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The confidential 124-page report from the University of Rochester, disclosed in a lawsuit, details the extent of Ranga Dias’s scientific misconduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unflinching upsurge in global warming has put the world into a state of disarray, and policymakers are not sure of what the future holds for the ecosystem. To get the global environment back on track of sustainability, efforts are relentlessly emanating from both developed and developing economies to identify the hindering and enhancing factors. Given the preceding narratives, this paper investigates the tripartite impacts of renewable and nonrenewable energy, trade openness, and institutions on sustainable environment in 54 African countries from 1996 to 2019. The study employs the two-step system generalized methods of moment (SYS-GMM) in estimating the effects of the regressors on four indicators of sustainable environment. Six findings are prominent from the study. First, nonrenewable energy (NRE) and trade openness (TO) hinder sustainable environment, while renewable energy enhances it. Second, the unconditional impacts of institutions drive the path to a sustainable environment. Third, the interaction of institutions with NRE and TO hinders sustainable environment. However, after conducting institutional enhancement estimations, the interactive terms became supportive of sustainable environment. Fourth, the thresholds are policy-relevant across the specifications. Specifically, a 31.11% utilization of nonrenewable energy and 43.75% openness to trade contribute to a sustainable environment. Sixth, the impacts of economic growth and its square empirically support the inverted U-shaped EKC. This study suggests the adoption of carbon-taxing on nonrenewable energy products, price-subsidization for renewable energy goods and services, and institutional quality reforms as pathways towards achieving a sustainable environment in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Idu Mishmi tribe who lives in the India-China border in the Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh, India, is among the communities where people used to be dependent upon the ‘hunting economy’. Hunting used to be the mainstay of the food basket of the people. In due course of time as various changes set in the Dibang valley, nuances of hunting had influences on it too. Thus, it began to account for being supplementary to the food requirement of society. Animals and other non-humans occupy a prominent position and there is a sense of relatedness to animals, whereas, the perspectives of the State on hunting, preservation of wildlife, and overall change in the valley have thrown a newer dimension in the debate on the conservation of the wildlife in the area. Drawing upon Participatory Rural Appraisal as a broad method for conducting fieldwork in Dibang Valley, this paper tries to conceptualize hunting and its role in the Idu Mishmi landscape and how the state and scientific ways of imagining hunting and conservation bring newer dimensions to the landscape. The spaces lived by the human and non-human have become hybrid with the onset of newer actors. Therefore, an attempt to overview the multiple meanings of hunting will help in understanding what lies on the other side of the idea of wildlife conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising employment uncertainty featured by higher risks of being temporarily employed or unemployed is often seen as the driving force behind delayed and declined partnering in Western countries. However, such an employment–partnering relationship is contextualized by labour market institutions and thus could diverge across countries over time. This paper aims to investigate how country-level variations in labour market regulations moderate individual-level effects of unstable employment on union formation, including the transitions into marriage or cohabitation unions. Using comparative panel data for 26 countries from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (the years 2010–2019), our multilevel fixed effects models showed that temporary employment and unemployment negatively affected the probability of union formation for single women and men in Europe. Moreover, the negative relationship between unstable employment and union formation was reinforced when labour market reforms were stimulating insider–outsider segregations or decreasing welfare provisions. Specifically, stricter employment protection legislations and higher coverage rates of collective bargaining agreements could reinforce the negative effects of temporary employment and unemployment on union formation, while more generous provisions of unemployment benefits could buffer such negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although ambitious, forest landscape restoration (FLR) is still very high on global climate change mitigation and adaptation research and policy agendas. The scientific literature highlights the importance of institutions and actors' collaboration for achieving the intended outcomes. Despite these diffuse indications, a comprehensive understanding of the role played by different types of actors and institutions in shaping FLR outcomes is missing. This hinders the definition of an actor-cum-institutions research agenda for FLR, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet, in this region, different actors with diverse interests shape FLR practices. Likewise, formal and informal institutions are known to collide frequently. Hence, this paper addresses the lacunae by systematically reviewing FLR actors' interests and power manifestations and the typologies of institutions linked to FLR outcomes in SSA. The review further defines future research agendas on actors and institutions in SSA. The following lessons can be drawn from the review of 75 peer-reviewed journal articles: First, while exogenous actors are interested more in the ecological benefits of FLR, endogenous actors are interested in economic ones. Second, exogenous actors mostly use (dis-)incentives and coercion to shape the behavior of endogenous actors in FLR. Finally, while the exogenous formal institutional typology produces positive and negative ecological, economic, political, and sociocultural FLR outcomes, the endogenous formal and informal institutions produce only positive outcomes. Future studies should identify actors' compliance levels of the exogenous and endogenous formal and informal typologies of institutions. Future studies should also analyze the effectiveness of FLR-linked institutions towards ensuring successful FLR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how different institutions of Loba communities of the Upper Mustang work together and facilitate the community to cope with the environmental dynamics in the region. The indigenous institutions are place-based, and their evolution is concerned with reducing vulnerability and enhancing the resilience capacity of place-based communities to cope with and adapt to local natural and socio-cultural environmental dynamics. The paper is based on anthropological fieldwork. Qualitative data were collected by applying observation and interviews. The paper presents the role of the galbo, (Lo King), ghenba (Village Chief), Lama (Monk), and dhongba (Household) as local institutions that act in close relation and make community-level decisions. The findings reveal that the King is seen as the leader whose governance best suited to the local natural environment, cultural practices, and economy. The Lama plays a major role in reinforcing local rules, while the Ghenba is an agent who mediates the Lo King and people in materializing rules and operationalizing institutional mechanisms. The Dhongbas are units of production of the local social-ecosystem that are entitled to use local resources within the context of the institution's agreed rules, norms, and values. These local institutions are cooperating well, successfully regulating, managing, and protecting agricultural, forest, and pasture lands, and maintaining the monuments in Lo-manthang for centuries. However, recent social-environmental dynamics such as climate change, migration, and modernization are reducing the relevancies of traditional norms and practices. Nevertheless, the institutions are working hard to continue their existence by frequently modifying their rules and norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good governance is needed to foster good management of the environment. Yet, the link between environmental governance and environmental management has received very little research attention. This paper adopts a mechanism-based framework to unpack the link between the governance and management of species at risk or endangered species in a working landscape. Using species at risk management in the South of the Divide region of southwestern Saskatchewan as a case study, we identified four governance conditions connected by five mechanisms to produce management outcomes. The governance conditions include facilitative leadership, local autonomy, trust, and incentives. The five mechanisms include institutional disruption, institutional crafting and drift, brokerage or bridging, program uptake, and alleviation of fear of harm. We discuss how using a mechanism-based approach could help us better understand the processes within the governance system that trigger particular management outcomes. For example, in this case study, dissatisfied factors disrupt the existing governance arrangements and create new ones that reflect their desire for local autonomy. Local autonomy, in turn, creates an atmosphere for local actors to form coalitions and build trust; trust enhances program uptake and the co-design and co-implementation of incentives, which then alleviates land managers' fear of harm from participating in species at risk management. Our study also suggests that top-down institutions that create room for further institutional work can become acceptable at the local level and enhance endangered species management. We conclude that a mechanism-based explanation can be useful for opening the black box connecting environmental governance and management and offering valuable recommendations to guide policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on institutional influences on innovation efficiency across countries. Whereas various causes and effects of technological change have been examined, empirical investigations of the efficiency involved in innovation production are relatively few. Using data on a large sample of nations over 2018–2020 and considering corruption, regulatory quality, and state fragility as alternative institutional dimensions, our results show that greater corruption facilitates ("greases") efficiency in the production of innovations. This is also the case with improvements in regulatory quality, while greater state fragility increases inefficiency. These findings for the overall sample are somewhat different for the OECD and non-OECD subsamples, although the greasing effect of corruption remains throughout. A robustness check with patent protection and government size as alternative institutional dimensions is also conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four heavyweights and a rising star, in highlights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging economy perspective provides an excellent opportunity to theorize the intertwined fields of entrepreneurship and institution research. How do the institutions in emerging economies change the entrepreneurial dynamics and entrepreneurial behaviors? How do entrepreneurs reshape the institutions more favorably at multiple levels? In this paper, we identify literature gaps in theorizing institutions and entrepreneurship and build a microfoundations lens to tackle theorizing challenges in this filed. We also introduce the seven papers in this Special Issue of Asia Pacific Journal of Management on institutions and entrepreneurship with different levels of analysis and research designs. Finally, we outline a systematic research agenda in this promising and important field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conspiracy theories are everywhere, spreading like infectious diseases within and across countries. The rise of conspiracy-mongers is not just a nuisance, but a serious threat to political and economic stability. This paper provides an empirical analysis of cross-country differences in economic, institutional, and political factors attracting people to conspiracy theories, using nationally representative surveys conducted in 27 advanced and developing countries over the period 2018–2021. I find that conspiratorial thinking is more common in countries with lower level of income and higher levels of unemployment and income inequality. However, the most important socioeconomic factor in determining the popularity of conspiracy theories is educational attainments. Conspiratorial mentality is far more prevalent in countries with lower levels of tertiary education. I also find that institutions—as measured by bureaucratic quality and corruption—are important in drawing people away and to conspiracy theories. Finally, while internal conflict and tensions are not concomitant to conspiracy ideation, external conflict and the risk of terrorism are positively associated with the popularity of conspiratorial attitudes across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we build on the residual control theory and examine the interdependence of countries' institutional environment and firms' nonmarket positions towards firm corruption. Based on World Bank data from emerging economies spanning from 2006 to 2018, we find that the interaction between lower quality market-supporting institutions and firm's weaker positions makes firms more vulnerable to bribery requests, consequently leading to their involvement in bribery. This mediated interaction effect occurs due to the interplay between the demand- and supply-side of corruption, highlighting how firms' relative nonmarket positions and the institutional context jointly shape the firms' incentive for bribery activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Section explores the interplay between Indigenous peoples, industry, and the state in five proposed and active mining projects in Canada and Sweden. The overall aim is to identify factors shaping the quality of Indigenous community-industry-state interactions in mining and mine development. An ambition underlying the research is to develop knowledge to help manage mining related land-use conflicts in Sweden by drawing on Canadian comparisons and experience. This paper synthesizes the comparative research that has been conducted across jurisdictions in three Canadian provinces and Sweden. It focuses on the interplay between the properties of the governance system, the quality of interaction and governance outcomes. We combine institutional and interactive governance theory and use the concept of governability to assess how and why specific outcomes, such as mutually beneficial interaction, collaboration, or opposition, occurred. The analysis suggests there are measures that can be taken by the Swedish Government to improve the governability of mining related issues, by developing alternative, and more effective, avenues to recognize, and protect, Sámi rights and culture, to broaden the scope and increase the legitimacy and transparency of the EIAs, to raise the quality of interaction and consultation, and to develop tools to actively stimulate and support collaboration and partnerships on equal terms. Generally, we argue that Indigenous community responses to mining must be understood within a larger framework of Indigenous self-determination, in particular the communities' own assessments of their opportunities to achieve their long-term objectives using alternative governing modes and types of interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely known that both geography and institutions determine the location of an investment. However, little is known about the impact of these factors on entrepreneurs' future business plans. Using a questionnaire survey, this paper examines whether the 'first-' and 'second-nature' geography and institutions affect the plans of entrepreneurs to expand or sell their businesses in Greece. The analysis shows that entrepreneurs intend to expand their businesses when the importance of the country's relative geographical location to the international market increases, but that of localisation economies decreases. There is also evidence that entrepreneurs aim to sell their businesses to domestic investors when sea access, the natural environment, the agglomeration economies, the location of Greece and the local governance are ideal for the business performance in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretical link between endogenous cultural institutions (ECIs) and the regulation of natural resource access and use in sub-Saharan Africa is re-gaining its position in theory and practice. This is partly explained by growing resource use inefficiency, linked to predominantly exogenous, centralized institutions. The current situation has rekindled interest to understand what is left of ECIs that can support natural resource use and management in several natural resource contexts, including protected areas. To provide answers to these questions, in-depth studies with a geographic orientation are required. Put succinctly, a spaio-temporal evidence base of ECIs around protected areas is relevant in today's dispensation. Such evidence is required for rich natural resource and culturally diverse settings such as Cameroon—having over 250 ethnic groups. This paper explores space time dynamics of ECIs around two of Cameroon's protected areas—Santchou and Bakossi landscapes. Specifically we: (i) identified and categorized ECIs linked to protected area management, (ii) analyzed their spatio-temporal dynamics and discuss their implications for protected area management. The study is informed by key informant interviews (N = 22) and focus group discussions (N = 6). Using descriptive statistics, the key resources around these protected areas were categorized. Furthermore, narratives and thematic analysis constituted the key element of qualitative analysis. In addition, an analysis of the spatial distribution of ECIs was conducted. Based on our analysis, we derived the following conclusions: (1) Institutions that assume an endogenous cultural nature in some communities potentially exhibit an exogenous origin with a perennial nature; while some ECIs may assume ephemeral to intermittent nature, despite being culturally embedded in communities. (2) While present day ECIs regulate the use of natural resources around protected areas, they were not initially set up for this purpose. (3) Even within the same ethnic group, ECIs exhibit spatio-temporal variations. The results suggest the need for Cameroon's on-going revision of the legal framework to emphasize context-specific elements of ECI which could leverage protected area management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is often pointed out that African countries have large government cabinets that underpin economic performance, lesser is known about the factors behind the size of government cabinets in Africa. Using an original database of the number of ministerial appointments in government offices in 35 African states, this paper establishes a robust negative relationship between the size of the government cabinet and the exclusion based on ethnicity. This result suggests that the governments that are more inclusive tend to be the largest, independent to the number of ethnic groups present in the country, namely, the state of the ethno-linguistic fractionalization. However, the results also show that this inclusion is in favor of powerless positions, suggesting that inclusion might be less about power-sharing than it is about resource-sharing, since the incumbent controls the key positions, while the included ethnic groups have peripheral positions with, however, an access to public rents. The results are robust to various sensitivity analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Editorial introduces a special issue that illustrates a trend toward integrated landscape approaches. Whereas two papers echo older “win-win” strategies based on the trade of non-timber forest products, ten papers reflect a shift from a product to landscape perspective. However, they differ from integrated landscape approaches in that they emanate from sectorial approaches driven primarily by aims such as forest restoration, sustainable commodity sourcing, natural resource management, or carbon emission reduction. The potential of such initiatives for integrated landscape governance and achieving landscape-level outcomes has hitherto been largely unaddressed in the literature on integrated landscape approaches. This special issue addresses this gap, with a focus on actor constellations and institutional arrangements emerging in the transition from sectorial to integrated approaches. This editorial discusses the trends arising from the papers, including the need for a commonly shared concern and sense of urgency; inclusive stakeholder engagement; accommodating and coordinating polycentric governance in landscapes beset with institutional fragmentation and jurisdictional mismatches; alignment with locally embedded initiatives and governance structures; and a framework to assess and monitor the performance of integrated multi-stakeholder approaches. We conclude that, despite a growing tendency toward integrated approaches at the landscape level, inherent landscape complexity renders persistent and significant challenges such as balancing multiple objectives, equitable inclusion of all relevant stakeholders, dealing with power and gender asymmetries, adaptive management based on participatory outcome monitoring, and moving beyond existing administrative, jurisdictional, and sectorial silos. Multi-stakeholder platforms and bridging organizations and individuals are seen as key in overcoming such challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of which researchers publish, get credit, move around, get funding, collaborate and receive citations shows how deeply ingrained the bias against women is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement on the input (R&D spending) and output (patents) of the research process. The extant literature proxies IPR enforcement via composite indices or indicators of institutional quality, whereas this paper employs a direct (hard) measure of IPR crimes. Using data across U.S. states, results show that IPR crimes reduce research spending but do not impact patenting. Upon comparison with a broader measure of weak institutional quality (corruption), we find that greater corruption has a robust negative effect on patenting, but not on R&D spending. Quantitatively, the elasticities of R&D spending with respect to IPR crimes are greater than those of patents with respect to corruption, suggesting that studies that proxy IPR crimes via other measures are likely underestimating their impacts on technological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adding a somewhat new dimension to the substantial body of research on factors driving cross-national corruption, this paper examines the effectiveness of dimensions of enforcement in reducing corruption. The main novelty lies in comparing the relative influences of latent enforcement (police, judicial, and prosecutorial employment) versus actual enforcement (conviction rates) and enforcing institutions. Results show that piecemeal enforcement efforts to combat corruption by increasing enforcement employment would not be effective, rather comprehensive improvements in institutional quality by strengthening the rule of law or regulatory quality bear greater results. These findings are robust across indices of corruption that capture somewhat different aspects. Thus, in terms of the title of the paper, when it comes to corruption control, strong gums (institutions) are more effective than showing teeth (enforcement employment) or the bite (conviction rates). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over more than 30 years, research on the interactions between multinational corporations (MNCs) and their institutional host environments has produced rich but scattered insights, which this review organises and integrates. We map the current state of knowledge and build an integrative model involving motivation and host context as antecedents; interaction strategy and actors as the phenomenon; and consequences, especially at the organisational level, as outcomes. By reviewing 176 articles published in leading journals, we reveal previously hidden relationships between host-country institutional context, proactive and reactive strategies, and positive and negative outcomes for the focal organisation. We also identify three future research frontiers focused on understudied aspects of interactions between MNCs and institutions: dynamics of strategies, dynamics of impact, and microfoundational dynamics. We suggest that combining organisational institutionalism and comparative institutionalism offers a pathway to push the outlined research frontiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the incentives of firms to bypass the innovation process by not pursuing innovation, focusing specifically on whether FDI enables innovation participation or retards it. This consideration of innovation participation is broader than the impact of FDI on innovation because it captures whether FDI leads to greater concentration in research markets. Using data on more than 50 countries and accounting for possible two-way causality between FDI and non-innovation, our results consistently show that FDI increases the ranks of non-innovators. These spillovers or crowding-out effects of FDI do not seem to have been widely recognized. Another interesting finding is that the main result is sensitive to the size of firms—large firms are less impacted by FDI relative to small and medium firms. Implications for technology policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The well-known Human Development Index (HDI) goes beyond a single measure of well-being as it is constructed as a composite index of achievements in education, income, and health dimensions. However, it is argued that the above dimensions do not reflect the overall well-being, and new indicators should be included in its construction. This paper uses stochastic dominance spanning to test the inclusion of additional institutional quality (governance) dimensions to the HDI, and we examine whether the augmentation of the original set of welfare dimensions by an additional component leads to distributional welfare gains or losses or neither. We find that differently constructed indicators of the same institutional quality measure produce different distributions of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role of renewable energy, ecological footprint and institutions on economic growth (measured by per capita GDP) in Francophone Africa using the generalised method of moments (GMM). The results show that renewable energy is negatively correlated with economic growth, which is likely attributable to the high share of woody biomass in these countries. For ecological footprint, the correlation is positive and statistically significant, which links economic growth to environmental degradation. Among the institutional variables, voice and accountability, political stability and the rule of law have a positive significant effect on economic growth while governance effectiveness, regulatory quality and control of corruption are positively related but do not have a statistically significant effect. The insignificant relationship between governance effectiveness, regulatory quality, control of corruption and economic growth implies that institutions in Francophone African countries are under-developed. Thus, strengthening the forms of institutions will promote growth in these countries. This study therefore contributes to the view that economic growth not only emerges with environmental degradation but that it can be improved with renewable energy and robust institutions. Consequently, it is recommended that policymakers develop policies that raise growth with a focus on improving the quality of the environment. These policies include incorporating pollution taxes to discourage foreign companies from polluting the environment and encouraging renewable energy consumption through public investment, as well as changes in fiscal and financial policies (including carbon taxes, grants and incentives). Likewise, policies that facilitate the deployment of renewable technologies with free or low-cost installations for low-income households should be implemented. These recommendations will aid Africa in achieving the goal of substantially increasing the share of renewable energy as foreseen under the United Nations SDG 7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, "democratic centralism" complicates horizontal and vertical bargaining among politicians. Higher-level cadres need to consider not only principal-agent (vertical) relationships but also (horizontal) relationships between lower-level politicians when making personnel appointments. Using provincial-level economic, demographic, and institutional data as well as prefecture-city-level politician-background data from 2000 to 2009, this paper investigates how economic institutions influence the degree of match between prefecture-city party chiefs and mayors. These prefecture-city-level politicians are appointed by province-level politicians, who face institutional constraints. OLS and instrumental-variable-approach results and robustness-test results suggest that more of one such constraint—economic freedom—in one province reduces the difference in biographical background and career experience between party chiefs and mayors but increases the difference in ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus pandemic outbreak is constantly changing the way of people's life. To minimize or stop the transmission of the virus, several different measures have been taken by countries worldwide and including in Ethiopia. The World Health Organization (WHO), the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute recommended frequent hand wash with soap and water as one of the prevention measures for the transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversely, the provision of water supply, sanitation, and hygiene is the main problem in developing countries. After the COVID-19 outbreak, the water related challenges exacerbated the situation before the pandemic existed. Accordingly, the additional supply of water is required to sufficiently provide water for hand wash. This paper mainly addresses how much additional water is required daily for domestic consumption after the coronavirus pandemic by educational institutions, Adama Science and Technology University as a case study. The data was collected with a questionnaire by the randomly selected respondents and analyzed by SPSS (Statistical package for social sciences).The analysis shown that the consumption of water has been changed after the Corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic existed. The highest percentage of the responses to the questionnaire, more than 35% require water (2–5) liters per day and more than 60% of the respondents need additional water up to 5 L per day after the pandemic existed. Based on the analysis, total daily water use by the institute before the COVID-19 existed was 24.2 m3/day. These amounts of water not sufficiently satisfy the daily water requirements of the institution even before the pandemic. After the pandemic existed, the water consumption drastically increased to 29 m3/day. Furthermore, the study recommends the provision of additional water supply sources or water demand management to reduce the impact of the pandemic on water availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper questions the pertinence of the humanitarian aid localization agenda in Latin America, at least in the narrow sense embraced by the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. Localized support has been the standard practice in the region for decades, thanks to at least two correlated factors: the Monroe Doctrine limiting intervention to the USA and regional efforts to resist such intervention. Instead, humanitarian action in the region is an example of a particular way of understating localization, mainly specialized support to specific issues, no distinction between humanitarian or development divisions, and coexistence of different response approaches, synthesizing international and local experiences that intermingle with community practices and traditions, under national government leadership. Governments, together with NGOs, civil protection, and other relevant actors from international cooperation and development, engage in crises based on a long-standing tradition of risk management at national and regional levels. Fears of abuses hidden behind the non-interference principle, human rights activism, and disaster risk management approaches to emergencies created a complex ecosystem for humanitarian localization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes two alternative econometric strategies to test the hypothesis that countries with poor institutional arrangements create an environment with increased impunity, thus providing incentives for potential law-breakers to engage in criminal activities that lead to rapid contagion of violence. Several measures of institutions including legal, political, market, government, and sociocultural institutions are considered in the paper. The empirical analysis provides evidence that the impact of institutional quality on violence is important regardless of income levels. This finding implies that differences in quality of institutions explain why countries with similar levels of income per capita may have different rates of violence and crime. In addition, the results show that quality of institutions matter for a successful long-term strategy to reduce violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contention that 'inclusive' institutions are the deep determinants of economic growth remains unsatisfactory. This paper develops an alternative theoretical and empirical case that economic structures are the fundamental cause of economic performance. Economic structures determine the rate of structural learning, affect institutional performance, influence the distribution of income and establish the direction of political transitions, thereby, economic performance. The paper highlights the feedback loops among institutions, political power and economic structures, thus, markets on their own will not ensure growth-enhancing transformations. The workings of this framework are illustrated using a USA case study, and it exposes the structural origins of the financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A global effort to uncover the nature of the Universe has had resounding effects on scientists and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an introduction to the special issue from the 3rd Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Research Conference held in Washington, D.C., in 2008. The paper has three objectives. First, to discuss the importance of the three stages of economic development, the factor-driven stage, the efficiency-driven stage and the innovation-driven stage. Second, to examine the empirical evidence on the relationship between stages of economic development and entrepreneurship. Third, to present a summary of the papers in the context of the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study re-examines the impact of financial structure on economic growth for 24 advanced OECD countries from 1980 to 2017 using dynamic panel estimators. Previous literature suggests that financial development can promote economic growth; however, recent literature has expressed skepticism toward the finance-growth nexus. This paper employs financial development indices that capture the multidimensional nature of finance, which considers the accessibility, depth and efficiency of financial markets and institutions, as well as alternative financial development measures such as financial globalisation. The results show that financial markets and financial institutions promote economic growth; however, the effect of financial markets on growth is weaker. Interestingly, the results indicate an inverse U-shaped relationship between overall financial development and economic growth. Equally important, financial globalisation is also positive and significant to growth and indicates a nonlinear relationship. However, the impact of external finance from financial globalisation is weaker compared with overall financial development. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Claudine Gay steps down in the face of intense scrutiny following controversial congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in signaling theory, this paper investigates the signals reflecting product quality, innovativeness, reputation and cultural background which influence film performance, that is, film survival (duration on cinema screen) and box office success, in China’s changing institutional context. This market has grown substantially and still possesses potential for further development. However, China’s unique institutional context presents challenges. By examining an expanded range of potential signals, two of which have not previously been examined in the literature, namely imported films and enhanced format film formats such as 3D and IMAX, we develop a conceptual framework and argue that signaling theory needs to be combined with institutional context. Similar to findings for film industries in other countries, we find quality and reputational signals including budget, star power, sequels, and online consumer reviews to be important in China. However, unique results are also revealed. Chinese consumers react to an innovativeness signal in that they are specifically attracted to enhanced format films. Film award nominations and prizes are insignificant reputational signals. Once other signals are taken into account, imported films on average do not perform as well as domestic films. We link these findings to China’s unique institutional setting and offer important implications for management, recognizing the challenges to film companies of competing in an increasingly globalized market. This paper is also of relevance to policymakers given their continued efforts in shaping the development of China’s film industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multi-agent systems, norms are a usual way to regulate the behaviour of autonomous agents. To be stable in different circumstances, norms are specified using high level terms, abstracting from the particular dynamics of the environment where the agents are situated. However, applying these norms requires a proper link with a concrete environment. Detaching that link from the norms themselves provides stability to the normative regulation but raises consistency and flexibility issues. Consistency is achieved when the abstract norms are coherent with the environment under regulation. Flexibility is achieved when different kinds of norms share the same interpretation about the environmental state. These properties are provided in some current works. However, since they are interrelated, there is not, to our knowledge, a single proposal providing all of them. This paper proposes the situated artificial institution (SAI) model to address these three issues--stability, consistency, and flexibility--by conceiving norms as part of institutions that provide, through the process of constitution, a social interpretation of the environmental state. After the presentation of the formalised model of SAI, a case study is used to illustrate and test this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating the linkage, leverage, and learning (LLL) model with institutional economics, this paper develops a moderated mediation framework to examine the relationship between internationalization and the performance of multinational enterprises from latecomer economies (latecomer MNEs). In the framework, whether a latecomer MNE may succeed in learning and knowledge-led profit gains from internationalization is contingent on the development of market-oriented institutions in the country in which it is based. Latecomer MNEs based in countries with a high level of the development of market-oriented institutions are likely to succeed in learning to obtain knowledge-led profit gains from internationalization. Latecomer MNEs based in countries with a low level of the development of market-oriented institutions are likely to experience a breakdown in learning, and a failure in knowledge-led profit gains from internationalization. This paper provides robust evidence on the relationship between internationalization and the performance of latecomer MNEs conditional on the development of market-oriented institutions in their home countries, and discusses strategic implications for latecomer MNE managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's first Moon landing and a welcome return to Horizon Europe for UK researchers loomed large in an eventful year for working scientists around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the Chinese policy environment as regards the experiences of foreign firms in China. In particular, the study focuses on the changes in China's policies toward foreign-invested firms and the companies' perceptions of protectionism of the Chinese regulatory environment. Theoretically, the paper reflects approaches in international political economy and business studies on the bargaining relations between host states and firms, and institutional perspective on business strategy that focuses on the dynamic interaction between organizations and their institutional environment. Hence, the approach takes into account the formal and informal institutional constraints that firms face in a particular institutional framework. Drawing from international survey data, as well as interviews with China-based Finnish firms, the paper analyzes the different types of formal and informal protectionism that foreign companies face in China. It is found that foreign firms perceive the Chinese policy measures as increasingly protective, strict toward foreigners, and favoring of local companies. This is based on China's strategy to remove the earlier preferences for inward foreign direct investment and to support, instead, the growth of indigenous companies. At the same time, the Chinese market presents such a potential that attracts foreign firms to increasingly invest in the country. China has a strong position in competing for investments: its aspiration for higher technology, together with its labor resources, gives China an unique advantage in bargaining with foreign firms over investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of institutional quality on the levels, volatility and quality of public investment. Our findings suggest an inverse relationship between public investment levels and institutional quality, supporting the idea that governments use public investment as a vehicle for rent seeking. We also find that lower quality of governance increases the volatility of public investment. Finally, we provide some tentative evidence of a positive relationship between institutional quality and the quality of infrastructure. Policymakers who aim to reduce infrastructure needs through capital spending should take measures to strengthen institutional capacity to manage public investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An institution typically comprises constitutive rules, which give shape and meaning to social interactions and regulative rules, which prescribe agent behaviour in the society. Regulative rules guide social interaction, in particular when they are coupled with reward and punishment regulations that are enforced for (non-)compliance. Institution examples include legislation and contracts. Formal institutional reasoning frameworks automate ascribing social meaning to agent interaction and determining whether those actions have social meanings that comprise (non-)compliant behaviour. Yet, institutions do not just govern societies. Rather, in what is called multi-level governance, institutional designs at lower governance levels (e.g., national legislation at the national level) are governed by higher level institutions (e.g., directives, human rights charters and supranational agreements). When an institution design is found to be non-compliant, punishments can be issued by annulling the legislation or imposing fines on the responsible designers (i.e., government). In order to enforce multi-level governance, higher governance levels (e.g., courts applying human rights) must check lower level institution designs (e.g., national legislation) for compliance; in order to avoid punishment, lower governance levels (e.g., national governments) must check their institution designs are compliant with higher-level institutions before enactment. However, checking non-compliance of institution designs in multi-level governance is non-trivial. In particular, because institutions in multi-level governance operate at different levels of abstraction. Lower level institutions govern with concrete regulations whilst higher level institutions typically comprise increasingly vague and abstract regulations. To address this issue, in this paper we propose a formal framework with a novel semantics that defines compliance between concrete lower level institutions and abstract higher level institutions. The formal framework is complemented by a sound and complete computational framework that automates compliance checking, which we apply to a real-world case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inland waterway transport (IWT) is the most appropriate means of transportation in the pursuit of a sustainable development strategy. The development of IWT varies per region. Public entities and institutions play an important role in the development of IWT. This paper analyses the development of IWT on the Pearl River from an institutional perspective. Chinese national fiscal reforms, land use reforms and the transfer of power from the central government to local governments impact the governance of IWT. The paper demonstrates that the privatization of inland ports was triggered by the mismatch between the objectives of IWT operators and either public objectives or market demand. This process unfolded while top-level governors did not aim for privatization. The paper shows how formal institutional changes of IWT on the Pearl River are both the result of deliberate design and a path creation in the transformation from the Chinese planned economy to the Chinese market economy. It also shows how institutional changes resulted in a dual development path (i.e. a rapid development of inland terminals but underdevelopment of inland waterways) of IWT in the Pearl River. Policy recommendations are provided based on the research findings with specific attention to the factors hindering IWT development on the Pearl River at the level of the waterway infrastructure and inland ports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on multinational enterprises that originate from emerging economies has highlighted the importance of the home country for firms' strategies of internationalization. In this paper, we outline a simple analytical framework linking institutions and resource munificence in the home country to the domestic business eco-system in an emerging economy, and thereby to strategies of outward investments. Specifically, we argue that businesses interact with each other in their home economy, and these patterns of interactions influence strategies of internationalization as companies not only compete with each other, but share resources, coordinate actions and serve as each other's role model. Strategies of outward investment thus reflect the competition and collaboration in their home country business eco-system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting an institutional lens, this paper examines the interaction between different levels of legal, normative and cultural-cognitive institutions on the level of innovation associated with the choice of alliance governance mechanism as equity or contractual. Using patent data, this paper undertakes multilevel modelling of 314 technology alliance portfolios located in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. Key findings indicate normative and cultural-cognitive institutions do affect the performance outcomes of alliances. Equity alliances provide supporting mechanisms that quell fears about organizational risk in alliances under conditions of uncertainty avoidance as the dominant cultural-cognitive frame, and hence contribute to better innovation performance. Contractual alliances are associated with higher levels of innovation under normative contexts that value collectivism rather than individualism. Contrary to expectation, the results do not support the literature of a fit between equity alliances and weak intellectual property rights protection on innovation. However, the presence of highly formalized legal processes for enforcing contracts is associated with higher levels of innovation from alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agribusiness sector development is often portrayed as an essential component of economic development. Though Benin is a country with inestimable agricultural potential, the agribusiness sector appears unappealing to the local youths. Prior investigations diagnosed the impeding factors as a paucity of financial resource and a dearth of land and technical knowledge. This article departs from past studies by considering the importance of informal institutions for youth participation in the agribusiness sector. Exploring a rich data set of 478 youths aged 15 to 35, collected in Southern Benin based on the stratified random sampling technique, the article uses propensity score matching to address selection bias and logistic regression on the matched sample to link informal institutions to youth participation in agribusiness. Results highlight that agribusiness-unfriendly informal institutions discourage youth participation in the agribusiness sector. Though easing access to finance is crucial for the youths to initiate agribusiness activities, findings make a case for long-term policies that aim to increase the societal levels of trust and desirability for the agribusiness sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the implications of observed national housing sector experiences across the advanced economies before, through and out of the 'Great Financial Crash' (GFC) of 2008. The evidence suggests that over-aggregative explanation of these experiences and their broader economic consequences is somewhat misleading; empirical and theoretical explanations to date have largely failed to recognise that housing sectors can play transformative rather than just passive roles in shaping national economic outcomes. In practice, housing volatility, and the implications of this volatility for macroeconomic stability and growth, reflects specific national financial, spatial and policy structures, housing system institutional structures and participant behaviour patterns. In spite of this, the housing policy paradigms that dominated in the decades prior to the GFC remain largely in place, and national housing policy frameworks continue to give insufficient attention to housing system stability and efficiency concerns. Housing research and housing policies need to be reoriented to better address the processes that contributed to the GFC and that more generally continue to shape national economic cycles and growth paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the strategic response of Japanese pharmaceutical firms to increased competitive pressure. During the 1980’s and 1990’s entry barriers were lifted and markets deregulated. As a consequence transaction structures moved from a relationship based mode towards a market based mode where competition is based on research excellence and new and innovative products. Using panel data of a sample of Japanese pharmaceutical companies, this paper discusses the effect of international patents as an indicator of research capabilities on subsequent corporate performance measured as profits on total assets. Our empirical result suggests that a firm’s patent stock is unrelated or even negatively correlated to its profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional quality plays an undeniable role in every goal of accelerating economic growth. While the MENA region offers many natural assets that can make investments in renewable energy profitable, this region suffers from several institutional quality issues. In this line of thinking, this paper examines the relationship between renewable energy and economic growth in MENA countries taking into account institutional measures. To get a deeper insight into the relationship between this triangle of annual variables spreading from 1986 to 2015, our study considered a broader set of institutional variables, namely, corruption, bureaucracy quality, democracy accountability, law and order, and ethnic tensions. Using panel cointegration tests, we found that renewable energy, economic growth, and any institutional measures, of all considered in this study, are cointegrated. Furthermore, we found a strong causality running from renewable energy and any institutional measure, except law and order, to growth. A reverse path is also observed since there is also a strong causality running from growth to renewable energy when the causal regression includes any institutional measure. Our findings corroborate the fact that establishing an attractive institutional framework in MENA countries could be of ultimate importance in the profitability of renewable energy investments and in accelerating economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new evidence on the determinants of entrepreneurship across countries. The paper investigates the relationship between the institutional setting, in terms of economic freedom, and entrepreneurship, measured by self-employment, in a panel data setting covering 23 OECD countries for the period 1972–2002. The measure of economic freedom includes five aspects: size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and the regulation of credit, labour and business. The empirical findings show that a smaller government sector, better legal structure and security of property rights, as well as less regulation of credit, labour and business tend to increase entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the effects of political instability, social polarization and the quality of institutions on inflation volatility over time and across countries. Using the system-GMM estimator for linear dynamic panel data models on a sample covering 160 countries, analyzed in the period from 1960 to 1999, this paper finds that higher degrees of political instability and social polarization, less democracy, and lower de facto central bank independence are associated with more volatile inflation rates. Furthermore, political instability has greater effects on inflation volatility in developing countries with lower degrees of central bank independence and economic freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can development occur without running down natural resources in an unsustainable way? The concept of natural capital offers a way for those with divergent views (ecologists and economists for example) to discuss this difficult question. Four aspects are examined in detail. First, the role of institutions in facilitating sustainable development is discussed, with examples from forestry. Then examples from (eco)tourism illustrate the potential – and limits – of applicability of the concept. Measurement issues for natural capital are then considered in detail. Finally, the concept is applied to agricultural strategy in fragile lands, where the tradeoff between the environment and development is likely to be most severe. Some implications for future research and policy are developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]