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The sharing economy (SE) has become a prominent theme in a broad variety of research domains in the last decade. With conceptions from an increasing range of theoretical perspectives, SE literature is disperse and disconnected, with a great proliferation of definitions and related terms which hinder organized and harmonious research. This study carries out a systematic literature review from 1978 to September 2020, uncovering 50 definitions as units of analysis. The authors, through a qualitative–interpretative analysis, review definitions, identify perspectives, and critically assess their conceptual nature on an evolutionary basis. Findings show that despite the SE has been extending its routes and approaches, it is far from a stock of conceptual grounds. The paper makes three contributions. First, we portray SE within a common evolutionary framework by developing it as a life cycle model. Second, we clarify the definitional and terminological jungle. And third, we suggest a new definition that can enrich the discussion.

Background This paper has reviewed the international research on the terms “climate change” and “human migration” from 1999 to 2019. To this end, a bibliometric and a cluster analysis by fractional accounting have been carried out using two of the most important databases: Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. The research found and studied 140 documents from WoS Core Collection and 193 from Scopus. Results The results show a continual increase in the number of articles published and citations received during the whole period studied. The U.S., U.K., Germany and China have been shown to be the most productive countries and there is a predominance of North American organizations supporting and fostering research on these topics. Conclusions The main contribution of this article is the analysis of new tendencies. The trend shows a transition from concepts such as vulnerability, climate change, land degradation, refugees and security to others such as concepts such as international migration, climate justice, sustainability, human rights and disaster risk reduction. Future research in this field should address the comparison of results from research focused on human beings to a focus on other living beings.

The objective of this chapter is the analysis of the socioeconomic determinants of life expectancy at birth in European countries from 2000 to 2017 by using not only “traditional” variables such as per capita income and education but also sociocultural differences and public expenditure on social protection. The methodology employed in this chapter is Random Forest algorithm to measure the importance of certain variables which are related to life expectancy at birth. Our findings conclude that the variables with the greatest relative importance in explaining life expectancy at birth are per capita income, the variable “Area” (representative of the sociocultural differences between Eastern and the rest of European countries), the educational level of the population, and public expenditure on social protection. Contrarily, the least important variables are inflation, public environmental expenditure and unemployment. These results highlight the importance of public expenditure on social protection in the composition of public budget in order to reach health outcomes.

The framework of this chapter is the analysis of health expenditure as a variable which, from an intuitive point of view, must be positively correlated with life expectancy at birth. Traditionally, health outcomes have been studied from a macroeconomic perspective without taking into account new categories of public expenditures related to health such as social, educational and environmental protection expenditures. In consequence, the objective of this chapter is to investigate the relative importance of these public expenditures on health outcomes. The employed methodology is based on the main metrics which analyze the relative importance, by using the data of twenty-five European countries for the period 1995–2017. This study has found that social expenditure has the greatest relative importance on explaining life expectancy. On the other hand, our results show that public educational expenditure has the least relative importance. Finally, there is no evidence demonstrating the extent to which environmental expenditure contributes to improve population health.

Background: There has been a widespread debate about the overall impact of globalization on population, not just economically, but also in terms of health status. Moreover, the current health crisis is going to force governments to review the structure of the public budget to most effectively alleviate the negative economic and health effects on the population. Objective: The aim of this paper is to analyze the relative importance of globalization and the public budget composition&mdash, specifically the participation of public expenditure on healthcare, social services and environment in gross domestic product (GDP)&mdash, on life expectancy at birth in European countries during the period 1995&ndash, 2017. Methods: The Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) methodology was applied to analyze the socioeconomic determinants of life expectancy at birth. Results: Our findings show that globalization has no relative importance as an explanatory variable of life expectancy in European countries, while government expenditure on social protection is the most relevant followed by public expenditure on health, gross national income per capita, education level of the population and public expenditure on environmental protection. Conclusion: European strategies intended to impact on health outcome should spend more attention to the composition of public budget.

BackgroundGreen Infrastructure (GI) is defined as a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural spaces that provide society, in both rural and urban areas, with a large number of goods and services of great value and economic importance such as clean air and water, carbon storage, pollination or protection against the effects of climate change. Traditionally, municipalities, like other territorial units, are characterized by a series of social and economic indicators that determine their degree of local development. The objective of this article is to identify and assess, through a system of indicators, what role urban and rural municipalities in Andalusia (Spain) play in the provision and reception of ecosystem services. To this end, Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques are used and a cluster analysis is carried out to contrast the results.ResultsRural municipalities show the largest portion of GI area in the whole region. However, they show a low socioeconomic level, with high unemployment rates.ConclusionsIt can be said that the municipalities in rural areas are "ecologically" financing the entire Andalusian population. Faced with this situation, the decisions, and actions of policymakers in this region should aim at promoting measures that can restore and conserve GIs, addressing the demographic and/or socioeconomic imbalances of the region.

Background: The analysis of the problems derived from globalization has become one of the most densely studied topics at the beginning of this millennium, as they can have a crucial impact on present and future sustainable development. This paper analyzes the differential patterns of globalization in four worldwide areas predefined by The World Bank (namely, High-, Upper-Middle-, Lower-Middle-, and Low-Income countries). The main objective of this work is to estimate the effect of globalization on some economic development indicators (specifically per capita income and public expenditure on health) in 217 countries over the period 2000&ndash, 2016. Methods: Our empirical approach is based on the implementation of a novel econometric methodology: The so-called Toda&ndash, Yamamoto procedure, which has been used to analyze the possible causal relationships between the involved variables. We employ World Development Indicators, provided by The World Bank, and the KOF Globalization Index, elaborated by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute. Results: The results show that there is a causal relationship in the sense of Granger between globalization and public expenditure on health, except in High-Income countries. This can be interpreted both negatively and positively, confirming the double character of globalization, as indicated by Stiglitz.

The objective of this work is to identify and classify the relative importance of several socioeconomic factors which explain life expectancy at birth in the European Union (EU) countries in the period 2008&ndash, 2017, paying special attention to greenhouse gas emissions and public environmental expenditures. Methods: The Random Forests methodology was employed, which allows classification of the socioeconomic variables considered in the analysis according to their relative importance to explain health outcomes. Results: Per capita income, the educational level of the population, and the variable AREA (which reflects the subdivision of Europe into four relatively homogeneous areas), followed by the public expenditures on environmental and social protection, are the variables with the highest relevance in explaining life expectancy at birth in Europe over the perip.1 he peusto el correo e inciod 2008&ndash, 2017. Conclusions: We have identified seven sectors as the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions: Electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply, manufacturing, transportation and storage, agriculture, forestry, and fishing, construction, wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and mining and quarrying. Therefore, any public intervention related to environmental policy should be aimed at these economic sectors. Furthermore, it will be more effective to focus on public programs with higher relevance to the health status of the population, such as environmental and social protection expenditures.

Bilingualism was implemented in the Community of Madrid (Spain) more than ten years ago, through the incorporation of the English language in the teaching methods of certain schools. Since that time, various research projects have been carried out, with the objective of comparing the academic performance of students in bilingual schools with those in non-bilingual schools. The present paper makes use of primary education data from the Department of Education and Research for the Community of Madrid in an effort to analyze whether or not bilingualism results in the relative improvement of educational outcomes achieved in primary schools in the Region of Madrid, in Spain. More specifically, the data used is from sixth grade classrooms, given that, generally speaking, in this grade all schools give a standardized test which measures academic performance in Math, Science and Technology, Spanish Language Arts and English Language Arts. Our assessment makes use of a multinomial logit model, and includes the most common variables found in the research on the determination of educational outcomes (variables related to whether or not schools are bilingual, which is the main focus of this paper), as well as other less common variables considered to be relevant. These include absenteeism, satisfaction levels among families and students, and the percentage of students in second chance programs. The results show that bilingualism does not lower children performance in the subjects taught in English or in the subjects taught in Spanish. Academic performance in Mathematics, Science and Technology, and Spanish Language Arts is similar with respect to those schools which are not bilingual. However, results in English are significantly higher in bilingual schools when compared to non-bilingual schools.

Life expectancy at birth has become the main indicator of the performance of a country’s health system. From a causal point of view, there is a series of socio-economic indicators which affect life expectancy. The objective of this work is to determine the indicators which exhibit a unilateral or bilateral causal relationship with life expectancy, using the principal components analysis (PCA). Once selected these indicators, we will highlight, through the Dumitrescu-Hurlin version of the Granger causality test, those having a unidirectional causality relationship with life expectancy. Undoubtedly, our findings can provide suitable information which may be useful for the management of health resources from the point of view of maximizing social benefits.

This study aims to analyze the intellectual and cognitive structures of the sharing economy as a field of research. Adopting an integrated bibliometric approach of citation, co-citation, and co-word analysis, this study analyses 941 articles published on Web of Science from 1978 to 2019. Findings reveal that despite there being a latent concentration in citations distribution, the ascending and descending influence patterns discovered over time indicate a dynamic flow and healthy growth of the field. The analysis of the intellectual structure identifies four main areas of research, with hospitality and tourism being the most developed, and the journals about hospitality being the preferred channel for research into the sharing economy. Finally, for the cognitive structure analysis, in-depth strategic diagrams, thematic evolution, and trend analysis disclose some research gaps. Thus, we contribute to the sharing economy literature by inductively synthesizing, and organizing SE research, and by proposing future research directions.

Background: From a causal point of view, there exists a set of socioeconomic indicators concerning life expectancy. The objective of this paper is to determine the indicators which exhibit a relation of causality with life expectancy at birth. Methods: Our analysis applies the Granger causality test, more specifically its version by Dumitrescu&ndash, Hurlin, starting from the information concerning life expectancy at birth and a set of socioeconomic variables corresponding to 17 Spanish regions, throughout the period 2006&ndash, 2016. To do this, we used the panel data involving the information provided by the Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare (MHCSW) and the National Institute of Statistics (NIS). Results: Per capita income, and the rate of hospital beds, medical staff and nurses Granger-cause the variable &ldquo, life expectancy at birth&rdquo, according to the Granger causality test applied to panel data (Dumitrescu&ndash, Hurlin&rsquo, s version). Conclusions: Life expectancy at birth has become one of the main indicators able to measure the performance of a country&rsquo, s health system. This analysis facilitates the identification of those factors which exhibit a unidirectional Granger-causality relationship with life expectancy at birth. Therefore, this paper provides useful information for the management of public health resources from the point of view of the maximization of social benefits.

This article has reviewed the international research from the 20th century to the first half of 2019 on the terms “efficiency” and “local government”. For this purpose, a bibliometric and a cluster analysis by fractional accounting have been carried out using two of the most important databases: Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. The research found and studied 1222 documents from the WoS Core Collection and 2264 from Scopus. The results show a continuous increase in the number of published articles and citations during the whole period. It also found that the U.S., U.K, and China are the most productive countries with a predominance of North American and Asian organizations supporting and fostering researches. The principal contribution of this article is the analysis of keywords from 2011 to the first half of 2019. The trend shows a convergence on the concepts of efficiency and local government over the last few years, which are related to sustainability and natural environment. Future research in this field should address the relationship between efficiency in the allocation of local resources and the environmental sustainability of municipalities.

Green infrastructure (GI) is a nature-based solution that encompasses all actions that rely on ecosystems and the services they provide to respond to various societal challenges such as climate change, food security or disaster risk. The objective of this work is to analyze the state of the art and latest trends in research on GI related to the water cycle for the period 2002&ndash, 2019. For this purpose, a bibliometric study is carried out taking as reference the two most important scientific databases, Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. The results show that, as of 2013, there is an exponential increase in the number of publications. This is due to the fact that significant regions of the planet, such as Europe, have adopted strategies aimed at promoting the use of GI since 2013. The keyword analysis points out that ecosystem services is the most relevant concept, which shows the capacity of these infrastructures to facilitate multiple goods and services related to the water cycle. New lines of research are opened up which are based on the analysis of other elements of GI related to water, such as groundwater.

This article estimates, for the Spanish personal income tax, the elasticity of reported gross income to marginal tax rates. The identification of this elasticity has been performed using the reform approved by Law 35/2006, which came into force in January 2007. The elasticities obtained suggest the existence of important efficiency costs, with significant regional differences. The average elasticity estimated for Spain as a whole is 0.676. However, this elasticity is highly dispersed throughout the Spanish administrative regions, which indicates the unequal power of distortion of the tax. Thus, households whose principal source of income is salary display an elasticity of 0.337, compared to 0.682 for households whose main income source comes from business or savings. Lastly, a positive correlation is also detected between elasticity and income level: an elasticity of 3.6 is reached for taxpayers with an annual gross income exceeding 100 000€.

This study analyses the performance of the productivity of the main industrial subsectors composing the security and defence technological and industrial base (SDTIB) in Spain from 1996 to 2009. Accordingly, we have used the non-parametric data envelopment analysis and bootstrapping techniques to compute Malmquist productivity indexes that allow us to split productivity growth into efficiency change and technical progress. The results obtained show productivity improvement in the SDTIB as a whole due mainly to advances in technology and to a lesser extent to the contribution of technical efficiency. The bootstrap approach yields further evidence, as for many cases, productivity growth or decline, is not statistically significant. This is the first time a study of this kind has been carried out on the production process of this sector in Spain.