Search Results (405)

The sharp rise in nominal interest rates after 2022 constitutes a substantial test for European non-financial corporations after a prolonged period of exceptionally cheap debt. This paper examines how the cost of debt financing—proxied by the lagged, ex post real long-term sovereign yield, interpreted throughout as an indicator of economy-wide financing conditions rather than a direct corporate borrowing rate—is associated with the gross investment rate of non-financial corporations in the EU-27 over 2000–2025, using harmonised annual sector accounts and two-way fixed-effects panel models, interaction designs and local projections. Three findings emerge. First, the conditional association is stronger for the real than for the nominal cost of debt: a one percentage point increase in the lagged real yield is associated with a decline of roughly 0.3–0.4 percentage points in the investment rate, and a formal test does not reject treating the nominal yield and inflation as components of the real rate. Second, this association is not stable over time: it weakens markedly after 2020, and the weakening is robust to an alternative 2022 breakpoint and to wild cluster bootstrap inference. Third, direct tests with predetermined leverage and profit shares do not account for this weakening, so stronger corporate balance sheets—including the pronounced deleveraging from around 477% to around 226% of income—remain only one candidate explanation among several. The profit-share interaction is positive, but the evidence of attenuation is weak and specification-dependent: it is not statistically significant with the one-year-lagged measure and reaches only marginal significance under two alternative measures. Full article

Municipal waste composition is commonly measured at a single point, even though recovery, mixing and handling can alter the stream before disposal. This study examined municipal solid waste in Sialkot, Pakistan, during an eight-day campaign from 27 December 2021 to 3 January 2022. A total of 672 physical-characterization samples was obtained from residential, commercial, institutional, industrial and street-sweeping sources. Household generation was 0.42, 0.46 and 0.51 kg per person per day in low-, middle- and high-income proxy areas, respectively. Kitchen waste declined from 45.91% at the source to 34.20% at communal storage and 23.45% at the dumpsite. Recyclable paper and plastic also declined, whereas dust and fines increased from 2.05% at the source to 19.60% at storage and 21.78% at disposal. Six mixed-waste composites showed moisture contents of 30.72–53.06%, ash contents of 15.85–45.04% and gross calorific values of 2924–12,530 kcal kg⁻¹. The results demonstrate that monitoring location materially affects estimated recycling and treatment potential. A multi-point monitoring protocol is therefore recommended for cities with mixed collection and informal material recovery. Full article

This study examined the spatial carbon emission effects of new quality productive forces (NQPs) using provincial panel data from China during 2012–2021. A dynamic spatial Durbin model with instrumental variable generalized method of moments estimation was used to address endogeneity in assessing direct and spillover effects on carbon emission intensity. Results show that the direct effect (0.0072) and spatial spillover ($-0.0100$) are statistically insignificant, with no identifiable emission reduction during the sample period. Technology diffusion exhibits a J-curve left-sided feature with a short-term total effect of 0.0553, as general technology diffusion accompanies energy-intensive capacity expansion without crossing the turning point. The spatial environmental Kuznets curve reveals a positive intensification effect: neighboring per-capita gross domestic product increases local carbon emission intensity, with marginal effects rising from 0.084 to 0.168. Heterogeneity analysis shows that green-technology-oriented NQPs exhibit the most promising emission-reduction potential, while digital infrastructure generates carbon rebound. These findings challenge the presumptions that local income growth automatically reduces carbon and that technology diffusion naturally leads to reduced emissions. Cross-regional carbon compensation mechanisms, green technology market standards, and extended technology transformation evaluation periods are recommended. Full article

Decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions is central to the sustainable development of rapidly urbanizing economies, and urban agglomerations are the pivotal spatial units for delivering this transition under China’s dual-carbon goals, yet systematic cross-agglomeration comparisons that could inform differentiated sustainability policy remain scarce. Using panel data for 107 prefecture-level cities in five agglomerations—the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), Pearl River Delta (PRD), Chengdu–Chongqing (CY), and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (MRYR)—across five benchmark years spanning 2005–2023, we combined a two-way fixed-effects environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model, the Tapio decoupling model, and cross-sectional quadrant analysis to examine the growth–emission relationship in shape, decoupling dynamics, and spatial structure. All five agglomerations traced an inverted-U trajectory, with turning-point per capita gross domestic product (GDP) rising in the order CY < PRD < BTH < MRYR < YRD. Once fixed effects and structural controls were added, most quadratic terms became insignificant and reversed sign after the secondary-industry share and carbon intensity entered; only the PRD and BTH retained a significant nonlinear form. The net income effect is therefore largely monotonic, with the inverted U carried by industrial upgrading and energy-efficiency gains. Tapio decoupling followed a non-monotonic “improve-then-regress” path, with expansive negative decoupling re-emerging across all agglomerations during 2020–2023. Spatially, high-value clustering persisted in the YRD, weakened in the BTH after 2020, and concentrated on single cores in Chengdu and Wuhan. We accordingly propose sustainability-oriented low-carbon pathways differentiated jointly by agglomeration and quadrant. By showing that decoupling is stage-dependent and reversible rather than an automatic by-product of income growth, our findings indicate that durable progress toward regional sustainability hinges on structural transformation and coordinated governance tailored to each agglomeration’s stage of development. Full article

This study examines the nature and stability of the relationship between government spending and gross national income in South Africa, with a focus on whether fiscal dynamics are consistent with Wagner’s Law. Using annual data from 1990 to 2024, the study employs nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) and time-varying parameter (TVP) models to capture both asymmetric and changing fiscal dynamics. The findings show that positive income shocks have a modest, marginally significant effect on government spending, while negative shocks have no significant impact. This asymmetry suggests spending rigidity rather than a structured Wagnerian relationship. The bounds test fails to establish cointegration, and short-run Granger causality tests reveal no predictive influence in either direction. Multiple structural breaks (concentrated around 1994, 2008, 2009, 2017, and 2018) show that South Africa’s fiscal behaviour evolves through distinct regimes rather than following a consistent path. These findings imply that the income–spending relationship is unstable and regime-dependent, with limited and conditional evidence consistent with Wagner’s Law and no evidence of a systematic or stable Wagnerian relationship. The study concludes that South Africa’s fiscal planning should use medium-term frameworks that account for regime-dependent behaviour and structural instability rather than relying on stable long-run fiscal multipliers. Full article

Coccocypselum lanceolatum is a tropical, perennial, creeping, herbaceous C3 plant species that is found in deeply shaded humid forests. This species has potential for medicinal and culinary uses. Knowledge about this species and other herbaceous Rubiaceae is confined to phytocoenological and morpho-anatomical studies. Here, it was hypothesized that (1) leaf gas exchange dynamics over a one-year period in C. lanceolatum are related to light conditions, phenology and environmental seasonal changes; (2) photosynthetic performance is focused on enhanced carbon gains through a high leaf net assimilation rate (A_net) relative to light availability, a low dark respiration rate (R_d) and a light compensation point (LCP); and (3) these parameters will vary over leaf age. The photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD), characterizing the growth and development of C. lanceolatum, was reduced to 4–11% of incoming light in the open area, while the red-to-far-red light ratio (R:FR) was reduced from 1.15 to mean diurnal values of 0.45–0.81, depending on forest canopy dynamics. Leaf gas exchange parameters [A_net, stomatal conductance (g_s), leaf transpiration (E), and intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE)] were observed over a one-year period. A_net, g_s, and E were correlated with energy factors (PPFD and air temperature) during vegetative growth, while only iWUE showed a correlation with leaf gas exchange parameters during blooming and fruiting, indicating that seasonality and phenology were additional drivers of leaf gas exchange. As a deep-shade forest species, C. lanceolatum displayed low iWUE (3–21 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹) and was adapted to maximize carbon gain and prioritize high g_s rather than water economy. The extremely low LCP (4.2 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹), low R_d (0.2 to 0.43 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹), maximum net photosynthesis (A_max, 5 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹), and apparent quantum efficiency of CO₂ assimilation (Φ of 0.04 µmol µmol⁻¹) were adaptational traits of this species for low light. Finally, the A_net, g_s, E, iWUE, gross photosynthesis under light saturation, R_d, LCP, and light saturation point values were different when comparing young and adult leaves. The ecophysiological responses over a one-year period shown here could assist in the success of C. lanceolatum as a sustainable soil-cover plant in shaded areas. Full article

This study examines the long- and short-run effects of sustainable development, economic growth, energy consumption, urbanization, investment and trade openness on Carbon Dioxide Emissions (CO₂) in the GCC countries utilizing the PMG-ARDL approach by including the data spanning from 2000 to 2022. In the short -run, the sustainable development index demonstrates a positive and substantial impact while it exhibits adverse long-run impact on CO₂ emission. The study also indicates a U-shaped correlation between economic growth and emissions, contrasting with the conventional Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) where economic growth at lower income levels often leads to a reduction in emissions; however, income increases beyond around USD 29,942 per capita correlate with higher emissions. Besides, energy use is identified as the primary factor influencing emissions, reflecting global patterns that indicate greater energy usage, particularly from fossil fuels directly boosts emissions. Moreover, the urbanization intensifies this problem, resulting in higher energy demand and greater emissions. Additionally, the study finds that gross capital formation and investments in infrastructure contribute to emissions in the short run, though these effects diminish over time. Our results are robust as it similar to the outcomes obtained from dynamic panel-data System GMM. The GCC policymakers must utilize the sustainable development framework to legally mandate national planning towards low-carbon paths while balancing for short-term transition costs with significant long-run emission reductions. This necessitates the implementation of market-oriented carbon pricing to address the post-threshold U-shaped emissions rebound, the systematic elimination of fossil fuel subsidies to promote renewable energy adoption, and the enforcement of sustainable development regulations to mitigate urbanization pressures. Full article

Cordyceps militaris is a high-value medicinal mushroom with growing demand in functional-food and nutraceutical markets, yet practical frameworks for small-scale, family-operated cultivation remain limited. This study presents an integrated technical and economic feasibility analysis of small-scale Cordyceps production under two scenarios: a one-room setup (Scenario 1) and a two-room configuration with a shared processing area and staggered scheduling (Scenario 2). Both use consistent biological, operational, and market assumptions with no hired labor, and the analysis covers capital expenditure (CapEx), operating costs (OpEx), profitability, payback, and break-even thresholds, complemented by sensitivity analysis of parameters such as biological efficiency and contamination rates. Both scenarios were technically and financially viable. Scenario 1 achieved a net present value (NPV) of $1761, an internal rate of return (IRR) of 10%, a 4.7-year discounted payback, and a 133% five-year return on investment (ROI); Scenario 2 attained an NPV of $85,437, a 66% IRR, a 1.6-year payback, and a 366% ROI. Because gross margins were consistent across scales, the expansion’s advantage stemmed from more efficient CapEx amortization rather than improved unit profitability. Cordyceps cultivation emerges as a viable family-operated, small-scale enterprise that can diversify family income, generate supplementary or primary earnings, and support urban and rural livelihoods. Full article

Background/Objectives: One contemporary problem in health economics is the measurement and interpretation of socioeconomic inequalities in outcomes, utilisation, and resource distribution. This article aims to estimate socioeconomic inequality in the regional allocation of health resources in Bulgaria during 2019–2023. Methods: A year-by-year database was created. It includes regions (n = 28), population, GDP per capita, and the numbers of practicing physicians, dentists, nurses, midwives, hospital beds, and outpatient facilities. Income inequality is analysed using decile ratios, the Gini coefficient, the Generalised Entropy index, and the Atkinson index. Socioeconomic health inequality is quantified using the concentration index (CI) and the coefficient of variation (CV) of the absolute number and of resource density (per 1000 inhabitants). The socio-economic variable is a regional gross domestic product (GDP) per capita fractional rank and a frequency-weight approach to account for population size is used. The analysis is extended with the relative and slope indices of inequality. The CI of hospital beds, practicing physicians, and nurses is decomposed using the age dependency ratio and the number of hospitalisations by districts. Results: The Gini index levels remain stable, with no significant fluctuations, in the narrow range of 29.6–29.7. The highest inequality of the absolute resource’s quantity is among midwives (Mean CI = 0.498, CV = 0.018), and the lowest among nurses (Mean CI = 0.442, CV = 0.024). For material resources, a greater concentration of outpatient organisations in richer areas is observed (Mean CI = 0.481, CV = 0.035) than for hospital beds (Mean CI = 0.427, CV = 0.034). The dynamics and descriptives of inequality of resources’ density follow the same pattern, but with lower average rates, ranging from 0.045 to 0.112. The obtained estimates are statistically significant (p < 0.05). The analysis of the regression-based measures confirms, without any doubt, both the magnitude and the direction of the development of inequalities in the territorial distribution of health resources. Conclusions: Inequality measures vary by resource group. Significant inequality exists in the distribution of health resources between poorer and richer regions, particularly in material resources, in the outpatient sector. For most resource groups, a very slight decrease in inequality is observed midway through the analysed period. The most significant part of this inequality can be explained by differences in hospital care and income across richer and poorer regions. Full article

Background and Objectives: Macroeconomic instability, particularly income loss, inflation and unemployment, is increasingly recognized as a psychosocial stressor that may influence both symptom burden and healthcare-seeking behavior. This single-center study investigated the association of income, inflation and unemployment with private-sector hospital visits for primary headache disorders and assessed whether economic stressors were associated with different patterns across demographic groups. Materials and Methods: We conducted a single-center, retrospective, ecological quarterly time-series analysis of hospital visits for primary headache disorders between 2016 and 2024 in a private tertiary care hospital in Turkey. After exclusions, 18,522 eligible hospital-visit records were included and categorized by sex and age (<18, 18–64, and ≥65 years). National data on real gross domestic product (GDP), consumer price index (CPI), unemployment and a COVID-19 period indicator were used. Counts were modeled with log-linked Poisson or negative binomial generalized linear models selected through overdispersion diagnostics, with seasonal controls and HAC-robust inference. Results: In most groups, higher GDP was associated with more primary headache visits, whereas higher inflation was consistently associated with fewer visits. The association with unemployment was heterogeneous: visits decreased significantly among the working-age population but increased among older adults. Contemporaneous models outperformed one-quarter lagged alternatives, suggesting that private-sector healthcare seeking may change within the same quarter as macroeconomic shocks. Conclusions: In this private hospital setting, macroeconomic deterioration was associated with reduced primary headache visits, particularly among working-age patients. These findings suggest that financial constraints may suppress private-sector healthcare utilization despite possible increases in stress-related symptoms, and that private hospital data may underestimate headache-related healthcare need during economic crises. Full article

Background: Bladder cancer disproportionately affects non-high-income countries, yet clinical trials underrepresent global diversity. We assessed global availability of bladder cancer trials, their alignment with disease burden, and barriers to equitable care. Methods: We queried ClinicalTrials.gov for adult bladder cancer trials from June 2019 to June 2024, excluding observational and non-oncologic trials. Trial characteristics were summarized descriptively, and country data came from the Global Cancer Observatory. Countries were classified per World Bank Ranking (WBR) into high-income (HICs), upper middle-income (UMICs), lower middle-income (LMICs), and low-income countries (LICs). Trials were categorized as HIC-only, non-HIC, or mixed-income trials. Fisher’s exact and Kruskal–Wallis tests compared groups. Multivariable logistic regression assessed associations between trial availability and WBR, national health expenditure, and gross national income (GNI). Univariable linear regression and ANOVA assessed the association between the mortality-to-incident ratio and WBR. Results: Of 611 trials, 75.1% were HIC-only, 16.9% non-HIC, and 8.0% mixed-income trials. Non-HIC trials were mainly academic-sponsored (80.6%), while all mixed-income trials had pharmaceutical sponsorship (p < 0.001). Non-HIC trials had lower enrollment, less pharmaceutical funding, fewer multinational collaborations, and fewer basket, multi-arm, early-phase designs (all p < 0.001). Mixed-income trials were larger, led by HICs, had broader eligibility criteria, more novel therapies, and more frequent use of overall survival endpoints. Trial availability was lower in UMICs (p = 0.011), LMICs (p = 0.024), and absent in LICs, and positively associated with higher national health expenditure (p = 0.007) and GNI (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Bladder cancer trials remain concentrated in HICs. Mixed-income trials expand access in non-high-income countries, but are exclusively led by HICs and require balanced sponsorship, early-phase research, and lasting local benefits. Full article

The intersection of financial innovation and environmental sustainability offers important opportunities for low- and middle-income (LMI) countries. This study examines the association between FinTech investment, geopolitical-economic uncertainty, urbanization, economic development, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in LMI countries. CO₂ emissions per capita are used as an environmental outcome indicator rather than as a direct measure of green finance. Using a panel dataset covering 2010–2021, the study applies fixed-effects panel regressions as the main empirical approach and reports one-step difference the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimates as exploratory dynamic evidence. The fixed-effects results indicate that GDP per capita is positively and significantly associated with CO₂ emissions, while FinTech investment and urbanization do not show consistent significant associations. Geopolitical risk is positively associated with CO₂ emissions in some static specifications, but this association becomes insignificant once gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is included. The exploratory GMM results, estimated with collapsed instruments and restricted lag depth, do not provide statistically significant evidence that FinTech investment is associated with lower CO₂ emissions. Overall, the findings suggest that FinTech investment may be relevant for environmental outcomes in LMI countries, but its role is neither automatic nor uniform and remains sensitive to model specification. Policy implications emphasize the need to strengthen digital financial infrastructure, regulatory transparency, institutional stability, urban planning, and climate-oriented investment channels to support FinTech-driven environmental performance. Full article

The institutional exploration of China’s ecological product value realization mechanism provides a unique context for studying the relationship between ecological capitalization and rural development. This paper uses national county-level panel data from 2016 to 2023, taking the GEP (Gross Ecosystem Product) assessment pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment, and employs a staggered difference-in-differences model to evaluate its causal effect on rural economic resilience. The study finds that the pilot policy increased the economic resilience index of the treatment group by an average of approximately 1.5 percentage points, a conclusion that remains robust under multiple robustness tests. The reduced-form patterns are consistent with three plausible channels, namely income-structure adjustment, ecological-asset financialization, and income-risk smoothing. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the policy effect is more significant in areas with high forest cover and in western regions. Full article

This study examines the relationship between corporate concentration and labour market conditions in Hungary’s food industry over the period 1993–2022. Using industry-level panel data for the four most highly concentrated subsectors, cereals, food processing, oils and fats, and sugar and confectionery, corporate concentration is measured using the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), and a two-way fixed-effects panel regression model is employed to assess its association with wage structures, working-time arrangements, and employment composition. The results reveal a statistically significant negative relationship between corporate concentration and both gross monthly earnings and base hourly wages. A 1000-point increase in the HHI is associated with an approximately 10 percent decline in base wages. Higher concentration is also positively associated with greater reliance on part-time employment and increased overtime intensity, alongside a significant reduction in paid leave provision. Importantly, when variables capturing working-time arrangements and employment structure are incorporated into the earnings model, the direct effect of concentration becomes statistically insignificant. This pattern likely reflects the fact that these variables are directly embedded in the determination of gross monthly earnings, suggesting that the effect of concentration operates indirectly through adjustments in working time and employment composition rather than through a purely independent channel. This finding suggests that the impact of concentration on wages operates partly through structural adjustments in compensation systems and increased labour flexibility. Overall, the evidence indicates that corporate concentration in Hungary’s food manufacturing sector does not necessarily reduce nominal earnings but instead reshapes their composition. The role of base wages weakens, while regular bonuses emerge as the primary mechanism of income adjustment, increasing managerial discretion and income volatility. These findings contribute to the literature on labour market monopsony in transition economies and underscore the importance of integrating labour market considerations into competition policy frameworks. Full article

The NEET category refers to the proportion of young people who are neither employed nor in education or training. The success of Sustainable Development Goal 8 largely depends on reducing the number of NEETs, one of its sub-goals. This study examines the long-term impact of gross domestic product, human development, social globalization, and patent applications on NEET in eight EU countries during 1991–2021, within the framework of SDG 8. For long-run estimation, the study employs panel data techniques that account for cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity, specifically the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Regularized Common Correlated Effects (RCCE) estimators. According to country-specific findings, PA has a statistically significant effect in reducing NEET rates in France and Spain, while human development has a similar effect in Portugal. In contrast, economic growth and social globalization do not exhibit statistically significant effects on NEET rates at the country level. The results underscore that, in high-income EU countries, policies designed to simultaneously enhance human development and innovation capacity are central to tackling the NEET issue, consistent with the objectives of Sustainable Development Goal 8. The study contributes to the literature by providing a comparative empirical assessment of NEET determinants within a framework that accounts for cross-country heterogeneity and multiple structural factors. Full article