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Decentralisation has frequently been sold as a means to increase well-being and development. Yet, questions remain as to whether decentralisation improves economic performance. This is possibly because decentralisation processes have often led to 'unfunded mandates', that is, a mismatch between the powers transferred to subnational tiers of government and the resources allocated to them. In this article, we analyse how unfunded mandates shape regional economic growth across 518 regions in 30 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the period 1997–2018. There is a negative, statistically significant, and robust impact of unfunded mandates on economic growth. This effect is higher in more politically and less fiscally decentralised regions and in regions with a higher level of wealth. Unfunded mandates thus represent a serious drag on the potential positive economic effect of political decentralisation. Hence, for those benefits to materialise, better not more decentralisation – ensuring that finance follows function – should be pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of economic freedom on income inequality has been inconclusive in the literature. Previous studies also show the importance of economic freedom in boosting economic development, whereas the Kuznets curve theory indicates the inverted U-shaped relationship between economic development and income inequality. Thus, economic development may play an important role in moderating the nexus of economic freedom and income inequality. This study throws light on the effects of economic freedom, economic development, and their interaction on income inequality in 35 Asian economies during 2000–2018 from the Kuznets curve's perspective. Our empirical results demonstrate that initially economic freedom increases income inequality, then until a threshold of economic development, economic freedom reduces income inequality. In addition, the inverted U-shaped Kuznets curve of economic development and income inequality is confirmed in the context of the Asian continent. The robustness of our results is ensured with different proxies of economic freedom and various estimators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the role of innovation in domestic economic development circulation (DEDC) and the impact of international economic development circulation (IEDC) on innovation, we construct an analytical framework for the mediation effect of innovation. Drawing on China's provincial panel data, we employ the causal steps approach to explore the impacts of IEDC on each link in the DEDC through the mediation effect of innovation. The results show that import have a direct effect on each link and export have a negative influence on distribution and consumption. Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has a negative impact on production and circulation through innovation. Foreign direct investment (FDI) and invisible ways have different indirect effects on each process. In addition, the influence of IEDC decreases from east to west in China, whereas import and export better promote DEDC in the central and western regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of research is a list of the main factors of influence of the foreign economic sphere on the level of economic security. The effective development of the national economy largely depends on the state and level of economic security of the country in the conditions of strengthening globalization and integration processes. An adequate level of economic security is the basis for the development of socio-economic systems of any level, stability in society in general. Therefore, assessment and analysis of factors affecting economic security at different levels (countries, businesses, enterprises and organizations) is an important direction of the analytical work of specialists. For its implementation, analysts need a methodology – to determine the goal and interests, the main influencing factors and principles, to choose methodological and analytical tools. In the scientific works of economists, the methodology, level, and indicators are given as separate aspects of the formation and management of the economic security of the state. Without denying the significant contribution of these developments, the conducted research sets out the systematization of factors influencing the state of the macroeconomic environment. The study of factors influencing the macroeconomic sphere on the level of economic security of the country is based on the use of indicators calculated from available statistical data. The last twenty years, which showed an increase in world GDP almost twofold (from 51.39 trillion USD in 2000 to 101.12 trillion USD in 2020), are characterized by the loss of opportunities for the Ukrainian economy to be present on the world stage a market where competition is intensifying and carried out at a new technological level. The work defines the national economic interests of Ukraine in the global socio-economic space, the directions of the realization of the national interests of Ukraine, the dynamics of indicators of the development of the macroeconomic sphere. This made it possible to form a list of the main influential factors of the macroeconomic sphere, which directly shape the level of economic security of the state. The results of the research can be useful for the formation or adaptation of development strategies of countries with similar conditions and economies, such as Georgia, Moldova, which also have conflicts with Russia and seek to join the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development of a remote, mountainous region poses a challenge anywhere. Based on field research and documentary evidence, this article examines how such a development challenge has been addressed in Daocheng county, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province. In doing so, it investigates the different forms of economic development, how such development comes about, and the role played by government in economic development. The article also probes the broader socioeconomic consequences of economic development. The fact that Daocheng is a predominantly Tibetan county adds a nationality dimension to the issue of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most migration studies and theories focus on understanding the initial migration of people from their home country. Less attention has been paid to the factors influencing immigrants' preferences to either permanently settle in the host country, return to their home country or move onwards to another destination. Understanding the characteristics and motives of those who aspire to leave the host country is, however, valuable for both host and home countries to formulate appropriate and effective policies in order to retain their valued immigrants or citizens and foster their successful (re-)integration. This paper provides a comprehensive global analysis of the characteristics and circumstances that shape first-generation immigrants' aspirations to stay, return or migrate onwards, based on individual-level data from the Gallup World Polls across 138 countries worldwide between 2009 and 2016. Our study reveals that immigrants' stated preferences are strongly influenced by demographics, human and spiritual capital, as well as by soft factors, such as social ties and sociocultural integration, while economic factors have a more feeble influence. Changes in circumstances in the home and host countries are also important determinants of locational aspirations. Some interesting exceptions to our results stand out when we differentiate home and host countries by their economic development levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of the current political developments in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, such as Ukraine, Poland, and Romania, the question arises as to the role played by economic transformation and the resulting innovation linkages in these countries over the last 20 years. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of economic and institutional dimensions on the development of CEE countries, explicitly distinguishing between European Union (EU) members and non‐members, and thus reflecting the differences in institutions and path dependency. Furthermore, the paper contrasts the performance of CEE countries with that of Western European countries. To achieve these objectives, the impact of factors such as innovation, institutions, and political practices on the economic development of 37 European countries from 2000 until 2020 is followed using fixed effects regression and Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. The results of the analysis show the importance of institutional factors such as low levels of corruption, political freedoms, and intellectual property. The effect of institutional variables was particularly pronounced in the case of non‐EU countries, which indicates the particular importance of the development of stable institutions for achieving higher levels of economic development for this category of countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Economic miracles, such as the Asian miracles, are not statistical accident to be ignored, and they are not as rare as commonly assumed i.e., the distribution of cross-country long-term growth follows a Power law. • Disentangling the role of policies from luck implies that economic miracles are alike, and every failure is a failure in its own way. High and sustained growth depends on maintaining the best possible policies while not being too unlucky. • The relatively few successes in achieving high and sustained growth such as the Asian miracles should constitute a focal point for the study of development policies. • In contrast, results derived from a large pool of development failures should be taken with skepticism, especially if it is based on the study of growth in the short to medium run. We show evidence that development "miracles," such as the Asian Miracles, may not be that rare as the distribution of cross-country long-term growth follows a Power Law. We propose a growth theory, disantangling the role of policies from luck, which is consistent with this stylized fact and predicts that high growth depends on maintaining the best possible policies while not being too unlucky. We argue that miracles are all alike and every failure is a failure in its own way, suggesting that the few growth miracles hold more clues about good policies than the vast number of growth failures. We infer important implications for the study of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last 30 years, there have been various findings related to the effects of construction investments––especially housing investments––on the economic development of urban areas. However, the impact of public housing investments on economic development in rapidly and dynamically developing countries with high housing demand has not been sufficiently discussed. This article presents an examination of the impact of housing production as a public housing investment on the economic development of provinces at the macro level through the case of Turkey. In the study, we analyzed the impact of public housing investments on the economic development of the provinces in Turkey between 2004 and 2018. Since 2004, Turkey has pursued a policy of increasing public housing investments, and for this purpose, the structure of the Toplu Konut İdaresi Başkanlığı (TOKI––the Mass Housing Authority), which is a strong and autonomous centralized public institution, has changed. Despite the increase in public housing investment at the country level as a result of this policy, the effect of public housing investment on economic growth at the provincial level has not been determined. In this study, panel data analysis methods were applied, regression analyses were conducted, and the findings were evaluated. The findings of the analyses showed that, although housing investments (private sector) have had an impact on the development of the provinces at the macro level, public housing investment and production have not played a decisive role in the economic development of the provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legal capacity or, otherwise, the institutions of rule of law (RL), have become a key factor for inclusive economic development, but the main strands of the literature involve theoretically driven expectations. Therefore, the study sought to examine the impact of legal capacity on inclusive economic development in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. While extant studies focused on the effect of governance on national output, the present study goes beyond growth by including welfare indicators. The study employed a panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach for data from all 16 SADC member states from 1996 to 2019. The interpretation of results and policy implications are based on the outcomes of the pooled mean group (PMG) estimator, which was deemed by the Hausman test as the best and most efficient estimator over the MG and the DFE family of the ARDL panel estimators. The results of the restricted panel reveal that strengthening the institutions of the RL leads to an improvement in inclusive economic development among SADC states. Therefore, we argue that trade laws should be domestically integrated and embedded in SADC's national laws, and that common courts should be set to adjudicate disagreements over compliance. We also propose that SADC introduce incentives to increase legal stakeholders' participation across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, Saudi Arabia's economic development has strongly depended on oil revenues fueled by the rise of oil prices and the strong global market demands for crude oils. However, the country can no longer depend on oil revenues in the face of the dynamic global market, and hence, the Saudi government's Vision 2030 seeks to reduce this dependence and diversify the economy's sources of income. Motivated by this, this study aims to investigate the impact of growth factors: financial innovation (FI), nonoil trade openness (TO), nonoil gross capital formation (GCF), and human capital (CH) development on the nonoil economic growth in Saudi Arabia. The goal of this investigation is to examine the dynamic symmetrical and nonsymmetrical impact of these growth factors on nonoil economic growth and policymaking in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this, this study utilizes the distributed lag symmetric and asymmetric (ARDL and NARD) approaches to assess the short- and long-term symmetric relationships among these growth variables with nonoil economic growth as well as the stationarity, cointegration, and directionality among variables with the theory of "ceteris paribus" in the error correction model (ECM), and Granger causality framework to analyze time-series data from 1980 to 2020. The findings of this study revealed that the FI, TO, GCF, and CH have an impact on the nonoil economic growth in the short and long terms. Additionally, in the long term, the NARDL technique showed that the positive adjustments of HC, FI, TO, and GCF boost the development, which have very significant effects on the nonoil GDP. They also indicate that negative movements have more influence than positive movements in FI. Meanwhile, mixed directional causation results were observed in the short-run analyses. Overall, the findings of this study provide significant insights, empirical recommendations, and implications for policymakers striving to achieve sustainable nonoil trade economic growth in Saudi Arabia and the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of stock market development on economic growth for nine developed European countries. In many countries, the stock market (SM), is considered. one of the crucial elements for promoting sustainable economic growth and development. By analysing data from nine developed European countries over 21 years, from 2000 to 2020, including Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, and Poland, this study seeks to determine the effect of the stock. market. on economic growth. The years 2021 and 2022 are not included due to the lack of data, mainly as a result of the pandemic period. The dataset, extracted from the World Bank database, is used to generate results by applying different econometric models such as OLS, OLS Robust, Fixed, and the Random Effect, which turned out to be more suitable in this study. According to research, macroeconomic factors such as stock. market development (SMD), and inflation (INF), have a significant positive impact while, domestic credit to the private sector (DC), has a negative significant impact on economic growth, in respective periods and countries. Therefore, new research on this topic could help better understand the stock market's impact on economic growth, and new conclusions might greatly benefit developed European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, the rise in income inequality and downward intergenerational social mobility since the 1970s represent twin problems facing community and economic development today. This paper proposes a Structure of Labor theory to apply at the local and regional level to address these development challenges. The objective is to provide a simple local approach to development that maximizes upward economic mobility and enables individuals and communities to achieve their development goals in the 21st century development landscape of the United States. The proposed theory fuses free-enterprise principles with state-planned dirigiste efforts to maximize the best of both theoretical perspectives. After reviewing pertinent literature and articulating the Structure of Labor theory, the latter sections of the paper explicate its implications for community and economic development practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor recreation managers as well as municipal and county economic development specialists can help diversify local, regional, and state economies by developing long-distance cycling routes and supporting bicycle tourism. In this research note, we outline 10 best practices focused on route planning and maintenance and four best practices focused on marketing bicycle tourism. The best practices are grounded in the experiences of practitioners who have developed long-distance cycling routes and academics who have studied their economic impacts. Outdoor recreation managers as well as municipal and county economic development specialists can apply the best practices in their own programs and partnership efforts and amplify the economic benefits of bicycle tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his thought‐provoking commentary on the future of economic geography, Henry Yeung considers recent global economic transformations and their implications for 'troubling' the discipline of economic geography. He identifies four particular areas for further attention: (1) (geo)political dynamics; (2) new risks and uncertainties; (3) new geographies of labour; and (4) global environmental change. In this brief response, I focus on the first and fourth, which I see as closely connected. Specifically, I use Yeung's call as a launching point from which to elaborate on three potentially fruitful avenues for recentring geopolitics in economic geography, by: (1) focusing on not only new but also previous and ongoing geopolitical economic dynamics; (2) incorporating not only national and supra‐national, but also transnational economic governance; and (3) foregrounding the intersection of geopolitics and environmental change. I conclude by considering why and how an economic geographic approach remains important to pursuing all three research directions, even as the current conjuncture demands that economic geography open itself further to new methods, topics and inter‐ and intra‐disciplinary research collaborations. In his recent commentary in this journal, Henry Yeung considers recent global economic transformations and their implications for 'troubling' the discipline of economic geography. In this brief response, I use Yeung's call for more attention to (geo)political dynamics and environmental change as a launching point from which to elaborate on three potentially fruitful avenues for recentring geopolitics in economic geography, by: (1) focusing on not only new but also previous and ongoing geopolitical economic dynamics; (2) incorporating not only national and supra‐national, but also transnational economic governance; and (3) foregrounding the intersection of geopolitics and environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon emission trading market (carbon market) is an important policy tool for China to achieve the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" through market mechanism. This paper uses panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2019 to examine the emission reduction effect (ERE) of China's carbon market pilots using multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID)method, and then analyzes the factors influencing ERE and the economic impact of carbon market. According to the Bacon decomposition and a series of robustness tests, the results reveal that China's carbon market pilots have significant ERE. Both the expansion of the carbon market scale and the improvement of market activity level can significantly boost the carbon market's ERE. Meanwhile, the establishment of carbon market has no negative impact on the economic growth. Therefore, we propose to accelerate the construction of the national carbon market, incorporating more industries in a systematic manner, expand the scale of the carbon market, steadily promote the innovation of carbon financial instruments, improve the activity of the carbon market, so as to promote the transformation of China's green and low-carbon economy and achieve the emission reduction target as scheduled. [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]

The problem of the study crystallizes in that despite the economic reforms that the Indian economy has witnessed, and despite its increasing trend towards economic liberalization, and following the orbit of the global economy, and even despite the large increase in exports, the rate of economic performance of the economic sectors is still below the desired level, which restores India due to its position on the global scene as a partner of the United States of America in world sovereignty, which makes it necessary to ask this main question: Is the development in economic reform policies in India accompanied by a change in its economic development? The research aimed to study the developments that occurred in the economic development indicators in India. And measuring the economic effects of economic reform on economic development in India, and studying the components of economic growth in India during the period (2020-2000). The main hypothesis of the study can be formulated that economic reform in India is a necessary condition for economic growth and economic development in India, and the study was based on data analysis. To achieve the objectives of the study using arithmetic mean, percentages, simple linear regression, and other descriptive and quantitative statistical methods, the study will focus on studying economic reform policies and the components of economic growth in the State of India, and the results show that there is a positive moral relationship between economic growth (as a dependent variable) and each of the following: The following independent variables (GDP, gross saving, exports of goods and services, imports of goods and services, exports of advanced technology, and value added in manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Based on the rankings of the global competitiveness index and the fragile states index, this paper aims to suggest alternative approaches to shed some light on the effectiveness of rankings in helping emerging economies improve their competitiveness from an institutional standpoint. Design/methodology/approach: The statistical analysis consisted of a two-stage analysis; the first stage consisted of constructing an updated Alternative Institutional Quality Index (AIQI), intending to design a comparative measure between dimensions over time. The second stage consisted of evidencing the structure of each of the observed dimensions' variance to evidence the existing changes or gaps of the AIQI and its components. The authors incorporated the Kruskas–Wallis (KW) model to test the results. Findings: This paper demonstrates that the analyzed countries generally maintain their competitive position, even though changes in their scores are reflected. This makes invisible the development and progress factors generated by the countries that are mainly found with low scores and only reflect stable structures that allow them to maintain their position. Research limitations/implications: The current study has a limitation because it concentrated on a few selected indicators based on the literature review. The limitations of this research may be overlooked in the future by adding additional variables and observations. The paper could be improved by including intra- and inter-regional approaches to control based on the occurrence of specific circumstances (i.e. informal institutions, economic development or factor endowments). Practical implications: The paper contributes to the applicable measurement of competitiveness and its structural change over time. Originality/value: This paper proposed an alternative and simple methodology to assess the evolution of the competitiveness indicators; this methodology could be used to measure structural changes at different levels, which may be an input for the design and implementation of policies to foster competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies on developing countries have investigated the alignment of research output to a country's development agenda and economic productivity. Using evidence from Kenya, this study sought to empirically determine whether the country's research output is aligned to its development agenda in the first instance and to establish the output's relationship to economic productivity. Journal publications were used to measure research output. From the analysis, 86% of the publications fell within one or more of the national development priority areas, though 60% were in only 6 of the 35 areas. Several areas had no publications at all during the period under investigation. Furthermore, excluding the health and education sectors, a strong positive relationship was established between the number of publications in different priority areas and those areas' contribution to Gross Domestic Product. The Government, therefore, needs to avail research funding to research institutions, which, in turn, need to focus their research effort on all identified national development priority areas if Kenya's development aspirations are to be achieved and the desired economic growth attained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policy agenda is currently being established for artificial intelligence (AI), a domain marked by complex and sweeping implications for economic transformation tempered by concerns about social and ethical risks. This article reviews the United States national AI policy strategy through extensive qualitative and quantitative content analysis of 63 strategic AI policy documents curated by the federal government between 2016 and 2020. Drawing on a prominent theory of agenda setting, the Multiple Streams Framework, and in light of competing paradigms of technology policy, this article reviews how the U.S. government understands the key policy problems, solutions, and issue frames associated with AI. Findings indicate minimal attention to focusing events or problem indicators emphasizing social and ethical concerns, as opposed to economic and geopolitical ones. Further, broad statements noting ethical dimensions of AI often fail to translate into specific policy solutions, which may be explained by a lack of technical feasibility or value acceptability of ethics‐related policy solutions, along with institutional constraints for agencies in specific policy sectors. Finally, despite widespread calls for increased public participation, proposed solutions remain expert dominated. Overall, while the emerging U.S. AI policy agenda reflects a striking level of attention to ethics—a promising development for policy stakeholders invested in AI ethics and more socially oriented approaches to technology governance—this success is only partial and is ultimately layered into a traditional strategic approach to innovation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weak ties are becoming mainstream in daily relationships and play an essential role in the improvement of individuals' mental health. Despite growing concerns on depression, inclusion of weak ties is limited. To address the gap, this study empirically shed light on the role of weak ties on individual depression in the context of economic development. A cross-sectional study was conducted based on 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) with a sample of 16,545 individuals. A moderated mediation model is constructed to evaluate the impact of economic development (GDP) on the degrees of depression, the mediating effect of weak ties, and the moderating effect of residents' residence types (living in urban or rural areas). Economic development exerts a significant direct impact on depression (β = − 1.027 , p <0.001). Weak ties are significantly negatively correlated with depression (β = − 0.574 , p <0.001), and act as a mediator between economic development and local individual depression. In addition, the residence type plays a moderating role between economic development and weak ties (β = 0.193 , p <0.001). That is, living in urban areas would introduce the higher the level of weak ties. Higher economic development is largely conducive to alleviating the degrees of depression, weak ties play a mediating role between economic development and depression, and residence types exert a positive moderating effect on the economic development and weak ties. • This study empirically shed light on the role of weak ties on individual depression based on 2018 CHARLS. • Economic development could significantly affect degrees of individual depression through the mediating effect of weak ties. • Residence types play a moderating role between economic development and weak ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The National Sports Academy "V. Levski" in Bulgaria is a leading educational and scientific institution in Europe for producing specialised personel in the field of Wellness & Spa tourism. The majority of graduates students (Bachelor's, Master's, or Doctoral degree) immediately find high-paying jobs abroad and leave the country. Methods: This paper aims to discuss and analyse the ongoing brain drain in the Bulgarian Wellness & Spa tourism industry. The study examines changes in values and beliefs that have significant impacts on employment, labor, and human behavior. Results: The high salaries offered to specialized personnel in the field of Wellness & Spa tourism has resulted in an annual brain drain to countries such as Europe, the USA, and the Emirates. Despite historical traditions, Bulgarian Wellness & Spa businesses are struggling due to the shortage of well-trained personnel. Discussion: This paper discusses changes in lifestyle and the underlying causes for the permanent shortage of qualified employees in the Wellness & Spa tourism industry. The negative economic impact of brain drain on Bulgaria as a tourist destination is also emphasised. Conclusion: The brain drain in the Bulgarian Wellness & Spa tourism industry is affecting operational, managerial, and scientific staff. It is essential to implement policy changes to safeguard the sector. These policies should aim to attract and retain specialized personnel, as well as offer competitive salaries and benefits. Failure to address brain drain could lead to long-term negative impacts on the Bulgarian economy and the country's Wellness & Spa industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the demographic development of the northernmost municipality in Montenegro, with a special emphasis on migration trends, which have intensified since the second half of the last century. The municipality of Pljevlja is specific in this regard because it had the highest growth in emigration since the beginning of the 21st century in Montenegro, regardless of the fact that it has natural potentials, which, unfortunately, have not been adequately used, so the municipality is still classified as underdeveloped. The consequence of the weak economic development of the municipality is the continuous decline in the number of inhabitants, namely, Pljevlja's share in the total population of Montenegro decreased from 9.7% in 1961 to 4.2% in 2021. In the paper, we will look at the ecological transitions and demographic transformations of the municipality. By analyzing the demographic parameters, we will point out the consequences of migration, which are directly reflected in the further demographic development of the municipality. Analysis of the overall movement of the population (natural movement and migration), the age-gender structure of the municipality's population and rural population size will prove the set hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explored the impact of eco-friendly houses on economic development in the Lisbon metropolitan area. The study analyzed data from 18 municipalities between 2014 and 2020 using regression analysis with ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effects. The results indicate that national policies promoting residential energy efficiency positively impact economic development. Policies like subsidies, loans, and tax relief encourage homeowners to invest in energy-efficient technologies, boosting household disposable income and contributing to economic growth. The study found that an increase in the number of new constructions positively impacts economic development, leading to job creation and increased demand for construction materials and services. Additionally, growing eco-friendly houses can reduce energy consumption, lowering energy costs for homeowners and businesses and ultimately stimulating economic growth. In contrast, increasing the number of non-eco-friendly houses can have negative economic impacts. A robustness check using the method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR) confirmed the results from OLS with fixed effects, providing additional evidence supporting the robustness of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unbalanced pattern of population urbanization in Guizhou is mainly restricted by natural background conditions such as karst landform environment, and is also closely related to economic and geographical factors such as the developing difference in various regions in the province, the number and density of cities and towns. Based on the regional differences in the population scale and density in the Qing Dynasty, this paper discusses the regional distribution of the number, density and hierarchical status of towns, and analyzes the internal relationship between urban distribution and regional geographical factors such as population, immigration, historical construction, economic development and ethnic situation, which can deepen the understanding of the evolution process of Guizhou's population distribution and urbanization pattern, and provide a certain historical basis for Guizhou's population development and urbanization policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the long-term effects of civil war in former Yugoslavia on economic growth and development. To this end, we employ the synthetic control methodology, and estimate the missing counterfactual scenario for the long-run growth and development of former Yugoslav republics, in the absence of the civil war by matching their growth and development characteristics with non-Yugoslav countries at the similar stages of development. The results suggest that the civil war led to unprecedented long-run growth and development losses. In the absence of the war, per capita income levels of former Yugoslav republics would improve markedly with notable differences in the magnitude of the growth and development gains across the affected countries. The estimated effects of the civil war are robust to a large number of placebo checks, and falsification-based random permutation tests. The results show that not a single former Yugoslav republic down to the present day has achieved the level of per capita income predicted by their synthetic control groups in the years preceding the civil war. Our results show that the Yugoslav civil war appears to be a permanent institutional shock with long-lasting implications for economic growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese mammoth investment projects abroad, and especially those under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) umbrella, are receiving heavy scrutiny in academic and policy circles. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence to evaluate their impact. This paper employs a difference- in-differences approach and a pair of new datasets on government spending and economic activity compiled by the World Bank to examine the local impacts of the Chinese-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Pakistan. It finds that the 2013 announcement of CPEC was accompanied by a disproportionate increase in government spending in CPEC districts. However, in the six years after it was first announced, CPEC has not directly contributed a significant increase in economic activity in the districts along its path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study corroborates the importance of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG‐7), intended to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable energy for all, and SDG‐8, designed to promote decent work and sustainable economic growth. This article is motivated by the highlighted SDGs and empirically explores the long‐run and causality relationship between energy consumption, urbanization, trade openness, and economic growth for annual frequency data from 1965 to 2021 for the case of Mexico. To this end, we leverage the use of fully modified ordinary least squares, dynamic ordinary least squares, and canonical regression estimation methods, while for the direction of causality, the gradual shift and wavelet coherence methods are used. According to the Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), the bounds test traces a long‐run relationship between the outlined variables over the sampled period. Empirical evidence validates the energy‐induced growth hypothesis. This result resonates with the causality analysis, where energy consumption drives economic growth one way in Mexico. This suggests that Mexico cannot embark on energy‐conservative policies, as such actions will hurt economic progress. In addition, unidirectional causality is seen between urbanization, trade openness, and economic growth. These findings have far‐reaching implications for economic growth and macroeconomic indicators in Mexico. More insights are highlighted in the concluding section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the first attempt to apply Putnis and Sauka's approach to direct measurement of the shadow economy through a survey of company managers in Central Asia. The results of the survey are used to calculate a shadow economy index for 2017 and 2018 in Kyrgyzstan, and to discuss the difference between direct and indirect methods in calculating the size of a shadow economy. We also propose a distinction between shadow economies and informality in general. While a shadow economy is usually understood to arise as a consequence of underreporting of income, we argue that informality is best understood as the aggregate of non-monetary and non-economic practices used in society. Applying this distinction to our case, we suggest that the origins of Kyrgyzstan's shadow economy are not only economic; rather social and cultural processes have had significant effects. This has implications for policy responses that address shadow economic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the Chinese Central Government has put great emphasis on the marine economy, since it has been a new driving force of the national economic development. Yet, the relationship between marine economic development and energy efficiency remains unknown. In this paper, we investigate whether marine economic development affected energy efficiency. We focused on the Zhoushan Archipelago, the first National New Area for marine economic development in China. We applied panel data approach to construct the counterfactual of Zhoushan Archipelago. We compared Zhoushan and its counterfactual, the synthetic Zhoushan, and viewed the difference between them, after the Zhoushan Archipelago New Area, as the impact of marine economic development on energy efficiency. We found that compared with its counterfactual, the real Zhoushan had a more substantial improvement in energy efficiency after the National New Area construction. We estimated that the construction of the National New Area for Marine Economy increased energy efficiency by about 10 percentage points. We also applied the bootstrapping technique to illustrate the significance of the estimated results. The results suggest that the Zhoushan Archipelago New Area construction had a statistically significant impact on energy efficiency. In addition, we conducted two tests, including leave-one-out tests and permutation tests, to check the robustness of estimated results, which also serve as an illustration of significance of the estimated results from an alternative empirical perspective. The results from these two tests are similar to each other, both indicating that the Zhoushan Archipelago New Area construction had a statistically significant positive impact on energy efficiency. Overall, our results suggest that marine economic development had a sizable improvement in energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study systematically reviewed scientific evidence regarding the impact of economic growth on physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviors. A keyword and reference search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and EBSCO from the inception of an electronic bibliographic database to November 2021. Studies that met all of the following criteria were included in the review: (1) study designs: observational studies; (2) study subjects: people of all ages; (3) exposure: macroeconomic growth; (4) outcomes: PA or sedentary behaviors/sitting time. 15 studies were identified. Eight among 12 studies found economic growth positively associated with at least one domain/measure of PA, whereas the remaining four found an inverse relationship. One of two studies examined the association of economic growth and physical inactivity found a positive relationship, while another found no significant relationship. Four studies examined the associations between economic growth and sedentary behaviors, and the results were inconclusive. The impact of economic growth on PA is through three main pathways—(a) building and maintaining parks and green spaces, (b) adoption of the modern workplace and high technology, and (c) motorized transportation. Building and maintaining parks and green spaces can effectively promote leisure time physical activity and active commute in developed countries, whereas promoting workplace and transportation-related PA could be prioritized in developing nations. Future research calls for longitudinal study design and further exploration of macro-environmental factors. Policymakers and stakeholders should be informed about the potential PA reduction resulting from economic growth and develop preventive strategies to alleviate the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China and India have begun to rapidly integrate into the world economy, they have generated scholarly interest in the processes of their economic transformations and consequences of their international economic engagements across a range of domains such as trade, finance, development, global economic governance, etc. However, research in these areas is primarily comparative, exploring the apparent variations with little focus on how they relate to each other in their response to "circulatory global forces". This article discusses the challenges of understanding China-India interactions in the field of global economic governance in general and in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in particular, and examines how they have responded, adapted, or innovated, both individually and as part of a collective or coalition, at similar points in time. In contrast to the other international economic institutions, the WTO has emerged as a site of struggle between ideas, actors, and norms, replete with instances of solidarity, failed solidarity, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the road network in Poland has undergone significant development, meeting the objective of creating a coherent network of roads to ensure the efficient functioning of passenger and freight transport. Linear investments, such as the construction of motorways, expressways or bypasses, are an important element that improves the safety and comfort of the life of residents, and has a significant impact on the economic and regional progress. In addition to the undoubted benefits of constructing a bypass, its possible negative impact on the surrounding agricultural and forest areas should be emphasised. Poor planning and construction of the bypass itself, without prior programming of survey and management works, can lead to disturbances in the spatial structure of neighbouring villages. This study attempts to analyse and evaluate the impact of the construction of the Tomaszów Lubelski bypass on the spatial structure of rural areas located in the eastern part of Tomaszów County (Lubelskie Voivodeship), which is a 9.58 km long section of the S17 Warsaw -- Hrebenne expressway. The study undertook a detailed analysis of only those factors that adversely affect the spatial structure of rural areas. On the basis of research on the subject, factors affecting and significantly changing the spatial structure of rural areas were identified, which allowed to formulate final conclusions regarding the problem of realising linear investments in relation to shaping the space of rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the international iron trade, focusing on the Brazil-China network and its implications for economic and social progress. Iron supports various industries, particularly construction, manufacturing, and infrastructure development. The study employs descriptive analysis, quantitative measures, and correlation coefficients to analyse the dynamics of the iron trade. The research highlights Australia and Brazil as significant exporters in the global iron ore market, with China as the primary importer. Network analysis reveals China's extensive commercial connections and strong trade relationships with key exporting countries. Correlation coefficients demonstrate positive associations between Brazil's Iron Exports, Brazilian GDP, Chinese construction sector GDP, and world construction sector GDP, emphasising their interdependence. Understanding these dynamics is essential for policymakers, economists, and industry stakeholders in navigating the complexities of the global economy. The study provides valuable insights into the international iron trade, its impact on the construction sector, and broader economic dynamics. It contributes to informed decision-making and promotes sustainable economic and social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle classes in the Global South have become topical. They were considered mainly by economists in development-oriented institutions and praised as a factor contributing to economic development and democratic forces. We recapitulate some of the trends and remind the reader of earlier debates. We take stock of the variety of contributions and point to the efforts to have a more nuanced look at the composition and orientations of 'middle classes' and their political engagements. We maintain that the initial economistic reduction, measuring monetary income as the main criteria for middle classness, is insufficient and offers no reliable set of indicators as to the social and political as well as cultural positioning of members of such income groups. An appropriate analysis of the nature and role of African middle classes must consider four aspects: the specific class formations of African societies; the link between socioeconomic stratification and sociopolitical orientations; the limited knowledge and theorisation of African societies; and the need to apply a multidimensional and new research including diverse sociocultural elements and their contextual embeddedness. We argue that an intersectional lens can break up the classical competition of the one-dimensional paradigms and suggest decolonising research on protest and middle classes by integrating a perspective and theorisation from Africa. More attention should be paid to analytical concepts such as intersectionality and social milieu for the understanding of African societies and their potential for transformation through protest. This requires overcoming stereotypical and truncated assumptions about the middle classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the debate on economic development in Russia after the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and focuses on the contribution of Yuli Zhukovsky, a self-taught economist. Based on his interpretation of western ideas, he saw material conditions as the crucial factor of economic development and suggested a set of measures that would ensure the improvement of the country's productivity. Zhukovsky's eclectic views differed from the ideas of the radical intelligentsia and the liberals, thus making his contribution unique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world economy is developing rapidly. Behind the rapid development, the management of economic regions is very important. In the process of economic management, the government plays the role of macrocontrol and is responsible for the management of various economic affairs and social and economic services. While undertaking infrastructure construction, it creates a good environment for economic development. However, with the deepening of economic development and the more and more complex economic data, the current economic management has gradually exposed a range of issues that arise during the process of economic development, and these problems need to be solved urgently. At this time, the application scope of artificial intelligence in the economic field is getting wider and wider, and it has a great positive effect on economic development. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of economic management in the process of economic development, this paper proposes a development path that integrates AI and economic management and provides intelligent technology support for the development of economic management to help the smooth operation of economic development. In addition, this paper shows through experiments that the path of integration of AI and economic management can promote the development and smooth operation of the economy, and AI has a positive impact on economic management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have proven a positive impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on economic growth. Nevertheless, some studies have suggested a limited effect, while others have found no statistically significant effect. Faced with this problem, we conducted a study with the aim to assess the role of moderation of ICT diffusion between financial development and economic expansion in Saudi Arabia from 1990 to 2019. Using the bootstrap approach for the ARDL model, the results prove that financial development as well as ICT diffusion affect negatively (positively) economic development. The financial development interaction term with ICT diffusion has a positive and statistically significant effect on economic growth. The results suggest that ICT diffusion does not only directly impact economic growth but also increase the indirect impact of financial development on economic growth. This result indicates that ICT diffusion boosts the role of financial development in economic development. This means that financial development can only boost the Saudi economy when ICTs are well developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the intensity of the influence of foreign direct investments, exports of goods and services, and research and development expenditure on GDP growth of developed and developing countries. Panel regression analysis determined that the exports of goods and services make the largest contribution to growth on middle levels of income. In fact, the contribution the export of goods and services makes to growth on middle levels of income is two times larger than in countries with a high GDP. The most essential impact on countries with a high GDP level was made by research and development expenditure, which is 3.5 times larger than its impact on the developing Balkan countries. The phenomenon of the Middle-Income Trap can be explained by insufficient research and development expenditure. Foreign direct investments are not statistically significant for the GDP growth of observed countries, but they achieve far better results on low development levels. The empirical data, presented in figures, confirms the conclusions of the econometric analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a model in which the relation between the real exchange rate and the real wage, in the context of conflictive income distribution, is made explicit. It is noted that the central bank tries to regulate the distributive relation exchange rate and real wages through the changes in the interest rate. The theoretical point is that, under certain circumstances, a relatively depreciated or high level of the real exchange rate might reduce real wages and have a negative impact on economic growth. The paper also provides some evidence for the Argentine case, and suggests that the Classical Developmentalist elasticity pessimism seems, in the case of Argentina, to be validated. Also, the use of the exchange rate as an instrument to bolster redistribution away from the working class, and to promote investment and growth is also not born in the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Impacts of export quality on economic progress are examined. • The role of economic complexity for economic growth is investigated. • 28 OECD country's data is utilized from 1990 to 2019. • Export quality and economic complexity induce sustainable growth. • Institutional quality is a significant determinant for economic growth. It is important to unearth the role of structural change factors for sustainable growth in developed economies. Economic complexity, export product quality, and institutional indicators represent the overall structural change and transformation in an economy. This paper probed the influence of export product quality and economics of complexity on economic growth for 28 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries using the data from 1990 to 2019. In doing so, the study employs three-panel data econometric models to investigate the role of economic complexity, export quality, and institutional quality on economic development. The paper performs the empirical tests, including the cross-sectional related dependency methods and cointegration techniques. As per the results emerging from fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and dynamic OLS (DOLS) estimation, export quality and financial development positively and significantly strongly impact growth in the long run. The empirical conclusions report detailed discussion on sustainable growth and discuss novel implications concerning product quality and institutional performance. The conclusions stress the practical implications for sustainable economic growth of OECD economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sub-Saharan African region experienced a fluctuated development process, and it is one of the regions facing severe underdevelopment in the modern era. Many studies have been conducted to unveil the factors, which cause the underdevelopment, and there is an ongoing discussion on this topic. The main objective of this study to inquire about how institutional and economic factors affect economic development in Sub-Saharan African countries from 1990 to 2016 by utilizing second-generation panel data methods. Empirical findings are as follows: (i) Democracy, peace, market size, and population growth have a positive and statistically significant effect on economic development, whereas foreign direct investment has a negative one. (ii) Total debt service, investments, and corruption have a negative but statistically insignificant effect on economic development. (iii) Moreover, the effect of urban population on economic development varies based on the estimation methodology. The implications and policy inferences of the empirical findings are discussed in the related sections of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current changes in ratio of Russia's main socioeconomic groups (working-age, youth, and elderly) are adversely impacting the country's economic development. The purpose of this article is to reflect these changes during a demographic wave. To that end, we use official statistics and predicted population changes up to the year 2050. Our analysis shows that the number and share of the working-age population will decline, the elderly population will grow, and the youth population can either decrease or increase. This will lead to a decline in the number of people employed and to a significant increase in employment of the elderly, to a substantial demographic burden, and to a decrease both in standard of living and in volume of the domestic market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined capital flight and economic development in Sub-Sahara Africa. Specifically, we ascertained the impact of foreign direct investments outflow, foreign portfolio investment outflow, remittances outflow and other development assistance outflow on economic development in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. The nature of the study necessitated the use of secondary data covering the period of 1991 through 2020. We adopted a combination of Panel Corrected Standard Error (PCSE) and the Panel Data Regression techniques in examining the impact of capital flight and economic development in Sub-Sahara Africa. The Augmented Dickey fuller (ADF) Unit root tests were used to ascertain the series properties of the variables while the Correlation analysis was conducted to ascertain the degree of relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The study revealed that Foreign Direct Investments Outflow (FDIO) exerted negative significant effect on economic development proxy (HDI) in Nigeria. This suggests that high FDIO stiffens HDI. Foreign Portfolio Investments Outflow denoted by FPIO exerted negative insignificant impact on economic development (HDI) in SSA countries throughout the study periods. Foreign Remittances Outflow denoted by REMO has a positive significant impact on economic development in SSA countries having controlled for both inflation and exchange rate. Lastly, Other Development Assistance (ODA) has a positive and insignificant impact on HDI in SSA countries in the periods under review having controlled for both inflation and exchange rate. This suggests that, a high ODA will lead to a more developed economy though weak. We therefore recommend that the government of SSA countries should ensure that all leakages attributed to foreign direct investment outflows should be closed. The Federal government in SSA countries must also shift their focus and policy directives from the oil sector to the industrial sector as this will attract the attention of foreign investors into the industrial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has witnessed considerable rural educational migration in the last decade. Many rural families have been sending their children to nearby urban schools, accompanied by an adult family member who relocates to live with the child in the urban setting. Drawing on 128 in-depth interviews and 814 questionnaires with rural parents/guardians of primary-school students, plus more than 100 teachers, villagers, and officials in one county, this study investigates this widespread type of educational migration and the adverse consequences on the social and economic development of villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the link between marine resources exports and their impact on economic development in Pakistan by using Vector Error-Correction Models (VECM). The data of 57 years from 1960 to 2017 were used to analyse the impact among variables. The findings of this research were obtained as there is no long-run association discovered between the fisheries exports and economic development. However, we discovered that there is a short-run relationship sustained between them. In addition, the results from the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression also validates that there is a robust relationship between GDP and exports of fisheries products. The findings indicated that the sub-sector (Fisheries) of the agriculture sector is playing an extensive role in the economic growth of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]