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The green paradox describes an undesirable and socially inefficient phenomenon caused by the expansionary reactions of the supply as a response to the various mechanisms that combat climate change. This article seeks to understand and aggregate the different drivers of this phenomenon portrayed in the literature, as well the empirical evidence associated and the proposed solutions. For this purpose, compilation and systematization of the various scientific contributions up to date in this context have been elaborated and the driver's effective impact on the European scenario was evaluated, using a balanced panel for 28 countries in Europe over 1996-2018 and the generalized method of moments (GMM) econometric procedure. Proxies for all provocateurs identified in the state of the art were incorporated in this study: (i) environmental taxes, (ii) green support, (iii) uncertain property rights, (iv) emissions limit (cap), and (v) temporal lag. The dependent variables used are (1) the ratio between the annual production/extraction of oil and the consumption of primary energy and (2) the carbon dioxide (CO2) intensity. We have obtained evidences that the hiatus in the implementation of the European emission cap mechanism has generated a strong green paradox. Moreover, a robust reflection regarding the economic and environmental adequacy of green supports should be considered due to its questionable net benefits. Lastly, we offer some recommendations of public environmental policies that escape the paradoxical phenomenon, through the enunciation of the conditionalities of these provocateurs., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between sectoral renewable energy consumption and economic growth in the US economy for the period 1950-2020 by using the Fourier component augmented unit root, cointegration, and causality analyses for the transportation, industrial, residential, electric power, and commercial sectors. Our results reveal in the long run that renewable energy will Granger cause growth through the new jobs it will create, the restructuring of the economy which is a prerequisite for replacing fossil energy with renewable energy. On the other hand, causal relationships are less stable and methodology and sector specific in the short run. Accordingly, the electric power and industrial sectors experience conservation patterns in terms of renewable energy consumption, while the growth hypothesis is confirmed for the commercial sector. Different implications are generated for each sector, which are now more important than ever given the current energy crisis in Europe and the urgent need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The aim of this paper is to investigate the nexus between natural resources, gross capital formation, globalization, and economic growth in the developing countries from European, Asian, African, and American continents. It adopted the panel vector autoregression (PVAR) approach to test this relationship for the period from 1980 to 2018. Results suggest that natural resources and globalization have a positive impact on economic growth in European, Asian, and American countries, while capital formation negatively affects growth. In African countries, the effect of globalization and gross capital formation is positive, but natural resources have a negative impact on GDP. Evidence from all continents illustrate that there is bidirectional causality between globalization and economic growth. Also, there is bidirectional causality detected between capital formation and growth in Europe and Asia and between natural resources and growth in Asia and America, while there is unidirectional causality from GDP to natural resources in Europe, from capital formation to GDP in Africa and America, from GDP to natural resources in Europe, and from natural resources to GDP in America. Based on these results, it can be said that new growth models can no longer be independent of natural resource rents and globalization., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature.)

The present study aims to investigate the impact of climate change technologies on green growth for a panel of overall European economies, Eastern, and Western European economies over 2000 to 2017. The study estimates the STIRPAT (stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology) and IPAT (human impact, population, affluence, and technology) models with a particulate focus to address the issue of cross-sectional dependence and cross-sectional heterogeneity in the model by using Westerlund cointegration approach and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) approach. After confirming the cointegration relationship, the findings indicate that in the case of IPAT model, energy-related climate change technology contributes towards green growth, while in case of STRIPAT model, environment-related budget tends to have favorable impact on green growth. However, other variables, such as transport and production-related climate change technologies along with energy consumption, tend to have negative impact on green growth. The findings are almost robust concerning Eastern and Western Europe. The findings indicate that renewable energy is pro-growth and thus the authorities concerned need to promote and encourage the use of renewable energy. In this regard, the role of public-private-partnership is important as well as policymakers need to allocate environment-related specific budget and extend exemption in taxes on the use of environment-friendly technologies. Renewable energy programs ensure an improved return on green growth, although costly to implement. Attention needs to be focused on technologies related to wind power, solar electricity, biogas for electricity and heat generation, and biofuels for transport from low initial levels. Thus, policymakers should focus on the positive impact of environmental regulations. Polluting industries should be taxed to adopt clean technologies and clean industries should be supported with tax exemption as an incentive. Moreover, the research and development (R&D) budget should be increased.

This study analyzes how economic resources invested in roads may affect mortality, depending on the level of economic development of a country. To this end, 23 European countries were classified into two groups-high-income countries and low-income countries-according to their average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita over the period 1998-2016. The economic resources are considered through the investment in construction and the maintenance expenditure. Further variables are included to control for several factors related to the infrastructure, socioeconomics, legislation, and meteorology. Fixed-effects panel data models were built separately for the interurban road network of each group of countries. These models also capture the international inequalities within each group and the country-specific national trend for the study period. The main results indicate a reduction effect on the fatality rate of road maintenance expenditure (in both groups), and of the investment in construction (in the low-income countries). Other variables-such as proportion of motorways, motorization rate, unemployment rate, GDP per capita, alcohol consumption, Demerit Point System, and mean annual precipitation-showed statistically significant results as well. Finally, the country-specific fixed effects and the country-specific trend were mapped geographically, to better reflect national conditions for achieving lower fatality rates in the high-income countries, and greater progress in reducing fatalities in the low-income countries. In the end, this study provides evidence to policy-makers that can help to achieve a safer and more sustainable transport system, namely, how to tackle an ongoing major problem-traffic-related deaths-when attending and allocating the economic resources that road infrastructure needs., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Climate change has generated intense concerns from public authorities and international institutions with regard to shaping the behavior of companies, consumers, investors, and other stakeholders so as to manage this challenge as efficiently as possible. In order to address the climate emergency in the post-pandemic era, recovery plans need to trigger decarbonization, and a green transition, including specific investments and providing a more adaptive structure of the sources of energy in different regions, able to meet the need for a systemic shift towards a more sustainable economy that works for both people and the planet. The main measurable effect of energy production and consumption is by far represented by carbon emissions. In the present paper, we aim to identify the statistical significance of several factors influencing the carbon dioxide emission per capita in the European countries-level of economic development, level of globalization, trade openness, and the intensity of energy transition measured by the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption. The results show an increased interest of the experts in energy consumption model shift through green energy increased share, with relatively high differences among the 42 European countries analyzed. The analysis was conducted for the period 1990-2018 and policy differences depending on variables (GDP/capita, globalization index, trade openness, and renewable energy share in total energy consumption) were identified. The results showed that the carbon dioxide emission per capita evaluation designed model is representative of the European countries. The fact that the targets set by European non-EU member states for reducing CO2 emissions are lower than for the EU is influencing the dynamics of the energy transition, with implications for the size and destination of funds to finance the development of renewable energy., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Renewable energy production is necessary for digital society; it is also beneficial for labor market and sustainable development. This paper examines the impact of renewable energy production on unemployment rate by employing panel NARDL-PMG and robust asymmetric quantile regression for European countries from 1991 to 2019. The results reveal that renewable energy production significantly reduced unemployment in European countries in long run. The renewable energy production effect is found significant in the asymmetric model, specifically, in European countries; a positive change in renewable energy production has a negative significant impact on unemployment, and a negative change in renewable energy production has a positive significant impact on unemployment in long run. The GDP, investment, and technology innovation process are found to be triggered in labor market by reducing the unemployment rate in the long run. In addition, the asymmetric effects of renewable energy production on unemployment growth are robust in the different quantile regression. The findings suggest some insightful policy implications for government officials and policymakers., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Water scarcity is a growing concern across the globe due to climate change and demands for increased economic development. This paper analyses the relationship between economic development and freshwater abstraction in order to investigate its European impact. The analysis focuses on a total of 19 European countries, including 18 EU member states and one candidate, from 2007 to 2018. Using a panel dataset, the impact of a diverse selection of indicators of economic development (per capita GDP, the Human Development Index - HDI, water productivity and volume of international trade) on freshwater abstraction, our analysis finds that all explanatory variables are significant for cross-country variations except for international trade. To maintain scope, the analysis is limited to economic-development indicators themselves, excluding the effects of climate change and the availability of water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the determinants of the ecological footprint of production in European countries from 1992 to 2020. Using partial and semipartial correlation analyses and Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) approach for the first time, the research identifies key variables affecting ecological footprint. Using Bayesian methods, posterior inclusion probabilities (PIPs) were calculated for each variable's coefficient estimates, revealing their relative importance. Biocapacity, energy consumption, industrialization, financial development, life expectancy, and globalization displayed notably high PIPs, indicating their strong influence on the ecological footprint. In addition, the study employs cointegration tests to examine the long-run relationship between ecological footprint and explanatory variables. The results indicate significant cointegration between these variables across panels, supported by various test statistics. In the Weighted Pooled DOLS estimation, biocapacity, energy consumption, and life expectancy significantly influence the ecological footprint, while industrialization, financial development, and globalization exert a comparatively smaller impact. Researchers and policymakers should consider these determinants for effective sustainable development planning. These findings underscore the intricate interplay of factors shaping the ecological footprint and offer insights for effective policy interventions towards sustainable development., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The aim of the paper is to verify whether there has been a causal relationship between economic performance and the quality of political environment in the last 200 years. Mainly, the paper explores the bi-directorial causality for the period of 1821–2016. To attain the aim, the paper uses Granger causality test. The differences between the individual regions (Europe, Latin America and former British colonies) are taken into consideration. Economic performance is expressed as annual growth rate of GDP per capita (taken from Maddison Project Database); the quality of political environment is associated with the Electoral Democracy Index and the Liberal Democracy Index (from the V-Dem Project). The paper offers three findings. Firstly, the results indicate that a statistically significant relationship between economic performance and political development was identified for the researched period. Secondly, bi-directorial causality was peculiar to the European countries, whereas the linkage was not identified within other regions. Thirdly, the results for the sub-periods confirm the previous conclusions with two additions. The quality of political environment and economic performance did not interact with each other in the period of 1821–1870 across all three regions, while in the period after World War II, bi-directorial causal relationship could also exist in the Latin American economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endeavor to implement the 2030 Agenda of national and international stakeholders became increasingly impetuous, considering the wide range of uncertainties and risks. The new humans-centered development model built on the prominence of environmental and social values seeks to reinforce communities' resilience and mitigate environmental risks, leaving no one behind. For this to happen, solid and effective institutions, the right environmental policies, and a safe statutory labor framework are the sine qua non. In this study, we evaluated the effects of informality, institutional quality, and renewable energy consumption on ecological footprint of two groups of emerging countries from Europe and Asia from 2002 to 2018. Our results by PMG-ARDL approach highlight dissimilarities between the two groups, showing greater heterogeneity. In this sense, informality is found to have positive and significant effects on ecological footprint in the long run in emerging European countries. In contrast, the effect is negative for emerging Asian countries. In the short run, the effects are less critical in the studied countries between the two groups. Institutional quality variables impacted environmental quality differently. In this sense, it is detrimental for policymakers to consider concerted measures to decrease institutional vulnerabilities and reduce the level of the informal economy. The outcome of this study concurs with a complete awareness of the importance of informality and institutional quality to mitigate social and environmental risks conjunctively., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

What determines the differences in economic performance across European regions? In addressing this question, this paper takes inspiration from two different approaches. One approach highlights the role of capability-building, of a technological or social nature, while another perspective emphasizes the potential advantages of proximity and, hence, a relatively diversified economic structure, for regional economic performance. The paper argues that the impacts of capability-building and diversification on regional economic development need to be assessed jointly. Using information for 261 regions at NUTS2 level in 27 European countries in the 2000s, novel data sources are exploited to construct measures of technological and social capabilities, which are combined with indicators of related and unrelated variety in the analysis of regional economic dynamics. The results suggest that capability-building play a key role in regional economic development while the results for diversification are more mixed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Polish Journal of Economics / Gospodarka Narodowa is the property of SGH Warsaw School of Economics 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.)

The renewable energy consumption plays a significant role in achieving sustainable development, but a sectoral approach is necessary to design the better recommendations for each sector. In this context, the main objective of this paper is to assess the impact of the use of this type of energy on economic growth in 23 European Union (EU) member states in the period 1990-2020. Besides overall renewable energy consumption, different utilisations of this energy are considered: in industry, transport, in commercial and public services, and for residential purposes. The methodological background is built around panel data models that start from a Cobb-Douglas function. The renewable energy consumption is considered an important factor that should generate economic growth. The panel data approach based on causality analysis and Augmented Mean Group and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group estimators suggests that renewable energy use in industry does not determine economic growth, but economic development is a cause for more utilisation of this energy in industry. In addition, more renewable energy consumption in transport enhances economic growth. A high level of economic development can promote the consumption of renewable energies in industrial sectors. In this way, industrial companies can allocate more financial funds to research in the field of renewable energies and can afford to adopt renewable energy sources. Investment in biofuels can contribute to achieving sustainable transport in the EU.

Financial integration has been proven to benefit European economies. However, it may obstruct diversification attempts, and so attracts the attention of investors and researchers. The aim of this paper is to analyze changes in spillovers between European markets, the European Index, and the World Index, over a period of two decades (2000–2021), with regard to the level of development. Mature markets have higher spillovers than emerging and frontier ones. The main finding is that non-developed markets’ spillover levels in tranquil periods did not substantially increase in the last two decades, despite ongoing integration with developed European markets. However, spillover rises in time of global or regional crisis (e.g. Great Financial Crisis, Eurozone Debt Crisis, COVID-19 pandemic) for all markets, regardless of economic development, which can undermine diversification attempts just when they are most needed. Afterwards, the transmission of shocks falls back to the pre-crisis level, with the exception of the spillover between Eurozone markets and European Index, which remained very high even after the end of the particular crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing human activities amidst competition for resources across the globe has made environmental challenges an ongoing classic problem, thus prompting policymakers to continually seek effective solution while ensuring sustainable development. With the wide coverage of the relevance of the double dividend hypothesis in explaining the co-benefit of environmental tax, there is a dearth of evidence in the literature to suggest that environmental tax offers green dividends for both the environment and agricultural practice in the European countries. As such, this study employed the more recent Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) alongside other approaches for Europe's largest agrarian economies (France, Germany, Italy, and Spain) over the annual period 1995-2020. The investigation affirms the validity of the co-benefit of environmental tax as far as environmental sustainability and value-added to agriculture are concerned in this panel of 'Big Four' economies, thus motivating the countries to relentlessly pursue the carbon-neutral 2050 target. Moreover, the study aligns with the expectation that renewable energy utilization and population density are desirable factors for achieving a carbon-neutral target. Lastly, the findings suggest that environmental quality is attainable in the panel, especially as increasing income surpasses a certain threshold, thus validating the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Above all, the findings provide timely policy insight that accommodates both the environmental sustainability and food security framework of the European Union. The policy options relevant in light of the study's conclusions include that the decision makers in the selected agrarian economies should ramp up energy transition opportunities through a resilient environmental tax system that incentives availability of credit and investment financing in the agriculture sector., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Income inequity and energy consumption have become important issues for sustainable development, and digitalization offers unlimited potential for bridging the income gap and decreasing energy consumption. Based on an international perspective, we confirm the impact of income inequality on energy consumption in 108 countries from 2000 to 2019 and then explore the moderating and threshold effects of digitalization on the impact of income inequality on energy consumption. The empirical results indicate that income inequality causes a surge in energy consumption, and the dynamic SYS-GMM results suggest that for every 1 unit increase in income inequality, energy consumption increases by 0.003 unit. The moderating effect suggests that digitalization helps mitigate the impact of a 3.654% surge in energy consumption caused by income inequality. In comparison, digitalization has a significant moderating effect on energy consumption in middle- and high-income countries (Europe, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific region), and the moderating effect of digitalization is effective in both free and non-free economies. The dynamic SYS-GMM threshold panel models reveal a non-linear relationship between income inequality and energy consumption affected by digitalization. This provides international evidence that reveals the underlying mechanisms of digitalization, income inequality, and energy consumption. It will better guide countries in harnessing digital dividends to overcome the twin dilemmas of the income gap and energy poverty., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper provides an analysis of the influence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, usage and skills on the export and import of goods and services in the region of South-East Europe (SEE) by applying gravity models to bilateral trade flows through the panel data analysis. The results show that GDP per capita and Internet usage have a significant positive impact on import, and in addition, the digital infrastructure and digital skills have a positive, but small impact on export. Distance has a negative impact on trade. These countries faced relatively poor development and usage of the ICT sector, which indicates unexplored potential which could be used to improve international trade if exploited by businesses, government and households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the European Union (EU)'s current goal of making its continent the world's first climate-neutral continent by 2050, the EU will need to set a path for new policies in the areas of Europe's economy, energy consumption, and agriculture. Thus, this paper analyzes the marginal impact of energy price and economic freedom on Europe's CO 2 emissions grounded on the extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology ecology (STIRPAT) model together with the spatial econometric models. The results indicate the existence of spatial spillover effect of CO 2 emissions among some countries in Europe. The Hausman test was also performed to select the best model between the random effects and the fixed effects. The findings suggest that increasing both economic freedom and energy price in a local country turns to reduce the country's own CO 2 emissions and also reduces the emissions of its adjacent countries. Comparing the direct effect of economic freedom and energy price to that of the SDM fixed effect, a feedback of 12.77% and 23.53% of the direct effect was observed, respectively. The results also indicated that the turning point of economic freedom and economic growth was 6.714 and thus 9.083. Overall, the study spotlighted some policy suggestions for the energy market for the European commission in reducing the emissions of CO 2 ., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Based on the panel data of 46 countries in "Belt and Road" (B&R) from 2004 to 2016, this paper studies the impact of innovation investment and institutional quality on green total factor productivity (GTFP). Firstly, the ICRG database, World Bank WDI database, Traditional Foundation database, and Wind database are matched to obtain the balanced panel data of 46 countries along the B&R from 2004 to 2016. Secondly, the Malmquist-Luenberger index, which can be included in the unexpected output, is used to calculate the GTFP of countries along B&R. Thirdly, the evaluation system of national institutional quality of B&R is constructed from three dimensions (political institutional quality, economic institutional quality, and legal institutional quality), and the overall system quality of different countries is measured by entropy method. Finally, an empirical study is made on the relationship among innovation investment, institutional quality, and green total factor productivity. The results show that innovation investment has significantly promoted the GTFP of the B&R countries. It is worth noting that there is a non-linear relationship between innovation investment and GTFP in the B&R countries. With the improvement of overall system quality, political system quality, economic system quality, and legal system quality, the promotion effect of innovation investment on GTFP is further enhanced. In addition, the heterogeneity regression results show that the impact of innovation investment on GTFP is significantly heterogeneous in different regions of the B&R countries. Specifically, innovation investment has the greatest impact on GTFP in South Asia, followed by East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Middle East, and North Africa., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The new information age and the phenomena of digitalization and automation make investments in research and development (R&D) indispensable for economic and social progress. Meanwhile, increased inequality within countries and its effects on advanced countries is one of the consequences of the recent turbulences in the global economy. These two dynamics open debates around the still-unresolved nature of the relationship between innovation and inequality. This paper contrasts postulates from the existing theory and relevant empirical evidence to argue that the analysis of the positive and complex co-evolution of inequality reduction and technological progress in Europe implies a recombination of factors that highlights institutions as the backbone of the relationship. The results of this analysis based on time series / cross-section regressions with panel data from a sample of 20 European countries for the period 1995–2017 show the relevance of structural and institutional aspects within the region, while two sets of countries evince a dissimilar European behavior in the relationship under study. According to our findings, it is plausible to argue the existence of a virtuous circle defined by the combination of social protection contributions with innovation policies that certainly help settle the controversial relationship between innovation and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the multiplexing efficiency of environmental taxes in ensuring environmental, energy, and economic security which is an integral part of sustainability in six European countries that are leaders in the Environmental Performance Index. This study aims to confirm the hypothesis that environmental taxes and payments could simultaneously affect changes in important environmental, energy, and economic security as well as sustainability parameters. Not all the previously selected taxes, which affect the parameters of all three areas of environmental, energy, and economic sustainability and security can ensure their simultaneous growth. Calculations made for the period 1994-2019 showed that in the system of environmental taxation of Denmark, five environmental taxes and fees provide an increase in the integrated level of environmental, economic, and energy security and sustainability; in Belgium, two environmental taxes are characterized by multiplex efficiency; in France, seven environmental taxes and payments; in Austria, four; in Finland, one; and in the UK, four. The paper's findings could create the basis for improving environmental taxation systems in the countries to increase comprehensive national security growth and ensure sustainable development path of the countries., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper studies the relationship between waste generation and economic development for a sample of European countries. In contrast to previous studies that have considered this relation to be stable over time, we apply methods for testing the presence of structural breaks located at unknown periods. This methodology provides robust evidence against the stability of the relationship, finding ruptures in the so-called dot.com crisis, in the early 2000s, and in episodes related to the Great Recession. Once these breaks are considered, we observe that waste generation shows considerable dependence on the evolution of the economy for those countries with the lowest per capita income levels. This suggests the existence of a trade-off between convergence policies and those aimed at avoiding environmental degradation, suggesting the need to maintain and reinforce environmental policies in the EU., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Copyright of European Journal of Applied Economics is the property of Singidunum University 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.)

The EU has committed to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Reaching this objective requires massive changes in the region. The biggest challenge is that the green transition happens without sacrificing economic progress and guaranteeing justice and inclusiveness. This pledge implies that every country be capable of addressing the trade-offs between targets while remaining committed towards the common decarbonisation goal. Our paper analyses the success with which countries are carrying out the energy transition. We propose an enhanced hyperbolic distance function and a stochastic frontier analysis approach to model the joint attainment of economic development, environmental sustainability, and energy equity. We apply our model to an unbalanced panel dataset of 29 European countries for the period 2005–2018. Our estimates show that the average performance of the economies has improved over time. The results also highlight the pivotal role of a sustainable economic development with clean energies for both slashing CO 2 emissions and fostering energy equity. Moreover, we find convergence in countries' performance, being this convergence slightly higher for the EU-15 countries compared to the rest. Finally, we show that a higher share of renewable energy sources helps countries that are lagging behind to reach their optimal performance level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, the concept based on which is built the local development theory is represented by the economic and social cohesion. This can be translated in a fundamental principle, namely, the fact that economic and social development should be based on a balanced spatial structure. In this regard, the local budget becomes an important tool of budgetary-financial policy through which the state interferes in the economy at the local collectivities level. This research paper aims to present an impact analysis of the local budgetary resources on the economy at a national level in conjunction with the public financial resources' formation. The resources of the local budgets are used to finance some economical and socio-cultural objectives and actions, for the coverage of maintenance costs and functioning of the local administrative-territorial units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do immigration attitudes form? Drawing on the political socialization literature, I argue that growing up in a recession causes a lasting increase in anti-immigration attitudes. I delineate two mechanisms that emphasize the negative consequences of recessions for young workers and the anti-immigration narrative that often emerges during economic turmoil. Young adults are particularly vulnerable to these external shocks because they have minimal political experience and are developing their core political attitudes. Support is provided for this argument with evidence from the European Social Survey. An economic shock during young adulthood causes a significant increase in anti-immigration attitudes, a relationship not found for other ages. I find tentative evidence that growing up in a recession has a larger effect on the racial and cultural dimensions of immigration and causes a broader sociotropic response. Results highlight how economic crises affect the socialization of young adults and underscore their lasting political consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship is recognized as one of the factors stimulating economic growth and increasing economic competitiveness. In addition, the Europe 2020 Strategy has focused its attention on entrepreneurship as a key factor of economic growth, social progress, and employment. In this context, our study examines the role of entrepreneurial performance for sustaining the development of countries, focusing on a sample of European countries. We attempt to reveal if increasing entrepreneurial performance would have significant influence on improving the economic position of countries and their future economic development. Starting from the OECD-Eurostat Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme we use a set of entrepreneurial performance indicators as independent variables and examine to what extent they can influence competitiveness and economic growth, seen as dependent variables of the models. We focus on a period of 10 years (2008–2017) and we apply panel-data estimation techniques. Because the period considered includes the period of the last international financial crisis, we also include in our analysis a dummy variable. Our results emphasize that the changes in entrepreneurial performance play a significant role in enhancing national competitiveness and economic growth. Our findings contribute to the expansion of literature in the field by providing evidence on the correlation of indicators that measure entrepreneurial performance with national competitiveness and economic growth. Moreover, our findings point out the need of the policy makers to adopt measures and policies that help and stimulate entrepreneurs to become more performant because they can generate positive effects to the economy as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the fifth generation of mobile technology (5G) is expected to bring disruptive changes. These changes will be much more pervasive than any previous introduction of new mobile 'generations' and they are expected to influence the whole economy. For this reason, the global rush for 5G technology is not only considered crucial in economic or technological terms, but also for its implications in terms of geopolitics, international policy and national security. This paper presents an analysis of the patents in the most relevant fields of specialization connected to the 5G development. The period under investigation is from 2010 to 2019, and the data are extracted from the European Patent Office (EPO) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database. The analysis shows how the technologies and the specialisations needed to develop 5G are in the hands of a few countries around the globe, and how single European countries, taken in isolation, are not among those leading players. However, Europe, considered as a whole, competes well with the US and Asia in terms of patented innovations, suggesting the economic and strategic relevance of strengthening cooperation within the EU. • The debate regarding the 5G development, implementation and disruptiveness is gathering growing attention. • The paper present an analysis of the patents in the most relevant fields of specialization connected to the 5G development. • We study the technological complexity of the 5G ecosystem and the related implications for competition and innovation. • There are few countries at the frontier of the technological development of 5G and lagging countries will face many difficulties to cover the gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Young Science / Mladá Veda is the property of Vydavatelstvo Universum 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.)

By late January 2020, the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) had reached Europe and most European countries had registered cases by March 1. However, the spread of the virus has been uneven in both prevalence and speed of propagation. We analyse the association of social, economic, and demographic factors in the initial spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 across 23 European countries between March 1 and April 30, 2020. Diagnosed COVID-19 cases from Johns Hopkins University and data from the European Social Survey and other sources were used to estimate bivariate associations between cumulative reported case numbers at ten-day intervals and nine social, demographic, and economic variables. To avoid overfitting, we first reduce these variables to three factors by factor analysis before conducting a multiple regression analysis. We also perform a sensitivity analysis using rates and new cases between two time periods. Results showed that social and economic factors are strongly and positively associated with COVID-19 throughout the studied period, while the association with population density and cultural factors was initially low, but by April, was higher than the earlier mentioned factors. For future influenza-like pandemics, implementing strict movement restrictions from early on will be crucial to curb the spread of such diseases in economically, socially, and culturally vibrant and densely populated countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of whether financial development impacts environmental degradation, over time. It highlights how financial development, institutional frameworks, and foreign investment dictate the extent of green development. The sample includes 40 countries in Europe and data is collected on a large set of variables, for the years from 1990 to 2019. Financial development is measured through domestic credit to the private sector, bank credit to the private sector and foreign direct investment (FDI). Environmental degradation is measured through energy use, CO2 emissions, greenhouse emissions and natural resource depletion. The model controls for income levels, institutional quality, technology, education, population, and urbanization. Regression analysis is conducted to analyze the data. The results suggest that financial development has a negative relationship with four different measures of environmental degradation, while FDI and institutional quality appear to worsen the environmental measures. Recommendations for policy makers include development of green finance policies and strong institutions, to lower environmental degradation in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the present ecological crisis, new approaches to environmental conservation and management are being developed in Europe. One of the axes considered by nature protection stakeholders since the 2000s is to encourage the return of the wilderness. This has led to the deployment of a variety of initiatives, mainly led by civil and non-profit organisations. The objective here, through the analysis of the discourses of stakeholders—from semi-directive interviews—and the initiatives developed in Western Europe, is to understand how the multitude of projects carried out throughout Europe constitutes a proposal for new environmental management practices. Indeed, the studied initiatives introduce a paradigm shift by reflecting a will to go beyond the mere preservation of nature in order to contribute to a global territorial transition. To this end, the studied projects propose to create both a social and interspecies link around their sites, but also to ensure the development of virtuous economic forms in the territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with the analysis of regional economic development in Europe. Specifically, it examines the extent to which the performance and characteristics of higher education systems (HESs) influence regional economic development. The analysis employs data at the regional level, examining 649 NUTS-3 in 29 European countries, from 2014 to 2016. The empirical analysis, based on an original dataset that we developed, employs a novel methodological strategy that combines a traditional econometric approach with random forest. The findings detect the existence of nonlinear relationships between regional GDP per capita and HES indicators, which could have been overlooked by previous studies in the literature. Furthermore, the empirical results demonstrate the importance of comprehensively modelling the diversity of HESs, since distinct characteristics and performance can contribute differently to the economy of the regions. In particular, the most important factors for regional economic development are the size of HESs, the internationalisation of the students and research productivity. Finally, this paper provides useful insights for policymakers by suggesting new instruments for driving and fostering the economic development of their regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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One of the most critical issues in Iran's foreign policy is European countries' foreign policy toward the Iran-US crisis. The hostage crisis in Tehran on November 4, 1979 (Aban 13, 1358 SH) was the first Iran-US crisis to affect Iran's relations with Western countries. This study aims to investigate the following question: "What were the French policies toward the hostage crisis, and how were they formed?" To answer this question, the "strategic autonomy" framework was utilized to comprehend France's foreign policy. This research employs a "historical case study" methodology, which critically analyzes historical documents, such as press documents, official reactions, and diplomatic documents. The findings of this study indicate that the French foreign policy of this period can be analyzed using the concept of "strategic autonomy." In its relations with Iran, France adopted the policy of "independently regulating relations with a third country," "independence in foreign policy decisionmaking", and "ensuring the well-being of citizens," whereas in its relations with the US, it followed the policy of non-interference in the US's reciprocal crisis with the third party and maintaining economic interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union Is Killing MigrantsAt Europe's Edge: Migration and Crisis in the Mediterranean. A stark and unavoidable conclusion in Mainwaring's and Stierl's respective studies is that the immigration control policies of the European Union (EU) and its member nation-states are killing unauthorized migrants. Mainwaring begins by showing that the response of the European Union (EU) to what is widely characterized by nation-states, most media, and even some migration scholars as a "migration crisis" has been entirely disproportionate, even perverse (p. 5). [Extracted from the article]