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Recent empirical research has highlighted the role played by public investment in stimulating economic activity, while addressing a variety of systemic challenges such as climate change and supply chain resilience. However, theoretical considerations regarding the capacity-building effect of public capital formation have been often overlooked in the demand-led growth literature. The paper addresses this gap by introducing a public investment component within a supermultiplier model, treating government investment and consumption spending as two separate components of autonomous demand, growing at different rates over the long run. The model is proven to be stable as long as the non-capacity-creating component of demand grows faster than public investment. Even though the latter does not have long-term growth effects in the steady state, it does affect economic activity during the traverse. The model is then calibrated and simulated, showing that movements between steady-state positions are extremely long-lasting, thus reinforcing the idea that supermultiplier models are better suited to describe out-of-equilibrium dynamics, while pointing out the potential role of public investment in shaping macroeconomic outcomes in the short, medium, and long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fear of falling behind has been a driving force of European integration. Historically, Europe's response to the looming angst of declining competitiveness has been more market-creation, not market-direction. Recently, however, Europe has – in the name of safeguarding Europe's technological sovereignty – taken on a much more active role in directing economic activity towards sectors and technologies deemed geopolitically or geoeconomically important. In this paper, we attempt to explain this 'geo-dirigiste' turn. We reconstruct the evolution of EU industrial policy through the lens of Europe's fear of falling behind, drawing not only on primary (including archival) and secondary sources, but also on original interviews and deep transfer learning applied to an original dataset of 66.548 documents. Focusing on Europe's changing technological and geopolitical context, its coalitional underpinnings, and the role of ideational politics, we document and explain the historic shift away from market-creation and towards supranational market-direction in EU industrial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to address basic dilemmas of the strategic interventions policy delivery within the framework of spatial governance and the recent financial and social conjuncture in Europe. The related research concerns the case of the former ‘Hellinikon’ airport area in Athens. Because of the unfavourable economic situation and the inability to form an effective spatial governance framework, the state retreated and the initiative was taken by the private sector, shaping the frame for a fragmented ‘spatial fix’ of global economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper examines the influence of climate change vulnerability on the likelihood and severity of communal violence, with a particular emphasis on delineating large-scale regional patterns. Specifically, the analysis centres on Sub-Saharan Africa and South/South-East Asia – both regions being predominantly characterised by rain-fed agriculture and climate-sensitive economic activities – spanning the years 1995 to 2021. Relying on the ND-GAIN Vulnerability Index as a multidimensional measure for propensity of societies to be negatively impacted by climate change, we found robust evidence that greater vulnerability is conducive to a higher likelihood and severity of communal violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. On the other hand, in South/South-East Asia, results suggest that current climate variability, measured as rainfall deviations within the period, exerts a greater effect on communal violence outbreak than overall vulnerability to climate change. In both regions, greater access to productive means is significantly associated to the reduction of communal violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the evidence that women in Sub-Saharan Africa become entrepreneurs faster than any other group globally, more studies are needed to understand the motivation(s) for their decision to pursue entrepreneurship. This paper aims to contribute to research on what motivates Sub-Saharan African women to become entrepreneurs. A case study approach was utilized to understand the experiences of 20 women entrepreneurs from Sub-Saharan African countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. All the study participants had tertiary-level education and left their corporate careers to pursue entrepreneurship. Pull and opportunity factors were the main factors that motivated the women interviewed to become entrepreneurs. Push and necessity factors accounted for a few cases. The level of education did not dictate the pull and opportunity factors of motivation. These findings are important because previous studies have stereotyped Sub-Sahara African women entrepreneurs with the generalization that they are motivated to become entrepreneurs by push and necessity factors and are often uneducated and on the fringe of economic activity. The paper makes specific policy recommendations for harnessing motivations and linking them to broader economic development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the Mincerian approach in an experimental way to examine the impact of education on household incomes (not labor earnings) of all workers (not just employees) across 162 countries. Our results are broadly similar to the conventionally estimated rates of return to education after allowing for the fact that earnings are only a part of total household incomes. We then apply the results to the case of Arab countries and find that our experimental approach can promisingly be used for the study of the impact of education not just on individual earnings of employees but also on total household incomes of all workers and more broadly on the economy and the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, few studies have analysed the geography of the circular economy, especially its contribution to economic activity on a sub-regional scale. In this context, our paper aims to analyse the evolution of employment and activities in the circular economy at the local level in France. For this purpose, we use a database on job creation and companies in the circular economy between 2008 and 2015 and we propose for the first time a study measuring the creation of jobs and companies in the CE. We show that the growth of employment in the circular economy is higher than the growth of total employment. Moreover, we highlight that the number of companies in the circular economy is mainly concentrated in metropolitan areas. We also point out the regional effect of the growth of the circular economy, indicating the territorial embeddedness of this type of activity. Based on this observation, we assume that regional public policies play a significant role in the deployment of a circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, cities have become hubs for economic activity, productivity, and important platforms for achieving sustainable development goals. The potential of urban agriculture (UA) in improving urban local economies and urban micro-climate has been acknowledged in the literature. The study looked at how the concepts of UA, local economic development (LED), and climate change can be treated in unison. Based on the review of credible published papers on the various concepts of UA, LED, climate change and nature-based solutions (NBS), a proposed conceptual framework was developed in this paper showing the linkages. The paper established that UA could boost LED, build resilient urban settlements, and promote social inclusiveness, but with social challenges. It is therefore recommended that policymakers make UA a crucial aspect of their agenda in the coming years to address the local economic and climate challenges now and in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition required to remove coal from the global energy mix will have major implications across coal producing regions. There is limited work, however, that explores how this transition is being received by communities with multi-generational connections to the industry. This paper explores understandings and responses to transition in the Australian community of Singleton. Located 145 km north of Sydney in the Upper Hunter Valley, the local area has been a site of coal mining activity since the 1850s – helping foster a strong connection between industry and place. Using an emotional geographies framework, we uncover various local feelings associated with the prospect of a future without coal. While these emotional responses can stem from the anticipated material losses of mines and jobs, they have also been found to stem from the mutually imbricated threats posed by a 'hidden dimension of loss'. This dimension of loss positions mining as much more than an emotionless economic activity. Instead, it is uncovered as an activity – a tradition – that can define understandings of place. Whilst set in Australia, this study holds relevance for mining communities internationally faced with the disruption of existing ways of life, identities, and understandings of place as the energy transition unfolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the finite sample performance of two methods for selecting the power transformation when applying seasonal adjustment with the X-13ARIMA-SEATS package: the automatic method, based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and Guerrero's method, that is based on the minimization of a coefficient of variation in order to choose a power transformation. For this purpose, we generate time series with different Data Generating Processes considering traditional Monte Carlo experiments as well as additive and multiplicative time series with linear and time-varying deterministic trends. We also illustrate the performance of both approaches with an empirical application, by seasonally adjusting the Mexican Global Economic Activity Indicator and its components. The results of different statistical tests indicate that Guerrero's method is more adequate than the automatic one. We conclude that using Guerrero's method generates better results when seasonally adjusting time series with the X-13ARIMA-SEATS program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited research has been conducted on companies' use of share-based payments in a South African context. Where research has been performed, the focus has been predominantly on shared-based payments as part of executive remuneration packages. This paper extends this research by investigating all uses of share-based payments by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's (JSE) Top 100 companies. A content analysis was used to capture the details of each scheme disclosed by the JSE Top 100 companies. This included at whom the scheme was aimed, the purpose of the scheme, the settlement type, the vesting period and conditions, and whether there had been any modifications or cancellations. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Results reflected that 93 of the 100 companies investigated made use of share-based payments. Seventy-four per cent of all instruments were equity-settled. The few cash-settled schemes found were primarily used by the Basic Materials and Financials sectors. The average vesting period for all instruments was approximately 4 years, with Black Economic Empowerment-aimed schemes having the longest vesting period at 10 years. Non-market performance conditions were most prevalent at 87% while only 27% included market conditions. Overall, the findings are in line with Agency Theory and prior papers. In addition, this paper found a significant number of modifications and cancellations of instruments. This may be because of poor economic conditions, where reduced economic activity and lower share prices result in share-based payments becoming unfavourable to holders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an emerging literature in economics that aims to merge macro issues of structural change and growth with micro data and analysis. This literature focuses on a set of related patterns of change that accompany the processes of growth and development. Traditionally, the focus has been on industrialization – and more broadly the reallocation of employment and economic activity from agriculture to manufacturing and services. The new literature considers a broader set of transformations: from rural to urban, from home to market (and from market to home), from informal to formal, and from self-employment to wage work. Drawing on new data sources, including micro data and administrative records, the literature tries to understand the complex interactions of a broad set of market failures, policy distortions, and impediments to the growth process. In broadening the understanding of structural transformation – to encompass processes beyond industrialization – this literature opens the door to a richer understanding of the processes of growth and a wider set of potential levers for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future Nobel laureates Robert Lucas and James Tobin debated the New Classical challenge to the microeconomic foundations and empirical validity of Keynesian economics, with Lucas singling Tobin out as an interlocutor among Keynesian economists who took the New Classical challenge seriously. Their intellectual exchanges began with Tobin, 'The Wage-Price Mechanism: Overview of the Conference' (1972), and Lucas, 'Econometric Testing of the Natural Rate Hypothesis' (1972), both in Otto Eckstein, ed., The Econometrics of Price Determination Conference (1972). That conference was a milestone in confronting alternative macroeconomic methodologies with each other, but has received relatively little attention in the literature, most notably from Stanley Fischer (in JMCB Supplement, 2007), who characterized 'that volume as representative of the best thinking of the time on the Phillips curve.' This paper examines the debate between Lucas and Tobin that began with their contributions to that conference and that reached a climax with Tobin's Yrjö Jahnsson Lectures (Asset Accumulation and Economic Activity, 1980) and Lucas's Journal of Economic Literature review article on those lectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions about state capacity and special economic zones (SEZs) arise in disparate academic circles, despite the fact that they both often address the relative level of state intervention in economic activity. Can the economic limitations of low state capacity be mitigated by the benefits of an SEZ? Drawing from interviews with non-governmental organization workers, bureaucrats and traders in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) region of Tajikistan, this paper presents the case of the Tajik–Afghan cross-border free-trade markets as an example of a popular SEZ in a region marked by enduring diminished administrative state capacity. Highlighting the use of the administrative capacity of non-state actors, and its periodically contentious intersection with state coercive capacity, this paper illustrates the novel creation of SEZs to facilitate economic growth in contexts of enduring low administrative state capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that Keynes correctly diagnosed the principles of 'sound finance' as limiting human progress, but did not map out a viable alternate solution of 'full investment', and seems to even warn against it. E.F. Schumacher critiqued Keynes's position that until the problem of production is solved, only following 'the money motive' could lead humanity out of the tunnel of economic need. Now a half century since Schumacher's critiques, the production problem can be seen in a new light, and the debate surrounding the money motive can be reevaluated with greater context. We build upon the debate and the lessons of recent history, and within the context of other thinkers such as Veblen and Polanyi, to argue that the money motive does not need to be abandoned, but rather placed within a reformed institutional and monetary framework. We argue that full investment can only be properly addressed by shifting the overall objective of economic activity from production to human advancement. We conclude the paper by offering several considerations on why public banks are ideal institutions to shepherd a transformation of mentality into the creation of new markets and activities dedicated to human advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese mammoth investment projects abroad, and especially those under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) umbrella, are receiving heavy scrutiny in academic and policy circles. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence to evaluate their impact. This paper employs a difference- in-differences approach and a pair of new datasets on government spending and economic activity compiled by the World Bank to examine the local impacts of the Chinese-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Pakistan. It finds that the 2013 announcement of CPEC was accompanied by a disproportionate increase in government spending in CPEC districts. However, in the six years after it was first announced, CPEC has not directly contributed a significant increase in economic activity in the districts along its path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the securitisation of COVID-19 in the United States was publicly contested. Reviewing the wider securitisation scholarship, it outlines five different kinds of contestation: securitisation failure, contestation within, counter-securitisation, the securitisation of securitisation, and desecuritization. Considering these within a discourse analysis of how COVID-19 was securitised and contested by both key political figures and protestors between 1 January 2020 and 30 May 2020, the paper finds that the securitisation of COVID-19 took two forms. One used war metaphors to represent COVID-19 as a 'foreign enemy' to be (quickly) conquered, while the other represented normality – everyday economic and social activity – as dangerous. The former saw efforts to desecuritize and 'close' the threat, while the latter was securitised as a threat itself. Ultimately, COVID-19 was downgraded to a manageable risk, while measures that recognised its continuing threat were depicted as existential threats to American lives, jobs, prosperity, and freedoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cities accommodate, resist, and negotiate with the spread of so-called 'sharing economy' companies, the question of how these businesses actively construct new markets (or sub-markets) through political mobilization and rhetorical strategy has become increasingly salient. This paper explores the ways in which the home-sharing platform Airbnb has sought to carve out a regulatory and discursive space for operation through the political mobilization of its 'hosts' in New York City. Based on nearly two years of ethnographic research, the paper argues that host clubs are not merely top-down transmission belts for the company's political lobbying strategy; beyond political organizing, they are also sites in which the very practices of hosting through Airbnb are affirmed, rehearsed, learned, and debated. On the one hand, Airbnb host clubs are both physical embodiments of, and mechanisms for, the narrative framing of 'home-sharing' as a particular kind of economic activity that is more democratic, inclusive, and sustainable than the traditional hospitality industry. On the other hand, Airbnb host clubs reveal and reflect the tensions – between hosts and Airbnb, and among hosts themselves – that persist over the practice of home-sharing. As the calls for tighter regulation and increased penalties for illegal short-term rentals continue to grow, however, the question of whether host clubs constitute a viable mechanism for political mobilization and regulatory reform remains an open one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To facilitate and balance regional economic development and to reduce carbon emissions, China has implemented a series of policies to promote the redistribution of industries and economic activities across regions since 2000. This paper employs a logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) to analyse the dynamic net effect on carbon emissions of Chinese policies promoting economic redistribution across sub-national regions, using a panel data of five sectors in 30 provinces during 1995–2017. The results of our analysis show that the redistribution of industry in particular, but also business and construction activities, leads to an increase in CO2 emissions, while the relocation of agriculture and transportation activities reduces emissions. We also find that the emission increase effect of the transfer of carbon intensive industries to new (host) regions is higher than the emission reduction effect induced by the agglomeration of clean industries in the original (home) regions. However, from 2014–2017, alongside the gradual industrial redistribution, China has also reduced aggregate CO2 emissions by 58.6 MT. In addition, the results show that population migration, which is due to redistribution of industry and other economic activity, has caused higher emission increases than emission reductions due to redistribution policies. We further calculate the marginal effect of industrial redistribution on CO2 emissions and draw out relevant policy implications. Key policy insights Industrial (and other economic activity) redistribution within a county can be not only an economic policy, but also an important policy instrument to mitigate CO2 emissions. This is the case in China. In the process of regional industrial redistribution, policymakers should aim to reduce the emission increase effect of transfer of carbon-intensive industries to host regions and to raise the emission reduction effect induced by an agglomeration of clean industries in home regions. Industrial redistribution is usually a long-term strategy for regional development within a county, and any reduction effects on CO2 emissions are likely to need time to appear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak in Australia led to a period of economic crisis. In response, Commonwealth and State Governments targeted the construction sector for concentrated economic stimulation. Planning systems, and their reform, were identified as levers to stimulate economic activity. This paper explores early COVID-19-initiated planning system reforms in New South Wales and Western Australia. It explores key reforms in each state and provides a comparative analysis of reform objectives, the influence of key stakeholders, reform innovations and possibilities for future reform. COVID-19-induced reforms emerge as both the continuation of the long-term reform agenda and reactionary interventions to immediate economic challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Property investment is not an uncontroversial economic activity in urban China where investors are vulnerable to accusations of ill-gotten gain. How do housing investors struggle with questions of 'legitimacy' and negotiate social responsibilities under the prevailing immoral view? Using the moral economy framework, this study examines the interviews conducted with investors and messages posted by well-known real estate influencers. It shows how property investors positioned themselves as responsible family members and self-disciplined citizens, drawing on moral economic sensibilities of 'familism' and new moralities of individual responsibility from neo-liberalism. This study also presents how investors refuse to be blamed for not 'looking out for' community and others by treating housing as a commodity and emphasizing themselves as sufferers. The paper argues that moral–economic principles are applied not only to disadvantaged people but also to the advantaged ones. Ultimately, implications for the housing system and policy in China are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This collective writing paper brings together writers from Southeast Asia and the Western world to highlight challenges and opportunities for ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its education in the rising of the Asian Century. The inspiration for this project was started by Michael A. Peters' conception of collective writing and the Asian Century. ASEAN is diverse in terms of economy and society; a look from different angles will help to improve policy and practice of ASEAN. Multiple scholars have contributed to creating a series of arguments and explications towards a philosophical stance, and collaboration in higher education to build novel solutions regarding contemporary knowledge and ASEAN practices. Overall, this article illustrates ASEAN International Education (IE) circumstances and possibilities considering statistical data and past experience from transregional perspectives and diverse academic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the presence and consideration of economics in sociology, specifically its classical version. It identifies certain original and independent economic theories, concepts and approaches in classical sociological theory as central and its derivations, implications and extensions of economics as peripheral. The paper argues and demonstrates that classical sociology is far from being the science of noneconomic or irrational phenomena, as often sociologists conceive it and economists perceive it in counter-distinction from economics defined as the science of rational behavior, and indeed encompasses virtually all economic activities and processes, and thus prefigures New Economic Sociology adopting the same approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the determinants of innovation activities in Central European economies at the firm, sectoral, country and international levels. It focuses on innovation activities in four countries, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, and Slovakia. Our dataset includes data from the three waves (2010, 2012, 2014) of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), in a total of 58,880 observations, which we combined with 2-digit NACE rev. 2 sectoral variables (Herfindahl index, average values of age, profits, intangible assets, shares of large and medium-sized enterprises). These variables were calculated from 910,731 observations originating from the Amadeus database. We used Heckman and Bivariate Probit estimation procedures to observe the dynamics of new-to-the-market product and process innovation over time and at different levels of the innovation ecosystem. We focused on sectoral variables and found that determinants of innovation activity differed substantially. Our analysis documented the fluctuation of sectoral variables over time, which aligns with evolutionary theories. At the international level, the results suggest a disequilibrium effect of some sectoral variables over time. National innovation systems differ, and individual coefficients are hardly comparable without an innovation input-output context. We provided several recommendations for future research, such as the issue of non-linearity in some identified determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the sustainability of tourism destinations. To this end, various methodologies have been considered, among which composite indicators constitutes a valuable tool. A non-compensatory methodology has been applied in order to address the problem caused by the compensation of low values in certain indicators of a particular destination with high scores in other aspects. The proposed methodology provides a clear ranking of units and permits a post-optimization analysis for the design of strategies with a view to the improvement of the relative position regarding the sustainability of a destination. It is applied in an island context, for which tourism represents its main economic activity and, therefore, its dependence on natural, social, economic, and cultural resources, among others, for its development. The analysis demonstrates the possibility associated with each destination to improve its position, acting in just a single indicator while maintaining major values in the remaining indicators, this being a more restrictive methodology in sustainability assessment. The originality is the methodology being supported by the combination of the non-compensatory approach with participative methods to include the considerations of the stakeholders throughout the weights in a regional initiative in the Caribbean Zone of Sustainable Tourism. The findings reveal that the economic aspects receive more importance than those in the Cuban context that are social and patrimonial. The method can be applied to other destinations and regions, allowing the inclusion of external and reducing the absence of incomparability issues in ranking destinations supporting managerial decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the high prevalence of disabilities and evidence that persons with disabilities are marginalised in rural areas of developing countries, little is known about their economic lives. The literature is limited to studying how disability affects participation in labour markets and hours worked. This paper extends the current literature by exploring the extent to which disability is associated with participation in, and income generated from, different types of rural activities, such as agriculture, non-agriculture, and wage labour, in three of the most populous Sub-Saharan African countries (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania). Findings based on panel data and a split first-difference model demonstrate that correlations between changes in disability and changes in economic activities and outcomes are highly contextual. A disaggregated look at various rural economic activities provides a more nuanced understanding of ways in which households cope with changing disability status within a given context. Analyses of disability severity and physical disabilities provide consistent results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By tradition, transport appraisal relies primarily on travel time savings and monetary values. Assessment tools rarely factor in the perspective of travellers in terms of their subjective travel experience while on the move. Worthwhile travel time introduces the idea that travel can be pleasant, meaningful or worthwhile and not exclusively associated with the economic utility of the activity at the destination of the trip and the work-related productivity during the trip. This paper explores how the "worthwhile use of travel time" can be conceptualised and unpacked, so that it can be adequately captured and integrated into transport appraisal practice. We reviewed the literature on worthwhile travel time and perceived travel experience in psychology, economics, public health and travel behaviour research and we formulated the conceptual framework of worthwhile travel time that is grounded on the traveller's perception of three forms of value emerging from existing literature: enjoyment, productivity, and health. Our conceptual framework of worthwhile travel time suggests that experience factors (i.e. travel conditions as experienced by the traveller) can enable travel activities (i.e. the trip itself or activities on-the-move), which in turn unlock the values of enjoyment, productivity and fitness that influence the perceived worthwhileness of a trip to a different degree each. Additional (explanatory) factors such as the door-to-door trip characteristics, the traveller's personal characteristics and attitude, and the spatial and temporal conditions can also influence the perceived worthwhileness of a trip. On a policy level, the integration of the worthwhile travel time concept into transport appraisal practice could allow future transport investments to offer a better balance between reduced travel times and improved quality and experience of a trip for the traveller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of community-based ecotourism within the developing market dynamics of the blue economy. The blue economy has become synonymous with generating wealth from ocean-related activities while protecting and supporting marine ecosystems. For remote coastal communities and Small Island Developing States, local economic development is a challenging balance between protecting marine biodiversity and maintaining sustainable and direct access to ecosystem services. In this paper, we present results of a study in the coastal region of South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia in the Coral Triangle. The paper illustrates that community-based ecotourism supports sustainable use of marine resources and offers an entry point for low-resource coastal communities to take part in the blue economy. Complementary livelihood pathways that enhance primary income and support ecosystem services play a key role. Study findings show that three key areas where multilateral support is most needed for communities with ecotourism aspirations are: waste management, hospitality skills, and market access. From these findings, we present a model for community-based ecotourism in the blue economy. The model demonstrates important interactions between community, the local economy, and coastal ecosystems, and the important role community-based ecotourism plays in creating effective mechanisms for preserving natural and cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China took its first tentative steps into the Antarctic around 1980, travelling South with other nations' Antarctic programs. Australia hosted the first Chinese scientists to travel to East Antarctica to conduct research in the early 1980s. China signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1983 and became a Treaty Consultative Party in 1985. Since its first small forays, China's Antarctic activities have grown considerably: it now has two permanently occupied Antarctic stations, other Antarctic facilities and is currently building a station on in the Ross Sea region. China's Antarctic science program is broad; it has economic activities in the region include fisheries and tourism, and has expressed longer-term interest in resource extraction. In recent years, China has become an assertive participant in Antarctic governance. This paper analyses the geopolitical origins of the Antarctic Treaty, China's growing Antarctic presence, and the implications this has for the region, including the policies and strategies of Australia and key Indo-Pacific partner states in the Antarctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Failure rates in the restaurant industry are popularly perceived to be far higher than they actually are. This paper calculates failure rates in the Irish Food and Drinks Sector (IFDS), for the first time, using longitudinal census data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Ireland, which follows the European statistical classification of economic activity (NACE). The results are compared with previously published literature on restaurant failure rates in the United States of America. This study also compares IFDS failure rates with other industry sectors in Ireland (construction, manufacturing). Drawing on Stinchcombe's 'liability of newness' theory, the informal fallacies theory 'Argumentum ad Populum', and critical success factors (CSFs) for restaurants theory, the paper explores restaurant failure rates both in Ireland and internationally. The research finds that the average failure rates for the IFDS are 15% after one year; 37.62% after three years; and 53.06% after five years in business, which, although marginally higher than other industry sectors in Ireland, are considerably lower than popularly perceived. Comparisons with previous studies in the United States of America shows that Irish rates are significantly lower, particularly in the first few years. The methodology can be replicated to provide comparative studies between other European countries using the NACE classifications. The results may assist in ensuring that future policy decisions made by governments, financial institutions and other restaurant/ hospitality industry groups are more empirically based and better informed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Markets have become an important form of governance in the neoliberal era. The ideology of markets as the most efficient form of organising economic activity has led to the expansion of their usage, both in terms of what is governed by the market, but also in terms of the spaces in which the practices of a given market apply. However, there have been important challenges to market expansion, particularly on political and ethical grounds. This paper analyses how the socio-technical practices of market expansion can be affected by political contestation and individual moral judgements. This is analysed in the context of two markets for biodiversity offsets, in the United States and England. In both cases, regulators attempted to devise and standardise calculative mechanisms and socio-technical practices that promoted the use and expansion of the market. However, these socio-technical market practices have struggled to cross and negotiate uneven political and social spaces, being subject to moral judgements and political contestation. The paper demonstrates how the socio-technical practices of market expansion are affected by social entanglements, highlighting how this creates limits to the expansion of the market as a form of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In actual economic activities, different economic systems usually interact with each other, and the coupled networked evolutionary game is an important theoretical tool to describe and analyse such economic activities. In this paper, we investigate a kind of coupled evolutionary public good games (PGGs) with threshold which have two enhancement factors. First, the algebraic formulation for the dynamics of the given coupled PGGs is constructed by using a semi-tensor product (STP) of matrices. Then, the strategy optimisation problem is considered based on the algebraic expression, and all valid state feedback controls are designed to make the investment of the coupled evolutionary game in each layer reach their own threshold. Finally, an illustrative example is studied to support our new results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the broadly held assumption that having an iconic building designed by a celebrity architect can effectively rebrand a place, draw tourists, and stimulate economic activity, star architecture does more than just contribute to the economic fortunes of regional cities. Iconic projects also emerge from and reflect the discourses, desires, and identities of city dwellers in the places they are built. In this paper, we use newspaper coverage of five iconic or star architecture buildings in Denver, Colorado, USA, to expose how architecture contributes to local discourses. What emerges is a complex picture of how local press engage with star architecture projects. Star architecture buildings do more than just contribute to the economic fortunes of a city or region: they also contribute to the mental map of a place, become contributors to city identity, and create opportunities for conversations about culture and architecture, including the basis for comparisons with other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the funding sources of the terrorist group Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen. Using existing research and original interviews, this study outlines al-Shabaab's history and funding sources. It theorizes that an organization's capacity to operate in different fields of economic activity drives innovation in funding. Applying a framework for terrorist innovation to al-Shabaab's funding sources, this study finds support for the theory. Development of intelligence and taxation capabilities is especially prevalent in the al-Shabaab context. Holding territory considerably increases organizational ability to raise funds. Increasing reliance on criminality may compromise an organization's ideological character and leave it more vulnerable to inter-group competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fashion industry, the circular economy (CE) may be mobilised for many agendas, from a superficial approach to reducing waste and using recycled materials to a more radical proposition for societal transformation towards sustainable production and consumption. For fashion educators, the CE is, therefore, an important new facet of sustainability education and one that must be approached with critical nuance, as the representation of the CE in the media have the potential to frame students' understanding. To evaluate the discourse created around fashion and the CE in the mainstream media, 476 published articles were analysed between 2016 and 2020. The findings revealed that the media sidelined cultural perspectives of CE while promoting its technical dimension. The concluding part of this paper makes suggestions on how best to engage students in the CE conversation with a critical approach that considers pressing consumption issues in fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the role of emotions in creating spectacular revolt situations. We underline the travelling competence of sentiments and their power in crafting trans-local moments of embodied resistance. In contemporary Moroccan society, the adaptation of the Bouazizian style of protest has been a reaction to the prevailing feelings of worthlessness gripping the common citizen. The images of wasted beings in the post-2011 atmosphere have been associated with instances of social insurgence, by individuals who attempt self-immolation, or citizens treated by figures from the centre (e.g. police, public figures) in a way that inculcate in them powerful feelings of abjection, after which they feel irreparably delinked from their sense of humanity. This paper seeks to demonstrate how practices of al-hogra (humiliation) have produced cultural forms of abjection that could also be traced in the way common people inferiorize one another in everyday life through the use of a terminology of trash. By disclosing people's non-subtle armaments of protest (i.e. self-immolation), we contend that resistance and its various trances, as well as the emotions that prompt them, have their origin in the reality of the body, realistic visions of the body owner and his/her awareness of the potential for realization (through it). Hence we will examine how vulnerable people manipulate the three conditions of corporeality, corporealism and corporealization, to subvert the humiliation and symptoms of social death imposed on them by the regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) depends on solving the 'nexus' challenge: how can positive interactions between SDGs be optimised, and negative interactions minimised, in order to create co-benefits and reduce trade-offs? Due to their varying impacts on the SDGs, the economic activities undertaken by organisations present a key lever for operationalising this SDG-nexus. Yet the interactions between individual economic activities and the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development have not been systematically assessed, thus creating a vital operational bottleneck to achieving the SDGs. This paper conducts a systematic review of 876 articles published between 2005 and 2019 to study the nexus between individual economic activities, sustainable development in general, and the SDGs in specific. It finds that studies on agricultural, industrial, and manufacturing activities predominantly report negative impacts on environmental development, while literature on services activities highlight economic and social contributions. Overall, most economic activities are expected to positively impact industrialization, infrastructure, and innovation [SDG 9] and economic productivity [SDG 8], while many help meet basic needs [SDGs 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11]. However, negative impacts are widespread, afflicting ecosystems [SDGs 14 and 15], climate change [SDG 13] and human health [SDG 3]. We synthesise positive and negative interactions between individual economic activities and SDG targets and discuss implications for: integrated (nexus) governance approaches to the SDGs; the role of the private sector in promoting sustainable development; and for improving statistical classifications to monitor economic activities' SDG impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research argues that an imagined artifact, the IS coins, serves as a transhistorical artifact, condensing the larger ideology of the violent extremist organization of legitimacy and sovereignty. This paper conducts a qualitative content analysis on all references to IS Coin within Dabiq, al-Naba, Rumiyah and all the official videos publicized in the above magazines from April 2014 to September 2018. The power of one artifact, in this case, coin, embodies the whole ideology of ISIS and transports the ideology from the past to the present to the future and the artifact belongs to daily life, amplifies its power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New industrial innovation policies like smart specialization aim at boosting economic growth by diversification towards more complex and higher value economic activities. This paper proposes a conceptual and analytical framework to support the design and implementation of such policies considering place-specific preconditions, particularly the differentiation of the regional system of innovation and entrepreneurship and the degree of current industrial diversification. The paper expands on the links between these preconditions and the barriers and opportunities for industrial diversification. Consequently, it proposes an archetypical place-based policy framework covering overall policy objectives as well as measures at the level of actors, networks, and the institutional and organizational support structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the consideration of sensory embodied practice offers a route to unraveling subtle and nuanced placemaking practices of multicultural communities, revealing the physical, cultural and social interplay of everyday interactions. While a sensorial epistemological approach has been a relatively recent development in the humanities and social sciences, the 'body' has been theorised extensively. Even so, this has been of a generic body that is typically white, male and middle class. The embodied practices I present here affirm that bodies are social, sensorial and multiplicitous. Drawing from fieldwork in the multicultural Melbourne suburb of Footscray, I discuss the socio-sensory, through two types of sociality encountered on site; firstly, around economic activities, and the other around small groups of individuals, appearing unplanned and leisurely. I discuss the significance of these embodied acts in defining identity and validating presence in the urban landscape, demonstrating the sensescapes they create, informed by culturally specific sensory orders carry the potential to challenge – permeating and confronting, implicitly providing a means of expression and dissonance. I argue, consideration of the socio-sensory dimension provides an alternative framework of analysis that expands vocabulary and recalibrates sensibilities, providing insight into other ways of making and occupying space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the dynamic impact of geopolitical risks (GPRs) on real oil returns for the period February 1974 to August 2017, using a time-varying parameter structural vector autoregressive (TVP-SVAR) model. Besides the two variables of concern, the model also includes growth in world oil production, global economic activity (to capture oil-demand), and world stock returns. We show that GPRs (based on a tally of newspaper articles covering geopolitical tensions), in general, has a significant negative impact on oil returns, primarily due to the decline in oil demand captured by the global economic activity. Our results, thus, highlight the risk of associating all GPRs with oil supply shocks driven by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, and hence, ending up suggesting that higher GPRs drive up oil prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intent of the paper is to analyze two narratives about the remarkable turn-around of Germany in the 1990s as sick man of Europe to today's most successful economy in the EU. Ordoliberalism is used by German policy makers and elites to account for the economic success story without taking into account the Euro currency regime which has overwhelmingly favoured Germany's export-orientation. Ordoliberalism as an ideational concept has limited value as an explanatory force. As a result, German ordoliberal ideas have little current value to uphold it as a panacea for indebted peripheral countries to become more competitive. Nor are stories about the ordoliberalization of Europe justified. The recourse to ordoliberal positions is a highly superficial adaptation of ordoliberalism by German policy makers lacking greater theoretical potency. Thus neither in law nor in economics are authors to be found who represent a genuinely ordoliberal approach to explain the German success story or for that matter the Eurozone crisis management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of air transport on the economy arise both directly, via activity in the aviation sector; and indirectly, via increased spending and wider economic benefits associated with improved access to resources, markets, technology and economic mass. Economic activity, in turn, supports and generates demand for air transport. Despite its potential importance, the reciprocal nature of the causal relationship between air transport and economic performance has remained somewhat understudied. This paper provides a synthesis review of the channels the aviation sector interacts with regional economy. The review focuses on quantitative studies that contribute to the state-of-the-art understandings of the causality. We find that the reciprocal causal relationship is more likely to prevail in less developed economies. For more developed economies, only one direction of the causality is recognised, which runs from air transport to economic growth. Especially substantial is the effect of airline enplanement on service-related employment. The reverse direction of the relationship is, however, not as significant as believed in a causal sense within the developed world. Therefore, cautions need to be taken when applying income elasticities (such as the elasticity of air passenger demand with respect to GDP) in air travel demand forecasting, which implicitly assumes that economic growth causally leads to air traffic increment. Based on the fundamental links between air transport and economic growth, some typical imperfections and inefficiencies in aviation markets are discussed and promising avenues for future research are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining is an important economic activity and a highly complex industry. As such, it demands a complex supply chain to connect mines to clients, often involving railways, ports and long-distance maritime shipping. State-of-the-art optimization tools are an invaluable asset to help manage such a complex environment, which makes mining industry a very fertile ground for operational research applications. This paper aims to present a bibliographical review of published works involving operational research applications in the mining industry. We start by mapping applications within each isolated link of the chain. Then, we make inroads into the researches involving and connecting multiple links of the mining chain. Finally, we present summaries of our finding and pinpoint some directions for research opportunities in the mining industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares creative (content) industries policies in the UK and South Korea, highlighting the coevality in their development. Seeing them as 'industrial policies', it focuses on how state intervention is justified and why a certain set of policy options have been chosen. The UK policy-makers prefer passive and decentralised roles of the state that addresses market failures via generic and horizontal policies. Meanwhile, Koreans have consistently believed in the strong, resourceful and ambitious state in developing centralised, sector-specific policies for cultural industries. While demonstrating two contrasting approaches to the nation state's management of cultural turn in the economy, both cases seem to present a 'paradox'. Despite its neoliberal undertone, the horizontal and fused approach taken by the UK's creative industries policy engenders some space for 'cultural' policy. On the contrary, the non-liberal and state-driven content industries policy in Korea has shown a stronger tendency of cultural commodification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That compulsory education is datafied is widely acknowledged. A significant body of literature illuminates the policy context and technologies that have given rise to what we now call datafication. Less research has focussed on the consequences of datafication on teachers and learners. In this paper, we offer a unique perspective of these consequences in relation to qualified, experienced teachers as learners on education-based masters courses. Working within a post-qualitative frame, we employ a lesser-known approach to research, 'conversation as methodology', in order to explore our experiences and develop our expertise as HE practitioners. Through conversation, we identify datafication as both affective and effective – it shapes and produces particular learning and teaching encounters and it also shapes and produces subjectivities. We suggest that for education-based masters courses, this is troublesome, and can result in a process of (un)teaching, as we challenge the values and practices on which a datafied education depends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great part of the defense literature is focused on the interaction between military spending and economic activity. To investigate this interrelationship, researchers have applied a wide variety of methodologies with totally different assumptions and statistical properties. Until today, however, no detailed examination of the sensitivity of empirical results to the various statistical methods has been provided in the literature. The present paper attempts to fill this gap by providing, firstly, a review of the majority of the time series methodologies used in the defense–growth literature and, secondly, an econometric application using data of the U.S. economy over the period 1961–2015 in order to establish empirically the association between econometric procedures and empirical results. The empirical findings of the conducted analysis suggest that statistical methods can indeed become a significant source of variation in the investigation of the defense–growth nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of the microeconomy of a typical underdeveloped village in southwest China and the role of elementary education in the village economy. The paper begins with a brief review of relevant theories on the economics of education and the current social conditions and state of education in the village under study, and then tabulates and summarizes the income and living expenses of the villagers. The results of this analysis of income and expenses show an enormous gap, where a large proportion of the meager income earned by the villagers is “missing.” Further analysis explained the “missing” money: first, it was largely invested in compulsory and higher education; and second, an unusually high proportion of the villagers’ income was spent outside the village. These findings at least partially explain the impoverishment of the village under study (i.e., due to overinvestment in education, a skewed orientation toward external spending, and investment in education outside of the village). This structure of investment and spending siphons off the villagers’ disposable income, smothers economic activity in the village, and ultimately exacerbates the impoverishment of the village under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamic causal relationships between carbon emissions, deadweight tonnage (DWT) of the total global shipping fleet, fuel oil consumption, and economic activities for marine transportation using cointegration, error-correction, and Granger causality techniques. The intensity of carbon emissions and energy consumption, in addition to the elasticity of emissions and DWT, is discussed. It is concluded that (1) there exist long-run relationships between these variables for the period of 1980 and 2006; (2) the higher levels of economic activities induce more DWT growth than the growth ofemissions; and (3) the fuel oil consumption is a weak exogenous variable to produce theemissions. This paper also found that the cost of mitigation is increasing, and thus carbon finance is likely to become more common in the future. These results also provide policy recommendations to combat climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In spite of government counter-terrorism expenditure and efforts, the incidence of terrorism in Nigeria appears to be rising. This paper examines the growth and fiscal consequences of terrorism in Nigeria by estimating the terrorism–macroeconomy relation using different measures of terror incidence. The results show that terrorism has an economically and statistically significant negative impact on growth; although this impact is considerably small and short-lived, manifesting only after a lag of about three years. Specifically, the cost of terrorism to Nigeria, in terms of lost GDP per annum, is estimated at 0.82%. Moreover, there is evidence that terrorism leads to the reallocation of economic activity away from private investment spending to government spending; that is, terrorism crowds out investment at a higher rate than its potential to crowd in government spending. Lastly, terrorism alters the composition of government expenditure – with the defence component of government expenditure rising vis-a-vis other expenditure items. The results are robust to allowing for dynamic interactions between terrorism and macroeconomic aggregates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]