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A database of journal articles and conference papers that cover the economics of agricultural development in Africa during the period 2016–2020 was compiled. These papers are first described in terms of demographic and bibliometric criteria, followed by a network analysis of the main centers of origin and of influence of this research. Finally, three different processes were used to test the policy relevance of the work. These include a simple enumeration of the policy recommendations in a sample of the papers, a megatrend analysis, and a comparison of their focus with the standard narrative of the role of agriculture in economic development. The results show that a large proportion of the literature is not forward‐looking, and is weak on policy relevance. We ignore a number of issues that engage the attention of those concerned with implementing structural change in agriculture across the many very different but very real natural resource, political, social, economic, and technological environments around the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of foreign aid in stimulating economic development is a topic of intense debate in the scientific community and among policy analysts. Numerous empirical studies are devoted to investigating the impact of foreign aid on the economic growth/development of recipient countries. This study reviews the literature relevant to this debate using the bibliometric data of scholarly papers in the Scopus database. Our intention is to identify the trends of publications, their geographical distribution and the most influential journals, authors and articles in this field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are markets in developing and transition economies overregulated or under-regulated? This is a perennial question in the development discourse, but one for which answers appear to come more from preset ideology than from context- specific analysis and evidence. These issues become even more pressing when the debate turns to the links between regulation, deregulation and inequality. The recent experience of rising inequality in many countries has also brought to the fore predictable policy positions. A key aspect of labor regulation in developing countries, and one becoming more prominent in the era of rising inequality, is the minimum wage. The range of issues around regulation, minimum wage and informality was addressed by papers presented to a conference held in New Delhi on December 17-18, 2014. The conference was co-sponsored by the World Bank, UK Department for International Development, Cornell University and Columbia University. The organizers of the conference were Kaushik Basu, Stefan Dercon, Ravi Kanbur and Jan Svejnar. A selection of papers from the conference which passed the usual review procedures of the Review of Development Economics, and a further selection of papers from those submitted to the journal, form this symposium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

[ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the evolution of topics in economics and their geographical specialization by analyzing 13,233 papers from seven top journals between 1985 and 2012 and their forward citations. The share of U.S. publications declines from 75% to 64% with a corresponding increase of the European share from 12% to 24%. We use topic modeling and document the evolution of the discipline over 27 years. We estimate, with a quasi‐structural model, the citation lag distribution for 18 different topics and three large geographical areas. The modal citation lag is about 6.7 years in the entire sample and 4.8 years for citations from the top 100 journals. We quantify (1) the home bias effect in citations, (2) how it fades away over time, (3) the long lasting impact of U.S. publications vis‐à‐vis other geographical areas, and (4) the higher speed of diffusion and faster obsolescence in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the resulting spillover effects can be important for a country's development and economic growth. Using panel data from 2004 to 2019 in the Czech Republic's manufacturing industry, this paper finds the following. First, FDI firms generate positive horizontal labour effects and backward labour linkage on domestic firms. However, other hypothesized effects of FDI firms, such as horizontal and backward competition and the forward linkage of FDI, were not significant. Second, FDI firms at the mature and shakeout stage generate more spillover than those at the introduction and growth stage. There is no spillover impact on domestic firms by FDI firms at the decline stage. This is the first paper to examine the role of firm life cycle on the spillover effects of FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fifth‐generation (5G) technology is seen to be a solution for developing countries to improve their quality of services in terms of transportation, education, health, agriculture, and other fields, thereby holding the promises of economic transformation by improving productivity and the quality of life. The paper considers some of the challenges that face operators, investors, and providers when planning to introduce 5G technology to developing countries. The main focus of this paper is the 5G transport network, in particular, the backhaul network. The 5G transport network architectural options and scenarios are discussed based on several standards and previous studies, the problems of existing infrastructures of developing countries are investigated, and new proposed technologies that may help to address those challenges are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pillar 2 of the OECD's global tax reform proposal will have significant direct and indirect impacts for low‐income developing countries (LICs). Most interesting and problematic is the question as to how the global anti‐base erosion (GloBE) rules for a proposed global minimum effective tax will affect tax competition behaviour in LICs, and how LICs should respond when a critical mass of higher‐income economies adopt the new structure. Most LICs are source‐only countries, and they are very much in competition to attract foreign direct investment. Do LICs want to continue to compete using the tax system to the extent possible, to step back from that competition, or to take some intermediate course? Pillar 2 does not itself change a country's desired position on the competition spectrum – it merely affects how, and to what extent, that position can still be obtained. This paper posits that LICs should adopt qualified domestic minimum top‐up taxes, and that this will not itself have a negative impact on their competitiveness. The primary focus of the paper, however, is on the design of the substance‐based income exclusion (carve‐out), examining the following three questions. Should the GloBE have been designed without a carve‐out? Would there have been a better way of designing it? How will LICs be affected? The paper concludes that, as little real advantage is likely to accrue to LICs from intangible assets, minimising tax competition for those assets will have relatively little impact on them; and that, from an economic efficiency standpoint, shifting the tax burden away from a normal return and toward economic rents – albeit imperfectly – is a reasonable solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of issues of development and modernisation of the existing structure of economy is central to the scientific activity of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The purpose of the study is to consider the trends in the development of the economic system in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study used methods of analysis and synthesis of information, the comparative method, induction and deduction and analysis of research papers, which is relevant to the subject matter. The conclusions were drawn that the modernisation and development of the economy of Kazakhstan is a complex step‐by‐step process, which includes: mastering the manufacturing of modern products; renovation of production equipment; organic integration into the latest world innovation processes; requalification of people. The practical significance of the study is that it can be used by theorists and practitioners to investigate the development of the economic system in the Republic of Kazakhstan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores migrant Black African youths' experiences of looking for and finding work in Newcastle, a deindustrializing Australian city. Data for this paper were drawn from interviews conducted with young people who migrated to Australia as temporary and permanent residents. Drawing on concepts of coloniality, racialization, bodywork, and hidden labor, this paper demonstrates how, when looking for work, participants' names get attached to their racialized bodies—a situation which deems them as suitable or not for specific kinds of work. Their strategies of finding work differ according to their migration status; that is, temporary residents draw on their personal networks, whereas some permanent residents with full citizenship rights rely on social welfare support services to find work. However, irrespective of the different strategies used to find work, they all end up doing jobs that they described as "work which others do not wish to do." I argue that these experiences re‐articulate the coloniality of labor because, as workers in these jobs, they play a crucial role in the economic transformation taking place in the city due to deindustrialization. This is not merely because they form part of the workforce responsible for working in unwanted jobs, but because they are also consumers of Newcastle's emerging welfare support and educational services sectors. The paper contributes to an understanding of how race shapes the labor market experiences of racialized youth in deindustrializing labor markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our 2011 survey of the literature in the Journal of Economic Surveys on the effect of government size on economic growth in wealthy countries we find a relatively consistent pattern: An increase in government size by 10 percentage points is associated with a 0.5-1 percentage point lower annual growth rate. This conclusion is questioned by Colombier. In this rejoinder we present a rebuttal of Colombier's argument based on a detailed scrutiny of his own statistical evidence and regression results. Furthermore, we note that several new papers that have appeared since our original paper was published give support to our main conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationships between financial development (FD), economic complexity and country stability. To achieve this objective, this paper applies a finite mixture model to a sample of 92 developing countries over the period 1995–2018. The study posits that the effect of FD on economic complexity differs across groups of countries with similar but unobserved characteristics. The study finds that the effect of FD on economic complexity varies across four classes of countries, which differ according to their level of economic, political and financial stability. Furthermore, the study argues that stable countries are more likely to be in class 1, including more performing countries – that is, the group of countries where FD spurs economic complexity. This finding remains consistent even when alternative measures of FD and economic complexity are considered. Hence, efforts by developing countries to undertake sound reforms to reduce economic, political and financial risks could help leverage the benefits of FD in fostering the development of sophisticated and complex economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of the current political developments in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, such as Ukraine, Poland, and Romania, the question arises as to the role played by economic transformation and the resulting innovation linkages in these countries over the last 20 years. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of economic and institutional dimensions on the development of CEE countries, explicitly distinguishing between European Union (EU) members and non‐members, and thus reflecting the differences in institutions and path dependency. Furthermore, the paper contrasts the performance of CEE countries with that of Western European countries. To achieve these objectives, the impact of factors such as innovation, institutions, and political practices on the economic development of 37 European countries from 2000 until 2020 is followed using fixed effects regression and Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. The results of the analysis show the importance of institutional factors such as low levels of corruption, political freedoms, and intellectual property. The effect of institutional variables was particularly pronounced in the case of non‐EU countries, which indicates the particular importance of the development of stable institutions for achieving higher levels of economic development for this category of countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sister city relationships (SCRs) are a platform through which local governments (LGs) engage internationally. Increasingly, there is an expectation that such international engagement delivers economic opportunities and returns. Many LGs are therefore pursuing local economic development (LED) through their SCRs. Drawing on a national survey of Australian LGs (stage 1) and interviews with key council staff and stakeholders in five LG areas maintaining Australia–China SCRs (stage 2), this paper contributes to growing literature on LED by examining how LGs have developed their own capacities and supported local small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage internationally. Our findings reveal insights into how Australian LGs have achieved international engagement through two strategies that leverage their SCRs, namely building government's capabilities and developing SMEs' capabilities. This paper contributes new insights into the evolving role of LGs in LED, including both current experimentation, challenges, and future opportunities. Points for practitioners: A growing number of Australian local governments pursue LED through their Chinese sister city relationships.Supporting the internationalisation of SMEs is an emerging component of local government pursuit of LED.International engagement of local governments has necessitated enhanced capacities in human, external, and financial resources.Findings highlight the unique and often overlooked role of local‐to‐local diplomatic and economic relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We identify fiscal policy shocks in the EU new member states using four different methods. We use panel data techniques to estimate the output response to these shocks. We find that investment and export growth increase after fiscal consolidation and decelerate after fiscal stimulus when the shocks are expenditure-based. In contrast, private consumption does not respond to fiscal policy shocks. Expenditure-based fiscal consolidations reduce wages, supporting the view that fiscal consolidation of such composition enhances the competitiveness and profitability of domestic enterprises. In contrast, we do not find evidence of fiscal shocks affecting households' confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse the effects of economic and political variables on tax revenue performance of BRICS for the period 1996–2017. After checking unit root and cointegration of the variables, this study employs fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) to investigate long‐run impacts of the explanatory variables. Empirical results suggest us that, economic development, trade openness and control of corruption are revenue‐enhancing factors for BRICS, whereas the agriculture sector discourages the tax revenue performance. However, the size of the shadow economy in BRICS undermines the productive implication of corruption control and economic development in revenue generation. Based on the results, few policy options are also discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a stakeholder perspective to study tensions in hybrid organizations (HOs). In this study, we investigate social enterprises (SEs) as emblematic cases of HO. The paper responds to literature that calls for studies about the interactions with stakeholders and proposes the relational paths SEs can implement to alleviate the emerging tensions between environmental–social and business goals. It also contributes to the academic debate offering empirical evidence on HO‐related tensions. Solving these tensions is beneficial for HOs and in terms of sustainable development. The paper presents a longitudinal case study of a leading SE in the fair trade industry. Fair trade represents an industry where economic, social, and environmental goals may be jointly achieved through the action of SEs. The main paper's contributions regard a stakeholders‐generated view of tensions and the identification of stakeholders‐tailored solutions to managing them. In addition, the proposed ad hoc approach contributes to a deeper understanding of how an SE deals with its hybrid nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether Ethiopia's rapid economic growth is transformative enough for the country to eventually catch up with high‐income countries. It does so by exploring the change and continuity of four elements of social capability from 1950 to 2020: structural transformation, economic inclusion and the state's autonomy and accountability. It finds that Ethiopia's social capability modestly strengthened until the mid‐1970s, then weakened until the early 2000s, and has since strengthened again. However, the level of inclusion has been persistently low. In conclusion, although there are grounds for optimism, limited economic inclusion is a key concern for future catch‐up growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) expand the development agenda. While all major development actors support policy coherence for development (PCD), analysis has been lacking on how this can be achieved as the development agenda expands. We discuss the relationship between SDGs and PCD through a comprehensive case study from Finland. Purpose: To examine the coherence of Finland's foreign and development policy for achieving the SDGs, while leaving no one behind. Particular focus is given to policies related to the private sector's role in development, and attention is also paid to ministries other than the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Approach and methods: We carried out interviews with policy‐makers and other stakeholders, and analysed relevant documents. We reviewed governmental high‐level policy statements, sectoral alignments, and development aid documents. We also reviewed the position papers that the Finnish Government had issued on European Union (EU) processes, particularly regarding development relating to the private sector. Findings: Finland has been uniquely positioned to advance PCD in its foreign policy, thanks to co‐ordination structures across government. Nonetheless, mainstreaming of the expanded development agenda has been largely limited to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and its development policy department. The breadth of the SDG agenda has enabled individual targets to be cherry‐picked, with less attention paid to advancing the Agenda 2030 as a whole and to implementing its Leave No One Behind (LNOB) principle. Despite an institutional framework seemingly ideal for policy coherence, traditional sectoral divisions between development policy as a separate field and sustainability as an environmental issue, remain. Five factors in particular hindered policy coherence: (a) Finland's position papers to the EU on taxes and migration all but ignored Agenda 2030 commitments; (b) the Finnish emphasis on the private sector in development narrowed the considerations of development to economic growth; (c) sustainability was seen as green technology, with scant regard to social sustainability; (d) private firms interpreted the SDGs to mean that environmental sustainability could address human rights‐related concerns with corporate social responsibility initiatives; and (e) cuts to staffing in the Finnish Government stymied innovative thinking and working across departmental boundaries. Policy Implications: Finland is generally seen as a front‐runner in mainstreaming development issues, which makes it an interesting case. We outline the key challenges that Finland has faced in tackling PCD, which should be relevant for other Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) countries as well. Many challenges related to PCD are political and organizational. As such, they are highly dependent on the particular institutional settings in each country. Our methodological approach could be replicated in other similar countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the sustainable efficiency of container terminals (CTs). By the definition of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), business sustainable development includes three domains: Economics, Environment, and Society. Accordingly, based on the definition and the practical features of CT operations, this paper assesses sustainable efficiency for CTs from three perspectives: container throughput, CO2 emissions, and occupational safety. In this paper, a modality movement and a fuzzy grey relational analysis (GRA) approach are first proposed to estimate CO2 emissions and occupational safety index for CT operators, respectively. A hybrid slacks‐based measure (SBM)‐DEA model is then developed to assess the sustainable efficiency of CT operators. Finally, the CT operators in the Port of Kaohsiung are empirically investigated to validate the research model. Based on the results, theoretical and practical implications for the management of CT operators and port authorities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of the political hierarchies of cities in China from different perspectives. First, we examine the economic disparities between prefectural cities and municipalities. Furthermore, this paper draws upon a quasi‐ experiment to analyze the impact of upgrading Chongqing to a municipality in 1997 using the synthetic control method. The city‐upgrading policy significantly increased Chongqing's gross domestic product (GDP) in the following 4 years. Finally, we find that the policy increased GDP in treated cities within 1200 km of Chongqing by about 10%–13% relative to the control cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a general equilibrium spatial urban model and measures city geometric compactness using the patch‐shape index based on evidence from satellite imagery and basic vector maps of China. It adopts the ordinary least squares and instrumental variable approaches to examine the effect of city shape on the urban development of 279 Chinese cities at or above the prefecture level. The empirical results show that there was a significant negative correlation between city shape and economic outcomes. Specifically, every 1 percentage point increase in the patch‐shape index led to a decrease in city‐scale GDP by 0.009 percent, housing prices by 0.044 percent, and wages by 0.024 percent. More compact urban layouts attracted an inflow of households and firms, stimulated city economic growth, and were associated with increased housing prices and wage rates. The paper considers the cities' initial conditions, trends in population changes (expanding, shrinking, and stagnant cities), and geographic factors, and finds that the results are robust. An array of policy implications can be drawn from the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrants often face challenges in social integration. Using a nationally representative sample of migrant workers and employing the epidemiological approach, this paper examines the determinants of social integration. It finds that, conditional on a set of individual features, the migrants from less‐developed provinces have greater difficulty in integrating into local communities. These results still demonstrate robustness across alternative variables, samples, and various specifications. Mechanism analysis shows that educational and employment factors account for over 40 percent of the variance in social integration levels, suggesting their significant influence. Additionally, the analysis suggests that native bias against migrants, along with misunderstandings between them, may account for part of the remaining variation in social integration levels. Importantly, the ability to speak local dialects has been identified as a crucial factor that can significantly improve migrants' subjective experience of integrating into a new city. By identifying one specific cause of social integration, this paper provides information to individuals and governments and assists them to improve social integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including the role of tourism towards China's economic growth; liberalization of Chinese financial markets; and papers Contemporary monetary policy in China: An empirical assesment'.

Abstract: We review previous research on China's business cycle correlation with other economies applying meta‐analysis. We survey 71 papers analysing the different periods of Chinese economic development since the 1950s that were published in English or Chinese. We confirm that Pacific Rim economies in particular have relatively high business cycle correlation with China. It appears that many characteristics of the studies and authors influence the reported degree of business cycle synchronization. For instance, Chinese‐language papers report higher correlation coefficients. Despite this, we do not detect robust evidence for publication bias in the papers. Moreover, we show that the broad evidence does not confirm the popular decoupling hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of institutions indicates the level of economic development in the country. Institutions are a part of a system that is based on human interactions and that leads to the generation of incentives. These incentives can deal with uncertainties and foster economic, social, political growth, provided the human interactions are moderated well. This paper reflects on the strength of the interventionalist institutions like cooperatives in India and promotes institution building for a better future. The base of the paper focuses on the lessons learnt from dairy cooperatives in Gujarat state and discusses the current situation of the cooperatives and challenges faced by them. The cooperatives in India have been old institutions with a great history of success as also failures. Though there are various types of cooperatives in India, the dairy cooperatives have been able to gain more attention in the international market due to the Operation Floods I, II, and III. India has secured its position as one of the largest milk producers in the world. At present, India produces 20% of the total milk production in the world. This paper is a blend and analysis of theoretical perspectives and ground realities of the dairy cooperative sector in India. The paper follows theoretical perspectives from institutional theory to analyse the present scenario of dairy cooperatives in India. It addresses the gaps in the dairy cooperative development sector with an in‐depth analysis of ground realities and contributes to future policy formulation and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attracted widespread attention from stakeholders, environmental information disclosed by companies can show the situations that corporates fulfill their environmental obligations. Different corporate stakeholders usually pay diverse attention to key environmental information factors due to their various industries, investment levels, identity characteristics, etc. However, the previous researches are not scientific enough due to the lack of reflecting the importance of environmental information according to the preferences of stakeholders. To fill this gap, this paper applies a fuzzy analysis model as the internal type‐2 trapezoidal fuzzy numbers —analytic hierarchy process (AHP) based ordinary least square regression to comprehensively reflect the preferences of stakeholders. Following that, this paper utilizes the data from 62 Chinese power companies as an example, and the results show that environmental information disclosed (EID) quality is positively correlated with regional economic development level and executive salary incentives. Moreover, the corporate political connection weakens the interaction between salary incentives and EID, which can be further confirmed by robustness analysis. Finally, this paper contributes to the literature on the research methods on EID by considering stakeholders' preferences in the fuzzy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UN General Assembly is the central forum of world politics. While it formally allows the member states to delegate up to five representatives, the size of the national delegations is generally larger and significantly increases over time. In this paper, I explore the size of the national delegations to the General Assembly from 1993 to 2016. Generally, the major powers (USA, Russia) send the biggest delegations. Surprisingly, China sends significantly smaller delegations than it used to before 2008. Big delegations are also sent by some small (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Switzerland) or developing countries (Nigeria, Bangladesh). My analysis shows that national capacities and issue‐specific motivations drive up the delegation size. Although the issue‐specific explanations are relatively rare in UN‐related research (due to the general‐purpose nature of the organisation), I argue that human rights, international security, economic development, and UN governance are the agendas for which states care about the General Assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent economic relations including foreign assistance scenario in Africa show expansion of China and India as emerging bilateral partners, competing with traditional countries in Europe and North America. The results of this paper found that the relationship of China and India with Zimbabwe has resulted in several challenges including increasing resource‐backed debt burden, exploitation of the natural resources, and flouting of constitutional, environmental, and labor provisions. The paper recommends that the Zimbabwean government must demand loans and investments that are contracted under clear terms and conditions, with parliamentary oversight and public scrutiny to avoid abuse by the elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partner country (PC) selection lies in the centre of development policy decision‐making of donor countries and institutions, and plays a significant role in shaping aid patterns. This paper proposes a comprehensive analysis contrasting donor intentions in PC selection with actual aid flows. Having analysed selected members of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, namely, the European Union, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, we suggest that (1) donors might not only be either altruistic or self‐interested but also motivated by an intention to contribute to the provision of global public goods; (2) self‐interest in aid provision can be an explicitly‐stated strategy, contrary to what has been argued in the majority of the literature, which often treats self‐interest as a non‐stated donor intention; and (3) donors' self‐interested intentions do not always lead to a less development‐oriented donor approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I provide a high‐level, non‐technical review of how accounting information is used in Pillar 2 and what this means for the tax base. In addition, I discuss potential problems of using accounting data explicitly in a minimum tax and then, specifically, as the starting point for the computation of the income measures in Pillar 2. I then discuss several alternative solutions that may be simpler – or at least no more complex – and, importantly, pose fewer problems in terms of the quality of financial accounting information and the information available to capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the widening wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers within countries and discusses whether trade and technology have contributed to this trend. The paper develops an analytical framework for wage inequality that traces the determinants and their relative roles in wage inequality in different stages of the development of trade theory, especially those considering new evidence after 2011. We find that technology plays a key role in the rise of wage inequality in most countries, while trade plays an increasingly crucial and more complex role in recent years. Skill supply institutions, such as education systems supplying skilled labour or unions participating in wage‐setting processes, suppress the rise of wage inequality in some countries. The paper further outlines the mechanisms through which trade affects wage inequality, including offshoring, firm heterogeneity, labour market frictions and global value chains. We find that trade has indirect effects on technology, which further enlarges the wage inequality among skills. The paper also discusses the policy implications of the impacts of trade and technology on wage inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of institutions on regional financial development using a panel data model of 11 East Asian countries during 1996-2017. It divides the institutional factors into six economic factors and six legalpolitical factors. The analysis demonstrates that the legalpolitical institutional factors have a stronger impact on financial development than the economic institutional factors in East Asia. Improvement in institutional quality such as fiscal freedom, business freedom, control of corruption, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and rule of law can promote financial development. Improvements of these institutional factors facilitate the ability of enterprises to allocate resources and improve the strength of business operations, thereby reducing transaction costs and making the financial operating environment fairer and more efficient. With the improvement of institutional factors, financial development will have more opportunities to develop better. Institutional impacts are more pronounced in the financial development in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar than in the other countries such as China, Japan, Korea and Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is pivotal for sustainable economic growth. Undoubtedly, the role of the composition of the export basket (measured as economic complexity) is one of the crucial variables influencing energy consumption. Despite its importance, the existing body of literature does not intensively study the relationship between economic complexity and total energy consumption. Therefore, this study's primary aim was to examine the effect of economic complexity on energy consumption in a case study of 21 developed and 44 developing countries for the period 1971–2014. In this context, economic complexity expresses the level of sophistication of a country's export basket. This paper considers energy prices and income as explanatory variables in Durbin‐H panel cointegration analysis and applies a cointegration test with structural breaks to check for the long‐run relationships. For the long‐run estimations, we employ the augmented mean group method and dynamic seemingly unrelated regression. The findings reveal that economic complexity increases energy consumption in developing countries while it decreases energy consumption in developed countries. This is an important insight for countries concerned about their energy dependence. The diversification of their production and export baskets can reduce energy needs. The paper finally presents policy recommendations based on the empirical estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Government's White Paper ' Australia in the Asian Century' is the first large-scale official look in the twenty-first century at economic change in Asia and how it affects Australian opportunities and challenges. This paper comments on the analysis embodied in and the objectives defined by the White Paper, especially as it relates to Australian resources. This paper generally endorses the aspirations of the White Paper and notes that their achievement is going to require efforts and changes beyond those that are currently contemplated. It comments briefly on six things: the development context of twenty-first century Asian growth; growth and structural change in Asia and Australia's terms of trade; macroeconomic management of a resource-intensive Australian economy; restoring productivity growth; excellence in education; and linking Australia to Asian opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper argues that the relationship between corruption and economic growth is dependent upon the uncertainty involved. Employing data on a cross‐section of countries, this paper uses an interaction between the frequency of bribery payments and the uncertainty regarding the delivery of the service in exchange for these bribes to show that corruption has a negative association with growth unless the uncertainty is minimal. Furthermore, the negative association becomes larger in magnitude with higher levels of uncertainty. At extremely high levels of uncertainty a relatively small increase in corruption, equivalent to moving from Sweden to the United States for example, is associated with economically large decreases in economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a paper by Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg and Tristan Reed that explores the role of market size in economic development and poverty reduction. The paper argues that market size is a significant constraint on development and that conventional development policies may not be fully effective. The authors present evidence that supports their perspective and propose measures of market size. However, the article also highlights the potential negative effects of international integration on domestic producers and raises questions about the strong version of the argument. It suggests that other factors, such as macro policies and commodity prices, may have contributed to the recent economic growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. The article concludes by discussing the changing global context and the need to focus on domestic demand for sustained economic development. [Extracted from the article]

This article is a comment on a paper titled "Presidential Address: Demand-Side Constraints in Development: The Role of Market Size, Trade, and (In)Equality" by Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg and Tristan Reed. The paper explores the relationship between market size and economic development, specifically focusing on the transition from agriculture to manufacturing. The authors find that small market size is a constraint for economic development and that expansion into international markets or growth in domestic markets can help overcome this constraint. The paper also discusses the importance of demand-side policies and supply-side policies in promoting development, particularly for countries with a comparative advantage in primary sectors. [Extracted from the article]

This paper considers the prospects and promises of continent‐wide infrastructure projects under China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and its implications for intra‐regional trade and economic development in Africa. Building on the supply side theory of trade and economic development, and taking cognizance of the impacts of asymmetric market sizes on trade integration, this paper argues that continent‐wide infrastructure projects are perhaps not the biggest constraints to intra‐Africa trade. Consequently, the paper recommends caution in pursuing regional infrastructure projects under the BRI. Given that the economies of most African countries depend largely on natural resources, the BRI could be adopted strategically to establish and manage infrastructure projects that would relax the binding constraints to structural transformation and allow for the development of manufacturing and/or service capabilities in the respective countries, especially in niche areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Site selection processes whereby companies choose a location for an expansion or relocation have changed substantially over the past several decades. One key shift has been the emergence of collaboration among both individual economic developers and cooperation among the communities they represent. The rise in collaborative practices has also been increasingly reflected in the contemporary economic development literature outside the discipline of geography. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of economic development studies of collaboration and then to suggest ways that geographers might use concepts from that scholarship to inform and extend the limited number of studies exploring site selection practices. The paper begins by offering a context for the emergence of collaboration trends by highlighting the ways that information asymmetry in site selection processes create a demand for greater collaboration among industry practitioners. It then turns to an overview of the burgeoning literature on collaboration that has evolved over the last decade in the interdisciplinary scholarship on economic development. Next, the paper shifts to a discussion of the ways that geographers might use the literature on collaboration to inform studies of site selection, specifically focusing on geographic scale and research on site selection consultants as possible areas for future investigation. The article concludes by arguing that studying collaboration in the context of geographies of site selection holds the potential for greater insights into the broader outcomes of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of holidays differs significantly across Indian states. Moreover, some of the governing political parties have been accused of using holidays as a tool either to mollify disgruntled workers or to woo voters before the state elections. In this context, this paper explores the relationship between the number of holidays and economic growth across 24 Indian states, spanning the period 2008–2016, by employing a panel model analysis. The paper presents evidence suggesting that holidays seem to affect growth negatively in the rich states but are inconsequential for the growth performance of the poor states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the socio‐economic dynamics that, in the Colombian case, underlie the relationship between mining and the territory where it takes place. The description includes the key features of public policy regarding mining, under which mineral resource extraction may have produced unintended effects that raise doubts regarding mining's contribution to Colombian economic development. Under a qualitative approach, I carried out a documentary analysis from which I identified several aspects of the economic and mining policy. The analysis confirms several of the explanations for the so‐called resource curse hypothesis, the connection between these aspects, and of them with specific policy decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the four‐way linkages between innovation, trade openness, financial development and economic growth using panel‐VAR approach for 11 European countries over the period 2001‐2016. Most importantly, the findings revealed that there is a unidirectional relationship between economic growth and financial development, between trade and economic growth and between innovation and financial development. The findings also revealed a negative relationship between innovation and economic growth and between trade and economic growth. The paper concludes that further regulation of financial systems and the quality of funding are important ingredients to foster economic development. The paper also concludes that country‐specific characteristics can play an important role in fostering innovation and productivity. Furthermore, policymakers should improve institutional quality and improve the regulatory environment in order to benefit more from trade openness. Also, policy makers need to use innovation incentives for local companies in order to counteract the negative effects induced by market opening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its invaluable contribution to the field of comparative economics, the socialist calculation debate has focused on the narrow topic of the impossibility of the rational economic calculation under socialism. The literature on new institutional economics suggests that economic development is determined by economic and political institutions which are far more complex than the issue of economic calculation. To bridge the gap between the calculation debate and new institutional economics, this paper utilizes the historical case studies of Perestroika and Deng's China to demonstrate relationship between state capacity and economic calculation. We argue that rational economic calculation requires the state's institutional ability to make a credible commitment to constraints inhibiting public predation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]