economy which will impact on places and with their firms, labour, citizens and the natural environment. This exchange paper advocates for a more meaningful continuum between the global, national and regional scales in a multipolar world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds common grounds for a future research agenda in the regional studies of evolutionary economic geography and global production networks. I put forward two 'troubling themes' of (geo)politics and heightened risks as the most disruptive forces in today's increasingly fragmented global economy and argue for their significance in regional studies throughout the post-pandemic 2020s. Massive global change through the reconfiguration of and strategic (de/re)coupling with global production networks will engender new path formation in regional transformation. In this analytical move from the global 'back again' to the regional, there are common questions on epistemology (causal explanations) and substantive issues (network/regional resilience, institutions/the state, inequalities/uneven development and new forms of regional policies) for both communities of researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We focus on the Chinese new energy stock market and explore the impacts of structural fossil energy price shocks and economic policy uncertainty (EPU). To this end, we synthesize the prices of three fossil energy sources, decompose the dynamics of fossil energy prices into energy supply shocks (SS), demand shocks (DS) and risk shocks (RS), and run a TVP-SVAR-SV model. Our findings show that SS significantly influence the new energy stock prices (NE) in that DS have a positive short-term impact for most of the sample periods while the mid- and long-term impacts of RS on NE are negative and larger than those of both SS and DS. We also find that in all three categories of shocks, EPU is the most important predictor negatively related to NE, indicating that a stable policy environment is essential to equity financing in the new energy market. Besides, different categories of EPU have varied impacts on NE in that exchange rate policy uncertainty (ERPU) has the most detrimental effect while the impact of trade policy uncertainty (TPU) shows a positive influence. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for both market regulators and investors participating in transactions of new energy stock portfolios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural quantitative work in international economics typically models trade costs as a log‐linear function of exogenous trade‐policy variables. We propose a structural approach that allows for a nonparametric relationship and for treating tariff and nontariff trade‐policy variables as potentially endogenous. The data reject the assumption of log‐linearity of trade costs in both tariff‐ and nontariff‐policy variables. We assess the effects of a unilateral increase of US tariffs on Chinese imports by 10 percentage points and document that the estimated effects on real bilateral trade‐flow changes would be substantially underestimated by standard approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interdependence occurs when individuals have a stake in the success or failure of others, such that the outcomes experienced by one individual also generate costs or benefits for others. Discussion on this topic has typically focused on positive interdependence (where gains for one individual result in gains for another) and on the consequences for cooperation. However, interdependence can also be negative (where gains for one individual result in losses for another), which can spark conflict. In this article, we explain when negative interdependence is likely to arise and, crucially, the role played by (mis)perception in shaping an individual's understanding of their interdependent relationships. We argue that, owing to the difficulty in accurately perceiving interdependence with others, individuals might often be mistaken about the stake they hold in each other's outcomes, which can spark needless, resolvable forms of conflict. We then discuss when and how reducing misperceptions can help to resolve such conflicts. We argue that a key mechanism for resolving interdependent conflict, along with better sources of exogenous information, is to reduce reliance on heuristics such as stereotypes when assessing the nature of our interdependent relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the international division of labour becomes more entrenched, the distance goods travel before they reach the final consumer increases; at least this was the case before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. International trade and cross-border cargo movements generate significant carbon emissions. Despite theoretical advances, empirical studies frequently draw contradictory conclusions and the influence of international trade on a country's decarbonization efforts is inconclusive. This study examines the carbon emissions caused by countries' transportation services on global value chains. The input–output (IO) model and the 2015 multi-regional environmental input–output table from the UNCTAD-Eora database are employed. The input–output approach was used to determine the carbon emissions generated by the transport sector, along global value chains, in 190 countries. Environmentally extended IO analysis then reallocates emissions responsibilities of the transport sector from production to consumption. The study identifies which country's transport sectors add more value or emit more CO2. Our findings indicated that: (1) the transportation industry of a country may have a detrimental effect on the environment while generating minimal economic benefit; and (2) a country's transport industry may be tightly related to global value chain operations, but does not create considerable environmental impact. Given the significant differences in emissions intensity, we propose not only calculating the production-based accounting (PBA) of CO2 emissions, but also the consumption-based accounting (CBA). If CBA emissions are lower than PBA emissions, a country's transport sector is in carbon-leakage credit. The top three countries with the highest carbon-leakage credit for the transport sector were China, Russia and USA. If carbon emissions are taken into consideration, some nations may cease to possess a comparative advantage in manufacturing and trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Covid-19 pandemic spread fast due to a lack of vaccines and a severe shortage of medical products to treat and combat the disease. Many studies have focused on the characteristics of extant global supply chains and trade networks that are determined by globalization drives for production to low-cost countries and the technological complexity of products with many components distributed globally. This, along with the lockdown of many sectors and national policies that divert exports for domestic use, are reasons for lack of access, especially, in Western countries to these products. Governments adopted policies that aim to mitigate vulnerability to imports of critical medical products that include self-sufficiency measures such as increased domestic production, stockpiling and reduction of exports. However, there is as yet no quantitative way to assess if a country's vulnerability to critical imports has been reduced by such drives for self-sufficiency, when other countries in the trade network follow similar policies. For this we develop a Google PageRank style centrality measure based on the Markose-Giansante eigen-pair method for a specially constructed global bilateral trade network to assess the vulnerability of net importers of critical medical products when they attempt to mitigate it by regional or domestic buffers. We use the network vulnerability centrality measure to quantify the regional self-sufficiency for EU27 countries over 2019–2021 for four Covid-19 critical medical products, viz. facemasks, personal protective equipment, ventilators and hand sanitizers. Despite, growth in value and share of intra-EU regional trade in most of these products by 2021, some countries did not achieve the reduction of vulnerability centrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that neoliberal rationality implies the economic opening of state spaces in a borderless global market, this article proposes a critical reassessment of the origins of actually existing neoliberalism, with the twofold aim of addressing the empirical shortcomings of the conventional narrative and specifying the conditions of the emergence of neoliberalization. The present authors demonstrate how the US Department of State implemented a foreign economic policy between 1933 and 1947 which constituted one of the first neoliberal experiments of the twentieth century, engendering the hotbed of transatlantic neoliberalization which unfolded, albeit incompletely, in the following decades. This revisitation of the origins of neoliberalization has, in turn, enabled a theoretical reframing of the neoliberal spatiality, intersecting multiple stream framework analysis and the neo-institutionalist approach, in order to highlight the complexity of the factors responsible for the emergence of political neoliberalism in the context of the global crisis of the 1930s and 1940s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text discusses two books, "Paint your town red" by Brown and Jones and "The Preston Model and community wealth Building" edited by Manley and Whyman, which explore the concept of the Preston Model. The Preston Model is an approach that aims to keep money and resources within cities and regions, rather than allowing them to flow out to larger cities like London. The books provide a history of the Preston Model, its principles, and examples of its implementation. The text also highlights the role of the university in promoting alternative economies and suggests that universities should be more responsive to the needs of co-operative markets and learners. [Extracted from the article]

Germany's excessive current account surpluses mirror domestic problems. They are rooted in inequality and a weak home market, creating an overdependence on exports. Why, then, are policymakers so reluctant to reduce them? This paper argues that a contributing factor is the public misrepresentation of surpluses' domestic costs. Imbalances are narrated as distributional conflicts between countries, not within them; and bilateral trade is framed as a competition, where surplus countries win. The analysis reconstructs stakeholders' positions and discursive strategies through media narratives and Bundestag debates, using an original dataset of public statements. It finds evidence for a systematic bias disregarding the domestic losers of surpluses. Whenever imbalances are discussed, the triggering event is outside criticism, mainly from the European Commission and the US. The ensuing debate follows an 'us versus them' logic, where foreign critics clash with domestic defenders—mainly the government and export-sector organisations. The success narrative and identitarian discourse about an 'export nation' limits left-wing actors' room to move beyond incremental criticism. The analysis finds an effect of European integration exacerbating imbalances. Germans fend off critics by an arena-shifting strategy: pointing out that exchange rates and trade are European-level prerogatives, disregarding internal policy levers for rebalancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on two-country scenarios (entrants vs. incumbents), this paper employs the synthetic control method to quantify the macroeconomic effects of the European Union (EU) enlargement, and examines whether these effects varied before, during, and after economic crises. We find that enlargement effects are very complex, and significantly varied across economic cycles and the country groups. In particular, EU enlargement induced large and positive effects on the entrants which were merely stifled in the wake of the financial crisis and the subsequent euro crisis. In the interim, the 2004 enlargement triggered an instantaneous negative shock on the incumbents which was further exacerbated by the crises. Subsequently, the entrants recovered beyond their pre-crises gains, registering approximately 14 % higher per capita incomes by 2019, with Poland emerging as a clear winner. Meanwhile, incumbents' per capita incomes have, on average, declined by approximately 9 %. While our findings largely support the notion that the entrants are en route to catching up with their incumbent counterparts, a formal β-convergence analysis exploiting the observed and synthetic data intuitively confirms that EU integration reduces the half-life by 50 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hundredth anniversary of Paolo Sylos Labini's birth seems an excellent opportunity to celebrate his contribution, particularly in light of the European post-COVID-19 extraordinary measures. These revived debates around the relationship between state and market, structural inequalities within Italy, and austerity (Papadimitriu et al. 2020; Palma 2020; Variato et al. 2020; Canelli et al. 2021). Inspired by a reflection on Sylos Labini's assessment of the Italian increasing debt/low-investment/low-growth decline, our rationale is the need to re-focus away from debt towards investment and growth. We compare this alternative focus to the theories underpinning austerity, including the Ricardian equivalence, the crowding-out argument, and the bond vigilantes hypothesis. Our work relies on wide-ranging data analysis and concentrates on three econometric models: a vector error correction model to analyse the relationship between public debt and GDP in the long-run; a vector auto-regression model, which analyses the relationship between GDP and the components of debt, interest rates spread, and exchange rate in the short-run; and an additional vector auto-regression model to examine the primary balance components, including fiscal spending and revenues. We find that Sylos Labini's warnings and his view of the relation between economic development and civil development are no less relevant today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the current debate on industrial policies, by discussing the potential scope and design principles of efficiency-enhancing industrial policies and providing a framework of assessment based on the European experience with State aid control. It argues four main points. First, there is scope for efficiency-enhancing industrial policies that address well-defined market failures. Second, the design of any industrial policy must achieve its objective in the most efficient way possible, in particular avoiding unnecessary distortions to competition. Third, European Union (EU) State aid control rules, as part of competition policy, reflect the economic principles of efficiency-enhancing industrial policies and provide a blueprint that could be applied more broadly to improve the design of industrial policies. Fourth, the pressure from industrial policies of non-EU governments comes with risks of global subsidy races that would produce a suboptimal outcome for all. Some limiting principles must therefore be found. We then illustrate how State aid control can contribute to a more efficient design of climate and industrial policies, contributing to a more efficient green transition, preserving competitive markets, and fostering industrial competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines various phases of the evolution of trade liberalization and globalization, and the changing division of labour in the world economy. It discusses how economic specialization and international trade have been shaped by power relations, corporate interests and national economic capacities. It explores the challenging implications of trade liberalization—accelerated, constrained and broadened by WTO rules and regulations—for developing countries. Earlier food security and industrialization efforts have thus been undermined. With competing demands on and inducements for rivals in a multipolar world, seen as a new Cold War, developing nations should mobilize for pacifist non-alignment. By cooperating better and not taking sides, the Global South will be better able to negotiate more effectively in their own collective and national interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: To achieve the targets for carbon peak and air quality improvement, local governments should propose environmental targets and develop realization paths that are tailored to their unique local conditions. They then promote low-carbon development through the implementation of multiple measures. Purpose of the article: As the government performance appraisal system im-proves, the question arises as to whether governments take the initiative to com-bine environmental policies with government target constraints to reduce carbon emissions. Methods: The announcement of environmental target constraints by local governments in government work reports is considered a quasi-natural experiment. This study examines the effect of government environmental target constraints (GETC) on carbon emissions (CEs) using differences-in-differences (DID), propensity score matching-DID (PSM-DID), and spatial- DID (SDID) with data from 241 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019. Findings & value added: The results demonstrate that GETC can effectively reduce local CEs, with the inhibitory effect being most effective in the first two years after setting environmental targets, but diminishing in the third year. GETC can reduce local CEs through three paths: reducing energy consumption, promoting industrial structure optimization, and encouraging green technology innovation. Spatial spillover effects show that GETC reduces local CEs while exacerbating CEs in neighboring cities, indicating a beggar-thy-neighbor effect in conventional environmental regulation policy. This effect is observed mainly in the geographic matrix and the economic-geographic matrix, but not in the economic matrix. According to heterogeneity analysis, GETC in the eastern and central cities can significantly reduce CEs. The inhibitory effect of GETC on local CEs is stronger in cities where secretaries and mayors have longer tenures and higher levels of education. The paper's theoretical value lies in exploring the reduction of CEs through the combination of government self-restraint and environmental policies, providing a new solution for local governments to achieve CEs reduction. Furthermore, it offers practical insights into the improvement of the Chinese government assessment system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the taxable capacity and tax effort of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It finds that middle-income countries tend to have higher tax ratios compared to low-income countries. The presence of oil reserves negatively impacts the taxable capacity of SSA countries, suggesting a lack of focus on tax collection in oil-producing nations. The study recommends international organizations provide technical assistance to improve taxation of mining rent and calls for regional coordination and macroeconomic policies to expand the taxable base and enhance tax performance in the region. [Extracted from the article]