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As global manufacturing competition increasingly emphasizes supply chain resilience, enhancing the risk resistance of manufacturing supply chains through digital empowerment has become a critical priority. This study leverages the opportunities of the digital economy to deeply investigate the mechanisms that enhance supply chain resilience. Using data from China' s A-share listed manufacturing companies from 2012 to 2020, a research framework is constructed based on information asymmetry and transaction cost theories. Employing text analysis and factor analysis, the study develops indicators for digital empowerment and supply chain resilience and examines their relationship through both theoretical analysis and empirical testing. The findings reveal that: (a) Digital empowerment significantly enhances supply chain resilience in the manufacturing sector, and this conclusion is robust across various robustness checks. (b) Mechanism analysis demonstrates that digital empowerment drives supply chain resilience primarily by enhancing innovation vitality within enterprises. (c) The moderating analysis shows that environmental uncertainty positively influences the resilience of digitally empowered manufacturing supply chains. (d) Further analysis indicates that the effects of digital empowerment on supply chain resilience vary depending on factor intensity, supply chain position, and industry competition levels. These results validate the positive role of digital empowerment in promoting supply chain resilience and explore the 'black box' mechanism from the perspective of innovation vitality. The study also highlights the moderating influence of environmental uncertainty. By advancing the understanding of how the digital economy fosters high-quality development in manufacturing, this research provides actionable insights for strengthening supply chain resilience, achieving greater control over supply chain dynamics, and promoting deeper integration between digital technologies and the real economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pilot free trade zones (PFTZs) is a significant result of China's institutional innovation. The analysis examines the role of PFTZs in narrowing economic gap in China using provincial data from 2000 to 2019. This paper firstly measures the current situation and trend of economic development gap in China, and sorts out the mechanism of the institutional innovation on narrowing the economic gap. Secondly, the empirical test is conducted by difference in differences method and finds as follows. (1) PFTZs have positive effect on narrowing the economic gap. (2) PFTZs have more significant effect on the northern provinces and provinces with better business environment. (3)PFTZs narrow the economic gap by saving transaction costs. Based on the results of this test, this study proposes corresponding countermeasures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper developed a closed-loop supply chain network (CLSCN) optimization model with corporate social responsibility (CSR), recycling, remanufacturing, refurbishing, and transaction cost on a supply chain consisting of manufacturers, retailers, a new product demand market, and a retailer-refurbished product demand market. The manufacturers produce substitutable products using raw materials from two sources, new and recycled. The retailers, in turn, face the demands of new products and retailer-refurbished products, and recycle from the new product demand market. We investigated a number of cases, and our results indicate that CSR can enhance CLSCN performance but more to the party closest to the demand market. It also shows that consumer behavior, competition, CSR investment, and sustainable practices (new material procurement, recycling, refurbishing, re-manufacturing, and environmental costs), play an essential role in CSR and closing the loop. With higher landfill cost, more willingness to return from consumers, less disutility for consumers to return, higher level of recycling and refurbishing, and higher re-manufacturing rate, CSR level tends to improve. Policy-makers can use these findings to encourage firms to improve CSR in CLSCN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the market demand, the development of the high-speed railway (HSR) is crucial. The purpose of this study is to analyze the competitive and cooperative behavior of enterprises in the international HSR industry chain. The evolutionary game model between upstream and downstream enterprises and the evolutionary game model between peer enterprises are constructed and solved. Then, the factors influencing strategy selection process and evolution direction are evaluated by numerical experiments. The findings reveal that various factors play role in relationships among HSR enterprises to evolve differently. For the upstream and downstream enterprises, critical factors such as the probability of winning the bid, construction costs, increased management costs, and transaction costs paid will influence the speed and direction of evolution. Whereas, for the peer enterprises, other factors, related to the winning probability of joint bidding, income distribution, cost distribution, and transaction costs will influence the speed and direction of evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of citizenship rent to help explain the apparently contradictory coexistence of liberalising economic reforms and the entrenchment of patriarchal values. Citizenship rent (CR) is defined as the financial flows that move from the state to the citizen in the form of entitlements, employment, and access to state-subsidised goods, labour and business opportunities. Our innovative proposal substitutes transaction cost economics' assumption of market selection for a selection by patriarchy to show how gender plays a central role in the reproduction of the asset specificities that increase transaction costs. This illustrates how an extractive, asset-based economy, like Kuwait's, can afford to double down on conservative social values, even at a considerable fiscal price, as long as the transaction costs of getting oil to the international markets are not increased through social disruption or political uncertainty. Rather than examining how women's social reproductive work subsidises social and political stability, CR reveals women's role in sustaining assets valuable to the state. This paper demonstrates that a close examination of the social values that inhibit transactions can also reveal patriarchal structures in rentier capital and exhibit a need to further analyse the patriarchal transaction costs that shape and sustain societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is the first to apply transaction cost theory to identify optimal influencer marketing strategies for the tourism sector through three content types: hero, hub, and hygiene content. Transaction cost theory posits that stakeholders seek to minimize information search and delivery costs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with different experienced level tourists to measure the effect of influencer attributes and content on inspiration levels. The findings indicate that differentiating content based on targeted personas minimizes transaction costs. Hero content highly motivated specific tourist personas to visit destinations. Hub content provided practical trip planning details. Hygiene content addressed fundamental customer concerns. By framing influencer marketing through the lens of transaction cost economics, this study contributes to the literature by tailoring influencer content (hero, hub, and hygiene content) to meet the specific needs of tourist personas, which managerially can optimize credibility and value while reducing tourism stakeholders' information search and delivery costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfer of development rights (TDR) programs have been used in Italy over the last two decades for various purposes, e.g. to avoid expropriation. While previous research shows that implementing TDR programs at a regional level creates considerable transaction costs, there is no study concerning the costs generated by employing these programs at a city level. This paper addresses this gap through an analysis of the city of Milan's TDR program. Results show that transaction costs in a fully market-based TDR program are mainly related to TDR contracting, monitoring and creation, influencing the efficacy of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the blocking effect of patents on follow-on innovation by others. We posit that follow-on innovation requires freedom to operate (FTO), which firms typically obtain through a license from the patentee holding the original innovation. Where licensing fails, follow-on innovation is blocked unless firms gain FTO through patent invalidation. Using large-scale data from post-grant oppositions at the European Patent Office, we find that patent invalidation increases follow-on innovation, measured in citations, by 16% on average. This effect exhibits a U-shape in the value of the original innovation. For patents on low-value original innovations, invalidation predominantly increases low-value follow-on innovation outside the patentee's product market. Here, transaction costs likely exceed the joint surplus of licensing, causing licensing failure. In contrast, for patents on high-value original innovations, invalidation mainly increases high-value follow-on innovation in the patentee's product market. We attribute this latter result to rent dissipation, which renders patentees unwilling to license out valuable technologies to (potential) competitors. This paper was accepted by Ashish Arora, entrepreneurship and innovation. Funding: This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [Collaborative Research Center TRR 190]. F. Gaessler acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D [Barcelona School of Economics CEX2019-000915-S]. Supplemental Material: The online appendices and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2019.02294. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology is a rapidly emerging technology that has attracted widespread attention in recent years. Given that new technology plays a crucial role in driving innovation, this paper investigates whether blockchain technology has a positive impact on corporate innovation. We provide robust evidence that blockchain significantly enhances corporate innovation with a multi-period difference-in-difference model using data from Chinese listed firms between 2010 and 2020. We also discuss possible mechanisms of how blockchain increases innovation. Specifically, the reduction of transaction costs and the enhancement of supply chain financing capabilities are identified as plausible channels for the influence of blockchain on innovation. Heterogeneity analysis shows the positive relation is more pronounced in regions with higher intellectual property protection and marketization. Our findings have important policy implications, suggesting that fostering the development of new technologies can facilitate corporate innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new empirical evidence of purchasing power parity (PPP) in 18 countries. We thoroughly test for the non-stationarity and nonlinearity jointly of the real effective exchange rates (REERs) using a variety of transition functions, which allow for asymmetric adjustment of the REERs depending upon the size and sign of deviation from the equilibrium. The empirical results reveal that the REERs possess nonlinearity. The stationarity of the REERs is strongly dependent upon the size of disequilibrium, which is theoretically attributed to the transaction costs. The autoregressive model associated with the exponential smooth transition function dominates the other transition functions in characterizing the size nonlinearity of the REERs. In addition, if the Heaviside indicator variable of the threshold autoregressive model is assumed to be the lagged real effective exchange rate, then the asymmetric adjustment, theoretically suggested by the price stickiness, is indispensable to validating the PPP hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Given the sudden disruption caused by COVID-19, knowledge sharing between organizations has become a meaningful way to improve supply chain resilience. However, there is still a lack of in-depth research on how to reduce the threat to knowledge sharing caused by increased levels of relational risk. With the emergence of new digital technologies, whether blockchain governance can control relational risk and replace traditional relational governance remains to be demonstrated. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a cross-sectional survey approach in which quantitative data are collected from 300 participants from Chinese manufacturing enterprises to test the hypotheses. Findings: The results show that relational and blockchain governance can significantly and complementarily reduce the level of relational risk in knowledge sharing. When the relational risk is at a low, medium or high level, the best matches of relational and blockchain governance are low-level relational governance–low-level blockchain governance, high-level relational governance–low-level blockchain governance and high-level relational governance–high-level blockchain governance, respectively. Practical implications: The findings of this study have important practical implications for manufacturing enterprises in terms of how to choose reasonable governance modes to manage relational risk behaviour according to different relational risk levels to better understand the positive role of knowledge sharing in supply chain resilience. Originality/value: The antecedent variables of knowledge sharing in previous studies are based on transaction cost theory or relational theory and have not moved beyond the original theoretical framework. This paper addresses this limitation, puts knowledge sharing in the academic context of digital technology, considers blockchain governance into the process of relational risk-knowledge sharing and defines blockchain governance, which is a novel approach in the supply chain resilience management literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonprofits play a leading role in community development, including the provision of economic development services. Despite their involvement, few studies have examined why some cities contract with nonprofits to facilitate economic development. This study investigates how transaction costs, affected by factors such as governance structure, preference diversity, market structure, and fiscal stress, shape a city's decisions to rely on nonprofits. Using probit regression, the study finds that an increase in the number of nonprofit economic development organizations within a city increases the likelihood of nonprofit selection, while municipal fiscal stress decreases that likelihood. It also finds that the impacts of preference diversity, measured by income inequality and racial-ethnic diversity, are mixed, with income inequality increasing and racial-ethnic diversity decreasing the likelihood of nonprofit participation. The findings elucidate the dynamics of government-nonprofit relations, highlighting how community characteristics influence local governments' contracting decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Blockchains used by e-commerce consortia are a novel form of governance that facilitates coordination and collaboration among the numerous organisations that comprise e-commerce supply chains. Despite the increasing prevalence of consortium blockchain networks for e-commerce, there is a limited understanding of the economic and social dynamics that influence the behaviour of blockchain consortium members. By utilising transaction cost theory and social exchange theory, this research investigates the interplay between blockchain transaction-specific investment (BTSI), trust, adaptive collaboration (ADC) and the overall performance of supply chains in consortium blockchains Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative research approach was employed to collect data from a representative sample of blockchain organisations affiliated with e-commerce consortium blockchains worldwide. Following this, the data obtained from 361 participants were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings: The results of our study indicate that BTSI has a substantial impact on trust. Furthermore, trust plays a pivotal role in shaping ADC, and ADC, in turn, acts as a mediator in the relationship between trust and performance outcomes. Originality/value: This study underlines these economic and social dynamics in the evolving context of consortium blockchain networks, offering insights into their significance within a technology-driven environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reverse auctions are often recognized as a tool that can cost-effectively allocate agri-environmental program funds to support environmentally-beneficial land management practices. However, transaction costs can limit participation in auctions which limits their cost-effectiveness. We use a laboratory experiment to examine how various levels of transaction costs influence participation and bidding behavior in discriminatory-price reverse auctions in low and high budget scenarios. Our experimental results show that transaction costs limit auction participation, increase bid amounts, and reduce cost-effectiveness. The negative effect of transaction costs on participation is particularly large when the budget level is low. Using the results of our experiment, we design a simulation to investigate whether reducing transaction costs via subsidies could increase program cost-effectiveness under various conditions. We find that transaction cost subsidies increase auction cost-effectiveness; however, our study raises new questions about how these subsidies are designed and the implications for the overall costs and benefits of efforts to reduce transaction costs in reverse auctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses meta-regression analysis to investigate the empirical literature on the performance of water institutions. This pioneering study synthesizes and quantifies the overall water institution-performance effect using data extracted from 23 original studies. A bivariate meta-regression and funnel asymmetric test are estimated and conducted, respectively, and for our multivariate meta-regressions (MMRs), four different fixed and random effects weighted least square models are estimated. Both bivariate and MMRs confirm the presence of a publication selection bias that favors the positive impact of water institutions on performance. Once this bias is corrected, evidence of a genuine empirical effect of water institutions on the performance is evident. Also, the variations in this literature are attributable to differences in the way these studies capture water institutions, the variables used to capture performance, and the estimation strategies, among others. Primary studies that use the water law, water policy, and/or some aspects of these to capture performance tend to report a greater impact of water institutions on performance. This paper contributes not only to improving the quality of research, reporting, review, and publication in the water space but also provides further insights for additional development, facilitation, and strengthening of water laws, policies, and administration to lower transaction costs in the water space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Prior research from transaction costs economics argued that central firms perform better because they have superior access to information to discipline their alliance partners. Central firms may also, however, face higher costs and risks of unintentional learning and weaken their competence through structural inertia. We propose that these costs and risks are influenced by the learning capacities of the firms in the network and can explain different outcomes for focal firm performance. Design/methodology/approach: To test our predictions, we use instrumental variable–generalized method of moments estimation techniques on 15,517 firm-year observations from equity alliance portfolios in the global food industry across a 21-year window. Findings: We find support for our predictions and show that the relationship between network degree centrality and firm performance is negatively influenced by partners' learning capacity and positively influenced by focal firms' learning capacity, while firms with low network degree centrality benefit less from their learning capacity. Research limitations/implications: Future developments in transaction cost economics may consider partner and focal firms' learning capacity as moderators of the network degree centrality – firm performance relationship. Practical implications: In alliance decisions, managers must consider that the combination of high network degree centrality and partners' learning capacity can lead to high costs, risks of unintentional learning, and structural inertia, all of which have negative consequences for performance. In concentrated industries where network positions are controlled by a few large firms, policymakers must acknowledge that firms may face substantial barriers to collaboration with learning-intensive firms. Originality/value: This study is the first to develop and test a comprehensive transaction cost analysis of the central firm's unintended knowledge flows and structural inertia in alliance networks. It is also the first to incorporate theoretically and empirically the hazards of complex and unintended information flows on the relationship of network degree centrality to performance in equity alliance portfolios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard model, which determines option pricing, is the well-known Black-Scholes formula. Heston in addition to Cox-Ingersoll-Ross which is called CIR, respectively, implemented the models of stochastic volatility and interest rate to the standard option pricing model. The cost of transaction, which the Black-Scholes method overlooked, is another crucial consideration that must be made when trading a service or production. It is acknowledged that by employing the log-normal stock diffusion hypothesis with constant volatility, the Black-Scholes model for option pricing departs from reality. The standard log-normal stock price distribution used in the Black-Scholes model is insufficient to account for the leaps that regularly emerge in the discontinuous swings of stock prices. A jump-diffusion model, which combines a jump process and a diffusion process is a type of mixed model in the Black-Scholes model belief. Merton developed a jump model as a modification of jump models to better describe purchasing and selling behavior. In this study, the Heston-Cox-Ingersoll-Ross (HCIR) model with transaction costs is solved using the alternating direction implicit (ADI) approach and the Monte Carlo simulation assuming the underlying asset adheres to the jump-diffusion case, then the outcomes are compared to the analytical solution. In addition, the consistency of the numerical method is proven for the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technology significantly transforms economies by reducing transaction costs and promoting economic growth. Similarly, international remittances decrease poverty and improve employment. This article investigates whether digitalization increases international remittances in developing economies and how institutional development affects the nexus between digitalization and international remittances. The study employs internet users and fixed broadband subscriptions as proxies for digitalization and the difference generalized method of moments estimators to test the role of governance in the digitalization-international remittances nexus across 102 developing economies. The findings are counter-intuitive. First, digitalization and governance increase international remittances. Second, as a proxy for digitalization, the interaction term with internet users decreases international remittances, while the interaction term with fixed broadband subscriptions promotes them. Finally, trade openness, economic growth, and inflation are determinants of international remittances. From these findings, the article makes arguments to show the paradox of institutional development in developing economies and some policy lessons to improve institutional quality in promoting digital technology and attracting more international remittances. JEL Classification C23, G21, O47 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban renewal is a critical approach to address issues such as the scarcity of urban spatial resources and infrastructure aging in the later stages of urbanization. Urban village renewal is one of the typical practices of urban renewal. Based on China's unique dual urban–rural land system and urbanization process, this study localizes the rent gap theory. It applies the modified rent gap theory to conduct a case study on Wangjiapeng Village in Xi'an using the process-tracing method. It explores the internal mechanisms of urban village renewal and the key factors influencing the progress of renewal projects. The findings reveal that the size of the rent gap directly determines the attractiveness and timing of urban village renewal. However, issues such as interest conflicts, administrative redundancy, and government supervision during the renewal process significantly increase transaction costs, raising the rent gap threshold and thereby affecting the progress and outcomes of the renewal. This paper proposes a rent gap theory that is more suited to China's context and further expands its applicability through case study research. The practical experience of Wangjiapeng Village provides important policy implications for other major cities in China and cities currently in the late stages of urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, as a contribution to the research on urban land grabbing (grabs) as a global phenomenon, seeks to evaluate the populist belief that developers swallow up urban land originally zoned for community purposes under Government, Institution and Community (GIC) zoning, thus depriving communities of space for their own benefit. The authors applied a systematic analysis of non-aggregate planning and development statistics to better interpret the features of the land market as regulated by zoning. Their research focuses on the salient features of redevelopment projects that enjoy successful planning applications and onsite development in GIC zones. They compared the planning and development statistics, obtained from the Planning Department's website, of 425 approved GIC projects with those of the 261 Comprehensive Development Area (CDA) zone projects. Subject to the limitations of the data collected, the results qualify a negative view of land oligarchs (powerful land developers) who sought land under unitary ownership obtained in the past at nominal land premiums for quick windfalls. Particularly, GIC redevelopments were found to have proceeded much faster than CDA developments and, hence, were a natural attraction to developers, which were diverse, not exclusively private, and produced a few urban innovations during the redevelopment process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale disasters are characterized by significant risk spreading and cross administrative boundaries of regional governments, and thus intergovernmental collaborative governance of emergency response logistics is of great importance. This paper selects the local government and the external government as game participants and constructs a dynamic evolutionary game model to analyze the evolution process of emergency logistics coordination and the conditions of achieving stability. Multiple factors are considered, which include the coordination cost and benefit, emergency intensity, external synergistic effects, and central government constraints. On this basis, a simulation analysis is carried out to investigate the dynamic evolution trajectory of the game and explore the influence of different parameters on the strategy selection of participants. The results show that: the participant behaviors are not sensitive to changes in emergency intensity, while increasing regional public benefits, reducing emergency logistics cooperation costs and external synergistic effects will increase the willingness of regional governments towards collaborative governance. Meanwhile, the central government constraints can effectively mitigate the imperfect transaction and cost compensation mechanisms for cooperation among regional governments. Intensifying rewarding and punitive measures as well as increasing the coefficient of participation will lead to a rapid evolution of stabilization strategies toward positive cooperation, in which imposition of penalties appears to be more effective than rewarding measures in promoting synergies among regional governments. In brief, this study sheds light on intergovernmental collaborative governance of emergency logistics by developing a much-needed scientific tool and providing a valuable theoretical reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper presents a comprehensive and integrated review of the literature on the role of psychic distance in shaping inter-organizational relationships, by uncovering the theoretical, methodological, and thematic foundations of this research domain. Design/methodology/approach: Leveraging a systematic literature review in combination of text mining techniques using Leximancer, the study identified 62 relevant articles published between 1980 and 2024. The analysis revealed four key areas of focus: (1) interfirm business relationships, (2) relational governance and performance, (3) relationship quality, and (4) relationship violation. Findings: The findings indicate that this body of research is grounded in well-established theoretical frameworks, with social exchange theory, transaction cost analysis, relational exchange theory, and the resource-based view being the most frequently employed. The literature predominantly emphasizes the role of psychic distance in the formation and maintenance of interfirm business relationships, while the other three areas remain comparatively underexplored. Originality/value: By offering a more robust framework and a holistic understanding of psychic distance in inter-organizational relationships context, this study paves the way for further theory-driven studies, which is a theoretical contribution towards advancing this research area [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transaction cost model predicts opportunity costs should negatively affect money demand. Examining the effect of cost of carry (CC) on cash holdings at the firm‐level, rather the average effect for entire population, we find that such a pervasive negative relation does not hold in times of low interest rate with about a 10% chance of observing positive effects. Firm size emerges as the primary driver of this heterogeneity, demonstrating a hump‐shaped effect on the cash‐CC link. Our findings suggest that policymakers should track the distributional impacts of opportunity cost of money demand over time to better evaluation of monetary policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to integrate perspectives of transaction costs and capabilities to investigate how the configurational fit between outsourcing strategies, asset specificity of projects and the capabilities of general contractors could achieve high outsourcing performance. Design/methodology/approach: Employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, this study analyzes 31 outsourcing cases in construction projects to examine outsourcing performance under different combinations of transaction costs and capabilities. Findings: The findings highlight six different but functionally equivalent configurations to high outsourcing performance, which vary according to attributes of projects and capabilities of contractors. Further, this study develops four context-dependent paths that link outsourcing strategies to high outsourcing performance: leading practitioner, collaborative manager, partnership dependent, and struggler. Practical implications: How do contractors in construction projects navigate outsourcing practices to high performance? This study provides a configurational perspective to make outsourcing strategy decisions. Based on the firm's capabilities and project asset specificity, contractors are encouraged to select from six different but functionally equivalent combinations and thereby four outsourcing strategies, namely leading practitioner, collaborative manager, partnership dependent, and struggler, to achieve high outsourcing performance. Originality/value: This study contributes to the body of knowledge by offering a holistic perspective that integrates production and transaction costs to analyze contractors' outsourcing strategies, contributing to the integration of the transaction cost perspective and capability perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defines the "new" institutional economics pioneered by Coase's contributionas "neoclassical" institutional economics. It develops the firm theory on the basis of criticizing neoclassical economics for treating firms as black boxes. Coase's contribution is ground‐breaking: He created the transaction cost theory, reinterpreted the origin and essence of firms and the changes in firm size, and analyzed the internal power structure of firms from a contractual perspective. The follow‐up economists build incomplete contract theory, principal–agent theory, team production theory, corporate governance theory, mechanism design theory, and comparative institutional advantage theory to further develop the firm theory. Finally, according to the characteristics of China's economy, this paper provides the future direction of the firm theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, as a contribution to the research on urban land grabbing (grabs) as a global phenomenon, seeks to evaluate the populist belief that developers swallow up urban land originally zoned for community purposes under Government, Institution and Community (GIC) zoning, thus depriving communities of space for their own benefit. The authors applied a systematic analysis of non-aggregate planning and development statistics to better interpret the features of the land market as regulated by zoning. Their research focuses on the salient features of redevelopment projects that enjoy successful planning applications and onsite development in GIC zones. They compared the planning and development statistics, obtained from the Planning Department’s website, of 425 approved GIC projects with those of the 261 Comprehensive Development Area (CDA) zone projects. Subject to the limitations of the data collected, the results qualify a negative view of land oligarchs (powerful land developers) who sought land under unitary ownership obtained in the past at nominal land premiums for quick windfalls. Particularly, GIC redevelopments were found to have proceeded much faster than CDA developments and, hence, were a natural attraction to developers, which were diverse, not exclusively private, and produced a few urban innovations during the redevelopment process.

Realizing the low-carbon operation of the power system has become the main direction of power system reform. However, it is also difficult to coordinate power dispatching and benefit balance among multiple virtual power plants (VPPs). Hence, this study proposes an optimization strategy based on a non-cooperative game for VPPs considering the carbon trading market. Firstly, a non-cooperative game model of VPPs, which considers the electric carbon market and stepped carbon transaction cost, is built. Then, multi-timescale optimal scheduling with day-ahead optimization and intraday rolling is established. The day-ahead scheduling phase is modeled to minimize operating costs and stepped carbon trading costs. The rolling optimization uses short-time scales in the intraday stage. Furthermore, for the competitive relationship among different VPPs, a multi-VPPs non-cooperative game model is developed and solved using the alternating direction method of multiplier (ADMM). Finally, the case study demonstrates that the proposed method effectively reduces the operating cost of multi-VPPs and carbon emissions, and fully utilizes internal renewable energy through the introduction of carbon trading VPPs, which balances economic and environmental benefits. • A non-cooperative game model based on multi-VPPs under the carbon trading market is developed. • A multi-timescale scheduling strategy for VPPs that takes into account day-ahead and intra-day scheduling is established. • An optimal scheduling policy for multi-VPPs non-cooperative game is established and solved by ADMM algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments around the world face mounting pressures that affect their provision of public services. To prepare for and respond to stressors and shocks, local service providers can choose from among a wide variety of actions. The adaptive actions they choose will influence which risks are addressed, when, and how. Selection of adaptive actions can also have long-term implications if the actions affect future options for adaptation. This research investigates the influence of institutions on selection of adaptive actions by local public service providers as they seek to respond to climatic stressors. Drawing on insights from focus groups with local drinking water utilities across the USA, the research identifies five institutional dependencies that affect the selection of adaptive actions and examines the pathways through which those institutional dependencies influence decision-making. These pathways are then combined to present a conceptual model of factors shaping selection of adaptive actions. Findings indicate that the polycentric institutional environment in which local service providers are embedded limits control over adaptation decisions, can constrain the set of feasible actions, and can add substantial transaction costs. As a result, selection of adaptive actions includes consideration of the effect of institutional dependencies on the feasibility and ease of implementation. • Local service providers do not have full autonomy over adaptation decisions. • Institutional dependencies influence selection of adaptive actions. • Upward and lateral dependencies constrain the feasible set of adaptive actions. • Lateral, resource, and inward dependencies add transaction costs. • Inward and downward dependencies influence which goals are prioritized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive authoritarianism, a specific type of hybrid regime, is gaining ground globally. Corruption is particularly prevalent in these contexts as regimes utilise it to consolidate their power. However, some competitive authoritarian regimes also take significant measures to curb certain types of corruption. The present article posits that competitive authoritarian regimes, acting as rational utility-maximising actors, curb or enhance corruption types based on the net costs and benefits—that is, net gains—they yield for the regime. To elucidate the factors influencing net gains, an explanatory framework is presented. Its three constituent elements are accountability costs, transaction costs, and political benefits. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated with case studies of two corruption types in Hungary, namely, informal payments in healthcare and clientelism in awarding tobacco retail concessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) energy trading has garnered significant attention due to its potential to enhance energy efficiency and promote decentralized energy systems. Designing an effective P2P energy trading market hinges on making efficient P2P transactions and incentivizing truthful information disclosure among participants. Addressing this challenge, our study introduces a trustful double auction mechanism for P2P energy trading incorporating heterogeneous power losses and transaction costs into its framework. Our mechanism includes efficient matching and allocation rules that deal with the environment in which the amount of power losses and transaction costs vary depending on whom the prosumers trade with by integrating Multi-unit Trade Reduction (MTR) and Vickrey–Clarke–Groves (VCG) mechanisms. Moreover, we present a modified VCG transfer rule that prevents budget deficits in bilateral trading contexts while effectively reducing efficiency loss. It is shown that our mechanism satisfies dominant strategy incentive compatibility, individual rationality, budget balance, and asymptotic efficiency. Numerical analysis validates its performance, highlighting the impacts of power losses and transaction costs on the overall performance of our auction mechanism. • An incentive-compatible double auction is designed for a P2P energy trading market. • Efficient matching and allocation rules considering heterogeneous power losses and transaction costs are developed. • The proposed mechanism satisfies incentive compatibility, individual rationality, budget balance, and asymptotic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Using a consortium blockchain based on Hyperledger Indy, this article offers a unique and secure framework for socio-economic purposes, particularly financial bureaucracies. • BLPCA, a lightweight-plenum consensus protocol, is suggested for the automation and transmission of protected node-to-node transactions among involved parties. • The following is a mention of the BLPCA customization for transaction cost reduction: ○ PDF = Sum (Funda * Ta) / Sum (Sum (Funda * Ta)); ○ An = Hashing (Pk1 + Hashing (n-1)) / Max (Hashing); An examination of different distributed real-time applications operating on the blockchain platform is conducted. These applications can be broadly classified into three types: permissionless public, permissioned private, and consortium chains. In order for a decentralized network to function independently, consensus mechanisms are needed to facilitate the delivery of transactions and keep track of them in a ledger. But the fundamental idea behind Blockchain technology is the use of several consensus protocols, like Proof of Stake, Proof of Elapsed Time, etc., which requires greater processing power. In order to arrange transactions, it increases the demand for buying more computing units. Furthermore, present consortia blockchain consensus mechanisms lack a policy to collect socio-economic financial levies, including monies for charitable donations, education, and social activities. To collect socio-economic taxes, this study suggests a lightweight Plenum consensus algorithm called "BLPCA" for consortium blockchains built on Hyperledger Indy. The Byzantine Fault Tolerance concept combined with optimization is used in the suggested BLPCA systems to manage large-scale decentralized traffic of socioeconomic hierarchy. Because there are no transaction costs, BLPCA encourages government analysts to review funds using fewer resources. By including a multithreading heterogeneous technique, the BLPCA can effectively handle multi-transaction needs and execute this protocol in an industrial setting that operates in real-time. It is observed from the simulations that even in the worst-case network scenario—such as a fork—the suggested consortium blockchain does not crash a single transaction. In order to guarantee node scalability, a high propagation speed is determined. Furthermore, the BLPCA shows an excellent average time while constructing socioeconomic transaction blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we obtain an explicit formula to calculate the geometric Asian power option price with floating strike price and transaction cost under the fractional geometric Brownian motion model with w sources of risk and fuzzy parameters. First, by considering the Leland and Kabanov theorems, we derive a non-linear PDE with the transaction cost formula to obtain the option price. Then, using the Green function find a closed form solution for the PDE and achieve the price of the option under different amounts of the model and option parameters. Next, we consider the model's parameters as fuzzy numbers and acquire a general formula to obtain intervals for the option price under different belief degrees and power option parameter amounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The escalating costs of healthcare had prompted countries to undertake reforms, and in recent years China had focused on overhauling its outpatient healthcare system. China implemented the outpatient mutual-aid policy which had led to a change in the costs associated with outpatient treatment from being fully self-paid by the patient to being partially self-paid., Purpose: This study aimed to assess the impact of the outpatient mutual-aid policy on inpatient services for oncology patients in Wuhan, China, exploring the impact that the cumbersome administration of health insurance would have on patient welfare., Methods: 24,260 oncology patients of the health insurance reimbursement database in Wuhan spanning from January 2022 to July 2023 were included. After data processing, 12,985 patients were included in the control group and 11,275 patients were included in the experimental group. The regression discontinuity design was employed to assess the impact of the policy., Results: The findings was that the implementation of the outpatient mutual-aid would result in a reduction of 1.2 days in the length of stay for oncology patients, a decrease in hospital costs by 5%, and a decline in expenditure of the health insurance reimbursement funds by 5 per cent., Conclusions: Incorporating outpatient costs into reimbursement supplanted the utilization of inpatient services, enhanced the allocation of healthcare resources, and alleviated the financial burden on oncology patients. Furthermore, it highlighted the detrimental impact of eligibility review to verify that a patient meets the reimbursement requirements of the health insurance policy on patient welfare., (© 2024 The Author(s). The International Journal of Health Planning and Management published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)