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Over the last few years, many factors have transformed the automotive supply chain in Europe. This paper addresses some of the issues that challenge this supply chain and discusses artificial intelligence’s implementation benefits, such as the elimination of bottlenecks, gaining an advantage on the procure-to-pay system of the automotive supply chain, and the automatic read of invoices. Qualitative methodology was used to analyse the information gathered within this study, using in depth literature review and checking important releases on this subject in scientific papers available, focusing also on the Audi case study that shows real application of artificial intelligence technology into their manufacturing process and the opportunities to further apply this in Europe. Major changes in European automotive supply chains are underway as a result of the adoption of artificial intelligence, not only solves existing problems but calls for advanced algorithms to be developed to meet new demands. The implementation of artificial intelligence needs to follow ethics, and in some cases needs human supervision. The use of artificial intelligence has both advantages and disadvantages. Some are analysed in this article and the important role of Germany as a pioneer in using artificial intelligence effectively in the automobile industry is emphasized by a case study on Audi.

Objective: to describe certain structural changes in industry influenced by digitalization.Methods: general scientific, abstract-logical, dialectical, phenomenological methods, observation, and description.Results: the general statistical characteristics of digitalization in the processing industry are shown, based on the meta-analysis by HSE and Rosstat; two directions of structural changes in industry influenced by digitalization are identified: the growing digital maturity and increased use of the Russian solutions in the field of software and information-telecommunication technologies in general, including the respective equipment; and digitalization of communication processes in the field of sustainable development. Two technological features of industry digitalization are identified, namely: the platform nature and the use of the Russian technological solutions for further industry digitalization.Scientific novelty: it is proposed to consider the digital maturity indicators as an integral indicator of the development of a homogeneous group of economic agents; two directions of structural changes in the industrial sector among medium-tech industries are shown: firstly, the digital maturity growth and the increased use of the Russian solutions in the field of software and information-telecommunication technologies equipment; secondly, digitalization communication processes in the field of sustainable development.Practical significance: the clarification of the interrelationships between the processes of digitalization and industrial development will not only allow a more structured approach to the development of industrial policy research programs for medium-tech industries, but will also create a basis for deepening existing knowledge in this area (which can be used both in industrial companies themselves and in regional, federal, and international projects on digital transformation).

The aim of the study was to identify the key trends in the structural development of industrial production in the regions of the Russian Arctic. Based on the share of industrial activity in the gross value added, the total volume of investment in fixed capital, and the number of employees, the authors analyzed structural shifts and assessed changes in the structure of industrial production in nine regions that are fully or partially located in the Russian Arctic. To quantitatively measure structural transformations, we used indices such as the structural shift mass, the index of the difference between two structures (Ryabtsev index), and the quadratic coefficient of absolute structural shifts (Kazinets index). The study found that over the period 2005–2020, the main trend in the structural transformations of industrial production in the regions of the Russian Arctic was the growing economic dominance and investment attractiveness of industries associated with the extraction of minerals. It is shown that the pace of structural shifts in the industry of the Arctic regions had a clear dependence on the phase of the economic cycle: during crises, the deviations of the shares of structural elements in all the structures under study increased markedly compared to the subsequent periods of economic activity. This dependence confirms the significant transformational impact of geopolitical and geoeconomic processes on the existing system of economic activity in the Arctic, indicating the need for further research on this topic in light of the recent large-scale crises of 2020–2022. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the use of multiple parameters that allow for assessing the scale of structural transformations taking place in the industrial production of Arctic regions more fully and deeply. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of using the results in developing regional strategies and programs for the socioeconomic development of the Arctic.

The article is devoted to assessing the prospects for the life of the main sport — athletics, which in itself is extremely important, which had a good reputation in the past, many Olympic champions, world records, outstanding coaches, advanced methods and practices for training athletes of the highest sportsmanship category. In recent years, a number of serious violations and doping scandals have led to the fact that Russian athletics has found itself on the sidelines of world sports and has lost the opportunity for full development in connection with the announced sanctions. The purpose of the material is the authors’ attempts to study the recent past of the development of Russian athletics look into the near future and assess the real prospects for overcoming the deepest systemic crisis. The goal determined the tasks, object and subject of applied research within the framework of this article. The presence of a satisfactory information base, literature support on the topic, detailed reviews from the media made it possible to properly organize the study of phenomena and events, to involve statistical methods of analysis and the theory of structural shift. And also draw the necessary conclusions, give the author’s recommendations regarding the way out of the current impasse, which has humiliated the dignity of both Russian sports and the Russian state. In particular, we are talking about strict compliance with the requirements of the so-called road map, developed jointly with the Russian side by international organizations IOC, World Athletics, WADA and CAS.

Context: Treeline-ecotone spatial patterns and their dynamics reflect underlying processes. Changes in ecotone pattern may reflect changes in natural drivers or land-use practices. However, characterizing these dynamics presents a major challenge, limiting our ability to map, understand and predict changes in the upper limits of mountain forests. Objective: This paper proposes a new method using multiple pattern dimensions to describe treeline-ecotone spatial pattern shifts. This standardized protocol should be able to (i) distinguish different types of treeline-ecotone patterns within a large study area, (ii) characterize temporal pattern shifts in spatial pattern between two or more dates. Method: We mapped alpine treeline ecotones (ATE) at 648 sites in the eastern French Pyrenees using aerial images from ~ 1955 and ~ 2015, identifying forest and non-forest areas at the hillslope scale. Extracted patch metrics were summarized using a Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and spatial pattern change was quantified from the shift in the PCA space and compared to elevational shifts. Results: Three clusters of patterns were distinguished: diffuse, discrete and island-forming ATEs. Between 1955 and 2015, about half of the sites changed from one pattern cluster to another. Shifts into discrete ATEs were associated with smaller and negative elevational shifts, while shifts into diffuse ATEs coincided with the highest positive elevational shifts. Conclusion: The proposed method allows a standardized and repeatable quantification of vegetation pattern change in alpine treeline ecotones based on historical aerial imagery. Seeing the importance of treeline-ecotone shifts for alpine biodiversity, we encourage the use of this protocol to better understand treeline dynamics at treelines globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study divides health care expenditures into observable effects and structural shifts to explore the impacts of population ageing and high technology on the growth in outpatient service, inpatient service, and prescription drug expenditures in a health care system that has experienced a shift in payment schemes from a cost-based to a global budget system. By using the quantile decomposition method to examine data from Taiwan, the study shows that, in the short run, all expenditures exhibit an increasing trend in the higher percentiles. In the long run, an observable effect dominates the growth of health care expenditures. Specifically, population ageing leads to the growth of prescription drug expenditures in the higher percentiles. The adoption of high technology drives the growth of the top outpatient and inpatient service expenditures. These results suggest that while the government health care agency aims to control health care expenditures, improving the management of high-cost patients is likely to be one important avenue to improving the effectiveness of the cost control policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes in the sectoral and spatial structure of the world’s mining industry that occurred the period during 1980–2019 in the conditions of post-industrial development of the world economy are considered. The relevance of the study is dictated by the global process of dematerialisation of the economy under the influence of scientific and technological progress and the transition of world production to the principles of sustainable development, which causes not only a change in the role of the mining industry in the structure of the economy, but also entails a qualitative transformation of its spatial structure. On the base of calculations of indices characterising the intensity of dynamics, structural shifts and the spatial concentration of the volumes of mineral raw materials extraction with the subsequent interpretation of their values, the key trends in the development of the mining industry and the features characteristic of its constituent sectors, including the extraction of coal, oil, natural gas, iron ore, bauxite, copper, potash and phosphate rock were identified. The result of the conducted research is the revealed features of the mining industry development in the post-industrial period, which consist of positive dynamics of its functioning, stabilisation of the sectoral structure and strengthening of the positions of developing countries and individual regions in the extraction of mineral resources. The obtained results allow us to assess the features of processes taking place in the primary sector of the world economy at the present stage of development and the role of individual countries and regions in the mining industry of the world.

Despite the significant amount of denim waste and its potential as a cellulose source, its use has been neglected. This study uses N -methyl morpholine-N-oxide, an eco-friendly solvent, to dissolve denim (including 100 % cotton) and create a denim film. Achieving a 10 % denim record solubility, a cellulosic film was also fabricated for comparison. Characterisation techniques were applied, and molecular dynamics simulations explored intramolecular interactions and the influence of indigo dye on dissolution process. FTIR spectra indicated no chemical reactions during dissolution and regeneration, though a shift in O H stretching suggested a change in crystallinity, confirmed by XRD results showing decreased crystallinity and a structural shift from cellulose I to cellulose II. 13C NMR analysis revealed disruptions in interchain hydrogen bonds after regeneration. TGA results showed lower decomposition temperatures for both films compared to the powders. Testing mechanical properties showed the denim film had higher elongation at break but lower tensile strength than the cellulose film. MD simulations indicated indigo dye did not significantly affect fundamental interactions but decreased denim solubility by reducing the diffusion coefficient. Rheological tests supported the simulation results, showing higher viscosity and molecular weight for the denim solution compared to cellulose. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and increased volatility of global markets, as well as increased competition, lead to the need for the business community to create new sustainable business models that are less susceptible to the negative effects of globalization. The sustainability of business models is determined by the effective use of resources: natural, material, financial and intellectual. The result of the transformation is the transition to network interaction and the formation of ecosystems of suppliers, partners, consumers and competitors around the business sphere. The main conclusions of the research paper are reduced to the need to achieve a comprehensive development of the digital economy, taking into account the interrelationships of economic processes and structural transformations. In this regard, the analysis of the relationship and principles of structural shifts in economic processes against the background of digital transformation becomes particularly relevant.

The article discusses the possibility of including in the format of performing independent tasks as in the development of educational programs of higher education in the system distance learning, and during the period of coronavirus infection COVID-19, forced self-isolation and limited quarantine, elements of creative analytics from the arsenal of tools of the didactic approach of the so-called activity-based comparative studies. As an example of the student's work, we chose the implementation of an independent task in the academic discipline "Economic analysis" from the section "Analysis of the implementation of the production program" in a specific production case study “Structural assortment analysis of labor intensity” of one of the economic entities representing the real sector of the national economy of the country. The article provides the author's recommendations for enhancing the creative potential of a student, for stimulating interactive work in the classroom with a teacher in the implementation of the distance learning system, with the proper execution of a workbook of observations and with the controlled formation of professional competencies of the main educational program.

The persistence ofthe negative effects of structural shift in Russian economy is manifested in its de-industrialization, reduction of global competitiveness and the threat of technological identity loss. The initiation of a positive structural shift requires the formation of an economic structural policy, the core of which will be a change in the reproductive proportions during the development ofthe innovation-and-investment interrelations between government and business. The authors analyze approaches to the formation of economic policies aimed at ensuring a positive structural shift, impeding its implementation in Russian economy, and suggest its main conceptual provisions.

A structural analysis of macrodynamics has been carried out under conditions of a deepening structural crisis and an increase in the cyclic instability of the Russian economy, taking into account world trends of the new industrial revolution and technological transition. The presence of an innovative pause, technological lag and growing contradictions gain the background of increasing recessionary tendencies has been revealed. Theoretical concepts, a scientifically based mechanism and tools for the deployment of innovative technologies, their transfer and diffusion in the basic sectors of the Russian economy, as well as the launch of a mechanism for the structure formation of the newest science-intensive sectors of the economy have been elaborated and proposed.

It is important for investors to know not only the style of a fund manager in which they are interested, but also whether this style is constant or changing through time. The style of a fund manager can be estimated by the so-called style regression, and a great deal of research has been carried out to investigate the statistical properties of style regression methods. However, there has been no formal and statistically valid method to test for a change in manager style when the two typically imposed restrictions (sum-to-one and non-negativity) are jointly present in style analysis. In this study, we apply and extend the results of Andrews (Econometrica 61:821–856, 1993; Estimation when a parameter is on a boundary: theory and application, Yale University, 1997a; A simple counterexample to the bootstrap, Yale University, 1997b; Econometrica 67:1341–1383, 1999; Econometrica 68:399–405, 2000) to develop a valid testing procedure for the possibility wherein the location of any possible change does not need to be specified and the case of multiple shifts is accommodated. When our proposed test is applied to the Fidelity Magellan Fund, it is revealed that the fund's style changed at least twice between 1988 and 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of the assessment of the structural shifts in the economy of the Volgograd region due to the development of convergent technologies, innovation and technology. The development of convergent technologies is one of the factors for the transition of the economy to a new technological order. Industry structure undergoes quantitative and qualitative changes under the influence of scientific and technological progress, the development of cyclical economy and other factors. Such changes ultimately lead to structural shifts. The results of assessments of structural shifts in the economy of the Volgograd region in terms of gross value added, employment of economically active population and investment in fixed assets by economic activity are presented for the time period from 2005 to 2014. To count structural shifts in economy the author uses the index of Ryabtsev, as it has a scale of structural differences. Based on the findings, the author makes conclusions about the structural development of the region in time and as compared to the other regions in the Southern Russia. The smallest structural shifts have been obtained in terms of employment, the largest – in terms of investment in fixed assets. However, application of this index does not let to assess the degree of influence of the technological base on the development of economic system. Therefore, the author proposes to supplement the research of structural shifts by the author’s characteristic such as impulse of structural shifts, which serves as a measure of resource supply process of initiating structural shifts. Approbation of methodology for calculating impulse of structural shifts made on the basis of the Southern Russian regions with the rating on the author’s sample indicators, reflecting the state of infrastructure, innovation, human resources security, efficiency and the promotion of scientific development, amount of the costs of innovation, availability of developed regional target programs. The findings suggest that the regions of the Southern Russia have the potential of structural shifts for further movement in the direction of innovative development. Furthermore, the author calculated the coefficients of localization for detection of transformation processes in the economic structure of the Volgograd region for 2005-2014 years. This allows us to estimate the dynamics of the industry specialization.

This study tests for a structural shift in the relationship between revenues of ski lift operators and natural snow conditions. The analysis is based on time series data for the Swedish ski lift industry spanning from 1980 to 2017. Since 1970, snow depth in winter sport destinations has decreased markedly by about 5 cm per decade. Estimations based on the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model show that revenues (in constant prices) of ski lift operators are significantly positively related to natural snow conditions, given the impact of relative prices and real GDP. However, ARDL estimations with rolling windows reveal that the sensitivity of revenues from ski lift ticket sales to variations in snow depth is declining over time. For the subsamples starting at the end of 1980s onward, revenues no longer significantly depend on natural snow depth. This is likely due to the implementation of adaptation measures such as investments in snowmaking facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate validity of "Absolute Purchasing Power Parity-Absolute PPP" for 42 foreign trade partner countries including Turkey using monthly data 1994:M1-2016:M9. The PPP state that the price of a fixed basket of goods a nd services must be equal in all countries in the same currency. In this paper the PPP hypothesis has been investigated by first generation panel unit root tests, second generation panel unit root tests and panel unit root test with structural breaks for Turkish and Turkish foreign trade partners. The finding is that the PPP hypothesis is valid for the 41 countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land taxes can increase production in the manufacturing sector and enhance land conservation at the same time, which can lead to overall macroeconomic growth. Existing research emphasizes the non-distorting properties of land taxes (when fixed factors are taxed) as well as growth-enhancing impacts (when asset portfolios are shifted to reproducible capital). This paper furthers the neoclassical perspective on land taxes by endogenizing land allocation decisions in a multi-sector growth model. Based on von Thünen's observation, agricultural land is created from wilderness through conversion and cultivation, both of which are associated with costs. In the steady state of our general equilibrium model, land taxes not only may reduce land consumption (associated with environmental benefits) but may also affect overall economic output, while leaving wages and interest rates unaffected. When labor productivity is higher in the manufacturing than in the agricultural sector and agricultural and manufactured goods are substitutes (or the economy is open to world trade), land taxes increase aggregate economic output. There is a complex interplay of conservation policy, technological change and land taxes, depending on consumer preferences, sectoral labor productivities and openness-to-trade. Our model introduces a new perspective on land taxes in current policy debates on development, tax reforms as well as forest conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entering this century, structural shift of the world economy has proceeded. Developing countries in East Asia have attained outstanding growth surpassing other regions in the world for the last half century, and China today spearheads it. The growth in this region from the 1960s to 1980s was led by the newly industrializing economies such as Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. However, leading countries now change to China and others. In this paper, we try to understand the shift of the growth mechanism from NIEs model to potentially bigger market economies (PBMEs) model for the further development of the world economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]