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The study evaluates the feasibility of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries to form an Optimum Currency Area (OCA) through the analysis of shock correlation within the OCA framework. Employing a structural vector auto regression (SVAR) model proposed by Blanchard and Quah, the analysis encompasses both external and domestic shocks affecting individual countries. The study employs four variables: world real GDP, domestic real GDP as a proxy for output, the real effective exchange rate, and the inflation rate as a proxy for price level, to estimate the shocks. Subsequent analysis includes ANOVA, impulse response function (IRF), and variance decomposition to discern shock magnitudes, adjustment dynamics, and underlying determinants of variability. Empirical results show that BRICS countries display symmetric responses to external shock, however, with overall different sources of variation in the responses to domestic supply, demand, and monetary shocks. The results of the analysis using the ANOVA test, IRF, and variance decomposition also highlight the nuanced disparities across BRICS countries in terms of demand, and monetary shocks, indicative of differences in transmission mechanisms and policy responses. The study underscores the implication of aligning exchange rate mechanisms and monetary policies in facilitating the convergence of shock levels, thereby fostering economic stability among BRICS countries.

The optimal allocation of financial resources by well-established financial systems is crucial for fostering economic growth. Nevertheless, due to imperfections in real-world settings, financial systems inadvertently distribute credit to unproductive sectors, resulting in inefficiencies in economic performance. Thus, this study aims to investigate the sectoral allocations of credit and how, in turn, such credit allocations affect the performance of each economic sector, from 1991 to 2022. To this effect, it employed the Cross-Section Augmented Error Correction (CS-ECM) model, and this model has a PMG estimation technique; hence, heterogeneous (short-run) and homogeneous (long-run) coefficients are computed as a result. The descriptive results show that domestic credits that are allocated to agriculture, industry, services, and the private and public sectors are not only small but also misallocated to inefficient sectors. Similarly, the econometrics results indicate that credits given to the public and industry sectors have a negative effect on output growth in the short term, while credits distributed to the agricultural, service, and private sectors have a small but positive effect on growth. Besides, the long-term results show that the overall credit allocation to the economy has negative effects on growth, indicating credit misallocation has unfavorable long-term effects compared to short-term effects. Financial policies and strategies should therefore be designed to welcome foreign banks as well as capacitate the existing domestic financial institutions so that substantial financial resources can be mobilized, both from the external and internal economies, and distributed in such a way as to ‘give more credit to an efficient sector’.

Clarifying the impact of cereal trade on urbanization is crucial for enhancing effective food security policies and promoting sustainable urban development. However, the heterogeneous impact of the cereal trade on urbanization remains underexplored. This study applies international trade theory to explore the causal effects and supplements panel data on 216 economies from 1990 to 2018 using two-stage least squares regression (2SLS). The results show that both cereal exports and imports significantly promote urbanization, with the magnitude of imports being higher than that of exports. Furthermore, global cereal trade promotes urbanization in both emerging and developed economies. The findings provide insights for policymakers on how to leverage adjustments in cereal trade policies to enhance urbanization, particularly in economies striving to balance food security with urban development.

The study examines the impact of human capital and governance on inclusive growth in Africa. It further explores how governance dynamics influence the relationship between human capital and inclusive growth. Drawing on macro data spanning 43 African countries from 2005 to 2020 and employing the two-step system generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) estimation technique, the following findings emerge. First, human capital promotes inclusive growth in Africa, while governance has a diminishing effect. Second, the six governance indicators counteracted the positive effect of human capital on inclusive growth. This means that negative governance dynamics completely nullify/dampen the positive effect of human capital on inclusive growth. In conclusion, the anticipated benefits of human capital in fostering inclusive growth may remain elusive unless significant improvements are made to Africa’s weak institutional fabric.

ABSRACTThe objective of this study is to explore the influence of various factors on transportation development, considering their spillover effects on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in neighboring provinces. The study utilizes time-series data from the transportation industry in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Accordingly, a theoretical framework is constructed based on foundational theories. The methodology involves Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis and its five steps of Goodness of Fit testing. The key findings include: (1) Mobile phones positively influence, while corruption control and state investment negatively impact goods labor productivity; (2) Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) and state investment positively influence both people labor productivity and people capital productivity; (3) Regarding spillover effects on neighboring provinces, mobile phones have a negative influence, while PCI positively impacts the GDP growth of Binh Phuoc. Mobile phones negatively affect GDP growth in Vung Tau and Dong Nai, whereas corruption control positively affects it in these provinces. Therefore, with regard to institutions, the government should regulate transportation industry activities towards environmental friendliness, such as developing PCI in the direction of a green environment or investing in green fuel for the transportation industry. As corruption control has both positive and negative effects, we recommend increasing corruption control towards a sustainable economy. Regarding technology, since mobile phones have both positive and negative effects, we suggest finding a balance to boost goods labor productivity. These results offer transportation policymakers and managers both theoretical and practical perspectives to improve the transportation industry’s development.

AbstractThis paper employs a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) methodology, utilizing data from the Chinese Household Finance Survey (CHFS), China Rural Statistical Yearbook, China Financial Yearbook, and China Statistical Yearbook. The analysis scrutinizes rural financial exclusion from dual vantage points: the demand and supply sides, with households and provinces serving as fundamental analytical units. Employing years as threshold values, we establish 27 supply-side factors and 18 demand-side factors through RDD models. This analytical framework facilitates an assessment of the existence of breakpoint effects across diverse dimensions of financial exclusion in distinct years and fosters a discourse on rural financial exclusion and its structural dynamics within the context of China’s Digital Inclusive Finance policies. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) Supply-side determinants of rural financial exclusion in China have exhibited negligible change over the past decade, with Digital Inclusive Finance policies exerting limited influence. (2) Conversely, demand-side factors have exhibited some degree of variability, characterized by substantial reductions in channel exclusion and financial risk exclusion in 2013 and 2015. Digital Inclusive Finance policies have manifested a favorable impact on the demand side of rural financial exclusion. (3) In 2017, both financial knowledge exclusion and channel exclusion on the demand side of rural financial exclusion witnessed rebounded. Shifts in the orientation of Digital Inclusive Finance policies may precipitate a deterioration in the policy-dependent rural financial landscape, jeopardizing the preservation of their initial positive effects.

As cities aim for more sustainable patterns of urbanization, intensification has emerged as a core planning strategy. In 2013, the City of Regina set new intensification targets: absorb 30% of annual population growth through intensification and add 10,000 residents to the city centre by 2035. In the decade since, implementation has been unsuccessful. This study explores the barriers to core area intensification in Regina by engaging with key informants through semi‐structured interviews. Our findings identify the most significant barriers as soft market demand, a city centre that is unappealing as a residential context, insufficient political will, an absence of developers who specialize in core area intensification, and unfavourable development economics. These findings illustrate the unique challenges faced by mid‐size Canadian cites in disrupting entrenched development patterns and driving development towards the downtown. Key messages: Despite having adopted ambitious goals for intensification in 2013, Regina has been largely unsuccessful with implementation, as dispersed and decentralized development patterns have prevailed.The major impediments to intensification include soft market demand, limited appeal of residing in the city centre, insufficient political will, absence of developers who specialize in core area intensification, and unfavourable development economics.The barriers identified in this research illustrate the unique challenges and circumstances in mid‐size Canadian cities relative to their larger counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polanyi, Mauss, and others describe reasons for the growing differentiation of economy from other spheres of life. This article proposes a further reason: the increasing invisibility of economic transactions in everyday life. It traces the declining visibility of economic transactions in England and North America from around 1700 to the present, as public marketplaces were displaced by growing longer‐distance trade and the growing role of intermediaries. It suggests that this declining visibility of the economic networks in which people were enmeshed encouraged the development of economic thought, ultimately including the idea of the economy as a distinct realm, which was intended to explain activities and processes that were no longer visible. That economic thought became increasingly complex and incomprehensible to ordinary people, who had to come to believe things that they did not understand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this personal memoir of my lifelong collaborator and friend, Herb Gintis, I reflect on his "A Radical Analysis of Welfare Economics and Individual Development." Published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 1972, the article advances a novel Marx-inspired interpretation of the societal origins of preferences, one that profoundly influenced the ideas of a group of like-minded young economists at Harvard at the time, economics more broadly, and Herb and my subsequent joint work. JEL Classification: B14, B21, D01 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes recent research in performance-based microfinance, and outlines future directions for research. We use the term 'microequity' to refer to any small-enterprise financing contract in which the repayment owed in each instalment depends positively upon the variable performance of the enterprise. We summarize research from financial economics and development economics to highlight the importance of implicit insurance in microequity contracts, and present a theoretical framework to illustrate the potential of microequity in supporting capital investment and incentivizing asset use. We conclude by highlighting directions for future research in this emerging field of microfinance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distinction between positive economics – describing economic programmes, situations and conditions as they exist – and normative economics – prescribing policies – has a long history. It is an especially important distinction in public economics, which by its nature concerns the actions of government. In this essay, I consider how two relatively recent developments in tax economics alter, blur or at least complicate the classic distinctions between positive and normative economics. The two developments I address are the insights generated by the study of behavioural economics and increased attention to tax evasion and tax enforcement. I organise my thoughts by addressing how three sets of actors central to public finance actually behave and should behave – taxpayers, governments and tax economists. I argue that tax economics should take seriously the substantial presence of behavioural anomalies and tax evasion, and that it has already begun to do so. I suggest some directions this effort might profitably take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amartya Sen is often described as an insightful critic of mainstream economics, and in particular, his work in development economics, alongside the construction of the capabilities approach, has been associated with endeavors to revisit both the theory and practice of the discipline. Despite his in-depth criticisms of certain aspects of mainstream economics, Sen's extensive use of formal methods is suggestive of an ontological tension, one identified by Thorstein Veblen when commenting on some of his contemporaries and originally introducing the term "neoclassical." Veblen argued that the work of these economists involved both an implicit recognition of a causal processual social ontology he associated with modern, thoroughly evolutionary, approaches and a commitment to a taxonomic conception of science—the latter relying on a set of methods that presupposed an associationist ontology of event regularities. For Veblen, the adherence to taxonomic methods was the classical feature of their work, and the commitment to an evolutionary viewpoint was the neo aspect. This article argues that the same tension runs through Sen's contributions and that he is neoclassical in this specifically Veblenian sense. The assessment of the ontological inconsistencies in Sen's work is shown to shed light on its reception within the economics academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transactive energy market is an emerging development in energy economics built on advanced metering infrastructure. Data generated in this context is often required for market operations, while also being privacy sensitive. This dual concern has necessitated the development of various methods of obfuscation in order to maintain privacy while still facilitating operations. While data aggregation is a common approach in this context, many of the existing aggregation methods rely on additional network components or lack flexibility. In this paper, we introduce Cyclic Homomorphic Encryption Aggregation (CHEA), a secure aggregation protocol that eliminates the need for additional network components or complicated key distribution schemes, while providing additional capabilities compared to similar protocols. We validate our scheme with formal security analysis as well as a software simulation of a transactive energy network running the scheme. Results indicate that CHEA performs well in comparison to similar works, with minimal communication overheads. Additionally, CHEA retains all standard security properties held by other aggregation schemes, while improving flexibility and reducing infrastructural requirements. Our scheme operates on similar assumptions as other works, but current smart metering hardware lags in terms of processing power, making the scheme infeasible on the current generation of hardware. However, these capabilities should quickly advance to an accommodating state. With this in mind, and given the results, we believe CHEA is a strong candidate for aggregating transactive energy data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of water management is continually changing. Water has been subject to external shocks in the form of climate change and globalization. Water management analysis is subject to disciplinary developments and inter-disciplinary interactions. Are these developments well-documented in the literature? Initial observations in the interdisciplinary literature suggest that results are fragmented, implying that a state-of-the-art review is needed. This paper aims to close such a gap by reviewing recent developments in water economics that address increasing perceptions of water scarcity by looking first at changes in the supply and quality of water and then at the impacts of climate change on water supply extremes. Among responses to such challenges, this paper identifies changes to water use patterns by including and co-managing water from different sources, including surface and groundwater, reclaimed wastewater, and desalinated water. Technological advancements are also among the resources that address water challenges. Water challenges are also reflected in the management of internationally shared water. A recent surge in scientific work identified international treaties as a significant contributor to international water management. This paper reviews recently employed economic approaches, such as experimental economics, game theory, institutional economics, and valuation methods. And, finally, it explores modeling approaches, including hydro-economic and computable general equilibrium models, that are being used to deal with water challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation elaborates on the level of game theory application for the applied and theoretical analyses of climate change and development studies. This editorial shows that the common good character of global climate alongside the increasing internalization of environmental externalities through national regulations and international environmental treaties jointly result in the increasing congruence between the context of climate change problems and the game theoretical method. Furthermore, the adoption of the Paris Accord by the overwhelming majority of developing countries as well as the disproportionate vulnerability of the Global South have led to an increasing shift in focus with regard to international development cooperation, from poverty alleviation and economic growth to green growth and circular economy solutions, within developing countries. The underutilization of game theory in the context of development studies is not satisfactory. This paper underlines the importance of implementing an impetus to researchers for scholarly discussions and applications of game theory in a discourse on the following topics: 1. economic growth; 2. climate change mitigation and adaptation; and 3. a broader socioeconomic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a review of the book "Labor Economics in an Islamic Framework: Theory and Practice." The book aims to fill the gap in the limited studies on labor economics from an Islamic perspective. It consists of 12 chapters that cover various topics such as labor market models, Islamic scholars' contributions to labor economics, conceptual labor issues, the labor market in Muslim countries, social security, and more. The book provides a comprehensive discussion of labor economics from an Islamic viewpoint and offers extensive references to support the authors' analysis. It is recommended for academia interested in labor economics from an Islamic perspective and suggests areas for further research. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the EU Directive on Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence, exploring concerns about the potential privatization of compliance costs in complex supply networks, especially in countries with weak enforcement mechanisms. It proposes options to enhance the directive's effectiveness, such as excluding countries with sufficient regulatory systems, focusing on supplier-buyer relationships, and implementing a private certification scheme.

This paper rescues Deirdre McCloskey's ideas about Rhetoric in Economics and some issues left out in subsequent discussions. There is a parallel between the ideas of McCloskey and Bruno Latour, and the complementarities of their perspectives are very relevant for the development of Economics. Some reflections are here offered to improve the practice of Economics, which are related to the social constructions of facts in the field, to the internalization of political aspects, and to the importance of alternating between fact and fiction in a dynamic that does not result in a zero-sum game, underlining the characteristic of Economics as being inherently rhetorical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maritime industry clustering has in recent years gained attention as a tool for strategic global and regional economic competitiveness policies, owing to their co-location synergies and agglomeration economies. The Nigerian maritime sector is known to have a large industry, which comprises shipping and logistics firms, shipyards, ship consultants and a suite of other firms, institutions and associations with maritime functions. However, nothing is known about the structural characteristics and environmental dynamics of this significant cluster. This article, capitalising on a critical and meta-analytic review of studies and conceptual modelling, explores for the first time the Nigerian maritime industry from a cluster perspective, underpinned by the foundational competitiveness of Nigerian microeconomic performance. It further evaluates broadly the quality of the Nigerian business environment, highlighting the challenges and opportunities for strategic foresight in decision-making. Targeted recommendations predicated on cluster-specific characteristics are provided to improve cluster competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the empirical nexus between financial inclusion and economic growth for an extended sample of 21 Asian countries spanning over a period from 2004 to 2019. Further, we also conducted a sub-sample analysis by dividing the overall samples into developed and developing countries. Our results reveal a significant positive long-term impact of financial inclusion on economic growth in Asia. Our pair-wise causality test shows bidirectional causality between financial inclusion and economic development. Our robust results are consistent across various estimation techniques. Our findings suggest that the influence of financial inclusion on economic growth is more pronounced in developing countries compared to developed countries. Our results hold across subsamples. These findings posit important policy insights to enable the policy-makers in designing policies that ensure efficient and inclusive financial system on an equitable basis to achieve sustainable economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The petroleum industry is becoming increasingly concerned with sand production, which is common in the Niger Delta and presents technical, operational, and financial difficulties. Literature has devoted a lot of time to the creation of sanding prediction tools and efficient management techniques. However, the majority of the published theoretical models have been supported by data from other petroleum regions than the Niger Delta or evidence from laboratories. An easy-to-use machine learning model was created that takes into account the idea of dimensionless quantities related to sanding. The parameters taken into consideration included Reynold's Number, Loading factor, Gas-Liquid Ratio and water-cut. An equation for predicting sand production rate is the output from this work. Model validation was carried out on the developed model and the deviation was less than 5% demonstrating the validity of the proposed model. The developed model, when compared to existing models, forecasts superior outcomes, particularly when the boost factor and GLR are very high. The study has a wide range of practical implications, including reservoir management, general well completion design, and field development plans and economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Venezolana de Gerencia (RVG) is the property of Revista de Filosofia-Universidad del Zulia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Informacion Comercial Espanola Revista de Economia is the property of S.G.E.E.I.P.C., Secretaria de Estado de Comercio, Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Edith Penrose is best known for her classic book The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, originally published in 1959, but she also made major contributions in other fields, including patents, the oil industry, and development economics. This special double issue of the International Review of Applied Economics publishes recent research from a range of leading economists and management scholars from across the world, either explicitly analysing Penrose's contribution, or else analysing topics from firms' collaborations with universities through to the practice and consequences of share buy-backs, which demonstrate that a Penrosian perspective helps to illuminate the reality of such processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Entramado is the property of Universidad Libre Seccional Cali and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)