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Objectives: This paper examines the impact of local economic activity on criminal behavior. We build on existing research by relaxing the identification assumptions required for causal inference, and estimate the impact of local economic activity on recidivism. Methods: We use the fracking boom as a source of credibly exogenous variation in the economic conditions into which incarcerated people are released. We replicate and extend existing instrumental variables analyses of fracking on how many released offenders return to state prison seperately from aggregate crime and arrests. Results: Our instrumental variables estimates imply that a ten thousand dollar increase in the value of per capita production is associated with a 2.8% reduction in the 1-year recidivism of ex-offenders at the county level. Improved labor market conditions, specifically an increase in wages for young adults, may explain a non-negligible fraction of the reduction in recidivism associated with economic booms. In contrast, we replicate existing work finding that fracking increased aggregate measures of crime and arrests. Conclusion: Increased economic opportunity appears to have a different impact of overall crime than on recidivism. This suggests that the relationship between economic opportunity and offending may be conditioned by local social ties. Further research examining how social connections and labor markets affect individual criminal behavior is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large portion of the world's rural population has limited access to paved roads, which is widely believed to constrain rural economic growth opportunities. Using a panel of nighttime lights and road placement data from the Integrated Road Investment Program (iRoad), a large-scale rural road development program in Sri Lanka, this study examines the relationship between rural road connectivity and local nighttime luminosity. The program was found to result in better and more consistent rural road conditions. Rural areas with improved connectivity after two years show higher local nighttime luminosity, a proxy for economic activity, compared to areas without connectivity. These gains hold even for indirectly targeted rural areas where the iRoad passes through. The gains vary spatially, which are most pronounced in areas at a moderate distance to socioeconomic centers and with more adequate complementary infrastructure provisions. These findings support the notion that improving rural connectivity can ease development constraints, increase resilience in managing negative economic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and contribute to post-pandemic economic recovery. The findings also lend to the idea that targeted placements based on the beneficiary's location and complementary infrastructure (e.g., educational and medical facilities) can enhance the effectiveness of rural road investments. An intensive margin analysis suggests that post-construction maintenance is effective in bringing about sustained impact. • Using data from a large-scale rural road program in Sri Lanka, we study the relationship between rural connectivity and local economic activity. • The rural road program was found to result in better and more consistent rural road conditions. • Rural areas with improved connectivity after two years show higher local nighttime luminosity compared to areas without connectivity. • The gains vary spatially, which are most pronounced in areas at a moderate distance to socioeconomic centers and with more complementary infrastructure. • The findings lend to the idea that targeted placements can enhance the effectiveness of rural road investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to expose Quevedo as a city with significant economic presence and opportunities in the province of Los Ríos and the country. Despite being in an unstructured environment, microenterprises have better business opportunities, since they are in constant contact with the client, which leads to management activities aimed at obtaining resources, achieving efficiency and reducing costs, making their curves of medium cost they move to other more competitive points, providing advantages that have made possible their permanence, growth and development. In Quevedo, the number of microenterprises increases significantly, especially those in the agricultural sector, livestock, manufacturing, commerce, construction and the service sector. It is observed that the development of the informal microenterprise sector is reasonably associated with the growth of entrepreneurship, influenced by the identification of new business opportunities, challenges and present challenges, and of future expectations, which stimulates the internal economy, competitiveness and economic growth. In an appropriate context, the generation of employment by this sector strengthens social and family development and boosts the economic and financial activity of the city. This scenario exposes the opportunities and challenges of the sector and constitutes the basis for the development of future research lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the economic effects of African Christianity has mainly focused on Pentecostalism. The dominant opinion of this literature is that Pentecostalism stimulates economic activity and supports economic development. This article looks beyond Pentecostalism by discussing the case of an Evangelical church in southern Ethiopia. Covering a period of two decades, I trace a shift in the relation between Evangelicalism and local aspirations for economic development. Initially seen as a means to achieve religious ends, the pursuit of development has recently been problematized as a source of social and spiritual ills. The church now discourages excessive participation in the commercial economy, and dedicated Evangelicals relinquish economic opportunities that they fear could lead them into sin. This shows that while Christianity can stimulate processes of economic development it can also constrain these, motivating people to renounce the quest for wealth in favour of other values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To a typical family in Hanoi, their house is not solely their home, but a valuable basis for their livelihood: a home-based business. This paper investigates the spatial impact of the city's dominant built form characterized by organic urban morphology and building typology on home-based economic activities. Space Syntax is adopted to examine the proximity from these homes to the local main streets, which provides a pool of customers. Findings show that home-based economic opportunities are spatially distributed and sorted. The paper provides an evidence-based understanding of the economic performance of informal urbanism, and the potential impacts of urban design and planning decisions on individuals' and cities' economic well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New industrial innovation policies like smart specialization aim at boosting economic growth by diversification towards more complex and higher value economic activities. This paper proposes a conceptual and analytical framework to support the design and implementation of such policies considering place-specific preconditions, particularly the differentiation of the regional system of innovation and entrepreneurship and the degree of current industrial diversification. The paper expands on the links between these preconditions and the barriers and opportunities for industrial diversification. Consequently, it proposes an archetypical place-based policy framework covering overall policy objectives as well as measures at the level of actors, networks, and the institutional and organizational support structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Middle Ramu District in Madang Province has been identified as one of the least developed districts in Papua New Guinea. There are severe environmental constraints such as flooding and very poor access to outside markets and services. Communities are seriously disadvantaged in terms of access to economic opportunities, basic social services, and infrastructure. In the area covered by this case study there is a functioning mission school and a marginally functional mission health centre at Annaberg, but otherwise there is no administrative presence, the nearest government office being at Aiyome, many hours' travel away. People rely on costly river transportation (one full day to the Banu bridge near Usino from where they can access road transport). In the eyes of a riverine community in Middle Ramu, it is "the Highlanders" who have brought economic change. Entrepreneurs from various parts of the Highlands come in motorised canoes in a search for betelnut, which they exchange for cash and technical items such as solar panels. While concentrating on betelnut trade, people in the riverine settler communities studied rely for their sustenance on buying sago from those living further away from the Ramu River. They find themselves in a cycle of planting and harvesting more betelnut in order to supply the Highlands traders, while at the same time giving little attention to food gardens or cash crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic neighborhoods and ethnic economies do not always involve a single nationality or ethnic group. Quite often several groups operate side by side in the neighborhood and within the establishments themselves. This can give rise to a modification of the ethnic economy concept. We discuss an example of such a multiethnic residential and business district in Paris, the Goutte d’Or, with particular attention to three shopping streets. Although somewhat distinct from one another, each of these streets is multiethnic in regard to the proprietors, employees, and customers, and this multiethnicity extends within the establishments themselves. The primary questions we ask in this article are, first, what the nature of this ethnic economy is and how it fits within the different types of ethnic economy. Beyond this, we demonstrate how the activities taking place here reflect separate circuits of activity at separate spatial scales and what this ethnic business activity suggests for immigrant incorporation in Paris and the nature of cross-ethnic relations. To answer these questions, we rely on observation, interviews with several merchants in defined commercial corridors, and some official statistical and political information gleaned from various government sources. This Parisian neighborhood exemplifies strategies of immigrant incorporation into French society. As such, it provides a possible new model of a multiethnic economy, one that might become a common fixture in increasingly diverse cities in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This study proposes a use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for environmental assessment. Firms usually produce not only desirable but also undesirable outputs as a result of their economic activities. The concept of disposability on undesirable outputs is separated into natural and managerial disposability. Natural disposability is an environmental strategy in which firms decrease their inputs to reduce a vector of undesirable outputs. Given the reduced input vector, they attempt to increase desirable outputs as much as possible. Managerial disposability involves the opposite strategy of increasing an input vector. The concept of disposability expresses an environmental strategy that considers a regulation change on undesirable outputs as a new business opportunity. Firms attempt to improve their unified (operational and environmental) performance by utilizing new technology and/or new management. Considering the two disposability concepts, this study discusses how to measure unified efficiency under managerial disposability and then discusses how to measure environmental efficiency. The proposed uses of DEA can serve as an empirical basis for measuring new economic concepts such as “Scale Damages (SD)”, corresponding to scale economies for undesirable outputs, and “Damages to Scale (DTS)”, corresponding to returns to scale for undesirable outputs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A risk measure, expected opportunity loss (EOL), is introduced to quantify the potential loss of making an incorrect choice in risk-based decision making. Different from Savage's (1951) minimax regret principle, EOL can account for the unbounded continuous random outcomes of alternatives and decision makers’ acceptable risk. This article studies the effects of the forms of loss function, correlation among outcomes, and the acceptable risk on the ranking results by considering the loss function in the power form. The results show that the loss functions and the outcomes correlations can significantly influence the rankings of alternatives in risk-based decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: developed a theoretical model that proposed two pathways through which economic activity – as indexed by the aggregate unemployment rate – could affect the rate of criminal activity. The first is by increasing levels of criminal motivation within the population as deteriorating economic conditions affect social strain and social control; the second is by influencing the availability and vulnerability of criminal targets and thus the number of criminal opportunities. Although much empirical research has applied this theoretical model, few analyses have done so at disaggregated units of analysis. We present the most comprehensive analysis to date by empirically evaluating this model with data on 400 of the largest US counties – and examine the effects of aggregation on results as these county data are combined to the state and national levels – for the years 1978–2005. For seven Index crimes at each of the three levels of analysis, and with or without controls for structural covariates at each level, the directional effects hypothesized by Cantor and Land are found for 78 out of 84 estimated relationships. Even after taking into account the lack of statistical independence of these estimates by drawing on recently developed statistical theory, this is a very unlikely outcome. In accordance with expectations based on theory and prior research, (a) some of these relationships are weak and not statistically significant, and (b) the strongest and most consistent patterns of relationships for both the crime opportunity and crime motivation effects are found for three property crimes: burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Suggestions for further research on this topic are given. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Islamic banking is a relative young industry, with a high rate of growth, which in the last years became a highly discussed subject, due to the challenges and opportunities that it brings. Due to the fact, that in the last decade, the Islamic banking made its presence in the European Union market, too, in this paper we try to describe the main features of the Islamic banking transactions and to identify the challenges and opportunities that its brings [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Natural Law of man, it is that all men seek to gratify their desires, whatever those desires may be, with the least exertion, as stated by Henry George, is expanded and discussed to include all living organisms. With the revised natural law mans activities are examined with man in the same LAND as other living organisms. It was reasoned that mans economic activity is typically not associated with his survival but of desires beyond survival, where these desires can generally be satisfied by taking more from the LAND beyond what is needed for survival. If man in his activities creates an imbalance to the LAND, or if he is present during a natural change to the LAND, mans economic activities can be affected, but man can reduce the affect with his innovativeness and access to LAND. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African entrepreneurs operate within homogenous, tightly knit social networks of trusted individuals. 'Who you know' networks can provide these entrepreneurs with significant advantages in social, economic or political situations. However, the challenge of expanding beyond such networks to access new knowledge, skills and resources can be met only by establishing relationships with individuals outside their existing sphere of trust. The widespread adoption of cell phones has radically impacted the social connectedness of agro-entrepreneurs in Africa and deeply affected their social networks and livelihoods. Cell phones help to easily maintain long distance business connections as well as social ties and decrease dependency on local, face-to-face interactions. New weak social ties may be economically beneficial because they can provide access to new resources and create larger networks. The mobile phone enables and accelerates these social network transformations and helps entrepreneurs aggregate and leverage social capital. A symbiotic relationship exists between social and economic capital. Social capital is generated through the existence of trust which, in turn, encourages cooperation in the generation of economic capital. The existence of trust can promote the growth of an individual's business network which could, in turn, promote greater economic activity. Trust assumes a very important role in developing communities where there is a significant overlap between people's social and economic networks. This paper defines the crucial role of trust in the complex interdependent relationships among social networks, cell phones and agricultural entrepreneurship. We present a diagram which illustrates that the most compelling opportunities for sustainable value creation and self-determined development in Africa may exist at the intersection of cell phones, social networks and entrepreneurship, with the necessary condition that trust, the glue that holds these elements together, is present. A capstone case-study of a nutribusiness cooperative established in the 1990s suggests the importance of social networks and trust building in an entrepreneurial venture involving rural Kenyan women. This paper provides the context for a companion research paper on the "who you know" social and economic network knowledge systems among rural women agro-entrepreneurs in Northern Tanzania and the role cell phones play within these networks. We use secondary data, including academic publications, UN datasets, business ventures and personal observations to describe the role of trust in the dynamic interdependence among entrepreneurship, social networks and cell phones that is crucial for the establishment of sustainable agricultural business ventures in East Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research takes a neighborhood-level geographic approach to analyzing the issue of minority-owned business access to economic opportunity. Disparity persists between the considerable number of minority-owned businesses and their meager impact on economies across the country. Agencies identifying barriers to full economic inclusion for these firms overlook geographic considerations. While the City of Philadelphia allots considerable resources to alleviating this disparity through its municipal set-aside program, its reports track these efforts mainly by ethnicity. The nonspatial emphasis of the reported data renders invisible neighborhood-level trends and geographic explanations for the disparity such as associating business size and activity to neighborhood context. Using geographic information systems analysis, this research finds neighborhood-level geographic inequity in the city contracts awarded to minority-owned professional services businesses in Philadelphia. The findings suggest that minority-owned businesses located in certain predominantly minority areas of Philadelphia possibly encounter a geographic disadvantage that limits them from connecting with economic activity. These businesses may face a spatial barrier to full economic inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a study which explores ways for cities to optimise their systems for the talent-based economy, published by IBM's Global Centre for Economic Development. It suggests that creativity, knowledge and technological innovation will become the key drivers of economic activity in the next 20 years. According to Institute for Business Value (IBV) head of macroeconomics Constantin Gurdgie, global recovery will set opportunities for small open economies such as Ireland.

The article focuses on the economic stimulus programs in the Netherlands. It examines the provisions of the Crisis and Recovery Act (CRA) enacted by the government to speed up the decision making processes in resolving the economic crisis in the country. It discusses the provisions and characteristics of the new law, and analyses the legal critique of the CRA to assess its ability to help the economy recover without violating the legal system. It explores the four main elements of the regulation and describes the different economic projects associated with the CRA.

Just as the entrepreneur is key to the health of a society's economy, so too is the entrepreneur key to its ethical well being. Narrow definitions of entrepreneurship that measure success based on wealth creation alone constrict responsible responses to ethical challenges, contributing to continual ethical lapses. This paper examines Cornwall and Naughton's emphasis on virtue as an important element of successful entrepreneurship. It then proposes a new definition of entrepreneurship based on endowing resources with new value rather than the more narrow vision of endowing resources with new wealth producing capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's views concerning the regulation of social and economic activity in the U.S. He mentions that an ideal market is one that is self-regulated wherein sellers and buyers are able to act whenever and however they choose, and to transact business on terms of their own choosing. The author then questions the idea of food safety by asking whether a rational economic factor in a free market for food can be expected to invest in improving the safety of food products made and sold. He further explains that the market's credibility is lacking since it does not have a high degree of anonymity and reliable quality signals, and it also lacks traceability.

Se trata el rol de las mujeres en la vida económica según varias religiones, sobre todo el islam y la cristiandad, a partir de una reflexión sobre el concepto de castidad, entendido de manera amplia como el vivir y actuar de forma éticamente correcta. Se nota que la participación de las mujeres en la actividad económica fuera de los hogares ha sido históricamente limitado por sistemas patriarcales que las han considerado inferiores.

Background: The study was undertaken among the rural and black communities of the Uthungulu health district of the KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Method: A cross-sectional community-based descriptive study was conducted. A multi-stage sampling strategy was adopted to obtain a representative sample of the communities. Results: The mean age of the population was 27 years and majority was female (54%). Among the adult population only 30% were educated, 19% were engaged in some form of economic activities while 9% were in the formal employment sector. The average monthly income per household was R1 301 (95% CI, R1 283; R1 308). The illnesses were reported by 27% of the total population over a period of one month. Notably higher rates of female individuals (29%) were sick compared to males (24%, p < 0.001). The rates of illnesses among adult females (39%) were also signifi cantly higher than among males (31%, p < 0.009). Most of them (69%) attended primary health care (PHC) clinics for medical services, while 67% reported chronic conditions. Age (OR = 1.4), gender (OR = 0.711), education (OR = 0.64) and economic activities (OR = 1.9) were found to be associated with being ill or not. Conclusion: The rural black communities are underdeveloped and deprived, which results in higher prevalence of illnesses; however, the utilisation of PHC facilities is comparatively higher than in the rest of the province and other parts of the country. Interventions to improve community health care services among the deprived population should be focused through public health strategies such as all-encompassing PHC that includes health promotion, education and basic essential amenities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout history, competition between towns has always been present, either for power (Which should be the bishop's residence?), or for economic advantages (Which town could enjoy the privilege of organising fairs?). This competition between the regioncenters of the EU still exists. This paper presents the results of research related to urban competition between Szeged and Timisoara. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how the socialpolitical and judicial factors have affected private investment in Venezuela and Latin America for the period 1995- 2003 by means of panel data analysis. In the case of Venezuela, there is evidence that the fall in the investment rate in Venezuela has been caused by these factors. In this way, it is necessary that not only the Venezuelan government but also the other Latin American governments begin working on the creation and strengthening of institutions so that risks are reduced and stability is enhanced. In this way, it is possible to endorse a sustained economic growth and better standards of living for Latin American citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile phone ownership in Morocco has leapt from zero percent to two thirds of the population in less than ten years of commercial availability. This rate of penetration underscores the degree to which the mobile phone has become part of everyday routines and serves various communicative needs (ANRT 2007). Ethnographic research among urban laborers indicates that mobile telephony is a resource for human agency and action, and its use has resulted in greater personal income by increasing economic activity and enabling informal income-generating possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satellite nighttime light data open new opportunities for economic research. The data are objective and suitable for the study of regions at various territorial levels. Given the lack of reliable official data, nightlights are often a proxy for economic activity, particularly in developing countries. However, the commonly used product, Stable Lights, has difficulty separating background noise from economic activity at lower levels of light intensity. The problem is rooted in the aim of separating transient light from stable lights, even though light from economic activity can also be transient. We propose an alternative filtering process that aims to identify lights emitted by human beings. We train a machine learning algorithm to learn light patterns in and outside built-up areas using Global Human Settlements Layer (GHSL) data. Based on predicted probabilities, we include lights in those places with a high likelihood of being man-made. We show that using regional light characteristics in the process increases the accuracy of predictions at the cost of introducing a mechanical spatial correlation. We create two alternative products as proxies of economic activity. Global Human Lights minimizes the bias from using regional information, while Local Human Lights maximizes accuracy. The latter shows that we can improve the detection of human-generated light, especially in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Habitat III, the bi-decennial global gathering on cities that was held in Ecuador from October 17-20, 2016. Urbanisation has provided unprecedented mobility and economic opportunity and rapid, uncontrolled growth of cities is having negative health, environment, and climate effects.