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We develop an overlapping generations model to explore the role of grandparents in grandchildren's education and its impact on human capital growth. We examine the quantity–quality (Q–Q) trade-off faced by parents in choosing the number and education of children, incorporating an active role for grandparents. Findings underscore the significance of the elderly in human capital accumulation, fertility, and economic growth. When grandparents invest more time, resources are freed, fostering greater human capital growth and mitigating the effects of the Q–Q trade-off. • Overlapping generations models can model active aging. • The trade-off between quantity and quality of children is a crucial topic in human fertility theories. • Active aging can influence the educational process. • Grandparents can play a fundamental role in educating their grandchildren. • Grandchildren with a higher level of education imply a higher human capital and foster economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some theories suggest that ethnic minority students who anticipate discrimination in the labour market may invest more in easily observable human capital, such as education, to signal their productivity to employers. Empirical research has been hampered, however, by a lack of direct information on anticipated labour market treatment. We link ethnic minority student expectations of facing discrimination in the labour market to subsequent performance in high-stakes certificated national exams in England. Our findings suggest that anticipating labour market discrimination is associated with better exam performance, consistent with the view that students are seeking to counteract potential future penalties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We build an endogenous growth model featuring a new mode of human capital accumulation in a data economy. Data are generated as the byproducts of economic activities and then used by consumers for human capital accumulation apart from education. Although we find similar growth patterns compared with those in the related literature, economic growth is further accelerated by the new use of data factor. Quantitative analyses suggest that although the accumulation of human capital is promoted by the increasing importance of data, this promotion is not unlimited since data may over-absorb resources and crowd out education. In the transition dynamics, we see that consumers suffer temporary welfare loss. However, as data become a key factor in human capital accumulation, welfare ultimately increases. Our paper provides a first view of the effect of the data factor in the process of human capital accumulation. • Digital economy promotes economic growth through human capital accumulation. • A model is built to incorporate data into human capital accumulation. • The promotion effect of data on human capital accumulation is not unlimited. • In transition dynamics, consumers may face temporary welfare loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Children sleep less on days with longer daylight duration. • Sleeping longer improves selected general developmental, behavioural and health outcomes in children and adolescents. • Sleeping more increases children's BMI scores, mainly by increasing the risk of being overweight. • The results indicate a null or relatively small positive impact of sleeping longer on cognitive skills. Children and adolescents spend more than one-third of their time sleeping. Yet, we know little about the causal impact of sleeping on their development. This paper is the first to exploit variation in local daily daylight duration measured on pre-determined diary dates across the same individuals through time as an instrument in an individual fixed effects regression model to draw causal estimates of sleep duration on a comprehensive set of child development indicators. Applying this model to about 50 thousand time use diaries from two cohorts of Australian children spanning over 16 years, we first document that children sleep substantially less on days with longer daylight duration. Our results show that sleeping longer improves selected general developmental, behavioural and health outcomes in children and adolescents. By contrast, sleeping more statistically significantly increases the BMI scores, mainly by increasing the risk of being overweight. Moreover, while the impact of sleep duration on general and behavioural outcomes is more pronounced for females or older individuals, the effect on BMI is largely driven by males. The results indicate a null or relatively small positive impact of sleeping longer on cognitive skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typically, in standardised tests, girls underperform boys in mathematics while boys underperform girls in reading. Can these educational inequalities be driven by specific testing practices? This study addresses this question by innovatively using data from the largest worldwide standardized test and exploiting the random variation in the format of the tests assigned to students. I find that there is a noticeable widening of the gender gap when a larger share of questions is multiple-choice, rather than filling-the-gap questions. A 10 percentage point increase in the share of multiple-choice questions inflates female under-performance in mathematics by 0.025 standard deviations and male under-performance in reading by 0.035 standard deviations. This accounts for nearly one-quarter of the overall gender disparity found in these subjects. I provide suggestive evidence that ruling out alternative options, rather than coming up with an entire answer, may contribute to cognitive information overload among students with lower confidence levels (generally girls in mathematics and boys in reading). These cognitive loads, in turn, have implications for a student's future level of effort and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper analyzes long-term impacts of electoral violence on health and education. • Areas exposed to violence in Kenya suffer inflation and fall in annual consumption. • Children and adolescents exposed to violence have stunted height as adults. • The sons of those exposed to violence during growing age also have stunted growth. • No long-term impact on education is found as violence peaks during school holidays. This paper examines whether prenatal, childhood, and teenage exposure to electoral violence has any long-term effects on height and human capital in Kenya. First, using the difference-in-difference estimator, we show that areas impacted by electoral violence see increases in local food prices and a decrease in annual nightlight, suggesting important local consumption shocks. We then identify people exposed to such violence using a nationally representative survey and take advantage of the temporal and spatial variation of electoral violence in Kenya between 1992 and 2013. Using coarsened exact matching, we find that exposure to electoral violence between prenatal and the age of sixteen reduces adult height. Previous research has demonstrated that protracted, large-scale armed conflicts can cause significant nutritional shocks and pass down stunting effects to descendants. In line with these studies, we find that the low-scale but recurrent electoral violence in Kenya has impacted the height-for-age of children whose parents were exposed to such violence while they were growing up. Only boys exhibit this intergenerational effect, possibly due to their increased susceptibility to malnutrition and stunting in Sub-Saharan Africa. The fact that most electoral violence in Kenya occurs over the school holidays may help explain why, in contrast to previous studies on large-scale conflicts, childhood exposure to electoral violence has no lasting impact on educational attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most migration studies and theories focus on understanding the initial migration of people from their home country. Less attention has been paid to the factors influencing immigrants' preferences to either permanently settle in the host country, return to their home country or move onwards to another destination. Understanding the characteristics and motives of those who aspire to leave the host country is, however, valuable for both host and home countries to formulate appropriate and effective policies in order to retain their valued immigrants or citizens and foster their successful (re-)integration. This paper provides a comprehensive global analysis of the characteristics and circumstances that shape first-generation immigrants' aspirations to stay, return or migrate onwards, based on individual-level data from the Gallup World Polls across 138 countries worldwide between 2009 and 2016. Our study reveals that immigrants' stated preferences are strongly influenced by demographics, human and spiritual capital, as well as by soft factors, such as social ties and sociocultural integration, while economic factors have a more feeble influence. Changes in circumstances in the home and host countries are also important determinants of locational aspirations. Some interesting exceptions to our results stand out when we differentiate home and host countries by their economic development levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Croatia's growth over the past two decades is deeply related to the dynamics of international trade. Under the premise that what is bought and sold in global markets reflects the economy's fundamentals, we show that the rate of growth compatible with equilibrium in the balance-of-payments, i.e. the dynamic Harrod trade multiplier, is a good predictor of the country's actual long-run growth rate. For this purpose, we apply a state–space model and the Kalman smoother to obtain time-varying parameter estimates of the exports and imports functions. We use these estimates to investigate the determinants of international non-price competitiveness. Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) and Weighted Average Least Squares (WALS) techniques are combined to tackle model selection uncertainty. It is shown that R&D investments and human capital accumulation are the most important explanatory variables. The success of the European Union's (EU) integration process depends on the capacity of its new members to achieve a balanced-growth path. Being the last country to join the union, the experience of this single country is particularly relevant to understand possible development alternatives for the region. We conclude by highlighting the policy relevance of our findings to the evaluation of Croatia's catching-up performance as part of the EU. • Croatia's growth is deeply related to the dynamics of international trade. • We apply a state–space model to estimate the trade-multiplier for this country. • We show it is a good predictor of the actual long-run growth rate. • Estimates are used to investigate the determinants of international non-price competitiveness. • R&D, human capital, and demography are the most important explanatory variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the effect of land titling on investment in human capital. We first develop a theoretical model of the investment in the presence of property rights to agricultural land and then test the predictions of the model regarding the schooling decisions of households using data from Mexico's PROCEDE land titling program. Using the staggered introduction of land titling, we find that ownership tilted the balance in favor of investment in human capital in the form of schooling. Titling decreased the hazard rate of dropping out of school by 14% for children between the ages of 6 and 18. Additionally, including the effects of the contemporaneous conditional cash transfer program further reduced the hazard rate of dropping out by 34%. We find that these results hold even when the head of the household changes or migrates. Titling has a significant effect on female children but not on extremely poor families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Maternal depression significantly impacts child school readiness. • First diagnosis during pregnancy has largest effect on vulnerability. • Effects are attenuated when confounding factors are included. • Child health during childhood has large effects on school readiness. This study investigates the impact of the timing of initial exposure to maternal depression on a comprehensive measure of children's school readiness that incorporates multidimensional developmental domains underlying school adaptation and later success. The Early Development Instrument scores of 59,413 children were linked to their mothers, who were observed from five years before the child's birth to the child's fifth birthday. Exposure to maternal depression was associated with developmental vulnerability in emotional, physical, social, and cognitive domains, and the effects were strongest if the child was first exposed during pregnancy or the preschool period. When controlling for health at birth, health of the child during early childhood, mother's health prior to pregnancy, and the family environment however, the effects of exposure to maternal depression were attenuated. Thus, although maternal depression is a risk factor for children's school readiness, their health and environment compound this effect. A number of different stratifications, variable definitions and robustness checks support the reliability of the findings. The results suggest that mitigating the effects of maternal depression on school readiness is important at any age, and that the programs to address this are likely to lead to improvements far beyond those for maternal depression alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Industrial robots can significantly promote firm productivity. • The main mechanism comes from the improvement of human capital structure and innovation of firms. • Industrial robots are more likely to increase the total factor productivity of non-state owned and small-scale firm. • Industrial robots are more likely to increase the total factor productivity in firms that have political affiliations and low market concentration. • Industrial robots are more likely to increase the total factor productivity in firms that low financialization, and high managerial competence. Industrial robotics has become a driving force in the development of high-quality manufacturing enterprises. This paper investigates the impact of industrial robotics on the total factor productivity of enterprises and its mechanism of action through the use of data from A-shares of Chinese companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges from 2007 to 2019. We found that the use of industrial robots significantly increases the total factor productivity of enterprises, findings that still hold when Bartik instrumental variables are constructed. The mechanism of action suggests that industrial robot application improves both the human capital structure and the innovation capability of enterprises, thus increasing total factor productivity. Heterogeneity analysis shows that industrial robot applications are more likely to increase total factor productivity in firms that are non-state-owned and small scale and have political affiliations, low market concentration, low financialization, and high managerial competence. The findings of this study will help to accurately assess the productivity effects of industrial robotics, and the government should continue to promote the integration of industrial robotics and manufacturing development and actively cultivate independent innovation capabilities and professional skills in the field of industrial robotics in order to increase total factor productivity in enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we employ firm-level panel data from China to study how the human capital characteristics of a firm's leadership affect R&D investment. One novel feature of this study is that we include human capital traits of both the CEO and the Board of Directors, as well as their interplay. Human capital is measured with various experiences to capture observed and unobserved traits. Using various econometric techniques, we find that both CEO's and BOD's human capital characteristics have a significant impact on R&D investment. CEOs' innovation experience and overseas experiences promote innovation, while their production experience hinders it. The education and government experiences of board directors show different impacts on R&D investment. Moreover, the human capital traits of CEO and BOD influence each other and thus jointly affect innovation. The effects of leadership human capital on R&D investment are more profound in tech-intensive and smaller firms than in traditional or larger firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The ARDL cointegration technique was applied for the Brazilian context in the very long-run (1822–2019). • We focus on three main determinants of Brazil's economic growth, namely human capital, structural change, and institutional quality. • The research provides policy suggestions for promoting economic growth in Brazil through human capital accumulation and industrialization. A growing body of empirical literature has considered very long-time horizons when studying the sources of a country's economic growth. Nevertheless, the growth experiences of emerging economies (EEs) have been overlooked. This study examines to what extent human capital, structural change, and institutional quality contribute to the economic growth of one of the largest EEs in the world, Brazil, between 1822 and 2019. Resorting to the ARDL cointegration technique, the results suggest that years of schooling (human capital) have a positive and long-lasting impact on Brazil's economic growth. Moreover, there is solid evidence that sectoral changes toward more advanced and sophisticated manufacturing basis is growth-enhancing in the country. Finally, institutional quality does not constitute over the very long-run, a significant booster of Brazilian economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the asymmetric impact of renewable electricity energy usage and industrialization on the environmental sustainability of South Africa. The load capacity factor (LF) is a more extensive measure of environmental deterioration when compared to carbon emissions and the ecological footprint, which cover a range of both the demand on and supply of nature. The series dataset used for the empirical analysis spans between 1990 and 2019. The study also investigates the effect of human capital, industrialization, and economic growth on load capacity factor. The result of the NARDL estimator reveals that the increase in renewable electricity energy usage increases LF in the long and short term. However, the decline in renewable electricity energy usage has a neutral impact on LF. Furthermore, the results indicate that industrialization and economic growth impact LF negatively. Lastly, human capital improves environmental quality due to the increasing effect on LF. The spectral Granger causality approach outcomes show that all the parameters can forecast load capacity factors in the long term. Some policy implications, restrictions, and potential future study pathways have been explored in light of this paper's results. • The nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag is employed. • Asymmetric impact of renewable electricity consumption on environmental sustainability. • A broad environmental indicator is used, load capacity factor. • The positive change in renewable electricity consumption promotes environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Uses new data on epidemics from the African meningitis belt to examine the effects of epidemics on economic outcomes. • Finds that high, unexpected levels of meningitis, reduce child health outcomes, especially in periods when the WHO does not declare an epidemic year. • The effects are reversed when the WHO announces an epidemic, and children born in areas with high levels of meningitis during a declared epidemic year have better health outcomes. They are less stunted and less underweight. • Results also show suggestive evidence for crowd-out of routine vaccination during epidemic years. • Finds evidence that the influx of health aid in response to WHO epidemic announcements partly explains this reversal or epidemic effect. Epidemics can negatively affect economic development unless they are mitigated by global governance institutions. We examine the effects of sudden exposure to epidemics on human capital outcomes using evidence from the African meningitis belt. Meningitis shocks reduce child health outcomes, particularly when the World Health Organization (WHO) does not declare an epidemic year. These effects are reversed when the WHO declares an epidemic year. Children born in meningitis shock areas in a year when an epidemic is declared are 10 percentage points (pp) less stunted and 8.2 pp less underweight than their peers born in non-epidemic years. We find evidence for the crowd-out of routine vaccination during epidemic years. We analyze data from World Bank projects and find evidence that an influx of health aid in response to WHO declarations may partly explain these reversals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, most countries have shown keen interest in achieving spectacular economic development through diversifying and sophisticating their export growths. This growth uprising process requires energy consumption. Amid this scenario, this study delves into whether the disaggregate energy consumption (renewable and non-renewable) promotes export diversification and sophistication strategies in OECD countries during 1990–2019. The contribution of this study is to construct two novel indices, e.g., export diversification and sophistication and incorporate them into the study model as the dependent variables. Moreover, using the CS-ARDL approach, the study finds that disaggregate energy consumption contributes to spurring export diversification and sophistication for the OECD countries where non-renewable energy consumption's influence is more potent than renewable energy. Besides, the regressors, such as FDI, human capital, and institutional quality, also promote export diversification and sophistication in the OECD countries. Finally, this research validates the findings yielded from the CS-ARDL method by employing the System GMM (SGMM) approach due to the endogeneity issue appearing in the panel data. This study puts notable policy recommendations based on explored findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing carbon crisis threatens sustainable development. This paper verifies that the rise of green finance contributes to overcoming this challenge. The benchmark results show that green finance can directly drive decarbonization of the economy. High-level openness, government support, human capital and urbanization are prerequisites of this effect, and green finance is more effective in promoting decarbonization in areas with high carbon intensity. Moreover, green finance drives economic decarbonization by promoting economic growth, technical innovation, industrial upgrading, and renewable energy transition. Internet availability, financial level and higher education have moderating roles in boosting this effect. Furthermore, the implementation of green finance policy also contributes to decarbonization. The robustness of the basic result is proven with several methods, thus strengthening the reliability of the basic conclusion in this paper. Based on the above main findings, targeted policy recommendations concerning how to further develop green finance are proposed in this paper. • Green finance can directly drive economic decarbonization. • Some high-level external circumstances are the prerequisite of that effect. • Green finance can drive economic decarbonization through mediating paths. • Moderating paths are Internet availability, financial level and education. • Green finance policy makes contributions to the economic decarbonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even in the modern era with increasing globalization and technological innovation, the issue of energy poverty is still debatable in many parts of the world. Unlike developed countries, developing countries struggle to satisfy the growing energy demand. To evaluate the role of financial inclusion and its impact on energy poverty in six representative emerging economies including Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Russia from 2004 to 2019, this paper examines the role of the composite risk index (a combination of political, economic, and financial risk), investment in energy with public-private participation, gross domestic product, human capital, globalization, and renewable energy. This study first constructed a multidimensional index to measure the weighted average energy poverty and composite energy poverty index along with a novel index for financial inclusion. Moreover, this study uses novel panel data approaches such as Westerlund's cointegration and cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lags model (CS-ARDL). The study established long-run cointegrating relationship between energy poverty and its detereminants, i.e., financial inclusion, globalization, investment in energy, human capital index, income and composite risk index. The empirical results found that financial inclusion, renewable energy electricity, globalisation, income, human capital index and energy investment are the key determinants of energy poverty in emerging economies. Furthermore, financial inclusion is found to curb energy poverty. Human capital index and globalization also help to reduce energy poverty. Given the empirical results of the nexus and impacts of financial inclusion on energy poverty using the multidimensional proxies, the study provides critical implications to researchers and policymakers in mitigating the consequences of energy poverty and the development of financial systems and their co-movement with energy poverty-related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We analyze the impact of religious fundamentalist-motived policy of the Taliban on long-term human capital development. • We find a large negative impact of their rule on educational attainment and literacy rates, especially among women who were school-aged during this period. • We also find school-aged women during their rule made reduced human-health investment in their children – e.g., lower vaccination rates and higher infant mortality rates. • This reduced investment is not explained by differences in family planning or the enforcement of more patriarchal family norms during Taliban occupation, but appears explained by the lack of knowledge in basic healthcare related to human capital development. • Policies motivated by even short-term dominance of religious extremism has persistent negative impacts on human capital formation and overall development. We analyze the impact of religious and culturally motived policy on long-term human-capital development. Exploiting the unexpected rise and fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and geographic variation in exposure to Taliban rule, we find a large negative impact of its rule on education and literacy rates among both men and women who were early-school-age under their rule. We also find that when those girls later became mothers, they reduced health investment in their own children– e.g., lower vaccination rates and higher infant mortality. Yet, this reduced investment is not explained by family-planning differences or the Taliban's enforcement of highly patriarchal norms. Rather it appears to relate to the lack of knowledge in basic healthcare, which is likely associated with the Taliban's role in depressing education and literacy. In sum, even short-term cultural/religious-related policies can have persistent impacts on long-term human-capital formation and overall growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wage gaps between various groups within economies are common and policy solutions to attenuate them can have different distributional effects within groups. We propose a model to think about how, when labour is relatively immobile but capital isn't, an economy with initial wage gaps between different groups can transition toward greater equality. We apply this framework to the French-English linguistic wage gap in Quebec (Canada) between 1970 and 2000 by looking at birth cohorts from 1910 to 1970. Our findings are consistent with our model: the closing of the wage gap was caused by a change, during the 1940s in compulsory schooling which shocked the initial equilibrium and led to cohort-specific dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand the long-term consequences and the possible channels (mainly, technological progress and human capital accumulation) through which a declining population may eventually sustain long-run economic growth and innovation in advanced economies, we build an endogenous, non-scale growth model with horizontal R&D activity and human capital investment. Population growth and per capita human capital accumulation are linked to each other by means of what in the paper is identified as the 'multiplicative effect' of population. As long as the strength of this effect exceeds a given positive threshold, population growth and per-capita income growth can be negatively correlated. This means that a negative rate of population growth can sustain a positive economic growth rate in the long run. • Human capital investment is embedded into an R&D-based endogenous growth model. • The law of motion of per-capita human capital includes a class-size effect. • Economic growth is simultaneously sustained by R&D– and human capital–investments. • Conditions are found for negative population growth to yield positive macro effects. • We challenge the idea that a declining population is always bad for long-run growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economists have mainly focused on human capital accumulation rather than on the causes and consequences of human capital depreciation in late adulthood. To investigate how human capital depreciates over the life cycle, we examine how a newly introduced pension program, the National Rural Pension Scheme, affects cognitive performance in rural China. We find significant adverse effects of access to pension benefits on cognitive functioning among the elderly. We detect the most substantial impact of the program on delayed recall, a cognition measure linked to the onset of dementia. In terms of mechanisms, cognitive deterioration in late adulthood is mediated by a substantial reduction in social engagement, volunteering, and activities fostering mental acuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I study how the impacts of initial unemployment conditions on labor market returns vary for US college graduates with different levels of cognitive and social skills. Using the NLSY79 whose respondents graduated from college between 1979 and 1989, I find that the cost of recessions is substantial and unequal. The different roles of skills in workers' careers explain a large degree of heterogeneity in the costs of labor market shocks at graduation. When a worker with higher social skills graduates in a recession, she widens her advantage mostly through higher academic attainment and mobility toward highly rated and high-skilled occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines if democracy reduces poverty in 40 Sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1999–2018. For this purpose, we employ the Generalised Method of Moments. The results show that democracy is not directly associated with poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. However, this observation hides important non-linearities and an interesting pattern of policy complementarities. Indeed, democracy is associated with poverty reduction in countries where economic growth is strong and human capital high. The robustness tests carried out do not change these results. This means that poor economic growth and weak human capital not only have a direct negative effect on the well-being of SSA countries, but also prevent the poor in those countries from benefitting the gains of democracy. Therefore, in order to reduce poverty in SSA, policy makers should continue the process of democratization while simultaneously adopting policies of economic development and human capital building. Democracy in isolation is useless for the poor in SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Group of 20 (G20) economies has faced extensive energy consumption issues and lack of attention has been paid by the researchers towards the effectiveness of key driven factors REW energy consumption such as ecological innovation, trade openness and human capital. The study, thereby, examines the association between said constructs and provides evidences from G-20 economies covering the period from 1995 to 2019, hence addressing the literary gap. The study used multiple methods such as second-generation panel estimation method for unit root, CS-ARDL technique to find out the association among constructs in short and long run and AMG and CCEMG method for robustness analysis. Results revealed that eco-innovations, trade openness and human capital play significantly positive role in the adoption of renewable energy consumption in G-20 countries. These estimations are found to be robust in AMG and CCEMG analysis. Relevant policies are suggested to be made by practitioners based on the obtained results. • Renewable energy consumption improves the environmental conditions in the country. • Eco-innovation leads the industry towards renewable energy consumption. • Upsurge in Human capital significantly reduces environmental degradation. • Trade openness is the foremost factors that increase renewable energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• It explores the role of intergovernmental transfers in intergenerational mobility. • Intergovernmental transfers promote the equalizations of public goods across regions. • Transfers targeting equal fiscal capacities should boost intergenerational mobility. • It confirms intergovernmental transfers weaken the income persistence heterogeneously. • Furthermore, two mechanisms and two categories of transfers are also distinguished. Intergenerational income mobility has been widely concerned focusing mainly on the transmission mechanism within families. This paper turns to explore the structural determinants and pays special attentions to the role of intergovernmental transfer. Since the fiscal decentralization in 1990s, intergovernmental transfers become an increasingly critical part in Chinese fiscal system, balancing the fiscal capacities across regions and promoting the equalization of public goods. The question arises naturally as whether transfers targeting at equalization can boost intergenerational mobility. However, little work has investigated this intersection of studies and seldom is known about this question. This paper tries to shed some new lights. Through investigations, it confirms that intergovernmental transfers weaken the income persistence and the effect is especially significant for urban areas; the effects for the rural are mixed. Further explorations indicate that the special-purpose transfer payment has greater effects when measured during college period; notably, entering college may bring the rural children fundamental changes relative to other levels of education. In conclusion, the intergovernmental transfer system is relatively more pro-urban. To better fulfill the equalizing effect of the intergovernmental transfers on both static inequality across regions and dynamic inequality across generations, should the transfers be re-framed with cautions tilting more towards the rural.Meanwhile, the competitive behaviors and (dis)incentives of the local governments should also be taken into accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a shortage of research investigating the link between employee development practices and intellectual capital as mediated by knowledge management. The aim of the current research was to consider the influence of employee development practices on intellectual capital through knowledge management. Data were collected through an instrument distributed to a sample of 464 employees working at information and communications technology companies. The results indicate that employee development practices had significant effects on human capital, knowledge management, and social capital. The results reveal that knowledge management had a significant effect on human capital but not on social capital. Finally, the results show that knowledge management significantly mediated the impact of employee development practices on human capital. Additionally, implications for intellectual capital development, organizational strategy, and academic research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current era faces the devastating threats of global warming than what is evident in the pre-industrial age. Efforts toward resolving these environmental issues have heightened the calls for pro-green policy measures in which renewable energy and green finance stand out. Consequently, this study examines the impact of renewable energy, green finance, technological innovation, and economic complexity on sustainable development captured by sustainable economic growth and carbon neutrality in China. The empirical model endogenizes the role of natural resource dependence and human capital. The analysis is based on annual time series data from 1996 to 2018 estimated using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The empirical results reveal that renewable energy (RE) and technological innovations (TECIN) are fundamental factors whose engagement is not negligible if the other indicators must provide desirable and consistent growth and environmental effects that support sustainable development. In particular, the essential roles of green finance on sustainable development are empirically confirmed for China. Interestingly, the robustness analyses conducted provided substantial backings for the main results. Practical policy implications leading to the sustenance of green finance, renewable energy, and technological innovation for driving sustainable development in the Chinese economy are formulated based on empirical results. • Policies signify greenhouse gas emissions reduction motivated this research. • Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model employed for the period of 1996–2018. • Renewable energy & technological innovations are vital for sustainable development. • The impacts of the other regressors are inconsistent on the outcome variables. • The robustness analyses conducted provided substantial backings for the main results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous nations have demonstrated their commitment to achieve sustainable economic growth by enhancing export sophistication fueled by imperative energy utilization. This research examines the impact of renewable and non-renewable energy (RE and NRE) use on the improvement and diversification of export strategies among OECD economies using data from 1990 to 2022. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by introducing an export sophistication index as a dependent variable in the corresponding model. Pre-estimations followed by employing the CS-ARDL method findings revealed that disaggregated energy use plays a pivotal role in enhancing the intelligence of OECD economies, with the use of NRE energy exerting a more significant influence than REN use. While foreign direct investment, institutional quality and human capital also play essential roles in the complexity of exports within these economies. Applying the dynamic econometric technique, Wavelet coherence analysis substantiates these findings. Consequently, the study's results yield a range of policy recommendations. • Commitment to achieve sustainable economic growth by enhancing export sophistication fueled by imperative energy utilization. • This research examines the impact of renewable and non-renewable energy (RE and NRE) use on the improvement and diversification of export strategies. • This study introduces an export sophistication index as a dependent variable in the corresponding model. • CS-ARDL method findings revealed that disaggregated energy use plays a pivotal role in enhancing the intelligence of OECD economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most perpetrators of terrorist violence have had some level of post-secondary school education, with many enrolled in education at the time of their attacks. Exploring this premise in the context of prevention, this article draws from data gathered on a purposive sample (N = 206) of radicalized individuals from Europe and North America, half of whom became involved in terrorist violence at the end of their radicalization trajectories. Through a lens of educational participation, we propose novel, non-linear frameworks for understanding radicalization outcomes. To do so, two factors are explored that uniquely intersect when an individual enters a school setting: Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and the human capital provided by education. As hypothesized, exposure to ACE was found to be associated with radicalization trajectories culminating in terrorist violence at the bivariate level (OR = 2.08). Consistent with the developmental-assets framework, it was further hypothesized that this relationship would be mediated by enrollment in education; however, results did not support this hypothesis. Instead, consistent with resiliency-based models, it was found that the relationship between ACE and involvement in terrorist violence was significant for those who abandoned education during radicalization (OR = 2.07). As well as contributing to theoretical models of radicalization to terrorist violence, identifying the furtherance of education as a moderator of risk may signal an important preventative strategy for violent extremism. Keeping enrolled students engaged in their programs, even if only nominally, may also forego the need for educators to engage in potentially controversial practices such as alerting the authorities to students who display signs of radicalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor economic performance of subordinate (typically, minority) groups and large disparities between these groups and the dominant ethnic group are major concerns in most countries. In many of these countries, the mother tongue of the dominant group serves as the common language in national business and intergroup communications. Determining the appropriate emphasis on teaching a local ethnic language relative to the common language is a crucial issue in the education of students from subordinate groups. This paper develops a model to examine the issue theoretically. The analysis shows that balanced education of the two languages is valuable for skill development. By contrast, with respect to consumption, earnings net of educational expenditure, and their between-group inequalities, the analysis reveals that balanced bilingual education is desirable only when the country has favorable educational and technological conditions (i.e., when sectoral productivities and the effectiveness of education are reasonably high) and only for those with adequate wealth. Language education focused solely on the common language maximizes the economic outcomes of those with little wealth and under adverse conditions, the outcomes for all. The paper discusses the policy implications of these results. It also examines the implications of the asymmetric language positions of the groups for sectoral choices and within-group inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the local economic impact of small, non-research private universities in Japan, where expanding higher education access has historically relied on these institutions. Our prefecture-year fixed effects model from 1955 to 2015 reveals that a 10 % increase in the number of these institutions led to a 0.4 % increase in the prefecture's GDP per capita. However, this relationship was more pronounced during the 1960s, a period of rapid economic expansion, and diminished in subsequent years as the country's economic growth slowed. Our research also shows that these universities have not contributed to the local stock of human capital or promoted local innovation. Instead, they temporarily stimulated local capital investment. Our research suggests that universities with limited research capacity are unlikely to contribute to local economic growth after the country's economy has moved out of the expansion stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the impact of peer personality on human capital formation. The paper studies the impact of peers' persistence, a personality trait reflecting perseverance in the face of challenges and setbacks, on student achievement. Exploiting student-classroom random assignments in middle schools in China, I find that having more persistent peers improves student achievement. I identify three mechanisms: (i) an increase in students' own persistence and self-disciplined behaviors, (ii) teachers exhibiting greater responsibility and patience, along with increased time spent on teaching preparation, and (iii) the formation of endogenous friendship networks characterized by academically successful peers and fewer disruptive peers, especially among students with similar levels of persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assets have an important role in sustainability discussions. The substitutability aspects of assets deal with weak and strong sustainability criteria. Weak sustainability enables substitutability between natural and man-made assets while strong sustainability requires the maintenance of natural resources and individual assets. In this respect, this study conducts a comparative empirical analysis of 126 developed and developing countries over the period 1995 to 2018 to investigate the significance of diverse assets such as natural capital, produced capital, human capital, and financial capital on environmental sustainability. Ecological footprint and biological capacity are used as detailed environmental sustainability indicators. The results based on the Fixed Effects Model and Generalized Method of Moments suggest that natural capital has a great potential for the environment and produced capital is environmentally unsustainable while human and financial capital have heterogeneous effects on the environment in developed and developing countries. The study also employs adjusted net saving (as an environmental sustainability indicator) and income group analysis for robustness checks. The findings of the study suggest that the protection of renewable natural capital, including its ability to regenerate is a core aspect of sustainability and the diversification of assets can reduce pressure on natural capital. Cooperative climate policies can enhance the benefits of investing in a diverse portfolio of assets and can help in achieving environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The convergence of the two school enrolment rates in OECD countries is examined. • The rates are used as human capital development indicators. • Stochastic convergence of school enrolment rates exists. This study assesses the convergence of human capital development using two proxies -secondary school enrolment rates and tertiary school enrolment rates- in 19 countries for the period, 1870–2020. The study has focussed on stochastic convergence of human capital development, which according to our knowledge, has not been undertaken by the previous papers. The advantage of stochastic convergence is that it can show the actual country converging or diverging. A set of panel unit root tests have been used including a new test that provides for the likelihood of abrupt breaks, while allowing for cross-sectional dependence to test for unit roots in relative human capital development. The results provide substantial evidence for convergence of human capital development. Policy implications of the paper has been discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue and demonstrate that human capital services—health, education and behavioral health—suffer from underutilized human capital. Healthcare providers, teachers, mothers and poor people have significant funds of knowledge about how to improve human capital that they do not use. This problem is not unique to Africa, but it is particularly pernicious in that setting due to historically low state capabilities. We demonstrate measurement methods that establish this gap and discuss approaches to research and policy that could be used to close the gap. • Africa has a pool of underutilized human capital: providers who have the knowledge and training to provide critical services but do not use them. • Africa suffers from know-do wedges: training providers and educating caregivers, though necessary, is rarely sufficient to improve quality. • Policymakers must focus on motivating knowledgeable providers to use their skills rather than continuously retraining them. • A source of motivation is activating social preferences: using social ties among providers to reinforce behavior already in their skill sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses how various types and modes of teacher qualification affect students' math grades. Using data from 9th-grade public classes from Brazilian standardized tests, we categorized teachers into groups based on their qualification. We applied inverse probability weighting, derived from propensity scores estimated by a Generalized Boosting Model with multiple treatments, to account for other teachers' and students' characteristics when evaluating student performance. Results showed that teachers who graduated in mathematics through distance education had classes with higher grades than teachers with other academic backgrounds or without higher education, particularly in rural schools and among students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Moreover, no statistically significant differences were observed in the performance of students taught by teachers trained in mathematics through distance education as opposed to traditional face-to-face training. These findings suggest that prioritizing subject-specific teacher qualification is essential for improving math education outcomes, with distance learning being a viable option, especially in schools facing socioeconomic challenges. • Relies on categorization teachers into groups by education type and mode (distance or face-to-face). • Employs the Generalized Boosting Model (GBM) for propensity score estimation via machine learning. • Students taught by math graduates (distance education) achieved higher math grades compared to those taught by teachers from other fields. • There was no discernible difference in the grades between teachers who graduated in mathematics through distance education and those with face-to-face training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have explored the complex relationship between culture, cognitive competence, and economic performance globally. However, findings from these investigations vary significantly and occasionally contradict each other. This study delves into this connection by analyzing variables or dimensions from three distinct models of national culture concerning the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the economic strength and growth of 86 nations between 2000 and 2018. Religious affiliations emerge as a significant statistical explanatory factor, accounting for a substantial portion of the variance in overall PISA performance, ranging from 24% to 40%. Remarkably, an underutilized cultural model, the Axiological Cube , surpasses others, exhibiting explanatory power ranging from 45% to 63%. Path analyses rooted in both Human Capital Theory and Cognitive Capitalism Theory reveal that cultural variables exert their influence on economic growth mainly indirectly through their impact on student competence. Cultural variables exhibit robust predictive capacity for overall student competences, as indicated by PISA mean scores. However, they prove inadequate in explaining certain cognitive competence patterns, such as disparities in inequality and subject-specific variations, like mathematics and reading. This study also highlights uncertainties surrounding the effects of Confucianism and East Asian religions, prompting further discussion and investigation. Σ words: 200. • Impact of three National culture models on PISA results and the economy investigated. • Factor structure of National cultural models reevaluated. • Data from 2000 to 2018 for 86 countries employed in regression and path analyses. • Axiological Cube cultural model accounts for approximately 50% of PISA mean score variance. • Significant portions of PISA result patterns remain unexplained by the utilized variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the quest for global prosperity, macro-environmental economists are emphasizing the shift towards sustainable wealth, a framework that harmonizes environmental sustainability with economic well-being. Our research contributes significantly to this field by examining the influence of human and natural capital on sustainable wealth in seven emerging economies (E−7) from 1998 to 2022. We utilized advanced methodologies including second-generation unit-root and cointegration techniques and a novel Cross-Sectional Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (CS-ARDL) approach to empirically analyze the results. Our study involved nine different models, each incorporating various combinations of natural and human capital. The results indicate that renewable natural capital and both male and female human capital positively affect sustainable wealth, whereas non-renewable natural capital has a detrimental impact. More importantly, our finding shows that over-reliance on non-renewable resources not only diminishes sustainable wealth but also attenuates the influence of other variables, such as human capital, on its creation. Conversely, dependence on renewable resources enhances sustainable wealth and strengthens its impact. Drawing on these insights, we strongly recommend that policymakers prioritize investments in both renewable natural capital and human capital. Such strategic investments are crucial for catalysing long-term sustainable economic growth and prosperity. By fostering environments that enhance the contributions of renewable resources and human potential, nations can secure a more sustainable and prosperous future, effectively navigating the challenges of modern economic landscapes. • Study investigates the roles of human and natural capital in sustainable wealth creation within E7 economies. • Analyzes various combinations of renewable and non-renewable resources for a comprehensive perspective. • Renewable natural capital and both male and female human capital positively impact sustainable wealth. • Over-reliance on non-renewable natural capital weakens long-term wealth and economic prosperity. • Encourages policymakers to invest in renewable natural and human capital to enhance sustainable wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forcible displacement of children disrupts their social capital, and education is of primary importance regarding their integration into the host communities. Millions of individuals found themselves on the "wrong side" of the border when British India was Partitioned purely along religious lines in 1947, leading to mass-scale violence and migration. These migrants received very little state support because the host states were severely resource-constrained, but they were treated as citizens of the newly formed states. In this paper, I combine survey data with digitized archives of historical census data to study the effect of this large-scale permanent displacement event on the human capital attainment of forcibly displaced children. I use a cohort-age based differences-in-differences approach to show that individuals of school-going age, who were born in India and migrated to Pakistan, have a higher likelihood of completing primary and secondary education than natives in the same birth cohorts. I show that migrants' initial choices regarding location and occupation are two important potential mechanisms that point towards the existence of the "uprootedness hypothesis". My findings provide important insights for the integration of migrants into the host communities and underscore the need to better understand the comparative efficacy of different methods used for supporting forcibly displaced communities. • Forced migrants may achieve their educational goals despite limited state support. • Permanently displaced children outperform natives in their birth cohorts. • The effectiveness of aid compared to that of security of status needs research. • Forced Migrants' changed preferences towards human capital is an important mechanism. • Constrained access to land-based assets might have led to increased education attainment in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of bachelor degree holders from the Canadian Census, this paper estimates the earnings premium that a university graduate receives from working in an occupation that requires knowledge that is related to their field of study. This is accomplished by developing an alignment score which measures the similarity between the knowledge requirements of an individual's actual occupation, and the knowledge requirements of the occupations that their field of study trains individuals for. While controlling for field of study and occupation fixed effects, the results indicate that a one standard deviation improvement in the knowledge-alignment between one's occupation and field of study produces an earnings premium of approximately 4.3%. This indicates that well-aligned graduates earn more than graduates from the same field of study who work in otherwise similar paying occupations that are less closely aligned with the field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine the impact of a student's household socioeconomic status (SES) rank within a class on two critical factors affecting the accumulation of human capital: school bullying victimization and school absence. We identify the effect from the variation of a within-class SES rank of students assigned to different schools and classes, controlling the absolute level of SES and class fixed effects. Using the data from middle-school students in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), we find that, although the absolute level of SES is negatively associated with these incidences, students with a high SES rank within a class are more likely to be the victims of school bullying and to be absent from school. We confirm that these results are robust when the sample is restricted to schools where students' assignment to classes is as good as random. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an intrinsic relationship between innovation and digitalization, marked by the specific and structural socioeconomic characteristics of our regions and countries. These characteristics explain the territory heterogeneity and determine in many cases specific paths for the next digital transformations in the EU. But there are some issues countries cannot ignore: are all these economical efforts around innovation well addressed to foster digital transformation? To what extent a country or a region offers a different behavior across this intime relationship between digitalization and innovation? Innovation is a complex concept built by a multitude of interacting aspects that do not necessarily work synergistically: a framework of conditions, innovation activities, investment, and economics impacts. The consequential results of cross-cutting drivers, such as digitalization, are often difficult to assess, as the achievement of certain targets may also inadvertently hinder progress towards others. Our study describes a comprehensive and systematic European country-based analysis of statistical associations between both, digitalization and innovation indicators operating at several different levels to understand better these apparent contradictions. • EU Digitalization and Innovation thrive on human capital and research but lack SME support; R&D investments are insufficient. • They rely on a stable economy, public and private advanced consumer behavior, and employment in knowledge-intensive services. • Rising GDP per capita is driven by digitalization and innovation, but lifelong learning and ICT graduates are key to achieving EU goals. • A robust regional digital indicator is needed to further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how Australian academic librarians perceived effective techniques used to market their electronic resources and the factors influencing their perceptions of the used particular techniques. Descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations) and inferential (ordinal regressions) statistics were used to analyze the collected data from an online survey. The results reveal that demographics, human capital and library variables play an important and significant role in predicting librarians' perceptions of effective techniques used to market electronic resources. The findings are useful for information professionals to reflect on the effectiveness of the techniques used, to balance the weight of the factors' influences, and to better understand various effective techniques to enable them to market electronic resources more effectively in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Socio-economic (job and education) background shapes perceived efficacy. • Agents underestimate the probability of intergenerational mobility. • We build a theoretical model to capture macroeconomic implications of such beliefs. • Biases may influence under confident parents to over invest in education. • The biases may lower income inequality. This paper introduces perceived self-efficacy beliefs in an overlapping generations model and studies the effects of behavioral anomalies on human capital investments and aggregate inequality. These beliefs are not inherent but based on a person's socio-economic background. Ex ante children are homogeneous, but parents are biased about the returns to their children's education. Based on parental education and job status, parents may be over or under confident but otherwise, they are rational. We witness spillover effects that shift the incentives to educate children from the pessimistic parents to unbiased parents. Biases may induce or hinder investment. Over investment by one parent type may even crowd-out investments of other parent types. We find interesting effects of biases on the aggregate economy when parental warm glow is not low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Besides the conventional economic growth paradigm, insights from management science and innovation studies also help understand economic growth dynamics in LMICs. • A National Absorptive Capacity System framework is developed and tested on data collected and constructed using cutting-edge statistical techniques. • Results indicate the criticality of infrastructure, public policy, human capital with specialized skills, and business environment as well as finance for economic growth. • Incoming flows and skills are also found to be relevant for economic growth in LMICs. • In contrast to existing research for developed countries, technological and social capacities do not impact economic growth within LMICs, suggesting LMICs be strategic by learning from wealthier countries. I extend the firm-level concept of absorptive capacity to a framework applicable to the national level in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Employing confirmatory factor analyses on 47 variables, I build 13 composite factors crucial to measuring six national level capacities: technological capacity, financial capacity, human capacity, infrastructural capacity, public policy capacity, and social capacity. Data cover most LMICs, eligible for the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) support between 2005 and 2019. I then analyze the relationship between the estimated capacity factors and economic growth, controlling for potential confounders. My results indicate that enhancing infrastructure, finance, business environment, specialized human capital, and public policy capacities improve economic growth. Finally, by ranking empirically important capacities for economic growth, I offer suggestions to cash-strapped governments and international organizations such as the World Bank, the UN, and the USAID to make effective investments to achieve sustainable development goals and boost shared prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides empirical evidence of the effect of human capital on innovation in young entrepreneurs' SMEs. Furthermore, this study also examines the role of social media networking and knowledge sharing, as a mediating variable, on the effect of human capital on open innovation. The current study employs the survey method to collect data. The respondents of this study are 438 young entrepreneurs who attended incubators by universities in Central Java and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Data analysis techniques include using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with AMOS software. The result shows that human capital, knowledge sharing, and social media networking directly affect innovation. Social media networking and knowledge sharing partially mediate the effect of human capital on innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the dynamic effects of overall globalization and its three sub-dimensions (economic globalization, political globalization, and social globalization) on renewable energy consumption in Turkey using annual data from 1980 to 2017. As an estimation technique, the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag simulation (dynamic ARDL) developed by Jordan and Philips (2018) is employed. The results indicate that the overall globalization process, both in the short-run and in the long run, and its dimensions of economic and political globalization, only in the long-run, have positive and significant effects on Turkey's renewable energy consumption. However, social globalization does not have any significant effect on renewable energy consumption either in the short-run and in the long run. Additionally, increases in Turkey's human capital stock and economic growth rate appear to cause more renewable energy consumption. Based on those results, some important policy implications encouraging the globalization and economic growth processes and enriching the human capita stock are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occurrence of natural disasters is as old as the history of human beings, thus, the SDG 11.5 target underscores the importance of reducing natural disasters and their corresponding losses. Natural disasters suddenly disturb the inflow of foreign reserves and restrict the purchase of necessary goods, thus, causing welfare loss. Due to limited literature, this research shows the effect of natural disasters on foreign exchange reserves in 24 high, 26 upper-middle, 32 lower-middle, and 16 low-income countries. The two-step generalized method of moments shows that disaster-related loss reduced the level of foreign reserves in all panels, excluding high-income countries. The favorable impact of infrastructure, capital formation, renewable energy, FDI inflow on foreign reserves implies practical implications like (a) infrastructural investment is recommended to strengthen the economy, (b) capital formation is recommended for the production of exportable items, (c) enhance human capital through healthcare, education, employment, training, and skills development, (d) installation of renewable energy systems at discounted rates to tackle energy crisis and reduce import bills, and (e) increase FDI inflow, especially in disaster management and planning. Resilience-building is a vital tool for hazard management and planning. This study encourages countries to follow the Sendai Framework 2015–2030 to increase resilience. • It shows the impact of natural disasters and renewable energy on foreign reserves. • It shows the impact of capital formation and human capital on foreign reserves. • It uses panel data of 98 countries, divided into four income-groups. • Natural disasters showed adverse impact on foreign exchange reserves. • Renewable energy, capital, and human capital showed favorable impact on reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]