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The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography has issued a call for papers on the topic of ethnographies of infrastructure. The aim is to examine how infrastructure has been studied ethnographically, exploring its visible and invisible elements, material and non-material dimensions, geopolitical and economic implications, and its relationship to other structures. The special issue seeks papers that offer theoretical perspectives and methodological treatments of infrastructure, grounded in empirical case studies or critical reviews of existing ethnographies. The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2024. [Extracted from the article]

Despite the substantial personal and economic implications of end-of-life decisions, many individuals fail to document their wishes, which often leads to patient dissatisfaction and unnecessary medical spending. We conducted a randomized trial of 1,200 patients aged 55 years and older to facilitate advance directive (AD) completion and better understand why patients fail to engage in high-value planning. We found that including a physical AD form with paper letters as a nudge to decrease hassle costs increased AD completion by 9.0 percentage points (95% confidence interval [CI] = [4.2, 13.9] percentage points). The intervention was especially effective for individuals aged 70 years and older, as AD completion increased by 17.5 percentage points (95% CI = [5.7, 9.4] percentage points). When compared with the impact of costless electronic reminders, each additional AD completion from the letter interventions costs as little as US$37. Our findings suggest that simple, inexpensive interventions with paper communication as behavioral nudges can be effective, especially in older populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing research impact and the practical value of research output can be effectively accomplished by considering various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as they may interpret and measure research impact in distinct ways. This paper aims to identify research grants that are aligned to SDGs, identify researchers' perceptions of the research impact on SDGs and frame the research impact on SDGs. This paper is a qualitative study that involves content analysis on research grant documents, online responses and focus group discussion with university's researchers. The study analyzed 1,495 research grants received by researchers at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and the views of 46 principal investigators through online responses and focus group discussions, The study found that research impact on SDGs could be modelled based on the sustainability dimensions of the 17 SDGs, leading to seven types of impact: economic impact, social impact, environmental impact, cultural impact, public policy impact, organizational impact, and educational impact. By referring to the Elsevier 2021 SDG keywords, we concluded that while the majority of research grants focus on one SDG, interrelated SDGs also exist in many SDGs, cutting across several research impacts. The perception of PIs towards research impact stems from their understanding of SDGs and the conventional research output of networking, patent and commercialization, publication and citation, and students. To achieve a better future, it is essential to have thorough and structured monitoring and evaluation of research grants. This ensures that their results and outputs consistently contribute to the accomplishment of the SDGs. Plain language summary: The impact of research on sustainable development goals Assessing the impact of research and its practical value can be achieved by considering Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper aims to identify research grants that align with SDGs, explore researchers' perceptions of the impact of their research on SDGs, and frame the impact of research on SDGs. This qualitative study involved analyzing 1,495 research grants received by researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The study revealed that research impact on SDGs can be modeled based on the sustainability dimensions of the 17 SDGs, leading to seven types of impact: economic, social, environmental, cultural, public policy, organizational, and educational. It was also found that research grants focus on a single SDG, but interrelated SDGs also exist. The perception of principal investigators regarding research impact is influenced by their understanding of SDGs and conventional research output. To ensure that research grants consistently contribute to the achievement of SDGs, thorough monitoring and evaluation processes are essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper undertakes an exploration of how the diversification of tourism markets and activities exerts its influence on economic growth, particularly in New Zealand. By employing a dynamic autoregressive distributed lag method, this study uncovers the interplay between tourism diversification and economic growth dynamics in New Zealand. Empirical results show that it is only the diversification of European markets that generated positive economic growth. However, the diversification of tourism activities emerges as a potent driver of favorable economic expansion. The evidence suggests that a strategic emphasis on augmenting tourism diversification from European markets holds the potential to magnify the positive economic impact of the tourism sector. Additionally, the proposition of enhancing diversification in tourism activities emerges as a key avenue for bolstering New Zealand's economic growth prospects. This study bridges a gap in the existing literature and furnishes policymakers with insights on how to harness the potential of tourism diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an analysis of the leaders' backgrounds shaping their decisions towards environmental policy outcomes of nascent democracies such as countries in Southeast Asia, with a specific focus on leaders' traits and socio-economic conditions. Drawing on factors that influence a leader's decision-making process, including external factors such as social and economic and internal factors (cognitive or traits), this study explores the variation of quality of environmental policy outcomes in Southeast Asian countries. Our findings suggest that the level of development negatively affects environmental policy outcomes, while democratic conditions do not play a significant role. We also find that leaders' age and level of education negatively affect environmental policy outcomes, whereas gender is not correlated with the quality of the environment. This research provides valuable insights into the environmental policy landscape of Southeast Asia and offers recommendations for policymakers seeking to enhance environmental policy outcomes in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon emission trading market (carbon market) is an important policy tool for China to achieve the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" through market mechanism. This paper uses panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2019 to examine the emission reduction effect (ERE) of China's carbon market pilots using multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID)method, and then analyzes the factors influencing ERE and the economic impact of carbon market. According to the Bacon decomposition and a series of robustness tests, the results reveal that China's carbon market pilots have significant ERE. Both the expansion of the carbon market scale and the improvement of market activity level can significantly boost the carbon market's ERE. Meanwhile, the establishment of carbon market has no negative impact on the economic growth. Therefore, we propose to accelerate the construction of the national carbon market, incorporating more industries in a systematic manner, expand the scale of the carbon market, steadily promote the innovation of carbon financial instruments, improve the activity of the carbon market, so as to promote the transformation of China's green and low-carbon economy and achieve the emission reduction target as scheduled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at establishing a dialogue between philosophy and psychology about the conditions and the process through which humans build epistemic relationships during ontogenetic development. By the latter term, we mean any form of interaction which is aimed at producing a belief about some relevant aspects of the world, present or absent, past or future and at assessing its degree of epistemic trustworthiness. The paper is built as a dialogue between a philosopher and a psychologist, who present different faces of the problem of epistemic legitimation respectively and discuss the possible ways in which the dialogue can lead to theoretical advancement in understanding the development of the human epistemic subject. The chapter is divided into four sections: in the first section, we outline how we develop ontogenetically as epistemic subjects, and the sense that our epistemic life depends on other people's words or testimony; in the second section, we deal with the notion of epistemic injustice and epistemic silencing ; in the third section, we discuss strategies to counter epistemic silencing and; in the fourth part, we try to elaborate a synthesis and suggest a new beginning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globe is now in ecological turmoil as a result of the unrelenting increase in global warming. As a result, governments worldwide are committing to decarbonizing the environment, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) playing an important role in this effort. Hence, this paper evaluates the nonlinear (asymmetric) impact of natural gas consumption on renewable energy consumption and economic growth in the KSA and the UAE utilizing data stretching from 1990 to 2020. The study also considers other drivers of renewable energy consumption and economic growth, such as trade openness and CO2 emissions. The study utilizes nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) to evaluate these associations. The outcomes of bounds nonlinear ARDL (NARDL), affirm the long-run association between the variables in both countries. The nonlinear results show that positive and negative shocks in natural gas consumption have a negative impact on renewable energy in both UAE and KSA. In contrast, positive and negative shocks in natural gas consumption impact economic growth positively. The study proposed vital policy recommendations based on these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies in the United Kingdom have shown distinctions in intergenerational co-residency between UK-born and foreign-born individuals, however, little research has examined how factors such as immigrant incorporation, economic adaptation, and kin availability shape household formation patterns among immigrants. This paper uses data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2010) to explore differences in the likelihood of UK-born and foreign-born working-aged adults to co-reside with at least one parent, highlighting distinctions by life stage (age) at migration and gender. Results show that, regardless of life stage at migration, foreign-born women and men are less likely to co-reside with parents than UK-born, however, intergenerational co-residency is high among some second-generation immigrant groups, particularly UK-born Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi individuals. These findings challenge cultural assumptions about household formation patterns and point to the need for additional research on how economic inequality, kin availability, and gender norms shape immigrant household composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platform capitalism is a growing reality with a widening social and economic impact. The rapid expansion of Short-Term Rental (STR) platforms has led to new challenges for policy regulation. The main objective of this paper is to shed some light on current conflicts surrounding the regulation of STR. The body of literature on this topic mainly focuses on the increasing substitution of sharing economy by commercial hosts. By contrast, we explain that the ideological notion of host hinders the understanding of the supply-side structure. A critical approach (as critique of ideology and ideological categories) should entail a class perspective based on rent theory and engage with critical works on platform capitalism. In this article, we propose an innovative analytical approach to STR supply-side supported by rent theory, which focuses on the relationship of agents with land and technology ownership and specialised management services, as these are forms of rent appropriation. From this point of view, these supply-side agents are not hosts, but class factions with common and competing economic interests in rent appropriation. Therefore, they can employ a variety of strategies to influence the political regulation of STRs. Based on in-depth interviews with landlords, individual managers, and corporate agencies in Andalusia (Southern Spain), we show the conflicting internal structure behind the ideological notion of host and even professionalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While investment in social housing is mentioned in the Government's white paper on levelling up, it does not receive the emphasis extended to infrastructure investment. Traditionally, the case for affordable housing was based on merit goods arguments. While the economic effects of housing have been explored, this has mainly been through traditional economic impact studies whose perceived weakness has led to a degree of policy scepticism around the findings of such studies. Recently, however, a strong case has been made for treating investment in housing on a comparable basis to infrastructure on the basis of its potentially important impacts on the supply side, stimulating labour supply and productivity. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential economic impacts of meeting the projections of affordable housing needed in Scotland to combat homelessness using a framework that overcomes the weaknesses of conventional impact analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Category research has flourished over the last decade. While this body of work has prioritized the behavioral and economic consequences of stable classification systems, the papers in this special issue challenge this orientation by highlighting the importance of category dynamics for improving our understanding of markets and fields. We show how these papers support the emergence of category maintenance, the recategorization of mature categories, and the consolidation of new categories as understudied phenomena and as the next research challenges to pursue. After connecting the main findings of the papers in this special issue into a unified process model, we discuss various alternative pathways to further explore those challenges. We also point to how this theoretical endeavor runs on slippery slopes and might lead to cul-de-sacs such as terminological balkanization. We conclude by highlighting the need for developing a more comprehensive understanding of category dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a research sample listed manufacturing companies in China and systematically studies the impact of customer change and government support on corporate cash holdings and economic consequences. The empirical results show that there is a significant positive correlation between customer change and cash holdings, and the value of cash holdings is higher among enterprises with customer changes. This study enriches and expands the literature on customer relations and cash holdings, and we confirm the important practical significance of government support for the development of the manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a research sample listed manufacturing companies in China and systematically studies the impact of customer change and government support on corporate cash holdings and economic consequences. The empirical results show that there is a significant positive correlation between customer change and cash holdings, and the value of cash holdings is higher among enterprises with customer changes. This study enriches and expands the literature on customer relations and cash holdings, and we confirm the important practical significance of government support for the development of the manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the academic literature, private supplementary tutoring is widely called shadow education because much of its content mimics that of schooling. The author of this paper wrote the first global study of the phenomenon, which was published in 1999 and set the agenda for much subsequent research. The present paper considers research emphases over the decades, noting strengths and gaps. Much initial and ongoing research has focused on economic and social implications of shadow education. Global, regional and national mapping has particularly highlighted cultural contexts and implications for social inequalities. However, inadequate attention has focused on pedagogical and psychological issues. Fitting the theme of the special issue of the journal in which the paper is included, the commentary gives particular attention to teaching, learning and development. It presents multiple levels of analysis to stress the value of, and relationships between, macro, meso and micro perspectives. The paper also highlights the value of quantitative, qualitative and mixed approaches for more complete understanding of dynamics in particular settings and suggests some specific themes for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of inequality in the distribution of CO2 emissions across U.S. regions. We implement a factorial decomposition of CO2 per capita based on extended Kaya factors, that is, carbon intensity of fossil fuel consumption, energy mix, energy intensity of GDP, economic growth in terms of labor productivity and employment rate. Results reveal that U.S. states display marked differences in most factors. We identify energy intensity as the main source of emissions inequality. Based on the within and between group inequality components we also explore the effect of geographical, geological, climatic and human development partitions of U.S. states' groups. Findings indicate that the within-group inequality had been the main contributor to the whole inequality. Finally, some economic policy implications are also discussed; explaining the unequal distribution of emissions is vital to establish differentiated targets and work towards successful mitigation proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solitude is a rising phenomenon in the western world. The share of people affected by solitude has been rising for some time and the Covid-19 pandemic has further brought this trend to the fore. Yet, we know next to nothing about the aggregate subnational economic impact of the rise in solitude. In this paper, we analyse the consequences of solitude on regional economic performance across Europe, distinguishing between two of its key dimensions: alone living, proxied by the regional share of single-person households and loneliness, proxied by the aggregate share of social interactions. We find that solitude has important implications for economic development, but that these go in different directions. While alone living is a substantial driver of economic growth across European regions, high shares of lonely people undermine it. The connection of loneliness with economic growth is, however, dependent on the frequency of in-person meetings, with large shares of the population meeting others socially on a weekly basis, alongside a small percentage of people who never meet others, yielding the best economic returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies on developing countries have investigated the alignment of research output to a country's development agenda and economic productivity. Using evidence from Kenya, this study sought to empirically determine whether the country's research output is aligned to its development agenda in the first instance and to establish the output's relationship to economic productivity. Journal publications were used to measure research output. From the analysis, 86% of the publications fell within one or more of the national development priority areas, though 60% were in only 6 of the 35 areas. Several areas had no publications at all during the period under investigation. Furthermore, excluding the health and education sectors, a strong positive relationship was established between the number of publications in different priority areas and those areas' contribution to Gross Domestic Product. The Government, therefore, needs to avail research funding to research institutions, which, in turn, need to focus their research effort on all identified national development priority areas if Kenya's development aspirations are to be achieved and the desired economic growth attained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the economic impact of the three tiers risk framework implemented in Italy against the COVID-19 pandemic during the Autumn of 2020. Exploiting a large-scale dataset encompassing daily credit card transactions mediated by a large Italian bank, we estimate a set of panel event study models to disentangle the impact of restrictions with low, medium and high stringency levels in terms of consumption reduction. We show that space-time differentiated policies tend to produce stronger welfare losses for progressively more stringent restrictions in specific sectors targeted by these policies such as Retail and Restaurants. However, when we compare provinces implementing the same level of policy stringency, we show that territories with higher income per capita and larger concentration of manufacturing and service activities experience both significantly worse economic and epidemiological performances. Overall, our results suggest that policy makers should properly account for local socio-economic characteristics when designing tailored restrictions entailing an equal and homogeneous impact across territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy research concerning developing countries must compete for scarce resources with alternative development investments, many of which are amenable to quantitative assessment of their impact and economic efficiency. This is especially true for policy research that addresses agriculture, food and rural poverty—rural policy research. This paper draws on existing evaluations of rural policy research to identify good practice in the conduct of impact evaluations in developing countries. While much has been learnt from these evaluations about how rural policy research can influence policies, the impact of the policy changes that may follow, and about methods for conducting such studies, very few have assessed the efficiency or economic benefit of rural policy research investments. The paper concludes that while the current focus on the use of mixed-method evaluations is necessary and sufficient in most cases, in the context of allocating public resources, evaluations that provide plausible estimates of the rates of return to major rural policy research investments, or even rural policy research institutions yield important additional and comparative information for decision makers. However, such quantitative assessments do not replace but depend on the prior conduct of qualitative and mixed-method evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an overview of what we know about the impacts of the economic regulation of commercial airports. It offers no new empirical findings, but rather considers the challenges of conducting ex post analysis of regulatory reform. It provides an overview of what completed studies have found and assesses whether regulations have achieved their objectives. Little is said about the desirability of these objectives. The focus is on the infrastructure needed to provide commercial passenger air services. Part of the discussion concerns the extent to which the results found in more recent studies offer replication of earlier findings. One function of applied analysis is to offer confirmation or refutation of the findings of prior studies, but this is often given short shrift compared to "novelty." The paper focuses, in particular, on matters concerning ownership, slot allocation, and supplementary incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UK community finance institutions play an important role in deprived neighbourhoods by serving households and businesses unable to access mainstream finance. This paper analyses the short-term effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on the activities and sustainability of the community finance sector by analysing longitudinal survey data for 40 providers and follow-up interviews with 25 organisations. COVID-19 resulted in an acceleration of the shift to online service delivery and temporary and permanent branch closures among community finance institutions. Further, the demand for, and volume and value of lending fell significantly during the first lockdown only recovering by the end of the summer 2020. This resulted in lower income, greater costs and lower regulatory ratios. Smaller providers in a weak financial position with more financially vulnerable customers were worst affected by the pandemic. We argue the pandemic may reduce access to finance for the financially excluded through the intensification of the shift to online services and by increasing the risk of providers serving the poorest folding or being merged with larger providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms sometimes acquire partial ownership of their upstream suppliers. Such ownership entails no direct control over the target firm's decision‐making; however, both firms might change their pricing strategies after forming a partial ownership relationship. This paper studies the economic impacts of partial vertical ownership (PVO) in a market with downstream competition, where a manufacturer supplies two competing retailers. We find that dividend payments between firms can alter firms' incentives in their operational decisions and, hence, serve as an "invisible hand" to downstream competition and vertical interaction. We show that a higher PVO percentage can have both positive and negative effects because the acquiring retailer's gain from PVO depends on not only its own sales but also the competitor's sales. Thus, the PVO decision (i.e., the percentage of ownership to acquire) has an inverted U‐shaped effect on the resulting profit for both the acquiring retailer and the manufacturer, which implies an intermediate PVO percentage in equilibrium. Second, the relative strength of the positive and negative effects depends on the acquiring retailer's competitive position. We show that the manufacturer prefers establishing PVO with the retailer with a valuation disadvantage because the disadvantaged retailer can obtain more benefits from PVO and is willing to pay higher than the competitor. Last, we find that consumers benefit from PVO when the acquiring retailer is the retailer with a valuation advantage but may become worse off when the disadvantaged retailer acquires PVO. Our research provides managers with guidance on the optimal PVO percentage and policymakers with insights on regulating PVOs for consumer protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed research represents a spin-off of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) Micro-Grid (MG) project. Particularly, economic impact of Electric Vehicles (EV) integration into the MG is investigated in this paper. The MCAST MG consists of photovoltaic generation unit, a diesel generator and a battery storage system. In this paper, a Vehicle-to grid (V2G) concept is considered where utilities can profit from controlled energy trading operations according to EVs availability. EVs are categorized under different profiles considering energy and time availability of owners typical work hours. V2G energy cost is estimated based on battery energy wear due V2G extra cycling and refunded to EVs owners. As most of developed V2G studies don't consider real world input data or/and EV battery aging cost in system modeling and evaluation, the present paper presents a reliable study as it considers a real life MG with in field measurement input data and appropriate battery degradation model. The adopted model represents a linear approximation with a minimum error value to make a suitable tradeoff of computational complexity and accuracy of obtained results. Economic assessment of the system according to the proposed energy management is performed, where results indicate that the V2G system assisted the MG operation during high electricity price period and achieved economic profit to EVs owners. According to numerical results, V2G energy trading achieved 29.90 EUR of gross selling revenues with only 4.46 EUR as battery degradation cost which makes a 16.41% average cost reduction of daily MG operation cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change has caused governments worldwide to take actions to improve their energy efficiency. This paper investigates how China's Top-1000 program, a command-and-control type of energy-saving mandate, has affected the operational choices of firms, and in turn, their profitability. We apply the propensity score matching method to find "identical twins" for the participants in the Top- 1000 program, then conduct a difference-in-differences analysis on the matched sample. Our findings suggest that the profitability of the enterprises targeted for energy savings decreased by one-third, mainly due to increased production costs. The targeted enterprises tended to increase their fixed assets per capita, which was associated with improvements in energy efficiency. Furthermore, compared to similar untargeted enterprises, there was a significant slowdown in the production growths of the targeted enterprises, raising concerns about carbon leakage due to increased production by less efficient producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a case study of an on-line retailer of locally sourced food and drink to explore its local economic impacts on an English East Midland market town. The analysis is based on the LM3 survey method which tracks the value of an investment for a local economic area. While the findings suggest a positive impact, the reliability of third round data is disputed, and generates approximations rather than precise indicators of added economic value. In acknowledgement of this limitation, two approaches to working with round three data are compared. The paper concludes with recommendations for using this method in future research, as well as suggestions that might inform the development of a local or regional sustainable and resilient economic development policy framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Economic burden studies can provide insights into the drivers leading to increasing healthcare costs. It can also provide a more holistic view of how diseases impact the welfare of patients and their families. Having concrete estimates of the economic burden across multiple diseases can help policymakers determine which diseases are economically more burdensome. This study aimed to review and summarise comprehensively economic burden studies across multiple diseases in the Nordic countries between 2000 and 2020. Methods: According to the 2020 PRISMA statement, a systematic literature review was conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, Academic Search Premier and Global Health databases using key terms related to the economic burden of any disease in Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Grey literature was also reviewed. Results: A total of 10,050 potential titles and abstracts were identified and screened, and 254 full-text papers that met the inclusion criteria were evaluated by two independent reviewers. Of these, 119 articles were included in a qualitative synthesis. Twenty-nine had clearly defined comparison groups, thus able to attribute the costs to the disease. Large variations concerning methodology and cost components were noted. Across diseases, the economic burden ranged from EUR 1668 per patient annually for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to EUR 93,041 for multiple sclerosis. However, estimates varied widely, even within each disease. Conclusions: Our review highlights the need for more comparable economic burden studies. Future studies should focus on applying robust methodology and homogeneous cost-reporting methods to inform policymakers about which diseases are economically more burdensome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With regards of quick response, its importance can't be ingored during the mass-casualty incident (MCI) event. This paper focuses on the application of a mass-casualty incidents system in tracking and tracing with the use of the colored active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) triage tag to make information of each vicim visual at the base of operations as soon as possible. Its main funtion mentioned in this paper is to traige the victims with the means of active colored tag. Meanwhile, the injuried information will be saved as data in PDA reader. In the process of the victim's arrival in the hospital emergency department and the treatment data sheet will be sent back by the hospital information system, so that this system will get the RFID triage tag ID. This system of tracing and tracking is called as a smart MCIs management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the identification of the optimal draw control strategy for a sublevel caving (SLC) operation at Malmberget mine in Sweden. Two mathematical models, a probability model and an economic model, were created using five datasets: bucket weights, bucket grades, extraction ratio, mine economics parameters and production constraints. The probability model was used to generate a set of simulated bucket weights and corresponding bucket grades which acts as a 'virtual mine' environment. The economic model assesses the economic impact of loading at the draw point. Two approaches to draw control were tested using the 'virtual mine' created by the probability model. Based on the results of the simulation tests, an optimal draw control strategy is suggested for a field test at the mine. The new draw control strategy optimises further the loading operation at Malmberget mine. The paper shows a roadmap for optimising draw control strategy for SLC operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigated whether countries should restrict remittance outflows by analysing their impact on economic performance using Ivorian data ranged from 1975 to 2016. An ARDL model was used to assess both short and long-run relationships between remittance outflows and per capita GDP. The findings suggest a long-run and nonlinear relationship between these variables. Moreover, remittance outflows positively and significantly impact economic performance. We found a turning point at $ 379.485 million, beyond which each dollar remitted, will have a negative effect on economic performance. Given the current level of remittance outflows, actions towards restriction should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are women's murders (femicide) more common in some localities than in others? This paper addresses this question in the context of Turkey, a country with a high and rising number of women's murders. It uses province-level data between 2010-2017 and the Negative-Binomial estimator to explore the importance of several socio-economic, cultural, and political factors. It finds that a province's ethnic composition, divorce rate, gender equality in education, and level of economic development are significant predictors of women's murders. The main result is that whether economic development reduces femicide depends on other factors: in poorer provinces, there is a strong positive correlation between women's murders and equality in education and divorce rates, but in richer provinces, these associations are significantly weaker. These results are consistent with the idea that economic development may not reduce women's murders by itself, but it can mitigate the effects of male backlash against women who challenge the status quo. The main policy implication of this study is that pro-development policies may save more lives if they target those poorer provinces that also carry these additional risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, the discourse about service dominant (S-D) logic has been largely theoretical, with the main focus on exploring the foundations for an integrating general theory of markets and marketing. Little attention has been given to the role of theorizing, and how empirical evidence can be used to inform the theoretical development. This paper explores the bridging role of middle range theory in this process. First S-D logic is examined as a foundation for general theory. This leads to a discussion about the use of middle range theory to link general theory and empirical findings. The following sections examine the role that contemporary marketing practices (CMP) research plays in providing a bridge between S-D logic and empirical evidence. The paper concludes by considering implications for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's need for rapid economic growth and its hunger for natural resources significantly challenge its economic and policy vision of sustainability, social stability and economic development. The 'Beautiful China Initiative' plans to put China on the path of sustainable development in line with the United Nations' 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development GoaSls. The Chinese authorities are expected to reconsider traditional economic policy models to integrate environmental protection while ensuring that their economy proliferates. The shift from a traditional and heavy coal-dependent economy towards greener energy and a sustainable economic model brings additional challenges to China due to its historical dependence on coal as its energy engine. This research paper examines causality patterns between economic growth and fossil fuels energy consumption by analysing coal consumption and carbon dioxide emissions policies using Pesaran's autoregressive distributed lag model. The research findings offer insights into China's challenges to transition towards a more sustainable economic model, making the country's 'Beautiful China Initiative' quite complex as it needs to navigate through high levels of environment-friendly economic growth whilst trying to avoid the middle-income trap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper ABARE's Global Trade and Environment Model (GTEM) is used to analyse the potential of international emissions trading as a mechanism for helping to achieve the abatement commitments agreed to in the Kyoto Protocol. The prospect of two emission trading blocs, one consisting of the European Union and eastern Europe and the other consisting of many of the remaining Annex I regions, is also considered. The analysis shows that the carbon penalty varies significantly across regions when no emissions trading is allowed. In aggregate, the cost of abatement to Annex I regions falls with emissions trading. Under the assumption of the two trading blocs, the carbon penalty in the European bloc is higher than with full Annex I trading. The paper also considers the impact on developing countries and the role of carbon leakage in determining the economic impacts on Annex I regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of arts and culture on local economies has been studied extensively. However, a review of the literature finds conflicting and critical results regarding the impact of cultural on economic outcomes. In this paper, we shift attention to examine different intermediaries and concentrations of cultural agents that can influence growth and innovation in the “creative economy.” Thus, we build on previous work and expand on it by refining the scale of analysis (zip-code level). The paper focuses on education in the arts and digital media in all arts-related programs at universities as well as accredited art schools across the United States. Further, employing more observations for larger cities allows a richer depiction of the rather urban nature of the arts and digital media industries. We find that, by going to the zip-code level, we can say that both districts and arts programs (especially at schools that specialize in arts education) have a positive relationship with the share of jobs in the arts and digital media. Moreover, when we evaluate the impact of schools versus districts, we find that schools have a greater role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brands are ubiquitous and adorn contemporary marketing systems. Modern branding practices spawn contradictory social mechanisms, value co-creation and value co-destruction. This paper considers the societal implications, including personal, psychological, social, ecological, and economic consequences of branding. It posits brand externalities as meaning-led discrepancies and symbolic spill-overs igniting mechanisms detrimental to the integrity of the social system. Brand externalities accompany the assortment of brands in contemporary marketing systems. We propose a taxonomy of brand externalities and elucidate societal consequences of branding upon brand exchange actors themselves, their immediate others, future others and general others. This stakeholder orientation sets a future research agenda and calls for redefining branding from the system's perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether capital account liberalization, a leading characteristic of globalization, is associated with firms' future innovation output. Employing a novel firm-level panel data set covering 41 countries over two decades, we show that capital account liberalization is significantly associated with higher corporate patenting activities, particularly for firms from innovation-intensive industries. Further analyses show that the effect is stronger among firms from economies in a better legal environment, signifying the important role of good institutional quality in facilitating the positive impact of liberalization. The effect is also stronger among firms with higher initial productivity, consistent with the "productivity" hypothesis, according to which bigger and more productive firms generate more innovation after liberalization. Our findings are robust to the use of various measurements, subsamples, and estimation models. This study provides global firm-level evidence of the real economic impact of financial globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Socioeconomic status and health in childhood are linked to health outcomes in later life. Health outcomes may also be shaped by socioeconomic circumstances in adulthood and later life. This paper examined the relationship between childhood conditions and later life health and tested whether this relationship was mediated by later life economic living standards. Methods: Data from a longitudinal study of aging was combined with retrospective life history data from 787 participants from the New Zealand Health, Work and Retirement Study. Results: Significant relationships were found between childhood conditions and later life health. These relationships were mediated by economic living standards in older age, but the partial direct effect of childhood conditions on health found in early older age became fully meditated 10 years later. Conclusion: While childhood circumstances are part of this complex relationship, socioeconomic conditions in later life are vital to ensuring ongoing health into older age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that between 20–30% of consumers self-identify as having some form of food allergy or sensitivity and demand for allergy-safe foods is growing. European Union regulations require restaurants to inform diners of the presence of 14 primary food allergens. The method of disclosure, however, is left to the discretion of the restaurant and may include verbal communication, menu labels, or separate informational pamphlets. Despite these requirements, 74% of allergen related food incidents arise from the non-prepackaged (restaurant) environment. Individuals with allergens, therefore, may avoid restaurants or intentionally seek out, especially in the tourism context, venues with publicly disclosed allergen prevention protocols. Due to group effects and social media's ability to channel consumers, implementing allergy-friendly practices could substantially increase restaurant profits. This research examines the performance of the restaurant industry in leading tourist destinations in Croatia with respect to self-disclosure of potential food allergens. Menus, accompanying websites and social media reviews of 973 restaurants across 43 locations were analyzed. Results indicate that very few restaurants have taken affirmative steps to disclose food allergens on their websites (1.3% of English and 0.8% of Croatian websites). Of the subset of restaurants with on-line menus, 6.5% disclosed specific food allergens. In contrast, third-party social media reviews of 24.6% of the restaurants included some statement relating to food allergens. Based on the results, this paper suggests strategies for improved food allergen communication. Specifically, restaurants should make greater efforts to affirmatively disclose allergen information on their websites and monitor social media reviews. Very few restaurants responded to consumer comments, thereby allowing others to dictate the narrative. In light of the strong consumer interest and relatively weak self-disclosure efforts, the hospitality industry has a ready opportunity to attract new consumers by moving beyond regulatory minimums through enhanced allergen communication efforts and social media engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of protracted refugee situations, there has been a revival in concern among policymakers to transcend the so-called humanitariandevelopment divide and create greater opportunities for self-reliance. Yet, these discussions too often neglect an analytical focus on refugees' own economic lives, and their own interactions with markets. Despite a growing literature on the economic lives of refugees, much of that work has lacked theory or data. The work that has been quantitative has generally focused on the economic impact of refugees on host countries rather than explaining variation in economic outcomes for refugees. In order to explain variation in economic outcomes for refugees, this paper asks three questions about the economic lives of refugees: 1) what makes the economic lives of refugees distinctive from other populations; 2)barriers and distortions in their economic lives compared to nationals or other migrants. Even within the same country, refugees exhibit significant variation in their economic outcomes, most notably in their income levels. A number of variables are significant in explaining this variation. These include: regulatory context, education, occupation, social networks, gender, and the number of years spent in exile. Entrepreneurship is an important explanation for "outliers" within the refugee community, explaining why some refugees have significantly higher incomes. However, refugees also often play a wider role within the community, creating opportunities for others. Furthermore, a significant part of refugee entrepreneurship is social rather than simply for-profit. In order to enhance opportunities for greater refugee self-reliance, policymakers need to develop a better understanding of the transnational, national, and local markets within which refugees participate. Instead of engaging in top-down interventions, enabling environments should be created that enable autonomous, community-led initiatives to flourish. what explains variation in refugees' income levels; and 3) what role does entrepreneurship play in shaping refugees'economic outcomes? In order to answer these questions, the paper draws upon extensive qualitative and quantitative research conducted in Uganda by the Humanitarian Innovation Project at Oxford University. The quantitative data set is based on a survey of 2,213 refugees in three types of contexts: urban (Kampala), protracted camps (Nakivale and Kyangwali settlements), and emergency camps (Rwamwanja). It supplements this with qualitative research from other parts of Africa and the Middle East. The economic lives of refugees are argued to be distinctive not because refugees are any different qua human beings but because they often occupy a distinctive institutional space. Following new institutional economics, the paper argues that "refugee economies" represent a distinctive analytical space insofar as refugees face different formal and informal institutional. barriers and distortions in their economic lives compared to nationals or other migrants. Even within the same country, refugees exhibit significant variation in their economic outcomes, most notably in their income levels. A number of variables are significant in explaining this variation. These include: regulatory context, education, occupation, social networks, gender, and the number of years spent in exile. Entrepreneurship is an important explanation for ''outlier'' within the refugee community, explaining why some refugees have significantly higher incomes. However, refugees also often play a wider role within the community, creating opportunities for others. Furthermore, a significant part of refugee entrepreneurship is social rather than simply for-profit. In order to enhance opportunities for greater refugee self-reliance, policymakers need to develop a better understanding of the transnational, national, and local markets within which refugees participate. Instead of engaging in top-down interventions, enabling environments should be created that enable autonomous, community-led initiatives to flourish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reporting biases refer to a truncated pool of published studies with the resulting suppression or omission of some empirical findings. Such biases can occur in positive research paradigms that try to uncover correlations and causal relationships in the social world by using the empirical methods of (natural) science. Furthermore, reporting biases can come about because of authors who do not write papers that report unfavorable results despite strong efforts made to find previously accepted evidence and because of a higher rejection rate of studies documenting contradictory evidence. Reporting biases are a serious concern because the conclusions of systematic reviews and meta-analyses can be misleading. The authors show that published evidence in win-win corporate social responsibility (CSR) research tends to overestimate efficiency. The research field expects to find a positive association between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP), and findings meet that expectation. The authors explain how this pattern may reflect reporting bias. The empirical results show strong tentative evidence for a positive reporting bias in the CSP–CFP literature but only weak tentative evidence for CSP efficiency. The study also examines which factors, such as time trends, publication outlet, and study characteristics, are associated with higher reporting biases within this literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on electricity consumption patterns. We highlight the importance of decomposing total electricity consumption into consumption by firms and by households to better understand the economic and social impacts of the crisis. While electricity demand by firms has fallen substantially, the demand by households has gone up. In particular, our focus is on Spain where, during the total lockdown, these effects reached –29% and +10% respectively, controlling for temperature and seasonality. While the electricity demand reductions during the second wave were milder, the demand by firms remained 5% below its normal levels. We also document a change in people’s daily routines in response to the stringency of the lockdown measures, as reflected in their hourly electricity consumption patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When considering householder responses to flood risk, researchers and policy makers have perhaps focused too much on the influence of risk perceptions and concerns about material costs and benefits. Using secondary analysis of survey data from UK households who had experienced flooding or who were at risk of flooding, this paper presents evidence to suggest that protective behaviour may be influenced less by material and financial considerations than by concerns about feelings of anxiety and insecurity. It also looks at the role of beliefs about protection and flooding in mediating the impacts of flood experience and suggests that experience reduces confidence in the ameliorative capacity of insurance and promotes the belief that protective measures increase anxiety about flooding. The paper concludes that more research should be carried out on the role of anticipated emotions in risk response and that policy makers and the designers of protection products should pay more attention to the emotional barriers and incentives to adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a merger and acquisition risk management model is proposed for considering risk factors in the merger and acquisition activities. The proposed model aims to maximize the probability of success in merger and acquisition activities by managing and reducing the associated risks. The modeling of the proposed merger and acquisition risk management model is described and illustrated in this paper. The illustration result shows that the proposed model can help to screen the best target company with minimum associated risks in the merger and acquisition activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct‐Store‐Delivery (DSD) is an arrangement in which a retailer allows a manufacturer to execute in‐store operations such as shelf replenishments. This paper studies the economic drivers and implications of DSD for retailers and manufacturers. We consider a distribution channel where two competing manufacturers sell their products via a shelf‐space constrained retailer. The shelf space allocated to each product affects the cost associated with in‐store operations. The retailer can offer DSD to neither, one, or both manufacturers. The manufacturers respond by accepting or rejecting the retailer's DSD offer. After the channel arrangement is determined, the manufacturers set their wholesale prices and then the retailer sets retail prices. Our results suggest that DSD is adopted when (i) the operational cost associated with shelf replenishments is convex, and (ii) competition between the manufacturers is intense enough to ensure the retailer's willingness to offer DSD, but not so intense to deter the manufacturers from adopting DSD. Furthermore, we find that DSD increases the wholesale prices, decreases the retail prices, and increases demand for each product. The implication of this finding is that DSD can benefit not only the involved retailer and manufacturer but also the consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically examines the relationship between energy efficiency, CO2 emissions, foreign direct investment, exports, and real gross domestic product at both aggregate and disaggregate levels in Malaysia based on an autoregressive distributed lag approach. The annual data for the period of 1971–2013 are employed. The results indicate that energy efficiency Granger causes economic growth at the aggregate level, but not in each of the three main sectors (primary, secondary, and tertiary) of the economy. Another important finding of the study is that the export-led growth hypothesis is found to be valid in Malaysia at both the aggregate and disaggregate levels. The results of our study also confirm the fact that CO2 emissions do affect the overall economic performance and growth in all sectors, except for the primary sector. This finding implies that pollution from both secondary and tertiary sectors has led to economic growth in Malaysia. Moreover, it is also discovered that foreign direct investment does not have a significant impact on economic growth in Malaysia. The results of this study are essential for policymakers of Malaysia in designing appropriate policies in each sector that can lead to robust growth in the country. In addition to focusing on enhancing energy efficiency and promoting foreign direct investment, the policymakers should also start to look for alternative strategies to ensure long-term economic growth in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to unravel the impacts of the global economic crisis upon European banking centres on the basis of the evolution of key economic indicators, such as total assets, profitability and the level of risk to the banking sector over the 2004–2015 period. Counterintuitively, the European leading banking centres (London, Paris and Frankfurt), despite their extensive exposure to capital markets, displayed a high level of resilience, which contrasts with the evolution of the other major Western European centres, which clearly lagged behind the European leaders. From a macro-regional perspective, banking centres in Western Europe exhibited the first signals of both the crisis and the recovery, which were subsequently diffused across Europe. Surprisingly, the profitability of low-ranking banking centres in Central and Eastern Europe remained the highest over the whole 2004–2015 period, as these banks operate predominantly within a regional (national) market. Overall, during the 2004–2015 period, London, Paris and Frankfurt clearly strengthened their dominance among European banking centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses detailed study of a proposed research and development (R&D) tax credit in one U.S. state, New Hampshire, to gain insight on an important public finance issue: the motivations for and the economic costs and benefits of R&D tax credits. The paper reviews the policy considerations and assesses the potential economic impacts of enacting a proposed R&D tax credit in New Hampshire in 2006. Policy analysis and formal economic modeling of the economic costs and benefits of alternative R&D tax credit policies are provided for New Hampshire. This includes estimates of the potential employment and personal income gains, changes in R&D investments, and tax revenue costs. The review of the state R&D tax credit policies and the New Hampshire modeling and simulations support the view that a R&D tax credit policy can have a positive impact on a state's R&D investments, employment and income growth. It also highlights, however, that the net fiscal effect can be negative and that the aggregate (national) welfare effects are not adequately considered and require further inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the economic implications of fair value liability gains and losses arising from the adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 159 (hereafter, FAS 159). We find a positive correspondence between a firm's FAS 159 fair value liability gains and losses and current period stock returns, consistent with the notion that these gains and losses are priced by equity investors. However, further analysis indicates that fair value gains and losses from liabilities have a statistically significant negative association with future returns, suggesting that investors misprice this earnings component and subsequently correct the mispricing. We also find that the negative association for fair value gains is stronger for firms with lower levels of institutional ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]