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The current situation of the Romanian economy must be understood beginning from the analysis of the main measures of fiscal-budgetary policy applied over the last years by the public authority. In general, the Romanian fiscal policy (before and after accession) was procyclical. However, we continue by presenting some of its characteristics for the past years when we underwent the last ascending phase of the economic cycle. Actually, Romania's GDP exceeded constantly the potential level, and the demand surplus became predominant, generating inflationary pressures. Maintaining the expansionist level of the fiscal policy, in the conditions of a positive deviation of GDP, as of 2017, and opting-out regarding the structural deficit target contributed to affecting the stability of public finances, on short-and medium-term. Romania entered into an extremely difficult economic context, generated by the pandemic, with an extremely narrow fiscal space which limited a lot the possibilities of combating the effects of the pandemic. In this paper we analyzed a period limited to the year 2020, because we consider this time as marking the end of an economic cycle in a period of peace and economic calm, as another is about to begin based on the new realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the recent evolution of the electricity price of one of the East-European countries' Balancing Markets (BM) - Romania, aiming to understand the prices trend and predict them in the current economic and geopolitical context. This is especially important as the electricity producers have to allocate their output between wholesale electricity market, ancillary services markets and BM targeting to maximize value and achieve a sustainable economic development. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an AI-powered electricity price forecast using several types of standout Machine Learning (ML) algorithms such as classifiers and regressors to predict the electricity price on BM. This approach, consisting of two steps, identifies the imbalance sign and significantly enhances the performance of the price forecast. The proposed method offers valuable insights into the market participants' trading opportunities using two prediction solutions. The first prediction solution consists of averaging the results of five ensemble ML algorithms. The second one consists in weighting the results of the five forecasting ML algorithms using either a linear regression or a decision tree algorithm. Thus, we propose to combine supervised and unsupervised ML algorithms and find the fundamentals for creating optimal bidding strategies for electricity market players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological efficiency (EE) provides much reference for formulating appropriate regional economic, social and environmental policies to promote sustainable development. Interactive subsystems of economy, society and environment within EE system have been considered in this paper. By innovatively integrating the merits of two advanced economic research methods (global super efficiency network data envelopment analysis (GSE-NDEA) and panel vector autoregression (PVAR) and updating the EE evaluation indicator system by following the new features of sustainable development in the recent China, this paper comprehensively evaluates EE by drawing evidence from 3 regions in China during the period of 2011–2020, and further reveals how the three subsystems within EE system interact to achieve EE enhancement. The findings show EE and its three subsystems’ trend, the major constrains of EE development, the regional discrepancies in EE progress, and the interactions among the subsystems of economy-society-environment within the EE system in different regions of China. The policy implications are proposed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite being rich in cultural heritage, traditional handicrafts require innovation to achieve competitiveness. This study addresses the understanding of innovation in traditional handicrafts for sustainable development. The paper emphasizes the importance and potential advantages of innovation and its synergistic effect with cultural traditions leading to sustainable development. Apart of the explanation of most important issues regarding this topic, publications containing the following keywords selected for the study were identified in the WOS database. A total of 500 different publications from 1975 to 2021 were identified. The database was used for text-mining analyses. The clustering method (data mining) was used. The systematic literature review was carried out with the use of VOSviewer software. This tool was used to identify and analyse clusters and dominant research areas and to identify potential new research directions. This has never been done by any author before. We show that future studies should focus on the issue of measuring incremental innovation in cultural creative industries, especially handicraft since this topic is not enough analysed in the literature. The findings can help academics and practitioners to improve the knowledge about the topic and concentrate on identified priority areas to fulfil the assumptions of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The opportunity of this research topic lies in the current extremely challenging geopolitical context that has led to the outbreak of multiple crises: energy, economic, social, financial, food, etc. The European Union has thus positioned itself in the face of these phenomena by creating several instruments to manage crises and increase resilience: civil protection mechanism, integrated mechanism for political response to crises, cross-border cooperation and solidarity mechanisms, food security crisis plans, resilience measures against physical and digital risks. The paper aims to analyse the necessity of changing the regional approach across the EU under the impact of the pandemic. Specific regional socio-economic indicators for EU NUTS2 regions are analysed during 2010-2021. The main objective of this research is to quantify the regional socioeconomic and to realise comparative analysis related to three moments in time: the latest EU enlargement, the economic crisis and the pandemic. The novelty of the study was the building of a new dynamic multi-criteria model assessing the strategic perspective, which was built to offer pertinent solutions for the regional decision makers in order to ensure cohesion and sustainable development on short and medium term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the paper is to assess the level of EU countries' ability to compete in a sustainable manner and to compare these results with achievements in the area of sustainable competitive position. In the paper, the definition of the new economic category - sustainable competitiveness and its main components: sustainable competitive capacity and sustainable competitive position, as well as these new terms' measurement proposal were presented. The study is also an attempt to the exploration of relationship existing between those categories. For this purpose, the selected statistical methods were applied. The taxonomic measure of development as well as the correlation coefficients, were used to measure the multilevel relationship between those considered areas. Until now, those categories were presented only in the context of examining the countries' ability to compete sustainably. However, the aspects of sustainable competitive position have been completely ignored. That's why it should be emphasized that this kind of investigation is a novelty in the area of sustainable competitiveness. The research results confirmed the existence of relationship between the various areas that consist to the holistic concept of sustainable competitiveness. These relationships are not always strong though and this is the crucial fact for further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trend of market-oriented land transaction scheme and the optimal allocation of land resources have become two important components of ecological sustainable development. However, the relevance of analyzing effects of land marketization on ecological and environmental development cannot be overemphasized. The ecological and environmental effects of land marketization are the focus of this paper. We begin by developing a theoretical framework to investigate how land marketization affects eco-efficiency. Moreover, we develop a data envelopment analysis model to measure eco-efficiency. We empirically investigate the effect of land marketization on eco-efficiency using a data set of 251 cities in China over the period of 2003 to 2018. Both theoretical and empirical results show that the land marketization exerts positive effects on eco-efficiency. Specifically, a 100% increase in land marketization level leads to a 2.4 percent increase in eco-efficiency. The heterogeneous effects and spatial effects of the land marketization on eco-efficiency are also examined. Besides, the endogeneity issues are also discussed using instrumental variable approach. Finally, the mechanism analysis shows that land marketization improves eco-efficiency primarily through improving efficiency change, best practice change and technology gap change, respectively. The main conclusions are confirmed by several robustness checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since China is facing a complicated international situation and sustainable development requirement at the same time, this paper examines the effects of external uncertainty, international sanctions, on green innovations by adopting the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation for 30 provinces (autonomous region and municipalities) from 1997 to 2019. We employ green inventions as the dependent variable and 5 indicators of sanctions (including unilateral, plurilateral, multilateral, economic, and intensity) as the main explanatory variables alternately. For further robustness tests, we use substitution variable green utility models, adopt sub-samples in different regions, change the empirical methodology, and add omitted variables. We also examine the mechanism effects of three possible channels. The conclusion is that plurilateral and economic sanctions both present significant negative impacts on green innovations, whereas China was not affected by unilateral or multilateral sanctions during the sample period. GDP, interpersonal globalization, and environment are proved to be the possible channels through which sanctions affect green innovations. Our research findings should assist Chinese-listed companies suffering from sanctions to make better responses on their way to green innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current economic, social and political context, maintaining a stable trajectory of sustainable development, and thus achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, must be the central objective of every European country. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the level of achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Portugal, given that there were no similar published studies. The data used in the research was compiled from European Statistical Office - Eurostat, from 2007 until the most recent reports, and were processed and interpreted based on dynamic indices and time series forecasting (ARIMA model). Research results predict 57.50% achievement of the SDG targets, placing Portugal in the ranks of EU countries with high performance in terms of sustainable development and transition to a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-innovations comprise new or modified processes, techniques, practices, systems and products allowing environmental harms to be avoided or reduced. They are employed in order for specific social and environmental objectives to be achieved, hence their environmental, social, and institutional significance relating to the achievement of long-term sustainable growth patterns. As a consequence, eco-innovation has great amount of focus from many countries. Adding to the current literature which focuses mainly on the drivers and effects of eco-innovation in the context of developed and developing countries, this paper tries to find an answer to the question about the absolute ß-convergence of eco-innovation. We also consider the spillover effects in the analyses. Our sample consists of 38 countries and relates to the years 2012-2017. We apply the spatial panel models to verify the research hypotheses. The results confirm that there is the absolute ß-convergence in the sample countries. Moreover, we find evidence of positive spillovers of eco-innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable supplier selection plays an important role in sustainable supply chain management operations and implementation. In this paper a novel formal modeling approach is conceptually developed and presented to address sustainable supplier selection. Grey theory and TOPSIS, a distance based multiple criteria method, are used for the integration and evaluation of sustainable supplier performance for sustainable supplier selection. From a research perspective, TOPSIS is improved to more effectively deal with grey numbers by integrating a degree of likelihood rather than converting grey numbers into crisp numbers functions, and it provides more flexible supplier rankings. This methodology strengthens the sustainable supplier selection process, and can be applied to other multiple criteria decision making problems. Illustrative calculations are made using data on sustainable supplier selection and evaluation published by Bai and Sarkis (2010). The technique is relatively accurate, matching well with results from a published grey rough set approach. The methodology easily implementable with minimal complex calculations required. It can also provide support for sustainable supplier selection, benchmarking, and improvement decisions. This is one of the first papers to integrate a broad set of sustainability factors for grey-based TOPSIS and supplier selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an overview of the history and achievements of trans-border cooperation in the Lithuania-Germany-Poland triangle in planning instruments in Construction Management, decision-making theory, application of Operational Research, and Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods in Civil Engineering and sustainable development. The cooperation and results of the Colloquiums with 35 years of tradition, their multidimensional nature is underlined. The research instruments, methods, studied phenomena are reviewed and characteristic applications in engineering and economics are presented. The knowledge and combined efforts of three academic centers have created a synergy which set in motion many original methods and spectacular implementations. The Colloquium calendar and the evolution of organizational forms are presented along with the inclusion of the informal EURO Working Group on Operations Research in Sustainable Development and Civil Engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficiency of the banking sector, particularly in developing countries, has captivated the attention of various researchers. Contributing to this issue, we present the results of in-depth analysis of the efficiency of Serbian banks during the period 2005-2016. Unlike previous papers evaluating the efficiency of South-Eastern European banks, we emphasize the importance of applying weight restrictions in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The aim is to incorporate every aspect of a decision-making unit's performance to avoid misevaluation of a bank's efficiency. As a possible remedy to the issue, a bootstrapped I-distance is suggested as a statistically sound framework for determining weight bounds in the Global Assurance Region (GAR) DEA model. In terms of average efficiency, the banking sector of Serbia exhibits an improving trend over the period analyzed. The results show how banks can be evaluated when the impact of all the operating inputs and outputs are properly factored into the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regional financial center is the propeller of regional economic development. Regional financial center modernization, however, has been the predominant propulsion of economic sustainability. Decisions related to regional financial center modernization development are inherent problems of multiple attribute decision-making (MADM), and strategically important to the government. The purpose of this paper is to set up a regional financial center improvement model for modernization development, as based on a hybrid MADM model, which addresses the main causal-effect factors and amended priorities in order to strengthen ongoing planning. This paper adopts a new hybrid MADM model combined with the DEMATEL technique to construct an influential network relationship map (INRM) and determined the influential weights of DANP. Then, a modified VIKOR method using influential weights is applied to measure and integrate the performance gaps from each criterion into dimensions, as well as the overall criterion for evaluating and improving the modernization development of the regional financial center, as based on INRM. Finally an empirical case study using data from the Guangzhou regional financial center is carried out as an example to demonstrate the suitability of the proposed hybrid MADM model for solving real-world problems. The results show the priorities for improvement, as based on the degree of the effect and impact of the dimensions, as follows: first is making "government policy", second is enforcing "financial infrastructure and safety", next is formulating "financial institutions and human resources", and finally "financial service". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become the main priority across the globe due to their significant role in economic growth and propensity. However, in particular, it is not yet known how governments can achieve SDGs through non-profit organisations (NPOs) by providing financial and non-financial incentives. The present study included 263 Pakistan NPOs in a primary survey using a questionnaire. The results obtained from the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) highlight that: (i) government incentives do not directly influence community development; (ii) The government non-financial incentives have a significant direct effect on environmental activities to reduce pollution, energy consumption and waste; (iii) Resource management fully mediates the paths between government incentives and community development while partially mediates environmental activities; and finally, (iv) resource management has a favourable influence both on the goals of community development and environmental activities. This research paper contributes to the knowledge in that government incentives do not have a direct influence on social development, but has an indirect influence through efficient management. Recommendations are that government and public bodies need to support NPOs to engage actively in philanthropic activities. Similarly, NPOs should efficiently utilize and manage the resources to benefit the maximum number of poor and needy individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional economic activities induce environmental pressures. In order to ensure sustainable economic growth, one needs to decouple it from the environmental pressures. Sustainable growth of the agricultural sector is topical in the sense that economic activity supports rural populations, whereas the resulting environmental pressures may affect diverse groups of population. Thus, the analysis of water footprint related to crop farming is important in the sense of efficient resource use and sustainable development of agriculture in general. In this paper, we focus on Lithuanian crop farming and the related green and grey water footprints. Specifically, we decompose the changes in the water footprints during 2000-2016 by exploiting the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index. Due to the expansion of the areas harvested, the scale effect appeared as an important driver of growth in green and grey water footprints. The shifts in spatial distribution of area harvested virtually had no influence on the dynamics in either of the water footprints. The crop-mix effect was much higher for the grey water footprint (51% over the period of 2000-2015) than it was the case for the green water footprint (21%). The yield growth induced growth in both green and grey water footprints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to analyze the importance of renewable energy and to assess the progress made by Romania comparing to European Union and to targets set by Community institutions. We consider that both economic issues such as job creation or reduction of import dependency, but also ecological issues including reducing greenhouse gas emissions are important in discussions about renewable energy in rural areas in Romania. By using linear regression it has been identified a strong correlation in Romania, for period 2004-2014, between share of renewable resources in gross final energy consumption and import dependency. Taking into account that energetic independence is a problem of great importance for each country, the paper aims to identify unused renewable energy potential in rural areas and also opportunities for developing renewable energy sector based on the resources that can be exploited with high efficiency, action that will generate economic and social positive effects. Our results reveal that Romania has a high development potential of rural areas using renewable energy because Romania has a high volume of renewable resources (sun, wind, water). Under these circumstances it is necessary to adopt the policies in order to support projects referring to these types of energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to establish the plausibility and the dynamic nexus between financial developments, economic growth and tax revenue in Malaysia. The analysis of these relationships is vital considering the instability of the global economy which has affected growth. In this study, we employed annual time series data covering the period of 1970-2015. Using advanced co-integration and causality analysis, we found strong evidence on the relationship between each of the examined variables. The results from this study provide evidence on the taxes-growth nexus for Malaysia. An inverted U-shaped relationship is found between financial development and tax collection, while a U-shape reflects the economic condition. The nexus between economic growth and tax revenue enhances fiscal policies in the creation of transparent and mature financial systems which will further boost the collection of government revenues in Malaysia. The results of this study may provide an avenue for researchers and policymakers to understand the nature of the relationship between the examined variables and further assist in the formulation of new policies for economic sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the extensive research on sustainability dimensions, the researcher has not completely addressed all the dimensions of sustainability. Most of the times, sustainability is considered as a whole variable, however, the work on separate dimensions is lacking in the literature. Particularly, human sustainability is rarely addressed by the previous studies. Additionally, various dimensions of sustainability such as social, economic, environmental and human is rarely tested in relation to the organizational resilience. Therefore, to fill this gap, this study considered to examine the role of organizational resilience in social sustainability, economic sustainability, environmental sustainability and human sustainability in a sample of FMCG employees. The study used non-probability snowball sampling to collect data from managerial level employees. Data analysis is carried out by using SPSS. Findings identified that; organizational resilience has influential role in various dimensions of sustainability. The focus of the policymakers on organizational resilience can increase the socio-economic and environmental sustainability. The operational efficiency can strengthen the relationship between organizational resilience and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited export potential can impede growth prospects. While core regions serve as hubs of globalization, the question remains as to how rural regions can increase their exports. By identifying the factors that enhance the export competitiveness of rural regions, particularly in comparison to urban regions, we can steer them towards sustainable development and overcome constraints related to remoteness. However, there is no simple or shortcut way of increasing exports in rural regions. It still requires long-term investments, improvements in human capital, inflows of foreign-owned entities, and advantageous operations of special economic zones. Social capital has a positive impact on exports at the regional level, but its effect could not be acknowledged in the subsets of regions. What should rural regions prioritise? Investing in human capital and promoting non-agricultural economic activities that have a greater impact on rural exports than urban ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extensive adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) has increased the carbon footprint on a large scale across the globe. To handle this challenge, scholars and policymakers are making efforts to propose novel energy-efficient solutions to provide a desirable environment for green-IoT (G-IoT). Additionally, further research is required to analyze the G-IoT-related challenges to elucidate the difficulties of its implementation for researchers. Moreover, the G-IoT requirements have been considered in different network levels, namely software, hardware, architecture, communication. To present a comprehensive framework to identify the challenges of G-IoT, a survey using literature review and expert's opinion is carried. Total 23 challenges are taken to evaluate and implement G-IoT technologies towards sustainable development achievements (SDA). Consequently, this article aims to rank and evaluate the challenges to implement the G-IoT towards the SDA. An integrated approach is proposed with stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and additive ratio assessment (ARAS) under Pythagorean fuzzy sets. As a result, an machine-to-machine (M2M) standardization protocol with a weight value of 0.0508 has the first rank, followed by adaptation to natural energy sources with a weight value of 0.0479, information security and privacy protection with a weight value of 0.0469, and internet protocol version-6 (IPv6) for low-end devices with weight 0.0467. To validate the proposed method, sensitivity analysis and comparison using existing methods have been conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development goals, particularly number 7, clearly urges economies over the globe to multiple their efforts in order to improve efficiency. Although witnesses stressed out the importance of energy efficiency and claimed that when it is improved drastically, it triggers economic growth, however, the reported evidences to support the claim are mixed. In BRICS scenario, economies are experiencing the change from high-speed growth to high quality growth, due to which it is equally important to look into green investment as it is an essential tool to build high quality economic growth. Although green investment targets energy conservation as well as ecological deficit as it main goal. However, limited literature claims that it affects economic growth as well. Thus, the present study aims to assess green investment, energy efficiency, and economic growth (EG) and their impact on economic freedom index of the BRICS countries. Methods of Moments-Quantile-Regression (MMQR) approach is applied to explore the association between the understudy constructs in the time span of 2001-2020. Interestingly, it is revealed that green investment, energy efficiency and renewable energy are positively related with economic freedom index of the BRICS countries. With the evidences, the study proposes a conclusive remark to spur development across the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of various factors on the level of non-performing loans (NPL) and, to determine the moderating role of efficiency on the relationship between different factors and NPL in China. The current study addressed four important factors to examine the role in relation to the NPL. These factors include; return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), economic sustainability and political instability index. Furthermore, the moderating role of efficiency is addressed between these factors and NPL. Secondary data is used in this study to consider the empirical results. Secondary data related to ROA, ROE, economic sustainability and political instability index is collected from different sources. Consistent with the literature, we found significant effect of ROA, ROE, economic sustainability and political instability index on NPL. Banking sector of China is majorly influenced by these factors due to the effect on NPLs. Furthermore, the efficiency has contribution to the NPLs as moderating variable. Results of this study are helpful for the management of banking industry to resolve various issues related to NPLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is a perspective on economic progress that takes into account the equilibrium among social, economic, and environmental elements. This implies that endeavours aimed at development should guarantee the satisfaction of present generations' requirements while safeguarding the capacity of future generations to fulfil their own necessities. In the context of an aging society, sustainable development involves providing solutions, services, and technologies that address the needs of older people while also minimizing negative impacts on the environment and future generations. The aim of this article is to identify, analyse and evaluate technologies that improve the quality of life of older people without compromising the well-being of future generations from ecological, social, ethical and other perspectives. Technologies that enhance the quality of life for older people are often referred to as gerontechnologies in the literature. The article identifies and then selects 3 gerontechnologies that can improve the quality of life of older people while remaining sustainable. Further, 42 criteria for evaluating gerontechnologies were identified. These gerontechnologies were then evaluated by potential users. A ranking of gerontechnologies was further developed. CAWI and CATI methods were used in the survey. The SAW method was used to build the ranking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible for the imposition of environmental regulation to develop the textile industry? Is it possible to balance quality and efficiency with energy conservation and emission reduction and achieve the sustainable development of the textile industry? The main objective of this study is to analyze the effects of the environmental regulation on industrial agglomeration and industrial efficiency within the textile sector. The findings reveal that, first, environmental regulation has significantly facilitated the agglomeration of the textile industry to regions with less stringent environmental standards. The restructuring and optimization of domestic value chains have also been promoted. Second, environmental policies in the process of the promotion of the industrial agglomeration are accompanied by a significant improvement in industrial efficiency. This improvement has contributed to the achievement of sustainability goals in the textile domain. Third, the influence of environmental regulations on industrial agglomeration and industrial efficiency improvement of the textile industry is strongly heterogeneous in terms of ownership. This impact is more significant in state-owned industries and private industries. This study holds substantial theoretical significance and practical relevance in promoting environmentally friendly and sustainable progress in the Chinese textile industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular economy (CE) is a sustainable alternative to tackle global challenges like climate change, waste, and pollution. The relations, perceptions and behaviors of stakeholders in circular economic activities may form barriers that hinder the circular transition. The promotion of CE requires investigating the interactions and information flow between CE stakeholders from a network perspective. This study revisits the applications of social network analysis (SNA) in promoting CE. Related concepts of CE and the research contents of SNA are reviewed. A bibliometric analysis is conducted to provide a bird's eye on the research status and trend. On this basis, we summarize the challenges of promoting CE and refine specific problems, around which we review the research status of network modeling methods and statistical measures, information diffusion models, mining methods of perceptions, and social influence analysis. This study outlines the pathways through which SNA contributes to promoting CE, such as through revealing the relational structure and characteristics of stakeholders, forming and changing perceptions of stakeholders, improving behaviors of stakeholders, and examining the development of CE. The lessons learned from the review and future prospects are extensively discussed in combination with the features of the information age from both theoretical and practical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development counteracts climate change and strives for a good quality of life. It is a development based on economic, social and environmental goals which should be evaluated. Environmental taxes have to ensure enterprises' development follows sustainability principles. The basis of environmental taxes is a physical unit of harmful substance emissions with a proven negative impact on the environment. The article's main objective is to assess the impact of environmental taxes (Envtax) on the sustainable development of the transportation and storage enterprises (Susd) (NACE Rev. 2: H) from 2008 to 2018. We created integrated indicators of sustainable development and its components, single-equation and multi-equation models (the OLS estimation) and Model Autoregressive Moving Average with eXogenous (ARMAX) to verify the research hypothesis. The research results indicate that energy (Entax t), transport (Trtax) and pollution taxes (Poltax) from current and previous period significantly affect the development of transportation and storage enterprises within sustainability principles (economic: Ed, social: Sd, and environmental: Envd). There is a strong variation in the strength and direction of the impact of environmental taxes on the development of the transportation and storage enterprises following sustainability principles in Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Slovenia from 2008 to 2018. The results indicate that taxes are not effectively used and that implementing reforms in the European Union in this area is the right direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As countries propose to develop their green economy strategies to achieve sustainable development goals, many researchers and practitioners have analyzed the various factors affecting this special economy and how export diversification impacts the environment. However, there is limited knowledge about the link between export diversification and the green economy. Thus, this research study explored the impact of such diversification on the green economy by considering the role of economic risk. A new dynamic panel threshold approach was applied to the global panel data of 112 countries from 1995 to 2014. The results support the U-shaped correlation between export diversification and the green economy with an increase in economic risk. Export diversification tends to weaken the green economy when economic risk is at lower levels, but it improves the economy after reaching a certain level of economic risk. We also found that the green economy has a persistent effect over time. Under all economic risk levels, the previous level of green economy development promotes current green economy development. These findings thus provide policymakers with crucial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complementary currency Zielony (PLZ) is an example of an economic experiment, operating in Poland since 2015. It is also a new type of economic tool that supports the local economy and influences the creation of sustainable local developments. However, this impact is not direct, as it is realised through a network of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the local economy, which, among other things, create jobs relevant to the economic prosperity of the region and the life of the local community. The main objective of this article is to demonstrate the relationship between the use of the complementary currency Zielony in Poland by the entities that create the system of this currency and its impact on the economy, in particular on the local sustainable development in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period of Covid-19. The main research problem is formulated in the form of a question: “What are the benefits and opportunities for the economic entities of the local economy as a result of their accession to the complementary currency Zielony system?” The article adopts the following thesis: “The complementary currency Zielony in Poland positively influences the functioning of the local economy and the economic entities that belong to the system and promotes the creation of conditions that are important for sustainable local development. However, it works best when it is not disrupted by administrative barriers and lockdowns, like those that appeared in Poland during the Covid-19 pandemic.” The analysis carried out proved the validity of the thesis and allowed to solve the main problem. The study used the method of critical literature analysis and analysis of statistical data from 2015–2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the digital economy has become a new way to respond to the epidemic impact effectively. With the innovative breakthrough of information and communication technology, the digital and real economies are deeply integrated. The digital economy has become an important driving force for the transformation of economic momentum and development. Panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2010 to 2019 were selected for analysis. In the first stage, the study constructed the evaluation index system of digital economy development. Then, the quality development index of the digital economy is calculated by using the entropy method. Finally, the main factors of digital economy development are analysed by spatial measurement. The research results prove that: (1) the development of China’s digital economy in 2010–2019 has gradually increased; (2) the development of the digital economy has a positive correlation between regions and has a spatial spillover effect; (3) the level of economic development, urbanisation, government support, industrial structure, and the level of opening will promote the development of the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments ensure majority of their revenues through taxes. If properly designed, taxation policies can be mechanisms of promoting sustainable economic development and inclusive economic growth. However, the main issue of government authorities remains achieving tax compliance among taxpayers. The question of noncompliance intersects different fields from public finance, law, ethics, and its complexity presents a challenge for the society in general. This study aims to examine the influence of chosen economic and psychological determinants on tax compliance. In order to identify the determinants of taxpayers' behaviour, a total of 862 questionnaires were administered and collected directly from Croatian taxpayers. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyse the survey data. The results suggest that social norms and tax morale influence taxpayers' compliance significantly. Overall, findings of this study contribute to the better understanding of tax compliance and its determinants in the context of a genuine paradigm shift in the field. This emphasizes the importance of including and exploring psychological determinants in tax compliance analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing complexity and intertwining of different socio-economic issues both in individual countries and internationally mean that single-theme analyses do not consider all the relationships and thus have cognitive limitations. Therefore, studies that combine several research areas are increasingly common in the literature to clarify the connections and relationships. In this study, considering the sequential nature of the stages, a combined analysis of eco-efficiency, eco-innovation, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was performed. The analysis was carried out for 27 European Union countries in 2017-2019. Dynamic Network SBM and Dynamic Divisional Malmquist Index were used for the study. The research results show that the EU countries achieve relatively higher efficiency results in eco-innovation and SDG than ecoefficiency. The average overall efficiency level for all EU countries was only 0.63. The change in productivity was influenced by both the frontier shift and catch-up effect, but only with regard to eco-efficiency and eco-innovation. At the same time, the frontier-shift effect did not affect the change in SDG productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article was to build a model based on fuzzy logic describing the level of sustainable development for the individual EU Member States in 2009--2019 and to conduct fuzzy simulations as a result of which scenarios for the prediction of sustainable development acknowledging financial variables (the share of environmental taxes, a deficit, a debt). The original research approach is expressed by including fuzzy models in the analysis of the level of sustainable development with the inclusion of financial variables. The Netherlands achieved the highest value (the highest level of sustainable development) (0.571). Slovenia (0.564) and Denmark (0.559) came second and third. The lowest average value (the lowest level of sustainable development) was recorded for Slovakia (0.423). After 10 years there are evident changes in the distribution of individual typological groups. In 2019, the countries belonging to the first and second typological groups were located primarily in the northern and central Europe. The scenario analysis showed that in the case of most countries, if the analyzed variables remained at the maximum or minimum level throughout the analyzed period, it would not significantly affect the assessment of their level of sustainable development, their ranking positions, and inclusion into typological groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic freedom indicators create a beneficial and suitable guide and a crucial reference for investors, policymakers, lenders, and market researchers worldwide. In light of these indicators, the economic freedom performances of countries can be determined. The Heritage Foundation annually releases a ranked list of the country based on their performance in terms of fourteen economic freedom criteria with equal weights through a simple aggregation approach. According to an average-based aggregator, equal weight of economic freedom criteria and calculating rank of countries cannot be a completely reliable approach. Thus, this work establishes a composite index system in the form of a decision support system that employs the method based on the removal effects of criteria (MEREC) and the double normalization-based multi-aggregation (DNMA) to specify the economic freedom levels of the OPEC countries. MEREC obtains the importance weights of indicators without the interference of any stakeholder or decision-makers. Afterward, DNMA, as a novel ranking multi-criteria method, is applied to sort countries based on their performance against all economic freedom criteria. This is the first attempt in the literature to calculate the index of economic freedom utilizing an integrated multi-criteria decision support model. Whereas "investment freedom" is the most significant indicator of economic freedom, the UAE is in the best position in terms of economic freedom among OPEC countries. A fourphased sensitivity control is also performed so as to verify the robustness and usefulness of the developed decision tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately grasping the structural characteristics and influencing factors of green development spatial association are significant for green coordinated development and ecological civilization construction in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). This study evaluates the GBA's green development performance from 2015 to 2019 based on duality theory, and uses social network analysis to explore the structural characteristics and evolution of the green development spatial association network, and then uses the exponential random graph model to reveal the influencing factors of network formation. we find that: (1) the GBA's green development is steady. Its spatial association network became increasingly complex, and tends to be tight. (2) As important hubs, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong have the dominant positions in the GBA's green development spatial association network. Huizhou, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, and Macao are at the edge of the network, and their interoperability with other cities is relatively weak. (3) Four subgroups exist in the GBA during different periods, with obvious gradient characteristics between them, and the multilevel transmission mechanism of the green development network gradually forms. (4) Economic development and urbanization level, ecological environment endowment, and geographical, institutional, and industrial proximity all have significant impacts on the formation of the GBA's green development spatial association network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable medical supplier selection (SMSS) is an important issue facing the medical industry in the context of sustainable development, which can be regarded as a typical multi-attribute group decision making (MAGDM) problem. In the MAGDM process, linguistic term set (LTS) is particularly natural and convenient for decision makers (DMs) to express evaluation information. Especially, probabilistic linguistic term set (PLTS) is a very critical and effective tool, which can reflect the importance of different linguistic terms. Due to the different preferences and experience of different DMs, they may use multi-granularity probabilistic linguistic term sets (MGPLTSs) to represent different linguistic information. In this article, in order to study the comparison method of MGPLTSs, a new possibility degree formula is firstly proposed and its properties is proved. Then, in order to build a weight model, a possibility degree-based Best-Worst method (BWM) and a probability degree based-maximizing deviation method are established to calculate the subjective weights and objective weights of attributes, respectively. Where after, a MAGDM method is proposed by combining the ELimination Et Choix Traduisant la REalite (ELECTRE) method with Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) method in the multi-granularity probabilistic linguistic information environment. Finally, the created MAGDM method is applied to the SMSS, and its effectiveness and advantages compared with other existing methods are verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing interest in the circular economy, which is seen in the intensification of public discourse, could lead to a danger of blurring the concept and introducing inefficiency in implementing circular economy-based solutions. This study explores the trend in concomitant or accompanying concepts of the discussion about the circular economy themes understanding regarding scientific publications (3,486 publications from Web of Science and Scopus) and popular (non-scientific) domain (represented by 106,504 tweets) in the years 2011-2018. By employing text mining, we calculated the Jaccard similarity index divided into years. The results reveal changes over time in themes accompanying the circular economy discussion and a trend of rising recognition of research-related keywords in general public discussion, with unweighted similarity reaching 39.44% in 2018. Our Twitter keyword research perspective indicates the need to consider the consumer's role in the development of the circular economy - through keywords that are closely related to consumers' daily activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green supplier selection (GSS) is a significant part in green supply chain management (GSCM). Choosing optimal green supplier can not only realize the sustainable development of enterprises, but also maximize the utilization rate of resources and diminish the negative effect of environmental issues, which conforms to the theme of green development. As a multiple attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) issue, selecting optimal green supplier is of vital important to enterprises. However, how to select the optimal supplier for enterprises is a great challenge. To handle this issue, a novel picture fuzzy COPRAS (COmplex PRoportional Assessment) method is devised. First, some necessary theories related to picture fuzzy sets (PFSs) are briefly reviewed. In addition, a method called CRITIC (Criteria Importance Though Intercrieria Correlation) is utilized to calculate criteria's weights. Afterwards, the conventional COPRAS method is extended to the PFSs to calculate each alternative's utility degree. At last, the designed method is exacted to an application which is related to GSS and there also conduct some comparative analysis to demonstrate the designed method's superiority. The final results show that the proposed model can be utilized to decide the optimum green supplier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund reported that the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires an escalation of development finance. The report Scaling Finance for the Sustainable Development Goals highlighted the urgency of the efforts to realize SDGs in encouraging financial innovation to move quickly. Even if the role of finance in achieving SDGs is unquestionable, few scientific studies have addressed these issues. We tried to fill the existing research gap. In this study, we examined the link between sustainable finance and SDGs based on European Union countries belonging to the OECD. We present a new and the original research approach. We assumed that the sustainable finance model plays a fundamental role in implementing SDGs (all SDGs were analysed except for SDG 6 and SDG14, due to lack of statistics were not analysed) and ensuring that social and environmental sustainability are reflected in SDGs. The results of this study show that the more sustainable the finance model, the better the achievement of SDGs in the group of analysed countries. We found a strong link between sustainable finance model and social sustainability (SDG1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 16); environmental sustainability (SDG11, 12, 13, 15) and economic sustainability (SDG8, 9, 17). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union is made up of countries that differ significantly in their economic development. In order to develop tailored strategies for their development, it should be possible to quantify the condition at a desired point in particular time. Again, on this basis, the process of economic development can be quantified and thus typicalities identified. The process is characterized by several parameters: intensity, which reflects the quantitative side of the development process; homogeneity reflecting upon the qualitative side of the development process, and dynamics, integrating development intensity and homogeneity into one generalizing mean. The values of the economic development process make it possible to divide all the countries of the European Union into three levels. This distinction allows for a differentiated analysis of the effects of economic development of countries in terms of their social, environmental and other development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable consumption and production have been increasingly required in the construction industry. However, previous studies have not yet comprehensively developed evaluation tools and methods to implement sustainable consumption and production. To achieve this objective, we utilized the eco-innovation, which provides effective analysis of sustainable consumption and production for the construction firms by eliminating subjectivity and ambiguity of evaluations. We adopted the fuzzy set theory to overcome the uncertainty occurring from the judgments of experts and utilized decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory approach to analyse the causal relationships between our methods and evaluation criteria. The results showed that environment and sustainable consumption are the key factors, while life cycle assessment, eco-labels, and environmental certification as well as improving eco-efficiency are critical to realizing sustainable consumption and production. The study enhances the understanding of the major players to achieve sustainable consumption and production, and link sustainable consumption and production with the eco-innovative practices. Our approach also improves the assessment accuracy, and the results provide viable suggestions for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a consensus that farmers are subject to farm price-cost squeeze (PCS) when commodity prices fall and costs of production rise long-term. Willard Cochrane was the first to examine this phenomenon, introducing the notion that farmers are on a market treadmill. PCS is still a principle economic problem in agriculture touching farms in all over the world. It results from flexible prices but also from monopsony structures where recipients of commodities seize the opportunity of suboptimal pricing. Many studies indicate increasing retail farm price spreads but this lacks empirical studies on the effects of different types of subsidies on PCS. This work attempted to model EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) impact on PCS using the Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) production function, specified as in most CGE models. However, the authors tested the assumption of flexible prices reacting to changes in productivity. This approach is novel, while supported with an input-output analysis used to precisely decompose price and volume (productivity) effects at the level of a FADN representative farm. The results help to shape CAP shedding light on the present treadmill mechanism and showing that provision of public goods may be a remedy for market imperfections, whereas decoupled payments have the opposite influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating sustainability into the banking activity is an increasingly necessary but extremely challenging issue currently facing financial institutions. It is therefore becoming ever more important to understand the key determinants of sustainable banking and how they inter-relate with each other. This research aims to build a cognitive map - a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) in particular - to model, dynamically analyze and test the reciprocal influence of key factors underlying sustainable banking. FCMs have been shown to be particularly useful for handling complex decision problems characterized by lack of information or unavailable data. They constitute a methodological framework that allows for a reduction of omitted determinants - in this case, with regard to sustainable banking - and are typically able to provide a greater understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships between such determinants. We anticipate implications and practical applications for both bank managers and policymakers aiming to increase the efficiency of their decision making in the context of sustainable banking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of websites has an impact on the representation of a SME and can have an effect on foreign trade. Thus, developing a reliable and robust model to assess the effectiveness of SME websites is important for researchers and practitioners. The aim of the study is to propose a SME website efficiency evaluation methodology from an international trade perspective. Determining the effectiveness of websites is a multi-dimensional decision-making problem which encompasses the assessment of information quality, system quality, and service quality. The criteria and sub-criteria affecting website effectiveness were determined through literature research and expert panel assistance. AHP method was utilized to determine the relative weights of the evaluation criteria in the study. Then, fuzzy linguistic variables were adopted to rank the websites of SMEs engaged in foreign trade. The proposed evaluation model identifies key factors regarding the criteria and sub-criteria of a website effectiveness. The model can provide a helpful reference in designing useful websites which are an important task for SMEs involved in international trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge management is one of the most potent means for the improvement of Lithuanian armed forces efficiency in context of transformations. Knowledge retention is one of the knowledge management processes that is related to knowledge selection, accumulation of the organization experience, renewal of the organizational memory in order to preserve the valuable knowledge from the potential loss. In order for the Lithuanian armed forces to manage the knowledge effectively and develop - it is important to purposefully preserve the valuable knowledge. The knowledge retention management problems of the Lithuanian armed forces are classified into: human, organizational, functional, technological and technical. In order to solve the problematics of such type, the identification of the factors, that provides the premises for the complex assessment of the knowledge retention process, becomes an important factor. The purpose of the article is to identify the factors that are significant for the evaluation of the knowledge retention process effectiveness of the Lithuanian armed forces. In order to achieve the objective such methods as the analysis of the scientific literature, multiple criteria and expert assessment are employed. According to the research results most factors were attributed to the group of the organizational and knowledge content factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the causal relationship between economic growth and renewable energy consumption using data for 28 countries of European Union, taken from Eurostat database for years from 1995 to 2015. In addition, motivated by EU Directive 2009/28/EC, the tendency of the share of renewable energy consumption into the final energy consumption is analysed. Various panel data techniques implemented in EViews are used. The empirical results suggest a positive impact of renewable energy consumption on economic growth, and emphasize bidirectional or unidirectional Granger causalities between the two macroeconomic indicators, for each country in the panel. These results justify the political decisions of EU concerning the necessity of increasing the renewable energy consumption, and prove that this type of energy consumption has a strong positive impact on economic growth. Thus, the inclusion of such policies in future EU and national strategies is further motivated. Finally, by means of linear regression, an increasing trend was found for the ratio between renewable energy consumption and final energy consumption for all but one of the EU countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article macroeconomic relations of prices, productivity and incomes in Polish agriculture in the context of changes in the EU Common Agricultural Policy were studied. The authors have developed a macroeconomic model which explains these relations and confirms the occurrence of market failures in agriculture in Poland. The developed model proves the existence of a puzzling exchangeable relation between the real productivity of production factors in agriculture, and agricultural incomes, under conditions of adaptive expectations. It also proves that it is price scissors, not the efficiency of production, that have a dominating influence on incomes in the sector. The authors propose the hypothesis that correction of market mechanisms by government intervention in agriculture is an objective necessity. However, direct subsidies (area payments) do not have a correcting role, but reinforce King's effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To maximize the life-cycle economic and environmental performance of the rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system in real projects, it is necessary to consider several factors such as regional climate factors (i.e., geographical and meteorological factors) and building characteristics (i.e., onsite installation factors, rooftop area limit, and budget limit). Towards this end, this study aimed to develop the life-cycle economic and environmental assessment model for establishing the optimal implementation strategy of the rooftop PV system. The robustness and reliability of the developed model were evaluated in terms of two perspectives: (i) for the effectiveness of the optimal solution, the optimization results were generated by considering the regional climate factors and building characteristics. Namely, the results for SIR25 (saving to investment ratio at year 25), which was set at the optimization goal, were 2.540 (Busan, southern part of South Korea), 2.485 (Daejeon, central part of South Korea), and 2.266 (Seoul, northern part of South Korea), respectively; and (ii) for the efficient computation time, the time required for determining the optimal solution was only 27 seconds. The developed model can be used to easily and accurately assess the life-cycle economic and environmental performance of the rooftop PV system in the early design phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]