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The phenomenon of 'pollution for promotion' has been addressed in the literature from the perspective of tax competition or local protection, but the underlying institutional causes have not been thoroughly discussed. In this study, we put forward the theoretical hypothesis of 'industrial pollution as a last resort due to reliance on commodity taxes' and empirically tested this hypothesis using data on commodity taxes and industrial pollution in prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2019. Our findings indicate that a 1% increase in the share of GST (Goods and Services Tax) is associated with a significant average increase of approximately 0.51% in industrial pollution. The primary channels through which GST affects industrial pollution include the expansion of production scale amongst heavy polluters, reduced environmental requirements for large taxpayers and increased land development. Commodity tax dependence creates a barrier for local governments to adopt more sustainable economic development models, leading to increased industrial pollution. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of the institutional barriers during China's economic transformation, shed light on the responses of firms and governments within existing institutional frameworks, and provide policy insights for transitioning towards high-quality economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noting an overreliance on North American and European-based understandings of race and ethnicity, many sociologists have called for research in new spaces. But the same conceptual and regional limitations apply to several other studies. One example of this is multiculturalism. Scholars tend to associate multiculturalism with international migration and ethnic pluralism. As such, they typically study multiculturalism in the most ethnically diverse (and often most affluent) countries – that is, in Europe and North America. But international migration does not always result in ethnic pluralism. For example, diasporic return migration often leads to the convergence of internally diverse co-ethnic populations in ethnically homogeneous nation-states. The diasporic 'returnees', who were born outside of their perceived homelands, come through targeted migration policies, face various levels of discrimination, and yet contribute significantly to the economic development and cultural diversity of the countries to which they relocate. As such, this article argues that the multiculturalization of monoethnic nationhood is substantially driven by diasporic return migration. In exploring diasporic multiculturalism, the article draws from data collected in Yerevan, Armenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy, which boasts general technology, intense penetration, platform ecology, and low marginal cost, is a product of advanced digital technology. This new engine has become a driving force for high-quality economic development. From the three aspects of development momentum, efficiency, and structure, this paper profoundly explores internal mechanisms to lead the high-quality growth of the regional economy. By constructing an econometric model, the influence effect and means of the digital economy on the high-quality development of the regional economy are empirically tested. The digital economy and its three sub-dimensions can significantly promote the high-quality development of the regional economy. However, industrial digitalization has the most vital role in promoting it. The digital economy has shown a more vital promotion role in the central and western regions and provinces with low total factor productivity, and it can indirectly impact high-quality economic development by promoting dynamic, efficient, and structural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban public lighting is an important ingredient for the social and economic development of cities and the safety and security of their citizens. Existing studies support the need for artificial light in cities to enable around the clock activities and enterprise. Although artificial light is a public service commodity, procuring and maintaining lighting in cities is challenging due to funding shortfalls and a lack of technical expertise. The objective of this paper is to identify ways through which public private partnerships can be used to procure and maintain cost-effective and energy-efficient urban streetlighting and introduces a novel approach to generate a sustainable revenue stream to fund the enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the context and the objectives of setting up a Planning Commission in a mixed economy framework that India had adopted in the post-colonial period. It also deals with its working, the method of framing a Five-Year Plan, the operation of a plan in the federal democratic system and its adaptation in the paradigm shift from a command economy to a market-driven system. The article further discusses both its contributions, as well as the various frailties that have crept into its functioning, and makes a case for restructuring and reforms. The article briefly indicates the shape of things to come after dismantling the Planning Commission in 2015 and replacing it with a new institution called the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, with new mandates. JEL Code: O29 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-economic reform period, the overall economic growth of West Bengal has been increasing. However, agricultural growth has become sluggish since the 1990s. The relatively low contribution of the secondary sector reveals an absence of a strong manufacturing base in the state. The high contribution of the tertiary sector indicates diversification and expansion of services. The time dimension for district-level analysis has been constricted by data availability. The inequality among the district is increasing, with a divergence of growth. Three development indices and a composite index reveal a significant disparity in development outcomes across districts between 2001 and 2013. The developmental gap between districts in the southern and northern parts of West Bengal has become prominent. JEL Codes: R11, 047, D63 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyse the future–spot pricing relationship in the context of most actively traded commodities traded on Multi Commodity Exchange of India, which is the leading commodity exchange in the country today. The study intends to compare the pricing relations of three popular commodity segments, that is, bullion and metal, energy and agricultural segments, to explore whether future–spot pricing relationships are similar for all commodity segments or not. The study has applied vector autoregressive (VAR) model on a sample of 13 commodities, categorized as 7 commodities from bullion and metal segment, 2 commodities from energy segment and 4 commodities from agricultural segment. The results of VAR model show that in India, the non-agricultural commodity sector constituting of bullion, metal and energy commodities behave close to each other, but the behaviour of agricultural commodities is quite different from non-agricultural commodities. As regards non-agricultural commodities, the futures market plays a quite dominant and significant role as compared to the spot markets. However, in case of agricultural commodities, the futures market has a comparatively less dominant and strong role, and their spot market also plays an equally strong role. A comparative study of the pricing relationships existing among the three commodity segments will be extremely helpful for farmers, traders, investors as well as the portfolio managers in choosing the most profitable commodity classes for trading, investment and portfolio optimization. Regulators and policymakers can plan and implement an appropriate regulatory framework to strengthen these markets, especially agricultural commodity market, to promote economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of temperature and rainfall on economic growth in Asian countries using panel data regression analysis from 1991 to 2021. The results reveal a significant negative relationship between temperature and economic growth, with a 1°C rise leading to a 0.385% reduction in growth. High-temperature countries experience a more significant adverse effect compared to low-temperature countries. However, despite displaying a negative trend, rainfall does not significantly influence economic growth statistically. The study also finds differences in the impact of climate variables across different income groups. Additionally, temperature negatively affects the growth rate of agrarian countries, while rainfall does not significantly influence their growth dynamics. These findings underscore the importance of considering climate change in understanding economic growth and highlight the need for policymakers to prioritize climate risk assessment and adopt appropriate climate change mitigation and resilience strategies in Asian countries. JEL Classification E23, O13, Q54 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines China's progress in sustainable development (SD) from 1990 to 2019 toward the 2030 Agenda and 2030 carbon peak target. Through extended factor analysis with principal component analysis, the sustainable development index (SDI), including each economy, society, and environment subclass SDI, was derived, and the contribution and weight of each Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to the SDI calculated. The main findings are: (a) A progressively improving SDI is derived, supporting the considerate achievement of China's SD policies; (b) the SDI trend aligns with per capita GDP, implying that the state of economic development measured by per capita GDP well approximates the degree of SD; (c) most goals, especially those in the economy and society subclasses, show sustained improvement and contribute to the improvement of China's SDI. However, it is still relatively fragile in the environment subclass and requires further strengthening. Therefore, China should continue strengthening ecological civilization construction to achieve the 2030 Agenda and 2030 carbon peak target. JEL Classification C43, O10, O53 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democracies in the Indo-Pacific are facing an increasingly competitive and securitized environment, as China turns more assertive and the US-China rivalry escalates. Disruptions include uncertainty about the global economic order, technological decoupling, an arms race amidst intense hot spots, an economic security spiral, and larger systemic risks around climate change, AI governance, etc. Countries such as Japan and Korea are actively responding to these risks through a strategic approach to economic security and increased defense spending, active alliance development, and parallel continued investment in global institutions and dialogue. Canada must be jolted out of its-business-as-usual approach and take a cue from its closest partners in Asia. This includes investing rapidly in its security (2% of defense over GDP) and the creation of an economic security council under the Prime Minister. Canada should also join its key partners in effectively investing in key global institutions in times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article aims to examine the asymmetric effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in India during 1991–2019. Along with FDI, financial development, inflation and trade openness are used as control variables. To check the influence of these variables on economic growth, this study employed the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model. The results indicate that a positive shock in FDI inflows positively influences India's economic growth while negative FDI inflows have a negative influence. Also, the Wald test establishes the asymmetric effect of FDI on gross domestic product (GDP) growth both in the short-run and long run. Moreover, financial development and inflation rate significantly reduce the pace of economic growth in both the long run and the short run. However, trade openness boosts economic growth only in the long run. Based on these empirical findings, several policy implications are designed to increase the pace of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study gives new evidence on the effects of public debt on economic growth in India with key macroeconomic indicators from 1980 to 2019. In the past decade, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a substantial rise in public debt, which reached 90% of the GDP in April 2021. Therefore, it is imperative to study the impact of different public debt sources on the Indian economy to help policymakers frame informed debt management policies. The long-run equilibrium relationship and cointegrating coefficients are calculated using Johansen cointegration and fully modified ordinary least square techniques. Toda and Yamamoto's (1995) Granger causality test is used as a short-run diagnostic test for the long-run equilibrium relationship. The study's major findings suggest that domestic debt, total factor productivity (TFP) and exports are the major determinants of economic development in the long run. In contrast, economic prosperity determines the growth of external debt, debt service payments and TFP in the short run. It is recommended that the government should control and channel public debt productively for favourable growth effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent economic disturbances such as the outbreak of coronavirus, the Russia–Ukraine war, and disrupted supply chains, have resulted in high inflationary shocks that are difficult to combat. The most vulnerable to these global shocks are developing countries where trade is a crucial factor in economic growth. In this context, the study aims to investigate the impact of trade openness and output gap on inflation in BRICS countries from 1999Q1 to 2018Q4. Owing to growing economic integration and rising cross-sectional dependence, the study employs Dynamic Common Correlated Effect (DCCE) model to examine the long-run relationship between the variables. In addition, the study employs Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) to investigate the causal relationship between variables. The findings suggest that a more open trade policy helps to reduce rising domestic inflation. The price lowering impact of export openness outperforms the inflationary impact of imports, resulting in flattened Phillips curve. Moreover, the results indicate that the underpowered effect of the domestic output gap is not sufficient to counteract the unfavourable impact of the foreign output gap on inflation in BRICS. As a result, the study advocates providing subsidies and tax breaks to help export-oriented businesses thrive while keeping the global factors in check. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 2010s, the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) emerged in Punjab as a militant movement that brought together different fractions of agrarian producers against the IMF-proposed removal of electricity subsidies for agricultural tube wells. The article draws on fieldwork with the PKI in 2018–2019 to understand its trajectories since its contestation of one aspect of the agenda of structural reform. I argue that the analytical framework of "agrarian populism," which has recently come back into use to understand agrarian politics, poses limitations in differentiating agrarian movements from each other. By focusing on how the PKI navigates the intersection between the agrarian, national, and ecological questions, the article shows how the movement has approached agrarian market reform, ecological crisis, and national development. Through this discussion, it undertakes a critical assessment of the PKI and situates it with longer histories of class differentiation, agrarian change, and ecological transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are few questions about the fact that China has achieved substantial strides in economic development over the last four decades. Nonetheless, many have cast doubts on its path of increasing transparency. Previous analyses on Chinese transparency have shed light on this issue in isolation. For this reason, we attempt to offer an integrated account of Chinese government transparency. Moreover, transparency involves various dimensions and types. For a complete understanding of transparency, therefore, considering diverse measures is critical. This article aims to provide a condensed overview of government transparency in China by considering various measures of transparency. To a certain extent, China has been successful in bringing greater transparency. Still, in many accounts, it cannot be said that the Chinese government has achieved sufficient progress in promoting transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper uses the perspective of state entrepreneurialism to explore China's environmental governance. The perspective illustrates how the Chinese state maintains its centrality, combining environmentalism and developmentalism while deploying flexible market development tools. This paper examines the Chengdu park-city model, an exemplar President Xi Jinping endorsed and widely emulated in China. The model combines the development of industrial and ecological spaces. It aims to deliver the central government's vision for ecological civilisation and the local government's economic development strategy. The development tools include land consolidation, financial mobilisation and an economic strategy that attempts to introduce 'urban scenes' into ecological spaces. This ecologically oriented development approach is more state-centred, contrasting with the neoliberal green growth machine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agrarian question of the twenty-first century is the agrarian question of climate change. The classical agrarian question asked how capitalist development was reshaping fin de siècle agriculture and with what consequences. The answers often contradicted predictions, and thereby teleological notions of development. Today, we must ask how climate change adaptation and mitigation, alongside and through other ongoing processes of capitalist development, are reshaping agrarian lives, livelihoods, landscapes, and politics, and with what consequences. We argue that attention to the agrarian question is essential to understanding social, political, and economic transformation broadly in the time of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A geographical indication (GI) defines a product as being from a certain place, when the product's quality, reputation, or other attributes are largely related to its location. GI is a collective property, not a private one. It can be registered by an organisation representing the interests of a group of people in practically all nations. GIs helps in achieving and boosting rural development, environmental sustainability, consumer awareness and many other aspects. GIs are especially beneficial to agricultural product producers since they allow them to differentiate their products from common commodity items such as rice, coffee and tea, allowing them to get market access. A sturdy GI ecosystem has numerous advantages. It will automatically address the three contentious issues faced by India—poor pay for talent, low female labour force participation and urban migration. On the evolution side, some GIs have resulted in improved and superior uniqueness of rural employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between stock market development and economic growth in Nepal by employing autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model with bound testing procedures. The study period covers annual time series data from 1994 to 2019. Indicators of the stock market development used are size, depth and efficiency represented by market capitalization as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), total value of shares traded as a percentage of GDP and total shares traded as a percentage of market capitalization, respectively. Following high correlations among these indicators, an aggregated index is constructed and used in the study. Real GDP per capita growth is taken as an economic growth indicator. The results suggest that there exists a long-run uni-directional causality relationship running from stock market development index to economic growth. Stock market size and liquidity are significant contributors, showing that stock market is able to mobilize capital and diversify risks with increased easiness in trading of stocks. The control variable market inflation shows no significant impact on either of the examined primary variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the impact of financial development in bringing the economic well-being, using the data of 10 selected developing countries, as a sample for the period from 1991 to 2017. However, the study utilizes the regression of group mean dynamic common correlated estimator (DCCE) by Chudik and Pesaran (2015) to analyse the said circumstance. For estimation, the present study is considering the major tycoons of financial development and their relevant areas that are significantly effecting the economic growth. However, the broad money (GAM1), domestic credit to private sector to GDP (GAM2), domestic credit to private sector by banks (GAM3), government's final consumption expenditures (GAFCE) and foreign direct investment GAFC are major contributors in attaining the GDP per capita (GADA). However, the estimation of the concerned circumstance was also evaluated in terms of shorter and longer run estimations. The results of the short– and long–run estimations also authenticate the results of DCCE estimations. The robustness of the results is verified with the help of Pedroni (2004) test, fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) test by Pedroni (2001) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) by Stock and Watson (1993). The robustness tests also verify the factors that are considered as the major players of financial development for uplifting the concerned economies. Selected developing countries have the potential for utilizing their financial development options to manage their growth at the economic level. For practical implications and for policymaking, the ingredients of this particular study can be endorsed to get the desired results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facts have proven that humanity has incurred a significant environmental cost in the process of gaining economic success due to a surge in carbon dioxide emissions. Nevertheless, if carbon emissions are not curbed at the same time, economic growth may be slowed or stopped completely. It is for this reason that OECD member countries have set out plans to cut emissions. For this reason, the current paper scrutinizes the consequence of renewable energy intake, nonrenewable energy usage, economic globalization and economic progress on environmental destruction among 28 OECD countries by means of data spanning 1990 to 2019 period. The augmented mean group heterogeneous panel model and the common correlated effects mean group regression technique revealed evidence of a positive and negative significant connection between economic progress, and square of economic progress and carbon emission respectively (thus justifying the presence of the reversed U-shaped curve hypothesis) for OECD countries. Moreover, both renewable energy intake and economic globalization reveal a destructive connection with environmental destruction while nonrenewable energy intake has positive significant relationship with the environment. It was also disclosed that renewable energy intensifies the environmental destruction reducing effect of globalization and negatively moderates the impact of economic progress on environmental destruction. On the basis of the findings, appropriate policy recommendations have been developed to assist these economies in their efforts to dissociate economic progress from environmental destruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to assess the farmer's comprehension of a sustainable agricultural practice: integrated livestock–fish farming system. The study is exploratory and descriptive in nature. Awareness on technical, economic, and environmental aspects of the farming system has been assessed on both fish and livestock farmers. Awareness was measured in a dichotomous variable seeking "true" or "false" to various statements under each required aspects of the farming system. Perception was measured using a pretested standardized scale. The awareness and perception of the farmers were found to be positive and relationship between awareness and perception was found to be significant. The farmers are found to be mostly aware of the economic aspects and believed that the particular farming system could be a great avenue for self-employment. Age, education, experience, pond holdings, and extension contact were found to be significant determinants of farmer's awareness and perception. The assessment of the farmer's awareness and perception toward the system does not only aid in dissemination of the particular system but also ensures sustainable usages of farm waste for optimum production by making ecological considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This inquiry investigates the moderating role of board size (BS), board independence (BI), and board gender diversity (BGD) on the relationship between dividend policy (DP) and firm performance (FP) in Ghana. The study utilized financial data from 14 purposively selected listed firms in Ghana, spanning 2010–2018. A system-generalized method of moments (GMM) was espoused for the estimation. Results indicate that whilst dividend per share and dividend payout ratio demonstrated significantly positive relationship with FP, dividend yield exhibited significantly negative relationship with FP. Additionally, while BI moderated the relationship between DP and FP, BS and BGD had no moderating influence on FP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When children are able to progress beyond their parents' education level, that is, when there is upward intergenerational education mobility—they are more likely to have better opportunities and access than their parents in terms of jobs and income. For any nation, it is important to understand the trajectory of intergenerational education mobility and ask: Has it been increasing? In the case of Bangladesh, our study is the first to use nationally representative household survey data to explore the trend of intergenerational education mobility. We compute intergenerational education mobility separately for three different years—2005, 2010 and 2016, and find that intergenerational education mobility has, from 2005 to 2016, significantly decreased in terms of fathers' education. This is surprising given that the expansion of education has been a target both policy-wise and action-wise—for Bangladesh over the last few decades. The finding in terms of mothers' education—that intergenerational education mobility has significantly increased from 2005 to 2016—makes more sense given the focus on female education expansion in Bangladesh over the years. Moreover, our results indicate that daughters, in general, have been progressing better compared to sons in terms of intergenerational (father–child) education mobility and that children of fathers with higher education levels progressed better than children of fathers with lower education levels. We suggest policies accordingly and emphasize the need to investigate the reasons behind the father–child education immobility over time in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographers, economists, and urban planners have long distinguished between "local" industries that serve geographically proximate customers and "traded" industries that serve customers around the country or across the globe. This study uses newly developed, high-quality data to provide evidence of a third major industry market area type, which the authors term "regional" industries. Regional industries serve market areas larger than a U.S. county and smaller than a state, with employment found in most metropolitan areas, but spatially concentrated within each metro area. Paradigmatic regional industries include business-to-business services, like facilities maintenance and logistics, and some types of manufacturing, like craft brewing. Regional industries have a distinct economic profile: their customers are often other businesses rather than consumers, they pay higher average wages than local industries, and they offer more entrepreneurship opportunities than traded industries. In total, regional industries accounted for an estimated 31% of U.S. employment and 33% of gross domestic product in 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis uses a difference-in-differences approach to examine the impact of the Regional Cities Initiative (RCI) on economic development outcomes in counties that participated in the program relative to those that did not participate. The RCI was a place-based economic development program that was implemented in Indiana beginning in 2015. Through a competitive process, this program provided funding for projects meant to improve the quality of life in three regions of the state. The results indicate that participating counties had higher gross domestic product growth and higher employment growth than nonparticipating counties. There is limited evidence that the program had a positive impact on population growth. There were no discernable effects on house prices or earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates fair (i.e., envy-free and efficient) allocations in an overlapping generations economy without production and with two-period lived agents. We show that there is a conflict between no-envy and efficiency when all generations have identical preferences. This conflict crucially depends on the size of the given young age consumption of the initial old generation relative to the young age consumption at the golden-rule. We then show that there exist non-stationary preferences for which such a conflict does not arise, regardless of the young age consumption of the initial old generation. JEL Classifications: D60, D63, D70 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing exports are deemed to be a significant driver of China's economic growth. This article uses the World Bank's Enterprise Survey in China to investigate the factors that significantly exert their effect on the export intensity of Chinese manufacturing firms. The maximum likelihood estimation, with the Tobit regression model, is adopted to capture the export intensity among Chinese manufacturers. This empirical evidence suggests that foreign direct investment (FDI), chief executive officer (CEO) gender, research and development (R&D), innovation and foreign, imported technologies significantly and positively influence Chinese manufacturing firms' export intensity. In contrast, firm age and skilled labour are not significant factors in driving export intensity. Evidence-based policy implications and recommendations are also provided to enhance the export performance of Chinese manufacturing firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in standard of living between households with migrants and households without migrants in Kerala, one of the most remittance-receiving states in India. Data from the Kerala Migration Survey (2018) was used for the study. The survey sampled 15,000 households, including both households with migrants and without migrants. Cross tabulation, standard living index, and ordered logistic regression analysis were used to examine the difference in living standards between households with migrants and without migrants. A total of 28.4% of households were with migrant and 71.6% were without migrant in this study. The proportion of households without migrants that fell below the poverty line (42.38%) was higher than the proportion of households with migrants (30.13%). A significant percentage of households with migrants (16.3% and 38.7%) lived in houses categorized as "luxurious" and "very good," respectively, compared to households without migrants (10.4% and 27.8%, respectively). In addition, households with migrants allocated a larger budget for house construction, with costs exceeding ₹5 lakhs, compared to households without migrants. The proportion of households with migrants that owned consumer durables such as vehicles, home appliances, and electronic gadgets was also higher than their counterparts without migrants. In terms of standard of living, households with migrants had a significantly higher proportion of households with a better living standard than households without migrants. Further, households with migrants had a significantly higher likelihood of having a better standard of living than households without migrants (AOR: 1.729; CI: 1.609–1.858). This study highlights the significant positive impact of international migration on the living standard of households, including better housing quality and higher levels of ownership of consumer durables. These findings suggest that international migration can be a positive force for development, leading to improved standards of living for both households with migrants and non-migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on well-being and concern over the well-being of students and teachers has grown dramatically in recent years. Researchers and reformers in positive psychology and education, self-determination theory, social and emotional learning, liberal-democratic political and educational philosophy, and neo-Aristotelian theories of flourishing and character education have played formative and intersecting roles in what is now an international movement to promote the lifelong flourishing of students as an alternative to a human capital and economic growth focus for education. This article defends this flourishing-focused reorientation of education policy and practice, using a value-led and evidence-informed methodology. It sorts through the conceptual disputes and clarifies the ethical considerations that should guide efforts to advance the well-being of students and teachers, assesses key claims and arguments, and brings together compatible aspects of the leading philosophical and psychological perspectives on flourishing as an aim of education. It identifies ethically and evidentially justifiable points of consensus on well-being and flourishing in education, presents a consensus model of relationships between educational environments, learning, and flourishing, and concludes with some recommendations for educational policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's modern legal education system, characterized by its development over more than seven decades since the founding of New China, has undergone distinct stages including the initial period, stagnation and frustration, restoration and development, comprehensive development, and innovation and development. Based on both empirical and case studies, this article identifies issues in China's modern legal education system such as the imbalanced distribution of educational resources, inadequacy in theoretical and practical teaching methods, as well as insufficient training for foreign-related legal talents. To address these challenges effectively, this article proposes innovative approaches, including deepening collaboration between academia and industry to narrow regional disparities in education provision; enhancing scenario-based applications of artificial intelligence (AI), the metaverse and other emergent technologies within the field of legal education; as well as aligning the goal of cultivating legal talents with global trends through comprehensive reform strategies. This article aims to offer a novel pathway for Chinese legal education to embrace globalization, while at the same time presenting a new paradigm for international scholars studying Chinese legal education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although researchers have demonstrated conclusively that sports stadiums are not economic development catalysts, stadium projects that include preplanned ancillary developments have been proposed as a salutary strategy to overcome the widely observed dismal economic performance of standalone stadiums. Using an objective rubric for evaluating economic impact studies, we review a commissioned pro forma model that claims to demonstrate net positive fiscal impacts of two prominent publicly-financed stadium-anchored developments. Using assumptions informed by existing research and established discipline standards, the model estimates substantial negative returns for both projects (−$40 to −$60 million in Worcester, Massachusetts and −$100 to −$200 million in Cobb County, Georgia). We find that the reported fiscal surpluses derive from chosen assumptions and not the stadiums' complementary developments. We conclude that pro forma estimates do not provide credible forecasts of fiscal impacts, and ancillary developments do not improve the fiscal returns of stadium projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of BMS: Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique (Sage Publications Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Oil played a significant role in fuelling the sociopolitical and economic development of Middle Eastern nations, attracting mass migration from South Asian nations. The article draws a nexus between the energy dynamics and labour exploitation within these petroleum-rich nations. It undertakes a close reading of the text Birds from Deepak Unnikrishnan's novel Temporary People as it depicts the lives of migrant labourers who navigate an exploitative petro-capitalist system. The fictional text employs a narrative strategy juxtaposing elements of magic and realism, opening up a space for multilayered marginalised voices. The article engages with energy theories and interweaves Mbembe's theory on necropolitics to grasp oil's sovereign influence in delineating the boundaries between life and death in migrant lives. The surplus energy generated through fossil fuel extraction contributes to notions of boundless growth, coupled with technical and economic progress, which conceals the intensive manual labour underpinning these petrocultures. The magical property alluded to oil and the spectral absence of labour in the socio-cultural imagination co-constructs an exploitative and dehumanising labour regime for migrants. The migrant body is kept alive, and their existence is contingent upon the instrumental value of their labouring body, which constructs them as easily disposable and expendable as they are positioned outside the formal boundaries of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study endeavours to investigate how the transfers of international remittances influence the expenditure behaviour of returnee migrant families in Bangladesh. The primary data were collected using the multi-stage stratified random sampling technique through a structured questionnaire from Tangail and Comilla on several expenditure characteristics of migrants. Propensity score matching (PSM) method is employed to assess the impact of remittances on expenditure patterns of returnee migrant households through the estimation of average treatment effects on the treated. The PSM technique has allowed us to evaluate the impact of remittances on several expenditure categories such as food, non-food, education, medical and so on. The study findings divulge that remittances exhibit a significant and positive impact on poverty reduction since they have contributed a lot in terms of income generation and increment of consumption expenditures. Moreover, compared to non-migrant families, migrant families are more exposed to positive behavioural transformations because of their spending on productive investments like non-durable goods, education and health care. Therefore, the findings underline the optimistic view of migration and development theory that foreign remittances support to increase the investments both in the physical and human capital of migrant families as well as to improve the wellbeing of Bangladeshi people. JEL Codes: D10, F24, O15 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banks are an integral part of a nation's economy. Therefore, soundness of a bank's financial health is foremost important for the good economic condition of the country. This article proposes to assess the bank efficiency (BE) and default risk (DR) of banks in India, and to examine the link between BE and DR of banks in India. This study uses the secondary data of 34 banks operating in India for the period from 2016 to 2019 for panel data analysis. BE as technical efficiency of banks and their DR are evaluated using data envelopment analysis and Altman's Z-score, respectively. The findings of the study indicate no significant association between BE and DR of banks in India. This article is a novel study of its kind and provides surprising result, which indicates encouraging outcome for banks in India. JEL Codes: G30, G33, G38 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two important aspects of service sector growth in India in the post-1991 reform period from the demand side have been identified in the literature. Ghose (2015) suggests that the rapid service demand expansion has been driven by the rich, who have disproportionately benefited from the information and communication technology (ICT)-based service boom. Basu and Das (2017) argue that service spending by the poorer section also rose, and the service demand expansion is partly a result of the coercive nature of privatised service expansion. This article examines these two critical aspects in greater detail using the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) consumer expenditure surveys from 1993–94, 2004–05 and 2011–12. The article finds clear evidence to show that the service expenditure in India was dominated by the top 20% of Indian households. Even as bottom 20% devoted larger household budget share to services over time, their share in aggregate service expenditure remained marginal. State per capita income, servicification of output, social expenditure by the government, urbanisation and changing nature of the economy post liberalisation are found to be important factors associated with variation in household service expenditure share across quintile classes. The relationships of these factors with service expenditure share differ across expenditure quintiles. Further, service expenditure elasticity estimates by decile classes indicate more than unit elasticity for various services over time, depicting non-saturating demand for services. The decile-wide rise in demand for services during this period, especially for the poorer households, is possibly due to a complex mechanism involving necessity, aspirations and enhanced access to new services and may not fit into the binary of discretion versus involuntary spending. JEL Codes: O1, L16, L80, D30, D12 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay revisits an earlier article, published in 2008, that argued that the United States had created a "hidden developmental state" that helped move technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace. In the intervening fifteen years, this apparatus has become more elaborate with ever more government initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels. Moreover, the major pieces of legislation passed in the first two years of the Biden administration have added considerable new funding. Nevertheless, this set of programs has not yet become a part of political debates outside of the federal government. It remains hidden to most of the electorate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the future is an increasingly important topic for regional economic development, our knowledge of the future as a research subject has been limited. Following futures studies, we develop a perspective on a specific version of regional futures research based on critical realism. We believe that discussing regional futures could be a promising "boundary object" for scholars taking different approaches. Moreover, we argue that economic geographers' ability to engage with the future in meaningful ways is as important as their ability to engage with the past and present if the discipline is to retain its relevance in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates normative preferences for environmental protection over economic growth registered in 74 countries—based on the European Values Study and the World Value Survey (2017–2022). We employ multi-level logistic regression to demonstrate that Gross Domestic Product per capita moderates the effects of political orientation and household income, both of which tend to be stronger in wealthier countries. Only in wealthy societies are left-leaning and affluent individuals far more likely to prefer environmental protection. Not accounting for moderation leads to underestimating the propensity for political polarization over environmental questions. Hence, our study suggests that large-scale implementation of growth-impeding or wealth-sacrificing environmental policies could face insurmountable public opposition in wealthy societies. Furthermore, failing to account for the moderation by GDP per capita in cross-national studies of environmental attitudes may constitute a confounding factor by aggregating wealthier countries, where the effects of political orientation and household income prove substantial, with the poorer ones, where they appear negligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article delves into three aspects: (a) India–ASEAN economic relationship since the last three decades of Look East Policy (LEP), (b) the achievements of North-east India (NEI) under LEP and Act East Policy (AEP) and (c) adding a note on AEP as a new 'development paradigm' in NEI. The study finds that the India–ASEAN economic relationship deepened in the post-LEP period as merchandise trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows increased manifold. However, neither LEP nor AEP made any significant impact on NEI in terms of economic growth, exports and FDI inflows. Economic growth stagnated and even decelerated in some states in NEI, while exports and FDI inflows remained abysmally low. LEP was a failed policy instrument for NEI despite many claims and assumptions. The major reason was infrastructure deficits and poor connectivity in the region for a prolonged period. AEP has emerged as a new 'development paradigm' with renewed thrust on infrastructure buildup and connectivity constructions. The ongoing and completed connectivity projects in rail, road, air and water, improvement in power and telecom, multimodal logistic park in Assam and improvement of trade infrastructure in NEI under AEP would attract investment from both domestic foreign sources, enhance productive capacity, increase exports and accelerate economic growth. AEP is expected to open new possibilities for trade and investments in NEI through regional economic integration with South Asian and South-east Asian economies given geographical location, ethno-cultural proximity, historical linkages and resource endowments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving energy efficiency is one of the most effective ways to address environmental constraints and achieve high-quality economic development. The existing literature suggests that technological progress has an important impact on energy efficiency, but ignores the role of different paths of technological progress. Herein, the impact of different technological progress paths on energy efficiency was analyzed using the dynamic panel data model and the threshold model based on the energy efficiency measurement using the Meta-frontier and Nonradial Directional Distance Function model. The findings of this study were as follows: (1) During the study sample period, a fluctuating upward trend was observed in China's energy efficiency, and there were significant differences in energy efficiency in different regions of China. (2) The energy efficiency in China could be significantly improved by domestic innovation and regional technology diffusion. Even though the imported technologies do not play a significant role in promoting energy efficiency and have no positive effect on the improvement of energy efficiency from the perspective of domestic technology absorption or foreign technology absorption. (3) The eastern and central regions of China improve their energy efficiency through domestic innovation. However, none of the technological progress paths in the western and low-energy-efficiency regions have played a positive role in promoting energy efficiency. (4) The effect of promoting domestic innovation and regional technology diffusion on energy efficiency is gradually increasing with human capital improvement, and the restriction of foreign technology import on energy efficiency has obviously decreased. In a nutshell, different paths of technological progress have differential effects on energy efficiency improvements. Based on the above results, this paper makes some targeted policy recommendations on the choice of technological progress paths to improve energy efficiency in different regions of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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For over four decades, a rich body of information systems (IS) sourcing research has examined topics concerning sourcing decisions, governing relationships and performance in various contexts (e.g., outsourcing, multisourcing and offshoring). The last few years have witnessed a significant change in some of the key assumptions in this literature. Organizations and their sourcing practices have been undergoing significant shifts in the digital era, involving not only human but also technology agency (e.g., artificial intelligence), malleable digital assets that can be flexibly recombined (e.g., in platform ecosystems and low-code development), and digital technology that attenuates bounded rationality (e.g., generative artificial intelligence). Such fundamental changes call for the re-examination of such past assumptions in the IS sourcing literature. In this editorial, we discuss the implications of these agential, semiotic, infrastructural, combinatorial, and economic shifts for digital sourcing, that is, research and practice of IS sourcing in the digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralisation has frequently been sold as a means to increase well-being and development. Yet, questions remain as to whether decentralisation improves economic performance. This is possibly because decentralisation processes have often led to 'unfunded mandates', that is, a mismatch between the powers transferred to subnational tiers of government and the resources allocated to them. In this article, we analyse how unfunded mandates shape regional economic growth across 518 regions in 30 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the period 1997–2018. There is a negative, statistically significant, and robust impact of unfunded mandates on economic growth. This effect is higher in more politically and less fiscally decentralised regions and in regions with a higher level of wealth. Unfunded mandates thus represent a serious drag on the potential positive economic effect of political decentralisation. Hence, for those benefits to materialise, better not more decentralisation – ensuring that finance follows function – should be pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation districts have gained attention as a fast-spreading urban economic development strategy, raising numerous questions. What are their distinguishing attributes? Are they a substantive policy innovation? Are they likely to succeed in fostering innovation and economic dynamism? We propose a definition of innovation districts based on their characteristic features. Given the ambiguity of the term in practice, this is crucial for understanding and analyzing the strategy. We then evaluate innovation districts by applying theories and current understandings of the spatial and economic development aspects of innovation, entrepreneurship, and human capital, illustrating with examples from Boston, Detroit, Saint Louis, and San Diego. We conclude that the combination of components that comprises innovation districts is both new and valuable. Innovation districts present a potential pathway for advancing regional economic development goals via the pathways of innovation and entrepreneurship. We stress the importance of rigorous empirical evaluation and research regarding a variety of practical and strategic concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development can be influenced by various policies such as improving infrastructure, changing the legal system, or increasing educational attainment. However, to the extent that culture influences economic outcomes, that is very difficult for policy to alter. To examine culture's role, we assess religion's influence on historical regional economic development using 19th-century Prussian data. We find that compared to predominantly Catholic Prussian regions, Protestantism facilitated 19th-century industrialization and agricultural productivity growth. On the other hand, there was not a positive and significant impact of Protestantism on early 19th-century regional population growth, though there is a negative and significant effect in the latter 19th century. This result is robust to using IV regression. Protestantism's positive impacts on the growth of industrialization and agricultural growth is not explained by differing education levels or by differing birthrates across regions, ruling out other indirect effects of Protestantism, suggesting other cultural roles of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a systematic review of the quantitative social science research on broadband Internet technology in rural areas. Specifically, we summarize the literature on 1) rural broadband availability and adoption behaviors and 2) the implications of these behaviors for rural businesses, public policy initiatives, and regional development. In the studies reviewed, rural areas suffer from both lower availability and lower adoption rates compared to their urban counterparts. However, researchers disagree on whether supply frictions inherent to rural areas or heterogeneous demand and adoption behaviors are the major cause of this outcome. Researchers widely agree that high-speed Internet improves economic outcomes of rural areas, whether it is through increases in business activity or in more general economic development measures (e.g. productivity, jobs, income). Impact evaluations of rural broadband policy initiatives produced mixed results, highlighting the need for a better understanding of agents' incentives. This review points to four areas for future research. One, assessments of the long-term impact of broadband on rural economies. Two, analyses of the net effect of broadband on economic development outcomes (e.g. migrants, job creation). Three, assessments of economic development impacts associated with broadband speed. Four, assessments of the efficacy of broadband policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]