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This paper examines the potential of the forest sector in China and Russia over the past decade to identify the main trends and prospects for developing international timber business between the countries. The research showed that further development of foreign economic cooperation between the countries requires reindustrialization of the Russian forest industry sector in processing and manufacturing wood products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of rural space is a basic concern of today's society dominated by the trend of modernization and the need to preserve identity. The current context highlights numerous elements favorable to the development of the rural space, but also elements that inhibit this process. Favorability for the development of the rural area is given by the availability of endogenous resources, and the elements that slow down the development process are generally related to the inability of the local responsibility factors to implement policies, programs and strategies adapted to the territorial specificity that lead to the development of agriculture as a basic activity but and to a diversification of economic activities and implicitly to the development of the rural economy. The paper briefly presents a model of strategic evaluation of the rural space that highlights the territorial specificity and allows the elaboration of sustainable development options adapted to it. From the secondary analysis of the statistical data and the relevant specialized literature and through the application of the PESTEL and SWOT strategic analysis models, sufficient specificity elements were identified that led to the development of relevant strategic options for sustainable rural development in Vâlcea county. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfers and retirement of pastors positively and negatively affect their personal, family and congregational spiritual, social and economic lives. In the Zimbabwean context of political and economic volatility, pastoral transitions have been a formidable 'elephant' in most classical Pentecostal denominations for a number of decades. Whenever anybody triggers its discussion, some parishioners hesitantly disengage in fear of provoking and hurting each other. Against her procedural stipulation that pastoral deployments should be reviewed annually, to effect exchange of ministerial gifts and balanced edification of the Church, leaders predominantly transfer junior pastors, while most seniors usually object and only move in circumstances beyond their powers, such as when ill or dead. Consequently, juniors remain gracefully while seniors overstay disgracefully. A lot has been published on leadership successions, but attention on pastoral shifts remain passive in Zimbabwe. Thus, this paper unravels some problems and panaceas of pastoral transfers and retirement. Using qualitative grounded theory and participative observations, it discerned that contradictory theological conceptualizations, unclear constitutional and procedural provisions, policy gaps, economic instability, personal and family disruptions, insecurities and other factors problematize pastoral transitions. Conclusively, concerted efforts should be redoubled to rebuild the governance and economy of the church to mitigate disruptions, sustain, secure and create a conducive environment for smooth pastoral reshufflings. This paper addresses problematic pastoral transitions, interfaces African ecclesiology and leadership with pastoral theology from the Zimbabwean context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Southern Energy Construction is the property of Southern Energy Construction Editorial Office 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.)

To ameliorate the efficiency of urban green innovation is the key to realizing green economic transition. This paper constructs a Super-NSBM model with green patents as the intermediate output, uses this model to assess and decompose the green innovation efficiency of 284 Chinese cities, and finally analyzes the spatiotemporal characteristics and influential factors. The research result showed the gap of urban green innovation total efficiency among various regions in China is narrowing, while the spatial differentiation of decomposition efficiency is deepening. This means that a spatial collaborative innovation division pattern of "Eastern Region R&D + Southwest and Northeast Region Transformation" has gradually formed. In the meantime, this paper also found that the spillover effects of the urban green innovation total efficiency and phased efficiency all can form a significant demonstration effect on the surrounding areas. Finally, financial agglomeration, industrial structure, knowledge sharing, economic activity, higher education, opening, and environmental regulations may affect urban green innovation total efficiency and phased efficiency, and this effect has regional heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the experience of addressing the gender issue in countries formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the national and historical characteristics of all independent states are markedly different, the purpose of the paper is to study the challenges that women had to face, to identify the positive experience of the decision in each case as well as to identify the general trends of such decisions. On the basis of statistical data published by the competent authorities of both the independent states themselves and the Economic Commission for Europe, an analysis was made of such key parameters of equality as employment, average wages, level of access to information, the relative number of representatives in leadership positions in state institutions and representative offices in national parliaments, as well as the general trend of legislative initiatives designed to combat discrimination against women. As a result of the analysis of the dynamics of indicators, the leading states in solving the gender issue were identified, and an assessment was made of the development of this area in the future. This analysis led to the conclusion that the transition of women’s rights issues to the plane of public discourse, the absence of silence concerning the problem, as well as the observance of voting rights are a guarantee of a significant reduction in the level of discrimination in society. The practical significance of the research lies in identifying the leading countries where the gender issue has been resolved positively, as well as formulating recommendations based on their experience for countries where the gender balance is still not respected, which will lead to a general strengthening of the protection of women’s rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeszyty Naukowe Politechniki Poznanskiej. Organizacja & Zarzadzanie is the property of Poznan University of Technology 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 formalization of the REA2 ontology presented in this paper offers a minimal set of operationalized semantics for a single white-box model relevant to all business stakeholders independent of their role or involvement in economic activities. This paper's theoretical innovations are the use of MERODE to model increment and decrement semantics as fundamental stand-alone concepts that simultaneously affect economic resources, event, agents, and the semantics of the stock-flow, participation, and ownership associations and the formalization of the REA axioms as executable finite state machines. MERODE's possibilities for model execution through fast prototyping allowed validation through the modeling of an archetypical exchange scenario. Both innovations contribute to the reliability of a generic semantic model for finance and logistics in both the traditional, as well as the sharing, economy, thus promoting traceability and accountability in value networks and supply chains supported by both centralized and decentralized ledger technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major economic imbalances and impeded economic activity in all Western Balkan (WB) countries. This paper analyzes the strength of economic impact of the ongoing health crisis on key macroeconomic variables (GDP, public debt, fiscal balance, and unemployment) in the WB countries. In addition, the paper points out the main challenges that the economies of these countries will face in the years to come. The analysis has shown that the crisis slowed down the WB economies, but its intensity differed among the observed countries. The main economic challenges in the coming period relate to the further course and duration of the pandemic. Due to the great level of uncertainty, more detailed analysis of the crisis' impact on the economic potential will be possible only after the end of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main objective of the research presented in this paper was to identify the managerial competences of project team managers. In order to achieve this objective, the first part of the paper explains the meaning of the term "project management" in the literature on management and quality. The second part of the paper is devoted to an analysis of the conducted research, on the basis of which an attempt is made to answer the question: which managerial competences are key in the role of a project manager? Design/methodology/approach: The research presented in this paper is based on the analysis of the literature on project management and managerial competences. The studies in literature also included secondary sources, which were communications from research of similar scope. The combination of different research methods allowed to obtain a broader context of the studied phenomenon and ensured a higher quality of the conducted research. The diversity of methods was aimed at achieving a consistency of the empirical basis for the inference. A diagnostic survey was adopted as the leading method. The remaining methods applied in the paper were auxiliary (complementary). Findings: An inseparable element of human life is change, which also accompanies enterprises on a daily basis. The information about changes in the market and competitors, provided every day, is a natural manifestation of economic life. Consequently, everyone has to improve their operations in the area of products, technology and organisation in order to remain on the market. As a result, every person, as well as every economic activity take actions aimed at achieving the intended goals, facing new needs and challenges. The way to achieve the desired results is a process known as a project. The efficient functioning of a project team requires the use of appropriate management support methods and tools, systematic measurement, constant comparison with competitors, removal of barriers and the exploitation of development opportunities. Research limitations/implications: In the future, research will be continued on a larger research sample. Practical implications: The paper presents the results of research carried out at a nationwide telecommunications operator that employs several thousand people. This company is part of a large capital group and, due to the group's communication policy, has reserved anonymity. The findings are very interesting and encourage research on a larger scale. They are a valuable source of information for managers responsible for the formation of project teams, the selection of its members, their functioning and project implementation. On the other hand, for persons responsible for recruiting employees, the results may be useful in terms of developing a project team manager's profile, in particular when identifying the key managerial competences. Originality/value Based on empirical research, the paper proposes an original set of systemic solutions for project management to improve organisational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a growing need for logistics professionals in different positions and with different competencies. The key question is how to attract and retain a highly skilled workforce. The purpose of this research is to determine what factors and how they affect employee's satisfaction and loyalty in the logistics sector in the Serbian market; Methods: The impact of company size, primary business activity and employee position on labor loyalty and fluctuation were examined. The research hypotheses were tested on the basis of data obtained from a web survey that included 270 respondents from different industrial sectors in the Serbian market. Linear regression was used for hypothesis testing; Results: The results showed, among other things, that salary and advancement possibility are the main motives for changing jobs. The importance of basic professional knowledge acquired at the faculty for employment and working in various companies was confirmed; Conclusions: There are no papers in the literature that investigate job satisfaction and employee turnover in the logistics market. The results of this research, on the one hand, provide useful and accurate information for decision-making in order to improve the situation in the observed market, while on the other hand, provide an excellent basis for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Serbian Journal of Management is the property of Serbian Journal of Management 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's objective is to further stimulate economists' motivation to carefully consider a class of economic sentiment indices which measure people's beliefs, perceptions and expectations regarding the economy. As the acknowledged leading indicators of economic activity, they have the potential to timely point to the upcoming economic distress. However, given their potential, they are still relatively underused. The from-scratch empirical analysis in this paper detects the recent unfavourable developments in the key sentiment indices, particularly the ones measuring the confidence of consumers. Considering consumer sentiment indicators, the situation in the US and the European countries now seems even worse than during the Great Recession while the perceived uncertainty is building up. As the origin of the new crisis might lie in the sector of consumers - the drivers of final aggregate consumption - policymakers should take their sudden confidence drop seriously and accordingly develop near-future strategies to timely overturn these adverse trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-border payments sit at the heart of international trade and economic activity and typically involve the settlement of a foreign exchange (FX) transaction requiring the payment of one currency for the receipt of another. One of the main risks in such transactions — settlement risk — is that one party delivers the currency it has sold but does not receive the currency it has bought from its counterparty, resulting in a loss of principal. Because many currencies are paid at different times of the day, there may be a significant gap between the payment of one currency and receipt of the counter-currency. This paper will highlight the current rise in settlement risk associated with cross-border payments and the reasons behind this phenomenon, as well as how settlement risk can be addressed through payment-versus-payment (PvP) settlement, which ensures the final transfer of a payment in one currency occurs only once the final transfer of a payment in another currency has taken place. Given the projected growth in cross-border transactions, the paper concludes that the mitigation of settlement risk is crucial and that, for now, this is best tackled by following the recommendations in the FX Global Code, namely to settle eligible currencies via PvP, and for non-eligible currencies, leverage netting solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the impact of access to mobile money services on local economic activity. The analysis combines data from the early expansion of the mobile agent network in Kenya with a local-level measure of economic performance proxied by the intensity of nighttime lights. Leveraging the variation in areas that gained access to mobile money services at different times and the high resolution of the data, the paper shows that access to mobile money services increased local economic activity and that these effects increased over time. The positive effects are more pronounced for areas that were initially more affluent, urban, and better connected to infrastructure. These results suggest that mobile money can complement, rather than just substitute for, other alternatives that enable people to connect, trade, and allocate investments within their networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has had far reaching effects on different strata of socio-economic life, including the financial well-being of residents and the financial situation of local government units. Generally, research papers either approach “local development” conceptually or quantify data regarding a certain locality: demographic structure, residents’ education, condition of the labour market, residents’ income and their technological literacy. This paper is an attempt to arrive at a larger picture and identify the interdependence between economic activity of residents and financial autonomy of the local government, and secondly, to pinpoint the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on these categories. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the paper is to identify residents’ income sources and the dependence between them and the development potential of the municipality they live in. The paper examines residents’ revenue, income and income tax advance payments. The survey covers all municipalities in Poland according to their formal administrative status: urban, rural, urban-rural and cities with powiat rights. The research covers the period of 2015–2020, as per data availability. Research methods: The paper applied monograph methodology to review the literature on the subject, and comparative methodology to process quantitative data, which allowed the authors to calculate all deviations. Next, the economic phenomena were assessed, i.e. their nature (positive or negative) and frequency of occurrence were determined according to an assessment scale where the base is the starting point. The structure of the number of taxpayers, their revenues and incomes was compared by sources of income, in result of which hierarchy of income sources was created for each municipality. Following that, the main income sources were analysed and correlated with the municipality’s own (tax) revenue. To enable comparability of diagnostic variables, the zero unitarisation method was applied. Main findings: The findings reveal that the main sources of residents’ income include salaries, pensions and disability pensions, non-agricultural economic activity, wages and contractual income. Revenue streams generated from residents’ economic activity show a variance across municipalities. The results obtained confirm the dependence between residents’ economic activity and own revenue sources of local government units. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the relationship between taxpayers’ income from particular sources and revenue autonomy of municipalities and cities with powiat rights varies by the type of municipality. Thus, the findings clearly demonstrate that residents’ economic activity is an endogenous resource that definitely affects municipal development. For local authorities, understanding economic realities of residents may be a game changer and an insight that will help them create environments conducive to socioeconomic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of democracy on poverty and intergenerational inequality in South Africa. The authors used secondary data and published literature to unpack the nexus of the problem, and to further broaden understanding of democracy, intergenerational inequality, and poverty in South Africa. The authors establish that unemployment, lack of property ownership and a poor educational system are the main contributors to poverty and intergenerational inequality in South Africa. However, we found that the government's propoor policies have not adequately addressed the problems. As recommendations, this paper submits that it is essential to increase the redistribution of assets, especially land, to allow land ownership by the poor, which will open many other economic opportunities, such as access to capital. Also, government policies need to be revisited for quality job creation, closing the unemployment gap in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more public and private organizations are trying to integrate the concept of circular economy into their daily operations. Given the existing pressures related to climate change, there are various debates in the literature on how to reduce the impact, and one of these debates is the use of renewable energy to the detriment of fossil fuels. This paper aims to create an image of the link between circular economy and the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy through specialized papers published between 2000 and 2020 and through statistics published by International Agencies such as Eurostat. In this way, this paper is based on the study and analysis of the updated databases regarding the mentioned indicators. Moreover, the paper also discusses different possibilities of circular economy use and how they can be integrated into the European body, with a positive effect on the society and environment. The study found that European Union energy supply is increasingly based on renewable resources, the use of fossil fuels being limited from one year to another. At the same time, even if in the last decades the European Union has been characterized by industrialization and urbanization, there can be seen a growing efficiency of the energy system in the conditions in which the GDP per capita had a fulminant growth of over 50%. Moving forward, one of the most interesting result of the paper is related to a massive concentration of works in the last two years of the period considered in the analysis. In other words, there is a great opportunity for more scientific research in the field. Despite this, researchers agree that the principles of the circular economy contribute to the conversion of the energy system, with positive effects on society, ensuring sustainability, productivity and efficient waste management. At the end, in order to support the energy transition, a number of institutions such as the European Investment Bank are supporting initiatives that aim to invest in objectives such as new technologies which could adopt circular economy. The paper also presents possible limits of the research, but also future directions of its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economy & Market Communication Review / Casopis za Ekonomiju i Trzisne Komunikacije is the property of Pan-European University Apeiron 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.)

During the political process, the electorate needs to determine the competence of the government by both observing its policy decisions and acquiring information from the media. However, media reports are often criticized for not being independent and truthful. This paper discusses whether the public can determine the quality of a government from media reports. In other words, are media outlets more likely to act as watchdogs or just as "yes men" to the government? This paper argues that, because of reputational concerns, the media usually avoid criticizing the government. The media only report truthfully when the expected competence of the government is sufficiently low and the probability for the voter to learn from other information sources is sufficiently high. Otherwise, media outlets—especially low-quality outlets—will pander to the government in their reporting. Policy bias or media capture is not required for the yes-man problem to prevail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using U.S. Census firm-worker data, I document that firms' financial distress has an economically important effect on employee departures to entrepreneurship. The impact is amplified in the high-tech and service sectors, where employees are key assets. In states with enforceable noncompete contracts, the effect is mitigated. Compared to typical entrepreneurs, distress-driven entrepreneurs are high-wage workers who found better firms, as measured by jobs, pay, and survival. Startup jobs compensate for 33% of job losses at the constrained incumbents. Overall, the financial inability of incumbent firms to pursue productive opportunities increases the reallocation of economic activity into new 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]

The seventeenth issue of Financial Innovation (FIN), Volume 5, No.4 (2019) presents twelve papers contributed by 36 authors and co-authors from thirteen countries and areas: China, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Nepal, North Cyprus, Pakistan, South Sudan, Turkey, Uganda, and USA. The sixth paper, "Assessing the spillover effects of U.S. monetary policy normalization on Nigeria sovereign bond yield", by Kpughur Moses Tule, Osana Jackson Odonye, Udoma Johnson Afangideh, Godday Uwawunkonye Ebuh, Elijah Abasifreke Paul Udoh and Augustine Ujunwa, reveals that domestic factors, such as exchange rate and inflation, rather than the U.S. 10-Year sovereign bond yield, are the key drivers of Nigeria 10-Year bond yield. The twelfth paper, "Impact of Risk Management Strategies on the Credit Risk Faced by Commercial Banks of Balochistan", by Zia Ur Rehman, Noor Muhammad, Bilal Sarwar and Muhammad Asif Raz, identifies risk management strategies undertaken by the commercial banks of Balochistan, Pakistan, to mitigate or eliminate credit risk. [Extracted from the article]

• The paper estimates the effect of changes in the wage share on the growth rate of the US economy for the period 1947–2019. • We use a time varying parameter model, which allows for continuous changes in the regime over time. This is the first paper that has attempted to do this. • We find that the US economy became more profit-led in the first postwar decades until the 1970s and has become less profit-led since. In the last fifteen years of our sample the effect of changes in distribution on economic activity is statistically insignificant. This paper estimates the distribution-led regime of the US economy for the period 1947–2019. We use a time varying parameter model, which allows for continuous changes in the regime over time. To the best of our knowledge this is the first paper that has attempted to do this. This innovation is important, because there is no reason to expect that the regime of the US economy (or any economy for that matter) will remain constant over time. On the contrary, there are significant reasons that point to changes in the regime. We find that the US economy became more profit-led in the first postwar decades until the 1970s and has become less profit-led since. In the last fifteen years of our sample the effect of changes in distribution on economic activity is statistically insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Manufacturing share in India's GDP has increased by about 16 percentage points between 2003 and 2018. • Dominant contribution to increased manufacturing GDP share is made by petroleum refining. • There has been a tremendous increase in the real value-added share of ICT equipment industry. • For assessing properly the performance of manufacturing, double-deflation of GDP is essential. Contrary to a widely held impression that the share of manufacturing in India's GDP has long stagnated, the paper claims that it has increased significantly. Measured at the prices of different goods and services prevailing in 2004-05, and deflation applied separately with input prices as well as output prices to account for differential input price trends, the GDP share of manufacturing has increased during the post-reform period from about 17 per cent in 1993-94 to about 32 per cent in 2018-19. The paper notes that the concept of real share in GDP relates to the volume effect and represents the change in the share of the volume of manufacturing activity out of the volume of all economic activities in the Indian economy. Some explanation is provided for the apparent stagnancy of the share of manufacturing in India's GDP at current prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a comprehensive survey of the sources found in the archival holdings of the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Kyiv, focusing on the history of Vydubychi Monastery, i.e., a prominent spiritual hub from the 19th to early 20th centuries. The author has systematically gathered and examined materials from these archival collections, assessing their informational significance. The findings indicate that the primary sources of information regarding the monastery predominantly originate from documents produced within the monastery during its operational period. Vydubychi Monastery boasts a remarkably extensive collection of archives, surpassing other monasteries in the Kyiv Eparchy. These comprise materials catalogued across three inventories, each representing distinct chronological periods of the contained documents. The author has categorized all documents within the fund into five groups: 1) regulations and directives, 2) personnel records of the brotherhood, 3) papers related to property ownership and benefits, 4) financial and accounting records, 5) materials on the monastery’s charitable and educational activities. The administrative records of the monastery document its land ownership, income and expenses, property changes, construction of religious and economic buildings, as well as the management of charitable and educational initiatives. The article aims to describe the current archival sources related to the monastery’s history and also identify important avenues for potential research into the monastery’s past for future scholars. The primary emphasis is placed on the written sources housed within a distinct fund at the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Kyiv. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

As a new concept for systematically evaluating ecosystem services, Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) provides an effective means to comprehensively reveal the overall status of the ecosystem, the impact of economic activities on the ecological environment, and the effectiveness of ecological protection efforts. GEP accounting has been conducted in various regions; however, GEP's application in natural reserves still requires further exploration. Taking the Qinling Mountains as the research area, this paper aims to assess the relationship between GEP and economic development on the basis of the GEP accounting system. The results indicated that: (1) From 2010 to 2020, GEP tended to increase continuously and exhibited a distribution pattern with high value regions in the east and west, and low value regions in the north and south. (2) Over the years, the coupling coordination degree between GEP and GDP was in a consistent upward trend. In 2020, a good coupling coordination state between GEP and GDP was achieved in most districts and counties. (3) With the relative development between GEP and GDP, the social economy of most districts and counties lagged behind GEP in 2010. The number of districts and counties lagging in GEP in 2020 increased, while the number of regions with a balanced development of GEP and GDP was still relatively discouraging. (4) In general, elevation, contagion, temperature, population density, and precipitation were the main drivers of coupling coordination degree between GEP and GDP. If the relationship between economic development and ecological environmental protection can be reasonably balanced, it will further promote the sustainable development of nature reserves, and provide a scientific basis for sustainable policy-making in other similar areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ongoing COVID pandemic has hampered economic activity; Food is a basic need that must be fulfilled and cannot be postponed. During the current pandemic, business people need to pay attention to the situation and conditions, especially the limitation of economic activity in several regions. However, Digital technologies have been extensively studied in academic research and industry. Moreover, little is known about adopting digital technologies in manufacturing firms at a supply chain level. This paper aims to understand why and how manufacturing firms adopt digital technologies and the impact of the adoption on supply chains. This research includes the design of a Web-based Supply Chain Management application to facilitate inventory management, starting from the process of ordering goods from suppliers and procurement of goods to managing goods to customers. Digital technology in the supply chain in the manufacturing area helps companies to store goods management data, raw materials, inventories, deliveries, and daily deposits, and others that are still using manual systems or not yet computerised to maximise performance and also profits for the company, suppliers, including end customers. The study identifies that technological intelligence and supply chain cooperation are critical factors and proposes two-dimensional levels of adopting digital technologies according to their low-to-high degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides empirical evidence on predictable time variations in out-of-sample bond return predictability. Bond return predictability is associated with periods of high (low) economic activity (uncertainty), which implies that violations of the expectations hypothesis are state dependent and linked to features of the business cycle. These state dependencies in predictability, established by introducing a new multivariate test for equal conditional predictive ability, can be used in real time to improve out-of-sample bond risk premia estimates and investors' economic utility through a novel dynamic forecast combination scheme that uses predicted forecasting performance to identify the best set of methods to include in the combined forecast. Dynamically combined forecasts exhibit strong countercyclical behavior and peak during recessions. This paper was accepted by Lukas Schmid, finance. Funding: This work was supported by the Danish Council of Independent Research [Grants DFF 7024–00020B and DFF 9033–00003B] and the Danish Finance Institute. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4713. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a quantile vector autoregressive approach to compare the extent of connectedness between macroeconomic uncertainty and U.S. real activity in normal and extreme economic and financial conditions. Based on a database ranging from January 1960 to February 2023 and using the methodology of Jurado et al. (Am Econ Rev 105(3):1177–1216, 2015), we derive, first, eight real and financial uncertainty measures based on 134 macroeconomic indicators. Second, we examine the quantile connectedness among the eight estimated macroeconomic uncertainties and real activity. The results indicate that real activity is strongly (weakly) influenced by the extremely high (low) values of the real and financial uncertainty estimates, indicating asymmetric spillover effects of US macroeconomic uncertainties on real economic activity. Among the real and financial uncertainty estimates, the real output uncertainty blocks are the most important transmitters of shocks to real activity under looser economic and financial conditions. However, under tighter economic and financial conditions, higher output and income and stock market uncertainty blocks are the major spillover transmitters of shocks to real activity. Finally, connectedness between macroeconomic uncertainties and real activity exhibits the highest level during the recent COVID-19 pandemic outbreak at various quantiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the usefulness of the water-energy-food nexus in assessing the sustainability of an economy. All economic activity depends on its surrounding physical environment, and especially on the interconnection between these three essential resources. As a result, the nexus is a useful tool for detecting the economic risk of resource scarcity, optimising investments or resource use, and assessing the effects of economic policies or shocks such as climate change. The nexus approach is also useful for guiding policies towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We show that both the objective of each study and the scale on which it is conducted are factors worth considering when choosing the most suitable research methodology. We detected important challenges relating to the heterogeneity of the methods, scales and variables used, and therefore necessary measures nare suggested in order to homogenise the studies for their comparability and/or integration, both horizontally and vertically, or over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A global disaster, such as the recent Covid-19 pandemic, affects every aspect of our lives and there is a need to investigate these highly complex phenomena if one aims to diminish their impact in the health of the population, as well as their socio-economic stability. In this paper we present an attempt to understand the role of the governmental authorities and the response of the rest of the population facing such emergencies. We present a mathematical model that takes into account the epidemiological features of the pandemic and also the actions of people responding to it, focusing only on three aspects of the system, namely, the fear of catching this serious disease, the impact on the economic activities and the compliance of the people to the mitigating measures adopted by the authorities. We apply the model to the specific case of Spain, since there are accurate data available about these three features. We focused on tourism as an example of the economic activity, since this sector of economy is one of the most likely to be affected by the restrictions imposed by the authorities, and because it represents an important part of Spanish economy. The results of numerical calculations agree with the empirical data in such a way that we can acquire a better insight of the different processes at play in such a complex situation, and also in other different circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the development and implementation of a financial model of exports in the context of strategic planning of foreign economic activity of enterprises. The model described in this paper aims to measure, analyse, evaluate and propose improvements to administrative processes by identifying various variables involved in strategic foreign trade planning. This paper is a survey that is being developed for export activities in Ukraine. Exports in Ukraine were analysed to test the methodology and to build an additive model. The model empirically shows the links that exist between the internal functions of a company and its ability to generate performance management indicators and business dynamics as a way to improve processes in strategic foreign trade planning. Some relevant findings from the first two stages of the empirical research conducted to date are presented. Validation has proven that the use of the methodology of strategic planning of foreign economic activity allows you to compensate for investments in new resources by increasing the number of operations carried out eliminating delays and attracting new customers as a result of improving the client's perception of the quality of service. During the audit, it was possible to determine that the delays created in the activities of support systems increase their negative impact on the process, consuming the slack of many actions of the central system and delaying their implementation, negatively affecting foreign economic activity. The model will be useful for enterprises engaged in foreign trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Argentina de Antropología Biológica is the property of Revista Argentina de Antropologia Biologica 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.)