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Previous research shows that domestic unrest, and especially violent conflict, raises political risk and discourages foreign direct investment (FDI). However, prior work primarily has studied private Western multinational corporations, not authoritarian China, the second largest overseas investor, which has both state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately-owned enterprises (POEs). This paper investigates the effects of domestic conflict on overseas Chinese FDI. We first compare Chinese SOE and POE investments in host states facing political unrest. Next, we disaggregate political unrest, examining the effect of violent and non-violent campaigns on Chinese SOEs and POEs. We then disaggregate the sector of FDI inflows. Contrary to prior conflict studies, we find host states under political unrest, and specifically violent campaigns, attract Chinese SOEs no matter the economic sector, whereas POEs are more risk averse. Our findings show that Chinese SOEs favor higher risk investments, suggesting the need for theoretical nuance in the domestic conflict and FDI literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, international communities have developed poverty measures to inform needs assessment and aid allocation. Building on these efforts, this paper examines the discrepancies between global poverty measures and brings that analysis to bear on identifying the salient dimensions of poverty. First, a comparison is made between the monetary and capability approaches to poverty and identifies comparable indices: the poverty headcount ratio (P0) and the multidimensional poverty headcount ratio (H), respectively. The paper then describes the degree of discrepancy between P0 and H for 102 developing countries from 2010 to 2019, synthesizing data from the Multidimensional Poverty Index, the World Development Indicators, and OECD aid activity. Next, the position of countries are analyzed with respect to the fitted line of the two measures, classifying countries into either income-poor or capability-poor categories. Findings suggest that countries such as Pakistan and Ethiopia, for example, experience capability poverty while Malawi and Mozambique experience income poverty. Finally, I examine whether sector aid composition corresponds to a country's relative income and poverty status, finding that capability-poor countries receive marginally higher social sectoral aid compared to economic sector aid. This study suggests that the discrepancies between measures of international poverty can be used to target, monitor, and evaluate global aid distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A natural disaster like an earthquake has the capability of damaging critical infrastructure systems, and valuable assets, limiting products or services movements, and in extreme conditions may cause injuries and even mortalities. The unavailability of a workforce as a response to an earthquake can directly affect the regional sector's productivity, as most business operations are labor dependent. In addition, the inherent interdependency of regional economic sectors can further delay the recovery process, This paper presents the dynamic inoperability input–output (DIIM) model and sector resilience to formulate a recovery analysis model by incorporating both the deterministic and stochastic modeling for workforce-interdependent sectors in the aftermath of an earthquake. The developed model is capable of evaluating the social and economic losses caused by workforce disruption. Moreover, a risk-based framework developed for the guidance of policymakers is to manage and control the adverse effects of the earthquake on the disrupted region. This paper identifies and prioritizes critical industry sectors based on two metrics i.e., inoperability and economic loss. Inoperability levels describe the percentage variation between the maximum production of the sector to the reduced production level, while economic loss is the quantified monetary value associated with the reduced level of sector output. The main contribution of this work focuses on the modeling of uncertainty caused by new disruption to the interconnected sectors within a recovery horizon of the initial outbreak of the disaster using a dynamic model for the disrupted region. This model is developed and applied to the regional sectors of Pakistan for an earthquake disaster but can be generalized to other regions and other disaster scenarios as well. Finally, the purpose of presenting different earthquake intensity scenarios is to validate the effective use of risk and uncertainty analysis in modeling the inoperability and economic loss behaviors because of time-varying perturbations and their related ripple effects on interdependent economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degrowth has become a recognised paradigm for identifying and critiquing systemic unsustainability rooted in the capitalist, growth-compelled economy. Increasingly, degrowth is discussed in relation to specific economic sectors such as the agri-food system. This paper builds on the foundational work of Gerber (2020) and Nelson and Edwards (2021). While both publications take a rather specific analytical or disciplinary focus—the former specifically connects critical agrarian studies and degrowth, the latter explores the contributions of the recent volume 'Food for degrowth'—this paper takes stock of the emerging body of literature on degrowth and agri-food systems more broadly. It proposes research avenues that deepen, expand and diversify degrowth research on agri-food systems in four areas: (i) degrowth conceptualisations; (ii) theorisation of transformations towards sustainability; (iii) the political economy of degrowth agri-food systems; and (iv) rurality and degrowth. Together, these avenues devote due attention to a variety of agents (ranging from translocal networks to non-humans), spaces (e.g. the rural), theories (e.g. sustainability transitions and transformations towards sustainability) and policies (of the agricultural sector and beyond) that thus far have received limited attention within the degrowth literature. The critical social science perspective on degrowth agri-food systems, which is advanced in this paper, illuminates that the present unsustainability and injustice of hegemonic agri-food systems are not merely a problem of that sector alone, but rather are ingrained in the social imaginaries of how economies and societies should work as well as in the political–economic structures that uphold and reproduce these imaginaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste management (WM) has received increasing attention in recent years in micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). However, a comprehensive understanding of the WM research in MSMEs from different economic sectors is somehow absent in spite of its proliferation. The current review was conducted to indicate types of waste, hazards associated with waste, as well as strategies, antecedents (facilitators and barriers), and outcomes of WM in MSMEs from diverse economic sectors. The search was performed by using the Web of Science (WoS) database, which retrieves 420 articles. After excluding the papers that were not closely related to the topic, 84 articles were retained for an in-depth analysis, spanning a period of five years (from 2018 to June 2022). This review demonstrates that the types of waste generated from MSMEs include metals, plastics, chemicals, papers, wood, fabrics, stones, food, ceramics, glass, candles, and cooking oil, among others. It is also resulted that the hazards associated with waste include environmental pollution, CO2 emissions, human diseases, health disasters, and marine life destruction. Examples of the WM strategies in MSMEs research are recycling, separating, sorting, reusing, and composting waste. The findings revealed that a lack of financial resources, knowledge, experience, education, and training are some barriers encountered by MSMEs in WM. Enhancing financial performance, economic growth, competitive advantage, and sustainable development are important outcomes of WM in MSMEs. There has been a paucity of research on MSMEs WM, necessitating a thorough investigation of several issues. This research discusses implications and recommendations and presents avenues for future research. The current paper is one of the first studies to conduct a systematic review of WM in MSMEs from different economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing economic sectors. This has piqued increasing interest in the evaluation of the performance of the sector. This paper joins this line of research by providing a potential framework for measuring efficiency in the context of a country such as Spain, where sun-and-sand tourism, usually associated with mass tourism, predominates. Tourist areas located on the coast provide the units of reference. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied to determine the efficiency score and a Tobit-type model is employed to analyse the factors that determine efficiency. The results show that the impact of mass tourism on labour efficiency is geographically unequal, with the most efficient of the tourist areas located on the peninsular archipelagos. The analysis of the contribution of each input to the efficiency score reveals the pre-eminent role of tourism infrastructure as a lure for sun-and-sand tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the shock spillovers between US sectors and their dependence on the intersectoral business linkages. Our forecast error variance decompositions reveal significant shock transmissions among trading sectors, especially in turbulent periods such as the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The dymamics of shock spillovers reflect the impacts of the pandemic on economic sectors. Shock spillovers are shown to be influenced by the strength of the intersectoral trading relationships. Shocks to a sector's important supplier have a strong impact on the forecast error variance of the sector's stock return. The total directional spillovers from/ to a sector are linked with the number of close commercial linkages between that sector and other sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the possibility of North Korean regime collapse has been raised and the economic gap between North and South Korea has been increasing, temporary separate operation has emerged as a way of economic integration of North and South Korea. Its main idea is that even if political integration is achieved rapidly, economic integration should proceed over time. It is generally accepted that temporary separate operation has desirable economic consequences but doubts about the feasibility are often raised because it is a scenario based on many assumptions, and politicians might prefer radical integration based on their short-term political interests. So, this paper aims to develop a temporary separate operation by providing more concrete reasons, by anticipating problems and by suggesting policy measures to enhance the feasibility. For this, the paper examines German reunification and European integration (especially Eurozone crisis) cases and compares them with the situations and features of economic and financial sectors of North and South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the results of a selection of a set of monthly indicators to be used as predictors of the quarterly index of Italian service turnover. A mixed frequency approach based on sparse temporal disaggregation is used, which outperforms the classical methods of the Chow and Lin family, allowing both a high number of regressors by the LASSO method and stable estimates. The application refers to the turnover in transport, a sector strongly affected in 2020 by the dramatic movements due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resurgence of inflation at the end of 2021. The monthly indicators are selected from 143 time series: 56 series of business surveys in transport about both the climate and frequency of the answers; 18 series from Assaeroporti about both passengers and cargo flights split by national and international routes; 69 series of monthly turnover in industry split by both sector of economic activity and reference market. The sample spans the months from January 2010 to December 2021 for both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted data. Several aspects of the estimation are considered: the stability of selected indicators over the quarters 2017–2021; their forecasting performance; the reliability of the estimates in terms of their monthly pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate of the finance-growth nexus can be classified into three dimensions. First, a critical factor innovation that is interacted with financial institutions and thereby should have impact on economic growth is highly ignored. Second, most studies do not differentiate the effect of finance–growth nexus at different stages of economic development. Third, in relationship to the long-run finance-growth nexus, the short-run association has received less attention. This paper synthesizes the above three aspects and explores the long- and short-run effects of innovation and financial development on real economic sectors considering different levels of income. By analyzing a panel of data for 48 countries from 1971 to 2015, this study contends that the finance–growth and innovation–growth relationships vary with the time horizons and income levels. This paper highlights the critical role that innovation can play in the growth process and states that financial development is no longer a panacea for real economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic produced a significant decline in international immigration to the USA between 2020 and 2021. This paper documents the timing, characteristics, and heterogeneity of the change in immigration across states and economic sectors. Additionally, we describe the trends in internal native mobility in the USA prior to and after the pandemic, investigating whether natives responded to the decrease in immigration by relocating either geographically or across sectors. Despite the substantial drop in international migration, we do not observe any significant changes in native internal mobility. Employing a panel regression and a shift-share IV, we study the effect of foreign immigration, the emergence of remote-work, and changes in labor demand on cross-state native mobility. Our results indicate that the decline in immigration following COVID-19 and the differential availability of remote-work opportunities across sectors and states did not drive changes in natives' cross- state or cross-sector mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging countries are at the frontier of climate change actions, and carbon emissions accounting provides a quantifiable measure of the environmental impact of economic activities, which allows for comparisons of emissions across different entities. However, currently there is no study covering detailed emissions inventories for emerging countries in Central Asian. This paper compiles detailed and accurate carbon emissions inventories in several Central Asian countries (i.e., Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Palestine, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) during the period 2010–2020. Using the IPCC administrative territorial approach, we for the first time compile their emissions inventories in 47 economic sectors and five energy categories. Moreover, we also investigate decoupling status based on Tapio decoupling model and examine emissions driving factors based on the index decomposition analysis method. The primary results illustrate that carbon emissions in Central Asian countries are increasing with huge differences. Decoupling results highlight that most of the sample countries still need more effort to decouple the economy and emissions except that Pakistan achieves an ideal strong decoupling state. The results of the decomposition indicate that the economy and population both raise emissions, while energy intensity and carbon intensity are negative drivers in some countries. We propose practical policy implications for decarbonization and energy transition roadmap in Central Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have attempted to study the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis at the individual sector level using more than one sector at once. This paper investigates the existence of the EKC hypothesis in the Iberian countries (Portugal and Spain) using thirteen economic activity sectors for each, analyzing each individual sector's cointegration and causality relationships considering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, sector gross value added and energy consumption. The findings of this paper using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach only validate cointegration in six Portuguese sectors and in five of the Spanish sectors. Results confirm both short- and long-run bi-directional and unidirectional causality between economic growth, energy consumption and CO2 emissions, using the error correction model (ECM) and Toda and Yamamoto's causality approaches. Moreover, results for Portuguese and Spanish sectors indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship only for one sector each. In some sectors there was evidence of a U-shaped relationship and in others the EKC hypothesis could be verified but no statistical significance was obtained. The study has significant contributions for sector policy, including implications to curtail energy pollutants by implementing environmental friendly regulations to sustain economic development at the sector level in the Iberian market. It also allows inferences to be made about the existence of different behaviors in comparative terms for the same economic activity sectors of the individual countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: When resources are extracted and used by society, they are not necessarily lost for future generations. Therefore, recent publications on impact assessment of abiotic resource use in life cycle assessment focus on a decreased accessibility of resources due to dissipation, rather than depletion. In a previous study, dissipation was defined as a function of the global change in accessible stock due to human actions, and the global amount of the accessible stock, assuming a very long-term time perspective (more than 500 years). In this paper, a short-term time perspective (25 years) is adopted. Methods: The same generic characterization model is used, but different choices are outlined to derive characterization factors for a short-term perspective (25 years). To illustrate how the short term might be approached, a preliminary set of characterization factors is developed, based on assumptions and estimates. Results: The problem of resource use is defined as follows: the decrease of accessibility on a global level of primary and/or secondary elements over the short term due to the net result of compromising actions (i.e., emissions, dissipation in the technosphere, occupation in use, and exploration for new stocks). Characterization factors are derived based on assumptions, like the following: the accessible stock is based on present estimates of accessible stocks in the environment and the technosphere; estimates of accessible stocks in the technosphere are based on past extractions and generic recycling rates; all flows that are presently not recycled are assumed to be inaccessible. Finally, weighting between elements and the functions they have for the present society is based on the added value of the economic sector that is affected due to the decreased accessibility. Discussion and conclusion: A preliminary set of characterization factors is proposed for 55 elements. They assess the impact of the present use of resources on the decreased accessibility in the short term due to emissions and dissipation in the technosphere. However, calculation of impact category scores is still hampered by a lack of appropriate data for dissipative flows in life cycle inventory databases. The presented calculations are based on several simplifications and proxies. A more detailed distinction of dissipative flows and estimates of stocks in the technosphere may be possible based on (dynamic) SFA modelling of elements in different applications. To derive a more mature set of characterization factors, it is recommended to use the presented model as a basis and further elaborate or replace the proxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the United Nations' Agenda 2030, countries worldwide have committed to a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. Among them is SDG 15, known as Life on Land. What makes this SDG special is that several of its targets had been scheduled for completion by 2020– raising the question what should happen to these targets after 2020 as they have not yet been achieved. With the approaching 2023 SDG Summit in mind, this perspective paper examines how the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was adopted under the Convention on Biological Diversity in late 2022, might provide guidance for the implementation of SDG 15 and maintain the momentum for action until 2030. Three areas are critical. First, concerning protected areas, the strengthened rights-based approach of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework should be integrated into SDG 15. Second, the new framework promotes the sustainable use of biodiversity more clearly than SDG 15 and should hence guide transformation of the biodiversity-based economic sectors. Finally, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework provides the first quantified financial target for global biodiversity action, and at the SDG Summit, that target should be reinforced by additional financial commitments. Guidance in these three areas can be integrated into the SDG Summit's Political Declaration and into the voluntary pledges that countries are expected to make at the Summit, and it can inform the review of the SDG indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the relationship between urbanization, the informal economy, economic growth, and environmental degradation (CO2 emissions) have received considerable attention from multidisciplinary researchers, little work has been undertaken on how differences in the stages of development of different sub-regions of the countries studied may affect these relationships. This paper empirically explores the relationship between urbanization, the informal sector, economic growth, and CO2 emissions. A balanced dataset for a panel of 45 African countries subdivided into sub-regions was analyzed over the period 1991–2019. To achieve the objectives of the study, we used a vector autoregression panel (PVAR). The results demonstrated a bidirectional relationship between CO2 emissions and urbanization, CO2 emissions and economic growth, CO2 emissions and the informal sector, the informal sector and economic growth, and economic growth and urbanization. Furthermore, the empirical results of this study not only contribute in advancing the literature that addresses the relationship between human activity and the environment, but also warrant new insights into the importance of the stage of development in a sub-region in Africa for public policy decisions related to CO2 emissions reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of certain factors on electricity consumption in Spain at a sectoral level. An electricity consumption function has been estimated by using panel data, depending on gross value added (GVA), temperatures, capitalization, and human capital. This function is obtained for total productive electricity consumption and for the agricultural, construction, industrial, service, and public administration sectors, referring to the 17 Autonomous Communities of Spain for the 2000–2013 period. The obtained results show important sectoral differences in the effect that GVA has on electricity consumption, indicating a positive and increasing effect of temperatures above 22 °C in the total economy and in the tertiary sector, and a negative effect of temperatures below 18 °C in some sectors. These results may indicate that global warming may induce an electricity demand growth in Spain, especially related to cooling needs. The results also highlight the positive effects of capitalization in all sectors, and the negative effects of human capital, except for the public administration sector. In this context, it may be appropriate to carry out policies that mitigate this consumption growth, reinforcing energy efficiency measures, and human capital investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions in the power sector are an important part of China's total carbon emissions and have a significant impact on whether China can achieve the 2030 carbon peak target. Based on the three perspectives of decomposition, decoupling, and prediction, this paper studies the feasibility of carbon emission peaks in eight major regional power sectors in China. First, the generalized Divisia index model (GDIM) is used to decompose the carbon emissions of the eight regional power sectors, and the driving factors and their effects on carbon emissions in the power sector of each region are compared. Then, the decoupling index based on the generalized Divisia index model (GDIM-D) is used to study the decoupling relationship between the carbon emissions of the eight regional power sectors and economic growth. Finally, the carbon emissions and decoupling indices of the power sector from 2017 to 2030 are predicted. The results show the following. First, the gross domestic product (GDP) and output scale are the main factors contributing to the carbon emissions of the eight regional power sectors. The carbon intensity of the power sector in GDP (C/G) and output carbon intensity(C/E) are the main factors that contribute to the reduction. Second, the carbon emissions of the southern coast, the middle Yellow River, and the Southwest peaked in 2013 and have been decoupled from economic growth, while those in the other regions have not peaked or decoupled. Third, if the carbon emissions of the power sector in the Northeast, northern coast, eastern coast, middle Yangtze River, and Northwest reach a peak in 2030, they will face many emission reduction pressures. This paper provides a reference for studying the carbon emissions of China's regional power sectors and their relationship with economic growth and has important implications for peak carbon emissions at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of active balance sheet adjustments in the non-financial corporate sector on economic growth in the EU. We jointly model firms' ability to reduce their balance sheet imbalances and a growth equation in an instrumental variables (IV) panel context. This enables us to explicitly consider the contemporaneous interaction between corporate balance sheet adjustment and growth, which can otherwise bias inference. Our main findings inter alia suggest that periods of active corporate deleveraging are associated on average with lower output growth compared to periods when no adjustment takes place. Moreover, a decline in corporate debt overhang supports output growth. Model-based simulations are in line with these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of international oil price uncertainty on the different economic sectors (primary, secondary, and tertiary) in Mexico in the period 1993:1–2020:4 through a bivariate structural vector autoregressive (VAR) model with a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) in mean to capture the impact of oil volatility on economic growth at the sectoral level of economic activity. The results show that the uncertainty of the international price of oil has a differentiated effect on the different sectors of economic activity in Mexico since it does not influence the primary sector; it negatively impacts the secondary sector, and there is mixed evidence in the tertiary sector. Additionally, evidence is provided that both positive and negative shocks to the international oil price have asymmetric effects at the sectoral level in Mexico. The results highlight the need to implement public policies, at the country level, that help mitigate the effect of uncertainty in the oil market and promote economic stability at the sector level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristic of the "service economy" is the rise to dominance of the service sector in terms of employment and value added shares. We track this rise during the second half of the twentieth century for the U.S., more precisely the period from 1970 to 2005. Following seminal work by Baumol (1967) the rise is often attributed to growing productivity differentials between the economic sectors. The causes of the productivity differentials are, however, controversial. Inspired by Georgescu-Roegen's (1971) evolutionary approach to production theory, the present paper explores whether differences in the energetic features of the sectors' production technologies contribute to the growing sectorial productivity differentials. For the data for our period of analysis it turns out that a close relationship indeed exists between the sectors' incentives for substituting relatively cheap energy for ever more expensive labor and their labor productivity gains. In highly energy-dependent sectors an increasing energy/labor ratio has been driving productivity growth while this was not the case in the service sector. The paper closes with a short discussion of what the finding may imply for the future of the service economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the international community. The year 2017 was one of the three warmest on record and the world continues to experience extreme weather conditions. An effective mobilization of resources earmarked for key economic sectors is an important component of a strategy of any country to comply with greenhouse gases (GHG) emission reduction targets, especially Brazil, that is a top GHG emitter. This paper aims to identify these strategic economic sectors for investment to mitigate GHG emissions in Brazil. In order to do so, we estimate emission-demand elasticities of productive sectors, obtained from the Brazil's Input-Output Matrix (IOM). In consequence, we identify those sectors with greater pollution impacts on the economy and then deserve higher priority for investment as well as mitigation policies. The paper also describes the flows and sources of climate investment and suggests that to ensure efficient outcomes policy makers should consider the role played by each different production sector. The results show the relevance of paying particular attention to the country's productive structure and the pollution pressure it generates. From this approach, we identified that forest sector is still a key investment destination for mitigation of GHG emissions. Agriculture, transportation, and industrial sectors are also relevant to investment allocation. Confronting the results with literature and with the availability of funds, we ratified that forest and agriculture are strategic sectors for Brazil, and the sectoral approaches, classified as strong multilateralism policy architecture, are fundamental to achieve climate targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent environmental debates in the European Green Deal to reduce pollution determine the reconsideration of the relationship between economic development and environmental quality. In this context, this paper explains the GHG emissions in few Central and Eastern European countries (CEEs) (Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic and Romania) in the period 1990–2019 and proposes suitable economic policies to reduce pollution. Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and renewable energy Kuznets Curve (RKC) are considered in a methodological framework based on panel threshold and dynamic panel models. The analysis based on GHG emissions from all economic sectors and GHG emissions from agriculture indicates similarities and differences related to the impact of economic indicators on pollution. The results of estimations indicated an inverted N-shaped relationship between GDP and GHG emissions and an N-shaped pattern between value added in agriculture and pollution. The U-shaped RKC was confirmed for overall economy and for agriculture. The policy proposals based on empirical findings promote sustainable development in the analysed states by reducing pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on desk study, this article adduces theoretical and empirical evidence to analyze the claims of advocates and critics of performance audit (PA). The paper establishes that the application of PA in some developed countries has led to improvement in aspects of public sector performance albeit sometimes short of the often highlighted effects of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The article further provides evidence to support the claim that despite its touted contribution to performance, PA could rather lead to anti-innovation, nit-picking, expectations gap, lapdog, headline hunting, unnecessary systems and hollow ritual. The paper questions the quality of reported PA systems in the literature and advocates a PA regime that strikes a delicate balance between compliance and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the agricultural sector contributes the economic growth, it also induces GHGs and causes environmental degradation. The effect of agriculture activities on environmental degradation receives attention last several years in environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) literature. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of agriculture activities (AGRI), energy consumption (EC), foreign direct investment (FDI), and trade openness (TO) on CO2 in the context of EKC hypothesis for the Next Eleven countries in the period of 1991–2019. For this purpose, we employ common correlated effects mean group estimator (CCEMG) to obtain panel and country-specific results. In addition, Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality test is used to examine the pairwise causal relationship between variables. The results show that the EKC hypothesis, the inverted U-shape relationship between CO2 and GDP, is valid for Bangladesh, Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey, and the panel. FDI has significantly positive association with CO2 for South Korea and the panel. TO has significantly negative association with CO2 for Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, and the panel but significantly positive relationship with CO2 in Philippines. Moreover, the focus variable AGRI has significantly negative association with CO2 for Bangladesh, Turkey, and the panel but significantly positive relationship with CO2 for Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares labor market flows between a developing economy, Colombia, and a developed one, the United States (US). In a comparative framework, we explore measures of labor market flows across dimensions such as firm size, age, and economic sector. This comparison allows us testing, for both countries, a series of interesting hypothesis suggested in the literature, namely the negative systematic relationship between firm size/age and employment growth rate. We find that labor market fluidity in the US labor market is substantially higher than in Colombia and that the churning rate is twice as high for the US market as it is for the Colombian one. We argue that this fluidity gap between the two economies can be explained by, among other factors, the rigid nature of Colombian labour market institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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One of the central debates surrounding the design of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme is the approach to address carbon leakage concerns. Correctly identifying the economic activities exposed to the risk of carbon leakage represents the first step in mitigating the risk effectively. This paper assesses the robustness of the quantitative assessment criteria used by the European Commission for Phase 3. For example we apply the criteria to data for UK and Germany and compare the results with the Commissions' assessment conducted at the aggregated EU level. This reveals that sectors' exposure risk to carbon leakage can vary across different Member States due to differences in production processes, technologies and fuel mix; process emissions; recycling rate differences; product mix differences; sector classification, statistical boundaries, activity allocation differences; and finally difference in data quality. Overall, we find that relative carbon intensity of sectors, measured as cost increase relative to gross value added, provides a robust metric. The analysis also highlights the importance of using high quality and disaggregated data for this assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consumption of fossil energy is the major cause of environmental pollution. Effectively reducing the fossil energy use has important significance for achieving China's green development targets. The premise for reducing fossil energy use is accurately measuring the amount of energy use and identifying the key sectors and links of energy use of China's economic sectors. This paper, by establishing a cross-region input-output model, measured the amount of energy use from the perspective of embodied energy, explored the changing trend of energy use between 2002 and 2015, and identified the key sectors and links of energy use. The results show that the embodied energy intensities of China's economic sectors are generally higher than the world average level, but its changing trend is declining. Although the amount of energy use shows a growth trend, the growth rate manifests a decline process. The key sectors of energy use assemble in the resource sector and heavy industry sector. The key link is intermediate use, but about 80% of embodied energy of intermediate use has been used by downstream sectors. Approximately 76% of the embodied energy of final demand has been used by gross fixed capital formation and urban residents' consumption. China has turned from a net exporter of embodied energy to a net importer since 2012. There is a resource mismatch in China's import and export structure of embodied energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses monthly data from 2000:05 to 2016:11 to investigate the relationship between oil price shocks and stock market returns of the nine economic sectors listed on Bursa Malaysia while incorporating oil price, interest rate, exchange rate, industrial production, and inflation into the regression. In order to avoid issue arising from the presence of the structural breaks, Narayan and Popp (J Appl Stat 37(9):1425–1438, 2010) unit root and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) with structural breaks were utilized. The ARDL bounds test results illustrate that all the sectors are cointegrated except trading/services and plantation sectors. The results further show that oil price has a significant negative impact on the property, mining, and technology sectors stock market returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction to the special issue of industry-specific corporate social responsibility (CSR), we develop our argument in three steps: Firstly, we elaborate on some theoretical perspectives for industry-specific CSR by referring to cultural business ethics, a theoretical approach which is located between purely business perspectives and purely normative perspectives on CSR. Secondly, we briefly introduce the papers of this special issue, which covers a wide range of theoretical approaches and empirical studies in the field of industry-specific CSR. Thirdly, we draw attention to shortcomings of an industry-specific approach and sketch some theoretical-but also empirically applicable-perspectives for further research that stress cross-sectoral perspectives based on societal needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to answer the following key question: how will a city′s world rank change in the face of crisis in its main economic sector? Crisis is defined here as a decline in financial performance in the given sector, which leads to the decline of its constituent firms and corporations on the world economic scene. The World Economic Center Index (WECI) has been created in order to rank cities based on the value of their resident corporations by sector and show their level of stability upon the removal of the most important sector. This provides information on the potential of each analyzed city as well as on its advanced features or area of specialization. Research has shown that nearly half the World Economic Centers are dominated by the financial and materials sectors of the economy. Different sectors dominate different regions of the world. For example, consumer staples and materials were dominant in North America, while information technology and financials were dominant in Europe. In Asia, several sectors tend to dominate the economy. Research has shown that the ability of a principal economic sector to resist economic crisis largely depends on the strength of the command and control function of a city. Finally, a high globalization level of a city is a key determinant of its susceptibility to economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study into the goods transport sector and its vulnerability to crime. Based on 33 interviews with professionals and law enforcement agents, four interviews with convicted criminals, 26 case files from the Belgian Federal Police and the customs services and 9 informal conversations with law enforcement agency personnel, academics and professionals, the paper analyses what structures, mechanisms, conditions and interdependencies make the goods transport network susceptible to criminal activity. It is suggested that vulnerability to crime is twofold, consisting of opportunities based on weak sector conditions and weak regulation. It will be demonstrated that small and medium enterprises present particular opportunities for criminal exploitation due to their weaker financial position and the lack of crime prevention measures in place. The study found no criminal 'front' structures that are transport businesses alone, because of the high start-up costs within the industry; rather, non-transport companies are exploited to connect to the legal transport sector. Finally, the paper identifies key weaknesses in the sector, asking whether there should be due diligence or regulatory duties for certain roles in the supply chain like shipping agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a unique eight-year data set, merging population census and national insurance data, the paper examines and compares patterns of wage mobility in Israel. First, the public and the private sectors are compared. Second, within each of these sectors, a distinction is made between sub-sector groupings that exhibit a high level of concentration and those that are more diffuse and unregulated. Based on alternative measures of wage mobility, the central finding of the paper is that the extent of wage mobility in a given economic sector is negatively related to the degree of concentration in that sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses an index to measure the level of employment diversity at the state level for 2000. The index is based on aggregating employment at eight major sectors. The paper utilizes sixteen science and engineering indicator variables to explain specialization at the state level in recent years. All but seven variables were found to provide explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to revisit the Granger causal relationship between banking sector development and economic growth for forty developing countries in the period 1970–2012. In order to capture the different aspects of banking sector development, we use two banking sector development indices and apply a panel bootstrap approach to Granger causality testing which takes into account cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity issues. The empirical results show limited support for the supply-leading, demand-following and complementarity hypotheses, but provide evidence for a causal relationship between banking sector development and economic growth in twenty-five countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to identify the impact of local characteristics, such as the relative concentration of economic activities, on new business location decisions based on their sectors of economic activity. Spatial establishment-level, micro-data, pooled over time (2008–2014) was used for a typical Canadian nonmetropolitan area—the Lower St. Lawrence region—in the province of Quebec. The study was conducted on a radius of 1250 m to describe the local economic environment. Results of our employed multinomial logit model reveal that local characteristics influence the location decision of new individual establishments for most of the economic sectors. An econometric model is developed to simulate the probability that a new establishment (in a given economic sector) will be located at a given geographic location based on this location's characteristics. Results confirm that the location decisions for new primary sector businesses are related to the presence of benefits arising from the existence of natural resources as well as those benefits associated with having large spaces (such as in the case of rural cities). New manufacturing sector businesses are mainly looking for a co-location (specialisation) pattern, with a slight preference to locate in small-sized cities. Finally, the location decisions of service sectors firms are strongly dependent on intermediate demand and on the distance to major markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the correlation between public policies in the field of military expenditures and economic growth in Romania. The research is built upon the vast literature focused on the field of public policies and economic growth. Whereas economic growth became one of the most dynamic areas in economics, this correlation will consider the determinants of the real sector development through economic phenomenon modeling. The impact of military expenditures on growth is analysed for Romania, using annual data over the period 1991–2016. The research methodology employed is the Granger causality test. The empirical results reveal that there is a bidirectional relationship between military expenditure and GDP over the long run, with a positive effect described by both relationships through several models exemplified in the analysis. From the economic point of view, these results highlight the impact of military expenditures, generating different positive effects on labor, capital, economic growth and efficient use of resources in the economic sector, at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most Asian countries have a strong third sector and a rich tradition of philanthropy. The varied array of social, economic, political, and third sector variables across the many countries of the region make Asia an ideal site for testing and developing third sector theory. The research infrastructure needed to sustain such a venture is beginning to form. The five papers published in this issue of Voluntas indicate some of the product, and the variety, of this growing body of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we develop a data-driven hierarchical clustering methodology to group the economic sectors of a country in order to highlight strongly coupled groups that are weakly coupled with other groups. Specifically, we consider an input-output representation of the coupling among the sectors and we interpret the relation among sectors as a directed graph; then we recursively apply the spectral clustering methodology over the graph, without a priori information on the number of groups that have to be obtained. In order to do this, we resort to the eigengap criterion, where a suitable number of groups is selected automatically based on the intensity and structure of the coupling among the sectors. We validate the proposed methodology considering a case study for Italy, inspecting how the coupling among clusters and sectors changes from the year 1995 to 2011, showing that in the years the Italian structure underwent deep changes, becoming more and more interdependent, i.e., a large part of the economy has become tightly coupled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of Lebanon’s severe economic crisis, a situation aggravated by the collapse of Banque du Liban’s financial strategies, delayed reforms by the government, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the devastating Beirut Port explosion. These events have precipitated a sharp decline in disposable income, soaring inflation rates, and an alarming increase in unemployment and multidimensional poverty. Central to this study is a comprehensive field survey that examines eighteen coping mechanisms adopted by workers in various economic sectors of Lebanon. From this survey, we introduce a new index designed to systematically categorize and evaluate these coping strategies across four critical dimensions of well-being: nutrition, healthcare, education, and financial issues. We use this index to quantify and understand the extent to which workers have relied on these coping mechanisms, offering novel insights into the socio-economic repercussions of the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is a major international issue due to rising levels of greenhouse gases such as CO2. Many countries now face the challenge to find cost-effective ways to deploy low-carbon technologies in order to meet commitments to the Paris Agreement. Process systems engineering (PSE) can play an essential role in supporting high-level policy decisions to help mitigate climate change. Within PSE, carbon-constrained planning will become increasingly critical for policy-making on provision of sustainable energy in electricity generation as well as other economic sectors. There are existing carbon-constrained planning tools but these often consider energy issues from limited perspectives at specific scales. In this perspective paper, we argue for a Process-to-Policy framework that centres on carbon-constrained planning which includes various stakeholders at various scales for developing strategies to address global warming. There is an urgent need for research on the development of such tools at multiple scales to effectively allocate countermeasures such as negative emission technologies. We also discuss potential extensions for carbon-constrained planning in conjunction with other established tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emission utilization permission is an interesting but complex issue regarding the environmental effect of pollution. This paper proposes a mathematical programming–based approach to emission utilization permission taking environmental efficiency into consideration. We use this approach for an environmental efficiency analysis and emission utilization permission (extra emission permission) of selected economic sectors in Iran, namely, agriculture, oil, industry, transportation, and domestic, commercial, and public. We use a gradually decreasing scheme for the process of emission utilization permission to investigate the condition of each sector during the process. The result reveals a vital need of improvement for two sectors, namely, oil sector and transportation sector, at the end of emission utilization permission process that is very tight in terms of emission permission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first visits the clean energy consumption for 21 OECD countries and 14 Emerging market countries through a panel unit root test with both sharp and smooth breaks covering the period from 1965 to 2016. The time-varying fitted intercepts of the estimation could better fit the path of clean energy consumption for selected countries. The empirical results suggest that not only sharp breaks should be considered, but also smooth breaks. The economic implications are insightful for the convergence of clean energy consumption for 22 of 35 countries. For USA, Canada, Austria, Germany, Greece, Ireland, UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Hungary, China, Philippines, and Thailand, the clean energy consumption is divergence. Policy encouragement policy would permanently affect not only clean energy consumption path, but also aggregate economic sectors related to consume clean energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have shown that regional externalities play a crucial role for the survival prospects of newly founded companies. However, recent research provides evidence that not all businesses are affected by these externalities in the same way. Relying on new and representative panel survey data containing information about 6776 newly founded firms from almost all economic sectors in Germany, this paper suggests that the effects of regional externalities on survival are contingent upon the start-up's innovative behavior. First, we show that introducing market novelties is not necessarily beneficial for newly founded firms and might even endanger their survival. Second, we find that being located in spatial proximity to similar firms is important for start-ups in non-high-tech environments and has a positive influence on survival only for less innovative companies. In contrast, high-tech start-ups are more likely to be affected by a diverse economic structure. We thus suggest that the recombination of knowledge from diverse sources can lead to overly complex innovation projects with detrimental effects on the start-up's survival prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring sustainable development requires multidimensional attitude as the process is characterised by compound relationships between social, economic and environmental spheres. The paper aims at assessing selected effects of sectoral employment for the three dimensions of developmental processes. We examine employment efficiency in 25 EU countries concerning four sectors: agriculture, industry, market services, and non-market services. We use a non-radial DEA input-oriented model, which allows the assessment of the general efficiency of labour resources, as well as the evaluation of in-depth efficiency in the three dimensions of the economies under study. The novelty of the research lays in both multidimensional attitudes to the effects of labour engagement as well as intersectoral comparisons of the employment results. We categorise the EU countries according to efficiency in gaining the sustainable development and its three dimensions. Generally, the "old" EU members are of higher efficiency than the "new" states. Our research shows desirable movements of labour force that are necessary to improve efficiency and thus offers some advice for a rational development policy. It appears that it is necessary to limit agricultural employment in favour of non-market and market services and, to a lower extent, of industry. We conclude that the structural changes in employment specified by patterns observed in the highly developed EU countries are favourable for realising the aims of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper focuses on the question of whether the national production functions of patents owned by universities and public research organisations (PROs) differ. We use Eurostat patent and R&D data broken down by institutional sector for the European Union 27 and other countries in years 1982-2007, and we estimate dynamic panel models. The impact of R&D expenditure on patent ownership is higher for PROs than for universities. University patent ownership activity is dependent on business funding, while PRO patent ownership is not. We recommend a reversal of the current decline of PRO R&D expenditure and discuss whether PROs perform better at macroeconomic level vis a vis universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption in public sector is a complex, 'messy' and 'fuzzy' phenomenon which involves calculus machinations between actors and constantly growing in sophistication. Consequently, an attempt to prevent, control or fight it requires systems thinking that ranges from public officials with integrity and personal ethics [ strong personalities]; administrative rules and procedures as well as governments adopting, enforcing and monitoring appropriate systems [ strong institutions]. This paper provides a systems approach to enhancing public sector ethics through 'a corruption control tripod' in preventing, controlling and combating corruption in all its forms. This framework discusses three overarching pillars and argues that adopting a reductionist approach in corruption control would yield futility; there is a need for synthesis so that each one would reinforce the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyze the moral responsibilities that companies have with regard to the development of their sector, especially when there are path dependences that can lead sectors on more or less morally acceptable paths, e.g., with regard to market access for disadvantaged groups. The interdependencies between companies in a sector are underexplored in the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Reflections on the normative status of profit-seeking and on the normative bases of CSR, however, provide us with reasons for seeing sector-related responsibilities as an important component of CSR. Based on a case study of a financial institution, I analyze various morally relevant ways in which the strategic decisions of companies relate to those of other companies in their sector. I argue that companies have a co-responsibility to contribute to the development of the moral dimensions of their sectors, especially when they deal with vulnerable customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]