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The pulp and paper industry converts roundwood and recycled fibre, collected from wastepaper into printing and writing papers, and other specialty grades of paper. The pulp and paper mills in Ontario have been facing extreme competitive pressures, which have affected their performance leading to several mill closures. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the relative performance of three types of Ontario's pulp and paper mills (using all fibre, only roundwood fibre, and only recycled fibre). This study uses bootstrap data envelopment analysis in analyzing and comparing the operational efficiency of the Ontario's pulp and paper mills, with 224 sample data observations over a period of 17 years. The results indicate low levels of overall technical and managerial efficiencies in the pulp and paper mills using recycled fibre. The results of the study highlight that the pulp and paper industry needs to divert their attention to streamlining the manufacturing processes, reducing costs, improving raw material usage, and making capital investments in the new and improved technology, in order to improve the operational efficiency and competitiveness of the Ontario's pulp and paper mills. The pulp and paper mills using recycled fibre require huge capital investments, especially for installing the latest de-inking technology. The results of this study provide policy makers with detailed performance analysis so that future input resources can be reallocated to improve the performance of the pulp and paper mills in Ontario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial R &D efforts are currently directed towards the development of combined heat and power (CHP) systems that automatically and seamlessly connect to the power grid. In this paper we develop a real options model to assess the impact that the operational flexibility characterizing such systems will have on the optimal timing and capacity associated with investments in CHP plants. We take the viewpoint of a manufacturer operating in an energy-intensive industry who contemplates investing in CHP. We discuss and compare investments in two types of CHP systems: a standard one that is operationally rigid and a technologically advanced one that is operationally flexible. The interaction between temporal and operational flexibility under uncertainty and irreversibility is central to our analysis. We show that operational flexibility guarantees earlier investment but has an ambiguous effect in terms of capacity. In particular, when operational flexibility is very valuable the potential investor is opting for investing in a plant with larger productive capacity. The potential investor chooses a smaller CHP unit if otherwise. A numerical exercise calibrated using data from the Italian pulp and paper and electricity industries complements our theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper-based packaging is a complex multi-material composed of paper (fibers), plastics, and metals, making efficient material recycling complicated. Currently, most of the fibers are recycled into new paper products while the residual material is commonly incinerated. Therefore, to improve the circularity and reduce the fossil dependency chemical recycling is needed. In this study, recycling of the residual materials was evaluated by thermal and catalytic pyrolysis. First, screening tests were performed using five reject materials and four catalysts in an analytical scale and then, a selection of catalyst and reject materials were evaluated in lab-scale followed by a techno-economic assessment. Experimental results indicated that the conversion was more efficient if the reject had high content of plastics compared to fibers, leading to products with increased heating value, higher hydrocarbon yield and less reactive oxygenates compared to the rejects with low plastic ratio. In the thermal pyrolysis 54 % of the weight of the feedstock and 70 wt% of the carbon in the feedstock ended up in a solid organic product (wax) which contained hydrocarbons and alcohols. In the analytical catalytic pyrolysis, HZSM-5 gave the best result in terms of cracking, deoxygenation, and aromatization. Ex-situ catalytic pyrolysis using HZSM-5 resulted in an improved quality of organic liquid with reduced hydrocarbon length as well as deoxygenated and aromatic compounds. The yield of the organic liquid was up to 19 wt% and contained mainly monoaromatics. The techno-economic evaluation showed, for processing 100,000 tons year−1 residual material, the total plant investment and the annual profit are about 29 and 12 million Euros, respectively, if no incentive for treating the residual material. [Display omitted] • Recycling of multi-material packaging waste via thermal and catalytic pyrolysis. • The higher polymer to biomass ratio in the waste, the more efficient conversion. • Thermal pyrolysis generated up to 54 wt% of condensed solids, mainly hydrocarbons. • Catalytic pyrolysis yielded up to 19 wt% of organic liquid, mainly monoaromatics. • Catalytic pyrolysis is economically feasible if the feed rate is ≥ 10,000 tons/year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air emissions from the U.S. pulp and paper sector have been federally regulated since 1978; however, regulations are periodically reviewed and revised to improve efficiency and effectiveness of existing emission standards. The Industrial Sectors Integrated Solutions (ISIS) model for the pulp and paper sector is currently under development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and can be utilized to facilitate multi-pollutant, sector-based analyses that are performed in conjunction with regulatory development. The model utilizes a multi-sector, multi-product dynamic linear modeling framework that evaluates the economic impact of emission reduction strategies for multiple air pollutants. The ISIS model considers facility-level economic, environmental, and technical parameters, as well as sector-level market data, to estimate the impacts of environmental regulations on the pulp and paper industry. Specifically, the model can be used to estimate U.S. and global market impacts of new or more stringent air regulations, such as impacts on product price, exports and imports, market demands, capital investment, and mill closures. One major challenge to developing a representative model is the need for an extensive amount of data. This article discusses the collection and processing of data for use in the model, as well as the methods used for building the ISIS pulp and paper database that facilitates the required analyses to support the air quality management of the pulp and paper sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing the exogenous scenario of the “New Rules on Asset Management” in April 2018, this paper tries to explore the impact of the contraction of Chinese shadow banking on corporate investment behavior. This paper finds that the regulation leads to a 18.3% decrease in capital expenditure for firms relying on shadow banking system prior to the shock. Then, this paper tests three underlying mechanisms, which include the decrease of corporate borrowing, the increase of corporate financing constraints and the reduction of debt maturity. This paper also provides the empirical evidence that the implementation of the “New Rules on Asset Management” optimizes the allocation of capital across firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the world has witnessed a soaring inflow of capital into sustainable investment. This is particularly so following the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. However, while a growing amount of literature has been deliberating debt financing in sustainable investment, less ink has been spilt on equity financing in this area, and even less scholarship has explored the role of government and law in supporting sustainable venture capital ('VC') funds. This paper proposes a dualist approach towards facilitating the development of sustainable VC funds encompassing a contractarian strategy with government support. The contractarian approach includes effective contracting covering the entire VC cycle in sustainable investment. It aims to provide strong incentives for all participants, ranging from investors, entrepreneurs and fund managers, to credit-rating agencies and evaluation firms. In the same vein, this paper seeks to craft a role for regulators that facilitates the simultaneous availability of several factors in a sustainable VC cycle (i.e., fund raising, investment and exit). In the fund-raising stage, governments can play an active role by expanding the source of financing for sustainable VC funds and enacting detailed and targeted legislation. In the VC investment stage, sustainable VC funds should make full use of their strong corporate governance rights and monitoring tasks to ensure that start-ups deliver on their sustainable promises. In the exit stage, a specialised sustainability board is strongly recommended to offer viable exit options, together with greater standardisation and comparability in sustainability information disclosure, and regulatory support for trustworthy sustainable impact rating agencies to sustain investor confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze why firms use nonintermediated short-term debt by studying the commercial paper (CP) market. Using a comprehensive database of CP issuers and issuance activity, we show that firms use CP to provide start-up financing for capital investment. Firms' CP issuance is driven by a desire to minimize transaction costs associated with raising capital for new investment. We show that firms with high rollover risk are less likely to enter the CP market, borrow less CP, and borrow more from bank credit lines. Further, CP is often refinanced with long-term bond issuance to reduce rollover risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the growth-enhancing and growth-retarding effects of different budgetary fiscal variables using a balanced panel of 32 middle-income countries for the time period of 2000–2017. Much of previous research requires to be re-evaluated as it ignores the biases associated with either incomplete or wrong specification, or both, of the budget constraint and the money supply. This paper addresses these gaps and obtains more unbiased, consistent and efficient estimates for the fiscal variables, using both static and dynamic panel econometric techniques. Specifically, this paper finds that (1) larger tax and non-tax revenues retard economic growth; (2) higher allocation to public capital expenditure appears to have positive and significant effect on growth; (3) fiscal deficit appears to have neutral-growth effects; and (4) controlling broad money supply corrects for biases in the orthogonal specification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on administrative data and machine-learning models, I develop a firm-specific measure of regulatory intensity: cost of compliance with all federal paperwork regulations. Regulatory intensity increases the cost of goods sold and overhead spending (SGA). It also incentivizes companies to reduce capital investment, hire fewer employees, and lobby more. The effects are particularly strong among financially constrained firms and those with irreversible investment opportunities, suggesting that regulation affects companies through budgetary pressures and heightened uncertainty. The findings highlight the real effects of regulation and the underlying mechanisms. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how to identify and address production levelling problems in assembly lines utilising an intensive manual workforce when higher productivity levels are urgently requested to meet market demands. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-methods approach was used in the research design, integrating case study analysis, interviews and qualitative/quantitative data collection and analysis. The methodology implemented also introduces to the literature on operational performance a novel combination of data analysis methods by introducing the use of the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) methods. Findings: First, the findings unveil the impacts on operational performance that transportation, limited documentation and waiting times play in assembly lines composed of an intensive workforce. Second, the paper unveils the understanding of the role that a limited understanding of how the assembly line functions play in productivity. Finally, the authors provide actionable insights into the levelling problems in manual assembly lines. Practical implications: This research supports industries operating assembly lines with intensive utilisation of manual workforce to improve operational performance. The paper also proposed a novel conceptual model prescriptively guiding quick and long-term improvements in intensive manual workforce assembly lines. The article assists industrial decision-makers with subsequent turnaround strategies to ensure higher efficiency levels requested by the market. Originality/value: The paper offers actionable findings relevant to other manual assembly lines utilising an intensive workforce looking to improve operational performance. Some of the methods and strategies examined in this study to improve productivity require minimal capital investments. Lastly, the study contributes to the empirical literature by identifying production levelling problems in a real context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When solving problems related to capital investments in the company, it is necessary to work out the problem in detail and take into account as many influential parameters as possible in order to make the optimal decision. One such problem is the selection of the main warehouse location for the needs of a given company with dispersed centers. Multi-criteria decision-making methods can be applied to successfully solve such complex problems. In this paper, the EDAS method will be applied to achieve the optimal selection of the location of the main warehouse in a company with several dispersed centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the interaction of economic growth and inflation rate on accounting for both sources of capital investment and global shocks. The analysis method is a time-varying coefficient Bayesian vector autoregression (TVC-BSVAR) model applied in a quarterly data sample of the Vietnam economy over Q2/2001–Q4/2022. The global factors, including the world economic growth and the inflation rate, are the most important drivers of domestic growth and inflation rate. A greater world growth rate raises the domestic growth rate while a higher world inflation rate increases the domestic inflation rate. If the world economy falls into stagflation with declining growth and a rising inflation rate, Vietnam's economic growth reduces while the inflation surges. The monetary and fiscal policy can be employed to recover domestic economic growth but with an associated surge in the domestic inflation rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Till now, studies have determined the existence of process innovation using survey data; however, in this paper, we use secondary data to empirically establish its presence in low-tech industries. Our empirical approach consists of data envelopement analysis in the first step followed by regression analysis in the second step. We use a cross-sectional dataset, i.e., Annual Survey of Industries, 2017–2018 for our study. Our results suggest that among Indian low-tech firms, investment in computer equipment and software is the most popular strategy to trigger process innovation followed by investment in plant and machinery. We find that these factors have a greater impact on firms that export products and import inputs, than on firms that export products but do not import inputs. In other words, the export-import orientation of firms induces a differential impact of these factors on process innovation. One policy implication from the study is that government should encourage and incentivize low-tech firms to improve the capabilities of its labour force. This is the first paper in the Indian context that uses secondary data to empirically determine the existence of process innovation in low-tech industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore whether the development of competitive computer gaming (eSports) industries is sustained in China. In doing so, we apply the Generalized Supremum Augmented Dickey-Fuller (GSADF) method to investigate when the bubbles originated and crashed in the Chinese eSports market from 2014 to 2021. Utilizing the data of the Chinese Electronic Sports Thematic Index (CESI), the empirical outcomes show that the Chinese eSports industry may deviate from its market value and that the industry witnesses bubble behaviors. The latent reasons might be attributed to government policies, economic growth, stock market crises, and venture capital investments. Therefore, to promote the stabilized and sustained development of the eSports industry in China, regulators and authorities should pay attention to the evolution of bubbles. Moreover, maintaining policy consistency and continuity may be beneficial in stabilizing investors' expectations and reducing speculative investment behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, the financial sector in advanced economies has undergone profound changes, and this is particularly true for the US financial economy. This paper focuses on aspects of this evolution that are closely related to distortions in the investment system. The line of thought starts from the maximisation of shareholder value, which was the ideological basis for the split between the real economy and the financial sector. The paper provides a multifaceted analysis of the impact of financial markets on investment behaviour, the decline in real capital investment, the adverse consequences of value extraction, and the adverse effects of share buybacks. As long as the gap between the cost of capital and the minimum expected rate of return is not narrowed, the position of real capital investment will not improve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine whether managerial sentiment, extracted from annual reports, is associated with corporate risk-taking in the context of Chinese companies. This study expands the vein of literature on overconfidence theory. Design/methodology/approach: By leveraging textual analysis on Chinese listed companies' annual reports, the authors construct firm-level managerial sentiment during 2007 and 2021 to examine how managerial sentiment influences corporate risk-taking after control for firm characteristics. Corporate risk-taking is denoted by corporate investment engagements: capital expenditures and net fixed asset investment. Findings: Results show that incentives for corporate risk-taking are likely to increase with the positive managerial sentiment and decrease with the negative sentiment in companies' annual reports. Positive managerial sentiment is associated with over-/under-investment and low/high investment efficiency. Further additional tests show that the managerial sentiment effect only holds during low economic uncertain years and samples of private-owned firms. Furthermore, the robust tests indicate that there is no endogenous issue between managerial sentiment and corporate risk-taking. Research limitations/implications: Annual report textual-based managerial sentiment may not perfectly reflect managers' lower frequency sentiment (e.g. weekly, monthly and quarterly sentiment). Future studies could attempt to capture managers' on-time sentiment by using media sources and corporate disclosures. Practical implications: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first research to provide insights into supervising managers' corporate decisions by observing their textual information usage in corporate disclosure. Moreover, the approach of measuring managerial sentiment might be a solution to monitoring managerial class. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature on accounting and finance studies, adding another piece of empirical evidence on content analysis by examining a unique language and institutional context (i.e. China). Besides, the paper notes that in line with the English version disclosure, based on Chinese semantic words, managerial sentiment in the Chinese-speaking world has magnitude on corporate decisions. The research provides insights into supervising managers' corporate decisions by observing their textual information usage in corporate disclosure. Moreover, the approach to measuring managerial sentiment may be a practical solution to monitoring managerial class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper investigates unprecedented recent investment and capital spending in cross-provincial water management and transfer infrastructure in Iran. Although numerous cross-provincial water transfer plans have been implemented in the country, the scale, approach, and stakeholders involved in this recent national plan are unprecedented. This notable national plan includes long water transfer pipelines that pass through seven provinces, aiming at transferring desalinated water from the Persian Gulf to the interior. Regarding the scale, there have been a few cases of transferring water at the cross-provincial level, but mostly across two provinces. The approach has also changed in this plan. Long-term efforts to construct dams for electricity or farming with limited geographical impact have been shifted to desalinating water, long-distance pipe-laying, large-scale electric-powered water pumping, and long-distance underground tunnels. Stakeholders have become more diverse, from the council members of a small village to high-level decision makers at the national level. This paper elaborates on these extraordinary alterations by exemplifying a few other contemporary case studies of water transfer plans in Iran. It also examines the fundamental logic, bottlenecks, and future scenarios of this large-scale plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings an empirical assessment of economies of scale in local government units in Croatia. Using cross-section OLS models, we found statistically significant U-shaped relationship between local per capita expenditures and population size, while controlling for various demographic, socio-economic and institutional factors. The choice of control variables in the paper is based on the existing empirical literature but also includes factors capturing the specificities of Croatian economy and local government institutional setup. Using estimated regression coefficients we calculated the optimal size of local units and showed that population size is below optimal in 72% of cities and 76% of municipalities (based on median results). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the case of China, there is a need of green energy system to boost growth and environment. However, the current growth of urbanization is putting high pressure on energy system through financial capital. Hence, it is a need to develop such path through renewable energy consumption, capital development, and urbanization to enhance the performance of development and environment. Therefore, this paper contributes to the literature by adding the asymmetries between renewable energy, urbanization, economic growth, and capital investment by covering the period from 1970 to 2021. For this purpose, we apply the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model to find the nonlinearities between the variables under study. The findings confirm the asymmetric short- and long-term relationships between the variables. In this sense, capitalization shows the short- and long-term asymmetric impacts on renewable energy consumption. In addition, urbanization and economic growth have long-term asymmetric and positive impacts on renewable energy consumption. At last, this paper provides applicable and practical policy implications for China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates a congestion management concept involving conversion of two existing general-purpose freeway lanes per direction on an 8-lane freeway (with 4 lanes per direction) to priced lanes offering free access for high-occupancy vehicles, in conjunction with cash payments to incentivize a sufficient number of commuters to travel as passengers in transit, carpools or vanpools such that congestion on the remaining free lanes would be no worse than it was before the conversion. Building on prior research, we use a refined modeling process to explore the viability of implementation of the concept on the eastern segment of the Capital Beltway in the Washington, DC metro area. The results of the analysis suggest that the strategy can benefit users of shared travel modes and toll-payers, improve travel speeds on toll-free general-purpose lanes, generate significant surplus revenues to support capital investments and operating subsidies for shared travel modes, and can absorb traffic growth through 2040. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of the green credit policy on forming three types of "zombie firms," namely, credit-subsidized zombie firms, poorly managed zombie firms, and comprehensive zombie firms, considering the quasi-natural experiment of the implementation of the "Green Credit Guidelines" in 2004. In this paper, I implement a difference-in-differences method and use the data of all Chinese A-share non-financial listed companies from 2008 to 2017. The results show that the green credit policy attempts to inhibit the formation of credit-subsidized zombie firms by reducing bank loan subsidies and evergreen lending. However, the green credit policy promotes poorly managed zombie firms by strengthening firms' financial constraints and reducing the working capital and investment efficiency. The green credit policy has not shown a significant impact on comprehensive zombie firms. Moreover, the green credit policy has shown a more significant impact on state-owned firms, firms in industries that heavily rely on external financing and are highly competitive, and firms involved in high financial marketization areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI) on youth unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by using a modified labour demand model to identify the investment sources that are helpful for reducing youth unemployment in the region. The model is applied to a panel of 42 countries for the period 2003–2021 using random-effect, and generalized method of moment (GMM) estimators for robustness check. Our results suggest that Chinese FDI has direct short-term reducing effect on youth unemployment in SSA. The direction of China's capital investment to infrastructure development and other labour-intensive activities leads to immediate reduction in youth unemployment. However, overtime, due to absence of linkages with domestic firms, and thus lack of demand effects, Chinese FDI becomes insignificant for employment creation. Our results also indicate that Other FDI does not lead to significant reduction in youth unemployment both currently and overtime. Our analysis gives partial support to the argument that the impact of Chinese FDI may differ from those of developed countries. Finally, we could not find evidence that the effect of FDI on employment depends on host country human capital and institutional quality. Several specifications of the empirical model are tested, and explanations are provided for the results. Policy implications are highlighted, especially the need to attract more job absorbing FDI and improve domestic absorptive capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The local government has the right and the ability to regulate and administer an essential part of public affairs under their responsibility and in the interest of the community and the right to plan, finance and organize the exercise of a function. One of the main aspects is the support of local government in finding possible solutions for the financing and implementation of capital investment projects, also through policy improvements at the local level advocated by local government associations. In our legal framework, it is provided that the financing of the local self-government units is made from the revenues provided by taxes, fees and other local revenues, from funds transferred from the State Budget and funds that come directly from the allocation of taxes and national taxes, local borrowing, donations, as well as other sources provided for in the law. On the other hand, this paper will highlight the importance of implementing the principle of equality from the central to the local level, so that the latter can fulfill its functions where one of these functions is the expansion of financing sources. The implementation of local government investment projects depends on their ability to find the necessary funds by combining their own resources and external financing. Debt financing enables municipalities to carry out more infrastructure projects in a short period of time compared to financing from their own funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous research papers have used Irish-only data to test for the presence of an investment gap for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this paper, we use cross-country firm-level survey data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys to explore the investment patterns of Irish enterprises in a cross-country context and test whether an investment gap is present when compared to other countries. We use an accelerator model of investment which links capital expenditure to firm output growth and test the sensitivity of investment to this key fundamental for Ireland and other countries. We then estimate whether Irish firms face an investment gap relative to their European peers. We test whether any differences in cross-country patterns are driven by variation in financial factors (such as credit access or indebtedness) or firm quality (managerial experience, website usage, operating profitability). We find that Ireland's investment in fixed tangible assets is relatively well explained by these factors whereas a clear underinvestment in research and development expenditure emerges. Factors associated with investment in research and development include the degree of foreign technology usage, digitalisation and internationalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the implementation of an integrated project control system on behalf of a public Owner in Italy, committed to the project management of a capital investment of two Billions (circa) of Euros regarding an infrastructure programme. The author leaded, as a project manager, the multidisciplinary consulting group on behalf of the JV which had awarded the consulting project named “Project Management System for Quadrilatero (PMS)”. The project controls system (PCS) described in this paper is a core part of the project management system (PMS) designed to support Quadrilatero, a public scope company acting as an owner of highways major scheme in Italy started in 2006. The author of this paper was the project manager of the project management consultancy group; he also designed CAPITOLO, the software package used for the implementation of the project controls system, based on EVM methodology. The paper first describes the scope of work of PMS, and then focuses on the advanced project controls system implemented. At conclusions, also some lessons learned are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the influencing factors of venture capital fund investment performance is crucial for the decision making of venture capital institutions. This paper explored the influencing factors of venture capital institutions from the perspective of startups, aiming to elucidate the mechanisms of these factors on the performance of venture capital funds and to propose a novel and effective predictive model of investment performance. Linear regression and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the influence of each variable on investment performance, and the weight proportion of each influencing factor was obtained under the linear model. Two machine learning models, including the random forest algorithm and extreme learning machine algorithm, are established, and the particle swarm algorithm and machine learning algorithm were combined to optimize the random parameters in the two models. Compare the reliability and accuracy of machine learning models and multivariate linear regression models. The analysis results indicate that the PSO-ELM hybrid model has a better predictive performance than other prediction models. A convenient machine learning algorithm provided in this paper can quickly and effectively predict the investment performance of various investment portfolios and provide investors with decision-making assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the topics for which manuscripts will be submitted to the periodical including hospital costing models and capital investment in healthcare technology along with information on manuscript submission and important dates.

This paper examines whether increased export opportunity improved the relative demand for skilled labors in China's migrants, and whether such effects further improved their investments in their next generation's education. To answer these questions, by employing the National Migrant Monitoring Data, Manufacturing Enterprise Survey, China Customs Database and China's Population survey data, and using international demand shocks to construct instrumental variables, we find that export opportunities do increase the demand for skilled migrants, their wages and the probability that they bring their school-age children to cities. These results indicate that export opportunities not only increase the demand and return for skilled migrants, but also promote the accumulation of human capital for the next generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do intergovernmental transfers affect the multidimensional well-being of households? This paper investigates the relationship between intergovernmental transfers and household multidimensional well-being, using the revenue allocation by the federal government to sub-national or state governments in Nigeria. We follow Alkire & Foster to compute a multidimensional poverty index (MPI), which is the weighted sum of three broad dimensions of poverty – health, education, and living standards. We adopt an instrumental variable (IV) approach by using exogenous variation in oil windfalls as an instrument to mitigate the endogeneity concerns associated with using intergovernmental transfers in our analysis. We find that an increase in intergovernmental transfers leads to an improvement in household multidimensional well-being or a decline in the multidimensional poverty index. We identify recurrent and capital expenditures as some of the potential channels through which intergovernmental transfers affect the multidimensional well-being of households in Nigeria. The findings of this paper reinforce the growing evidence of the developmental impacts of intergovernmental transfers, especially in the context of developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous promotion of China's innovation-driven development strategy, the role of technological innovation on economic development has become increasingly important. In this context, the support of R&D capital investment for technological innovation also becomes non-negligible. This leads to the question of whether the allocation of R&D capital is reasonable and whether there is room for further improvement. This paper is based on inter-provincial panel data from 2009 to 2020, which are classified based on China's National Bureau of Statistics for R&D funding sources in high-tech industries and incorporated into an overall discussion framework. Using STATA16 statistical software, the R&D innovation output of high-tech industries is inves-tigated by building a PVAR model with the perspective of funding sources of R&D input intensity. The study results show that (1) the increase in the intensity of enterprises' own capital investment has a positive impact on innovation output because it can generate a financial "reservoir" effect to support technological innovation. (2) the increase in the intensity of government capital invest-ment has a positive impact on innovation output because it can alleviate the loss of income of en-terprises due to "R&D spillover" and will send a positive signal to the market. (3) the foreign in-vestment intensity has a positive impact on the innovation output of enterprises due to the com-bined effect of "spillover effect" and "crowding out effect". (4) the increase of other capital in-vestment intensity also has a neutral effect on the increase of innovation output under the current financial market environment. Finally, based on the above findings, corresponding policy impli-cations are drawn. This study will help to improve the understanding of R&D capital allocation imbalance and R&D input and output issues in developing countries and provide a reference for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mineral Resources Management / Gospodarka Surowcami Mineralnymi is the property of Mineral & Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of REGEPE Entrepreneurship & Small Business Journal is the property of Revista de Empreendedorismo e Gestao de Pequenas Empresas (REGEPE) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the relationship between the structure of R&D fixed capital spending, measured as the ratio of the private sector to public sector R&D capital expenditure, and national total factor productivity. It employs South African data for the period 1965 to 2019. This study employs the non-linear distributed lag modelling framework to cater for non-linearities in the relationship. The findings, first, suggest that the ratio of private sector to public sector R&D capital spending has a positive effect on total factor productivity. Second, the structure of R&D capital spending has large asymmetric effects on national total factor productivity, with negative changes dominating positive changes. Negative changes in the structure of R&D capital spending negatively influence total factor productivity, but positive changes have positive effects. Both in the short run and the long run, cumulative multipliers indicate that negative changes in the structure of R&D capital spending dominate positive changes by a very large margin. The findings imply that the private sector must become more dominant than the public sector in R&D capital spending in the national system of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, using the most recent dataset, examines the government expenditure's effects on the economic growth of Nepal. In doing so, a particular focus is made on disaggregated government expenditures to identify the importance of sector-specific public expenditure. The methodology adopted in this paper considers the scenario of government budget constraints while allocating resources in specific sectors and attempts to find the elasticity of those expenditures in the country's economic growth. The results from the estimation employing Auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration for the data from 1981 to 2020 are threefold. First, both capital and current expenditures in aggregate forms are not the contributors to economic growth unlike our assumption that capital expenditure is more important than current expendtirue for economic grwoth. Second, spending more on education, either in the form of capital or current expenditure, would make a meaningful contribution to accelerating economic growth. Third, the public expenditure in the health sector should be very rational, focusing more on capital health expenditure rather than spending current health expenditure. Therefore, the primary policy recommendation from this study is that Nepal should invest more in education and health. Moreover, spending on education to expand the area with wider coverage and quality logistics and infrastructure are both important, while such expenditure in health is to be focused on solid health logistics and infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investing financial capital is almost always risky, there is no safe investment, and any unplanned situation in the future, uncertainty or sudden events can mean risk. To assess risk and protect themselves from it, investors resort to probability distribution. From the above, the subject of the paper is derived, which is the investment of capital in conditions of risk with reference to the assessment and distribution of value. Distribution is marked by all possible outcomes with the assigned probability of each result, and the aim of the scientific work is to explain how investors implement this mathematical-statistical method. The purpose of the scientific paper is to present the results of research based on read and processed literature, in foreign and domestic articles. The thesis put forward by the authors in their scientific paper is that "There is no method that will completely reduce the risks, because market risk is impossible to influence". According to the authors, the risk is influenced by many variables, the more variables - the higher the risk, and in order for it to be precisely defined in the investment business, it is necessary to know its core, it is necessary to assess it. Any unplanned situation in the future, uncertainty or sudden events can mean risk. The probability distribution, on the other hand, is a list of all possible outcomes with the assigned probability of each outcome, and its most common parameters are the expected rate of return and standard deviation. Foreign authors mostly see investing capital in conditions of risk as an opportunity for investors who need to know at what point to invest, and therefore propose new theories. Surveys dealing with probability estimation and distribution were selected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services, like water provision or pollination, may increase both agricultural productivity (that is, the capability of the sector to increase the output in volume and value) and alleviate poverty (for instance, through food provision). In addition, increased agricultural productivity can help alleviate poverty by increasing the profitability of the sector, the income of the farmers, and the rates of return on (natural and other) capital investments. However, those beneficial effects come at the cost of (possible) deterioration of existing ESs, that, prima facie, represented the main driver for the generation of benefits. This paper, therefore, identifies and discusses the implications (and possible remedies) of a critical issue that, to our knowledge, is under-studied in an integrated context and methodological approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of influencing factors serves as the cornerstone for the research on smart community construction. Drawing upon both field research and extensive literature study, this paper explores the influencing factors of China's smart community construction and its effective paths by taking 52 national pilot zones for community governance and service innovation in China as examples. In the constructed analytical framework of influencing factors, elements such as economic development, capital investment, information infrastructure, community governance, public support system, and smart platform are included. By the use of the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) method, the results of the study show that community governance, public support system, and smart platform are necessary conditions for smart community construction, while economic development, capital investment and information infrastructure play a leading role in the four combined paths. Finally, this study provides a new perspective for theoretical research, a reference forgovernmental departments to make decisions, and experience for the construction of smart communities in other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tajikistan holds the eighth position globally in terms of hydropower potential, estimated at 527 terawatt-hours (TWh), with a technically exploitable capacity of 317 TWh. Only 4–6 percent of this immense potential is currently utilized. In this paper, employing a combination of the Johansen cointegration test, vector autoregression, and the Granger-causality test on annual data from 1993 to 2021, we examine the causality relationship between electricity production and key macroeconomic variables, including gross domestic product (GDP), GDP per capita, exports, imports, final consumption, capital investment, and employment, in Tajikistan. The empirical findings reveal a positive unidirectional causality from electricity production to exports and imports. A positive bidirectional or feedback causality is found between electricity production and variables such as GDP, GDP per capita, final consumption, and employment. No causality relationship between electricity production and variables such as trade openness and capital investment is observed. The exploration of complex causal relationships between electricity production and key macroeconomic variables in Tajikistan, as revealed in this study, offers a modest yet meaningful addition to academic discourse. It presents insights that may inform policymakers and stakeholders, albeit with a recognition of the limitations inherent in the findings. These insights could potentially guide the formulation of sustainable development strategies and shed light on the underutilized potential of the country's hydropower resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Battery cell finalization is a crucial process chain in battery manufacturing, contributing to a significant share of CAPEX and OPEX. Thus, there is a high cost-saving potential by improving the process chain. This research paper investigates various crucial facets of the cell finalization process in battery cell production through an expert survey. These include investment cost allocation, potential cost savings in sub-processes, reject generation, early detection of faulty cells, quality measurement techniques, and the utilization of inline data for early quality determination and real-time process control during the formation process. A solution approach for the implementation of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy for inline early quality determination is given. The results yield valuable insights for optimizing the formation process and enhancing product quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 has become a hype among the manufacturing industries across the globe. Recent developments require significant capital investments, but these technologies are yet to be established in developing countries such as Vietnam, especially the apparel industry. Based on a survey of the current situation at small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam's textile industry, the paper proposes to apply technology, test and evaluate the effectiveness of applying and coordinating digital systems in management and chain supply. Multifaceted applications have been specifically explored including automatic equipment and digital systems, spanning the domains of automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT). These technologies are posited as catalysts for transformative improvements in production efficiency and resource utilization. Furthermore, experimental results point out the symbiotic relationship between technology adoption and effective management strategies to achieve holistic operational enhancements. As the Vietnamese textile industry strives for competitive excellence in the global arena, this research offers actionable insights for industry practitioners, policymakers, and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Public–private partnerships (PPP) are often how health improvement programs are implemented in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). We therefore aimed to systematically review the literature about the aim and impacts of quality improvement (QI) approaches in PPP in LMICs. Methods: We searched SCOPUS and grey literature for studies published before March 2022. One reviewer screened abstracts and full-text studies for inclusion. The study characteristics, setting, design, outcomes, and lessons learned were abstracted using a standard tool and reviewed in detail by a second author. Results: We identified 9,457 citations, of which 144 met the inclusion criteria and underwent full-text abstraction. We identified five key themes for successful QI projects in LMICs: 1) leadership support and alignment with overarching priorities, 2) local ownership and engagement of frontline teams, 3) shared authentic learning across teams, 4) resilience in managing external challenges, and 5) robust data and data visualization to track progress. We found great heterogeneity in QI tools, study designs, participants, and outcome measures. Most studies had diffuse aims and poor descriptions of the intervention components and their follow-up. Few papers formally reported on actual deployment of private-sector capital, and either provided insufficient information or did not follow the formal PPP model, which involves capital investment for a explicit return on investment. Few studies discussed the response to their findings and the organizational willingness to change. Conclusions: Many of the same factors that impact the success of QI in healthcare in high-income countries are relevant for PPP in LMICs. Vague descriptions of the structure and financial arrangements of the PPPs, and the roles of public and private entities made it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about the impacts of the organizational governance on the outcomes of QI programs in LMICs. While we found many articles in the published literature on PPP-funded QI partnerships in LMICs, there is a dire need for research that more clearly describes the intervention details, implementation challenges, contextual factors, leadership and organizational structures. These details are needed to better align incentives to support the kinds of collaboration needed for guiding accountability in advancing global health. More ownership and power needs to be shifted to local leaders and researchers to improve research equity and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compare the investment of standalone firms across regions after a positive shock to the investment opportunities generated by a large-scale highway development project. We show that the standalones' investment sensitivity is lower in regions with a higher density of business groups in the local area. We investigate mechanisms driving our results and find support for a financing mechanism whereby banks allocate capital preferentially to group-affiliated firms in responding to the increase in credit demand. Overall, our study documents that business groups have spillover effects on standalone firms. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Republic of Kosovo, as a new democratic state and independent in 2008, has managed to create a stable financial system over the last decade. The importance of this scientific research lies in the fact that through this study we understand the impact of public debt on economic growth, debt management by past governments and the destination of these funds in capital investments as internal, external and very important sources of financing the economy of Kosovo. Purpose: This scientific paper aims to analyze the impact of public debt on Kosovo's economic growth during the period 2007-2019. Through various analyzes related to the country's public debt, we will be able to conclude the effect of public debt on Kosovo's economic growth. To analyze the public debt of the country, the following variables are included: GDP as a dependent variable, while as independent variables are the internal debt (DD) and external debt (EXD) of the Republic of Kosovo. Methodology: This paper is mainly based on the collection of data from secondary sources which are provided by the annual public debt reports published by the Ministry of Finance, the reports of the Central Bank of Kosovo and the World Bank in a period of 13 years, while the review of the literature in terms of content includes studies of various authors regarding the impact of public debt on economic growth. The collected data will be analyzed, processed and interpreted through econometric models using the STATA software. Findings: Based on the results and findings of the study of this scientific research we can conclude that public debt has a positive impact on economic growth, implying that the low level of public debt has ensured financial stability at the national level and the use of debt to a large extent for capital investments has caused a positive substantive impact on the economic growth of the country during this period.. Practical implications: Through the results of this study, we recommend that for the needs of financing the economy and capital projects, the Republic of Kosovo has the opportunity to use public debt for economic needs up to the allowable limit while maintaining financial and macroeconomic stability of the country. Originality/Value: This scientific research presents real and sustainable findings regarding the public debt of the Republic of Kosovo as an impact on economic growth for the analyzed period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is motivated by the debate about the decline in the degree of capacity utilization in the US economy observed since the begin of the 2000s. Its purpose is to check if capacity utilization calculated by the Fed for the industrial sector can be tracked by a Supermultiplier model estimated with data for the whole economy. The model tracks well the actual series of induced investment share, induced investment and stock of capital of the whole economy, but not the degree of capacity utilization when compared with capacity utilization from the industry. We investigate the possible causes of this divergence. We show that (i) there are some discrepancies between the trend of the actual data on stock of capital and the productive capacity that is used to calculate the capacity utilization of the industrial sector, and (ii) since 2000, industrial production has been growing slower than GDP. This could help to explain the discrepancies between capacity utilization of the entire economy and of the industrial sector, suggesting that this demand shock suffered by the industrial sector, combined with a slow mechanism of adjustment of capacity to demand, is one possible explanation for the observed decline in utilization rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balancing economic growth with resources and the environment to achieve sustainable development is a key issue in the development of all countries, and researchers are trying to find feasible development paths. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of human capital levels on green economic efficiency (GEE) and the underlying mechanisms in 280 prefecture-level cities in China and covering the 2003–2019 period. In addition, we calculate GEE including undesired outputs based on a super-efficiency slack-based measure (SBM) model, and we construct panel regression and moderating effect models for empirical studies. The results of the baseline regression study show that the improvement in the human capital level contributes to the GEE of prefecture-level cities. Among the control variables, the economic development level, foreign direct investment (FDI), city size, and the science and technology innovation (STI) level positively affect GEE, while industrialization and environmental regulation negatively affect GEE. The study results concerning the mechanism of action indicate that industrial structure upgrading plays a positive moderating role. That is, industrial structure upgrading can strengthen the effect of human capital on GEE, which is further clarified. This study suggests that government policies must favor the cultivation of high-level human capital, especially in the environmental protection industry, and that talent support strategies should be differentiated between regions to promote industrial structure upgrading and human capital matching through green technology development. Modern human capital theory reveals the important role of human capital in improving economic efficiency and provides new ideas for achieving sustainable development. This paper explores the role of human capital in improving the GEE based on the human capital perspective, which is important for research on the pathways to achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]