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We study the impact of a unique financial anomaly—the simultaneous persistence of greater cash holdings and interest‐bearing debts (SP‐GCHID) on stock price. Due to institutional diversity and the nature of transition economies, high cash holdings do not always stem from precautionary motive as usually claimed but can be the result of cash misappropriation and debt manipulation by major shareholders. Analysing data from Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2018, we find that SP‐GCHID is associated with a higher stock price crash risk (SPCR). It is more evident among firms with major shareholders pledging their shares and firms exposed to more external information monitoring. SP‐GCHID also affects SPCR through increasing real earnings management, further suggesting that major shareholders' misappropriation is the main reason for SP‐GCHID's adverse effect. These findings are also robust in a range of endogenous tests. To our knowledge, this study is the first to explore the economic consequences of SP‐GCHID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to recent literature in new institutional economics and entrepreneurship, institutions, including formal and informal ones (i.e., the rules) are important. However, in a homogeneous national institutional environment, it is unclear whether and how the execution of institutions (how the rules are implemented) matters. The purpose of this research is to assess the mechanisms that local governments can use to encourage entrepreneurial investment, which determines the future growth potential of small businesses. We find that (i) improving local institutional quality in general boosts entrepreneurial investment; and (ii) more financially constrained firms are more sensitive to informal local governance, while less financially constrained firms are more sensitive to local formal institutions, using a large‐scale small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) dataset from Vietnam from 2006 to 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of climate change are unevenly distributed across territories. Less is known about the potential effects of climate policies aimed at mitigating the negative consequences of climate change while transitioning economies towards low-carbon standards. This paper presents an analytical framework for identifying and assessing the regional impacts of the green transition. We develop a Regional Green Transition Vulnerability Index, a composite measure of the regional vulnerability of European regions to the socio-economic reconfigurations prompted by the green transition. The index brings to light strong regional variations in vulnerability, with less developed, peri-urban and rural regions in Southern and Eastern Europe more exposed to the foreseeable changes brought about by the green transition. We also draw attention to the potential rise of pockets of growing 'green' discontent, especially if the green transition contributes, as is likely to be the case, to leaving already left-behind regions further behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- What are the effects of implementing various types of innovation, including product, process, and technological innovations, on the performance of SMEs in the manufacturing sector? This is a question that preoccupies us a lot. This study seeks to examine the individual and integrated effects of these innovations. Indeed, we examine the impact of three categories of innovation -- product, process, and technological innovation -- on the performance of SMEs in the manufacturing industry. Research methodology -- We used a quantitative approach to execute this research, selecting SMEs at random using self-administered questionnaires. The data collected from 153 manufacturing SMEs was analyzed using hierarchical linear regression to investigate, evaluate, and refine the relation among product, process, and technological innovation and SME performance. Findings -- This study's findings reveal a clear and direct relationship between these three forms of innovation and SMEs' performance. This study also provides empirical evidence that various forms of innovation, either examined individually or as integrated, exert a positive effect on the performance of SMEs in the manufacturing industry. Limitations -- This study focuses on Kosovo-based SMEs, with the assumption of an upright connection between variables. Future studies can examine the existence of reverse causality in a variety of regional, cultural, and industrial settings. Originality/Value -- This study significantly advances existing knowledge by providing useful insights into the complex interplay among product, process, and technological innovation (examined from both individual and integrated perspectives) as well as the performance of SMEs in the manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firm‐level adoption of circular business models is a crucial part of the transition toward circular economy, but companies that delve into such pursuits often encounter a series of barriers that hamper their success. Although multiple studies on barriers to circular economy have been made, there is a lack of understanding of how barriers are formed under firm‐specific characteristics such as sectoral conditions and the type of circular business model adopted. To bridge this gap, we illustrate a barrier framework in a multiple‐case study including nine Swedish firms. We derived about 28 barriers within five categories of circularity approaches (design, waste, service, platform, and nature) across three sectors (furniture, electronics, and garment). This research contributes to the circular economy literature by revealing how adhering to certain sectors and circular business approaches significantly changes the way barriers are perceived by firms. The outcomes may support both practitioners and policymakers as they facilitate circular economy transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has argued that companies in transition economies engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to achieve political goals, such as building connections with the government. However, it is unclear why chief executive officers (CEOs) agree to make these politically driven CSR decisions that mainly benefit the controlling shareholders. We show that controlling shareholders may "bribe" the CEOs with greater compensation or perks—a form of economic rents extracted by the CEOs—to make CSR decisions, and such a pattern is more salient in local government-owned companies. We reason that these CSR activities reflect implicit contracting between the controlling shareholders and the CEOs. Through cross-section analyses, we find that the CEO's economic rents vary with local government fiscal needs, the firm's governance structure, and CEO power. Furthermore, we demonstrate that increases in CSR-linked compensation lead to a decline in shareholder value. Data Availability: All data are available from public databases identified in the paper. JEL Classifications: D72; M12; P26. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using household-level panel data and a coarsened exact matching procedure, this paper investigates the relationship between frequent electricity outages and the anthropometric outcomes of children. Specifically, we study the differences in the anthropometric outcomes of children aged under 5 in the Kyrgyz Republic. We find that children living in households with frequent outages have z-scores of height-for-age (HAZ) that are 0.37 units lower compared to the children living in similar households but without frequent outages. We also document that HAZ values of girls are more sensitive toward frequent outages, which indicates a possible presence of gender bias among Kyrgyz households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The institutional context in which family firms operate influences their behaviour and performance, yet literature reviews seldom analyse family firms on a regional basis. To fill this gap, this review aims to present research on family entrepreneurship in the transition economies of the Visegrád countries (V4). In this particular group of European economies, the current formal institutions have largely evolved along Western European lines. However, the transformation of informal institutions appears to be still in its infancy. Design/methodology/approach: In order to identify the most representative authors, the methodologies used, the main research topics and to establish a future research agenda, the authors selected, through a systematic process, 112 papers from the Web of Science up to the year 2022. The authors performed a bibliographic analysis using clustering algorithms, complemented by a traditional literature review. Findings: The performance of family firms in transition economies has been the subject of very little research. The results allowed the authors to identify four main areas of research: governance, innovation, sustainability, competitive advantage and considering the influence of the region's characteristics on family business behaviour. Originality/value: Studies from transition economies can contribute to a broader understanding of family firms in terms of the impact of the institutional environment (especially the influence of sociological changes and specific historical experiences of family members) on their long-term planning, socioemotional wealth (SEW) protection and ethics. In light of recent events, research from the region may also contribute to the understanding of how and to what extent "familiness" influences crisis management or socially responsible behaviour in family firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Porter hypothesis posits that well-functioning markets and government regulations can promote enterprise innovation, it remains less clear in developing and transition economies. To address this gap, we utilize enterprise data from China’s A-share market between 2005 and 2017 to empirically examine whether implementing more stringent environmental regulation will prompt regulated enterprises to engage in rent-seeking or innovative behavior. Our findings reveal that regulated enterprises increase both their rent-seeking and innovation efforts in response to environmental regulation. Importantly, enterprises exhibiting lower levels of rent-seeking demonstrate more substantial increases in rent-seeking expenditure when confronting environmental regulation. Furthermore, we discover that state-owned enterprises are more inclined to implement innovative behaviors, while foreign enterprises significantly reduce their innovative activities. This study highlights the complex relationship between environmental regulation and enterprise behavior in developing or transition economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 2000s, China has accelerated reconstruction of the welfare state against the backdrop of the second transition. Following a typological approach, this study proposes an analytical framework for assessing varieties of social reproduction before delving into a comparative look at China's national institutional framework, in which China is regarded as a transitional economy and a late bloomer. As represented in three dimensions, countries have production regimes that diverge in the degree of coordination, welfare regimes that differ in the degree of decommodification, and labor reproduction regimes that vary in the degree of depatriarchalization. We investigate the convergence and divergence of advanced economies, transitional economies, and the emerging economies of East Asian countries. Hierarchical cluster analysis and a three-dimensional map illustrate the varieties of regimes at the intersections of production, welfare, and reproduction. With the help of institutional complementarities, five worlds of social reproduction are distinguished: the late blooming, the liberal, the catch-up/transitional, the conservative, and the social democratic. China's production regime converges with that of continental Europe and Post-Socialist societies based on institutional arrangements of nonmarket coordination; however, limited income maintenance and redistribution policies, the absence of family-friendly policies, and the regendering of the division of labor make China's institutional mix appear more compatible with East Asian societies than Western ones. The institutional complementarities between the welfare and labor reproduction regimes reveal a social reproduction scenario that is less than purely late blooming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we leverage sentiment analysis to investigate public perception towards environmental issues as conveyed through global news articles and its potential implications on the transition to a low-carbon economy. Utilizing an extensive corpus of news articles sourced globally, we deploy Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to quantify sentiment in these articles, capturing public sentiment's dynamism and complexity towards various environmental issues. Our methodology involves sentiment scoring of key aspects like "climate change", "climate policy", "renewable energy", "solar energy", "wind energy", and "environmental impact" which facilitated a detailed sentiment trend analysis over time. We also incorporated a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model to conduct topic modelling, identifying five major topics recurring in the discourse. Our correlation analysis uncovers interesting relationships such as a positive correlation between sentiment scores of "low carbon" and "electric cars", and a negative correlation between "greenhouse gas emissions" and "electric cars". The findings indicate that public sentiment towards environmental issues is not only multifaceted but also evolving, with significant implications for policy-making and stakeholder engagement in the low-carbon transition. These results exemplify sentiment analysis as a powerful tool in understanding public perception, providing actionable insights for researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders involved in environmental issues and the lowcarbon economy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 technologies have become one of the main enablers for implementing Circular Economy e↵orts, creating smart and connected products, processes, and systems that can optimize resource usage, reduce waste, and improve efficiency, with a significant environmental impact. Blockchain is a technology that was initially centered on authentication and security applications. Currently, its utility has extended to solving multiple problems across industries. This paper explores the di↵erent applications of the Blockchain related to the circular economy. A systematic literature review method was applied to analyze the main objectives, advantages, disadvantages, opportunities, and challenges of implementing Blockchain in various industrial sectors. Results show a growing trend in applications with favorable impacts, especially in sectors like Manufacturing, Energy, and Automotive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A green economy is not a common economic practice. This leads the governments in many countries to focus on institutional arrangement and policy development. The institutional arrangement is one of the main significant factors, while green economy policies have to be well developed to support stakeholders and put less pressure on local communities. Hence, this research aims to understand green economic development in Cambodia by focusing on institutional arrangements and green economic development policies. Thus, this research's priority was to evaluate their background and progress, and a comprehensive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis was conducted based on their progress/transition. This research conducted background, progress, and SWOT analyses based on (i) the government's documents, including the code, laws, royal decrees, sub-decrees, prakas, policies, strategic plans, roadmaps, and reports; (ii) development partners' reports from reliable sources, such as UN agencies, UN Programs, ASEAN, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank; and (iii) existing literature. This research presented the results and discussed the findings encompassed by political and economic conditions, institutional arrangement and capacities, policy development and coordination, and participation of the public and stakeholders, as well as global green cooperation and funding, which were conditioned by the experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainties resulting from global geopolitical conflicts, such as the Russian–Ukrainian conflicts. Moreover, this research discussed weaknesses against strengths and threats against opportunities to suggest solutions or implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on Critical Political Economy (CPE) to explore energy transitions in Mexico. It analyzes struggles over competing energy visions from a decolonial, spatial and post-development perspective. The article frames energy transformations as more than a move away from fossil fuels: They encompass a radical overhaul of universalized Eurocentric capitalist modernity that call the state's role as both facilitator and driver of the energy transition into question. I examine two low-carbon infrastructure projects in the state of Yucatan, Mexico to build on Bridge and Gailing's notion of new energy spaces as the sites, scales and spatialities through which broader questions of political economy and contemporary struggles are being worked out. CPE of the energy transition must ensure that low-carbon infrastructures are not deployed as new forms of extraction, but rather as the material basis of pluriversal transitions informed by affected communities and their territorial struggles. Both studies on the political economy of energy transitions and territorial struggles can benefit from an open dialogue about how socioecological transformations are imagined, designed and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Energiewende (energy transition) is the dynamic and contested project of energy transition in Germany. It encompasses both the sociotechnical transformation of the German electricity system and the reorganization of the sector's ownership structure. In this paper, we present a Capital-as-Power (CasP) based analysis, investigating industrial path-dependency and innovation as part of the dialectics of power and sociotechnical change in capitalism. According to CasP, dominant capital seeks to increase its differential accumulation, i.e., accumulation relative to a benchmark. Energiewende policies initially decreased the differential accumulation of dominant electricity firms in Germany. However, we find that by concentrating their control over the shrinking conventional generation capacity, while variable generation expanded, dominant firms gained the leverage needed to increase differential prices and profits, thus managing to regain sectoral control by increasing their threat to reliable power supply. We find that these processes coincide with spatial centralization, ownership concentration, and decreasing penetration rates of renewable energy resources in Germany. By presenting new conceptual tools and empirical findings, we trace the ways in which the recovery of dominant capital in the German electricity sector shapes and restricts energy transition processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The short-term economic fluctuations caused by green transition are underestimated, and there is limited research on the dynamic effects of compound risks on transitioning economies. We propose the SERENE flow-of-funds behavioral model to simulate and calibrate the Chinese economy, considering pension systems, policies, public expectations, long-term risks, and environmental constraints factors. We analyze the impacts of compound risks and exam the appropriateness of low-carbon transition policies. The results indicate the presence of non-linear loss amplification effects due to compound risks, which can lead to a decline in economic resilience. Additionally, three green transition policies exhibit varying degrees of effectiveness in transitioning the economy under long-term risk environments. Furthermore, it has been observed that by promoting green investments through pension funds, it is possible to promote green transition in terms of both scale and depth, while effectively reducing poverty and addressing income and distribution inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into credit risk assessment has gained significant attention recently. Therefore, it is necessary to understand, select and assess the risks of these ESG criteria and evaluate how they can impact company's creditworthiness. The main objective of this study is to give a thorough overview of the types of ESG risks, their interrelation with credit risk of the company and methodological approaches they can use, along with opportunities for future advancements. The analysis shows that climate change and transition to low-carbon economy provoke two main types of ESG risks – physical risks and transition risks. Both types of ESG risks could affect company's creditworthiness through its cash flows capital and collateral. In order to assess climate-related types of risks methodologies based on forward-looking scenarios are needed with the employment of data that has not been observed in the past. These results are a basis for further development of methodological architecture of ESG-credit risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of an individual country, it is necessary to implement a series of policy measures and strategies to achieve long-term multiple goals and targets. As a result, whether adjustments or changes in institutions can be timely aligned from the short term to the long term becomes vital. Since "[p]romote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth" and "[e]nsure sustainable consumption and production patterns" have been clearly stated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 12, respectively, it is necessary to make an institutional transition from the conventional linear economy to a circular and sustainable economy. This transition involves substantial changes in the value structure of society's institutions. For instance, the mainstream curricula have little relevance to the subject matter of sustainability and should be revised to accommodate more socio-economic elements of sustainability in the original institutional economics (OIE) tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions about green growth transition in Africa have mostly been silent on quantifying Africa's progress and assessing countries' "green" versus "brown" growth performance. We construct a measure of Africa's green growth performance using an emissions-adjusted production technology framework that jointly accounts for the production of desirable and undesirable outputs over the period 2000–2019, and identify the important country-level characteristics that drive green productivity growth. The Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index is consistent with concerns of climate change as it penalize countries for the production of "bad" outputs and credit countries for the reduction in emissions and production of "good" outputs, which is the desirable direction of economic development. Our main results indicate that Africa's productivity growth is overstated when undesirable outputs are ignored in the measurement of Africa's growth performance. Second, it is technological progress, and not efficiency change—i.e., the catch-up effect—that has been the primary source of Africa's green economy transition, implying a reduction in the gap to the technological frontier for most countries. Our analysis of the determinants of green growth shows that high-income level, trade-embodied R&D, and domestic R&D are the main enablers of green growth, while high energy intensity is the main barrier to green productivity growth. We also find evidence of nonlinearities between income level and green growth performance, consistent with the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article explores the role of start-ups within entrepreneurial ecosystems in driving the transition towards a circular economy. It emphasises the importance of understanding and supporting circular start-ups for broader sustainability impacts. Unlike established firms, start-ups can readily adopt ambitious circular business models (CBMs) without the risk of business model cannibalisation and with the agility to adapt to market trends. CBMs enhance value creation, delivery and capture resource flows in an optimised non-linear fashion. Scaling up CBMs is crucial for overall economic, social and environmental benefits. Hence, leveraging the key entrepreneurial ecosystems actors, such as universities, business incubators and related venture development intermediaries, is vital for start-up support. In this special issue, we have invited researchers to submit contributions that delve into the dynamics among start-ups, entrepreneurial ecosystems and the circular economy, aiming to enrich our understanding of the early stage start-up development process with the aim of promoting the circular economy at a firm, regional or national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the effect of the granting of European Union (EU) citizenship rights on the flow of remittances from Italy. We use the EU enlargements of 2007 and 2013 as natural experiments. The results show a negative impact on remittance flows. The effect of the 2007 EU enlargement shows how Romanian and Bulgarian citizens reduced the average annual amount of remittances by 1400 Euros per year per migrant. In the case of the 2013 EU enlargement, we find a smaller decrease of about 50 Euros per year per Croat. These results are consistent after a series of robustness checks. We analyse this decline in depth to the extent that remittances are an important source of monetary flows in transition economies. We find that both the change in the taxonomy of immigrants from the new Member States and the improvement of economic conditions in the country of origin after the EU accession provide suggestive evidence on plausible mechanisms behind our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the contribution of institutional reforms to economic growth. To this end, we distinguish between several classes of institutional reform in the approach to economic liberalisation. Based on a sample of 24 current and former transition economies for the period 1980–2016, we estimate the counterfactual scenarios related to each distinctive institutional approach to the economic liberalisation by making use of the synthetic control method. Our evidence uncovers notable contrasts in the long‐term effectiveness of designated policy approaches in recovering from the transitional recession. A variety of synthetic control estimates suggests that a sustained big bang approach (rapid reforms) appears to be the most effective approach, while an abortive and gradualist approach tends to produce a permanent breakdown of the growth trajectories relative to the estimated counterfactuals. The point estimates survive an extensive battery of placebo tests. By employing the same methodological tool kit, future research could examine the impact of transition reforms on other socio‐economic variables, such as the poverty rates, income inequalities, health and environmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The threat of rapid and unpredictable climate change means we must urgently transition human lifestyles into a restoration economy, with a focus on restorative development instead of new development or conservation of old modes. To support that project, marketing educators must rethink their discipline and their responsibilities, challenging legacy marketing teaching and 'business as usual'. To assess current practice, a global survey of 200 marketing faculty identified three clusters by climate consciousness: Engaged, Conflicted, and Traditionalist. Analysis of open-ended comments identified three themes: Felt need for change, Barriers to change, and Action to take. Building on these findings, we identify anti- and pro-restoration mechanisms in our disciplinary practice at societal, university, and individual level. We present those mechanisms in a new framework highlighting the discourses that reinforce and challenge engagement and agnosis. Agnosis is a socio-cultural and psychological phenomenon underlying the current collective failure to engage with climate change. We challenge colleagues to confront agnosis and offer individual, disciplinary, and institutional actions that support transition to net-zero carbon marketing logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hospitality industry has been highlighted as an important economic sector that is vulnerable to climate change. However, this industry is also considered to have a substantial contribution to the degradation of the environment by consuming excessive quantities of energy, producing approximately 8% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Previous studies have proposed the circular economy as an optimal concept to address this issue by eliminating waste and maximizing resource utilization. In light of that, many hotels are striving to shift the traditional linear economy into a circular economy by adopting green marketing into their business operations. However, they still face many obstacles in making an effective transition to a circular‐style economy due to the lack of an appropriate approach. To fill this gap, this study aims to develop a framework to give insights on which aspects can foster the circular economy transition process through green marketing implementation. Therefore, this study proposes a hybrid method that integrates an exploratory factor analysis with a fuzzy synthetic method and a decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory to structure the hierarchical model and provide guidance to decision‐makers for future improvements under resource constraints. The results reveal that advantage acquisition and behavior transition are the most influential aspects in accelerating the transition to the circular economy in the hospitality industry. The crucial theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving sustainable development targets requires major changes in the existing economic structure and a transition from a pollution‐intensive energy system to a clean one. The role of the digital economy (DE) in this regard has received much attention in recent eras. However, there is little literature investigating the relationship between the DE and the energy transition in the presence of technological innovation. This study's aim, grounded in the sustainability agenda, is to explore the possible impact of DE and technological innovation on the energy transition for the BRICS nations from 2003 to 2021. Using the most recent Moments Quantile Regression method, the results reveal that the DE can contribute significantly to achieving SDG‐7 by promoting energy transition. While technological innovation does not significantly influence the energy transition. Moreover, economic development is hindering the energy transition in the BRICS countries. Several alternative estimation methods have been applied to confirm the robustness of the results. The empirical results conclude that governments should build digital infrastructure and encourage innovation in the energy sector by supporting energy‐related patents. The detailed policy implications are presented in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural differences represent significant trade barriers between transitional economies and their trading partners, which has been overlooked in recent studies. This paper investigates the effect of cultural distance (CD) on bilateral trade from Bangladesh. We conceptualize a research model by employing the extended gravity model as a theoretical base, where we amplify the theory by proposing that linguistic distance (LD) as a part of cultural distance has a profound effect on bilateral trade based on bilateral trade data from 1995 to 2019 and Hofstede's culture indices between Bangladesh and 157 trading partner countries. Using a pseudo‐poisson maximum likelihood model, we find that cultural distance has a significant and negative impact on Bangladesh's trade, with a significance level of 1%. Our empirical results indicate that one unit increase in cultural distance decreases trade by 40.84% and cultural distance has a greater impact on Bangladesh's exports than on its imports. Findings also reveal that the effect is substantial with high‐income nations than with low‐income nations, and for manufacturing products than primary products trade. Further, this study suggests that in addition to cultural distance (CD), linguistic distance (LD) from trading partners has a tantamount effect on bilateral trade, which is significant at 1%. Theoretically, this study suggests that linguistic distance (LD) should be added on gravity model for analyzing effects of cultural distance on bilateral and multilateral trade. Practically, this study contributes by providing valuable insights to policymakers to pay attention to cultural differences, especially during these economic transition periods to increase bilateral trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the largest economies of the world, the EU not only has set the most ambitious and legally binding objectives for the reduction of the GHG emissions but also it has accompanied these objectives with a "state of the art" regulatory framework in the realms of investor protection and safety and soundness. Our paper focuses on the bank financing channel and highlights regulatory areas for improvement. To mobilize the necessary funds worldwide, a degree of interoperability of regional taxonomies is required, which calls for international cross-pollination and coordination to mitigate financial risks and the risk of harmful market fragmentation (BCBS 2022, FSB 2022). Also, the full interoperability between the international and the EU corporate reporting standards is a desirable objective. A building bloc methodological approach would make such interoperability easier having the sustainability impact perspective of the "double materiality objective" as an additional layer of the international requirements well understood to all investors in EU undertakings. As per the inclusion of climate risks in prudential regulation, it is completed for Pillar 3 disclosures relating effectively with the EU Taxonomy. Climate risk's long-term horizon still needs to be implemented in Pillar 2 by linking bank transition plans with stress testing based on climate risk scenario analysis covering both transition and physical risk. The inclusion of climate risks in Pillar 1 faces challenges similar to those of supervisors internationally. Fostering global ambition is an explicit objective of the EU. Its leadership on the realms of investor protection and prudential regulation of climate risks should ideally inform international cooperation and impregnate international standards. This will secure that investments for the fulfillment of the EU climate objectives will flow from in and outside the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been commonly recognised that school quality has significant impacts on housing prices in Western cities, however, how such school-housing relationships vary across different types of housing and urban space in transition economies is less explored. Our study aims to investigate the relationship between schools and housing in transitional China, where both commercial and Danwei housing coexist within the housing sector. This study makes three contributions to the literature. First, this study distinguishes the school-housing relationship across two types of housing—commercial versus Danwei housing as the unique housing characteristics in transition economies. Second, this study fully considers the neighbourhood effect on housing prices and unveils the spatial heterogeneity of school-housing relationships by spatiotemporal analyses and spatial modelling techniques. Third, this study establishes an analytical framework that can be applied to different contexts, and augmented in an assessing manner for the long-term evaluation of future education and housing policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of the Energy-related Uncertainty Index (EUI) on corporate investment among Chinese non-financial listed companies, focusing on two aspects: the effect of EUI fluctuations on investment behavior, and its differential impact on energy versus non-energy sectors. Utilizing a dataset of 2487 firms from 2007 to 2022, encompassing 22,346 firm-year observations, our analysis reveals that a 1% increase in the EUI leads to a 0.045% decrease in overall corporate investment. Notably, this effect is more pronounced in energy-related firms, where a 1% increase in EUI leads to a 0.057% reduction in investment. In comparison, non-energy-related firms exhibit a milder response, with a 1% increase in EUI resulting in a 0.026% decrease in investment. Given the average annual change in EUI over the sample period [2007–2022] of 27.710%, a 0.045% decrease in investment implies a substantial 1.246% per annum change in investment. This highlights the economically significant impact of EUI fluctuations on corporate investment decisions, particularly during periods of heightened uncertainty. These findings, validated through alternative EUI measures and investment metrics, provide crucial insights for understanding investment behavior under energy uncertainty. Conclusively, our study contributes to the literature by highlighting how energy uncertainty uniquely impacts corporate investment, taking into account the specific financial and operational conditions within different sectors. The findings highlight the importance of incorporating energy policy considerations into corporate strategic planning, particularly for energy-intensive industries within transitional economies like China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blue economy approach to ocean governance promises environmentally sustainable, economically viable, and socially equitable ocean-based economic growth. However, the blue economy has been inconsistently defined, interpreted, and applied, often leading to incompatibilities between the blue economy approach and existing ocean policies. We explore the blue economy in the Republic of Panama, where recent government commitments include designing and implementing a blue economy approach to ocean sector development. We use qualitative text analysis and a policy coherence assessment to examine the consistency of objectives across existing ocean policies in Panama and their compatibility with broader blue economy goals. Our results indicate that Panama's existing ocean policies address some blue economy goals but also reveal how policy coherence assessments and precise deliberation can inform a more contextually sensitive blue economy approach that aligns with existing ocean policies while also adding value to ocean governance and better integrating blue economy objectives. Findings suggest that Panama's existing ocean policies could better address social, environmental, and resource use objectives, without disregarding the need to reinforce economic and governance goals; elevating social objectives, especially social equity, can truly differentiate Panama's blue economy fromits current ocean governance approach. Finally, while we acknowledge that greater policy coherence can potentially increase the likelihood of attaining policy objectives, our findings show that coherence alone does not ensure their realization in practice. Our study contributes to blue economy scholarship by providing the first Latin America-based case study using policy coherence to assess compatibilities between existing ocean policies and a blue economy. Other countries seeking to transition to a blue economy could use our findings to inform the design of their approach and its integration with their existing ocean policy frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks into the crucial macroeconomic feedback mechanisms emerging from the interplay among the goods market, the labor market, the financial sector, and monetary policy, particularly in the context of transitioning towards a climate-neutral economy. The investment decisions of firms, pivotal in this interaction, can trigger feedback loops with potentially destabilizing effects, underscoring the critical role of investment within the complex interplay of market and sector dynamics in the macroeconomy. Governmental intervention is highlighted as a key factor in steering the green transition while preserving economic stability. A carbon tax on fossil fuel consumption is proposed as a primary tool for facilitating this green transition. Our investigation employs a disequilibrium model of monetary growth, a la Keynes-Metzler-Goodwin (KMG), incorporating a portfolio perspective across three asset markets - money, bonds, and stocks. This framework allows for an in-depth analysis of how a carbon tax influences real production, inflation, and inequality during the transition. Our findings indicate that imposing a carbon tax on production does not markedly disrupt economic stability, as long as the carbon pricing and its growth rate remain within low bounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although firms' expectations on future price dynamics are key for monetary policy, we still lack information on the expected effect of the transition to a net-zero economy on future prices. This paper fills this gap in the literature using survey data collected in the first quarter of 2022 on Italian firms' expectations of the impact of the Fit-for-55 - the package established by the EU to achieve its climate targets - on the prices of the goods and services they purchase. First, it documents that almost half of the sample expects that the Fit-for-55 plan will increase their input costs over the short and medium term, while the rest foresee no effect on prices. Then, it shows that firms extrapolate their private experience of high energy prices and shortages in raw materials when forming their expectations. These are salient events that are likely to be recalled relative to the others stored in memory when forming expectatons. In contrast, aggregate information such as energy, oil, and gas prices do not enter the expectations formation process. Finally, a propensity score analysis shows that the expected price impact of the green transition shapes firms' pricing and investment choices such that firms expecting the transition to raise the prices of the inputs they will purchase in the medium term increase (or intend to increase) their selling prices more than the others and are more likely to invest in improving their energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting for climate transition risks is one of the most important challenges in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Banks are encouraged to align their investment portfolios to CO2 trajectories fixed by international agreements, showing the necessity of a quantitative methodology to implement it. We propose a mathematical formulation for this problem and a multistage optimization criterion for a transition between the current bank portfolio and a target one. The optimization problem combines the Monge–Kantorovich formulation of optimal transport, for which the cost is defined according to the financial context, and a credit risk measure. We show that the problem is well-posed, and can be embedded into a saddle-point problem for which Primal–Dual algorithms can be used. We design a numerical scheme that is able to solve the problem in available time, with nice scalability properties according to the number of decision times; its numerical convergence is analysed. Last we test the model using real financial data, illustrating that the optimal portfolio alignment may differ from the naive interpolation between the initial portfolio and the target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of recent implemented and current research on up-today trends, challenges, risks and social and economic consequences of the green transition for economic development on a national and European level discussed at the annual scientific conference, organised by the Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes conflict resolution strategies in public procurement in two transition economies, Russia and Kazakhstan, based on a supplier survey. The results show that 25% of suppliers in Kazakhstan and 32% of suppliers in Russia said preferred to resolve all public procurement conflicts through negotiations with the procurer without involving a third party represented by the regulator and/or the judicial system. The findings also revealed that Russian suppliers, potentially affiliated with procurers, are less likely to encounter conflict situations. The attitude to the practice of "predetermined choice," when the procurer selects a supplier before the formal procurement procedure, was used as an indirect indicator of such affiliation. In addition, the empirical analysis shows that, in both countries, suppliers who are not inclined to trust the court and indicate high costs of participation in litigation are more likely to use the strategy of direct negotiations to resolve procurement conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies and industries face various challenges when it comes to embracing the circular economy (CE). These challenges not only deter companies from adopting effective strategies that promote it but also hinder industries from effectively establishing a circular system that ensures the addition of economic value to the supply chain. To address these challenges, blockchain technology has emerged as a new and revolutionary protocol for sharing and updating information. It does so by linking databases within a decentralized, peer‐to‐peer, open‐access network, guaranteeing secure, immutable, and irreversible operations. Within this context, the primary objective of this article is to investigate how blockchain technology supports the transition to the CE. Additionally, the paper aims to identify the barriers that hinder the process of transitioning to the CE. To achieve this, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted, considering 22 articles published in recent years across Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct databases. The results of this review underscore the considerable potential of blockchain in supporting companies and industries as they embrace their roles in the CE and seek to overcome the barriers they encounter. The findings reveal that blockchain supports the transition to the CE by facilitating decentralization, enabling smart contracting, enhancing information sharing and improvement, ensuring traceability and transparency, providing incentives, offering protection and security, and promoting value creation. However, in examining the barriers that blockchain may face in supporting companies and industries as they transition to the CE, certain challenges are highlighted. These include issues related to low scalability, insufficient funding, underdeveloped regulations, limited infrastructure support, a lack of standardization and generalization, high initial adoption costs, associated risks, and a deficiency in engagement and awareness. In conclusion, this study contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating that although barriers may pose challenges to blockchain's role in facilitating the CE transition, the benefits it offers are likely to outweigh these obstacles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data for manufacturing firms listed on China A‐share markets between 2003 and 2018, this research explores the impact of institutional investors on corporate green innovation. The study finds that pressure‐resistant institutional investors (PR investors) positively contribute to green innovation, whereas pressure‐sensitive institutional investors (PS investors) hinder it. In addition, this study examines the moderating effect of political ties, distinguishing between ascribed and achieved ties. Ascribed ties weaken the positive relationship between PR investors and green innovation, whereas achieved ties strengthen it and weaken the negative association between PS investors and green innovation. Moreover, the study investigates the influence of institutional development on the relationship between institutional investors and green innovation, and finds that managerial myopia is the mechanism through which institutional investors influence green innovation. Furthermore, this study reveals that there are heterogeneity effects among small and large firms, polluting and non‐polluting firms, and firms facing different levels of market competition. Overall, the study sheds new light on how institutional investors, acting as 'invisible hands', interact with political ties, acting as 'visible hands', to impact green innovation in transition economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of this study is project management under the changing conditions of the modern economy. The way the top management of the company affects the implementation of projects in various sectors and branches of production is an issue related to business development in general. An increasing number of enterprises use project tools to adjust production processes. To this end, in particular, it is advisable to use administrative management tools against the background of its improvement at the level of the company’s management. The logic of this study construction implies an emphasis on theoretical and experimental components. The theoretical foundations of the study include the identification of administrative management tools. The coverage of the experimental part is devoted to multifactorial regression analysis (the coefficient of determination is 0.715) of the influence of administrative management factors on the effectiveness of projects based on construction excavations. The interpretation of the research data confirms that the administrative management toolkit could be optimally used to establish high-quality project management. Based on the study of aspects of the relationship between administrative management and project management, the definition of administrative management and the project management system at modern enterprises is proposed. The study concluded that it is necessary to use those levers that are common in companies of industrialized countries of the world. Europe’s experience will be useful in spreading the practice of project management in enterprises of countries with transition economies. The results of the research could be used at enterprises of various sectors of industry, agriculture, and the service domain, in particular at construction enterprises that were chosen as the object of research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of dynamic events have taken place in recent years, leading to an uncertain global and national situation. One of these is the signing of the European Green Deal, which attempts to make Europe a climate-neutral continent. This, in turn, has further worsened the situation of some European countries, including Bulgaria. The presence of three active coal mining complexes in the country largely exposes it to serious challenges in the transition stages and hinders the finding of appropriate methods and instruments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The aim of the study is to explore the main socio-economic challenges in the transition to a low-carbon economy at a regional level and to present some of the author's views on limiting the negative impacts on regional development. The analysis of the available data shows that the sustainable dimensions of the three coal mining regions is highly threatened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitioning to a low-carbon economy while promoting sustainable development requires behavioural changes and mobilization of significant investments. Key instruments being used for that include carbon pricing initiatives, such as carbon taxes and cap-and-trade policies, and, more recently, green bonds. Although the literature has provided some evidence on emission reduction associated with carbon pricing initiatives, there is a lack of investigations on the environmental performance of green bonds; and only theoretical models describe the potential benefits of combining both. Aiming to fill this gap, this study uses regression analysis and annual data for 150 countries between 1990 and 2019 to assess how carbon pricing initiatives and green bonds relate to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This paper makes two main contributions. First, it examines how two climate instruments, carbon pricing and green bonds, relate to CO2 emissions. Previous research has focused only on individual instrument assessments and mainly on carbon pricing. Second, this paper empirically analyses whether there are interaction effects of the two instruments, an assessment not previously undertaken. The results suggest that the implementation of nationwide carbon pricing initiatives is associated with an 11% reduction in CO2 emissions on average. By comparison, green bond issuances are associated with an average 14% reduction in CO2 emissions. Further, no statistically significant interaction effects between carbon pricing initiatives and green bonds were observed. The results must be cautiously interpreted and cannot be attributed solely to the instruments studied since heterogeneous effects, biases from distinct sources, and the existence of complementary policies might influence the results. Carbon pricing initiatives, such as carbon taxes and cap-and-trade schemes, and green bonds are being used to promote the transition to a low-carbon economy. Investigation into green bonds and their impact on emissions is scarce and to date, only theoretical models analysed potential interaction effects of their combination with carbon pricing. The results show an average of 11% reduction in CO2 emissions associated with carbon pricing initiatives and of 14% reduction in CO2 emissions associated with green bonds issuances. While the results show promise in the emission reduction performance of these two instruments, caution in interpreting these results is advised as complementary policies, biases from distinct sources, and evidence of heterogeneous effects make it challenging to disentangle the effect of individual policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is mounting evidence that the current model of economic development negatively affects many ecological processes and creates serious threats to the sustainability of economic processes and welfare. In response to those threats, policies have been introduced at supranational and national levels to alleviate the most burning environmental challenges and mitigate their consequences for humanity. At the same time, however, there is a growing understanding that economy–environment relations have to be analysed and approached from a geographical perspective, as this sheds more light on spatial differences and specificities, the unevenness of transition processes and their social consequences as well as the need to perform the transition towards sustainability in a spatially sensitive manner. This article seeks to reconstruct and analyse two processes – urban sprawl and the automobile revolution – that took place in the Polish urban regions during the systemic transformation period and to discuss their potential consequences for the transition to sustainability from a geographical perspective. We show that different places, due to their specificities and legacies, start sustainability transitions from different initial conditions that might affect the pace of this process as well as its environmental and social consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circular economy (CE) field has moved from purely conceptual research into empirical studies. However, the literature does not provide generalized conclusions regarding the overall state of CE transition in manufacturing companies. Existing studies lack a perspective in explaining differences among companies planning or already transitioning to the CE because most empirical research so far is based on single or few case studies, generally assuming that the transition to CE, once undertaken as a purpose, moves along a continuum from a linear model to a circular one. This paper identifies differences among manufacturing companies planning and transitioning to CE and conceptualizes readiness profiles along eight dimensions of change identified in the literature as essential to CE implementation in organizations. A cluster analysis of a sample of manufacturing companies from different sectors, sizes, and locations identified five readiness profiles: the laggards, the explorers, the frontrunners, the strategizers, and the information oriented. The results show that companies may follow different approaches when exploring the potential of CE in their businesses. While some companies decide to explore and experiment across all dimensions of change, others follow a more strategic or operational approach, suggesting different states in which companies find themselves. The findings offer evidence of the change happening across the manufacturing industry and how CE transition unfolds in practice, extending existing literature by providing more overall conclusions on how the transition might unfold in manufacturing companies and different states that companies might be regarding the multiple dimensions of change that should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses one of the key challenges facing transitional and emerging economies: managing rural–urban migration to tackle rural decline and the associated rapid urbanisation. We introduce New Institutionalism as a novel conceptual framework to analyse the interactions between the institutional environment and migrant agency in a rural–urban system: the Akmola–Astana migration system in northern Kazakhstan. Our results suggest that the government might be more successful if it engages migrant agency and incentivises remaining in rural areas instead of designing policies to discourage rural–urban migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the establishment of formal economic cooperation between China and 16 Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies in 2012, the role of Chinese investment in the region has become increasingly scrutinized. The initial enthusiastic vision about the economic impact of Chinese direct investment and infrastructure project participation in the CEE has deteriorated since 2019, reaching its nadir in 2021 when Lithuania quit the formation. Recently, two other Baltic countries, Estonia and Latvia, stepped out from the format. This article investigates the economic impact of Chinese investments in CEE economies before the pandemic crisis. The model we use captures long-term incentives China might foresee in the region, promoting investment as a form of gateway access to the greater European Union (EU) economies. We measure investment over Chinese outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) and project investments in infrastructure, often labeled as the "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI). Using a gravity model, we estimate the export elasticity of Chinese FDI and BRI investments between 17 CEE countries and the Western EU countries. As expected, FDI estimates have an ex ante positive impact on export. Our results demonstrate that Chinese FDI in CEE economies has a larger impact on CEE exports to Eastern EU economies than to Western EU countries. This suggests export markets to Western EU economies are relatively mature compared to Eastern EU economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]