Search Results (22)

Occupying the prestigious second place globally, the readymade export garment industry is the most important manufacturing and export industry in Bangladesh. The industry took root in the 1980s and has subsequently grown very rapidly since the 1990s, and now it contributes significantly to employment, income, exports, foreign exchange earnings, national output, and the overall social and economic development of the country. This paper focuses on the growth and development of the industry over the years, along with a critical discussion of some major social sustainability challenged facing this industry, particularly those pertaining to child labor issues, worker income, the gender gap, and worker and workplace safety, among others. The paper uses a mixture of quantitative and non-quantitative analysis and utilizes data and information from secondary sources to analyze the issues. The authors fill a critical gap in the existing literature on social sustainability challenges facing the export garment industry and finds that the country has made significant progress; however, however, more needs to be done improve social sustainability. The authors argue that not addressing these challenges, particularly external ones, may threaten the long-term viability and sustainability of this industry in the global stage. The paper discusses the progress made in these fronts, and the prospects for the future, so that the industry continue to play a pivotal role at the global stage and in the overall economic, social, and human development of the country. Full article

Background: The foreign-born population in the United States has reached a record high over the last three years. Significant disparities in cancer screening rates exist among this population, resulting in later-stage diagnoses and worse outcomes. This narrative review explores the sociodemographic factors, barriers, and interventions influencing cancer screening rates among foreign-born individuals in the U.S. Methods: A comprehensive review of studies was conducted to assess colorectal, cervical, and breast cancer screening disparities among immigrants. Factors examined include length of residence, race and ethnicity, income, education, citizenship, insurance, usual source of care, language, medical literacy, and cultural barriers. Furthermore, the effectiveness of educational interventions, patient navigators, and at-home testing in addressing these screening disparities was evaluated. Results: Immigrants have lower screening rates for colorectal, cervical, and breast cancer compared to U.S.-born individuals, with the largest disparities observed in colorectal cancer. Factors influencing these gaps include shorter duration of residence, Asian ethnicity, and lower income and education levels. Lack of health insurance and of a usual source of care are currently the most significant barriers to screening. Interventions such as education, patient navigation, and at-home testing have shown moderate success in improving screening rates, though data on their effectiveness remain limited. Conclusions: Addressing cancer screening disparities within the U.S. foreign-born population is essential, especially as the immigrant population continues to reach record numbers. Targeted interventions are needed to improve screening among immigrant groups with the lowest completion rates. Future research on these interventions should prioritize larger sample sizes, longitudinal studies, and the utility of new technologies such as artificial intelligence. Full article

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of financial development and renewable energy consumption in Vietnam and some selected countries in Southeast Asia. After researching over the period from 1970 to 2022, using quantitative analyses, including the ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects method (FEM), and random effects method (REM), and measuring the Driscoll–Kraay standard errors to assess cross-dependence between countries as well as a Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) estimation analysis to evaluate the robustness of the research, the research results confirm that financial development has a negative impact on renewable energy consumption, which reflects the important role of fossil energy sources in meeting energy consumption demand. Similarly, increased per capita income negatively affects renewable energy consumption. This study also confirms the positive impact of foreign direct investment on renewable energy use. Full article

This study seeks to analyze the financial performance of the Colombian banking industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The frame of reference is based on the concept of systemic risk; concerning this, the pandemic is conceived as an external shock, which impacted the dynamics of the banking industry. To conduct this study, a descriptive-correlational scope is proposed, from which an analysis of different accounting items related to the banking business is made and validated by expert judgment. The analysis horizon covers six years, but the focus is placed on March 2020, when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). For this purpose, a longitudinal design is proposed, which analyzes the time series describing the behavior of some relevant items in the management of the banking business, such as operating revenue, provisions, interest on deposits and drawings, valuation of trading derivatives, and technology-related expenses. In addition, these items’ correlation with banking establishments’ performance is analyzed. The results of the study show that during the pandemic period, there was a significant increase in the level of volatility in the foreign exchange market, which impacted the operating revenue of banking establishments. It is concluded that, although exchange rate volatility affected the results of the banking industry, the main factor related to the financial performance of Colombian banks is their business itself, i.e., revenue from the loan portfolio and the quality of the loan portfolio. Therefore, systemic risk must be addressed regarding its implications on banks’ main profit drivers, such as portfolio revenue, cost of deposits, and provisions. Based on the above, it is recommended that Colombian banking establishments make greater efforts to diversify their sources of income to reduce their exposure to systemic risk situations. Full article

Urban resilience provides the foundation and guarantee for the tourism economy, and the development of the tourism industry provides new opportunities and impetus for urban resilience. The coordinated development of urban resilience (UR) and the tourism economy (TE) contributes to the high-quality development of the regional economy. This study takes 27 cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) urban agglomeration as an example. Various analytical techniques, including the entropy method, coupling coordination degree model (CCDM), kernel density estimation, Theil index, and obstacle degree model, are employed to investigate the spatiotemporal evolution patterns and influencing factors that affect the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between UR and TE. The findings indicate that: (1) The urban resilience and tourism economy exhibited an increasing trend denoted by “N” and “M”, respectively. (2) The coupling coordination level has undergone a development phase of “Moderate disorder–Bare coordination–Moderate disorder”. (3) The level of coordination has been enhanced, with intra-regional differences identified as the primary source of variation. (4) The number of Internet users, the number of students in institutions of higher learning, per capita public financial expenditure, science and technology expenditures as a share of fiscal expenditures, urban per capita disposable income, foreign exchange earnings from tourism, and the number of inbound tourists is the main factors affecting the CCD of urban resilience and tourism economy. Full article

Under the condition of opening up, participation in international specialization and global value chains (GVCs) has become the main source for more and more countries to obtain foreign resources and advanced technologies, thereby promoting productivity improvement and technological progress. What are the pathways of agricultural GVC participation that affect agricultural total factor productivity (TFP)? Is the impact of agricultural GVC participation on agricultural TFP consistent across different statuses and modes of agricultural GVC participation? This paper elaborates on the theoretical mechanism of agricultural GVC participation affecting agricultural TFP, and then empirically estimates the impact of different statuses and modes of agricultural GVC participation on agricultural TFP by taking 58 countries as examples. The results show that agricultural GVCs affect agricultural TFP by several direct and indirect pathways. There was a U-shaped relationship between agricultural GVC participation and agricultural TFP, which means that after crossing a certain threshold, the former has a positive impact on the latter. By participating in agricultural GVCs, agricultural TFP in high-income and upper-middle-income countries was significantly improved, while in lower-middle-income countries it was not. Both forward and backward agricultural GVC participation were conducive to improving agricultural TFP in high-income and upper-middle-income countries, but only backward agricultural GVC participation was conducive to improving agricultural TFP in lower-middle-income countries. Therefore, every country needs to actively explore its optimal pathway to participate in agricultural GVCs in order to maximize the participation benefits and promote the improvement in agricultural TFP, simultaneously. Full article

This paper presents an innovative approach to addressing critical global challenges in long-term energy planning for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The paper proposes and tests an international enabling environment, a delivery ecosystem, and a community of practice. These components are integrated into workflows that yield four self-sustaining capacity-development outcomes. Planning long-term energy strategies in LMICs is particularly challenging due to limited national agency and poor international coordination. While outsourcing energy planning to foreign experts may appear to be a viable solution, it can lead to a reduction in government agency (the ability of a government to make its own informed analysis and decisions). Additionally, studies commissioned by external experts may have conflicting terms of reference, and a lack of familiarity with local conditions can result in misrepresentations of on-the-ground realities. It is argued here that enhancing national agency and analytical capacity can improve coordination and lead to more robust planning across line ministries and technical assistance (TA) providers. Moreover, the prevailing consulting model hampers the release and accessibility of underlying analytics, making it difficult to retrieve, reuse, and reconstruct consultant outputs. The absence of interoperability among outputs from various consultants hinders the ability to combine and audit the insights they provide. To overcome these challenges, five strategic principles for energy planning in LMICs have been introduced and developed in collaboration with 21 international and research organizations, including the AfDB, IEA, IRENA, IAEA, UNDP, UNECA, the World Bank, and WRI. These principles prioritize national ownership, coherence and inclusivity, capacity, robustness, transparency and accessibility. In this enabling environment, a unique delivery ecosystem consisting of knowledge products and activities is established. The paper focuses on two key knowledge products as examples of this ecosystem: the open-source energy modeling system (OSeMOSYS) and the power system flexibility tool (IRENA FlexTool). These ecosystem elements are designed to meet user-friendliness, retrievability, reusability, reconstructability, repeatability, interoperability, and audibility (U4RIA) goals. To ensure the sustainability of this ecosystem, OpTIMUS is introduced—a community of practice dedicated to maintaining, supporting, expanding, and nurturing the elements within the ecosystem. Among other ecosystem elements, training and research initiatives are introduced, namely the Energy Modelling Platform for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific as well as the ICTP Joint Summer School on Modelling Tools for Sustainable Development. Once deployed via workflows, the preliminary outcomes of these capacity-development learning pathways show promise. Further investigation is necessary to evaluate their long-term impacts, scalability, replication, and deployment costs. Full article

This study examines the effect of remittances on selected recipient countries’ financial development. Using weights for bilateral remittances from 1990 to 2015, this study calculates the weighted gross national income per capita of remittance-sending countries. This study then uses the weighted gross national income as an instrument to address the endogeneity between remittance and financial development. Using the instrument variable (IV) model, this study finds that remittances from low-skilled migrant-abundant sending countries have different effects than the highly skilled labor-abundant sending countries. Assuming the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as a source of low-skilled and the Group of Seven (G7) as the source of high-skilled labor-abundant sending countries, remittance from relatively low-skilled emigrants has a greater impact on financial inclusion in the recipient countries than their high-skilled counterparts. In contrast, remittance from high-skilled countries has a greater impact on the development of the stock market. Similar types of effects of remittance on financial development have also been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results suggest that policymakers should provide better foreign employment opportunities and improved transaction and investment policies in the home financial markets. Full article

Natural resources and ecological services provide the foundation for manufactured capital, increasing public financing and decreasing inequality by diversifying the economy. The exploitation of natural resources is frequently the backbone of economic stability in developing and middle-income nations. As a result of their importance, natural resources need vigilant and long-term management. Recent research has tested two hypotheses, the natural resource blessing hypothesis and the natural resource curse hypothesis, on the impact of a country’s natural resources on its economy. This research is an essential contribution to the growing body of work that attempts to quantify natural resource endowments’ role in national economic growth. Investigations focus on Pakistan and span the years 1975 through 2020. Robust Least Square (RLS) estimations show that coal rents, energy use, inbound FDI, and oil rents contribute to a country’s economic growth. While consumption of renewable energy sources and industrial value-added have a detrimental effect. Natural resources, foreign direct investment, energy consumption, and industrial ecology are predicted to significantly impact economic growth during the next decade, according to the Impulse Response Function (IRF) and the Variance Decomposition Analysis (VDA). The findings may provide helpful information for academic and governmental institutions to develop natural resource management policies for sustainable development. Full article

The aim of this paper is to analyze energy pathways for a fossil fuel rich developing country towards an energy transition considering national and international oil availability using Ecuador as a reference. An integrated assessment model has been developed to simulate energy transition scenarios considering constraints on oil availability at the national and global level. Results show that if current trends in energy demand and supply persist, energy scarcity would start around 2040 due to depletion of national oil reserves and restricted access to foreign oil. This would trigger a degrowth in economic activity in sectors with high dependency on petroleum products. Scenarios with conservative efforts might partially revert the increasing use of fossil fuels supported by policies for energy efficiency and substitution of liquid fuels with electricity mainly from renewables. However, energy shortages would still be foreseeable as well as a decay of the economy. Under a maximum efforts scenario with an optimistic availability of national oil, a moderate-sustained economic growth could be feasible. This shows that oil would still play a key role during the transition. Furthermore, ambitious policies must be implemented in the short term to smooth the effects of displacing oil as energy and income source. Full article

From the mid-1990s onwards, the concept of competitiveness was introduced to firms at the level of countries, regions, and cities. It was used as an index of the success and superiority of places. The present study used quantitative (survey) and qualitative methods in the framework of the exploratory paradigm to achieve key driving variables affecting the competitiveness of Kermanshah. The present study was applied in terms of its purpose and descriptive–analytical nature and research method. The study’s statistical population consisted of experts related to the Kermanshah competitiveness index, which studied 30 experts using the snowball method. MICMAC software was used to analyze the research data. Findings indicated that out of a total of 54 variables affecting the competitiveness of Kermanshah, 11 variables were in this group, which were the role of Kermanshah city in the power structure (MIN1); geographical and strategic location (MIN4); national, regional, and local plans (MIN5); management (MIN6); clean and healthy air (ENV1); potential sources of soil and water (ENV2); security of space (SEC2); the agricultural sector (ECO7); domestic tourism (ECO16); foreign tourism (ECO17); and sustainable sources of income (ECO19). The final model of Kermanshah’s future competitiveness will be that in the first stage, if the government (administration and government structure), in the form of national, regional, and local programs, pays attention to the competitive advantages of places. Especially, in large cities, and eliminating regional inequalities and in the next stage, local government (officials, managers, and all planners as the executive department) will need to act in order to operationalize the competitiveness of the city. With the correct use of opportunities and potentials (economic, socio-cultural, environmental, and security), in the 20-year horizon, Kermanshah will be a city with national and even transnational competitiveness. Otherwise, in addition to burning opportunities and destroying the capabilities of Kermanshah, other places adjacent to Kermanshah province will gradually be involved in challenges; tensions; and economic, cultural, social, environmental, security, and other crises. Full article

Living marine resources are limited; therefore, utilizing them sustainably is essential. Not all resources obtained from the sea are used adequately, causing discards, on-board waste, and by-products and waste on land. Recognition of the limited marine resources and increasing environmental pollution has emphasized the need for better utilization of by-products. Waste may include particles of flesh, skin, bones, entrails, shells or liquid stick water. Unfortunately, no fishery waste and by-product management initiatives or projects exist in Bangladesh; by-products are generally thrown into dustbins, ponds, rivers, and the sea. Bangladesh’s fish-processing waste and fishery by-products could be exported, providing a source of foreign currency earnings. Primary and secondary data were collected through documentary analysis, a literature review, and in-depth interviews (n = 129) with fishers and other relevant stakeholders regarding the challenges of Bangladesh’s sustainable fishery by-products and fish-processing waste. The data were analyzed thematically, guided by the most meaningful stories, and show that fish waste, or fishery by-products, should not be considered less valuable than the fish itself but is a precious and profitable resource capable of bringing health, social, economic, and environmental benefits. Our results reveal that fishery waste can expand local communities’, especially fishers’ and other workers’, potential for jobs or alternative income-generating tasks during fishing ban seasons. Finally, suggestions for managing fishery waste and fishery by-products are made to ensure improved and sustainable utilization via a circular bioeconomy. Full article

The main aim of this paper was to investigate the impact of bank characteristics on capital structure empirically. The study employed a panel data analysis, Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Cross-Sectionally Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) estimators were utilized, for the period spans between the years 2008 and 2018. Both the borrowing (leverage) ratio and equity ratio used in the analysis cover short-term deposits and long-term deposits as a fundamental determinant variable on the capital structure. The main findings confirm that the deposit ratio has a positive relationship with the size of the bank. In other words, big banks use more foreign sources than small banks to use the tax shield advantage. At the same time, a percentage increase in bank size and liquidity ratio enhance the bank deposit rate by 0.0068% and 0.479%, respectively, in the long-run, while a percentage change in interest income coverage will reduce the bank deposit rate by 0.004% in the long-run. Meanwhile, the significant causal relationship of growth rate with the bank deposit rate could not be established. In addition, the short-run coefficients of the variables reveal that size, interest coverage, and liquidity have a positive and significant causal relationship with bank deposit rate in the short-run. The findings of the study are in line with the results of capital structure theories, especially the hierarchy theory and balancing theory. Full article

From an empirical point of view, the liberalization of the internal energy market reduces carbon dioxide emissions, promoting a wider range of renewable energy sources. The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of the liberalization of the internal energy market on CO₂ emissions, which was implemented in the European Union in 2011. The research data cover 27 countries of the European Union during the period 2004–2017 and was processed by estimating a two-way effects econometric model. The results suggest that the liberalization of the internal energy market is negatively related to CO₂ emissions; the policy was effective in reducing CO₂ emissions and, therefore, slowing down climate change. This result is significant at the level of the European Union, and in high-income countries since the year the policy was implemented, being different in the upper-middle-income countries, which begins to be effective after two years, which is due to the economic characteristics of the countries. The public policies to be implemented to reduce carbon dioxide emissions should focus on reducing the barriers imposed on foreign trade, which prevent efficient use of resources and providing financial and operating facilities to renewable energy providers in order to stimulate their production and consumption. Full article

Foreign direct investment (FDI) as a driver of growth is important in today’s globalized economy. It is extremely difficult for economies to grow sustainably without economic interactions outside their borders. However, there has been a debate on the impact of FDI inflow on economic expansion. Hence, this study investigated the influence of FDI on economic growth for a selection of 200 economies around the world for the period 1990–2018. We subdivided the sample into World Bank income group clusters to aid comparison across income blocs. The study employed panel estimation techniques including pooled ordinary least squares (POLS), dynamic panel estimation with fixed-effects and random-effects and generalized method of moments (GMM). The study found that FDI, debt stock and official development assistance are promoters of growth in the selected countries—although debt stock weakly impacts economic growth. In contrast, trade openness and exchange rates had a mixed (negative and positive) influence on economic growth. The study suggests that the creation of a conducive business environment and economic policies will attract FDI inflows. Additionally, borrowing from external sources could be minimized despite its perceived positive influence on growth to achieve financial independence. Full article