Search Results (3,496)

This study investigates the key determinants of bank stability and profitability in commercial and Islamic banks listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) in Jordan, with a focus on credit risk and capital adequacy during the period 2018–2024. Using panel data from 15 banks, the study applies fixed effects regression models with clustered standard errors. Liquidity is proxied by the loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR), credit risk by the loans loss provisions-to-total loans ratio, and capital strength by the equity-to-assets ratio, alongside a COVID-19 dummy and an interaction term between liquidity and credit risk. Financial performance and stability are measured using return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and the logarithmic Z-score. The findings indicate that credit risk has a significant negative effect on both bank performance and financial stability, whereas capital adequacy exerts a positive and significant effect. The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected financial performance and stability, while liquidity (LDR) shows no significant direct effect. The interaction between liquidity and credit risk was statistically insignificant across all estimated models, suggesting that credit risk remains the dominant determinant regardless of liquidity conditions. The study highlights the importance of effective credit risk management and strong capital buffers in enhancing bank resilience. It contributes to the literature by providing recent evidence from the Jordanian banking sector and by incorporating multiple performance measures, a pandemic shock variable, and risk interaction effects to better understand bank stability within a unified empirical framework for an emerging banking market. Full article

This paper documents a fundamental sectoral divergence in capital–employment relationships using UK quarterly data (2014Q1–2024Q4, N = 44). While manufacturing automation studies consistently find negative employment effects, we show that information-intensive service sectors (SIC J: Information and Communication; K: Financial and Insurance; M: Professional/Scientific/Technical) exhibit robust positive co-movement between capital formation and employment. Structural vector autoregression analysis reveals persistent positive employment responses following capital shocks, with effects peaking at 5–6 quarters and remaining significant through 10 quarters. This pattern holds across eight alternative specifications with varying lag structure, variable ordering, and subsample periods. Granger causality tests reveal bidirectional temporal relationships (capital → employment: F = 3.932, p = 0.028; employment → capital: F = 5.659, p = 0.007), indicating joint determination from anticipated demand growth rather than unidirectional technology-driven dynamics. This finding—while complicating causal interpretation—strengthens the contribution by providing honest empirical characterization of coordination mechanisms in information-intensive sectors. Our capital formation proxy measures all investment in AI-intensive sectors (buildings, equipment, conventional IT, emerging AI systems) rather than AI expenditure specifically, creating measurement ambiguity we acknowledge transparently. The sectoral focus (J+K+M sectors with 22–34% AI adoption rates exceeding the 15% economy-wide average) provides indicative evidence that patterns relate to advanced technology deployment, but measurement breadth prevents definitive AI-specific conclusions. The contribution lies not in establishing AI-specific causality—which aggregate time-series methods cannot achieve—but in documenting robust sectoral heterogeneity using methodology comparable to manufacturing displacement studies. The positive association in information-intensive services contrasts sharply with manufacturing’s negative relationship, suggesting technology–employment dynamics vary fundamentally across sectors with different task structures. Three limitations constrain interpretation: (i) recursive identification cannot definitively rule out common demand shocks, (ii) the 44-quarter sample provides limited statistical power for precise magnitude estimation, and (iii) external validity to other countries, time periods, or service sectors remains uncertain. The findings motivate sector-specific rather than economy-wide technology policy approaches, recognizing that extrapolating manufacturing evidence to service-dominated economies may systematically mischaracterize employment dynamics. Full article

Worldwide, flash floods are among the most unpredictable and hazardous hydrological phenomena, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where sudden heavy rainfall follows prolonged periods of drought. This work presents an effective integrated model for flood hazard evaluation in the Hanefah Catchment, a socioeconomically vital area in the central part of Saudi Arabia that includes the capital city, Riyadh. Using high-resolution ALOS PALSAR 12.5 m Digital Elevation Model spatial data, we extracted and investigated indicative linear, areal, and relief morphometric keys of 64 sub-catchments. This paper employs a dual-method concept that integrates a multi-criteria ranking method and the El-Shamy approach in conjunction with morphotectonic analysis to model flood-susceptibility zones. Furthermore, this paper suggests a comparative assessment of low-cost morphometric models under data-scarce conditions, assessing the multi-criteria ranking method against El-Shamy’s approach, using the topographic position index (TPI) as an internal terrain scale benchmark. The ranking method successfully assigned 85.7% of the historically recorded flood locations to the high-hazard zone that covers ~24.22% of the Hanefah catchment. In contrast, the El-Shamy approach systematically underestimated flood susceptibility because regional tectonic activity increases bifurcation ratios, resulting in just ~42.9% of the historical floods being assigned to the high-hazard zone. The final results highlight the northern and northwestern parts of the catchment as high-hazard zones, characterized by high drainage density and steep relief. This study provides a refined, cost-effective model that aligns with the strategic objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 for sustainable water resources management and significant urban development. Full article

The location and capacity of electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs) directly determine the capital invested and construction costs while also affecting the travelling convenience and economy of electric vehicle (EV) users. Furthermore, the siting and sizing of EVCSs has an impact on distribution network flexibility. Therefore, a method for the siting and sizing of EVCSs that takes into account distribution network flexibility is proposed. Firstly, based on the definition of distribution network flexibility, the flexibility deficit is analyzed, and five flexibility assessment indicators are established. Secondly, the travel characteristics of EVs are simulated based on urban road topology and a trip probability matrix, and a model incorporating users’ bounded rationality is adopted to predict the temporal and spatial distribution of EV charging requirements. Furthermore, based on charging requirements and distribution network flexibility deficit, this paper establishes a model for the siting and sizing of EVCSs considering distribution network flexibility. Finally, case studies are conducted with a 29-node transportation network and a 33-node distribution network. The results show that the proposed method can formulate a more reasonable siting and sizing scheme for EVCSs, decrease the flexibility deficit of the distribution network, and reduce the annual comprehensive cost by 11.96%. Full article

Physical inactivity and household financial fragility are often studied separately, yet households may respond to health and financial shocks through interrelated behavioral, health, and financial processes. This study examines whether physical activity, health capital, and household financial resilience are dynamically associated in China. Using five waves of the China Family Panel Studies, we construct a household-wave panel and multidimensional indices of health capital and financial resilience. We apply lagged household fixed-effects models, dynamic mediation analysis, and panel vector autoregression with impulse response functions and forecast error variance decomposition. The results indicate that physical activity is positively associated with subsequent health capital, health capital positively predicts subsequent household financial resilience, and financial resilience has a smaller but statistically significant association with later physical activity. The mediation results are consistent with health capital serving as a partial transmission channel between physical activity and financial resilience. The PVAR results show persistent cross-variable responses, suggesting modest dynamic interdependence among the three components rather than definitive causal evidence of a strong self-reinforcing system. Heterogeneity analyses suggest that these associations are more pronounced among low-income, older-head, and chronic-risk households. These findings extend health-capital and household finance research by showing that health behavior and financial resilience can be examined as jointly evolving household-level processes. The results suggest that integrated approaches to physical activity promotion and household financial protection may be worth further policy experimentation and evaluation, especially for vulnerable households. Full article

We focus on the use of the Modern Lesbian dialect in the linguistic landscape (LL), highlighting its diverse forms and functions. Since LL research primarily investigates written language in public space, emphasizing the dynamic relationship between language, place, and historicity, the growing visibility of the dialect in both physical and digital contexts (cf. the online–offline nexus) is particularly noteworthy. The presence of non-standard varieties in public discourse has been widely studied, revealing that aspects of language choice and use are related to the sustainability of minority languages, the shaping of linguistic attitudes and stereotypes, and the commodification of language as a cultural and economic resource. Within this framework, the data analyzed here illustrate positive attitudes toward Modern Lesbian, expressions of pride and comfort among its speakers, efforts to destigmatize dialectal speech, and indications of broader acceptance of Modern Lesbian. Meanwhile, the increasing commodification of the dialect is evident in its use for the promotion of products and services, capitalizing on its distinctiveness, despite its historical stigmatization vis-à-vis the standard. This development does not dissolve entrenched beliefs on the incompatibility of dialects with written discourse; rather, it capitalizes on the surprise (and humor) generated by their written presence in promotional contexts without resorting to humorous stereotyping. Full article

The global regulatory landscape is shifting from voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting to mandatory Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure, yet whether this transition drives substantive corporate environmental change or merely symbolic compliance remains empirically contested. This study investigates the causal impact of mandatory ESG disclosure on firm value and operational carbon intensity, drawing on an unbalanced panel of 9682 firm-year observations for 1626 listed firms from the European Union (EU-27) and Japan covering the period 2018 to 2024. The EU serves as the treatment group, where mandatory disclosure requirements escalated substantially from 2021 onward through the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive proposal. Japan serves as the control group, representing a developed economy with sophisticated capital markets and high ESG awareness that maintained a voluntary disclosure environment throughout the study period. A Difference-in-Differences framework with firm- and year-fixed effects is employed, and causal identification is validated through a dynamic event study analysis. Three principal findings emerge. First, mandatory ESG disclosure is not associated with a statistically significant improvement in firm value in the EU–Japan comparative context, a result that is interpreted as descriptive rather than causal given evidence of pre-existing valuation divergence between the two groups. Second, mandatory disclosure is associated with a significant and progressive reduction in Scope 1 and 2 carbon intensity, indicating substantive operational decarbonization rather than symbolic compliance. Third, this emissions-reducing effect is significantly amplified among firms with dedicated CSR sustainability committees, while the board independence policy indicator yields no significant moderating effect, a finding attributed to data limitations. These results carry direct implications for policymakers designing climate-related disclosure frameworks and for scholars examining the boundary conditions under which mandatory transparency translates into genuine environmental performance. Full article

The assessment of humanity’s ecological footprint has become increasingly critical in contemporary discourse due to growing environmental challenges. This study examines the economic evaluation of the ecological footprint with a particular focus on forest ecosystem services and food productivity. Using harmonized secondary data from FAOSTAT, EUROSTAT, the World Bank, and IPBES, the analysis covers selected developed and emerging economies, including the European Union, the United States, China, Brazil, and other representative countries. This study investigates the macroeconomic implications of natural capital degradation by applying a panel data econometric model to European Union countries over the period 2010–2023. Moving beyond descriptive approaches, the research formulates and tests three hypotheses linking biodiversity, environmental pressure, and green transition variables to economic performance. Using harmonized data from Eurostat and Statista, the study employs a fixed-effects regression framework to estimate the impact of biodiversity indicators, greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy share, and environmental protection expenditures on GDP per capita. The results demonstrate that biodiversity preservation and resource efficiency are positively associated with economic performance, while environmental degradation—proxied by greenhouse gas emissions—exerts a statistically significant negative effect. Additionally, the findings confirm that investments in renewable energy and environmental protection contribute to long-term economic stability. By providing a transparent data structure, explicit variable operationalization, and reproducible econometric specification, the study offers an original empirical contribution to ecological economics and addresses the limitations of prior literature that relied primarily on descriptive synthesis. Full article

To investigate the interaction between artificial intelligence development (AID) and water–energy–food system technical efficiency (WEF-TE), panel data from 264 cities in China from 2013 to 2023 were utilized, and WEF-TE in the study areas was estimated using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). Subsequently, the Error Correction Model (ECM) and a random forest model were adopted for empirically examining the adjustment and driving mechanisms of AID on WEF-TE from three dimensions, namely enterprise scale, application level, and workforce literacy. The results indicate the following: (1) China’s WEF-TE generally shows an increasing trend; however, clear differences remain between high-value and low-value regions, and the deviation in lagging areas can reach 0.507. Meanwhile, the Yellow River Basin, which is the core region of China’s WEF system, remains below the national average in the process of technical efficiency optimization. (2) AID has a long-term equilibrium relationship with WEF-TE across the research dimensions and can effectively adjust technological inefficiencies in the short term, with adjustment coefficients ranging from 0.004 to 0.021 under different test rules. (3) In terms of enterprise scale and application level, the driving effect of AID on WEF-TE is relatively strong, with feature weights of 0.16 and 0.155, which are close to those of human capital input (0.172) and industrial structure rationalization (0.15). This study provides important reference value for constructing an interdisciplinary research framework that integrates WEF Nexus with AID. Full article

Climate change is a global pressing concern that has affected all sectors, including the operations of Small and Medium Entreprises (SMEs) in developing countries, including Malawi. This has negatively affected their economies of scale and exacerbated the SMEs’ growth constraints. Nonetheless, renewable efficient energy (REE) systems, including solar and biogas, could help in building resilience to sustain their performance. In line with this, the study examined the factors that enhance the adoption of renewable efficient energies and constructed their resilience indices. Our study was grounded in the Diffusion of Innovation Theory and the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. These theories contextualised the study and guided the selection of variables to estimate an Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) econometric model, alongside estimating the absorptive, adaptive and transformative individual indices for 699 SMEs, using the 2019 Malawi Household Integrated Survey data. The results initially suggests that factors such as access to credit, being male, access to education, access to capital sources, a large profit share, bridging social capital and location among others, have a positive effect in influencing the adoption of renewable efficient systems. We simulated the adoption results and found that SMEs that adopts REE increase their resilience with an Average Treatment Effect of 0.117 and through the subsidy policy effect vulnerable SMEs that later adopt REE would shift their resilience by 0.169. Furthermore, the study found that transformative capacity plays the most important role in building long-term resilience for the SMEs. The study calls for policies, including establishing urban centres where SMEs can access information regarding REE and improving access to formal safety nets and capital sources beyond loan provisions. Full article

This study integrates spatial justice theory with the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to construct a new analytical model: “Institutional Rules–Spatial Justice Issues–Spatial Injustice Perception–Institutional Feedback.” Using Shangri-La Potatso National Park as a case study, our deductive–inductive approach reveals the practical dilemmas and institutional challenges in the development of China’s national park system. The findings indicate that (1) national park reforms have not restructured entrenched power relations, leading to ineffective governance and deficiencies across multiple institutional rules; (2) these rule deficiencies shape an action arena where multiple actors interact within nested power networks, generating four interrelated spatial justice issues—power deviance, resource deprivation, cultural erosion, and conflict reproduction; (3) actors’ perceptions of spatial injustice, assessed through procedural, distributive, recognitional, and restorative justice lenses, produce institutional feedback that often perpetuates rather than resolves systemic inequities. Theoretically, this study reveals that while spatial justice issues manifest differently in ecological conservation versus urban development contexts, both are driven by institutional exclusion constructed through a “capital–power–technology” alliance. In practical terms, an inclusive governance system centered on collaborative decision-making, equitable resource allocation, cultural recognition, and integrated conflict resolution is proposed to advance spatial justice. Full article

Driven by the digital transformation of territorial spatial governance, traditional urban planning is irreversibly shifting towards a data-driven empirical paradigm. However, constrained by mimetic isomorphism and path dependence, many geography-based regional universities remain trapped in an educational dilemma: they overemphasize morphological representation while marginalizing quantitative decision-making, fostering a structural mismatch between graduate competencies and industry demands. To explore a systematic pathway out of this dilemma, this study chronicles a three-year pedagogical intervention utilizing a mixed-methods design with a historical control cohort (N = 275) within the urban planning program of Gansu Agricultural University—a regional institution situated in a less-developed frontier where territorial renewal demands macro-spatial synthesis over aesthetic forms. The intervention strategically redefined the graduate competency profile as “spatial data analysts”, constructing a pedagogical model comprising foundational algorithmic training, cross-disciplinary faculty collaboration, and real-world Project-Based Learning (PBL), coupled with a restructured, evidence-based evaluation system. Longitudinal tracking and quantitative analyses indicate a structural alignment with elevated educational efficacy. At the macro level of employment trajectories, the proportion of graduates securing knowledge-intensive data positions experienced a structural shift, rising from a baseline of 14.5% to 42.5%, reflecting an enhanced capacity to capitalize on expanding societal demands. At the meso level of practical competence, the award rate in high-level professional competitions increased by 35.4%. At the micro cognitive level, the new evaluation mechanism is associated with a successful redirection of students’ cognitive resources toward algorithmic logic and policy translation (p < 0.001) while highly significantly enhancing their self-efficacy in tackling complex, wicked engineering problems (p < 0.001). Rather than isolating pure causal mechanics, this study interprets these systemic gains as a contextual realignment of academic supply. It provides a context-sensitive, reproducible methodological reference for cultivating professional distinctiveness and reshaping the spatial planning education system in the digital era. Full article

This study presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) of the modernization of an existing 460 MW coal-fired power unit into a hybrid system incorporating a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). The analysis was conducted from a cradle-to-grave perspective using a functional unit of 1 MWh of net electricity, based on the ecoinvent 3.9 database and the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint method. The results indicate that the modernized system achieves a global warming potential (GWP) of 18.2 g CO₂-eq/kWh, representing a 93.5% reduction compared to a supercritical coal-fired unit. The largest contribution to the total environmental burden is associated with the upstream uranium supply chain, accounting for approximately 42% of GWP. In contrast, the operational phase exhibits a negative contribution due to the application of environmental credits resulting from the avoidance of emissions related to coal combustion. The findings also confirm a significant improvement in resource efficiency, including reduced primary energy demand and waste generation compared to the reference system. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated the robustness of the results with respect to variations in key economic and thermodynamic parameters, particularly CAPEX (capital expenditures) and operating temperature. Overall, the results suggest that hybrid retrofitting of coal-fired power plants with HTGR technology may serve as a viable transitional pathway supporting the decarbonization of the Polish energy sector. Full article

This study explores the effect that the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 9 has on credit risk in commercial banks in Cambodia, focused primarily on non-performing loans (NPLs) as a significant indicator. In the static and dynamic panel estimations, the analysis shows that the NPL behavior is best characterized using a dynamic specification, which passes relevant diagnostic tests and leads to evidence of persistence and endogeneity, which has not been conducted in Cambodia yet. The study covered the period from 2013 to 2024. During this period, 26 commercial banks had complete datasets. Combining time-series and cross-sectional data, the total sample size was 312 observations. The results show substantial path dependence in NPLs, suggesting credit deterioration is persistent and that early measures are needed. We find evidence that the adoption of IFRS 9 is positively and significantly associated with increased measures of NPLs, though we interpret this as consistent with improved transparency and forward-looking recognition of expected credit losses—and not indicative of deterioration in underlying asset quality. Bank-specific determinants such as profitability, size, leverage, and liquidity emerge as key predictors of credit risk; banks with stronger financial fundamentals experience improved asset quality. Macroeconomic factors like economic growth are key to decreasing NPLs in the dynamic framework as well. The results highlight the need for forward-looking accounting standards, prudent bank-level practices, and macroeconomic stability. Policy issues include increased supervisory vigilance, legal conservatism when assessing IFRS 9-related indicators, a revision of the capital and liquidity regulatory framework in relation to counterparties operating with them, as well as coordinated macroeconomic policies aiming at boosting the financial system—economy arterial connection. Full article

This paper examines source-conditioned spillovers and tail dependence in Belt and Road Initiative equity markets under China-related equity distress and WTI oil-price-decline distress. We define source-conditioned spillovers as incremental changes in pairwise dependence relative to a median-threshold benchmark, and source-conditioned tail dependence as the nonlinear higher-order component of these changes. Using a DCC-GARCH model with multivariate generalized hyperbolic innovations, we construct a linear co-moment layer and a nonlinear tail-dependence layer for 32 equity markets from 2007 to 2025. The resulting annual country-level exposure measures are then related to macroeconomic, China-linked, and oil-linked characteristics through benchmark fixed-effects and source-matched regressions. The empirical results imply that the linear layer mainly reflects background synchronization, whereas the nonlinear layer captures selective tail-state amplification. SSEC-conditioned exposure is more visible in China-adjacent and regionally linked equity relationships, while WTI-conditioned exposure is more visible among intermediary receiving markets and in nonlinear oil-related episodes. The comparison after 2013 suggests that BRI equity markets became more vulnerable to energy driven tail risk, as WTI distress is more strongly associated with nonlinear downside amplification. SSEC distress mainly increases the common linear exposure channel, indicating broader regional synchronization rather than a persistent rise in nonlinear contagion. The framework provides a financial-stability diagnostic for sustainable-finance resilience by distinguishing routine cross-market synchronization from nonlinear downside exposure relevant to cross-border financing, infrastructure investment, and energy-transition-related capital allocation. Full article