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We estimate producer and consumer surplus changes due to a possible GM maize import ban in Chile, which produces only non-GM grains for internal use. Without foreign non-GM sources, the ban's effect on domestic maize prices would be so significant as to induce Chile to switch from net exporter to net importer of animal products. Fixed factor owners in farm production would benefit significantly, although non-GM maize imports would moderate gains. Total social welfare measures would decline considerably, requiring large offsetting noneconomic benefits for a ban's political viability. Without non-GM imports, internal maize prices would likely eliminate domestic animal product industries; with possible imports, industries and final consumers would suffer, but much less. Currently, the country is a net importer of grain and a net exporter of pork and poultry, and so most welfare losses on the demand side of the market for maize would be in terms of the economic rents generated by the pork and poultry sectors. International competition would protect final consumers to the extent that animal product imports based on GM feed were permitted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper introduces the concept of Sustainable Digital Rent (SDR), highlighting the shift from traditional economic rent based on tangible assets to rent derived from digital platforms. At the heart of this shift is the "value state," a dynamic balance between constructive expectations and destructive information. As digital platforms generate increasing amounts of information, expectations are increasingly met and shared more efficiently with all users, leading to a reduction in individual and general motivational, emotional, and cognitive engagement. These platforms, now essential to modern life, facilitate online activities that reduce as well physical engagement and natural interactions, thereby impacting cognitive function and physical health. By extracting rent directly, digital platform operators limit the benefits users could gain to support their mental and physical well-being. Methods: This paper empirically defines and estimates SDR using the collective estimates of price, cost, and income (PCI) as practiced in North American real estate appraisal, demonstrated through abstract art rent. Our approach provides a new perspective on valuing intangible assets, such as knowledge, by showing the shift from expectation to information, governed by the value state in cognitive evaluations. Emphasizing interdisciplinary relevance, the method underscores the need for an efficient mechanism to redistribute SDR benefits to digital platform users, supporting fair and equitable digital development. Results and discussion: The results show that digital rent is driven primarily by cognitive and informational content, demonstrating the need for redistribution mechanisms to address the growing inequality on digital platforms. The use of abstract art as a case study provides a convenient and illustrative way to explore how intangible assets, like digital rents, can be evaluated and redistributed. SDR offers insights into how digital rents can be captured and redistributed equitably, ensuring that platform users and creators benefit from the knowledge economy's growth. The findings underscore the relevance of measuring SDR to guide policy recommendations aimed at reducing digital monopolization and promoting sustainable digital development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American Journal of Economics & Sociology's special edition volume on Rent and Labor Exploitation explores various aspects of exploitation in the context of current world events. The papers in this volume shed light on issues such as housing affordability, racial discrimination in banking, ancient labor practices, agribusiness rent extraction, and the impact of higher apartment rent levels on health insurance enrollment. The journal aims to provide a platform for diverse perspectives on economic rent, labor exploitation, and social justice, encouraging readers to draw their own conclusions. [Extracted from the article]

This study investigates the relationship between sustainable economic growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Saudi Arabia from 1980 to 2023. The ARDL approach and VECM technique are employed to analyze the short-run and long-run dynamics. The short-run results show mixed effects. Sustainable economic growth has a positive impact on current and one-period lagged FDI but a negative impact on the two periods lagged. Trade openness and infrastructure negatively affect FDI in the short run. Interestingly, oil rents and real economic growth also have negative short-run impacts on FDI, but these effects become positive with a longer lag. Long-run analysis reveals a negative relationship between trade openness, infrastructure, and oil rents with FDI, suggesting a potential crowding-out effect. Trade openness has a positive long-run impact on most variables, including sustainable growth, FDI, real growth, and CO2 emissions. Oil rents also have a positive long-run impact on these variables. This study finds six bidirectional causal relationships in the short run, primarily between trade openness, infrastructure, oil rents, and FDI. Unidirectional causality runs from oil rents, trade openness, exchange rate, sustainable growth, and real growth to FDI and infrastructure. Additionally, CO2 emissions cause FDI, and trade openness causes sustainable growth. While sustainable economic growth benefits FDI in the long run, short-term policies regarding trade openness and infrastructure require reevaluation. Oil revenue and real economic growth may initially deter FDI, but this reverses in the long term. To attract sustainable FDI, policymakers should focus on long-term economic growth strategies and consider reforms in trade and infrastructure policies. A comprehensive FDI strategy that moves beyond oil dependence and leverages trade openness is crucial to long-term economic diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a Competitive Leverage model, and apply it to analyze the impact of tariffs on the attitudes of domestic import-competing firms, especially regarding their disincentives to maintain a Competitive Stance against foreign competitors in the domestic market. We propose that tariffs are a disincentive to the pursuit and maintenance of production efficiency in firms and industries. When countries implement tariff protection for their domestic firms, the most common excuse sounds reasonable, except that it is also economically flawed. While the short-run impacts of such a measure might seem plausible, its long-term effects appear to be less than favorable, and may, in fact, turn out to be damaging to the economy. The paper applies the competitive leverage concept in a unique way to highlight how tariffs distort the output levels of domestic firms, and gives an empirical analysis of the model, using USA data to verify the predictions of the model. Particularly, we develop a Cournot-competition type Competitive Leverage model, and use it to examine the role played by tariffs as a disincentive to a typical firm's pursuit and maintenance of production efficiency. The competitive leverage model is formulated and applied to verify the effects of tariff protection from the typical domestic firm's strategic interaction standpoint. We further apply crosssectional data to carry out an empirical analysis of the model, to verify how tariffs impact the domestic firm's output and pricing decisions. Our findings would enable us to contribute to the debate about the need to remove protective tariffs, on the grounds that tariffs do not only enable domestic firms to operate inefficiently, but also tends to distort the output and pricing outcomes that would otherwise have been realized in the free market. The results from the study are used to propose some major policy implications of imposing tariff protection, among which are that there is need for implementation of more deliberately sustained Research and development program on the part of domestic firms in the economy, to enable them withstand vigorous competition in a free-trade world. Also, since protective tariffs significantly increase firms' profit rates, which in turn enables them to unduly earn and accumulate economic rents that amount to inefficiencies and distortions in free-market prices and quantities outcomes, governments should always resist any pressures from big businesses to impose protective tariffs against competition from international rivals. Yet a clear public policy implication from this paper is that, at the macro level, as the results suggest that a government policy that aims at protecting domestic firms through imposition of tariffs may have an adverse effect on the firms' competitive stance in the industry, a practical message is for the government to impose only a moderate tariff at the most, if it must, especially as it relates to agricultural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic uncertainty has steadily increased in response to a series of unforeseen shocks, notably the Global Financial Crisis, Brexit, COVID-19, and the Russia–Ukraine war. This study examined the impact of economic uncertainty on rents and capital values in Australia's office, retail, and industrial property sectors. The reactions of these performance indicators to national uncertainty shocks were assessed through reduced-form vector autoregressive (VAR) models, using quarterly data from 2001Q1 to 2022Q3. Overall, there is an inverse relationship between uncertainty and commercial property performance, with notable variations in magnitude and persistence across the different subsectors. Rents are more sensitive to external shocks across all three subsectors, highlighting their role as signals of short-term performance. Following one standard deviation shock in uncertainty, rents steadily declined for approximately three years in the office and retail subsectors. Industrial rents, however, exhibited muted reactions and recovered quicker, typically within five quarters. This resilience to external shocks displayed by the industrial subsector positions it as a compelling option for defensive investment strategies and portfolio diversification. Capital values are less reactive than rents, showing minimal responses to uncertainty shocks and little long-term persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary competition policy is informed in significant measure by static microeconomic theories that are of limited use when competition is driven by innovation, which brings rapid change, even for large, platform-based companies ("Big Tech"). Static models in competition economics prioritize efficiency gains from cost savings even though welfare gains from innovation are much larger. Competition economics could benefit from the integration of strategic management and innovation economics. Management scholars have the opportunity to properly introduce and apply concepts such as isolating mechanisms, capabilities (and their development), and ecosystem competition into the policy debate. If management scholars invest the time and effort to understand current competition policy models, they may be able to reengineer them in a manner that leads to a better understanding of dynamic competition, a more nuanced view of the nature of economic rents, and better metrics for assessing competitive effects. These should in turn lead to better public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to identify the socioeconomic determinants and impacts of life expectancy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from 1960-2020. Methodology: Using time series data from the World Bank, correlation analysis and Granger causality tests are employed to examine relationships between life expectancy and various macroeconomic indicators in the DRC. Results: Inflation, economic growth, population growth, and CO2 emissions are the causes of life expectancy in the DRC. In turn, life expectancy Granger causes inflation, economic growth, mineral rents, and CO2 emissions. A negative correlation is observed between mineral rents and economic growth, while inflation negatively impacts life expectancy. Theoretical Contribution: The bidirectional causality between economic growth and longevity in the DRC supports human capital theory. The study provides new evidence on the drivers and effects of life expectancy in the context of a developing, resourcerich economy. Practical Implications: The findings suggest that the DRC government should prioritize spending on health and education to promote longevity as an economic development engine. Policies controlling inflation and sustaining mineral resources are also crucial for improving life expectancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This summary provides an overview of the Competition Law Challenges 2024 conference held at Charles University in Prague. The conference aimed to stimulate discussion on current topics in competition law and regulation. Keynote speakers discussed the importance of conferences for public debate and outlined planned legislative changes. Panel discussions covered topics such as anti-competitive agreements, sectoral regulation in technology sectors, and procedural issues. The conference aimed to contribute to the development and improvement of competition law in the Czech Republic. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: This research aims to identify the optimal configuration of investment which leads firms to their best competitive positions, considering the degree of concentration in the market. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology was quantitative and based on secondary data with samples of 124, 106 and 90 firms from competitive environment classified as perfect competition, monopolistic competition and oligopoly, respectively. Proposed models' parameters were estimated by means of genetic algorithms. Findings: Adjustments on firm's investment are contingent on the degree of competition they face. Results are in line with existing academic research affirmation that the purpose of investments is to create and exploit opportunities for positive economic rents and that investments allow firms to protect from rivals' competitive actions and reinforce the need for investment decision makers to consider the environment in which the firm is competing, when defining the amount of investment that must be done to achieve and maintain a favorable competitive advantage position. Originality/value: This research brings two main original contributions. The first one is the identification of the optimal amount of capital and R&D investments which leads firms to their best competitive positions, contingent to the degree of concentration of the competitive environment in which they operate, and the size of the firm. The second one is related to the use of genetic algorithms to estimate optimization models that considers the three competitive environments studied (perfect competition, monopolistic competition and oligopoly) and the investment variables in the linear and quadratic forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has argued that companies in transition economies engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to achieve political goals, such as building connections with the government. However, it is unclear why chief executive officers (CEOs) agree to make these politically driven CSR decisions that mainly benefit the controlling shareholders. We show that controlling shareholders may "bribe" the CEOs with greater compensation or perks—a form of economic rents extracted by the CEOs—to make CSR decisions, and such a pattern is more salient in local government-owned companies. We reason that these CSR activities reflect implicit contracting between the controlling shareholders and the CEOs. Through cross-section analyses, we find that the CEO's economic rents vary with local government fiscal needs, the firm's governance structure, and CEO power. Furthermore, we demonstrate that increases in CSR-linked compensation lead to a decline in shareholder value. Data Availability: All data are available from public databases identified in the paper. JEL Classifications: D72; M12; P26. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: In the context of the installation of cabildos in the viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada, this article studies the transition of two towns inhabited by «free people» to the status of villas: the parroquia of Guasimal de Cúcuta and the sitio of San José de La Marinilla. This process shows how the fact that the Catholic monarchy gave the jurisdictional quality of villa to specific towns fostered a virtuous circle in which various local and metropolitan agencies became intertwined and promoted a policy of negotiated integration, which ceded autonomy in local government. Methodology: Based on primary documentary sources detailing the establishment and functioning of chapter governments, we analyze the process of administrative cession in jurisdictional terms and, in general, the establishment of provincial governments in towns in the viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada. Originality: The examination of the documentation allows us to reveal the materialization of a historical process of generalized integration in Hispanic America, induced by the ministers of Charles III, which gave jurisdictional qualities to mestizo population groups, seeking to benefit the royal rents of the economic growth that these populations were experiencing and to determine the new municipal political architecture in the time of the Bourbons. Conclusions: In the cases analyzed, we can see how, in search of administrative rationality, the crown negotiated the granting of autonomy to parroquias and towns of «free people» as a policy of integration that should strengthen centralization and increase productivity to achieve income and economic growth. It can also be seen how the patricians were diligent in giving institutionality to the new republics, guided by royal regulations that even embraced strengthening the branches of propios y arbitrios (such as health and coercion, among others). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are instances where CEO turnover occurs, even if the company has not made any significant strategy changes, and the new CEO possesses similar abilities as the predecessor. This paper aims to provide a rational explanation for this seemingly irrational phenomenon. One possible reason for this "aggressive" CEO turnover is the board's desire to reduce the information rents earned by the privately informed CEO. Specifically, the incumbent CEO has a temptation to "sandbag" the board about profitability prospects to secure more generous incentive pay for future implementation, and a (seemingly aggressive) replacement policy helps discourage this kind of gaming. That is, instead of "information-based entrenchment" as suggested by the literature (Laux 2008; Inderst and Mueller 2010), this paper shows a countervailing effect that the CEO's private information (combined with the later-stage moral hazard problem) may lead to her dismissal more often than the ex post efficient benchmark. JEL Classifications: D86; G34; M41. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian economy has performed well compared with comparable countries over the last three decades only if we average the excellent performance in the 1990s and the poor performance over the past decade. Real wages over the past decade have stagnated—to an extent without historical parallel. We cannot understand the economy's underperformance without recognising the increasing claims of economic rents on national income. Correction of weaknesses requires coordination of many policy instruments including measures to reduce the prevalence of rents (competition policy and regulation of oligopoly where competition is not feasible or inefficient) and changes in taxation arrangements to shift the burden of business taxation from firms in competitive activities to firms relying heavily on economic rents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Price markups and firms' Tobin's Q ratios are widely believed to have been increasing in the past several decades. Various models for the calculation of price markups have been developed, each relying on the historically held definition of the ratio of price to marginal cost; however, all of these have methodological drawbacks, and some of the results they have produced have been poorly reflective of the near past wider macroeconomic experience. This paper defines a new approach for the definition and measurement of markup pricing, and it also avoids some of the issues surrounding the marginal cost approaches by using the measure of economic rent and the capital asset pricing model. The results show limited markup pricing for the UK's FTSE 100 companies (2018–2023), but that certain real estate, technology/media and financial services/equity investment firms have enjoyed higher price markup levels. An analysis of the business models of these firms is used to qualitatively propose explanations for such markups. This work offers formal proof that that the expected price markup is equal to Tobin's Q and finds that the empiric market level of markup is near equivalent to the market Tobin's Q; the differences between the markup and Tobin's Q at the level of the firm are equally assessed. This work challenges the general consensus that price markups are above one and have been increasing; it may also aid policy makers with respect to taxation policy and regulatory measures, as well as the financial management of firms in decisions concerning capital deployment and portfolio management. The method merits expansion to wider data sets, as well as to those from outside of the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scarcity of information that allows for understanding the importance of natural resources from an economic approach is often a limitation to establishing parameters related to environmental investment in conservation plans. This study proposes a methodology that allows for modeling the variability of páramo land uses and the EV of the Chambo-Ecuador sub-basin from bioeconomic monitoring that links the economic rent of páramo land uses with remote sensing tools and geographic information systems. Multilayer Perception, Markov Chains, and Automata Cells algorithms were efficient for the detection of land uses in páramo; the normalized differential humidity index was the most relevant variable to identify crops, showing that leaf properties and water stress are linked to crop yields in the Andean region. The páramo decreased by 13% between 2000 and 2010, increasing its degradation to 19% between 2010 and 2020. A 28% reduction is expected between 2000 and 2030; the EV between 2000 and 2020 was $2.86 × 108 and $2.59 × 108 respectively. In 2030, EV is expected to decrease to $2.48 × 108. Transitions in land use and EV are associated with productive dynamics, which decrease environmental services, such as water retention and carbon storage, intensifying changes in the ecosystem climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: According to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) the Southern African railway network extends homogenously through 1067mm cape gauge across 12 of the 15 SADC nations. Nonetheless, the network is constrained from efficient and effective operation due to insufficient investment in maintaining and upgrading affected tracks and equipment apart from inadequate human capital. This article presents the case of regulation as a plausible solution. Objectives: To advocate for railway economic regulation as a means for enabling investment in SADC regional railway corridors. Method: Literature review on global best practices on regulation that induces transport and infrastructure sector investment, and a market research study on railway corridor investment policy assertions and Economic Regulation of the Regional Railway Corridor for Investment. Results: Current SADC regional railway corridor markets do not encourage steady or sustainable investments and there is a need for further exploration on more investment subsidies and crowding-in on intergovernmental agreements for pertinent development. Conclusion: Attracting investments into a railway corridor market is an aspect of economic regulation, which necessitates the establishment of market confidence, predictability, and transparency, as observed in Brazil. The legislative provisions, market access codes, and incentives as implemented in the USA, Europe, Australia, and Japan are also crucial investment inducement. Contribution: The articles presents a profound approach to regional railway corridor investments consideration as it puts to questions the current practice of isolated sovereign attempts. It advocates for joint intergovernmental effort for sustainable and competitive regional railway corridor investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the impact of bank market power on the interest rates charged for loans to nonfinancial firms within the context of a developing country. Employing a distinctive amalgamation of data encompassing banks, firms, and loan specifics, alongside panel data fixed-effect models, we elucidate that banks wielding greater market power tend to impose higher interest rates on their loan products. This effect becomes more pronounced for banks positioned at the upper echelons of the market power spectrum (relative market power) and in instances of lengthier credit relationships. However, its severity can be mitigated for firms managing multiple credit connections (subjective market power). Our findings shed light on the presence of practices aimed at extracting economic rents and accentuate the substantial costs associated with changing lending partners in the corporate credit landscape. Various papers have delved into the empirical examination of how competition impacts the accessibility and expenses tied to bank credit for nonfinancial firms, yielding a mosaic of outcomes. Our contribution to this body of the literature manifests as a more incisive empirical analysis, enabling us to disentangle the opposing dynamics at play. This analytical depth is achievable solely due to the exceptional dataset we have curated. Significantly, our study stands out as one of the initial endeavors to interlink dynamic, bank-level gauges of market power with directly observed interest rates at the firm level, all while controlling for bank and loan-specific characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article delves into how firms in the energy sector in Europe can earn economic rents from intangible assets, specifically firm-owned intangible assets (FIAs) and owner organizations' intangible assets (OIAs). It highlights the influence of institutional quality on rent creation, showing that FIAs benefit from higher quality institutions while OIAs are negatively affected. The study also emphasizes the advantage of OIAs in multiple-ownership settings, particularly in countries with better institutional quality. Overall, the research contributes to understanding how different types of intangible assets generate rents for firms and how institutional context shapes this process, with a focus on international business and corporate governance in emerging economies like China. [Extracted from the article]

It is not easy to perform a numerical simulation of the path to a steady state in dynamic economic growth models in which households behave by generating rational expectations. It is much easier, however, if households are assumed to behave according to a procedure based on the maximum degree of comfortability (MDC), where MDC indicates the state at which a household feels most comfortable with its combination of income and assets. In this paper, I simulate how economic inequality increases in democratic countries under the supposition that households behave according to the MDC-based procedure. The results indicate that high levels of economic inequality can be generated and even increase in a democracy. As causes, I postulate households' misunderstandings of the economic situation, a government against certain groups in the economy, or an upward trend in temporary rent incomes. I then present a criterion for establishing the socially acceptable level of economic inequality and point out a practical shortfall arising from the inability to distinguish temporary economic rents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method for measuring rents has practical relevance for society in terms of improving competition, regulation, and taxation. This paper proposes a new way to measure rents for business corporations and at country-level: a method related to a cash flow tax (CFT). Theory, method and a proof of concept are presented and discussed. Publicly available data is used to validate the method, revealing that it yields a better indication of rents and rent-seeking compared to markup, profit, and free cash flow (FCF). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing consensus that modern capitalist economies suffer from excessive rent extraction in both financial and real economy sectors. However, scholars have yet to develop a coherent analytical framework for identifying the common characteristics of modern economic rents. In particular, there has been little attention paid to distinguishing 'good' rents—key to innovation and growth—from 'bad' forms which contribute to economic stagnation and inequalities of wealth and income. This paper takes some first steps in this direction. We first review the existing rent theory most pertinent to this distinction, including classical political economy, the early twentieth century institutionalists, neoclassical perspectives and Keynes's analysis of financial rentiers. Secondly, we map and conceptualise some key stylised features of modern rents, drawing on descriptive empirical evidence. We then identify the key questions that these developments raise for rent theory, elaborating a new research and policy agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fishery encompasses various interconnected systems, including ecological, socioeconomic, and governing systems. Managing fisheries requires the simultaneous consideration of all these systems, making it a challenging endeavor. To address these challenges, fisheries bioeconomic models have emerged as a crucial tool. They are particularly valuable in the context of small-scale fisheries, which are often complex, overlooked and poorly understood. Thus, this paper presents a dynamic multispecies and multigear bioeconomic model that can illuminate the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of small-scale fisheries under different management scenarios. The model was applied to a small-scale fisheries system in Southern Brazil that has as a notable feature a cooperative fishing behavior between dolphins and fishers. Three scenarios were explored: the base scenario (status quo), the optimal management scenario, and the constrained optimal management scenario. The model outputs demonstrated a clear tradeoff between labour effort, species conservation, and economic rent. Shifting from the base to an optimal management scenario would result in a labour employment reduction within the system but concurrently yield higher stock levels, economic rent, and wages. These results illustrate how our model can explore critical management scenarios across the multiple dimensions of fisheries systems. In essence, this research offers a novel contribution in the form of a bioeconomic model tailored for small-scale fisheries involving multiple species. • Trade-off between labour effort, species conservation, and economic rent was found • Optimal management reduce labour employment but yield higher stock levels • Model can explore management scenarios across multiple dimensions of systems [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms engaging in innovative practices have patents to prevent competitive forces from eroding the resulting economic rents; however, there is limited evidence regarding the impact of innovation on risk. We shed new light on how firms' involvement in innovation activities impacts their volatility, particularly their idiosyncratic volatility. In this paper, we empirically examine the effect of innovation on idiosyncratic volatility. To do so, we empirically examine the impact of innovation, measured by patents weighted by citations and R&D expenditure, on the idiosyncratic volatility of firms. Using a large sample of 8256 US firms, we find that more innovation is associated with lower idiosyncratic volatility. We also find that information uncertainty is the channel through which innovation affects idiosyncratic risk. The results are robust for different measures of idiosyncratic volatility. These results have empirical implications for investors, managers, and firms engaging in innovation-related activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7, 11, and 12 are all aimed at advancing green energy consumption in the fight against the three planetary crises facing the world today: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Besides, Africa has an abundance of natural resources, yet, the continent continues to witness slow growth and development compared to its counterparts. Therefore, this study, the first of its kind, simultaneously assesses the impact of green energy consumption and natural resources rents on economic growth by applying the dynamic panel ARDL and the Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) estimators on data from 1990 to 2020 for 24 selected African countries. The results show that green energy consumption has a short-run growth-limiting and a long-run growth-enhancing effect in Africa. Also, CO2 emissions have both short- and long-run significant positive impacts on economic growth, while fossil fuel combustion negatively impacts growth both in the short and long run, albeit the effect is not significant in the long run. Similarly, regarding Africa's natural resource rents' impact on growth, the results show that total natural resource rents are growth-enhancing in the short run and growth-limiting in the long run. Additionally, both forest and mineral rents have a significant short-run negative impact on growth in Africa. However, in the long run, only the effect of mineral rent is growth-enhancing although generally not statistically significant. These findings provide relevant implications for policy shifts to enhance environmental sustainability, achieve sustainable economic growth, and ensure proper natural resources management in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that those Chinese listed companies that are riding high on the media corporate social responsibility (CSR) ranking lists tend to have greater advertising (sales) expenses and poor environmental performance. This observation suggests that some companies opportunistically use media to greenwash their image, hoping to capture economic rents. Indeed, our evidence shows that greenwashing firms benefit in the lending market by exploiting the media to gain a kind of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) endorsement, thereby allowing them to achieve a lower cost of debt and to experience lower collateral obligations. The evidence suggests an adverse incentive to exploit ESG awareness via media coverage in weak institutional environments and opaque ESG disclosure regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is yet another example of how the state at national and regional level is captured by a section of the domestic capitalist class and aids its accumulation of state capital to capture even more of the state apparatus that contracts to the private sector. In this issue: imperialism old and new Structural adjustment policies have enabled the dominant sections of global, principally financial, capital and its state and international institutional enablers, to keep control over African economies and so further their own interests in order to accumulate and gain even greater control over the global economy. Hannah Cross's contribution to this issue's Debates section takes up the issue of the role of migration in supplying cheap labour to capitalist centres in the service of higher profits, specifically referencing Chen-Zion's article in this issue. As our editorial in Issue 173 argued, we are 'witnessing the intensification of neoliberalism and an accompanying resurgence of its associated power and institutions, maybe above all the IMF in Africa and elsewhere'. [Extracted from the article]

From a policy perspective, each of the metrics we considered achieve its intended policy target: no net loss of grassland, no net loss of curlew, or no net loss of lapwing. Keywords: biodiversity loss; biodiversity metrics; biodiversity offsets; no net loss; simulation model; compensaciones de biodiversidad; medidas de biodiversidad; modelo de simulación; pérdida de biodiversidad; pérdida neta cero; , , , , EN biodiversity loss biodiversity metrics biodiversity offsets no net loss simulation model compensaciones de biodiversidad medidas de biodiversidad modelo de simulación pérdida de biodiversidad pérdida neta cero , , , , 1 11 11 10/04/22 20221001 NES 221001 INTRODUCTION Goal 15 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to halt and reverse land degradation and the associated loss of biodiversity (United Nations, 2015). Three landscape configurations were generated using the three alternative metrics (no net loss of low-intensity grassland, no net loss of curlew, and no net loss of lapwing). Therefore, we compared the no net loss of low-intensity grassland metric with two species-based metrics: no net loss in the abundance of the Eurasian curlew ( I Numenius arquata i ) and no net loss in the abundance of the northern lapwing ( I Vanellus vanellus i ). [Extracted from the article]

Bitcoin falls dramatically short of the scale provided by banks for payments. Currently, its ledger grows by the addition of blocks of ∼2,000 transactions every 10 minutes. Intuitively, one would expect that increasing the block capacity would solve this scaling problem. However, we show that increasing the block capacity would be futile. We analyze strategic interactions of miners, who are heterogeneous in their power over block addition, and users, who are heterogeneous in the value of their transactions, using a game-theoretic model. We show that a capacity increase can facilitate large miners to tacitly collude—artificially reversing back the capacity via strategically adding partially filled blocks in order to extract economic rents. This strategic partial filling crowds out low-value payments. Collusion is sustained if the smallest colluding miner has a share of block addition power above a lower bound. We provide empirical evidence of such strategic partial filling of blocks by large miners of Bitcoin. We show that a protocol design intervention can breach the lower bound and eliminate collusion. However, this also makes the system less secure. On the one hand, collusion crowds out low-value payments; on the other hand, if collusion is suppressed, security threatens high-value payments. As a result, it is untenable to include a range of payments with vastly different outside options, willingness to bear security risk, and delay onto a single chain. Thus, we show economic limits to the scalability of Bitcoin. Under these economic limits, collusive rent extraction acts as an effective mechanism to invest in platform security and build responsiveness to demand shocks. These traits are otherwise hard to attain in a disintermediated setting owing to the high cost of consensus. This paper was accepted by Kartik Hosanagar, information systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic human capital research has recently expanded to encompass other types of labor market frictions in addition to those posed by firm-specific human capital. Labor market frictions inhibit trade in human capital, allowing firms that are idiosyncratically advantaged with respect to a particular friction to appropriate human capital rents. Adding to this nascent conversation, I describe how idiosyncratic firm resources and capabilities enable firms to garner human capital rents. By explicitly distinguishing between value creation and value capture, which together drive firm-level human capital rents, this article's theoretical framework uncovers overlooked circumstances where firms' pursuit of human capital rents differ in important ways. I discuss theoretic propositions and implications to guide future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Departing from research on Westphalian leases between 1600 and 1900 the paper discusses the lease market of and price determination on three Westphalian estates. While economic history approaches suppose that leases can be seen as market relations and are therefore useful indicators to measure agricultural productivity, a more anthropological perspective emphasises the social relations between lessor (here: noble estate owner) and leaseholders. The choice of an adequate perspective has significant implications for research on agricultural productivity based on rents and leases. Our results indicate that the contractual arrangement of leasehold (well defined duration, announcement, auctions) was used to achieve the highest possible leases. However, at least until the 1830s, demand for leasehold land was rather low and leaseholders could benefit from a lack of competition. Price determination of leases resulted in rents below the Ricardian rent. Therefore, we argue that important assumptions of the established price approach, which uses leases as proxies for productivity, are not met and the analysis of agricultural productivity requires additional evidence on the leaseholder's income and profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource dependence theorists argue that boards of directors with political capital can benefit focal firms by reducing uncertainty and providing preferential resources. Here, we develop theory regarding the downside of board political capital. The problem of principal-principal agency is evident in many parts of the world, and we argue that board political capital can further exacerbate it by enabling large blockholders to undertake more appropriation of firm wealth. Further, we explore how this enabling effect is moderated by ownership-, industry-, and environment-level contingencies. We find empirical support for our arguments using 32,174 directors in 1,046 Chinese listed firms over the period 2008-2011. Our study sheds light on new ways in which resource dependence and agency theories can be integrated to advance the extant research on board governance and corporate political strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protection of coffee products by labels named geographic indications (GI) is often presented as one option to protect the markets open to small scale farmers and sustain their production. However, farmers only enjoy a limited direct benefit from GI certification, instead coffee's economic rent is still captured largely by exporters. The research attempted to overcome these limitations by creating more focused labels through single origin (SO) specialty coffee. Methods performed included indepth interviews with coffee professionals aimed to assess different public policies resulting more efficiency of SO coffee on the farms' economies added by analysis hierarchy process (AHP) and questioner given to 134 farmers to find the factors contributing on their adoption. It was found the collective action through farmers groups allowed farmers to set up the attributes of coffee production, including some regulations and sanctions. These services went far beyond the individual position to adopt the SO specifications. In the final decision, farmers have been adopted the SO program due to reliable factors to enhance the SO collective action development, such as (1) farmer institutional improvement (0.425), (2) farmer technical skill improvement (0.332), (3) financial access (0.102), (4) technology support (0.087), (5) marketing and partnership development (0.054). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance appraisal is a key link in the performance payment mechanism of government-paid Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects. As the performance appraisal of PPP projects is highly professional and complex, it is usually necessary to introduce a third-party performance appraisal institution to evaluate the project outputs of the private investor. However, driven by economic rent, the private investor has the incentive to seek rent from the third party in the performance appraisal process, leading to the low overall performance level of PPP projects and the inability to achieve the PPP performance appraisal goal effectively. To explore how to avoid rent-seeking in performance appraisal and improve the overall performance of government-paid PPP projects, a tripartite evolutionary game model between the behaviour, third party, and the public sector has been constructed. Based on the evolutionary game model, this study analyses the evolutionary stability of each player’s strategy, discusses the influence of various factors on the strategy selection of the three-party, and further analyses the stability of the equilibrium point of the three-party game system.,e findings reveal that the public sector can slow down the rent-seeking behaviour of the private sector by setting up a reasonable reward and punishment mechanism.,e design of a reasonable reward and punishment mechanism must meet the following conditions: (1) the sum of the reward and punishment of all parties is greater than the speculative income; (2) the amount of performance fee withheld for the private investor is greater than the difference between the project operating cost saved and the speculation cost.,e research provides technical support for the design of the performance appraisal mechanism of government-paid PPP projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ownership and control of defense industrial firms affords the military power, autonomy, and a claim to economic rents. Why do some countries succeed at shifting some or all such firms from military to civilian ownership and control, while others do not? I argue that differing configurations of relative civilian and military coalitional and institutional strength contribute to outcomes. Civilian and military must find party and executive-branch allies who can compete for them to craft or defeat legislation affecting their interests, but coalition building alone is insufficient. Actors must also cultivate executive bureaucratic institutions able to design and implement policies promoting their interests. How coalitions and institutions form, ossify, or fail to develop is assessed through a comparative study of Chile, Argentina (1983–1989), and Argentina (1989–1997). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the value relevance of insider trades in Europe and find that both purchases and sales of well‐connected insiders are positively associated with long‐term abnormal returns. We argue that the market perceives the purchases of networked insiders as more informative, leading to higher returns. For sales of networked insiders, the market decreases their negative information content, leading to lower negative returns. Our results do not support the view that insiders use their informational advantage to extract economic rents in the form of dollar profits. We posit that they use their networks to provide signals to the market when trading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effect that neighboring parties have on the economic rents from owning the rights to a natural resource. Our application uses winning bid prices from state timber auctions in three western states. We model and show how differing nearby neighbors increase the costs and risks associated with purchasing certain rights. Consistent with our hypotheses, the winning bid price of state‐run timber auctions is inversely related to the length of the border that a third party shares with the harvesting area. The lower winning bid prices reflect an increase in the expected costs of protecting the rents due to the presence of potential third parties' challenges to property rights. We further test our model when there is third party demand for other uses to the timber such as a scenic view. The results consistently show that when third parties potentially threaten property rights, the winning bid decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The Covid-19 pandemic is having a critical impact on economies, especially in developing countries. Such a serious external shock affects the distribution of economic rents, thus leading to potentially large institutional changes. Naturally, in the short term we are dealing with an economic crisis and a restriction of civil liberties in both autocratic and democratic countries, however, it is not known what the dynamics of institutional changes will be in the longer run. Aim: The main purpose of the article is to answer if the Covid-19 pandemic becomes a turning point that will determine the institutional system in developing countries for the next few decades. The first part of the article outlines the theory of institutional change, with particular emphasis on the role of external shocks. The next section presents studies on the socioeconomic impact of two major epidemics: The Black Death and the Great Influenza Pandemic. The third part conducts an assessment as to what extent the current pandemic may affect institutions in developing countries, by reference to the example of two countries: Tunisia and Cambodia. The analysis is conducted from the perspective of the new institutional economics. Results: If we look at the experiences from previous pandemics, current events and refer to the literature on the theory of institutional change, we can conclude that significant institutional changes caused by Covid-19 are unlikely. The process of institutional change is characterized by a specific complexity and changing dynamics. Nonetheless, it is the internal factors, reflecting the actions of people trying to maximize the benefits, which are the main cause of change in an institutional system. Therefore, the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely to strengthen the endogeneity of the process of institutional change, rather than change its course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern economies rely on economic growth for stability and prosperity. Further, periods of stagnation and recession are currently associated with poor health and wellbeing outcomes for citizens. However, 50 years of research indicates that this state of dependency is ecologically unsustainable. It is therefore critical that we better understand the growth dependency of our economies and welfare systems, and how to overcome it. In this paper we first offer a working definition of growth dependency, clarifying its core dimensions. Next, taking the UK's adult social care sector as a case study, we argue that growth dependencies emerge in the welfare state as a result of three distinct dynamics: 1) growth in manifest needs; 2) labour productivity growth; 3) the pursuit of economic rents. Lastly, we propose a novel, sector-led framework for identifying, analysing and transforming growth dependencies. We make the case that the growth dependency of the welfare state is not inevitable, but is instead the product of specific social, economic and structural factors that can be disrupted and transformed, if we can find the political will to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a strong correlation between government intervention and urban production structure in China. Particularly, the outputs of the cities partly come from the economic rent of city relational network (CRN), which is a unique regional policy and administrative hierarchy. In order to analyze the gravity flows of CRN under the nonmarket mechanism, we attempt to build a new gravity model that adopts the production sector. The new gravity produces relational data with direction, which makes it possible to use social network analysis (SNA) and overcome the endogeneity of the linear model. The empirical results show that (1) modified new gravity model can effectively capture the distribution of CRN gravity flows and the convergence of regional development in China, (2) the CRN, which especially stems from the government financial intervention, increases the share of nontradable sectors in cities, and (3) adjustment of the production sector leads to the difference of CRN gravity flows, so asymmetric flows distribution leads to the heterogeneity of regional economic performance. Cities with higher share of nontradables have relatively slower productivity growth in long-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the modern capitalism associated with superannuation and pension funds and income inequality in working in Australia. It mentions details on nationwide compulsory superannuation arrangements policy established between the Australian Labor Party governments led by Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and the leaders of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. It also mentions impact of superannuation on the labor's economic condition.

This paper characterises the conventional and the digital sector of the EU economy since the late 90s and introduces a two sector growth model which highlights structural differences between the two sectors. In contrast to conventional goods and services, digital goods and services are more easily scalable but require more upfront intangible investment. These features require consideration of fixed costs and a departure from perfect competition and raise issues about market entry. Another important dimension is the skill demand of both sectors, with the latter requiring a larger share of workers with digital skills. Since COVID-19 is expected to induce a persistent increase of demand for digital services, we use this model to estimate the likely economic impacts. We are in particular interested how the digital transition is affecting the labour market and the functional distribution of income. The paper shows how the distribution of economic rents between workers with digital skills and platforms is determined by labour supply conditions and entry barriers. This suggests that there is a role for competition policy and labour market policies to support the digital transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If preferences of households are heterogeneous, there is no guarantee that a steady state exists other than corner solutions, and only the most advantaged household will eventually possess all the capital in the economy. This is also true if economic rents are obtained persistently and unevenly among households. I examine whether this is true even if households behave not on the basis of rational expectations but on the basis of keeping the most comfortable capital-wage ratio and show that there is no guarantee in this case as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a substantial amount of literature addresses the relationship between natural resources and economic growth, relatively little is known regarding the relationship between natural resource endowment and health at the population level. We construct a 5-year cross-country panel to assess the impact of natural resource rents on changes in life expectancy at birth as a proxy indicator for population health during the period 1970–2015. To estimate the causal effects of interest, we use global commodity prices as instrumental variables for natural resource rent incomes in two-stage-least squares regressions. Controlling for country and year fixed effects, we show that each standard deviation increase in resource rents results in life expectancy increase of 6.72% (CI: 2.01%, 11.44%). This corresponds to approximately one additional year of life expectancy gained over five years. We find a larger positive effect of rents on life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) compared to other world regions. We do not find short-term effects of rents on economic growth, but show that increases in resource rents result in sizeable increases in government revenues in the short run, which likely translate into increased spending across government sectors. This suggests that natural resources can help governments finance health and other development-oriented programs needed to improve population health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policies aiming at improving biodiversity often consist of costly agri-environmental schemes, i.e. subsidized grazing or mowing of semi-natural areas. However, these practices have widely been found to be insufficient to mitigate biodiversity loss. Rewilding, i.e. restoring natural processes in self-sustaining biodiverse ecosystems, has been proposed as an alternative and is hypothesized to be a more cost-efficient approach to promote biodiversity conservation. Rewilding requires the availability of large natural areas which are not allocated for farming, forestry, and infrastructure to avoid potential conflicts over the use of the area. We perform an ex-ante private cost–benefit analysis of the establishment of four large nature reserves for rewilding in Denmark. We analyse the economic effects of changing from summer grazing in nature areas in combination with cultivated fields and forestry to the establishment of nature reserves in four case areas. We consider two scenarios involving conversion of agriculture and forestry areas into natural areas in combination with either extensive year-round cattle grazing or rewilding with wild large herbivores. In two case areas, it appears possible to establish large nature areas without incurring extra costs. Additionally, rewilding further reduces costs compared to year-round cattle grazing. Two opposing effects were dominant: increased economic rent occurred from the shift from summer grazing to year-round grazing or rewilding, while cessation of agriculture and forestry caused opportunity costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dependence of oil production in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region may have environmental consequences. This research explores the nonlinear effects of oil rents and the economic growth of six GCC countries on their per capita CO2, CH4, N2O, and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, considering spatial linkages through 1980–2014. We apply fixed effects (FE) and corroborate the spatial dependency in all estimated pollution models. Spatial Durbin model (SDM) is utilized to estimate the direct and spillover effects. We find the inverted U-shaped relationship of economic growth with CO2, CH4, N2O and GHG emissions, and of oil rents with CH4 and GHG emissions. Monotonic positive effects of oil rents on CO2 emissions and U-shaped relationship between oil rents and N2O emissions are also found. Urbanization has positive effect on the CO2, CH4 and GHG emissions and has negative effect on N2O emissions. Financial market development (FMD) has negative effects on all types of investigated emissions. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has negative effects on CO2 and N2O emissions. Energy use has positive effects on CO2 and N2O emissions. Further, the neighboring spillover effects of economic growth, oil rents, urbanization, FDI, energy use and FMD are found statistically significant for some investigated emissions. Hence, oil rents, energy use, urbanization and economic growth are responsible for environmental degradation of home and neighboring countries in the GCC region, and we recommend implementing tighter laws to protect the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]