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This paper explores the short-run impact of work resumption, extensively launched on February 10, 2020 in China, on air quality after the subsiding of COVID-19. Utilizing the data of 1012 air-quality monitoring sites in 233 cities derived from the Real-time Release Air Quality Platform and the difference-in-differences method, we find that alternative measures of air quality index in non-Hubei provinces increase significantly, compared with those in Hubei province which was temporarily not allowed work resumption due to the severity of epidemic. Specifically, our results reveal a rise in AQI of 11.28 per cent, in PM2.5 of 12.47 per cent, in PM10 of 10.49 per cent, and in NO2 of 23.64 per cent, relative to the baseline mean. Moreover, the deterioration of air quality is found to be caused by intracity rather than intercity migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A growing body of research demonstrates that COVID-19 has had a profound impact on family functioning and well-being in a range of countries. The fear and uncertainty of the health risks, in addition to the stress from ensuing restrictions and constraints on everyday life caused major disruptions, impacting the financial, emotional, and physical well-being of adults and children alike. In this report, we summarize the current literature on the impact of COVID-19 disruption to family functioning and economic well-being as a context for this special issue. Our findings indicate that while the pandemic may have caused a reallocation of intra-familial tasks, a large gender disparity remains regarding the proportion of domestic work and childcare. The pandemic disproportionally impacted lower-income families, families from ethnic minority and vulnerable groups, and women. Finally, the financial impacts of the emergence in Spring of 2020 have strained family relationships, although the effects depend to a large extent on quality of the relationships and family well-being before COVID-19. To address the long-term bidirectional effects of the pandemic on family well-being and the well-being of the global economy calls for research that crosses disciplinary divides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Regions at the level of NUTS 3, which is a system used in the EU for various analyses and statistical reports, can be defined as functional regions in terms of labour markets, education areas, and supply markets.

Previous studies have examined how information intervention affects intergroup prejudice and conflict. On that basis, this study introduced psychological adjustment cost into a behavioral model for identity and individual attitude change. The model predicts that changes in attitude are related to an individual’s initial identity, and the same information can either change or reinforce initial attitudes. Then, we used a survey to explore whether information about migration could change the attitudes of Shanghai residents toward interregional migrants to their city. We found that after reading neutrally described information about the benefits of internal migration, the attitudes of non-native interviewees toward immigrants became more positive while those of native Shanghai residents became more negative. We also found that young, well-educated people developed more positive attitudes about immigrants after reading the information.

This paper provides an overview of the challenges of management of facilities at public universities in Africa. Results reveal that: poor condition and the overcrowding of facilities, limited skills and capabilities of facility management departments, and lack of financial resources are the main challenges which the management of facilities at public universities in Africa faces. In worse situations, these problems have adversely affected the quality of the learning and teaching environment at the institutions and also threatened their existence. Prioritization of funding for the provision and improvement of quality facilities at public universities by governments, employment of well qualified and trained staff in the facility management departments at the public universities, and creation of innovative and smarter public-private partnerships aimed at the improvement of existing facilities and provision of new ones were identified as the key solutions that can be implemented to address the challenges that public universities in Africa are facing in relation to facilities. Findings will support public universities in Africa to address challenges of management of their facilities so that they can continue to achieve their intended objectives of offering high quality higher education, research and community engagement in order to accelerate socio-economic development of their countries on the continent in the future.

The war initiated by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022 has resulted in the largest refugee migration in Europe since World War II, estimated by UNHCR (2022) at 6.3 million persons. In the first two months, almost 3.5 million war refugees crossed the Polish border, of which over 95% were Ukrainian citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic activity and innovation clusters in urban areas. Urban economics points to important knowledge and productivity spillovers in cities, in addition to other factors like thicker markets, lower transportation costs, and consumptive amenities. Yet thus far little work has analyzed how these different factors drive migration decisions of arts-related entrepreneurs, especially when they work in online platforms for fundraising. We use data on the largest US crowdfunding platform to identify relocating creators, allowing us to identify which kinds of regions are attracting and retaining more of this sort of talent. We test for the influence of clustering based on homophily, migration to larger markets, and relocation toward particular geographic amenities. Overall we find the strongest evidence for homophily and some distinct tendencies favoring certain regional amenities. Importantly, we both identify general relocation patterns among crowdfunding creatives and break down the attracting features for different types of creators. An examination of (net) migration by different categories of projects, such as musicians or filmmakers, reveals important heterogeneity in the attractors. For example, musicians are drawn stronger music sectors, while writers seek more isolation from other writers. This helps inform the interregional competition for talent and "creative class," especially among a group of relatively footloose arts- and culture-intensive entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze choice behavior of lagging region's high school graduates on locations of university and employment, by using a bivariate probit model with sample selection. This finds that the job security and the R&D investments have much significant effects on the decision to find jobs to the lagging regions for employment compared with the wage level and the job opportunity. In addition, the probability of return migration to the lagging regions could increase with a degree of closeness to the family and hometown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Functional regions are abstract, uniformly defined territorial units that form an important basis for many development strategies of a country or a region.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the main causes of discount between list price and forced sale value in the Italian real estate auction segment, in favor of more comprehensive determination of the value of mortgage underlying guarantees; this would allow for an improvement of further valorization processes of assets intended to obtain a higher selling price.

Predicting the population size of a city is one of the key tasks preceding the creation of city development plans, seeing as how urban space management should be adequate to current and forecasted economic and social trends, including demographic ones. In many cities of the world, apart from capitals and metropolises, the phenomenon of depopulation and shrinking has been observed, which is due to a decrease in the fertility rate and a negative migration balance. Apart from the inhabitants registered in the city for permanent residence, there are also people living there temporary, including students. Some graduates will decide to stay in the city, thus increasing the population of the city’s residents.

Improvement of spatial accessibility, associated with changes in the transport system, can affect the local real estate market. This is because better transport accessibility and reducing the time of a journey home affects the location-related attractiveness of real estate.