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In this article, we focus on both the bright and dark sides of the organisational social capital of Russian manufacturing enterprises and its influence on their economic trajectories after the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. The analysis is based on a sociological survey of the CEOs and employees of 300 companies and statistics on their economic performance in the period 2001–2014. We found that only trust in the CEO helped companies to survive, while other characteristics did not. The relation between an enterprises' social capital and its economic performance after 2008 is counterintuitive: companies wherein the CEO enjoyed a high level of trust but where cooperation between managers and employees was generally low showed significant average annual sales growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the housing crisis, focusing on its financialization, the role of the state, struggles, and rights. Topics include the impact of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007-2008 on housing, the role of the state in facilitating, market making, and developing housing, and changes in housing policies such as privatization and the abolition of rent controls.

This paper aims to explore the perceptions of domestic and foreign entrepreneurs (businesspeople and/or managers) operating in Greece towards the spatial diffusion of FDI effects caused by the privatization programme implemented by the Greek government after an economic crisis. In particular, it investigates whether attracting foreign direct investors through the ongoing privatization programme could be a policy tool for the country's recovery from the prolonged 2008 global economic crisis. To that end, it presents the results of a multinomial logistic regression model based on survey data from a significant sample of domestic and foreign investors in Greece. The key finding of this study suggests that the positive effects of FDI on the recovery of Greece from the economic crisis are more likely to benefit the country's economy as a whole than only the local economy in which the FDI is located. This finding is stronger for entrepreneurs who are (moderately) optimistic about the role of the privatization programme in attracting the interest of foreign investors than others. Overall, there is evidence that FDI attraction policies can help all Greek regions to recover from an economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 20 years, the Italian labour market has seen increasing unemployment, job contract instability and lower wages as a result of the global economic crisis and the policies fielded by successive governments to reduce labour market rigidities, regarded as the primary cause of high unemployment, for young people and women in particular. This paper analyses young workers' job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is relevant for workers' well-being, but it has also been shown to affect workers' productivity and hence firms' performance. We analyse overall job satisfaction and satisfaction for two job dimensions, stability and pay. We contribute to the existing literature by investigating whether job stability can compensate for a lower wage and whether the opposite is true, i.e. if a higher pay can compensate for job instability. Our findings show that overall job satisfaction is affected only by pay level. However, when we consider satisfaction with stability and pay satisfaction jointly, the type of contract seems to be more relevant than the pay in determining the probability of being either satisfied or dissatisfied with both dimensions. Therefore, if different dimensions of satisfaction are considered, both stability and pay are relevant, and there appears to be no compensating effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the temporal and spatial attributes of the exit of Taiwanese enterprises from mainland China between 2001 and 2021, by applying enterprise database data. Furthermore, the influence of strategic coupling on Taiwanese enterprises' exit from mainland China was also investigated. The following are the key findings: The spatial distribution pattern of the exit rate of Taiwanese enterprises in mainland China varied at different phases. In contrast, the inland regions of the country's central and western zones, which are characterized by comparatively less developed economies, maintained consistently high exit rates, whereas the eastern coastal region retained a low exit rate. Particularly, the relationship between Taiwanese enterprises and the invested areas changed from Captive coupling to Cooperative coupling and subsequently to Absorptive Coupling. Similarly, the coupling modes significantly influenced the exit of Taiwanese enterprises from mainland China. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the backward connection of Taiwanese corporations, which have become more reliant on the mainland China market and local suppliers than earlier. Taiwan-favoring policies and the regional innovation environment have consequently emerged as the primary locational advantages for retaining Taiwanese enterprises in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Therefore, the aforementioned factors may help to reduce the Taiwanese enterprises' exit from mainland China and possess valuable policy implications for Taiwan investment zones in mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crises spur reflection and re-evaluation of what matters and what is valued. The impacts of the 2008 global financial crisis, COVID-19 pandemic and climate emergency are reigniting debates about the nature of economic development approaches and what they aim to achieve in urban settings. Addressing a substantive gap in contemporary debates by helping to navigate a burgeoning and diverse field, this paper provides a critical and comparative assessment of five leading agendas that have been positioned as alternative and progressive policy responses to urban economic change: inclusive growth; the wellbeing economy; community wealth building; doughnut economics; and the foundational economy. Taking an international perspective, the paper provides a comparative review of their stated visions, mechanisms for change, and the spatial scales through which they are led and implemented. Our argument is that these alternative approaches to urban economic development are shaping creative, innovative and progressive responses to longstanding urban problems within policy and practice communities but require on-going scrutiny and evaluation to realise their potential to meaningfully achieve transformative change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the resilience of clusters and cluster policies in the face of external shocks, such as the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the concept of resilience in clusters and the factors that contribute to their ability to withstand and recover from crises. The article presents empirical studies that examine the response of clusters to external shocks and highlights the importance of factors such as sectoral diversification, innovation, workforce qualifications, and social networks in enhancing cluster resilience. It also discusses the potential of ambidexterity and digital transformation in cluster policies, as well as the role of cluster management organizations in promoting collective shared value. The article concludes by suggesting the need for further research to understand the drivers and outcomes of resilience in clusters and to develop effective policies that balance economic and societal objectives. [Extracted from the article]

This paper proposes a novel framework for modelling the spread of financial crises in complex networks, combining financial data, Extreme Value Theory and an epidemiological transmission model. We accommodate two key aspects of contagion modelling: fundamentals-based contagion, where the transmission is due to direct financial linkages, and pure contagion, where a crisis might trigger additional crises due to global effects. We use stock price, geographical location and economic sector data for a set of 398 companies to construct multiplex networks of four layers, on which a susceptible-infected-recovered transmission model is defined, in order to model the spread of financial shocks between companies by accounting for their interconnected nature. By utilizing stock price data for the 2008 and 2020 financial crises, we investigate and assess the effectiveness of our model in forecasting the propagation of financial shocks through the network, where a shock is detected by measuring stock price volatility. The results suggest that the proposed framework is effective in predicting the spread of financial crises. Our findings demonstrate the significance of each layer of the multiplex network structure, which differentiates between various transmission pathways, for predicting the number of affected companies, as well as for company-, sector- or location-specific predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the global financial crisis burst in 2008, central bankers have been at centre stage in addressing its negative consequences across the economic systems of many countries. This has been further noticed in the aftermath of the pandemic crisis that erupted at the beginning of 2020 at global level, when a number of governments did intervene also in a rather 'unconventional' way to support economic activity through public spending. In both circumstances, central bankers have been in a position to satisfy private interests of the relevant stakeholders even though this has been affecting both income and wealth distribution against the common good. This paper investigates the political benefits that these 'unconventional' policy interventions have elicited in advanced economies to point out the political and distributional consequences of them, suggesting an alternative monetary policy stance that considers climate-related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to explore the impact of working capital management on firms' financial performance in China's agri-food sector from 2006 to 2021. In addition, we analyze whether this impact is the same during the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Working capital management is measured by working capital investment policy (measured by current assets to total assets ratio), working capital financing policy (measured by current liabilities to total assets ratio), cash conversion cycle, and net working capital ratio. The results reveal that current assets to total assets ratio and net working capital ratio positively influence financial performance measured through return on assets (ROA), while current liabilities to total assets ratio and cash conversion cycle negatively influence ROA. We also find that the relationship between working capital management and financial performance is more affected during COVID-19 than in the 2008 financial crisis. The findings might provide important implications for company managers to make optimal working capital management practices, depending on the economic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has raised a wide range of concerns about its environmental impact. Therefore, from the perspective of environmental impacts, this study used the two-way fixed effect staggered differences in differences (TWFE Staggered DID) method to examine the impact of the BRI on the Environment Goods (EGs) intra-industry trade (IIT) between China and other Belt and Road (B&R) countries, including a sample of 191 countries, covering the period from 2010 to 2019 for eliminating the impact of COVID-19 and the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Because only 135 countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding between 2010 and 2019, this study treated these B&R countries as the study group, and the other 73 countries (non-B&R countries) as the control group. This study described EGs using the 54 6-digit code Environment Goods in Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System listed in the "APEC LIST OF ENVIRONMENT GOODS" published by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in 2012, and used the intra-industry trade index proposed by Grubel and Lloyd in 1971 to measuring dependent variable. The research results indicated that the BRI has significantly promoted bilateral EGs IIT. The mechanism test implied that, in addition to direct impacts, the BRI also has indirect impacts by boosting the energy restructuring of B&R countries. These results prove that the BRI has positive impacts on the environment. The heterogeneity test showed that there is a heterogeneous impact depending on the type of IIT, product categorization, B&R countries' income levels, and geographic environment. This study not only gives theoretical and empirical evidence of the positive environmental impacts of the BRI, but also provides practical guidance for the development of EGS IIT between China and B&R countries, thereby contributing to global carbon emissions reduction and environmental governance to some degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on why and how public attitudes towards immigration in Canada have grown more positive between 1998 and 2021, this paper examines whether the changes in attitudes stem from changes in population characteristics or changes in the effect of these characteristics. Our analysis sheds light on the implications of the 2008–2010 financial crisis on the support for immigration. Our logit regression analysis shows that positive attitudes towards immigration are positively related to higher levels of education attainment regardless of the survey years but negatively associated with the support for conservative political parties, especially during and after the financial crisis. By employing decomposition analysis, we investigate the shift in public opinions across individual characteristics before, during, and after the 2008 financial crisis. We find that, for all periods, most of the attitude shift results from the change in the effect of population characteristics rather than the change in the characteristics themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do financial crises affect long‐term public health? To answer this question, we examined the relationship between the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the 2020–2022 COVID‐19 pandemic. Specifically, we examined the relationship between the financial losses derived from the GFC, and the health outcomes associated with the first wave of the pandemic. European countries that were more affected by the financial crisis had more deaths relative to coronavirus cases. An analogous relationship emerged across Spanish provinces and US states. Part of the transmission from finances to health outcomes appears to have occurred through cross‐sectional differences in health care facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2019, the European Central Bank has become the global frontrunner in green central banking, while the US Federal Reserve has remained a climate laggard. Based on 15 interviews and primary sources, we argue that this policy divergence demonstrates central bankers' indirect responsiveness to political developments. We showcase how political events – the Global Financial Crisis, the Paris Climate Agreement, the EU's Green Deal, and the Trump and Biden elections – spurred central bankers to either adopt a greener interpretation of their mandates or invoke their mandates to justify inaction. In the EU, adopting a greener stance became a component of central bankers' strategy to build broad support. In the US, avoiding the climate issue was necessary to stay above the political fray. Overall, the European green turn challenges the conventional view of the ECB as the archetypical responsible but unresponsive institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the discovery and the development of many technological instruments such as modern communication and communication technologies, digital media has served widely from the technology, and thus intersected quasi all life's domains, by providing news, information, and also discussions of quasi all subjects. In social sciences, for example, a major part of digital media sites discusses the well-being of both individuals, and societies, especially with the presence of many challenging phenomena like pandemics, wars, and financial crises. A major concern for QoL index for example resides in whether it is a uniform stable index or on the contrary a non-uniform index depending strongly and point-wisely on the time scale. This motivates the consideration of a non-uniform QoL index based on non-uniform wavelets to take into account the influence of many factors issued from political, social, environmental, economic effects according to the time scale. The model developed is tested on Saudi Arabia QoL index case. Recall that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has fixed many aims in its 2030-vision plan including the quality of life as a major goal. For example, the KSA worldwide NEOM project necessitates surely a supportive environment to be realized. The second purpose of our paper is also to study the impact of digital media such as social one on the QoL. Therefore, the data collected is basically issued from a set of conversations on social media platforms. To obtain a suitable time series, we developed a backward-forward non-uniform wavelet forecasting model to extend the data sample suitably. The whole time series is by the next applied for the QoL index dynamics and interpretations. The findings showed that effectively, the QoL index is never a stable single index on the whole year, but on the contrary, the dependence on the time scale is non-uniform. Moreover, to interpret suitably and for a correct policy, the non-uniform behavior should be considered adequately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Global Financial Crisis, Italy has become (again) a country of emigration for young people, with over one million Italians aged 18–34 living abroad [Fondazione Migrantes, ed. 2019. Rapporto Italiani nel Mondo 2019. Roma: Tau Editrice]. As the country of the 'long family', transitions to adulthood in Italy feature a distinctive, prolonged and late move out of the parental home. Transnational mobility thus provides not only an escape from high youth unemployment and economic stagnation, but allows young Italians to craft new ways to make an independent adult life. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 25 young Italians in Australia, we show how transnational mobility intersects with transitions to adulthood, focusing on experiences of independent dwelling and career trajectories in a unique, non-EU context. We argue that trajectories towards adulthood can be altered, anticipated, delayed and suspended by transnational mobility, and that young Italians actively renegotiate family expectations and migration requirements as they build 'adult' lives. While Australia's relative economic stability provides opportunities for transitions 'blocked' in Italy, both adulthood and settlement are seldom fixed arrival points, and young people flexibly reconfigure their pathways as they navigate a complex immigration policy environment. Further, despite the freedom that considerable distance from family provides, transnational intergenerational relationships remain an important influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Containment measures slowed the spread of COVID-19 but led to a global economic crisis. We establish a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm that balances disease control and economic activities. Methods: To train the RL agent, we design an RL environment with 4 semi-connected regions to represent the COVID-19 epidemic in Tokyo, Osaka, Okinawa, and Hokkaido, Japan. Every region is governed by a Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Quarantined-Removed (SEIQR) model and has a transport hub to connect with other regions. The allocation of the synthetic population and inter-regional traveling is determined by population-weighted density. The agent learns the best policy from interacting with the RL environment, which involves obtaining daily observations, performing actions on individual movement and screening, and receiving feedback from the reward function. After training, we implement the agent into RL environments describing the actual epidemic waves of the four regions to observe the agent's performance. Results: For all epidemic waves covered by our study, the trained agent reduces the peak number of infectious cases and shortens the epidemics (from 165 to 35 cases and 148 to 131 days for the 5th wave). The agent is generally strict on screening but easy on movement, except for Okinawa, where the agent is easy on both actions. Action timing analyses indicate that restriction on movement is elevated when the number of exposed or infectious cases remains high or infectious cases increase rapidly, and stringency on screening is eased when the number of exposed or infectious cases drops quickly or to a regional low. For Okinawa, action on screening is tightened when the number of exposed or infectious cases increases rapidly. Conclusions: Our experiments exhibit the potential of the RL in assisting policy-making and how the semi-connected SEIQR models establish an interactive environment for imitating cross-regional human flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Containment measures slowed the spread of COVID-19 but led to a global economic crisis. We establish a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm that balances disease control and economic activities. Methods: To train the RL agent, we design an RL environment with 4 semi-connected regions to represent the COVID-19 epidemic in Tokyo, Osaka, Okinawa, and Hokkaido, Japan. Every region is governed by a Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Quarantined-Removed (SEIQR) model and has a transport hub to connect with other regions. The allocation of the synthetic population and inter-regional traveling is determined by population-weighted density. The agent learns the best policy from interacting with the RL environment, which involves obtaining daily observations, performing actions on individual movement and screening, and receiving feedback from the reward function. After training, we implement the agent into RL environments describing the actual epidemic waves of the four regions to observe the agent's performance. Results: For all epidemic waves covered by our study, the trained agent reduces the peak number of infectious cases and shortens the epidemics (from 165 to 35 cases and 148 to 131 days for the 5th wave). The agent is generally strict on screening but easy on movement, except for Okinawa, where the agent is easy on both actions. Action timing analyses indicate that restriction on movement is elevated when the number of exposed or infectious cases remains high or infectious cases increase rapidly, and stringency on screening is eased when the number of exposed or infectious cases drops quickly or to a regional low. For Okinawa, action on screening is tightened when the number of exposed or infectious cases increases rapidly. Conclusions: Our experiments exhibit the potential of the RL in assisting policy-making and how the semi-connected SEIQR models establish an interactive environment for imitating cross-regional human flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linkages between the US and China, the world's two major agricultural powers, have brought great uncertainty to the global food markets. Inspired by these, this paper examines the extreme risk spillovers between US and Chinese agricultural futures markets during significant crises. We use a copula-conditional value at risk (CoVaR) model with Markov-switching regimes to capture the tail dependence in their pair markets. The study covers the period from January 2006 to December 2022 and identifies two distinct dependence regimes (stable and crisis periods). Moreover, we find significant and asymmetric upside/downside extreme risk spillovers between the US and Chinese markets, which are highly volatile in crises. Additionally, the impact of international capital flows (the financial channel) on risk spillovers is particularly pronounced during the global financial crisis. During the period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine 2022 war, the impact of supply chain disruptions (the non-financial channel) is highlighted. Our findings provide a theoretical reference for monitoring the co-movements in agricultural futures markets and practical insights for managing investment portfolios and enhancing food market stability during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: International capital flows show decreasing trend after each financial crisis as countries become unwilling to invest in risky counterparties. Recent discussions over structural changes within the global financial network suggest that its structure may be still undergoing some changes. Uncovered weaknesses of over-connectedness with unstable unally countries during global financial crisis were further highlighted by recent Covid-19 pandemic. However, previous research suggest that important structural changes happened after global financial crisis. Thus, such situation raises a question whether post global financial crisis multiplex network structure is long-term and is it exhibiting re-globalization pattern as suggested by re-globalization megatrend. Purpose of the article: The main objective of the paper is to assess post global financial crisis multiplex financial network structure longevity and to identify whether it exhibits reglobalization pattern. Methods: Multiplex financial network mapping, network topological analysis and structure longevity methods were employed to evaluate network connectedness, topological structural properties of multiplex financial network and its' structure longevity. 5-layer multiplex financial network was mapped for different types of capital flows for each layer: net direct and portfolio investments in debt, equity and net banking assets for each year in the post global financial crisis period 2009-2020. Each network layer employed bilateral data from up to 234 countries of the world. Next step of research employed a set of network-level measures defining topological features of each network in the period of 2009-2020 in order to capture the trend of structural changes and evidence of re-globalization. The final stage analyzes multiplex financial network structure by layer and country longevity. Findings & value added: Analysis reveals that stock (positions) multiplex financial network aggregate connectedness, i.e., density and value, increased during post-global financial crisis period until Covid-19 pandemic period, thus, suggesting that globalization in terms of stock is continuing. Topological structural properties of multiplex financial network changed as number of strongly and weakly connected countries decreased and more countries became included in network. Longevity analysis of layer and country structure within multiplex financial network reveal that banking and debt investments are increasing since 2018, while equity part is decreasing. Developed countries, i.e., the United Kingdom and Germany, decrease in multiplex financial network structure, while developing, especially from Asia region (i.e., Hong Kong SAR, China and Singapore) increase. Such empirical results support the re-globalization megatrend in terms of investment type and counterparty structure as highlighted by most recent scientific discussion showing that it started early after global financial crisis. Research also uncovers some regional trends of Asia region increasing in investment network structure, while Europe decreasing. As developing countries attract more and more investment and further develop, global cost saving and, thus, returns from global investment into these countries may be decreasing, resulting in lower gain from globalization. Our analysis may facilitate investment strategy decisions by suggesting that even though gains from globalization might be decreasing, instead of localization, countries could follow ally investment strategy to manage the risk of over-dependency from unstable counterparty while preserving globalization wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study is to show the regional differences in Hungary in terms of economic determination and tourism performance. The overdominance of Budapest can be identified in most socio-economic indicators. The consequence of the capital's "hydrocephalus" is that Hungary's peripheral regions have developed serious economic challenges, and reducing regional disparities in these areas is key. From a tourism perspective in particular, the capital's hydrocephalus is also an opportunity, as the spill-over effect can increase the popularity of other destinations in the country. The Balaton and Western Transdanubia regions are the main beneficiaries of this effect. In addition to the analysis of regional disparities, the study also looks at the impact on tourism of the crisis periods caused by the 2008 global economic crisis and the pandemic that unfolded in 2020-2021, which led to a historic low in the tourism sector, notably the pandemic, by analysing longer time series data. The balance between international and domestic tourism is key to the resilience of tourism to the crisis. Multi-directional tourism can reduce exposure to external factors and contribute to the stability of the tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically investigates the international transmission of China’s uncertainty shocks. It estimates a time-varying parameter Bayesian global structural vector autoregressive model (TVP-BGVAR) using time series data for 33 countries to evaluate heterogeneous international linkage across countries and time. Uncertainty shocks are identified via sign restrictions. The empirical results reveal that an increase in uncertainty in China negatively affects the global economy, but those effects significantly vary over time. The effects of China’s uncertainty shocks on the global economy have been significantly altered by China’s WTO accession, the global financial crisis, and the recent US–China trade conflict. Furthermore, the effects of China’s uncertainty shocks, typically on inflation, differ significantly across countries. Moreover, Trade openness appears crucial in explaining heterogeneous GDP responses across countries, whereas the international dimension of monetary policy appears to be important in explaining heterogeneous inflation responses across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantile regression technique is introduced into the Lotka–Volterra ecosystem analysis framework. The quantile grey Lotka–Volterra model is established to reveal the dynamic trade relationship between China and the United States. An optimisation model is constructed to solve optimum quantile parameters. The empirical results show that the quantile grey Lotka–Volterra model shows higher fitting accuracy and reveals the trade relationships at different quantiles based on quarterly data on China–US trade from 1999 to 2019. The long-term China–US trade relationship presents a prominent predator–prey relationship because exports from China to the US inhibited China's imports from the United States. Moreover, we divide samples into five stages according to four key events, China's accession to the WTO, the 2008 global financial crisis, the weak global economic recovery in 2015, and the 2018 China–US trade war, recognising various characteristics at different stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquidity risk was at the heart of 2007–2008 global financial crisis, which has led to a series of financial institutions failure. We test whether and how liquidity risk impacts European banks' stability (i.e., a bank risk-return profile) under different levels of engagement in non-traditional banking activities after the global financial crisis and during the implementation of the Basel III liquidity rules. To calculate financial stability, we adopt an efficiency perspective based on the combination of the CAMELS rating system with the data envelopment analysis technique. We implement a nonlinear panel smooth transition regression approach, where transitional factors of income diversification are endogenously captured from the data. We find that, liquidity risk stemming from liquidity creation has a positive impact on bank stability, implying that income diversification can serve as a "buffer" through which banks can ensure their liquidity creation and offset for the compression of intermediation margin in lending and deposit activities. This suggests that diversification does not impede the ability of banks to operate with lower liquidity holdings but allows them to make greater use of their balance sheets to fulfill their primary roles of credit provision and liquidity creation. The results offer interesting implications for regulators and bank managers in managing liquidity risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the sharp declines in exports during the global financial crisis and consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic, we empirically estimate the propagation of demand shocks from customers to their suppliers through firm-level input-output linkages in Japan. We find economically significant propagation of demand shocks and show that the strength of the propagation depends on firm sizes. During the global financial crisis, negative demand shocks hitting large exporters propagate to their large suppliers but not to their small suppliers. In contrast, during the pandemic, most of the firms damaged by the pandemic are small, and the negative demand shocks hitting these small firms also propagate to their small suppliers. Our results highlight the heterogeneous nature of demand shock propagation across firms, suggesting the existence of a specific route in an input-output network through which demand shocks easily propagate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Changes in the distribution of income over time are identified based on an adjusted two‐sample version of the Neyman smooth test by using subsampling methods to approximate the sampling distribution of the test statistic when samples are not independent of each other. A range of Monte Carlo experiments show that the approach corrects for size distortions arising from dependent samples as well as generating monotonic power functions. Applying the approach to studying the distribution of income in Australia over the business cycle and the Global Financial Crisis, the empirical results highlight the importance of higher‐order moments and demonstrate that business cycles are not all alike as the relative strengths of higher‐order moments vary over phases of the cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

We propose a new methodology to asses risk spillovers in a time-series framework. Firstly, we introduce an explicit nonparametric measure of cross-sectional conditional tail co-movement, which is intuitively comparable to the Conditional Value-at-Risk (CoVaR). We show that nonlinear CoVaR (NCoVaR) is able to capture even highly nonlinear dependence structures. Secondly, for the purpose of potential contagion analysis, we adapt the measure to be informative about the causality direction between the variables in the Granger causality sense. By showing that the natural estimators of the two metrics are U-statistics, we construct formal nonparametric tests for independence and Granger non-causality. Numerical simulations confirm that in common situations the nonparametric tests have better size and power properties than their parametric counterparts. The methodology is illustrated empirically by assessing risk transmissions between sovereigns and banking sectors in the euro area, which observed highly irregular co-movements between asset prices after the global financial crisis. The new measures seem to be less susceptible to these irregularities than their parametric analogues, providing a clearer overview of the underlying sovereign-bank risk feedback loops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on my ongoing ethnographic research with people living with HIV in different European countries, the paper focuses on RD, a Catalan man I have interviewed three times since 2014. In RD's life narrative, 'crisis' is a recurring theme including both the most blatant forms, like the severe housing crisis in Spain that followed the global financial crisis, and the most ordinary ones like domestic violence. Analysing the impact of crises in RD's perception and experience of the present, interwoven with the past(s) and the future(s), the paper discusses two main benefits of longitudinal ethnographic research. First, it allows to capture how crisis is not just a moment or a phase in RD's life, but acts as context generating a recurring experience of an 'uncanny present' shaped by logics of return and repetition of the past, and anticipation of the future. Second, it supports RD's self‐awareness around his ability to navigate the unknown when experiencing the 'uncanny present'; this highlights the ethical care dimension entailed by such methodology. The paper presents two main benefits of longitudinal ethnographic research. First, it allows to capture how crisis, for some people, is not just a moment or phase but acts as context generating a recurring experience of an 'uncanny present'. Second, it supports participants' self‐awareness around their ability to navigate the unknown, this demonstrating the ethical care dimension of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study empirically examines the connections between three different measures of financial inclusion with output growth across the states of India. Applying the panel co‐integration and error correction model for 26 states and 4 union territories, it concludes that all three measures of financial development with gross fixed capital formation enhance real net state GDP significantly in the long run. Further, a significant reduction in the real net state GDP is also observed during the Global Financial Crisis. This study is important for the Indian policymakers to formulate effective financial inclusion policies leading to the overall development of the Indian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary area of research in all branches of science and engineering is the production of low-cost goods considering the recent global economic crisis. Making small-scale, inexpensive, light-weight and high-quality items is essential for today's and tomorrow's world. Nanotechnology is more than enough of a contributor to this whole situation. Emerging nanomaterials like Lead Sulphide (PbS) have characteristics that set them apart from traditional materials. Topological indices (TIs) are numerical values associated with chemical compounds and are widely used in quantitative structure-property/activity relationship (QSPR/QSAR) studies. These indices are very useful for the prediction of certain physio-chemical properties of chemical compounds such as boiling point, stability, strain energy, entropy, etc. The M-polynomial and NM-polynomial techniques lead us to TIs for a molecular graph in less time compared to the usual computation from their definitions. Therefore, in this study, we utilise the M-polynomial and NM-polynomial techniques to compute various degree-based and neighbourhood degree sum-based TIs of complex crystal structures of PbS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses China's use of Bilateral Swap Lines (BSLs) as a form of 'financial statecraft' and its influence on the prevailing U.S.-led global financial order. The analysis covers the period from the 2008 global financial crisis to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic crisis, focusing on specific instances of BSLs arrangements by Asian countries, such as South Korea, India, and ASEAN member states. The article suggests that China's monetary strategy, behind the extended institutionalisation of BSLs, is to elevate its 'relational power' within the USD-dominated 'Bretton Woods II system,' falling short of directly challenging it. Firstly, China is not yet ready to act as an international lender of last resort, as evidenced by its selectiveness in excluding certain countries with diplomatic issues from its extensive BSL agreements. Secondly, the practical utilisation of Chinese BSLs, demonstrated during the recent Covid-19 crisis, was not significant, rendering the Chinese renminbi BSLs more akin to a mere 'placebo' lender of last resort, providing nations with token insurance for hedging purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from neo-Gramscian theory, the paper explores how urban austerity governance mediates crises of neoliberal hegemony. Focusing on the decade after the Global Economic Crisis of 2008–2009, it compares four European cities disclosing five intersecting characteristics of urban political economy that contributed to sustaining and disrupting austere neoliberalism. Austere neoliberalism was sustained through three characteristics: economic rationalism, state revanchism and weak counter-hegemony, but undermined by both weakening hegemony and the combustibility and generativity of urban struggles. Hence, although state revanchism is a prominent feature of urban politics, and novel counter-hegemonic forms are elusive, struggles for equality and solidarity remain contagious, tenacious and vibrant. Urban governance is a crucial arena for studying the interregnum, signposting multiple ways in which neoliberalism survives, mutates and dies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 2008 financial crisis, institutional adaptability and economic diversification through smart specialization have been considered key forces for attaining an effective resilience trajectory of regional economies. Successful policy responses should not capture only limited, conjunctural and transitory measures, but should rather promote pro-active capabilities, able to cope with spatial perturbations and related drastic transformations, thus generating a more efficient regional development pattern. In this process, the economic and institutional factors, the conditions under which changes occur, as well as the actors of change play a pivotal role. The paper traces whether institutional arrangements have a decisive impact on the recovery of the European Union's lagging regions after the economic crisis and whether these could be instrumental in developing a smart specialization potential, which could make regions even more capable to enhance strong adaptive mechanisms. Using a mix of econometric methods (e.g. panel analysis, logistic regression) to emphasize both institutional and smart specialization aspects in the European Union core-periphery differentiation, the present study is based on a multidisciplinary approach. The results highlight that the existence of smart specialization capacity is associated with higher institutional adaptability; they also distinguish between relevant resilience characteristics of the European regions and formulate appropriate response policies for strengthening their specialization potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to test the animal spirits theory by Akerlof and Shiller (Animal spirits - how human psychology drives the economy, and why it matters for global capitalism? Princeton University Press) for ethical stock markets using Islamic and sustainable stock indexes during calm and crisis periods. This question helps determine whether ethical finance is driven more by its specific rules or determined by animal spirits. We used data covering January 1996–September 2021, which includes both calm periods and crisis periods (dot-com bubble of 2000, subprime crisis of 2007, global financial crisis of 2008–2009, and COVID-19 recession). Accordingly, we applied different time series tests, ran a quantile regression, and built an econometric framework to empirically test the animal spirits theory. We provide two key findings. First, investor sentiment and consumer confidence significantly affect the dynamics of both ethical stock returns, suggesting further evidence of animal spirits. This finding supports the assumption that investors' emotions and sentiments affect their behaviors and related feelings, for example, spontaneous instinctive that urge to action than inaction, optimism, and so forth, might help to apprehend some investment actions. Second, and interestingly, animal spirit effects enter asymmetrically and nonlinearly as their effects on ethical stock returns are time-varying and vary with the quantile under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing trend of interdependence between the international stock markets indicated the amalgamation of risk across borders that plays a significant role in portfolio diversification by selecting different assets from the financial markets and is also helpful for making extensive economic policy for the economies. By applying different methodologies, this study undertakes the volatility analysis of the emerging and OECD economies and analyzes the co-movement pattern between them. Moreover, with that motive, using the wavelet approach, we provide strong evidence of the short and long-run risk transfer over different time domains from Malaysia to its trading partners. Our findings show that during the Asian financial crisis (1997–98), Malaysia had short- and long-term relationships with China, Germany, Japan, Singapore, the UK, and Indonesia due to both high and low-frequency domains. Meanwhile, after the Global financial crisis (2008–09), it is being observed that Malaysia has long-term and short-term synchronization with emerging (China, India, Indonesia), OECD (Germany, France, USA, UK, Japan, Singapore) stock markets but Pakistan has the low level of co-movement with Malaysian stock market during the global financial crisis (2008–09). Moreover, it is being seen that Malaysia has short-term at both high and low-frequency co-movement with all the emerging and OECD economies except Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia during the COVID-19 period (2020–21). Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia have long-term synchronization relationships with the Malaysian stock market at high and low frequencies during COVID-19. While in a leading-lagging relationship, Malaysia's stock market risk has both leading and lagging behavior with its trading partners' stock market risk in the selected period; this behavior changes based on the different trade and investment flow factors. Moreover, DCC-GARCH findings shows that Malaysian market has both short term and long-term synchronization with trading partners except USA. Conspicuously, the integration pattern seems that the cooperation development between stock markets matters rather than the regional proximity in driving the cointegration. The study findings have significant implications for investors, governments, and policymakers around the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the literature on the relationship between oil price shocks and financial markets by examining the effect of supply and demand oil shocks on emerging energy markets, stocks of emerging markets, and gold and exploring the impact of unpredictable oil events on the degree of connectedness among these markets. We show that the effect of supply oil price disturbances drives volatility spillovers in emerging markets with prominent medium- and long-term effects, unlike demand oil price unanticipated changes, particularly during turbulent periods such as the 2008 subprime crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2015 oil price crash. These volatility spillover effects are influenced by a marked relationship between supply oil disturbances and emerging energy markets. We also expose that the COVID-19 pandemic volatility spillover consequences in emerging markets are unprecedented compared to the 2008 financial crisis. This can be attributed to the different nature of the related oil price disturbances and financial crises. Overall, the findings highlight the role of crude oil supply shocks as drivers not only of volatility dynamics in energy and equity emerging markets but also of financial connectedness patterns in these economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the dynamic and asymmetric propagation of return spillovers between sectoral commodities and industry stock markets in China. Using a daily dataset from February 2007 to July 2022, we employ a time-varying vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model to examine the asymmetric return spillovers and dynamic connectedness across sectors. The results reveal significant time-varying spillovers among these sectors, with the industry stocks acting as the primary transmitter of information to the commodity market. Materials, energy, and industrials stock sectors contribute significantly to these spillovers due to their close ties to commodity production and processing. The study also identifies significant asymmetric spillovers with bad returns dominating, influenced by major economic and political events such as the 2008 global financial crisis, the 2015 Chinese stock market crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Furthermore, our study highlights the unique dynamics within the Chinese market, where net information spillovers from the stock market to commodities drive the financialization process, which differs from the bidirectional commodity financialization observed in other markets. Finally, portfolio analysis reveals that the minimum connectedness portfolio outperforms other approaches and effectively reflects asymmetries. Understanding these dynamics and sectoral heterogeneities has important implications for risk management, policy development, and trading practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we explore the interaction between fiscal and monetary policies in Japan over a period including the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and a phase of the Covid-19 pandemic under the presupposition that policy regimes are fixed and there are random switches between the two regimes. Using the Regime switching model, the results show that fiscal policy is more active in Japan than monetary policy, especially during the GFC and the Covid-19 pandemic. By using the Bayesian VAR model, we continue to further analyze the response of macroeconomic factors to an expansionary fiscal policy to verify the above findings once again. The results indicate that government expenditure helps boost the economy in the short-run. The positive impact of a government expenditure shock on GDP, PPI, and Investment lasts about three to four quarters, while private consumption only increases in one next quarter. These positive responses can increase the inflation rate and make the local currency overvalued, reflected in the increase in the effective exchange rate. A fiscal policy shock does not have much impact on the monetary policy, specifically, the money supply and interest rates of long-term government bonds still tended to decrease as expected by Japan. This is the basis for studying policy implications for some countries pursuing similar policies to Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural production has both increased and become more efficient with the development of technology. However, greenhouse gases such as CO2 released into the air during production cause climate change. This situation also affects agricultural productivity. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is the examine the interaction between agricultural sector activity and CO2 emissions in Türkiye in a non-linear framework. For this purpose, the Maki cointegration test and the Single Fourier frequency Toda & Yamamoto causality test were used to investigate the interplay between agricultural value added and CO2 using time series data covering the period from 1968 to 2018. In addition to the empirical analysis developed in the paper, our study adds to the literature by studying the relationship between CO2 and energy consumption in the agricultural sector, as opposed to studies that use aggregate CO2 emissions as an indicator of climate change. In addition, the short- and long-run interactions between CO2 and agricultural productivity were investigated by estimating two separate equations where agricultural productivity and CO2 emissions are used as dependent variables. The Maki cointegration test cointegration test shows the existence of a long-run relationship between agricultural value added and CO2 emissions under structural breaks. The detected significant breaks are associated with significant events affecting the Türkiye economy. For instance, when agricultural value added is the dependent variable, the break dates of 1971 and 1974 coincide with the oil crisis, while the breaking dates of 2002 and 2008 coincide with Türkiye's 2001 financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis. Similarly, the break dates of 1973 and 1977 obtained in the CO2 equation are associated with the 1970s' global oil crisis. Long-run parameter estimates derived from FMOLS and CCR estimators indicated that CO2 emissions have a long-run, positive and significant impact on agricultural productivity. In addition, the long-run results support the existence of a positive and significant impact of agricultural productivity on environmental degradation. The gradual shift causality test also supports the presence of one-way causality, running from agriculture output to CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se presenta un editorial que discute sobre la celebración de su edición número 50, destacando su pluralidad y contribución a la disciplina iberoamericana. Se destaca también eventos económicos y sociales relevantes, como la recesión de 2008 y la pandemia de COVID-19. También explora temas contemporáneos como cambio climático, corrupción y desafíos democráticos, así como hitos históricos como el bicentenario del Trienio Liberal en España.

The term "free zone" refers to designated areas in which companies are taxed very lightly and it enhances global market presence by attracting new business and foreign investments. For over a century, governments around the world have sought to boost and exploit the economic power of their particular regions and zones by designating them as "special" or "free" economic zones. The trend of establishing such zones or areas have gained momentum in the last four or five decades with countries accounting for small businesses and millions of direct or indirect jobs. The Middle East, especially the countries in the Persian Gulf, for some and other reasons, have particularly embarked on such a trend. The current paper tries to highlight benefits and challenges faced by free trade zones in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, taking into account recent global financial crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spanish youth's process of transition to adult life illustrates the complex effects of a prolonged economic crisis that emerged in 2008 and exacerbated an already precarious labour market. In this article, we approach this panorama of social change from the perspective of the young individuals who find themselves immersed in this passage from one crisis to another – from a global economic crisis to COVID-19 – and between two symbolic realities, one marked by individualism and the other by individualisation. Based on a discourse analysis of 20 in-depth interviews and three focus groups with young adults, conducted between 2018 and 2019 for a publicly funded RDI project, we analyse how the process of individualisation tied to a self-sufficient model of human agency may contribute to an increased reliance on individual solutions to social problems. Furthermore, we underline how these individualised pathways involve a dependency on multiple supports which are characterised by a series of tensions. Consequently, we seek to elucidate the manner in which vulnerable young workers navigate, both interpretively and practically, the trials of social life as well as the expectations associated with individualism/individualisation within a context of crisis and uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to estimate the parameters of the time-fractional Black-Scholes (TFBS) partial differential equation with the Caputo fractional derivative by using the real option prices of the S &P 500 index options. First, the numerical solution is obtained by developing a high-order scheme with order ( 3 - α ) for the time discretisation. Some theoretical analyses such as stability and convergence are presented in order to verify the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed scheme. Secondly, we employ a modified hybrid Nelder-Mead simplex search and particle swarm optimization (MH-NMSS-PSO) to identify the fractional order α and implied volatility σ of the TFBS equation, and explore the financial meanings of α under extreme stock market conditions such as the Covid-19 and the 2008 global financial crisis. We analyse the values of α and compare the mean squared errors of both the TFBS model and the BS model. Our empirical results show that α may be regarded as a market fluctuation indicator for classifying financial environments, and the TFBS model is more capable of fitting real option data compared with the BS model, especially for put options during the economic downturn. In addition, we find and discuss an interesting relation between α and σ from both the TFBS model and the BS model in three expressions, which could be an open problem for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper analyzes the relative technical efficiency of the transition economies of the Western Balkans in the period 2007–2021, in comparison with the former countries with a socialist state system, today members of the European Union (EU), based on selected macroeconomic indicators and panel data. Design/methodology/approach: Data envelopment analysis (DEA), i.e. its extension, DEA Window analysis, is applied. Total technical efficiency, as a prerequisite of economic efficiency, is decomposed into pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE). Bootstrapping method and Mann–Whitney U test were used to check the robustness of the obtained results, i.e. efficiency values. Findings: The results show that in 2020, all observed countries recorded a significant drop in economic efficiency as a result of a general, disproportionate drop in the value of selected macroeconomic variables, which occurred due to the global economic crisis and the slowdown in economic activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This drop in efficiency was significantly greater in the former socialist states, now members of the European Union, which showed their greater sensitivity to global crises. None of the observed economies in the observed period was relatively efficient, that is, at the level of best practice, which occurred primarily as a consequence of the inefficiency of business conditions expressed in the economies of scale. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study stems from the very nature of the concept of DEA efficiency, which is relative in nature. Also, the results and their interpretation are also significantly influenced by the choice of model variables, as shown by Lábaj et al. (2013), as well as a small number of decision-making units (DMUs). The mentioned limitations prevent unambiguous interpretation and generalization of the obtained results. Practical implications: The study may be of importance to economic policy makers in macroeconomic decision-making. The application of the DEA concept in measuring the technical efficiency of national economies is a useful tool in the analysis of macroeconomic performance and a benchmarking approach for positioning and achieving competitive advantage on the international market. Originality/value: Since research of this type is very limited, the results of this study make a theoretical and empirical contribution to the literature, creating a basis for future research and reexamination. The application of the DEA concept in measuring the technical efficiency of national economies is a useful tool in the analysis of macroeconomic performance and a benchmarking approach for positioning and achieving competitive advantage in the international market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exchange rate volatility, growing foreign corporate debt, and decreasing private investment ratio are among the consequences of financialization experienced by developing countries such as Mexico. The present work analyses the combined effect of these three factors using a Stock Flow Consistent (SFC) model. It analytically explores the balance sheet effect in the non-financial corporate sector; higher foreign debt would affect private investment after episodes of real currency depreciation. To explore such mechanisms, we simulate the commodity price cycle of the early 2000s alongside the shifts in the stance of the FED in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. The scenario analysis points to a hysteresis of the Real Exchange Rate (RER) and an increase in foreign debt level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]