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The gig economy and gig work have grown quickly in recent years and have drawn much attention from researchers in different fields. Because the platform mediated gig economy is a relatively new phenomenon, studies have produced a range of interesting findings; of interest here are the socio‐technical issues that this work has surfaced. This systematic literature review (SLR) provides a snapshot of a range of socio‐technical issues raised in the last 12 years of literature focused on the platform mediated gig economy. Based on a sample of 515 papers gathered from nine databases in multiple disciplines, 132 were coded that specifically studied the gig economy, gig work, and gig workers. Three main socio‐technical themes were identified: (1) the digital workplace, which includes information infrastructure and digital labor that are related to the nature of gig work and the user agency; (2) algorithmic management, which includes platform governance, performance management, information asymmetry, power asymmetry, and system manipulation, relying on a diverse set of technological tools including algorithms and big data analytics; (3) ethical design, as a relevant value set that gig workers expect from the platform, which includes trust, fairness, equality, privacy, and transparency. A social informatics perspective is used to rethink the relationship between gig workers and platforms, extract the socio‐technical issues noted in prior research, and discuss the underexplored aspects of the platform mediated gig economy. The results draw attention to understudied yet critically important socio‐technical issues in the gig economy that suggest short‐ and long‐term opportunities for future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay studies the cultural consequences that the spread of paper money had in late nineteenth-century Brazil. First, I examine how these tensions are called into question through the analysis of a political scandal that took place in Rio de Janeiro, in 1900, concerning a two thousand reales banknote. Second, I offer a close reading of Machado de Assis' "Anedota pecuniária", a short-story included in Histórias sem data (1884). My goal is to interrogate the relation between paper money and the economy of credit work, and the narrative devices of literary fiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how a state produces new internal borders. It selected 1668 newspaper articles on the COVID-19 internal bordering case in Slovakia to answer this question. These articles were then analysed using the thematic trajectory analysis (TTA) through the conceptual prism of structurationism. The results suggest states apply methods during the production of internal borders similar to those used during the (re-)production of an international border. In particular, it shows the application of a military-testing nexus and economic tools to ensure compliance with the new border. Results also revealed that such a border is heavily dependent on popular support for the government and open to re-negotiations by relevant societal groups. From the border production perspective, this study offers a preliminary step into the area of internal borders imposed on a generally homogenous population, especially regarding the borders produced under COVID-19 conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the interdisciplinarity scores of papers published in five major Economic journals by analysing their references. It also explores the relationship between interdisciplinarity and citation. The study considers the influence of the citation time window on accumulating citations and investigates the source of citation advantage for high interdisciplinarity papers. Empirical findings reveal a U-shaped curve relationship between the interdisciplinarity of papers and their citation frequency. Papers with high interdisciplinarity do enjoy a citation advantage, which primarily stems from the attention and citations from distant disciplinary papers and multidisciplinary journals. However, it often takes a longer time for the value of interdisciplinary papers to be recognised. Based on these findings, the study discusses the necessity and effectiveness of incentives for interdisciplinary research and provides recommendations for evaluating and managing interdisciplinary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To supplement the quantitative portrait of Ukrainian Economics discipline with the results of gender and author ordering analysis at the level of individual authors, special methods of working with bibliographic data with a predominant share of non-English authors are used. The properties of gender mixing, the likelihood of male and female authors occupying the first position in the authorship list, as well as the arrangements of names are studied. A data set containing bibliographic records related to Ukrainian journal publications in the field of Economics is constructed using Crossref metadata. Partial semi-automatic disambiguation of authors' names is performed. First names, along with gender-specific ethnic surnames, are used for gender disambiguation required for further comparative gender analysis. Random reshuffling of data is used to determine the impact of gender correlations. To assess the level of alphabetization for our data set, both Latin and Cyrillic versions of names are taken into account. The lack of well-structured metadata and the poor use of digital identifiers lead to numerous problems with automatization of bibliographic data pre-processing, especially in the case of publications by non-Western authors. The described stages for working with such specific data help to work at the level of authors and analyse, in particular, gender issues. Despite the larger number of female authors, gender equality is more likely to be reported at the individual level for the discipline of Ukrainian Economics. The tendencies towards collaborative or solo-publications and gender mixing patterns are found to be dependent on the journal: the differences for publications indexed in Scopus and/or Web of Science databases are found. It has also been found that Ukrainian Economics research is characterized by rather a non-alphabetical order of authors. Only partial authors' name disambiguation is performed in a semi-automatic way. Gender labels can be derived only for authors declared by full First names or gender-specific Last names. The typical features of Ukrainian Economic discipline can be used to perform a comparison with other countries and disciplines, to develop an informed-based assessment procedure at the national level. The proposed way of processing publication data can be borrowed to enrich metadata about other research disciplines, especially for non-English speaking countries. To our knowledge, this is the first large-scale quantitative study of Ukrainian Economic discipline. The results obtained are valuable not only at the national level, but also contribute to general knowledge about Economic research, gender issues, and authors' names ordering. An example of the use of Crossref data is provided, while this data source is still less used due to a number of drawbacks. Here, for the first time, attention is drawn to the explicit use of the features of the Slavic authors' names. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organisation of the 24-h day for hospital nurses in two 12-h shifts has been introduced with value propositions of reduced staffing costs, better quality of care, more efficient work organisation, and increased nurse recruitment and retention. While existing reviews consider the impact of 12-h shifts on nurses' wellbeing and performance, this discussion paper aims to specifically shed light on whether the current evidence supports the value propositions around 12-h shifts. We found little evidence of the value propositions being realised. Staffing costs are not reduced with 12-h shifts, and outcomes related to productivity and efficiency, including sickness absence and missed nursing care are negatively affected. Nurses working 12-h shifts do not perform more safely than their counterparts working shorter shifts, with evidence pointing to a likely negative effect on safe care due to increased fatigue and sleepiness. In addition, nurses working 12-h shifts may have access to fewer educational opportunities than nurses working shorter shifts. Despite some nurses preferring 12-h shifts, the literature does not indicate that this shift pattern leads to increased recruitment, with studies reporting that nurses working long shifts are more likely to express intention to leave their job. In conclusion, there is little if any support for the value propositions that were advanced when 12-h shifts were introduced. While 12-h shifts might be here to stay, it is important that the limitations, including reduced productivity and efficiency, are recognised and accepted by those in charge of implementing schedules for hospital nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ibn Khaldûn (1332–1406) was a philosopher, historian and sociologist. This paper asks: What elements of the Political Economy of Communication are there in Ibn Khaldûn's work and how do they matter in digital capitalism? It presents relevant passages from Khaldûn's main work Muqaddimah and points out parallels between the Muqaddimah and works in Political Economy, especially Karl Marx's approach of the Critique of Political Economy. The comparison of Khaldûn to Marx is not an arbitrary choice. Several scholars have pointed out parallels between the two's works with respect to general Political Economy. It, therefore, makes sense to, also, compare Khaldûn and Marx in the context of the Political Economy of Communication. The paper analyses the relevance of Khaldûn's ideas in digital capitalism. Khaldûn's works are situated in the context of media and communication theory, digital automation, Facebook, Google, labour in informational and digital capitalism, Amazon, the tabloid press, fake news and post-truth culture. The analysis shows that Khaldûn's Muqaddimah is an early work in Political Economy that can and should inform our contemporary critical analysis of communication in society, communication in capitalism and class society, ideology and digital capitalism. What connects Marx and Khaldûn is that they were critical scholars who although living at different times in different parts of the world saw the importance of the analysis of class and communication. Their works can and should inform the Political Economy of Communication and the analysis of digital capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Super‐partnerships exist between scholars connected within densely‐knit collaboration networks. Understanding how such relationships affect scholars' careers is of great importance. In this paper, focusing on the longitudinal aspects of scientific collaboration, we analyze collaboration profiles from the egocentric perspective and use analytic extreme value thresholds to identify super‐partners. A total of 5722 pairs of super‐partners are found in the field of economics. The several interesting findings about super‐partners are summarized as follows. (1) The collaboration pattern of super‐partners can be divided into three types: the dual‐core, bridge, and triangle types. (2) Gender disparities are reflected in the collaboration among super‐partners, and the stability of super‐partnerships involving different combinations of genders displays different characteristics. The random‐effect model is constructed to explore the effect of a super‐partnership on both parties from the aspects of productivity and influence, which also shows gender disparities. (3) A super‐partnership contributes to above‐average productivity and citation impacts of the publication for three collaboration patterns, and the research improvement of the triangle type is the greatest among the three types. Overall, this paper explores the characteristics of super‐partners and the added value of a long‐term commitment, which provides quantitative insights into the effect on scientific collaboration associated with close collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gaza Strip is dependent on external aid to deliver basic services, including water and sanitation. Such services are not sustainable due to the Israeli occupation and the limited financial and technical capacities of service providers and the state. This paper examines the incentives of stakeholders in delivering sanitation services in the Gaza Strip through a qualitative institutional economics analysis of literature supplemented with qualitative key informant interviews. External aid is crucial to deliver basic services in the Gaza Strip. However, this has created a dependency that undermines the sustainability of sanitation services. Donor agencies often prioritise capital expenditure on visible infrastructure, such as wastewater treatment, without addressing its long and short-term operational needs; hence the Gaza Strip's needs are continually addressed as an emergency response. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas de facto governments lack sovereignty over the Gaza Strip and Palestine. Therefore, they also lack the capacity and incentives to create an enabling environment for delivering safely managed sanitation. This paper contributes to development policy literature, the politics of infrastructure and wider politics of settler colonialism and siege basic services such as water and sanitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The article extends the distinction of semantic from syntactic labour to comprehend all forms of mental labour. It answers a critique from de Fremery and Buckland, which required envisaging mental labour as a differentiated spectrum. Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopts a discursive approach. It first reviews the significance and extensive diffusion of the distinction of semantic from syntactic labour. Second, it integrates semantic and syntactic labour along a vertical dimension within mental labour, indicating analogies in principle with, and differences in application from, the inherited distinction of intellectual from clerical labour. Third, it develops semantic labour to the very highest level, on a consistent principle of differentiation from syntactic labour. Finally, it reintegrates the understanding developed of semantic labour with syntactic labour, confirming that they can fully and informatively occupy mental labour. Findings: The article further validates the distinction of semantic from syntactic labour. It enables to address Norbert Wiener's classic challenge of appropriately distributing activity between human and computer. Research limitations/implications: The article transforms work in progress into knowledge for diffusion. Practical implications: It has practical implications for determining what tasks to delegate to computational technology. Social implications: The paper has social implications for the understanding of appropriate human and machine computational tasks and our own distinctive humanness. Originality/value: The paper is highly original. Although based on preceding research, from the late 20th century, it is the first separately published full account of semantic and syntactic labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews and summarizes six economics papers written as part of a project bringing together economists and anthropologists on conceptions and analyses of wealth. The project paired economists and anthropologists in order to illuminate differences in method, analytic technique, and disciplinary framings between the two fields. Anthropologists comment on the economists' papers from their discipline's point of view. The overall project was intended to increase understanding and to encourage future collaborations and learning between the two fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Unwarranted clinical variations in radical prostatectomy (RP) procedures are frequently reported, yet less attention is given to the variations in associated costs. This issue can further widen disparities in access to care and provoke questions about the overall value of the procedure. The present paper aimed to delve into the disparities in hospital, medical provider and out-of-pocket costs for RP procedures in Australia, discussing plausible causes and potential policy opportunities. Methods: A retrospective cohort study using Medibank Private claims data for RP procedures conducted in Australian hospitals between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2020 was undertaken. Results: Considerable variations in both medical provider and out-of-pocket costs were observed across the country, with variations evident between different states or territories. Particularly striking were the discrepancies in the costs charged by medical providers, with a notable contrast between the 10th and 90th percentiles revealing a substantial difference of A$9925. Hospitals in Australia exhibited relatively comparable charges for RP procedures. Conclusions: Initiatives such as enhancing transparency regarding individual medical provider costs and implementing fee regulations with healthcare providers may be useful in curbing the variations in RP procedure costs. What is known about the topic? Unwarranted clinical variations in radical prostatectomy procedures are well documented in the literature; however, variations in cost are less widely reported. What does this paper add? This paper aims to highlight the cost variations in radical prostatectomy procedures in Australia, discussing their plausible causes, implications and proposing potential policy opportunities. What are the implications for practitioners? Excessive fees imposed by medical providers may contribute to inequalities in healthcare access. Enhancing transparency of individual medical provider costs and implementing fee regulations may be useful in controlling unwarranted variations in procedure costs. This article belongs to the Special Issue: Value-based Healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper places the seemingly distinct projects of refugee protection and temporary foreign worker programs alongside one another to reveal their interlinked relationship. I argue that despite its seeming humanitarian exceptionality, refugee protection is deeply implicated in the production of both the category and supply of temporary foreign workers for the Canadian economy. I demonstrate that the defining limitations of refugee law in relation to questions of class and economic deprivation are integral to the conceptualization of the category of the migrant worker. I then engage with statistical data to show that patterns of refugee adjudications in Canada have contributed to maintaining the supply of temporary foreign workers. In particular, I show that Canada has consistently rejected refugee claims from key source countries of migrant workers, namely Jamaica and Mexico. By refusing these claims, Canadian refugee protection has constituted Jamaican and Mexican nationals as inappropriate subjects of permanent protection and, subsequently, primed them for incorporation as temporary foreign workers. In effect, Canadian im/migration has operated like a revolving door: pushing some nationalities out of the permanent protection of refugee status while pulling them into the precarious opening of temporary labour migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shirking, the act of avoiding the demands of one's job, is generally seen as unethical. Drawing on empirical evidence from the sociology of work, I develop a normative conception of shirking as a form of worker resistance against illegitimate managerial power. In doing so, I present a new approach to the political theory of the firm, which is more adversarial and agent-centered than available alternatives. It is more adversarial as it recognizes the political value of counterproductive and disruptive behavior in capitalist firms. It is more agent-centered because it theorizes the firm from the perspective of workers, asking what pro tanto reasons they have to shirk. I show that shirking under the structural domination of capitalism has diagnostic, agential, and epistemic values. The paper contributes to the wider methodological ambition to tailor political theorizing to the positionality of social actors by shifting attention from the institutional design of the firm to the methods of worker resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Clinton administration’s drive to enact reform in Ukraine during the 1990s was viewed at the time as being necessary for the nation’s revitalization and re-integration into Western Europe. Decades later, these policies have been critiqued for antagonizing the Kremlin, causing it to seek political control over its former satellite. This paper addresses the viability of the Clinton administration’s efforts and the reasons for their ultimate failure. It finds that despite its best intentions, the administration’s economic strategy faced unanticipated resistance from the Kremlin, as long-standing ties with Kiev undermined US-led efforts for economic and political reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores Michael Novak's understanding of the human person and his normative case for the market economy, specifically its points of agreement and tension with natural rights libertarianism. For Michael Novak, the imago dei provides the strongest account for the relationship between the market economy, human dignity, and natural rights. Rationalistic attempts, such as those within libertarianism, cannot adequately ground human dignity or sustain free institutions capable of serving the common good, the market economy, and political liberty. However, Novak's affinity to his libertarian interlocutors presents an opportunity for dialogue on the necessity of economic freedom and related theological influences on natural rights theory for securing human flourishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overtaxed by the realities laid bare in the pandemic, nursing has imminent decisions to make. The exigencies of pandemic times overextend a health care infrastructure already groaning under the weight of inequitable distribution of resources and care commodified for profit. We can choose to prioritise different values. Invoking philosopher of science Isbelle Stengers's manifesto for slow science, this is not the only nursing that is possible. With this paper, I pick up threads of nursing's historical ontology, drawing previous scholarship on the historical narratives nurses use to understand themselves. Peeling back nursing's myth to alternate points of origin allows me to consider alternate lines of flight, a speculative adventure in paths not taken but paths that exist nonetheless. I go on to examine what a collective ethic of nursing could be, when we make space for these alternate histories, considering the confluences and conflicts that enable nurses to care and those that inhibit them from doing so. The imperative for this lies in the central importance of the reproductive labour of nursing health care, which leads me to a critique of nursing's capitulation to the pressures of late stage capitalism. This is a problem with ethical and ontological implications both for nursing, and also for those who require nursing care, an imperative to think about the kinds of present/futures for health, care, and health care we might cocreate in collaboration and solidarity with the communities in which nurses are imbricated, shedding the trappings of neoliberalism. There is significant power in the vision and praxis of 28 million nurses and midwives worldwide. Our ethics can guide our imagination which can in turn create possibility. This kind of endeavour—that of dreams and imagination—leads us to what could be, if only we leap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wellbeing is an increasingly prominent topic across academia, including analyses of the myriad factors that influence it. Of these, perhaps the most prominent is economics, with a relatively-well substantiated link, especially at lower levels of income. However, most work has been limited to select measures (usually life evaluation) and/or populations (usually Western nations). This paper offers an expansive approach, exploring associations between income and a selection of 31 items pertaining to wellbeing in the Gallup World Poll over 3 years (2020–2022), covering 386,654 people in 142 countries. Significantly, on every single variable, participants with higher incomes fare better than those with lower incomes. However, there are also many interesting nuances when filtering the results through various demographic considerations, including comparing participants in terms of global regions, sex, age, and level of education. Together, these nuances paint a complex picture of the impact of economics on wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia in 2013 promised significant improvements in the lives of adults with intellectual disabilities. Although the scheme enables support, there are challenges associated with establishing eligibility and administering funds. This scoping review explored perceived barriers and enablers to effectively utilising the NDIS for adults with intellectual disabilities and their families. Method: A scoping review of the empirical literature on the NDIS and intellectual disabilities included nine studies in this review. These papers were subjected to thematic analysis and the findings were presented as a narrative synthesis. Results: The key themes identified were: (1) Limited understanding of the NDIS process; (2) Language use and capacity assumptions; (3) Unrealistic goals and progress, and difficulty utilising plans; (4) Expectations of families and associated workloads; (5) Opening up opportunities not previously available; (6) Knowledgeable planners who actively seek to involve adults and their families. Conclusion: Although qualitative studies demonstrate that adults with an intellectual disability and their families are largely satisfied with the increased opportunities the NDIS has afforded them, there are various areas in which accessibility to services can be improved. In order for the NDIS to continue to improve, the results from this scoping review underline the need for adults with an intellectual disability and their support systems to have their voices heard and be utilised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-demand work applications (ODWAs), a type of digital platforms (DPs), are technology-enabled intermediaries for gig workers. In this paper, we study these platforms and their impact on women belonging to the low socio-economic section in a developing economy. These women act as primary unpaid workers while being expected to make an economic contribution. Hence, they suffer from time scarcity where they need to find mechanisms to generate economic success from the limited time they have, in a largely informal economy. We employed the theoretical lens of affordances to delineate the affordances that are provided by the various features of ODWAs and their impact on life satisfaction of women. We conducted a mixed method study using interviews of 20 female gig workers, supplemented by a survey of 927 workers on one of the largest ODWAs in India. Our analysis points to the sense of identity and individuality that these platforms provide as well as lowering the market boundaries for greater inclusion. Our research is significant from both, the information systems and inclusion research perspectives, as it contributes to the theoretical understanding of the impact of DPs on breaking societal structures and providing avenues to marginalised sections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the failure to account for the value of standing tropical forests, and of ecosystem services in general, in economic decision-making. This blindness to the values of nature has led to overexploitation, degradation and destruction of tropical forests, which, in turn, has also significantly contributed to greenhouse gas emissions. Forest conservation and restoration has a critical role to play in the fight against climate change and brings a vast array of additional benefits, from security in water, energy, food, health and livelihoods to maintaining biodiversity itself as a core component of our living planet. As first Minister of Environment and Energy under President Oscar Arias (1986–1990), I brought these views into societal decision-making in Costa Rica and here I briefly describe how. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bringing nature into decision-making'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Head and neck cancer is a significant public health concern in India and globally, with substantial social and economic consequences for affected individuals and their families. The study aimed to assess the socioeconomic impact of head and neck cancer. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire-based study involving 178 head and neck cancer patients who were evaluated at least two years post-completion of their treatment. The questionnaire data collected data on various factors, including site of cancer, treatment modality, speech and diet impairment, changes in earning capacity, occupation, and salary. This was collected from all patients visiting our tertiary cancer care center outpatient department in Ahmedabad, India, between January 2023 and August 2023. The findings highlight the diverse and profound socioeconomic consequences of head and neck cancer. The findings emphasize the need for comprehensive support systems for affected individuals and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long been preoccupied with the role that capital plays in Indonesia's democratic institutions. Observers emphasize a tight overlap between the worlds of politics and business, with many describing murky connections and corrupt alliances among state officials, oligarchs, and local bosses. While such relations remain fundamental to Indonesian politics, this paper draws attention to a parallel but under-analyzed transformation of both the social and political status of business actors in contemporary Indonesia. From tech entrepreneurs to mining giants, people with established business careers are increasingly taking up the reins of government. Once considered the inferior political and policy actor during Suharto's New Order, businesspersons now exercise direct political power and entrepreneurial success is valued, even revered, within political and policymaking circles. While evidence of such changes can be identified at different moments in Indonesia's recent history, during the presidency of businessperson politician, Joko Widodo, there has been a marked intensification of these trends. Today there is a far broader acceptance of business elites as stewards of state institutions. The result is a fusing of private power and public office in a form, and to a degree, that is unprecedented in Indonesia's political history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Perspective begins with a case study that raises two important questions: who is responsible for the existence of non-compliant Medicare billing, and who is responsible for eliminating it? In the discussion that follows, I argue, first, that the problem has been created by individual clinicians and by Medicare itself (i.e. the organisational structure that administers Medicare). Second, and more importantly, I argue that the ethical obligation to eliminate the problem extends more broadly to include both the government and the medical profession. What is known about the topic? The scale of non-compliant Medicare billing is contested. What does this paper add? This Perspective frames non-compliant Medicare billing (and denial of its existence) as a ubiquitous cultural problem. What are the implications for practitioners? Strategies aimed at reducing non-compliant Medicare billing need to target the normative behaviour of societal actors as well as individual practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In search of a way to bring back the positive aspects of an internship into the curriculum, TU Delft identified serious games as a potential solution. The literature studied showed that games could increase motivation and understanding, leading to improve knowledge retention. This paper has brought these insights together in a framework identifying the benefits that contribute to knowledge retention but also the requirements and risks for the application of serious games to be addressed. These insights were used to explain the success of a longstanding business game course for advanced students first. Next was the development of a virtual reality practice in a first-year course to replace the lost internship. In this case, knowledge retention was improved significantly, albeit only by 5%. Furthermore, in light of the developed framework, the VR simulation is a more balanced approach with fewer risks compared to the more extensive master course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Open Science' advocates for open access to scientific research, as well as sharing data, analysis plans and code in order to enable replication of results. However, these requirements typically fail to account for methodological differences between quantitative and qualitative research, and serious ethical problems are raised by the suggestion that full qualitative datasets can or should be published alongside qualitative research papers. Aside from important ethical concerns, the idea of sharing qualitative data in order to enable replication is conceptually at odds with the underpinnings on most qualitative methodologies, which highlight the importance of the unique interpretative function of the researcher. The question of whether secondary analysis of qualitative data is acceptable is key, and in this commentary we argue that there are good conceptual, ethical and economic reasons to consider how funders, researchers and publishers can make better use of existing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For papers to have scientific impact, they need to impress our peers in their role as referees, journal editors, and members of conference committees. Does better writing help our papers make it past these gatekeepers? In this study, we estimate the effect of writing quality by comparing how 30 economists judge the quality of papers written by PhD students in economics. Each economist judged five papers in their original version and five different papers that had been language edited. No economist saw both versions of the same paper. Our results show that writing matters. Compared to the original versions, economists judge edited versions as higher quality; they are more likely to accept edited versions for a conference; and they believe that edited versions have a better chance of being accepted at a good journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In China, the healthcare financing structure involves multiple parties, including the government, society and individuals. Medicare Fund is an important way for the Government and society to reduce the burden of individual medical costs. However, with the aging of the population, the demand of Medicare Fund is increasing. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the sustainability of the healthcare financing structure in the context of population ageing. Objective: The purpose of this paper is to organize the characteristics of population ageing as well as healthcare financing in China. On this basis, it analyzes the impact mechanism of population ageing on healthcare financing and the sustainability of existing healthcare financing. Methods: This paper mainly adopts the method of literature research and inductive summarization. Extracting data from Health Statistics Yearbook of China and Labor and Social Security Statistics Yearbook of China. Collected about 60 pieces of relevant literature at home and abroad. Results: China has already entered a deeply ageing society. Unlike developed countries in the world, China's population ageing has distinctive feature of ageing before being rich. A healthcare financing scheme established by China, composing of the government, society, and individuals, is reasonable. However, under the pressure of population ageing, China's current healthcare financing scheme will face enormous challenges. Scholars are generally pessimistic about the sustainability of China's healthcare financing scheme. Conclusions: Population ageing will increase the expenditure and reduce the income of the Medicare Fund. This will further affect the sustainability of the healthcare financing structure. As a consequence, the state should pay particular attention to this issue and take action to ensure that the Fund continues to operate steadily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of chronic problems with high housing costs, rent regulation has returned to the forefront of policy debate in several countries. This paper addresses three distinct questions related to rent regulation and the role of evidence. First, what are the drivers of policy change on rent regulation and what role does evidence play in shaping change? Second, what is the nature of the evidence base on rent regulation and the key messages that emerge from it? Third, how is this evidence base transmitted into policy debate? We take the example of the recent UK policy debate to examine this issue. The paper discusses the case of current policy development in Scotland to reflect upon policy drivers and the role of evidence. The paper combines insights from a recent evidence review and a decade-long policy ethnography. Not only does research indicate that evidence has played a limited role as a driver for policy change on rent regulation but the nature of the evidence base is such that there are limits on the guidance it can offer and the extent to which policy can in principle be rooted in evidence. The case of Scotland illustrates the forces at play in shaping rent regulation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses significant risks to health and health systems, with the greatest impacts in low- and middle-income countries - which are least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. The Conference of Parties 28 at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference led to agreement on the need for holistic and equitable financing approaches to address the climate and health crisis. This paper provides an overview of existing climate finance mechanisms - that is, multilateral funds, voluntary market-based mechanisms, taxes, microlevies and adaptive social protection. We discuss these approaches' potential use to promote health, generate additional health sector resources and enhance health system sustainability and resilience, and also explore implementation challenges. We suggest that public health practitioners, policy-makers and researchers seize the opportunity to leverage climate funding for better health and sustainable, climate-resilient health systems. Emphasizing the wider benefits of investing in health for the economy can help prioritize health within climate finance initiatives. Meaningful progress will require the global community acknowledging the underlying political economy challenges that have so far limited the potential of climate finance to address health goals. To address these challenges, we need to restructure financing institutions to empower communities at the frontline of the climate and health crisis and ensure their needs are met. Efforts from global and national level stakeholders should focus on mobilizing a wide range of funding sources, prioritizing co-design and accessibility of financing arrangements. These stakeholders should also invest in rigorous monitoring and evaluation of initiatives to ensure relevant health and well-being outcomes are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increased advocacy and investments in mental health systems globally, there has been limited progress in reducing mental disorder prevalence. In this paper, we argue that meaningful advancements in population mental health necessitate addressing the fundamental sources of shared distress. Using a systems perspective, economic structures and policies are identified as the potential cause of causes of mental ill-health. Neoliberal ideologies, prioritizing economic optimization and continuous growth, contribute to the promotion of individualism, job insecurity, increasing demands on workers, parental stress, social disconnection and a broad range of manifestations well-recognized to erode mental health. We emphasize the need for mental health researchers and advocates to increasingly engage with the economic policy discourse to draw attention to mental health and well-being implications. We call for a shift towards a well-being economy to better align commercial interests with collective well-being and social prosperity. The involvement of individuals with lived mental ill-health experiences, practitioners and researchers is needed to mobilize communities for change and influence economic policies to safeguard well-being. Additionally, we call for the establishment of national mental wealth observatories to inform coordinated health, social and economic policies and realize the transition to a more sustainable well-being economy that offers promise for progress on population mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this Article is to take a broader perspective on the lessons which can be learned from the implementation of automated decision-making in the public sector--specifically in regard to how procedural rule of law mechanisms can make such projects trustworthy. The underlying idea behind this Article is to posit the debate about the ADM within the context of rule of law as a key notion in liberal democracies. At the same time, we rely on a law and political economy framework. We look through the lens of power relations and assess to what extent selected procedural solutions governing ADM systems in the public sector support democratization and equality. Our paper is case-specific but aims to offer broader lessons. It takes as a point of departure the Random Allocation of Cases System implemented in Poland and aims to show that the lessons learned from this case have more universal character. Indeed, the case from Poland is useful to demonstrate that specific safeguards and measures concerning transparency and accountability of ADM should not be perceived separately from the broader regulatory context. The text consists of five Parts. In Part II we briefly indicate the significance of procedural rule of law safeguards and their importance for trustworthiness of the state. In Part III we describe our case study, RACS, used in Poland for allocating cases to judges. In Part IV we provide an overview of lessons that can be learned from the implementation of RACS in regard to the significance of more general procedural rules which are crucial for ensuring trustworthy implementation of ADM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, better known as the RCEP, is a free trade agreement signed by 15 countries from the Asia-Pacific region in November 2020. It took effect in January 2022. After presenting an overview of the agreement, this paper looks at the negotiations and the current state of the RCEP. It then focuses on its basic content, particularly from a legal standpoint, as it analyses the institutional framework, the decision rule, its legal sources and the dispute settlement system, without omitting to look at the agreement from an economic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce an approach to the management of infectious disease diffusion through the formulation of a controlled compartmental SVIR (susceptible–vaccinated–infected–recovered) model. We consider a cost functional encompassing three distinct yet interconnected dimensions: the social cost, the disease cost, and the vaccination cost. The proposed model addresses the pressing need for optimized strategies in disease containment, incorporating both social control measures and vaccination campaigns. Through the utilization of advanced control theory, we identify optimal control strategies that mitigate disease proliferation while considering the inherent trade-offs among social interventions and vaccination efforts. Finally, we present the results from a simulation-based study employing a numerical implementation of the optimally controlled system through the forward–backward sweep algorithm. The baseline model considered incorporates parameters representative of typical values observed during the recent pandemic outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An academic journal article on the technicalities of tax data is not usually cause for much excitement. Yet at the end of last year, one such publication in the Journal of Political Economy set #Econtwitter afire with debate, and prompted a full column in the Economist. The paper, by Gerald Auten and David Splinter, took aim at the famous studies on rising inequality conducted by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman. If one employs different assumptions, Auten and Splinter argued, post-tax income inequality in the United States appears not to have risen much since the 1960s. While Piketty and his collaborators systematically challenged the findings, their detractors were quick to the draw. "The Piketty and Saez work is careless and politically motivated," sniped James Heckman, a Nobel-winning Chicago School econometrician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing relevance of business corporations to the lives of older persons, gerontology has given very little, if any, attention to this field. Further, it seems that both the conceptual and the empirical study of what we firstly term "corporate gerontology"—the rich and diverse ways that corporations interact with, influence, and are influenced by older persons and the aging of society—are quite rare. This systematic literature review was designed and executed to explore and present the current state of academic research in the multidisciplinary realm of aging and the business corporation. Of the 46 papers surveyed, the majority belong to the category in which aging is an independent variable that influences the performance of business corporations. Only 27% belong to the second category, which explores how the conduct of corporations can influence various aspects of aging. In light of the retreat of the welfare state and the rising neoliberal system, the lack of adequate governmental responses to aging has paved the way for profit-guided business corporations to enter the field. Their conduct should not be overlooked, and in establishing a new theoretical framework of corporate gerontology, we hope it will draw future research and public attention and raise awareness of this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses issues related to the development of technologies and the relationship of this process with economic processes. Due to the rapid digitalization, the importance and role of artificial intelligence are growing. At the same time there are many problems and they are considered in this paper: unemployment of technical workers, a security problem that is associated with the confidentiality, the existing neural networks cannot be suitable for use in all industries etc. When using the generalization method, the authors have made relevant conclusions and recommendations for using Artificial Intellect: to solve the following universal tasks: automatic translation; getting business intelligence; recognition of visual signs; character recognition; information extraction; understanding and analyzing texts; image analysis; ensuring information security and protection against cyber-attacks; speech recognition; robotic tools for the implementation of tasks at different levels and in different fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research on European education policy has aptly focused on the role of supranational and intergovernmental actors, less attention has been devoted to its analysis as a policy arena in which legitimacy can be created and power can be exerted in sophisticated ways. Specifically, the role of non-state actors as agenda-setters for European education and employment policies is still unexplored. By combining a neo-Gramscian approach of political economy with Jochim and May's boundary spanning policy regimes' perspective, which captures activity across policy subsystems that seek to manage 'wicked' policy problems, this paper looks at the role of private and business actors, and specifically the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), in European education during the 1980s and 1990s. The findings show how this period can be considered a foundational period for the emergence of a BSPR in education and employment, and in which specific goals and directions were set out in the European education agenda more fine-tuned with employment goals and industry's needs. Moreover, the paper illustrates why private and non-state actors shape boundary policy spanning regimes at the nexus of education and employment, which in this case reflected the economic interests and preferences of European transnational companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon Alfred Kor.ybski's distinction between extensional and intensional orientations to reveal how time-binding relates to wealth, economics, and politics. As economic concerns and sensibilities inform a good deal of political thought, the paper shows how the phenomenon of wealth- and in particular the rise of superabundance-warrants careful examination and also how general semantics provides needed resources for thinking about these issue. "Wealth, understood within GS, provides an exemplar ofuniquely human properties that emerge only with the time-binding class of life. By tracing the intricate connections between time-binding and wealth creation, this paper engages in thoroughgoing re-evaluation of self-understanding, and therein, it opens neit ' vistas for thinking about contemporary political divisions and social problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper analyses the survey of different contributions in the fields of economics and industrial HRM decisions by taking into account the performance of firms, HRM, advertising expenditures, and areas for the development of organizations or human resources. This study gives a review of existing accounts of literature and the evolution of different firms that reveal the re-examination of early years' time. This is a serious gap that is not demonstrated by the researchers. It has also been done in different industries for two decades for field existence in influential and academic writers for the rank of economics and economics-based rank and review. This study was mainly done from 2000 to 2022 for the economy of Pakistan. The organizational structure is reviewed, and this paper ends with a brief review of recent developments that have occurred in these decades on the basis of time series econometric modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way the pandemic COVID-19 affecting the public railway transport in the South Bohemia currently is a much-debated issue. On both a theoretical and practical level, this paper aims to determine whether the pandemic COVID-19 influenced the quality of public railway transport in South Bohemia between the years 2020 and 2021. The results of the paper provide the unambiguous arguments which could have been foreseen. There is, however, dissatisfaction among individual groups of passengers as well as on the part of the state. The surveys point to the slowly improving state of the quality of public railway transport in the coming years. Statistical and mathematical methods confirm the overall weaker efficiency and stability of passenger transportation. The reason is the psychological and economic aspects due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advocates for a shift from insular paternalism to developmental paternalism in education, contending that students' engagement with erroneous ideas is crucial for building the ability to resist harmful notions and support democracy. The proposed inoculative approach exposes students to problematic ideas, guiding them through the process of overcoming these beliefs using the pedagogy of relation. The author employs behavioral economics to explore the shortcomings of insular paternalism and the early Christian notion of metanoia to explain the importance of changing one's mind. This developmentally-informed approach fosters rational thinking and curbs extremist ideologies. The paper asserts that prioritizing an inoculative approach over an insulatory one equips students to navigate the complexities of the modern world and uphold democratic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of divisive disagreements about how the British left should orient itself towards the current Labour Party, this intervention uses the Gorzian category of non-reformist reforms to critically evaluate the 2017–19 policy programme developed by the Corbyn-led Labour Party and draw out the implications for current strategic debates. It argues that the radical core of the Corbynite economic programme lay in its proposals for widening ownership and extending economic democracy, but that there was a tension between commodified and decommodifying visions of these proposals. Exploring the different conceptions of political transformation implicit within each vision, the paper argues that only the latter had the potential to be non-reformist in the Gorzian sense. However, Gorz was concerned not merely with a reform's content but also with how it was formulated and pursued. The paper ends by arguing that the transformative potential of the economic programme was not reflected in its political strategy and that this has important lessons for strategy today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several scholars and policy-makers have proposed a "Neo-Brandeisian" reform of U.S. antitrust law, aimed at reviving "republican" antitrust. Republicanism conceives of domination as inherently detrimental to freedom. Republican antitrust considers antitrust law as an "institution of antipower," aimed at dispersing economic power. This paper sets out two key challenges to the Neo-Brandeisian reform agenda and argues for legal formalism to address them. First, republicanism would alter the normative justification, but not necessarily the content of antitrust law. Neoclassical antitrust law does not broadly reflect a Schumpeterian endorsement of dominance. Rather, its epistemological priors and methodology entail skepticism about the mere presence of economic power. Thus, mainstream antitrust law and policy remain unfazed by the Neo-Brandeisian claim that antitrust should target domination instead of consumer welfare. Second, Neo-Brandeisian reform proposals are inherently polycentric. How Neo-Brandeisians aim to balance distinct values including the competitive process, the harm of concentrated power, and the protection of democracy and egalitarianism has remained unclear. This paper argues that both challenges demand for a formalistic approach to Neo-Brandeisian antitrust. Compared to a case-by-case approach, adopting general rules through legislative or administrative decision-making may legitimately overturn current precedent, incorporate alternate methods of measuring power and competitive harm, and pursue a variety of republican goals. Neo-Brandeisian formalism would essentially reinvigorate the Harvard school's insight that multiple purposes—including both efficiency and republican liberty—can be attained by formalistic rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experts in different fields have claimed that the UK has experienced a process of growing economic inequality since the 1970s. Following Fairclough's dialectal-relational approach, this paper presents a detailed, systematic analysis of the representation of homeless people and homelessness in The Guardian and Daily Mail from 2000 to 2018, in order to explore how these have been discursively represented over time. Therefore, our study addresses two specific research questions: How have homelessness and homeless people been represented in the UK press? Are there any discoursal changes in representation with the passing of time? The analysis, which has employed mostly qualitative but also quantitative (statistical) methods drawing on corpus-assisted discourse analysis, is informed by the theory of transitivity within Systemic Functional Linguistics. Results indicate that, within an overall negative representation of homeless people and homelessness in this period, there have been some significant discoursal changes over time. As such, this paper contributes to critical discourse studies and transitivity research on a relevant social problem, that of growing economic inequality in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political measures during the COVID-19 pandemic forced consumers to cancel flights, resulting in significant decreases of their individual greenhouse gas emissions. This paper introduces the concept of imposed flying sufficiency and asks whether this could lead to a flying rebound. Imposed flying sufficiency describes that external factors, such as political measures during the pandemic, force consumers to reduce their flights. The term flying rebound refers to the gap between the emissions that could be potentially saved due to flying sufficiency and the actualized emissions savings due to adjusted flying behavior. A major contribution of this paper is combining the economic mechanisms with moral-psychological aspects of rebound effects in an experimental study. In a 2 (with/without economic hint) × 2 (with/without ecological hint) between-subjects experimental study, this paper analyzes how the awareness of monetary savings and the awareness of ecological consequences affect consumers' flying intentions. The study reveals an interaction effect of these two aspects: While awareness of the monetary savings will increase flying intentions, awareness of the ecological consequences will buffer this effect. Furthermore, the degree to which consumers feel flight shame, strongly moderates the economic and ecological hints' impact. Finally, the paper provides implications for managers and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the 10 priorities of the Green New Deal is sustainable transportation. It should be considered in the perspective of long-term ecological and economic sustainability, according to the trend of opportunities for sustainable development. The economic and environmental aspects of transportation related to the harvesting and movement of timber play a special role in the energy cost and their environmental impact per distance of raw material supply. The principles of rational and energy-efficient use of transportation equipment play a key role in the movement of raw timber. These are influenced by the availability of timber resources, limitation of vehicle payloads, reduction of energy consumption expressed in terms of reduction of fuel combustion, or current legal and road regulations for timber transportation. The paper evaluates economic and environmental factors in relation to the demand for fuels necessary for the implementation of road transportation of softwood timber. The aim of this paper was to present the current situation of the use of transportation means in the movement of bulky timber, as well as opportunities to optimize fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, affecting the economic and environmental effects. Previous studies on fuel consumption in the transportation of roundwood indicate irrational use of vehicles. This indicates unused payload capacity increasing energy inputs expressed in fuel consumption. It has been empirically investigated that this is the result of improperly approved transport sets adapted to the material being transported. In addition, it was shown that there is a clear correlation between the vehicle payload utilization rate and economic and environmental factors. The results of this study point to the potential to increase the use of transportation vehicles for timber transportation and reduce fuel combustion and CO2 emissions by 7–20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]