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In the digital era, digitalization brings great opportunities and challenges for cities' environmental governance and economic growth. However, it is worth noting that the impact of digitalization on cities' green transition has not been studied from the perspective of Metcalfe's Law. This paper uses the principal component method and non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) to calculate the digital development level and the green economic performance of 269 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019. (1) The empirical findings demonstrate that digitalization has become a strong driver for cities' green economic transformation. (2) Digitalization indirectly promotes green transition through industrial structure optimization and green technological innovation. (3) The heterogeneity results show that the positive effect of digitalization on green development is more obvious in eastern and economically developed cities. (4) Using the partially linear functional-coefficient model (PLFC), this paper studies the non-linear nexus between digitalization and green economic transition from the perspective of Metcalfe's Law. Thus, Metcalfe's law is confirmed in the green transition of Chinese cities. Some policy recommendations are offered for realizing the coordinated development of digitalization and greening of the urban economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite several decades of academic and practical debate on tourism sustainability, its application in practice remains difficult. The dominant tourism discourse on sustainability (theory, seen as a concept) and responsibility (practice, understood as appropriate action) calls for a solid understanding of the process of how a responsible destination actually implements a sustainability agenda, which this paper aims to provide. In this context, we explore theoretical perspectives from political economics and behavioural economics to offer a well-reasoned integrated sustainability–responsibility model comprising three stages: Awareness, Agenda and Action. This Triple-A Model complements the sustainability indicators debate and provides advice on how to continuously implement the sustainability concept and move from market-value-led and environmentally laissez-faire tourism towards more environmental- and social-value-driven responsible tourism. In addition, this paper discusses the existing sustainability and responsibility nomenclatures and their use and contributes relevant conclusions on the current understanding of sustainability and responsibility in European and UNWTO practices. The term responsustable tourism is suggested to join two existing terms and demonstrate that the current understanding of responsible tourism behaviour is based on the concept of sustainable tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper outlines a simple, aggregate, descriptive model of what is here termed a “whole economy”, covering all human involvement in the economy, from ultimate means or ecological sacrifices, to the ultimate ends of human satisfaction. The model embraces not only the formal “professional economy” driven by money, but also the parallel non-paid, voluntary economy, here termed “amateur economy”, driven by peoples’ affective motivations. The input of work to the economy plays an essential role in the paper’s analysis of options for reducing ecological sacrifices. Hence, part of the paper is devoted to a brief historical overview of the role of work, including turning points in the 1930s in the United States, when work sharing was displaced by work creation through consumerism, and, in the post-war economy when GDP became the dominant economic indicator. The paper proposes the aim of a happy and sustainable degrowth for affluent countries, implying the transfer of some activities from the professional economy to the less ‘labor’ productive amateur economy. This will tend to reduce overall labor productivity and hence resource throughput, but increase satisfaction and happiness. A key element in the analysis is combining a reduction in consumption with a reduction in production, which is obtainable through lowering either working time or work productivity and turning some of the leisure time into voluntary activities. Economic growth is not a law of nature but the consequence of explicit political decisions taken. Hence growth is also open to new political decisions in recognition of physical limits to growth and the human quest for replacing economic growth with life satisfaction, including increased free time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: It is widely acknowledged that China’s economic miracle has been achieved at the expense of its natural capital and environment. In order to deal with this problem, the circular economy (CE) has been chosen as a national policy for sustainable development. National laws and regulations have been enacted to facilitate the implementation of CE and national CE demonstration projects have been initiated such that national benchmarking activities could be completed. China is the first country to release nationally focused CE indicators so that objective and credible information on the status of CE implementation can be recognized. These CE indicators are valuable metrics for policy and decision-makers and can help achieve CE goals and outcomes. This unique indicator system has not been communicated to international communities. This paper aims to more broadly introduce this unique national CE indicator system. China’s CE efforts are first detailed with various provisions of the national indicator system. A critical analysis of such an indicator system is presented. We show that certain benefits can be gained, but substantive revision is also needed due to the lack of a comprehensive set of sustainability indicators which should include social, business indicators, urban/industrial symbiosis, absolute material/energy reduction, and prevention-oriented indicators. Concerns related to barriers on implementation are also presented in this paper. The knowledge gained from Chinese efforts on CE indicators are valuable to both developed and developing nations seeking to implement sustainable development measures within their regulatory policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Globalisation has led to a rapid increase in the growth of foreign direct investment (FDI) globally. Over the last decade China has become the largest recipient of FDI whilst simultaneously increasing its outward FDI dramatically. The growth in China''s outward FDI has attracted little attention from scholars in mainstream research publications. The motivation behind this paper is to investigate the factors driving this growth from both economic and strategic backgrounds. The paper employs panel data analysis covering the period 2003–2009 where we quantify the main drivers of China''s outward FDI across a range of variables including bi lateral and multi lateral trade, market size, GDP growth, openness and resource endowment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the recent years, industrial clusters have received considerable attention from economists and industrial analysts, because they are seen as the main reason for economic growth and success of certain economic region. This study systematically reviews past researches of industrial cluster. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of this issue regarding the driving forces for the growth of industrial cluster and find out the priority among these cluster policies. Taiwan HsinChu Science Park is a prime example for this paper, and its connection with the innovative participators. We begin with an examination of the literature on cluster about its driving forces and policies upon which we propose a conceptual framework. In doing so, we explore the cluster-based industrial system. Then this research adopts the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process as the analytical tool. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process method is used to determine the weightings for evaluation dimension among decision makers. From our research results, the Factor Conditions is the most important driving force for advancing the industrial cluster performance. Moreover, the promotion of international linkages policy and broader framework policies rank the first two priorities for cluster policy. Overall, this paper concludes with some simulations of cluster policy alternatives confronting the industry and the Taiwanese government. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper develops a simple model to examine how social trust might affect the growth of schooling through lowering transaction costs associated with employing educated individuals. In a sample of 52 countries, the paper thereafter provides empirical evidence that trust has led to faster growth of schooling in the period 1960–2000. The findings are robust to the inclusion of a set of control variables and being estimated using an instrumental variables approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• A zoning method based on ecological indicators and economic indicators is applied. • Ecological and economic situations are highly correlated with topographic conditions. • The coupling coordination degree(CCD) between ecology and economy is calculated. • Economic development is highly positively correlated with CCD. • Targeted regional sustainable development strategies are put forward. The coordinated development of ecology and economy is one of the key issues of sustainable development. A full understanding of the relationship between ecology and economy is necessary for the coordinated development of the two. This paper takes Sichuan Province as the research area and county-level administrative districts as the research unit. Based on the medium value of the ecological quality index and economic growth index of each unit, Sichuan Province is divided into dual pressure zones (DPZ), economic backward zones (EBZ), ecological crisis zones (ECZ), and coordinated development zones (CDZ) and the coupling coordination degree (CCD) of each unit is studied. The results show that: (1) On the whole, the eastern part of Sichuan Province has a better level of economic development, and the southern part of the western region has a higher ecological quality. The ecological quality and economic growth pattern are highly correlated with topographical conditions. (2) The distribution characteristics of the four types of partitions are significantly different. The EBZ are more distributed in the western and southern of Sichuan Province, the ECZ are more distributed in the eastern, the DPZ and CDZ are relatively more sporadic. More than 90% of the partition changed zones are distributed in the eastern area. (3) The CCD of more than 95% units belongs to moderate coordination and high coordination. The overall CCD of the four types of zones has shown an upward trend from 2010 to 2015. Based on the results, Sichuan Province should follow the path of clear waters and green mountains are as good as mountains of gold and silver, and targeted sustainable development suggestions for DPZ, EBZ, ECZ, and CDZ are put forward. This paper provides guidance for formulating regional sustainable development strategies, especially in areas with unbalanced development due to congenital topographical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent years have seen increasing awareness of the deficiencies of conventionally defined national income as a measure of a nation''s overall economic performance. Alternative measures have been proposed involving either the modification of national income accounting conventions, or the abandonment of national income itself in favour of something such as the Genuine Progress Indicator, GPI. However, such alternatives, like national income itself, all involve the use of monetary valuation for aggregation. This paper proposes a new approach to the measurement of national economic performance, which follows naturally from ecological economics as the study of economic activity rooted in a proper appreciation of its material circumstances, and which does not involve using prices for aggregation. The paper gives some results for three variants of the new approach, and compares and discusses them. While this new approach does not purport to provide a single definitive assessment of the sustainability of current economic activity, which is an infeasible goal, it could provide useful inputs to relevant research activity, and to policy analysis and debate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) was designed to reveal the economic, social, and environmental trade-offs associated with conventional economic growth as traditionally measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Although originally designed for use at the national scale, an interest has developed in the United States in a state-level uptake of the GPI to inform and guide policy. This study presents the first fifty-state estimate for U.S. GPI in order to address questions over its design, implementation, and ultimate potential as a tool to guide state-level economic policy. Following a review of the current state of analysis and critique of GPI, we provide an overview of methodology and database development. Results are then presented, including discussion of lessons learned through a fifty-state application. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research and next steps to consolidating a consistent methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city is an important component in the construction of circular economy (CE), and after years of development, assessment of urban CE and calculation of an urban circular development index (UCDI) is an important task that the Chinese government has faced. However, existing research into the indicator system and evaluation methods is not enough to support calculation and subsequent publishing of UCDI. Building off current research into CE, its index systems and its evaluation, this paper puts forward an evaluation index system for urban CE development (UCDI) that uses an improved entropy methodology combining expert and entropy weightings. The index was calculated for 40 cities that were part of China's pilot CE cities program for alternating years in the five year period between 2012 and 2016 (that is, the index was calculated for 2012, 2014 and 2016). The study found that the level of urban CE increased significantly over the five year period, with that in the CE pilot cities growing at a faster rate than the national average. Results show that a certain relationship exists between UCDI, urban types and economic development, but has little relationship with industrial structure. Finally, recommendations for the promotion of urban CE are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The banking industry plays an essential role in China's economic growth, and the assessment of bank efficiency has attracted increasing interest in the past two decades. Given that the data envelopment analysis cross-efficiency method can provide a more reliable reference set, a large number of studies targeting performance evaluation and its applications adopt this method. Few studies, however, address the issue of the non-uniqueness of weights in cross-efficiency evaluation. Whereas, this paper proposes a cross-efficiency interval considering all weighting schemes along with a VIKOR aggregate model to gauge the universal productive efficiency of 16 major Chinese commercial banks of China and rank them for the period of 2007–14. Specifically, we use the cross-efficiency interval to generate the global performance of each bank based on internal and external assessment while using VIKOR to compare the solution with the attitude index which ranks all of the banks. The results indicate that the cross-efficiency interval can provide more information than the traditional DEA model, that the banking system efficiency of China has been improved during the study period, especially for SOBs; that JSBs are more efficient compared with SOBs; and the efficiency gap narrowed during the study period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the number of farm-level sustainability assessment tools is growing rapidly, concerns are raised on whether the assessment results of different tools present similar and valid conclusions about the sustainability performance of farms. In this paper we analysed the thematic scope of sustainability assessment tools, and compared assessment results from sustainability assessment tools. A coverage analysis of four tools (RISE, SAFA, PG and IDEA) demonstrated the diversity in approaches to assess sustainability at farm level. Tool developers select different (sub)themes and indicators, and apply different methods for measurement and aggregation of scores. This variability in approaches results not only in different tools, but can also result in different conclusions on the sustainability performance of farms. Decisions made in the development of a sustainability assessment tool need to be transparent to understand and explain the results of a tool and support farmers in a sustainable development of their farm. To improve the transparency in sustainability assessment tools we presented a framework describing decisions made in the development of a tool. An increased transparency in sustainability assessment tools can reduce the risk on distorted assessment results and actions, and contribute to the trust and relevance of future sustainability assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to analyse the interaction of three components of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental – they must be defined in quantitative terms. In this respect, the ecological development plays a special role, since both economic and social development goals must conform to environmental protection restrictions. The ecological development, just as the other components of sustainable development, is a complex thing that manifests itself in many different ways. The indicators that express them have various dimensions, and their manner of change can vary, i.e. one indicator rises as the situation improves while another may fall. Multi-criteria methods are well suited for the qualitative analysis of such manifestations. The goal of this paper is to perform a comprehensive analysis of Lithuania's regional economic and ecological development using the MDE method (Multi-criteria Different Evaluation), taking into account factors that both positively and negatively affect the ecological situation, and to determine the effect that economic development has on ecological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship of financial development and income inequality in China over the period of 1978-2013. Using the structural vector auto-regression (SVAR), the empirical results are consistent with the G-J hypothesis of an inverted U-shaped relationship between financial development and income inequality. An economy in its initial stages of financial development would present increasing inequality and only in a second or even third stage of development would inequality actually decrease. The evidence is valid for two indicators defined to measure the scale and the efficiency of financial development, respectively. Financial reform aimed at forming an appropriate financial system should be accelerated to help to reducing income inequality in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water industry faces the challenge of implementing privatization reforms. This process mainly adopts the following two approaches: the privatization of public water and sewerage services (WSS) and the privatization of water companies’ ownership. This paper investigates the impact of both privatization approaches on changes in productivity in the water industry. In doing so, the Luenberger productivity indicator (LPI) was computed for a sample of Chilean water and sewerage companies (WaSCs) for the period 1997–2013. Unlike the most commonly applied index (Malmquist productivity index), the LPI simultaneously takes into account output expansion and input contraction. The results evidenced that productivity in the Chilean water industry decreased after its privatization. However, in the sub-periods in which the ownership of WaSCs was privatized, the productivity of the water industry increased due to technical improvements. On the other hand, the concession of WWS to private WaSCs involved a regression in productivity. From a policy perspective, regulators and managers of WaSCs at the international level can learn important lessons from the Chilean case to improve the productivity of the water industries in their countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the European Union the sustainable development is a fundamental and overarchingobjective enshrined in the Treaty and measuring progress towards sustainable development is an integral part of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. Eurostat produce a monitoring report every two years based on the EU set of sustainable development indicators (SDIs). The main objective of this paper is to create an aggregated index of the sustainable development from EU set of SDIs for each 27 EU country based on the PCA. The headline indicator economic growth was not involved because its increase is not expressly followed by positive change in other SDIs from social, economic and environmental fields. The aggregated SD index enables to get an overall picture about the position of each of the 27 EU countries and its development in terms of the sustainability over time as assumed in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. Sweden, Denmark, Netherland, and Great Britain have repeatedly reached the highest value of aggregated SD index. The highest positive change in the aggregated SD index has occurred in countries with the lowest value of aggregated SD index. Moreover, we put this new aggregated index in relation with economic growth and found that there is a negative correlation between aggregated SD index and the economic growth for most of the 27 EU countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing conflict between economic growth, energy and environment in China has restrained the country's economic development. In this work we investigated the interaction among the Chinese economy, energy production and consumption and the impacts of concomitant air emissions from 2000 to 2011, using an indicator system based on energy, emergy and money units. The results show that China's rapid economic growth has promoted tremendous expansion in energy production and consumption, which have led to increasing the impact of emissions in this study period. During the time examined, energy production and use efficiencies and the structure of the energy sector improved slightly; the self-sufficiency of energy use fluctuated, as petroleum took on an increasingly strong dependence on imports; fossil energy, mainly coming from coal, still has a majority share in energy production and consumption of the nation; the environmental loading intensity of energy consumption decreased slightly while that of energy production increased; most of the impacts of energy-related emissions are derived from their impact on human health; the impact of emissions from energy production made an increasing contribution to the total impact. Generally speaking, China's economic growth still heavily depends on energy-intensive industries that put great pressure on energy supply and pollution control. Although China has made obvious progress in energy mix optimization to save energy and reduce emissions, the pace of improvement still fell behind that of economic growth. Finally, this paper discussed some related issues and presented corresponding suggestions to further coordinate the relationship between the economy, energy production and consumption and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Revisiting the way society defines and measures progress has been identified as one of the key levers in tackling the root causes of unsustainable development. The recent economic and food crises exposed a critical weakness in the ability of currently mainstream indicators of progress to provide early warning and take adequate preventive action. Since the early 1990s a growing number of organizations have been involved in the development of indicator systems around the key socio-economic and environmental concerns of sustainable development within their own context. In order to provide guidance and promote best practice, in 1997 a global group of leading measurement and assessment experts developed the Bellagio Principles. The Bellagio Principles have become a widely quoted reference point for measuring sustainable development, but new developments in policy, science, civil society and technology have made their update necessary. The Bellagio Sustainability Assessment and Measurement Principles (BellagioSTAMP) have been developed through a similar expert group process, using the original Principles as a starting point. Intended to be used as a complete set, the new BellagioSTAMP includes eight principles: (1) Guiding vision; (2) Essential considerations; (3) Adequate scope; (4) Framework and indicators; (5) Transparency; (6) Effective communications; (7) Broad participation; and (8) Continuity and capacity. The paper provides the rationale for the revision of the principles, their detailed description and guidance for their application. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The concept of sustainable development from 1980 to the present has evolved into definitions of the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic and environmental). The recent economic and financial crisis has helped to newly define economic sustainability. It has brought into focus the economic pillar and cast a question mark over the sustainability of development based on economic progress. This means fully addressing the economic issues on their own merits with no apparent connection to the environmental aspects. Environmental sustainability is correctly defined by focusing on its biogeophysical aspects. This means maintaining or improving the integrity of the Earth''s life supporting systems. The concept of sustainable development and its three pillars has evolved from a rather vague and mostly qualitative notion to more precise specifications defined many times over in quantitative terms. Hence the need for a wide array of indicators is very clear. The paper analyses the different approaches and types of indicators developed which are used for the assessment of environmental sustainability. One important aspect here is setting targets and then “measuring” the distance to a target to get the appropriate information on the current state or trend. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Low-carbon energy and constraints of resources and environment will increasingly become two important factors inhibiting China''s economic development in the future. According to the relationship and coordinating mechanisms among energy consumption, carbon dioxide emission and economic development, This paper establishes the two-dimensions evaluation indicating system based on balanced. Use data development analysis, through the fact data of some typical provinces in 2009, we make a comprehensive assessment of its historic coordination, analyze the degree of coordination and the reasons for the contradiction, strive to source the dialectical unity from similarities and differences, and finally proposed some political ideas and recommendations on promoting China''s future coordinating development among economy, energy, and environmental. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A semi-empirical endogenous growth theory was proposed by the authors in 2005. It is based on a model of the economy as a two-stage materials/energy processing system. Growth is simulated by a two-parameter production function with two traditional factors, labor and capital, and a non-traditional factor, namely ‘useful work’. The non-traditional factor is calculated from primary energy inputs multiplied by an empirically estimated average energy conversion efficiency, which is a function of changing technology over time. This model ‘explains’ past US growth from 1900 through 1973–74 with satisfactory accuracy but it slightly underestimates subsequent growth (i.e. it leaves a small unexplained but increasing residual) for the period after 1975. However, by subdividing capital stock into traditional and ICT components, we are able to extend the theory to explain US economic growth accurately. In this paper we also extend the results to Japan. The revised production function has only three independent parameters. The new model also has implications for future economic growth, energy and environmental policy that differ significantly from the traditional growth theory. These implications are discussed briefly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: With its rich culture and long history, China has abundant heritage resources, including numerous World Heritage Sites. Considering the large population and rapid economic development, resource management at World Heritage Sites in China has many challenges. This paper reviews and assesses academic literature on World Heritage management in China to explore issues in resource management at World Heritage Sites. It is identified that the complication of management structure and local participation are commonly addressed as key concerns for resource management at World Heritage Sites in China. Further research opportunities are also identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Aggregate unemployment may affect individual returns to education through qualification-specific responses in participation and wage bargaining. This paper shows that an increase in regional unemployment by 1% decreases returns to education by 0.005 percentage points. This implies that higher skilled employees are better sheltered from labour market changes with respect to their jobs but they encounter larger wage changes than less skilled employees. We use representative individual data and panel variation in unemployment between German regions and employee groups. We demonstrate that our results are robust with respect to aggregation bias, time lags and potential endogeneity of the unemployment variable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper attempts to examine the dynamic causal relationship between financial development, economic growth and poverty reduction in South Africa—using a trivariate causality model. The study attempts to answer one critical question. Which sector leads in the process of poverty reduction in South Africa—the financial sector or real sector? Using cointegration and error-correction models, the empirical results of the study show that both financial development and economic growth Granger—cause poverty reduction in South Africa. The study also finds that economic growth Granger-causes financial development and, therefore, leads in the process of poverty reduction in South Africa. This applies irrespective of whether the causality test is conducted in the short-run or in the long-run. The study, therefore, recommends that policies geared towards increasing economic growth should be intensified in South Africa in order to make the economy more monetised, and to reduce the high level of poverty currently prevailing in the country. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is a monetary based indicator that has been designed to assess the impact of a growing economy on sustainable welfare. The GPI was first empirically applied at the national level. The majority of subsequent studies have likewise been applied at the national level. However, there is increasing interest in assessing sustainable welfare at the sub-national level – including states/provinces, counties and cities. The inherent methodological and structural flaws within the GPI when, applied at the national level, are equally if not more apparent when applied at the sub-national level. This paper considers a number of sub-national applications in order to highlight the difficulties of using the GPI at this level. Whilst important limitations are found, it is noted that the primary purpose of the GPI is to initiate debate on what sustainable welfare is and how societies might best maintain or increase it. Having a sub-national GPI encourages this debate and whilst its inherent flaws must be constantly addressed and explicitly acknowledged, they do not make redundant its usefulness in achieving its primary purpose. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper takes as a starting point a combination of an input–output model with a national Ecological Footprint account for Germany in the spirit of Wiedmann et al. [Wiedmann, T., Minx, J., Barrett, J., Wackernagel, M., 2006. Allocating ecological footprints to final consumption categories with input–output analysis. Ecological Economics. 56, 28–48]. Footprint as well as Biocapacity is dealt with at the industry level. Gross output of each industry and final demand for each industry can then be split up into a share that is reconcilable with Biocapacity and another share that corresponds to the ‘Ecological Deficit’. The Ecological Footprint concept is extended in this study by introducing the additional biocapacity necessary for sustaining the given level of economic activity. It is assumed that each industry had to rent the corresponding areas and to apply a given technology in order to make this additional land biophysically productive. That results in an additional technology for each industry leading to an increase in costs and prices. The new price level is directly linked to the share of output that corresponds to Biocapacity overshooting, which is defined by the ‘Ecological Deficit’. Economic indicators can be derived by measuring the income difference brought about by the price increase. This difference corresponds to a Ricardian rent which is due to resource constraints on output growth. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper proposes that the current growth-oriented exposition of the knowledge economy in literature is not only monistic but also partial. The mainstream''s persistent emphasis on knowledge and economic growth and its neglect of knowledge and other critical issues (such as promoting wealth equalities and environmental conservation) lead to a paucity in terms of the variety of knowledge in the global knowledge commons, which will not fulfill the goal of sustainable development. To maintain a sustainable society with an efficient use of resources, it is necessary to achieve a more equitable distribution of wealth. This type of question, however, continues to be ignored and remains unanswered in both the Austrian analysis of the knowledge problem and the mainstream exposition of the knowledge economy. In this regard, John Stuart Mill''s concept of the stationary state is in line with contemporary analysis of a sustainable society and is worth further review. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The empirical environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) literature is vast but far from conclusive. Many authors have analysed the existence of an EKC for various pollutants. Others have used the EKC framework to identify country characteristics that help to explain the income–environment relationship. In this framework environmental degradation is analysed using a second or third order polynomial in income and a limited number of control variables. Some authors question whether this standard framework is appropriate. This paper proposes an alternative to study the specific characteristics of countries that have experienced economic growth and an improving environment at the same time. We estimate a binary response model and find an EKC-like relation between the probability that a country''s environment improves with economic growth and per capita GDP. Our evidence further suggests that the level of environmental damage is an important explanatory variable. We also confirm the importance of an open political system. These results indicate that the binary response model could be a valuable alternative to test which country specific characteristics are associated with a negative IER. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Ecological restoration is still perceived by many conservationists, and the majority of economists, as a diversion, a delusion, and – far worse – a waste of money. In this paper we point out that restoration is in fact complementary not only to nature conservation but also to sustainable, equitable socio-economic development. This is because restoring and augmenting the natural capital base generates jobs and improves livelihoods and the quality of life of all in the economy. In developing countries, where most biodiversity hotspots occur, both conservation of nature and the restoration of degraded ecosystems will find local support only if they are clearly linked to socio-economic development. Conversely, sound socio-economic development in the environmentally damaged portions of those countries undoubtedly will require ecological restoration of the natural capital base. Nature conservation, ecological restoration, and sustainable economic development policies should therefore be planned, budgeted and executed conjointly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent scholarship has revised the once pessimistic view of the Chinese economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but controversy surrounds the distribution effects of economic growth. Did livelihoods improve? Who benefited from the growth? Which regions were better off? Past studies infer an improved standard of living based on sparse data for wages, the output of cotton textiles and movements in grain prices. Height data provide an additional measure of the change in welfare, specifically the biological standard of living. This paper draws on the health examination records conducted at various Chinese government enterprises and agencies during the 1930s and 1940s, and shows a modest improvement in this measure of human welfare in some regions of China from the 1890s to the 1920s. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]