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The coronavirus outbreak in 2020 shattered economies, public health and public well-being worldwide literally overnight. In response to the pandemic, most countries implemented a delicate balance of policy stringency and economic support to ensure public health, social security and a vibrant economy. With the pandemic slowly phasing out, our article explores the effectiveness of various governmental strategies for ensuring economic growth. The proposed econometric model is tested using panel quarterly data for 49 (37 OECD + 12 non-OECD) countries for all four quarters of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. Our findings show that policy stringency and economic support are both negatively associated with economic growth. We also find that the stringency was largely responsive, oriented to preventing the collapse of health systems after infections had already become widespread, not towards saving human lives by preventing soaring levels of infection. While our findings appear to lend support for the view that a trade-off between human lives and the economy was inevitable, we also challenge this view by evidence that some countries were able to secure a double dividend of maintaining public health and a vibrant economy by a prudent far-sighted stringency policy of preventing the virus outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, sustainable development goals (SDGs) have become an international requirement that needs to be achieved and requires the focus of recent literature and regulation authorities. Thus, the current article investigates the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and economic growth on the SDG of ASEAN countries. The current study has extracted secondary data from secondary sources such as SDGs reports and world development indicators (WDI) from 1986 to 2020. The present study has used the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) to test the linkage among the variables. The results highlighted that the environmental score, social score, governance score, and economic growth positively associated with the ASEAN countries' SDGs. The current article provides help to new researchers while conducting research on achieving SDGs and guides policymakers while establishing policies regarding achieving the SDGs through ESG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China's economic growth has shown a continuous downward trend, but the financial industry's added value as a percentage of GDP and the financial development level have continued to rise, and real estate investment still maintains a relatively high proportion of total fixed asset investment in society. Taking financial development as the starting point, which is measured by the balance of loans from financial institutions as a percentage of GDP, this paper selects China's provincial panel data from 2003 to 2017, and uses the system generalized method of moments to empirically study how financial development affects real estate investment and economic growth. The results reveal that financial development pushes up the proportion of real estate investment in fixed asset investment but has a negative impact on economic growth. The increase in the proportion of real estate investment promotes economic growth and plays a masking effect on the suppression of economic growth by financial development. Further analysis shows that financial development affects the growth of the real economy by restraining the development of the secondary industry and increasing real estate investment is conducive to alleviating the restraining effect of financial development on the growth of the real economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The link between finance and growth is a well-researched area, yet this relationship at the local level has received little empirical scrutiny. We trace the operations of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Africa. We examine the role played by MFIs on local economic development using a model capturing both local geography and MFIs dynamics for the periods 1992–2015. Our sample is representative of 2,170 MFIs operating in 144 cities, 154 towns, and 14 villages in Africa. Using night time data to capture economic growth, our key hypothesis is that MFIs drive local economic progress. Conditioning on the geographical location of MFIs, we find that the presence and density of MFIs increase as the growth in light density and the estimate retains its statistical significance. The results suggest that MFIs operations may foster local economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of national security threats on a nation's economic growth and fiscal policy based on a case study of the Korean peninsula. I construct four measures of provocations using a newly-assembled list of North Korean provocative events going back to 1960. The results show that the overall impact of North Korean provocations on South Korea's short-run economic growth is negligible. Since inter-Korean relations have gone through four phases, this paper also estimates the impact of provocations over each subperiod. Provocations had a significant impact on South Korea's economic growth during 1960-1970 and 1992-1997 when inter-Korean tensions were high, but the effects took on different signs. While provocations decreased South Korea's economic growth during 1992-1997, it had a positive impact on South Korea's macroeconomy before 1970. This paper provides evidence that the effect of national security threats may vary with the responses from the government and political factors such as the relation between the targeted country and the country that inflicts the threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study closely the relationship between arms exports, labor productivity and economic growth. Using a connectedness measurement technology fundamentally grounded in modern network theory, we determine the size and direction of the spillover effects between these three variables. Our findings indicate that shocks from arms exports have direct spillovers over the labor productivity and GDP growth, whereas the reverse is not captured by our data. We also provide a dynamic analysis of the spillovers that confirm the direction of spillovers from arms exports to the other variables. The recent evolution of arms exports from the United States together with the changes in arms exports policy show the timeliness of studying the effects of this particular trade to the rest of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the circumstances where economic growth increases the likelihood of interstate war. Optimism created by high and sustained economic expansion permeates a state, increasing elite and mass optimism for the use of deadly force. Without relief, such unbridled sanguinity can lead states to war. However, other forces reduce the probability of war. Regional democracy, bilateral trade, and trade openness slow down the process where states go to war. This paper hypothesizes that key factors raise the temperature of disputes, increasing the likelihood of a political dispute combusting to war, while other attributes inhibit the process to war. Economic growth catalyzes such reactions, while regional and joint democracy impede the probability that a war sparks. This paper produces monadic and dyadic results demonstrating that economic growth increases the likelihood of war, while other factors such as interstate trade openness, bilateral trade, dyadic democracy, and regional democracy slow down the process of war, making war less likely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we take two different perspectives to cross-sectional dependence panel data model. We introduce the Spline-kernel method and the Quasi-Difference method to estimate the cross-sectional dependence panel data models in large n small T framework. Asymptotic distributions for the Spline-kernel estimators are derived. Monte Carlo simulations show good performances in finite samples. Empirical analysis of the impact of China's infrastructure investment on economic growth suggests that infrastructure investment and urbanization rate showed very significant positive effects on current China's economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin American countries face a crossroad that demands profound change in their development paradigm. In the last four decades economic growth, investment, and productivity have shown poor performance. This has made it impossible to break with the productive heterogeneity that characterises the region and its dependence on low value-added productive sectors and commodity-dependent export structures. Although there has been a positive advance in human development, high levels of inequality, poverty, social exclusion, and high labour market informality have been persistent in the countries of the region. Added to these structural problems is the need to face climate change, that has important distributive and social effects and requires a significant amount of investment in adaption and mitigation a will require a change in the development paradigm. A fiscal sustainability framework will be essential to ensure the viability of the public spending required to promote structural change. The framework should prioritise domestic resource mobilisation, through public revenues, which have historically been insufficient to meet the demands for public spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This piece provides a reflection on the changing political context for planning ideas and practices over the past thirty years. This period has seen the rise and now serious questioning of a neo-liberal pre-occupation with economic growth which gave little space for shaping futures through a focus on place qualities and co-ordinating the spatial dimensions of action, the core of the spatial planning project. Current concerns with promoting inclusive social well-being, reducing adverse impacts on global climate and the environment, and reviving democratic practices create new opportunities for planning understood as strategic guidance for shaping collective futures. Such a project involves not just expertise as developed in the planning field, but needs to draw on many other knowledge fields. And since many futures may evolve from present instabilities and uncertainties, it needs to adopt an active voice in promoting collective attention to spatial co-ordination and place qualities in ways which advance the values of environmental sustainability, inclusive social well-being and richly democratic modes of policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, there have been significant advancements in the study of the development of rural Andalusi settlement linked to irrigated agriculture, both in relation to large suburban green belts and to the small hydraulic systems of rural communities in mountainous regions. However, recent investigations in several dry areas and, in particular, the intensive archaeological survey that we have been carrying out in the eastern sector of La Mancha, reveal a densely populated rural region that responds to a hitherto unknown pattern. It consists of small villages on the plain, devoid of community defence elements and inhabited by peasants who made the best of the only existing natural resources that have traditionally oriented the region's economy towards cattle ranching and rainfed agriculture. Most of the villages seem to have developed from the beginning of the eleventh century, disappearing at the end of the same century due to the increase in insecurity after the Christian conquest of Toledo in 1085. Their existence would be associated with a general context of population growth that intensified the competition between urban elites and peasants for the privileged agricultural areas and, as a result, the colonisation of less favourable production areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across African countries, terrorism has become a major challenge to socioeconomic development. While there are studies that have examined the influence of terrorism on economic growth, this study adds to the existing literature by investigating the role of military expenditure on the relationship between terrorism and economic growth in Africa. The study utilised a dataset comprising 24 African countries for which terrorism activities have increased substantially in the last decades. Utilising an instrumental variable Fixed Effects model with standard errors that account for cross-sectional dependence, serial correlation and group-wise heteroskedasticity, the study revealed that, (1) terrorism has a detrimental effect on economic growth in the selected African countries, (2) the interactive effect of military expenditure and terrorism on economic growth is significantly positive, (3) the net effect of military expenditure on the relationship between terrorism and economic growth is positive when the number of terrorism incidents act as a proxy for terrorism but negative when the number of terrorism fatalities acts as a proxy for terrorism. However, this negative effect is substantially lower when compared to the unconditional effect of terrorism on economic growth in Africa. Policy recommendations based on these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite considerable reforms of Chinese monetary policy, very few papers have empirically examined the long-run effects of monetary policy on China's economic growth. Our purpose is to shed some light on it. We use money supply, real effective exchange rate, and real interest rate to describe monetary policy of China. We first apply the Granger causality test to annual data from 1980 to 2020 to examine the relationship between monetary policy and China's economic growth measured by Chinese real GDP. Our results suggest both money supply and real effective exchange rate Ganger cause Chinese real GDP, while real interest does not. We then adopt the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model without asymmetric effects and nonlinear ARDL with asymmetric effects of exchange rate to estimate the impact of monetary policy on China's economic growth. Our long-run results indicate that expansion of money supply would promote Chinese real GDP growth. Both higher interest rate and depreciation would hinder China's economic growth. There are asymmetric effects of exchange rate on growth. Finally, the CUSUM and CUSUMQ stability test results reveal that the relationship among money supply, real effective exchange rate, and real interest rate with Chinese real GDP is stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 2009, the economic phenomenon of Taobao villages appeared in China, whose economic growth started to decline, but the number of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) grew at an astonishing rate. Based on a case study of Taobao villages, we found that a new industrial-organizational structure had developed within the traditional e-commerce model. This industrial-organizational structure, which we termed, a key-node industry and industrial net (KIIN) system, is unique in the world. A key-node industry is a platform that integrates logistics, information flow, and capital flow. It reorganizes the traditional industrial-chain structure and is connected with the traditional industrial chains to form a network industrial-organizational model, which can become an industrial net. Through an analysis using the differences-in-differences model, we verify the hypothesis that the KIIN system can improve the efficiency of resource allocation by building a more competitive organizational structure and then improve the production efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of traditional and digital financial inclusion on economic growth in 130 developed and developing countries in 2014 and 2017. The motivation behind this study emerges from the critical need to discern not only how traditional and digital financial inclusion individually influence economic growth, but also to compare their relative contributions. In addition, there exists a potential non-linear relationship between traditional and digital financial inclusion, wherein both forms of financial inclusion can exert a positive influence on economic growth up to a specific threshold. For this purpose, traditional and digital financial inclusion indices were developed as distinct measures to investigate the relative contribution of each to economic growth. Cross-sectional sample splitting and threshold estimation were utilised to analyse whether the effects of each financial inclusion index on economic growth varied across different levels of digital and traditional financial inclusion. This study yielded two notable findings. First, the effect of traditional financial inclusion on economic growth is pronounced in countries with low levels of inclusion. Second, digital financial inclusion has a greater positive impact on economic growth in countries with higher levels of digital financial inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial technology (FinTech) in promoting the real economy is a topic attracting much attention. This paper adopts a threshold regression model to solve the endogenous problem well and make up for the lack of empirical evidence of scientific models in existing research in this area. The empirical results show that FinTech has a significant promoting effect on real economic growth, manifested as a U-shaped relationship and double threshold effect. In the early stage of FinTech development, it will restrain economic growth. The continuous improvement will positively impact economic growth, and the result shows a law of marginal decline. Moreover, there are significant regional differences in the nonlinear characteristics. Our research has solid practical significance and contributes to the literature on the effects of FinTech on real economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to enhance local governments' enforcement of environmental regulations in developing countries? Whether central inspection can properly motivate local governments to implement environmental regulations, and how would it affect economic growth? This paper examines the effectiveness of China's Central Environmental Protection Inspection (CEPI) program, which aimed to promote local governments' enforcement of environmental regulations through central inspection. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the CEPI program caused a significant reduction in air pollution and economic growth, indicating that the CEPI program introduced a substantial trade-off between environmental quality and economic growth. Further analysis shows that the effect of this program on air quality and economic growth is temporary. Moreover, we find that the effect is more significant when the local officials with higher promotion potential. Further cost-benefit analysis suggests that the cost of the CEPI program far exceeds its benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse the tourism-led growth hypothesis in Taiwan's economy. To this end, we consider three tourism markets––China, Japan and the US––and apply quantile-on-quantile regression. Our results indicate that (i) high quantiles of the Chinese tourist market have the most growth effects, while moderate quantiles of Japan and the US markets accelerate economic growth in Taiwan; (ii) recessions in these three markets during the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the economic growth of Taiwan and (iii) development of these three tourism markets acts as an engine of economic growth during downturn periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some studies have shown that economic growth in Africa has not been sustainable, transformative, nor inclusive. This is very perplexing, considering that resource-poor East Asian countries have not only achieved high growth rates but have done so while alleviating poverty and becoming major players in the global economy. Despite the recognition that technology was instrumental in the success story of East Asian countries, there have been few empirical studies that focus on how technology drives economic growth in Africa. Based on a sample of forty-one African countries (2005–2020), this article uses the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation technique to investigate the extent to which technological capability plays an important role on economic growth of African countries. The results from the empirical analysis suggest, inter alia, that technology, investment in physical capital, macroeconomic and political stability are important determinants of growth in Africa. The article suggests that African countries should intentionally strengthen their technological capabilities, to leverage new opportunities in emerging frontier industries, foster inclusive growth, and be adequately prepared for the fourth industrial revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mainstream economic thinking, it is common to find a simplistic relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction. Two decades ago, a paper titled "Growth is Good for the Poor" purported to have established a strict one-to-one relationship between economic growth at the national level and growth of income among the poor. In this note we explain the methodological, modelling, and analytical shortcomings of the exercise. Using simulations based on random numbers we show that the data did not support the arguments and that, consequently, the policy conclusions were not warranted by the analysis. The lessons are important in the current context when addressing growing poverty in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the purpose of this paper, we examine the association between foreign direct investment, openness to trade, infrastructure, innovation, and economic development in 10 members of the Commonwealth Independent States between 2000 and 2020 using a panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag model. According to the results, none of the elements that are researched for this paper has a statistically significant influence on economic growth over the short term. On the other hand, in the long run, each of the variables, including foreign direct investment, infrastructure, innovation, and trade openness, has a statistically favorable and substantial impact on economic growth; furthermore, the findings are in line with the findings of the baseline static panel data models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to analyze the impact of external debt on economic growth with mediating role of institutional quality by employing a heterogeneous panel Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model through a pooled mean group (PMG) estimator over periods of 22 years spanning from 1998 to 2019 in East African countries. The finding reveals a significant long-term positive relationship between the stock of external debt as a percentage of GNI and economic growth. However, its square revealed a significant long-term negative relationship, suggesting a non-linear relationship. The positive effect of external debt on economic growth is limited to a threshold level of 62.9%. According to the error term's coefficient, the rate at which short-run returns to long-run equilibrium became disequilibrium in the current year was 45.5%. Furthermore, the result shows that institutional quality's indirect effect on external debt interaction had a significant positive impact on economic growth, indicating that the negative impact of external debt on economic growth decreased as the region's institutional quality rose. Therefore, a comprehensive improvement in institutional quality is required to both lessen the negative effects of external debt and maximize the benefits of government borrowing. In order to stabilize the external debt, governments should cut back on wasteful spending and uphold sound fiscal management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global political economy is organized around the pursuit of economic growth. Yet scholars of International Political Economy (IPE) have been surprisingly slow to address its wide-ranging implications and, thus, to advance debates about post-growth alternatives. The premise of the article is that for IPE to deepen its grasp of the escalation of contemporary socioecological crises both analytically and normatively, it needs to put the growth question front and center. To problematize the pursuit of economic growth from an IPE perspective, we bring together research on green growth, post-growth/degrowth, sustainability transitions and socioecological transformation. More specifically, we develop an analytical framework that revolves around four pathways of reorganization toward socioecological sustainability: (1) modification, (2) substitution, (3) conversion and (4) prefiguration. We use illustrative examples from the plastics and food sectors to show how the post-growth pathways of conversion and prefiguration could interact to trigger change for sustainability. Notably, our discussion reveals that conversion, which requires a strong state for developing post-growth institutions, is the least traveled pathway in both sectors. This insight points to a strategic priority for post-growth proponents and an urgent research agenda for IPE scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding of strategic environmental assessment's (SEA) influence on low-carbon development (LCD) is critical as societies strive to decarbonize without jeopardizing economic growth. As best practice perceptions are still evolving, plausible conceptual and analytical frameworks are needed. This paper offers a conceptual clarification and proposes a framework for analyzing environmental reports. We employed a multi-phased, mixed-methods approach. The first phase involved an integrative literature review that combined theoretical insights from LCD and transition management with SEA's procedural aspects. The extracted data was used to develop an initial framework in the second phase. The third phase utilized an international case study and expert consultations to illustrate, validate and refine the framework. The resulting framework comprises five review areas to be verified by a series of review questions reflecting good practice. It could assist SEA researchers, practitioners, responsible authorities, policymakers and environmental agencies better understand, prioritize and address the issue of LCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the advocacy of degrowth in tourism, principally in relation to the emerging debates taking place in the light of the impact of Covid-19. It reviews the origins and meaning of degrowth as a development philosophy in order to place the discussion in a broader context. It proceeds to question some of the economic, environmental and cultural assumptions implicit and often explicit in degrowth advocacy with regard to tourism. The article argues that economic growth – in tourism and generally – is a necessary, albeit far from sufficient, condition for addressing the varied problems facing contemporary society manifest in modern tourism. There have been numerous publications, especially in the light of Covid-19, advocating tourism degrowth. There have been none directly questioning the claims made. It is hoped that this article will open up a discursive space for engagement between those who see economic growth as a part of the problem and those who see it as a part of the solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important but underestimated area in international economics is the study of the impacts of remittance outflows and financial development on the economic growth of the remitting countries. This study explores how remittance outflows and financial development can affect the economic growth of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region using panel data from 1999 to 2018. The outcome reveals that remittance outflows are negatively related to economic growth. While financial development is effective in stimulating economic growth and is significant, the moderating role of financial development is growth-enhancing in the GCC region. Our findings are robust and insensitive to different econometric techniques. To benefit from immigrants, this research suggests a stimulus policy that GCC countries should facilitate foreign workers to settle sustainably and participate in investment activities, and increase consumption in their host country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper opens with a brief review of economic growth in industrialized economies over the past four decades, indicating a general slow-down in growth. This is followed by a brief review of the mainstream views on 'secular stagnation'. The major section of the paper is based on outlining elements of approaches to secular stagnation within the monopoly capital literature associated with authors such as Steindl, Kalecki and Cowling, followed by consideration of evidence in broad support of those dimensions. This includes the recent, generally upward, trends in industrial concentration, profit margins, and relationship with investment and innovation. Brief remarks are made on the effects of financialization, globalization and climate change on economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous discussions on money and financial institutions have been advanced both between and within economic theories. Heterodox schools of thought consider money to be non-neutral, with causality running from money demand to money supply and the interest rate as a monetary and distributive variable. In this paper we discuss the views of Michał Kalecki and John Maynard Keynes on money and the operation of financial institutions. Kalecki and Keynes formulated the theory of effective demand, specifically in terms of its effects on economic growth and financial instability. Nonetheless, in line with the work of Tracy Mott, we argue that Kalecki's analyses of the financial system are more profound because they better capture the complexity of the oligopolistic financial system, providing the foundations for Keynes' liquidity preference theory. As a result, it may be concluded that the main problem of economic growth and investment spending is the structure of corporate finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing the data of Chinese industrial firms, we explore the association between governments' economic growth target management behaviour and the quality of local economic development. We find that the rise of economic growth pressure can decrease the total factor productivity (TFP) of local enterprises and has a negative impact on the quality of local economic development. Besides, the effect of economic growth pressure on local firms' productivity is more pronounced when firm is stated owned, when firm is located in cities with newly appointed officials, during the period of Communist Party of China National Congress (CPCNC), but would be attenuated if municipal party secretary has achieved a Ph.D. degree. Further mechanism analysis verifies that higher economic growth pressure could demolish the TFP of enterprises by distorting marginal revenue productivity of capital ( M R P K). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a panel data set covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central government in China over the period from 2005 to 2018, this article investigates the impact of urban–rural income gap on economic growth under the background of urbanization. This article employs a threshold panel regression model that allows for urbanization-level thresholds and find strong evidence of the second half of the n-shaped relationship between urban–rural income gap and economic growth in our sample. Then, this article concludes the theoretical hypothesis that there is an N-shaped relationship between the urban–rural income gap and economic growth in the process of urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governmental investment in commercializing academic patents has spurred economic growth. This study explores the mechanism underlying the impact of academic patent commercialization on regional economic development based on holistic view of the integration of local and neighbourhood hierarchies. The empirical analysis of a sample of 31 Chinese provinces from 2010 to 2019 shows that fiscal expenditures on science and technology mediate the relationship between academic patent commercialization and economic development. Moreover, there is a positive spatial spill over effect between developing economies of neighbouring provinces. In the knowledge economy era, academic patent commercialization, supported by fiscal expenditure, plays an increasingly important role in regional economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies whether the carbon intensity of human well-being has an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) pattern with respect to economic growth in Bhutan using annual data from 1971 to 2018. Furthermore, it examines the short-term and long-term dynamics of the causal relation between emissions and growth in wealth and also whether recent trends of economic growth are carbon neutral. Econometric estimations, such as ordinary least squares, vector error correction model and variance decomposition, are applied alongside other appropriate statistical tests. The findings show that, in Bhutan, the carbon intensity of human well-being increases with economic growth and fails to support the EKC hypothesis. Long-run causality was found running from the carbon intensity of human well-being to GDP per capita and also from population growth to GDP per capita. The econometric analysis also revealed that the increasing emission of carbon dioxide is being absorbed and its negative effects are negated through rising forest cover hence, Bhutan appears to be a carbon-neutral nation. This paper is a valuable contribution to the literature and has significant policy implications. Furthermore, it provides an integrated and sustainable growth model discourse to the rest of the world which is ailing with severe emissions and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to supplement the study of Dioikitopoulos et al. (2020), which introduces an endogenous time preference and presents a model for the comprehensive investigation of economic growth and environmental issues. In particular, this paper explores some aspects of the numerical analysis in the original paper and presents important numerical examples regarding multiplicity and local stability of equilibria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protection of a portion of a country's land is vital for sustainable economic growth and biodiversity, though land protection also imposes important costs. States have set aside a growing proportion of their land for protection over time, with wide variation among states. What explains this variation? Theoretically, we argue that states exist internationally in dependence networks with each other and that those networks provide pathways for influence on a state's environmental choices. A state's dependence network is the other states with which it regularly exchanges valued goods. We find strong evidence that increases in protected lands among trade partners and international organization partners (both weighted by importance) increase a given state's protected lands, with substantive effects larger than domestic-level variables like democracy. This paper expands our understandings of the ways that states may influence each other on environmental policy. La protección de una parte del terreno de un país es vital para el crecimiento económico sostenible y para la biodiversidad, aunque la protección de la tierra también conlleva unos costes importantes. Los Estados han estado reservando para su protección una proporción, cada vez mayor, de sus tierras a lo largo del tiempo. Sin embargo, existe una amplia variación a este respecto entre los Estados. ¿Qué explica esta variación? De forma teórica, argumentamos que los Estados existen internacionalmente en redes de dependencia entre sí y que esas redes proporcionan diversas vías que influyen en las elecciones ambientales de un Estado. La red de dependencia de un Estado está formada por otros Estados con los cuales intercambia regularmente bienes valiosos. Encontramos pruebas sólidas de que los aumentos en el número de áreas protegidas entre los socios comerciales y entre los socios de las organizaciones internacionales (ambos ponderados por importancia) aumentan también la cantidad de áreas protegidas de un Estado determinado. Estos aumentos conllevan unos efectos sustantivos mayores que las variables a nivel nacional como la democracia. Este artículo amplía nuestra comprensión acerca de las formas en que los Estados pueden influir mutuamente en la política ambiental. La protection d'une partie des terres d'un pays est cruciale pour une croissance économique durable et la biodiversité, mais elle impose aussi des coûts importants. Au fil des années, les États consacrent une part croissante de leur territoire à la sauvegarde, mais elle varie grandement de l'un à l'autre. Comment expliquer ces différences ? Sur le plan théorique, nous affirmons que les États existent à l'international au sein de réseaux d'interdépendances qui ont tendance à influencer les choix environnementaux étatiques. Le réseau d'interdépendances d'un État regroupe les États avec lesquels il échange régulièrement des marchandises de valeur. Nous trouvons nombre d'éléments probants pour justifier qu'une augmentation de terres protégées chez des partenaires commerciaux et des organisations internationales partenaires (en pondérant les deux en fonction de leur importance) débouche sur une augmentation des terres protégées dans un État donné. Cet effet se révèle plus important que les variables nationales comme la démocratie. Cet article enrichit notre compréhension des moyens par lesquels les États peuvent s'influencer mutuellement en politique environnementale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the relationship between tourism, energy consumption, trade openness, economic growth, and CO2 emissions for 20 economies of the APEC region from 1995 to 2017. This paper employs cross-sectional dependence with heterogeneous panel estimation techniques. The data confirms cross-sectional dependence, and the CIPS panel unit root test shows that the variables are stationary at their first differences. The Westerlund panel cointegration test affirms a long-run relationship among the variables. Tourism and trade openness have significant positive effects on CO2 emissions while economic growth and energy consumption adversely affect CO2 emissions in the long-run. The panel non-causality test reveals that there is a one-way causality running from tourism to CO2 emissions and economic growth to CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bucharest, Romania's dynamic capital of over 1.7 million people, grapples with complex urban challenges deeply rooted in its history. In six centuries, the city has witnessed foreign occupations, natural disasters, as well as radical structural transformations during the Communist era. Today, Bucharest faces challenges similar to other post-socialist cities, such as uncontrolled suburbanization or traffic congestion. Registering significant economic growth in the last fifteen years, the city seeks to harness its potential, using innovative urban planning to create a more competitive and liveable European capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The objective of this article is to analyze the evolution of Brazilian regional economic inequalities in the long-run. The theoretical basis is the "spatially unbalanced growth," approach largely influenced by Albert Hirschman and Nicholas Kaldor's perspectives. I examine data from 1900 at the national level, analyzing GDP growth, investment rate, and manufacturing share. Using data on GDP at the subnational level (Brazilian regions and states), I calculated the Coefficients of Variation and Williamson from 1939 to 2010. Based on this movement, I propose an interpretation of the evolution of Brazilian regional economic inequalities that considers national economic dynamics, institutional and structural changes, as well as the role of regional policies. I concluded that the tendencies of increasing regional inequalities until 1970 and their subsequent decrease, as well as their recent propensity to stabilization, are related to a cumulative causation trajectory of these drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate how to obtain the optimal balance between energy consumption and economic development, this paper proposes a multifactor optimization model (MFOM). Different from previous input–output optimization models, our proposed MFOM comprehensively considers the direct and indirect impacts of sectoral consumption activities on total energy consumption. The results show that MFOM achieves higher energy-saving goals by smaller adjustment to consumption activities than the previous input–output optimization models do. The results also show that the consumption of some products should be limited to achieve the energy-saving and economic growth goals, such as Non-ferrous Metal Ore Mining, Chemical Products and Ferrous Metal Ore Processing. Furthermore, the results indicate that the share of some sectors, especially high-level manufacturing sectors, significantly decreases in the consumption structure after optimization. To maintain the sustainable development of these sectors, the dependence of their production activities on energy-intensive products should be reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I investigate the economic influence of terrorism in China using the synthetic control method pioneered by Abadie and Gardeazabal (2003). Organized terrorist attacks began in 1996 in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Comparing actual Xinjiang with a synthetic control without terrorism, I find that terrorist attacks have a pernicious effect on Xinjiang's economic growth, leading to a loss of 38% of Xinjiang's GDP per capita in 2018. My result challenges the traditional view that economic growth is not significantly affected by terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Productivity, equity and sustainability are regarded as 'essential components' in the human development paradigm. They reflect structural aspects of an economic system and create the material conditions for widespread human development and wellbeing. Nevertheless, the consistency among these principles is significantly questioned in the economic literature, depicting a potential 'trilemma' for contemporary human development. This paper analyses the ability of different economies to consistently advance productivity, equity, and sustainability. A new composite indicator – the Human Development Structural Consistency (HDSC) index – is introduced to measure the integrated performance in productivity, equity and sustainability of 66 economies from 2006 to 2019. The analysis shows a general progressive improvement in the ability of economies to advance the three structural components of human development consistently, although the three measures continue to appear incompatible with each other, whereby the process of economic growth is still associated with rising environmental degradation and a weak contrast to inequalities. This paper discusses the possible policy solutions to this 'trilemma', such as the structural changes necessary to ensure that improvements in productivity are accompanied by rising equity, sustainability, and effective human wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of economic growth targets on green total factor productivity (GTFP) based on a panel Tobit model and two manual datasets of 30 Chinese provinces from 2002 to 2019. We find that economic growth targets significantly inhibit GTFP, which is more pronounced in provinces that have high incentives when setting targets, use hard constraints when announcing targets, and fulfill their targets. In addition, we find that economic growth targets inhibit GTFP by undermining economic efficiency and aggravating environmental pollution. Moreover, the command-controlled environmental regulations weaken the inhibitory effect on GTFP, while market-motivated environmental regulations aggravate this inhibitory effect. Our findings confirm that the promotion assessment system based on economic performance leads to the irrationality of local governments in establishing economic growth targets, and the local governments pursue economic growth at the cost of development quality and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on development has long underscored the importance of knowledge-based assets and innovation for economic growth and competitiveness. This paper explores an apparent paradox: why did Argentine regulators initially demur in approving the commercialization of genetically-modified (GM) wheat, one of very few products innovated by the country's biotech sector? The answer lies in risk mitigation, but the risks Argentine regulators sought to avoid were not the environmental and health risks typically associated with GM products. Rather, they worried about possible disruptions to agricultural trade if exports were found to be contaminated by an unapproved GM product. I define the kind of risk that Argentine regulators sought to minimize as structural risk—that is, risk issuing from structural constraints a country faces given an unfavorable or dependent position in trade relations. By illuminating how risks emanating from structural constraints particular to Southern states shape regulatory frameworks, this analysis advances our understanding of the Regulatory State of the South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a country-specific analysis on the effect of tourism on the economic growth of five small Pacific Island Countries (PICs) – Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The results show tourism development is growth-enhancing for all five countries. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is growth-enhancing for Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and in the short run, a delayed negative association for Fiji and Vanuatu is found. Remittances are growth-retarding for Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, with a short-run delayed positive association for Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. Financial development is growth-retarding for Solomon Islands and Tonga, with a short-run positive association for Fiji and Samoa. While the results underscore the huge importance of tourism in generating growth and FDI in the Pacific, given the ongoing adverse effects of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, PICs will have to focus on alternative sectors to progress economic activities. Policy suggestions are discussed along these lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The governments of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration have introduced a series of environmental policies to ameliorate pollution problems, but there are concerns that such a move can negatively impact the economy. In this article, panel data for 13 prefecture-level cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from 2003 to 2018 are used to investigate the influencing mechanism of environmental regulation on economic growth. The empirical results indicate an inverted "U"-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental regulation. In a sense, the non-linear relationship implies that the Porter hypothesis and the compliance cost hypothesis apply to different levels of environmental stringency, respectively, which results in an empirical supplement to the existing theoretical framework. Furthermore, energy intensity and industrial structure are valid transmission paths for the economic effect of environmental regulation, despite their opposite directions. Overall, a win–win situation of economic prosperity and ecological improvement can be achieved through the implementation of appropriate environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of ICT progress on economic growth by constructing an ICT diffusion index. Along with ICT, this study further investigates the role of financial development and the combined impact of ICT and financial development on growth in 10 Asian developing economies covering the period 2001–2017. To analyze the panel data, this study employed the ARDL model and estimated the Pooled Mean Group estimator. The estimated results reveal a significant positive long-run relationship between financial expansion and economic progress. While ICT hurts economic growth on its own, it has a significant positive impact when combined with financial development. The robustness of the results has been verified by Fully-Modified OLS (FMOLS) and Dynamic OLS (DOLS) estimations. To promote enduring economic growth in Asian developing countries, the paper recommends ensuring inclusive financial development combined with modern ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benefits of rapid tourism development are widely welcomed by governments of many destinations, with a growing body of literature confirming the existence of a connection between tourism and economic growth in several countries across the world. However, even if sub-national studies are deemed relevant, they are still scarce: we fill this gap by verifying if and how the tourism-led and economic-led growth hypotheses affect Italian provinces. Main findings reveal that in about one fifth of Italian provinces the two hypotheses hold, with a decreasing marginal contribution of the tourism to the economic growth once it reaches a certain threshold. Therefore, it is possible to use tourism to support economies, even if discrepancies are foreseeable among territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having in mind the current global trends and the transition processes, it is necessary to explain the role, influence, and importance of institutions in providing conditions for economic growth and development. Theory has proven, and practice confirms, that the institutional structure (the way of forming institutions, decision-making process, decision-making effectiveness, and economic justification of goals) is one of the most important factors in achieving macroeconomic stability and economic development. This article explores the impact of the quality of institutions on the economic performance of the Republic of Serbia. A comparative analysis of the content of relevant institutional indicators and their economic effects shows the institutional matrix of possible misuse of political and economic institutions in the direction of realising short-term political goals, to the detriment of long-term sustainable economic growth and development of the Serbian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the long-term economic performance in former Soviet republics of Central Asia for the last three decades. We look at sources of economic growth based on the extended version of the neoclassical growth model. Our key focus is to see whether human capital in the form of education and health inputs has an impact on growth rates in the region. Results show that over the entire period under study, on average, the growth rates of total factor productivity (TFP) were not remarkable, ranging from 1.4% for Kazakhstan and 0.51% for Tajikistan to −1.13% for the Kyrgyz Republic. Kazakhstan as a frontier economy of the region maintained better economic results in almost all indicators. Since 2000, TFP growth rates were notably stronger in Tajikistan compared to Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. However, a reduction in TFP in Tajikistan in the 1990s is attributed to the country's dire civil war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs correlation analysis and a fixed effects model premised on indexes extracted through principal component analysis to assess the effects of entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour, and entrepreneurial framework conditions (EFCs) on economic growth in BRICS economies. For purposes of effectiveness, a panel dataset for entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour, and EFCs indicators is pooled from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor website, and one for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, a proxy for economic growth, is sourced from the World Bank website over the period 2001-2021. The study reveals that there are statistically significant negative correlations between GDP per capita and 'entrepreneurial intentions rate', 'perceived capabilities rate', 'perceived opportunities rate', 'governmental support and policies', 'taxes and bureaucracy', 'governmental programmes', 'internal market openness', 'physical and services infrastructure' and 'cultural and social norms'. Furthermore, entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour positively impact GDP per capita, whereas EFCs have no significant influence on GDP per capita in BRICS economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]