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This paper investigates the relationships between the global oil market, stock markets, and economic policy, focusing on China and the US. We use a time-varying parameter stochastic volatility vector autoregression model to examine the transmission mechanisms between fluctuation in the global oil price, the volatility of the Chinese and US stock markets, and economic policy uncertainty in China and the US from 2003 to 2020. We observe significant correlations between the volatility of the two countries’ stock markets and fluctuation in the global oil price. Compared with the Chinese stock market, the US stock market has a greater impact on the global oil market. We also find that an increase in economic policy uncertainty in the two countries exacerbates fluctuation in the global oil price, particularly during times of crisis. In turn, greater fluctuation in the global oil price increases stock market volatility and economic policy uncertainty in both countries.

Iraq suffers from economic and social problems and challenges, the most important one which is unemployment and the weak ability to generate income and employment. The importance of the benefiting from the experiences of countries in the field of developing small projects, where the active role of the state in drawing the features of a strategy to enhance the competitive advantages of projects in an attempt to overcome the obstacles that these projects suffer from, whether in terms of administrative aspects or the absence of organizations responsible for guiding investors or in terms of commercial and technical support The financial environment and the lack of an institutional framework and an incubating legislative environment, as well as infrastructure as basic ingredients for the development of the small projects. The small projects sector has the ability to achieve economic and social benefits due to its major role in expanding the production base, diversifying sources of income, creating job opportunities for the unemployed, especially young people, and expanding the investment circle. In Iraq, we find that small and medium-sized projects that have stopped working for several reasons need great support in light of the difficult circumstances that are characterized by the instability of the economic situation and the situation in the Iraqi market of dumping various commodities, the high general level of prices, the lack of influence of the exchange rate on local prices and the lack of profitable investment opportunities The absence of credit facilities. Where all these factors combine to pose difficult challenges for owners of small and medium projects to be reflected on the Iraqi economy.

The Russian economy has encountered substantial exchange rate volatility due to many endogenous and exogenous shocks, including the adoption of different exchange rate systems, the global financial crisis, sanctions, and the COVID pandemic. The economy has long experience with a managed floating exchange rate system, which motivates us to investigate the exchange rate response to domestic economic policy uncertainty, incorporating oil prices and the trade volume under different economic circumstances. We apply quantile-based time-series approaches to deal with extreme values. Our empirical investigation demonstrates that the local currency appreciates in response to increased Russian economic policy uncertainty under different quantiles of the managed floating exchange rate, but it depreciates under most quantiles in a floating exchange rate period. Our findings confirm that the Russian currency appreciates with the rise in international oil prices and trade as Russia is an oil-exporting country. Moreover, the findings are robust under the quantile-on-quantile approach. © 2021 The Authors Russian Science Foundation, RSF: 19-18-00262 This study was supported by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation , Code: 19-18-00262 . “Empirical modelling of balanced technological and socioeconomic development in the Russian regions”.

The portability of pension rights is an increasingly important issue in the Caribbean. The large and increasing flows of migrant workers, including both permanent and temporary migrants, the small size of the domestic economies and the process of regional integration and economic openness call for effective means to make pensions portable. This document presents a select survey of the literature on pension portability and reviews the progress made by the Caribbean countries as well as some remaining challenges in the light of the international experience.

Protected geographical indications (PGIs) are an increasingly popular strategy for securing price premiums on food products in the interest of preserving associated rural livelihoods, however they often fail to show clear benefits for small or otherwise marginalized farmers. Their environmental record for supporting low-impact farming practices is also mixed. This case study of the PGI for Spanish almond-based desserts Turron de Jijona and Turron de Alicante details a yet unstudied form of such failures, where manufacturers seeking to scale production removed the requirement to source their primary ingredient (almonds) from the region's low-input farms and opted for intensively produced ingredients imported from abroad. This uprooting of turron from its agroecological origins highlights how the GI designation creates tension between the need to legitimate a product as rooted in traditional agrarian lifeways and the incentive to expand exports by industrial means. While previous studies show how such tension can result in agricultural intensification benefitting larger landholders within a given region, I argue this inequity and ecological risk operates at a global scale. Importantly, the turron case reveals that “quality” of a product is a moving target shaped not only by culinary legacies but also forged by a global political economy of agriculture suffering chronic overproduction. Finally, the role of the state in structuring PGI institutions more inclusively and adjudicating conflicts among actors along the value chain is fundamental to the capacity of these programs to achieve social and environmental goals.

This study investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on firm innovation. Using data on China's A-share listed companies for 2001–2017, we find that EPU is in general negatively associated with firms' innovation output. Further, we observe that the negative association between EPU and innovation mainly exists in firms whose executives have a low risk preference and in firms with weak risk-taking ability. Additionally, we find that corporate innovation has a stronger positive effect on firm value when EPU is lower. Our research provides important evidence about the effect of EPU on firm innovation from a risk-taking perspective.

The excessive usage of the non-conventional energy especially the fossil fuels has led to the degradation of the environment. This calls out for the countries to develop, the energy policies in order to deal with this serious issue. Energy policies play a vital role in developing innovations and cost reduction techniques for promoting Renewable Energy (RE) and its adoption. India, one of the fastest growing energy consumer, is putting great efforts in the production and consumption of RE and to deal with the environmental degradation. The country has signed the Paris Agreement and launched a number of policies for supporting RE. Energy being the subject of federal and state governments makes state governments a crucial stakeholder in this initiative. In order to promote and augment RE, different states of India have also implemented policies at their level to support the national target such as feed in tariffs, capital subsidies, incentives etc. However, the effectiveness of every policy differs from each other. This paper will analyse the impact of different policy tools in the renewable sector covering five major states of India viz. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthan. The study reviews renewable energy related public polices of these states in subject, which will be learning from these states experiences and combining it with their local resources will help the other states to perform better in the renewable sector.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. In this paper, we present the first attempt at modelling the impact of economic policy uncertainty on renewable energy consumption in the USA using monthly data from 1986 to 2019. By implementing recent nonparametric (nonlinear) econometric approaches, we find that our models suffer from nonlinearity and smooth, as well as abrupt structural changes. The nonparametric unit root tests indicate non-stationarity of the model variables while the cointegration suggests the presence of nonlinear cointegration. The Granger causality analyses establish robust nonlinear causation in both directions between the policy uncertainty and renewable energy variables, with one exception: from geothermal energy to the three-component index of uncertainty. The nonparametric regressions exhibit a negative long-run association between policy uncertainty and renewable energy consumption, i.e., higher economic policy uncertainty lowers renewable energy consumptions and vice-versa. These findings have robust policy implications as they underscore the importance of governments, policymakers and concerned agents to maintain uniformity in economic policy to encourage renewable energy consumption in the USA.

This paper investigates how economic policy uncertainty (EPU) affects the response of a firm’s investment to its peers’ stock prices. Using the news-based index developed by Baker et al. (2016), we find robust interaction effects of EPU and peers’ stock prices on firm investment for US listed firms over the period 1985–2018, indicating that firms’ investment decisions are heavily influenced by their peers’ stock prices during elevated EPU periods. This relationship holds for both short- and long-term EPUs and is more pronounced for the latter compared to the former and among firms that either operate in highly competitive environments or are more financially constrained. Furthermore, peers’ stock prices appear to be more informative to followers than leaders. Taken together, our findings extend the literature on how firm-level investment varies with EPU and peer valuation.

As one of the main engines driving economic growth, investment has made an important contribution to China’s economy. However, in recent years, the growth rate of China’s fixed asset investment has shown a downward trend. Therefore, it is vital to determine the main influencing factors of China’s investment for formulating stable investment policies. Using the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model, this study finds that economic policy uncertainty, capital cost, and raw material cost have asymmetrical impacts on China’s fixed asset investment. Further research finds that the above variables have asymmetrical impacts on the two major components of aggregate investment, private investment and public investment, but the impact mechanism for each is completely different. When facing the positive or negative impacts from different factors, different investment entities will adopt different directions and magnitudes of investment decisions, ultimately leading to asymmetric relationships between various variables and aggregate investment.

The purpose of this study, which applies the policy cycle framework, is to ascertain why certain renewable energy policy aims being formulated in the former Soviet bloc (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Poland), as well as to review what policy instruments are being used to promote renewable energy technologies. In addition, it reviews how the renewable energy sectors are progressing in the covered countries and determines what their prospects are for the future, bearing in mind the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With a global move toward a reduction in greenhouses gas emissions these countries are mandated to explore alternative or renewable energy supplies. Thus, command-and-control instruments have been established by a number of regulations and pieces of legislation such as laws on renewable energy development, guaranteed purchase by grid operators, and guaranteed grid interconnection. Market-based instruments have been established by imposing feed-in tariffs and offering tax incentives for renewables projects. As for information policy instruments, investor guides detailing renewable energy projects with corresponding estimates for wind, solar, biomass, and mini-hydro energy potentials are being developed. However, looking at the countries covered in this paper, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia might struggle to meet their long-term climate and energy targets. The analysis ultimately highlights policy implications for Soviet bloc countries including the need to enhance national laws on renewable energy projects, to revise feed-in tariff design models, to develop short-, medium-, and long-term renewable reserve funds, and to establish practical guidelines for national and international investors. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

This paper analyzes the volatility patterns of oil and natural gas prices in the United States and how they have changed due to economic policy uncertainty in the pre- and post-shale era. Using Markov-Switching GARCH models, we find evidence of heterogeneous volatility regimes for both commodities (i.e., high vs. low volatility). While the volatility persistence for oil is similar during the two sub-periods, significant changes have occurred to the natural gas market. Using quantile regressions, we find that economic policy uncertainty increases the probability of agitated market conditions of both markets, although this effect has weakened during the post-shale period.

While the literature is obviously flooded with studies on the nexus between oil and metal market, the volatility connectedness dynamics that measures the forward and backward spillover linkage between different classes of oil price shocks and the metal market remains understudied. Thus, little is known about the feedback risk transmissions between individual components of oil shocks and globally traded metals. Extending the recent work of Mokni et al. (2020) which partly addresses this concern, we find strong connectedness between the four different types of oil shocks considered and five precious and industrial metals. Besides, all the oil shocks serve as net pairwise receivers of volatility spillovers, showcasing the increased financialization of oil, but its inability to hedge investors in all the metals. In entirety, gold is a net shock receiver in the system, indicating its inappropriateness to provide diversification benefits for other assets. Another important discovery is that the strong connectedness is found to be driven by economic policy uncertainty both for causality-in-conditional mean and causality-in-conditional variance. Appropriate policy suggestions are drawn accordingly.

We investigate the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and corporate fraud. We find that firms are more likely to engage in corporate fraud during times of high EPU. Such a finding is robust to the undetected fraud and other potential endogeneity concerns. Moreover, we find that a strong institutional environment can weaken the positive association between EPU and corporate fraud, and the frauds of firms whose headquarters are located in a region that is less dominated by the community of interest with mainstream ideology are mitigated. The empirical results also show that the listed firms are more likely to participate in misconduct to the extent that the fraud deserves public condemnation, criticism, and an official warning without monetary fines being levied.

Uncertainty about economic policy (EPU) in today's interconnected world and its impact worldwide is more significant than ever before. Thus, this study examines EPU's impact on the bank's earnings opacity of the Chinese banking industry, using the two-step system GMM estimator and the time covering 2011–2018. Our finding shows a negative and statistically significant relationship between EPU and bank earnings opacity, implying that the Chinese banking sector decreases earnings opacity in times of high EPU to earn trust and show good banks’ financial image. Moreover, our finding reveals that the effect of EPU on earnings opacity relies on the banks’ financial strength. This study recommends that a policy to reduce earnings opacity should be in place and also the supervisory capability and financial regulation should be strengthened. Moreover, the regulators should be more vigilant while making economic policies during high economic uncertainties.

This paper considers using a global Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) index to enhance forecasting energy demand and supply. Our demand and supply are measured from the consumption and production of energies (fossil fuels and renewable energies). In this study, the Bayesian Vector Autoregressive (BVAR) model is employed to forecast energy demand and supply more accurately. Overall, the BVAR model that uses the EPU index as a predictor on a long sample makes a better prediction of energy demand. This result indicates a high predictive power of the EPU index in energy demand forecasting. However, it seems that BVAR without EPU provides a poor job at forecasting energy supply.

Summary Climate action pledges have increasingly taken the form of commitments to net carbon neutrality. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are uniquely positioned to innovate in this area, and over 800 United States (U.S.) colleges and universities have pledged to achieve net carbon neutrality. We examine the approaches of 11 U.S. HEIs that have already announced achieving net carbon neutrality, highlighting risks associated with treating carbon offsets, unbundled renewable energy certificates, and bioenergy (collectively 77% of reductions across institutions) as best practice under current frameworks. While pursuing neutrality has led to important institutional shifts toward sustainability, the initial mix of approaches used by these HEIs appears out of alignment with a broader U.S. decarbonization roadmap; in aggregate, these early neutrality efforts underutilize electrification and new zero-carbon electricity. We conclude by envisioning how HEIs (and others) can refocus climate mitigation efforts toward decarbonization and actions that will help shift policy and markets at larger scales.

China has been increasingly involved in debt restructurings for low- and middle-income countries. This paper presents case studies of China's debt relief actions overseas: Iraq (2003), Cuba (2010), Seychelles (2011), Chad (2017), Zambia (2018), Mozambique (2018), Cameroon (2019), Republic of Congo (2019) and Venezuela (in progress). These cases shed light on the commonalities and particularities of China's actions, and underline the evolution of its restructuring terms. We highlight the lack of formal coordination between China and other creditors. China almost exclusively made its own decision on providing restructurings and restructuring terms. The magnitude of China's debt relief actions remains generally limited and varies across countries, depending on whether other creditors have also provided debt restructurings. China seems to have a growing preference for cancellation of accumulated arrears to nominal debt principal reduction. The debt rescheduling cases have significantly increased in recent years as well. This evolution brings China closer to the flow treatment that the Paris Club privileged in its early years of operations and the prevailing practices among private creditors.

This paper using data from major oil dependent countries examines the linear and nonlinear causal relationship, and time-frequency co-movement between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and energy prices (oil and gas future prices). The empirical analysis considered wavelet coherence and wavelet phase angle tests. Moreover, our results more insights to answers whether the co-movement and causality between EPU and energy prices are different for oil and gas. EPU and oil future price returns move together but in the opposite direction. Oil futures price returns provide no additional information in explaining the policy uncertainty in comparison to the spot price returns. We also note that findings with nominal oil prices are similar to results with real prices. In times of economic turmoil or crises, the relationship between policy uncertainty and energy prices becomes stronger—and hence demands particular attention from policymakers, energy companies, and investors.

This article discerns why the substantial political efforts to increase circulation of nutrients in sewage sludge, and phosphorus in particular, have shown such meager results over the last twenty years in Sweden. We have analyzed stakeholders’ statements of opinions to four government-initiated inquiries, to decipher the chemo-social relations between stakeholders and phosphorus, and how these relations have transformed over time and made a difference in the policy process. In our analysis, we found five different relations: 1) a metabolic, 2) a purity, 3) a nutritional, 4) a marketable, and 5) a geopolitical. These relations connect actors, phosphorus and politics in different ways, and obstruct policymaking by creating tensions between political objectives, values and stakeholder positions. We observe how the extraction of phosphorus as a singular, marketable element to be sold for profit reasons on a global market, is increasingly favored in comparison to local eco-cycling of nutrients between farmers and consumers. We see this as a consequence of that the circular economy as a concept has replaced eco-cycle efforts in the Swedish policy debate. We conclude that if circular economy-initiatives are to be successfully implemented, they need to be informed by the current configuration of material flows that they wish to transform as well as the political implications of their efforts. So far, this has not been the case regarding sewage sludge in Sweden. Funding: Swedish Energy Agency Research School on Energy Systems; Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research CouncilEuropean Commission [2017-02142] Urban Refinery

The impact of policy uncertainty on China’s economic activity has received considerable attention. To appraise the role of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in China’s economic downturns, we estimate the predictive distribution of China’s GDP growth as a function of EPU from 1996Q1 to 2020Q2, using quantile regression and fitted skew-t distribution. We find that the entire predicted distribution of GDP growth conditional on the EPU index evolves over time beyond the central tendency. The EPU index alters the predicted distribution’s higher moments, amplifies the growth tail risk, and improves the model’s forecast performance; this could serve as a basis for preemptive action. Our results are robust across other alternative output and EPU variables.

Most previous studies focusing on the effect of the economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the Bitcoin price do not assess for market conditions and assume that this effect is symmetric. To address this limitation, this paper investigates the causality running from EPU to Bitcoin returns and volatility in the top-10 countries running Bitcoin nodes under different market conditions. To do so, we employ the symmetric and asymmetric causality in-quantiles test. Results report that the EPU improves the prediction of Bitcoin returns in the majority of countries under extreme market conditions. However, the EPU causes Bitcoin volatility at the intermediate and high quantiles. Further analysis considering the asymmetric causality in quantiles suggests that the causality running from EPU to the Bitcoin returns is sourced from increased EPU levels (positive variations), while the decrease in EPU (negative variations) is the source of causality from EPU to Bitcoin volatility. Our results have important implications for investors and policymakers operating in the cryptocurrency market, particularly in portfolio design and risk management.

This paper investigates the impact of government corruption on corporate tax avoidance in China. A new method of weighted imputed profit is introduced to measure the firm's true profit to improve the measurement of tax avoidance. Employing a large sample of nearly 600,000 firms from 1998 to 2007, the empirical results illustrate that government corruption is positively related to tax avoidance. More specifically, I find that a one standard deviation increase in government corruption corresponds to a 6% increase in tax avoidance by firms. I find consistent evidence when using a natural experiment, Tax Sharing Act in 2002. In addition, I find that domestic private firms tend to avoid a larger portion of their tax liabilities than foreign or state-owned firms. Moreover, this paper confirms that tax avoidance increases with tax rates. Overall, this paper suggests that fighting corruption in local governments may lead to higher rates of tax collection.

Like many countries, since the 1980s, Australia has introduced a range of government policies to support the development of a biofuels industry. Despite growth in the use of biofuels over this period industry development has not progressed to the extent seen in many of these other countries. This paper uses the technological innovation systems perspective to guide an historical event analysis of the biofuels innovation system within Australia over a period of almost 40 years. Results suggest two main system dynamics have been present: a series of science and technology cycles that aimed to progress biofuel technologies toward commercial competitiveness with incumbent petroleum industries; and several short lived industry development cycles that were weakened by limited market formation mechanisms and insufficient socio-political legitimation. It is concluded that the introduction of biofuel quotas in the absence of sufficient industrialisation of biofuels, while promoting some growth, undermined their effectiveness. The results are discussed in terms of the need for policy layering to support effective system development.

This paper examines whether economic uncertainty increases executive turnover. The negative perception perspective and business change theory suggest that executives are more likely to leave their jobs during periods of corporate distress. However, the additive effects of internal and external risk are thought to prompt firms to carefully consider executive turnover, thereby reducing the likelihood of executive changes. Based on the literature, we propose a check-and-balance hypothesis for the relationship between external uncertainty and executive change, according to which the optimal superposition of the internal and external risks stemming from increased external uncertainty would be to avoid a wave of executive departures. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019 and the China economic policy uncertainty index of Baker et al. (2013), we examine the impact of economic policy uncertainty on executive turnover and our results support the check-and-balance hypothesis. Our findings enhance our understanding of how economic policy uncertainty affects executive turnover, and enrich the literature on corporate risk management and strategic management.

The causal relationship between systemic risk and global economic policy uncertainty remains unexplored, even though the latter serves as an important factor in asset pricing and macroeconomic forecasting. This study extends Adrian and Brunnermeier’s (2016) framework, combining it with mixed data sampling (MIDAS) to calculate the systemic risk in the crude oil market based on monthly frequencies. We employ Diebold and Yilmaz’s (2009, 2014) connectedness measures to identify the causal relationship between systemic risk in the crude oil market and global economic policy uncertainty. We find that global economic policy uncertainty is economically significant in determining systemic risk, although its role weakens during financial crises. In other words, less disagreement in economic policies may decrease systemic risk. Therefore, both policymakers and financial practitioners should be aware of the causality changes and increasing connectedness within the system and make decisions accordingly.

Economic policy uncertainty (EPU) is positively associated with corporate diversification in China between 2001 and 2007. EPU’s positive impact on diversification is significant only for large and medium cap firms. High EPU is associated with higher diversification; the effect of EPU on diversification by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is greater than for non-SOEs. Diversification of firms with a high number of equity analysts and equity reports increases during high EPU. Diversification actively mitigates economic policy-related risks, enhancing firm performance. Our results are robust to different measures of EPU and corporate diversification and remain significantly unchanged when dealing with endogeneity.

This paper investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty on financial stability. Using data for 23 countries over the period of 1996 to 2016, we show that the impact is negative and statistically significant. Economically, a unit standard deviation increase in economic policy uncertainty decreases financial stability by between 2.66% and 7.26% of its sample mean. The negative impact of economic policy uncertainty on financial stability is stronger for countries with higher competition, lower regulatory capital, and smaller financial systems. We show that our finding is robust using bank-level data and different constructions of global panel portfolios, and controlling for Z-score skewness, the Global Financial Crisis, and for endogeneity.

This paper employs a quasi-natural experiment of “counties power expansion (CPE)” reform in China to investigate the effect of administrative decentralization on local economic growth. Administrative decentralization seeks to redistribute authority, responsibility and financial resources for providing public services among different levels of government. Using a county-level dataset from 2000 to 2008 in China, we find that administrative decentralization significantly increases per capita GDP by about 3.3%. Our results further indicate that the positive effect on economic growth is mainly attributed to the increase of investments. We find that the devolution of power attract more private firms and enterprises from foreign countries as well as Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan of China. We also find that after being given more power in the administrative decentralization reform, local officials in areas with relatively weak supervision on the financial funds might divert a certain amount of fiscal revenue intended for county construction and public goods provision to illegal uses, thereby greatly undermining the positive role of administrative decentralization on economic growth.

Since the 1990s, Burkina Faso has intensified the implementation of supporting policies to enhance the access to capital and liquidity in the informal sector. This paper analyzes the effects of these public policies on incomes, employment and economic growth by taking into account the interactions between the informal sector, the formal sector and the agricultural sector. For that purpose, policy shocks are simulated through the Partnership for Economic Policy Network's static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model which is adapted to the structure of a 2008-based social accounting matrix developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute. Our results highlight mixed effects including a paradoxical contraction of the informal sector, the formal sector and economic growth as well as an improvement of the informal households and the farmers’ incomes.

This study analyzes the conceptual provisions related to solving problems related to the introduction of digital technologies and the formation of a digital economy based on them, reveals the dynamics of digital transformation and its impact on business processes and the interaction of states, business and civil society in the context of modern economic policy. We reviewed the policy of the Russian state in terms of overcoming both the existing and potential economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic based on published expert assessments. Our results confirmed that overcoming the current turbulent state of the digital economy in Russia requires: firstly, the development of digital entrepreneurship or the digital sector as the "core" of the digital economy, where digital technologies are created;secondly, the removal of restrictions on the movement of resources caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of the consistent implementation of a coordinated strategy for the digitalization of the economy, based on global cooperation in the field of economic policy;third, the process of reproduction of the social product, where production - distribution - exchange - consumption interact, should take place at the level of world standards;fourth, to introduce the "digital style"in economic policy through building technological chains and diversified connections;fifth, to develop artificial intelligence, the essence of which is to"break" the matrix of habitual life in order to launch a large-scale virtual program of a new being of humanity, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.. All rights reserved.

The Government of the Slovak Republic has agreed to increase the non-taxable part for the taxpayer’s tax from 2020. The proposal for this increasing was accompanied by significant protests by local municipalities, which feared a shortfall in their budget. It is true that gross domestic product in the Slovak Republic has a growing trend, but is the growth of non-taxable parts in accordance with the growth of other macroeconomic indicators? The article deals with the analysis of the trends of year-on-year growth of decisive macroeconomic variables and on the basis of the analysis of these trends we have determined the optimal values of development in the coming years.

The study uses the new World Uncertainty Index to analyze the causality and long-run effects of economic policy uncertainty and energy consumption in a carbon function for countries with high geopolitical risk over the period 1996 - 2017. The Kao test shows a cointegration association between energy consumption, economic growth, geopolitical risk, economic policy uncertainty, and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2). The results based on the Panel Pooled Mean Group-Autoregressive Auto regressive distributed lag model (PMG-ARDL) show that energy consumption and economic growth trigger carbon emissions. Additionally, there is a significant association between economic uncertainties and CO2 emissions in the long-run, while this relationship is negative for geopolitical risks. This implies that higher levels of economic policy uncertainties adversely affect environmental sustainability for countries with higher levels of geopolitical risks. The panel causality analysis by Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) identifies a bidirectional relationship between CO2 emissions and energy consumption, economic policy uncertainty and CO2 emissions, economic growth and CO2 emissions, but a unidirectional causality from CO2 emissions to geopolitical risks. Our findings call for the need for vital changes in energy policies to accommodate economic policy uncertainties and geopolitical risks.

This paper examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty on non-executive employees from the perspective of pay-performance sensitivity (PPS). Economy-wide uncertainty can trigger adverse impacts for businesses, and in response enterprises may adjust employee pay to maintain their level of activity. Using firm-level data on A-share companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges during 2003–2016, this paper finds that better-performing firms pay higher wages on average, which they adjust only during uncertain times. We also show that the impact of economic policy uncertainty on PPS is more pronounced in the context of labor-intensive, highly competitive industries and state-owned enterprises, because they tend to respond to uncertainty via wage adjustment. The evidence demonstrates that the pay-performance link is much weaker during uncertain times, when different subgroups react differently. However, our finding of a robust pay-performance relation holds, even with a range of firm-level controls and accounting for different levels of firm heterogeneity.

The Indian aviation industry has grown by over 20% annually in the past two years. It is likely to grow at a double digit growth rate in the coming decade. The stupendous rise in its economic activity has raked up concerns about its environmental impact. India has signed up for Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) in 2016, which is to be mandated from 2026. This article discerns the possible implications that such an environmental policy can have on the Indian aviation sector by modelling the impact of a prospective carbon tax on the domestic aviation sector.

The purposes of this study are to assess the COVID-19 pandemic's impacts on the dairy industries in China and the United States and to derive policy recommendations for enhancing the diary industries' resilience to pandemics and other market shocks. Specifically, data from the two nations are used to analyze and compare the mechanisms through which the pandemic has affected their dairy industries and to discuss potential lessons from their experiences. The findings suggest that this pandemic has heavily affected the dairy industries in both China and the United States through similar mechanisms, such as decreased farmgate milk prices, disruption and difficulties of moving milk within the supply chains, worker shortages, increased production costs, and lack of operating capital. There were also significant differences in the affecting mechanisms between the two nations, including transportation difficulties from widespread road closures and significant reduction in holiday sales of dairy products in China, and the shutdown of many dairy processors in the United States due to the closing of schools, restaurants, and hotels. While government financial reliefs are highly needed to help many dairy farms and processors survive this pandemic in the short term, the dairy industries and governments need to work together to develop long-term strategies and policies to balance the industries' efficiency and flexibility, product specialization and diversification, supply chain integration and local food systems, and market mechanisms and policy regulations and interventions.

The social and economic evolution in the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic area, now integrated into Romania's national territory, is indissolubly connected to the special relationship of man and horse. Therefore, by synthesizing the literature, we bring to the scientific circuit this study of the progress and results recorded in a high-interest public sector, i.e. the whole range of activities related to HBCC (Horse breeding, care and capitalization). Currently, certain parameters from this sector and the highlighted trends indicate that the equidae in Romania are not adequately exploited economically, requiring the diminution of their role in the classical activities from rural households and the reorientation towards the recreation and leisure industry. The approach to HBCC in Romania strongly considers, beyond the historical and economic side, the institutional element that targets them. Our justification in this regard is given by the fact that HBCC is an objective of state policies/strategies, involving special legislation, always in line with context changes – i.e. economic, social, political, environmental, etc. The situation is explained by the Romanian state's responsibility to preserve the national genetic patrimony, represented by the great genetic value of horse populations, as well as by the extensive responsibilities in terms of breeding, improving, qualifying and perfecting pure horse breeds within herds. Thus, special attention was paid to the amendment of the Romanian institutional framework regarding HBCC in the transition process to the functional market economy. First, we directed our efforts in order to address historical issues - the horse in the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic area (the old and the more recent history, with the errors committed to the horse in Romania). An important part of the study refers to certain HBCC coordinates, with adequate criticism, but also to the trends characterizing the context of Romania's accession to the European Union. The HBCC parameters, which are associated with the reconsideration of the horse's role in the economic and social life, provide significant guarantees for generating multiple favorable effects in Romania, even if the society is increasingly technological/computerized.

This article examines the potential of impact and benefit agreements (IBAs) between Aboriginal peoples and industry to effectively monitor the implementation of agreement provisions and the social, cultural and environmental impacts of extractive projects. The role of IBAs as ‘monitoring instruments’ is especially important given the withdrawal of neoliberal governments from their traditional role as environmental regulators. Case studies from Australia and Canada indicate that IBAs have considerable potential to effectively monitor project impacts and delivery of project benefits, but a broader analysis of IBAs in both countries shows that this potential is often not realised. This is in part because of the failure of state authorities to play a supportive role, and because financial constraints and weaknesses in organisational capacity undermine effective implementation of IBAs, including their monitoring provisions. Both the success of Aboriginal peoples in securing positive state involvement, and in realizing the potential of IBAs as monitoring mechanisms, is shown to depend crucially on Aboriginal political mobilisation.

Korea successfully achieved energy independence in the shortest period of time from being the poorest country in terms of energy 50 years ago through steady development of nuclear technology. In the past, the nuclear industry has been driven through government-centered policy development, public institution-based research, and industrial facility and infrastructure construction. Consequently, South Korea became a nuclear energy powerhouse exporting nuclear power plants to the UAE, surpassing the level of domestic technological independence. However, in recent years, the nuclear industry in Korea has experienced a decline in new plant construction since the Fukushima accident in Japan, which caused changes in public perspectives regarding nuclear power plant operation, more stringent safety standards on the operation of nuclear power plants, and a shift in governmental energy policy. These changes are expected to change the domestic nuclear industry ecosystem. Therefore, in this study, we investigate the priority of technology development investment from the perspective of experts in private nuclear power companies, shifting the focus from government-led nuclear R&D policies. To establish a direction in nuclear technology development, a survey was conducted by applying an analytic hierarchy analysis to experts who have worked in nuclear power plants for more than 15 years. The analysis items of focus were the 3 attributes of strategic importance, urgency, and business feasibility of four major fields related to nuclear energy: nuclear safety, decommissioning, radioactive waste management, and strengthening industrial competitiveness.

This study examines whether economic policy uncertainty affects insider trades. Using data from 22 countries, I find a positive association between economic policy uncertainty and the frequency and volume of insider trades. Moreover, there is a negative relationship between insider trades and future firm performance during periods of high economic policy uncertainty. The effect is larger in firms with a poor information environment, firms with less strict monitoring, and for firms that are more sensitive to economic policy uncertainty. The findings are robust to alternative sample periods, alternative dependent and independent variables, different model specifications, and after including additional country-level factors. Additional analysis suggests that investor sentiment and firm risks increase during periods of high uncertainty. Overall, I provide evidence that increased economic policy uncertainty enlarges the information advantage of insiders, and increases insider trading.

This study investigates the impact of Global Economic Policy Uncertainty (GEPU) on firms’ key marketing strategies namely, innovation as characterised by R&D spending and new product introductions....

The recession and debt distress accompanying coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pose serious threats to governments’ ability to invest in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, raising the specter of another lost decade for climate action. However, fiscal policy can be designed to simultaneously stabilize the economy and public finances while advancing sustainable development.

To explore the potential impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on crude oil prices, this paper first uses the DCC-GARCH model to measure the dynamic conditional correlation between US EPU and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil returns based on historical data from February 1985 to May 2019, and then employs the network connectedness method to further analyze the impact of various US EPU indices on WTI returns over time and frequency. The empirical results show that, first, almost all the US EPU indices and WTI returns are negatively correlated during the sample period. Second, at the frequency bands of 1–6 months and 6–12 months, almost all the EPU indices may significantly affect WTI returns, while at the frequency band of 12–24 months, only monetary policy uncertainty, regulation policy uncertainty and national security policy uncertainty may significantly affect WTI returns. Finally, the impact of US EPU indices on WTI returns appears particularly stronger when major international events occur, such as the global financial crisis.

The petroleum industry plays an essential role in driving China’s economic development. In the past few decades, several reforms in the petroleum industry have been implemented; however, there are still some issues that have not been resolved. Moreover, with the new-normal economy, the transition to green energy and international trade disputes, the petroleum market is also facing emerging challenges. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to review the historical development of China’s petroleum market, identify the current challenges and propose corresponding countermeasures for future prospects. As a conclusion, five main challenges are highlighted totally, namely lack of marketization, excess oil refining capacity, high external dependency, environment pollution and unstable international trading relationship. To address these challenges, it is encouraged to deepen petroleum market reform, accelerate the elimination of inefficient refining capacity, diversify oil supply sources, as well as improve domestic petroleum enterprises’ ability to resist price risks.

Increasing investment is often recommended as a prescription for increasing productivity, stoking demand, and addressing other causes of low growth or prospective crises in the U.S. economy. Yet an examination of investment suggests that it is not poised to fill this role. Private sector investment has undergone a slow transformation, shifting from structures and equipment investment, with the latter enjoying a long trend of falling prices, to a rising role for intellectual property, software, and other intangible capital. The high depreciation rate associated with this new capital imposes a drag on net investment and hence on capital accumulation. Public investment remains mostly focused on infrastructure but has fallen in half as a share of GDP since its peak in the 1950s. These trends emphasize the potential importance of new types of private capital and their implications for growth, as well as the declining role of public investment, including federal R&D.

After the slow recovery from the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the world economy faced slower growth than in the previous decade and even the prospect of a new global financial crisis. This paper starts by examining the reasons for the slow economic recovery and growth in the after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and "great recession". Then, it examines the reasons the United States grew faster than other advanced countries (especially Europe and Japan), the slowing growth of emerging market economies (and even economic crisis in some of them), and whether the world is now (February 2020) sliding toward a new global financial crisis and recession.

Recovery from the recent financial crisis and “great recession” has been slower than after previous recessions in most developed countries and areas, especially Europe. But Europe's growth problem is structural in character and started much earlier. This paper analyzes the structural causes of the European slow growth, evaluates the policies that Europe adopted to overcome it, and concludes that even with the appropriate policies, the prospects for accelerating growth in Europe will be difficult, especially in the context of the current US-China trade war.

This study is aimed at performing the eco-efficiency assessment of the electricity sector in 28 European Union countries. The novelty of our work resides in the combination of Data Envelopment Analysis with Input–Output analysis to perform the eco-efficiency evaluation of the consumption and production supply chains of the electricity sector. According to our findings, the only countries that increased their efficiency scores across all chains of the electricity sector were France (the only efficient country that increased its efficiency), Ireland (the only country that became efficient in all chains), the United Kingdom and Belgium. Additionally, the countries which were efficient across all chains, were France, Luxemburg, Germany, and Sweden while Poland, the Netherlands, Estonia (the only country in the top four lowest efficiency scores in all chains), Hungary, Croatia, Finland, Lithuania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Greece remained inefficient. Overall, it can be concluded that the countries that fostered renewable energy deployment efficiently, gradually decommissioning fossil fuel generation, enhanced their potential in terms of eco-efficiency by reducing the emissions produced by the electricity sector and stimulating the growth of value-added created by it.