Search

Land reforms have been implemented in many parts of the world because of both justice and the attractive developmental policy objectives of improving poor people's welfare – as the prime beneficiaries. Land reform also facilitates rural economic growth. In some parts of the world, like China and India, there is evidence that land reform has been effective in poverty reduction and in enabling economic growth. However, in other parts of the world, like South Africa, the impact of land reform has been very minimal mainly due to poor policy implementation, which entails inadequate support structures. Using an integrative literature review approach and key policy documents on South Africa's land reform, this article dissects this policy–practice gap in South Africa's land redistribution policy and proposes that land redistribution be implemented by a private independent entity to reduce state bureaucracy and inefficiencies and, in turn, improve execution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role of energy imports in domestic production function in the case of 15 energy-importing countries for the period of 1995–2015. Apart from energy imports, renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, capital, trade openness, and urbanization are included in the growth model. In doing so, long-run elasticity coefficients are estimated with the Dynamic Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (DSUR) model after determining the cointegration relationship between the variables. In addition, for robustness checks, Panel Correlated Standard Errors (PCSE) and Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) estimators are applied. Our results show that renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, trade openness, and capital have a positive effect on economic growth. Energy imports negatively affect economic growth. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality analysis reveals a bidirectional causality relationship between renewable energy consumption, capital, trade openness, urbanization, and economic growth. A unidirectional causality relationship exists from economic growth to non-renewable energy consumption and energy imports. This analysis can be interpreted as having a negative impact on economic growth by putting pressure on the current account deficit due to energy imports. Therefore, investments in the renewable energy sector will play an important role in economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the short-run and long-run impacts of foreign aid and remittances on economic growth in a panel of 31 African countries from 1980 to 2019 utilizing the ARDL Pool Mean Group (PMG) estimation technique. The PMG is utilized based on the outcome of the Hausman test which justifies it appropriateness. There is long-run association among the regressors and the regressand in the model. Our results indicate that, in the short-run, remittance and foreign aid respectively have a negative impact on economic growth but that impact is statistically insignificant. In the long-run, however, remittances have a positive and significant impact on economic growth while foreign aid has a positive but insignificant effect on economic growth on the continent. These results have substantial policy implications. African governments should adopt effective policies to maximize the usefulness and effectiveness of foreign capital, such as foreign aid and remittances, in boosting economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to reveal the long- and short-term asymmetric effects of remittance, economic growth and inflation on Turkey's financial development using the 1974–2019 period data. For this purpose, long- and short-term asymmetric effects were investigated with the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model. NARDL findings revealed that there are long- and short-term asymmetrical relationships among variables. Long-term findings show that increases in remittances and economic growth increased financial development, but increases in inflation reduced financial development. The short-term findings show that increases in remittances, economic growth and inflation increased financial development. In addition to ensuring macroeconomic stability, policy makers in Turkey should formulate regulations that encourage remittance entry in order to attract more remittances to the country and channel them into the financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple conflicts of spatial planning are currently intensifying in the context of sustainability transformations. This paper aims to better understand the conflicts involved in planning inter-municipal commercial areas (IMCA) in city-regional constellations. Choosing an explicit conflict perspective integrating different strands of literature, a qualitative in-depth case study using cognitive-affective mapping (CAM) is carried out. The case study analyzes a region comprising a large urban center and multiple smaller surrounding communities in Southern Germany, where several attempts to cooperate have failed, ostensibly due to poor urban-rural relations. Our findings reveal that the situation is more complex: IMCA is hindered by vertical and horizontal governance conflicts and sectoral conflicts of interest. While land use conflicts on where to implement IMCA are hindering concrete projects, a deeper conflict potential lies in the question of whether to plan new commercial areas at all. Albeit IMCA are proposed as the solution for reducing land take and realizing economic growth, the planning of IMCA reflects this global tension on the regional and local level without being able to solve it per se. We conclude that an explicit conflict perspective as well as the CAM method can be fruitful for planning research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to analyse the state and the dynamics of developmental and other aspects of investments in research and development (R&D) in the group of countries in Southeast Europe. The analysis is performed for several countries in Southeast Europe together and by individual countries. The period from 1996 to 2020 is observed in the analysis. In most countries of Southeast Europe, the allocation for R&D is relatively small. Applied research is the most represented. Significant differences can be noticed regarding the sources of financing and to the implementation of allocations for R&D. A particularly important part of this work is devoted to the analysis of the impact of the gross expenditures on R&D on economic growth. This analysis was performed on the basis of regression analysis. Several regression models were formed in which the dependent variable was gross domestic product per capita It can be concluded that the parameters of the financial condition of the observed economy have the greatest influence on the economic growth of the observed group of countries. Allocations for research and development still do not have a significant enough impact on economic growth in observed countries in Southeast Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon mitigation and net-zero targets have an important place on the political agenda for all countries. Countries have been seeking to decouple economic growth and carbon emissions to achieve decarbonization. However, there is a cost of the decarbonization of economies, which can be called as Green Sacrifice Ratio (GSR), and this is critical for developing countries because they have been in the growing stage. By considering the critical role of GSR in achieving net-zero emissions by decarbonizing economies, the study comparatively examines how much environmental quality should be sacrificed for per capita economic growth in China and India. In line with this purpose, the study uses the Fourier-Shin cointegration test and various time series estimators with Fourier approximations for the period from 1989/Q1 to 2022/Q4. Estimation results are as follows: (i) all variables follow the non-stationary process, (ii) the long-run relationship exists between variables, and (iii) Estimation results show that GSR is 0.65% for China and 0.78% for India. Therefore, China and India sacrifice a significant amount of environmental quality for a 1% increase in per capita income level. Also, the ecological cost of increasing economic welfare in India is higher with regard to China. Besides, the results are robust according to the alternative method. Thus, the study recommends that both Chinese and Indian policymakers should revise the economic expansion structure with green growth strategies to prevent irreversible environmental degradation due to higher economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013, China launched her targeted poverty alleviation, and a large amount of fiscal anti-poverty funds have been invested. However, whether the enormous fiscal anti-poverty funds have had a positive impact on the local economy has been ambiguous. This study investigates the impact of fiscal anti-poverty funds on local economic growth, drawing on Chinese fiscal data at the county level. Our results indicate that fiscal anti-poverty funds are not conducive to local economic growth. Further analysis reveals that anti-poverty funds reduce fiscal support for the service industry, manufacturing industry, enterprise development, and technical innovation. This is because impoverished counties are forced to supply extra fiscal anti-poverty funds, which leads to compression of fiscal expenditures in other areas due to local deficient finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New generation' free trade agreements now include 'Trade and Sustainable Development' (TSD) chapters designed to improve environmental provisions within overall trading arrangements. The wide-ranging European Union (EU)-Japan agreement of 2018 represents the culmination of a trend towards the greater inclusion of such TSD elements, and, as it covers one-third of global GDP, the significance of this agreement for trading relations cannot be understated. Comparing it with other agreements involving Japan and the EU, I argue that greater attention to sustainable development in trade connections, notwithstanding tangible significant environmental improvements, further embeds an anthropocentric narrative of trade-environment linkages and supports a 'win–win' linkage between enhancing economic growth and ensuring environmental protections. Through an eco-centric critique, I seek to challenge the fundamental anthropocentric assumptions underpinning such inclusions and explore the ways in which the language of environmental protection and climate change has been depoliticised by a particular framing of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines university-driven partnerships that promote entrepreneurship in underserved communities, drawing from the experiences of NCGrowth, an economic development center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We address the following questions: Who are the central stakeholders? How do they interact? What do their challenges and experiences imply for policymaking and practice in nurturing entrepreneurship ecosystems in underserved communities? We employed social-network analyses of NCGrowth's projects spanning 2013–2019, supplemented by document analysis of archival data and in-depth interviews. The study uncovers highly asymmetric connections among stakeholders, with universities and government agencies emerging as dominant entities, leveraging universities' specialized knowledge and community relationships. Nevertheless, challenges surface due to overlapping roles as facilitators, the absence of consistent community carriers of development plans, and a dearth of financial institutions. Our findings advocate for an ecosystem-focused approach to economic development in underserved areas, emphasizing the involvement of additional anchor institutions such as hospitals, major corporations, and philanthropists. Furthermore, policies and practices should integrate the objectives of entrepreneurship, economic growth, and social equity to cultivate inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many regions or countries seek to transition to a low-carbon economy, but there is ambiguity about how carbon emissions change with economic growth. This paper captures characteristics of carbon emissions in China using the Tapio Method. To detect driving factors of carbon emissions in economic growth, we adopt the Log-Mean Divisia Index decomposition method. The results of the paper are as follows: (1) Economic growth in most regions of China has outpaced the growth rate of carbon emissions, showing the characteristics of decoupling. (2) Metropolitan cities have a greater impact on the level of decoupling in neighboring provinces and municipalities. (3) The decoupling of carbon emissions from economic growth is caused by declining energy intensity in China. (4) The energy mix and industrial structure have little impact on the growth rate of carbon emissions. In addition, some policy implications are summarized according to the findings of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among south Asian countries, Bhutan has the second lowest poverty incidence; but, there is a large difference in poverty incidence between urban and rural areas. While urban areas registered a very small poverty incidence, 12.0% of rural population were still below the national poverty line in 2017. Poverty is by and large a rural phenominon in Bhutan. Against this background, this study examines whether Bhutan's rural economic growth was pro-poor from 2007–2017 by using the Bhutan Living Standard Surveys. It also conducts an IV probit analysis to explore the determinants of poverty. Even in rural areas, growth is necessary for the reduction of poverty. Besides relying on trickle-down effects from hydropower projects and tourism, promotion of agriculture-based small scale industries is essential for the acceleration of rural economic growth, where further development of basic industrial and transportation infrastructure and socioeconomic facilities is imperative. The country also needs to promote and strengthen basic education since education is found to have played an important role in reducing poverty. Many rural households are vulnerable to poverty. To prevent vulnerable households from falling into poverty, more effective social safety net programs may be necessary based on regional differences in factors affecting living conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove that if the total factor productivity A of an aggregative economy is right at the barrier $ \sigma +\lambda $ σ + λ , with σ being the growth rate of labor force and λ the real interest rate, then the unique policy to optimally control the economy is the same as the one for optimally controlling weak economies, where $ A \lt \sigma +\lambda $ A < σ + λ. This result gives a complete answer for the interesting open question raised by Vu Thi Huong in her recent paper [Optimal economic growth problems with high values of total factor productivity. Appl Anal. 2022;101:1315–1329]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of inequality by economists has largely focussed on distributive inequalities of various kinds. The focus on different dimensions of distributive inequality in access and outcomes is welcome. However, it is also important to consider relational inequalities and power imbalances, which economists typically consider to be the domain of sociology, anthropology and related disciplines. Many economic processes cannot be understood without analysing the underlying relational inequalities, which can reveal much about economic processes and associated policies. Some examples from the Indian experience, specifically relating to power imbalances created by gender and caste differentiation, indicate how this can play out. These are not simply 'traditional social forms' that are in opposition to or contradictory with capitalist accumulation. Rather, they are crucial in enabling segmented labour markets and enabling extractivist patterns of accumulation, on which recent Indian economic growth has been dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two purposes. The first is to argue that aggregate investment may be subject to the following paradox. A rise in investment decided by firms to correct overutilization of their production capacity may generate less capacity than demand — and hence cause a paradoxical rise in overutilization. This will in turn lead to even more investment, and so on — the result being the self-sustained rises in output that characterize economic expansions. The second purpose of the paper is to put forward one reason why the above paradox of investment will lose strength as expansions progress, and may eventually disappear leading to their end. That reason may be summarized as follows. As net investment increases along expansions, the effect of investment on production capacity rises relative to its effect on demand — and, as a result, the rise in utilization slows down. Moreover, as net investment eventually grows to a high level, the effect of investment on capacity may become bigger than its effect on demand. If this happens, utilization will stop rising and start falling, and thus the same may happen with investment and output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the link between value chain importance and economic growth for the EU24 regions between 2008 and 2018. It finds that relying more on GVCs worsened regional growth during the financial crisis, but led to higher growth in the long run. The results contribute to the literature on regional resilience and the public debate on the impact of shocks and the desirability of GVCs. Furthermore, by separately analyzing the importance of global and regional value chains it contributes to the discussion on the effect of regionalization and provides insights on how the re-configuring of value chains may affect regional growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the complex interplay between economic development and environmental sustainability in the context of India's pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It examines the inherent contradictions and trade-offs involved, particularly in agriculture, industrialisation, and infrastructure sectors. The paper highlights how economic growth, essential for improving living standards, often conflicts with environmental objectives. The paper underscores the importance of integrating economic, environmental, and social objectives to achieve a sustainable and inclusive future for India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Global South river basins, urbanization, population growth and demand for resources linked to economic growth pose multiple challenges, compounded by the crises of climate change. For Global South countries, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are opportunities to combine integrated strategies tackling their environmental sustainability and socioeconomic development issues. This article uses the Mekong River Commission and the development of hydropower by Lao PDR case to investigate the ability of River Basin Organizations to coordinate with Member States for consistent regional and national application of transboundary water cooperation best practices while answering both scales' sustainable development agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of new firms is an important incentive for the economic growth of a country, since it generates employment, it encourages the competition, and promotes innovation. In this work, we investigate the survival of Spanish firms which were created since 2001 and closed down between 2004 and 2012. The information was gathered from Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC), a survey with a focus the technological innovation in Spanish firms. In particular, a Cox regression model with time-dependent covariates was used in order to identify and quantify the determinants of the risk of exit for the firm. The selection bias due to the interval sampling for the firms was corrected by using methods for doubly truncated lifetimes. Interestingly, it is seen how the correction for the selection bias changes both the size and the statistical significance of the effects provided by standard Cox regression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the impact of macroprudential policy on economic growth. The results show that the implementation of macroprudential policies contributes to fostering economic growth, especially in the period following the onset of the global financial crisis. In particular, we show that tightening loan loss provisions, loan-to-value, lending restriction, liquidity requirements and systemically important financial institutions measures all lead to higher economic growth. However, we also find that, while tightening macroprudential policy is generally beneficial for the economy, excessive tightening policy can exert a negative growth impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussions about the relationship between feminism and neoliberalism and the status of feminist emancipatory claims in marketized policy fields. My approach has been to analyse gender equality work within the highly marketized field of regional development in Sweden with a specific interest for how the convergence of the policy goals of gender equality and economic growth is represented by gender equality workers and to discuss the status of feminist emancipatory claims in this policy field. The analysis consists of articulating three representations of the relationship between gender equality and economic growth, characterized by various degrees of conflict: reciprocity, co-optation and Trojan horses. However, none of the representations articulate open emancipatory claims as legitimate within the field of regional development. Thus, the study shows gender equality in its relationship to economic growths renders emancipatory claims illegitimate unless beneficial for economic growth or hidden trough marketized language or logics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments, companies and citizens around the world consider necessary to adopt a new circular economy (CE) model that allows solving the planet's environmental challenges and guaranteeing sustainable economic growth. Europe advocates this philosophy, but there is no widely accepted index to measure CE implementation at a macro level. This paper proposes a new index based on principal component analysis for European Union countries that use all information available without losing any information by the dimensionality reduction and consider objective weights based on the percentage of variance that each one retains. Moreover, we develop a disaggregated analysis considering the CE dimensions set out in the 'CE monitoring framework', allowing a more comprehensive analysis than when using a single indicator of CE implementation. This method is also used to build an index of the degree of achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) to see how they relate to the CE; the relationships between CE dimensions; and between SDGs. The results by geographical areas reveal a higher level of CE implementation in western European and EU-15 countries, with Luxembourg, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium alternately holding the top positions depending on the CE dimension considered. Therefore, the new European countries and the countries in the east must encourage measures to improve the implementation of the economy. In addition, there is a positive, strong and significant relationship with SDGs 8, 9 and 11, with both the overall CE implementation index and the disaggregated indices, and a negative one with 7 and 15. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries have been faced with critical environmental problems and tried to take measures to prevent the negative effects on societies. In this context, countries, policymakers, and scholars have considered various factors. However, political stability (PS) has not been a fully recognized point. Therefore, the most recent studies have begun to include PS in empirically analyzing the environment. By considering the contemporary literature regarding factors affecting environmental quality, this research investigates the effect of PS on the environment in the Netherlands, which takes place among the countries that have a high level of PS. In doing this, the study focuses on the effect of PS by considering various controlling factors; utilizes data spanning from 1990/Q1 to 2019/Q4; employs Fourier-based ARDL and TY causality approaches as the base models; and performs the FMOLS approach for robustness. The findings present that (i) PS curbs environmental degradation; (ii) renewable energy declines environmental degradation; (iii) economic growth causes a stimulating in environmental degradation; (iv) globalization is not statistically significant on the environment; (iv) PS, renewable energy, and economic growth have a causal effect on the environmental degradation, whereas globalization does not have; (v) the results are robust based on the alternative approach. Thus, the study proves the highly effective role of PS on the environmental quality in the Netherlands. So, Netherlands policymakers should take PS into account in environmental plans so as not to miss being a carbon-neutral economy target due to the changes in the political environment. Accordingly, various policy options are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kim and Markus (1999; Study 3) found that 74% of European Americans selected a pen with an uncommon (vs. common) color, whereas only 24% of East Asians made such a choice, highlighting a pronounced cross-cultural difference in the extent to which people opt for originality or make majority-based choices. The present high-powered study (N = 729) conceptually replicates the results from Kim and Markus (1999; Study 3), although our effect size (r =.12) is significantly weaker than that of the original study (r =.52). Interestingly, a larger proportion of Chinese, but not US, participants selected a pen with an uncommon color now than during the original study. Thus, our findings indicate a potential transmission of certain Western values to cultures traditionally characterized by collectivism and conformity, likely exacerbated by the globalization of mass media and the rapid economic growth in many East Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the relation of four different financial development indicators and export performance, sampled from nine member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States, with economic growth for the period of 1995–2020. Its long-run relationship with PVAR analysis has been presented through VECM. The FMOLS and DOLS methods are used for the long-term coefficient estimates. According to the findings, there is a cointegration relationship between economic growth and export, and broad money, domestic credit to the private sector by banks, and monetary sector credit to private sector variables. The findings indicate that both financial development and export have a positive impact on economic growth. On the other hand, the findings have not presented sufficient evidence about the influence of the gross capital formation variable on economic growth while the monetary sector credit to private sector variable has been found to negatively affect economic growth. When the results of FMOLS and DOLS models are assessed together, it is concluded that export and financial development affects economic growth positively in the long term, but the first one's effect is less. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the important manifestations of economic globalization, such as increased international trade, inward foreign direct investment (FDI), and air passenger transport (PAX) on economic growth and environmental quality in Southeast Asian countries. The results of data analysis for the period 1990–2019 using the panel autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) have confirmed the long run impact of these factors on economic growth and environmental quality (the reduction of CO2 emissions into the environment per unit of production) in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, international trade and PAX positively affect economic growth in both groups of lower-middle-income countries and upper-middle and high-income countries. Inward FDI, however, only has a positive effect on economic growth for the group of lower-middle-income in the short run. In the long run, it has a negative impact. On the other hand, when the manifestations of economic globalization increase, they lead to an increase in CO2 emissions, but there is a decrease in this ratio per unit of production in the long run and in most countries in the short run. These findings are the basis for making economic growth and environmental quality improvements in different regions and countries of Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Led by the emerging growth models perspective, research in comparative political economy has recently reintroduced demand drivers of economic growth into the centre of political-economic analysis. While this marks a significant advancement, current scholarship has, so far, focused mainly on explaining the endurance of existing growth models rather than the process of change. To begin addressing this gap, we identify one route to growth model change: the inclusion of organised labour into growth coalitions. Our proposed framework expands the role of growth coalitions in growth models by incorporating insights from the established literature on institutional change. Building on these insights, we distinguish between broad and narrow coalitions based on their scope, composition, and inclusive nature. With this distinction in mind, we argue that when a previously narrow coalition is broadened by incorporating organised labour, it can 'balance the scales', i.e. shift the growth model from a purely export-led model into a more balanced one. This shift occurs as labour's influence on policy promotes wage growth and redistribution which, in turn, fuel wage-based consumption. We demonstrate our theoretical framework through a comparative analysis of the primary case study of Israel and two additional cases of Brazil and Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democracies across the world have experienced the rise of new political parties. The dominant view of the model of (retrospective) economic voting implicitly assumes that the main beneficiary of electoral change is the established opposition. However, the rise of new political parties affects how we think of retrospective (economic) voting. This article presents a more nuanced picture of electoral change and considers when electoral turnover benefits established opposition parties, and when new political parties. The theoretical model introduces different macro-economic and macro-political motives for electoral turnover. Using a novel dataset on electoral change, covering 59 democracies worldwide, it is found that high levels of corruption discredit the entire political establishment, and promote the rise of new parties. The effect of economic hardship is more nuanced. Low economic growth mainly benefits the established opposition because voters look for an established alternative within the political system. Rising unemployment, by contrast, promotes the rise of new parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to provide an alternative framework to the theory of optimum currency areas by mobilizing the concept of sustainability. If the success of a fixed exchange rate regime is, above all, a political choice, economic growth can be considered a minimal economic condition and a good indicator of the success of a fixed exchange rate regime. We conclude that specific institutional settings allow economic growth to occur and can be defined as sustainable. We determine three configurations that share the same conclusion: sustainability happens when states have macroeconomic autonomy, whereas political and fiscal integration are necessary conditions. The first configuration refers to a monetary union with high capital mobility. The second one corresponds to a fixed but adjustable exchange rate regime with low capital mobility, while the third configuration is an application of Keynes' plan with high capital mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African government has made considerable investments to ensure the sustainability and productivity of the aquaculture sector. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of financing aquaculture on economic growth, unemployment, and entrepreneurship period of 1994 to 2019. The study employs an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to check the dynamic causality between the study variables. The results show that there is a negative and statistically insignificant relationship between aquaculture financing and economic growth. Furthermore, aquaculture financing is positively associated with unemployment and entrepreneurship. The study encourages linkages between aquaculture smallholder farmers and commercial farmers to exchange knowledge and training. Therefore, revamping aquaculture strategies to promote productivity in the sector is necessary. Improvement in the aquaculture technological system is required, which can be achieved through better facilities and greater financial support to boost the aquaculture sector. There is therefore a need to invest more in technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing demand for digitalization in different economic sectors has garnered considerable attention from researchers to explore the effects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on economic growth. In this study, we explore the direct and indirect effects of ICT on economic growth, through its interaction with institutional quality, financial development, research and development (R&D) expenditures, and foreign direct investment (FDI), for 13 emerging economies from 2000 to 2020. We find that ICT use has a significantly positive effect on economic growth. It is found that the interaction effects of ICT with financial development and R&D expenditures are favorable to economic growth, whereas ICT does not act synergistically with institutional quality and FDI. This implies that the emerging economies should increase R&D expenditures on ICT services and increase digitalization of the financial sector, along with advancing their ICT infrastructure, strengthening the institutional quality, and encouraging more FDI inflows to maintain their growth momentum. Abbreviations: ICT: nformation and Communication Technology; IMD: International Institute for Management Development; SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals; OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; SAARC: South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation; SSA: Sub-Saharan Africa; MNCs: Multinational Companies; MENA: Middle East and North Africa; UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; ITU: International Telecommunication Union; IIEP: International Institute for Educational Planning; MSCI: Morgan Stanley Capital International; WDI: World Development Indicator; R&D: Research and Development; FD: Financial development; FDI: Foreign Direct Investment; IUIT: Individuals Using Internet; MBCS: Mobile Cellular Subscriptions; TO: Trade Openness; IQ: Institutional Quality [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the direct and interactive effect of digital payments through institutional quality, consumption expenditure, and bank credit on economic growth for 25-member countries of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) for 2012–2020. Using the Fixed Effect with Driscoll-Kraay Panel Corrected Estimators, it finds that a rise in digital payments positively impacts economic growth. The interaction effect of digital payments with other variables does not promote economic growth. To address differences among the selected countries and to have a robust analysis, the paper classified the selected countries into quantiles based on the GDP per capita level using the Bootstrapped Panel-Quantile Regression (BPQR) method. The BPQR confirms the positive relationship among digital payments, institutional quality, and consumption expenditure with economic growth, whereas credit impacts it negatively. Control variables, such as inflation, exchange rate, health, and unemployment, behave as per economic theories related to economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effect of a corruption reflection index on internal conflict in Iran using a novel measure of corruption based on newspaper coverage. We use the Vector Autoregression (VAR) model and its applied tools of impulse response and variance decomposition analyses to track the response of protests to shocks in corruption levels. Using annual data from 1962 to 2019, we find a positive and significant response of protests to a positive shock in the news-based corruption reflection index. We also show that economic growth and military spending are the main channels where higher corruption may lead to higher internal protests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Stuart Hall's concept of articulation and the concrete with Bridget O'Laughlin's reminder of a focus on the struggles of living labour, this paper theorizes racial capitalism in South Africa from the concrete relations of retail labour in Johannesburg. The paper examines ways in which white working class women constituted retailing, struggling for their own claims in relation to gendered family and workplace orders, which in turn conditioned how black women organized when they entered front-line service jobs in the late 1960s, which then disrupted this order to explain a very different class politics and to constitute anew these meaningful spaces. These processes happened through multiple mediations. Retail capital not only contributed to economic expansion; labour relations in shops constituted specific affective spaces as meaningful terrains of collective belonging, projecting ideologies and explaining differentiated "subjects in struggle". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the effects of international financial inflows (remittances, foreign direct investment and foreign aid) on economic complexity in Africa and the moderation role of institutional quality. We used the dynamic system GMM framework for a panel of 31 African countries over the period 2010–2020. We find that these international financial inflows are significant drivers of economic complexity in Africa, and that institutional quality is significantly moderating and enhancing their effects on economic complexity. Among other recommendations, we encourage policymakers in Africa to continually create an enabling environment to attract these financial inflows in order to promote sustainable investment and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the 1901–1904 discussions about free trade in the Priamur region and the territories in Chinese Manchuria leased to the Russian Empire. The discussions are placed in the contexts of nationalising empire, Russian imperialism, and cosmopolitan society of the globalised free port of Vladivostok. The piece traces the place of ideas about free trade in the social and political imagination of contemporaries in the Priamur region to show how these images were challenged by imperial expansion in Manchuria. It also analyses the rhetorical strategies used by regional actors to re-negotiate the borders of economic and political expansion, as well as the internal and external comparisons they made. The article demonstrates how debates about free trade in the Russian Far East offer deeper insight into how ideas about free trade and free ports as institutions affected not only the economic but social and political transformations in the late imperial period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies estimation of linear panel regression models with heterogeneous coefficients using a class of weighted least squares estimators, when both the regressors and the error possibly contain a common latent factor structure. Our theory is robust to the specification of such a factor structure because it does not require any information on the number of factors or estimation of the factor structure itself. Moreover, our theory is efficient, in certain circumstances, because it nests the GLS principle. We first show how our unfeasible weighted-estimator provides a bias-adjusted estimator with the conventional limiting distribution, for situations in which the OLS is affected by a first-order bias. The technical challenge resolved in the article consists of showing how these properties are preserved for the feasible weighted estimator in a double-asymptotics setting. Our theory is illustrated by extensive Monte Carlo experiments and an empirical application that investigates the link between capital accumulation and economic growth in an international setting. for this article are available online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic developments affect urban land-use changes. Using Lefebvre's production of (urban) space as a conceptual framework, this study investigated the industrialisation process and its urban spatial outcomes in three cities (Galan, Dukem, and Bishoftu) along the southern outlet of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. Landsat images were used to quantify the changing patterns of the three cities from the period 2006 to 2021. Interviews with key informants and document analysis were used to supplement these findings. The analysis reveals that in Addis Ababa-Bishoftu economic growth corridor, the unruly urban land-use changes have become a serious issue, challenging the sustainable development of cities. The study confirms that the proximity to Addis Ababa has contributed to the urbanisation process and urban corridor formation through investment expansion. This calls for a high level of expertise as well as integrated regional development for sustainable urban and industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the interactions between CO2 emissions, economic growth and energy consumption in India for 1970– 2017 within the time–frequency domain using wavelet techniques. The results show that the interaction between energy consumption and CO2 emissions is strong and varies significantly across time– frequency bands, indicating that the energy consumption leads to environmental degradation. The negative effect of economic growth on CO2 emissions is only statistically significant in the short run. In addition, the findings reveal a positive association between economic growth and energy consumption across time– frequency bands, demonstrating energy consumption increases economic growth, which in turn heightens the CO2 emissions. There should be improved energy use and reduced CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries with different democratic levels tend to show various degrees of emphasis on military expenditure and a consensus can hardly be reached on the economic effect of democracy and military expenditure. By applying a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) approach, this article examines the potential dynamic and endogenous relationships among democracy, military expenditure and economic growth of 126 countries from 1990 to 2020. Furthermore, the k-means clustering algorithm is employed to account for the heterogeneous interaction between democracy and military expenditure in different countries. The empirical results reveal that the strong positive impact of democracy and the negative effect of military spending on economic growth exists in the full sample and the cluster of countries with low democratic levels and a high military burden. For democratic countries with low military expenditure, there is a more significant and negative impact both of military expenditure on democracy and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to identify the main studies that research the relationship between defence spending and economic growth in a region, carried out on a large sample of 162 articles obtained from the Web of Science database, published between 1995 and 2019. By carrying out three analyses, descriptive, scientometric and content, the results have made it possible to identify the most outstanding characteristics of this relationship along with the main schools of thought. Furthermore, these can be grouped into one of the four proposed categories: positive relationship, negative, bidirectional or no relation at all. The state of the art has been evaluated and synthesized, establishing trends and areas for future research in this broad field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationships between CO2 emissions, GDP, renewable energy consumption, and trade openness across 37 OECD countries from 1995–2020. Using a Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) model and Granger Causality tests, the research probes the causality among these factors. Key findings show a notable causality from GDP, renewable energy, and trade openness to CO2 emissions. Specifically, lags in renewable energy consumption and trade openness significantly decrease CO2 emissions. Surprisingly, GDP's influence on CO2 emissions is found to be negligible, challenging the typical belief linking economic growth to environmental degradation. These insights hold great value for policymakers in environmental governance and climate finance. The data underscores the importance of promoting renewable energy and trade openness for effective CO2 reduction. The study advocates a sustainable environmental governance model, emphasizing strong legal structures and clarity in execution. Since GDP doesn't significantly impact CO2 emissions, there's potential to pivot towards sustainable economic growth models. The research offers a foundational empirical groundwork, suggesting that expanding future studies to include diverse variables might yield a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships in question. [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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]