Search Results (101)

This paper examines the drivers of house price cycles across EU countries between 2005 and 2024 and measures their synchronicity. We used panel data methods—fixed effects, dynamic panel models (Arellano–Bond GMM), and a pooled VAR framework—to capture static and dynamic relationships between house price growth and key macroeconomic variables. The results show that the dynamics of house prices are highly persistent. GDP growth has a clear positive effect, while higher unemployment and interest rates push prices down. Migration flows, however, are not statistically significant at the EU aggregate level. Property taxation shows a positive coefficient, which probably reflects structural and institutional differences rather than a direct dampening effect on prices. Dynamic analysis suggests that macroeconomic shocks have persistent and economically meaningful impacts on house price growth. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed three distinct groups of countries, meaning that house price cycles are only partially synchronized across the EU. Unlike previous studies that typically examine individual determinants or synchronization separately, this study integrates panel econometric methods, dynamic VAR analysis, and hierarchical clustering within a unified framework to jointly assess macroeconomic drivers, dynamic interactions, and structural heterogeneity of house price cycles across EU countries. In general, common macroeconomic drivers and structural heterogeneity coexist—this is important for the stability of the housing market and sustainable development. Full article

Commercial determinants of health (CDoHs) describe how corporate practices influence population health. This scoping review aimed to characterize the extant evidence base regarding how CDoH in the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) industry affects health and health-related outcomes among Latinx populations in the United States of America (USA). The present study was conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Overall, 1236 references were identified and imported for screening. After duplicate removal, screening, and full-text eligibility assessment, 33 studies met all inclusion criteria. SSB marketing and advertising was the most frequently examined CDoH (61%), including advertising exposure, messaging strategies, and warning label interventions. SSB taxation studies projected reductions in consumption and obesity prevalence. Outcomes associated with health focused primarily on perceptions of marketing and purchasing intentions (94%). Additional studies examined the impact on knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors (e.g., purchasing and consumption of SSBs) (66%), while a few studies included chronic disease (27%) or healthcare outcomes (6%). Evidence highlights several gaps in CDoH research associated with SSBs, with 94% of the included studies focused on understanding marketing exposure, signaling a need to examine other domains of CDoH, SSB industry practices, and impacts on health disparities. Findings suggest that structural policy interventions such as taxation and stronger regulation of commercial practices are necessary to address higher exposure to marketing and consumption of SSBs among Latinx populations in the USA. Full article

This study aims to examine the impact of taxation on the adoption of digital finance in Africa and to assess the extent to which governance quality moderates this relationship. Using panel data for 54 African countries over the period 2007–2023 and applying the two-step System GMM, we find that taxes on goods and services—especially excise duties—exert a positive and statistically significant effect on the share of the population adopting mobile money. More importantly, this positive effect is strongly amplified in countries with better governance quality. Interaction terms reveal that government effectiveness, control of corruption, and voice and accountability significantly moderate the tax-adoption nexus, making taxation more conducive to digital finance development in countries with stronger institutions. These results remain robust across alternative tax measures, sample restrictions, lag structures, and additional controls. By distinguishing between general tax capacity and sector-specific taxes on digital financial services, this study reconciles contrasting findings in the literature and highlights a complementary relationship between fiscal policy and institutional quality. The findings suggest that strengthening governance represents a more effective strategy for simultaneously expanding the tax base and promoting digital financial inclusion in Africa. Full article

Property taxation serves as a critical instrument for fiscal efficiency and equitable distribution, yet implementation faces significant challenges including valuation inaccuracies, insufficient administrative capacity, and diminished public trust. Indonesia’s Land and Building Tax (PBB-P2) utilizes the Sales Value of Taxable Objects (NJOP) as an administrative proxy for market value, which frequently deviates from actual land prices. These disparities create horizontal inequities, diminish local revenue potential, and generate taxpayer resistance, especially in decentralized regions with constrained technical resources. This research presents the Spatially Adaptive Land Value Determination (SALAD) model as a comprehensive framework for enhancing property tax governance and modernizing fiscal cadastre systems. Unlike conventional mass appraisal methods, SALAD integrates spatial zoning, assessment ratio analysis, land-use characteristics, and the Index of Developing Villages (IDM) with socio-economic indicators including purchasing power and community fiscal behavior. The model incorporates structured social validation to improve public acceptance. Field validation in Lebak Regency employed mixed-methods design with surveys of 75 respondents across 20 villages and interviews with village heads and tax officials. Results demonstrate that transparency, fairness, and visible public benefits are essential for community support. Validation indices vary significantly by IDM category (ANOVA: F = 4.23, p = 0.03 for economic; F = 3.81, p = 0.04 for institutional), confirming that the SALAD model’s adaptive mechanism is empirically grounded. Full article

Carbon taxes and credits (CT&C) accelerate global deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies to enable energy transition. This study investigates the economic performance and resilience of floating gas-to-wire with CCUS (f-GTW-CCUS), deployed at the wellhead of stranded CO₂-rich offshore oil and gas reservoirs. The f-GTW-CCUS platform integrates a natural gas combined cycle power plant with monoethanolamine post-combustion capture (PCC-MEA), producing low-carbon electricity (23 kgCO_2e/MWh, competitive with renewables) while monetizing captured CO₂ via enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The mass and energy balance data from the proposed process configuration were obtained in the literature. Critically, f-GTW-CCUS operates on wellhead-sourced in situ-associated gas, eliminating exposure to volatile natural gas markets, and achieves a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of USD 67.15/MWh. Monte Carlo analysis (10,000 Gaussian iterations, 30-year lifetime, 10% discount rate, three CT&C scenarios, namely, low/medium/high) is used to quantify economic feasibility across three stochastic variables: oil, natural gas, and electricity prices, starting in the 5th year. The results demonstrate the following: (1) Case A (f-GTW without CCUS) remains economically infeasible (NPV < 0) under all price volatility scenarios due to insufficient electricity-only revenue and carbon taxation penalties; (2) Case B (f-GTW-CCUS with immediate CCUS deployment) maintains positive NPV across all scenarios, with EOR monetization contributing 43% of total revenue; (3) the critical CCUS deployment-delay threshold is 6 years under high carbon taxation, extending to 10 years when carbon credits are included. Gate-to-gate environmental assessment (carbon intensity, water footprint, land transformation) shows f-GTW-CCUS superiority versus alternative power systems, with minimal water–land nexuses due to offshore desalination. An empirical consistency assessment based on the 2026 geopolitical energy crisis demonstrates the structural resilience of the f-GTW-CCUS plant: the wellhead sourcing provides resilience to global natural gas price shocks, while the concurrent crude price escalation amplifies EOR revenues by 43–57%, improving project feasibility during commodity disruptions. These findings position f-GTW-CCUS as a critical decarbonization pathway for O&G producers exploiting stranded gas reserves. The technology combines carbon intensity reduction with economic resilience under volatile energy market conditions and mandatory climate policies. Full article

In the context of global climate change and industrial low-carbon transition, whether environmental taxes can simultaneously promote environmental and economic benefits by stimulating corporate green investment remains a central issue in academic research. Existing studies have reached mixed conclusions regarding the effects of environmental taxes, emphasizing either the “innovation compensation” effect or the “crowding-out” effect. However, this binary perspective overlooks the internal boundary conditions under which environmental taxes operate, particularly the roles of market competition and firm-level resource endowments. In particular, limited attention has been paid to how competitive market environments shape firms’ responses to environmental regulation. To address this gap, this study develops an integrated analytical framework that combines external market competition with internal firm endowments. Using China’s 2018 Environmental Protection Tax Law as a quasi-natural experiment and a panel dataset of Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2024, this study employs a Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach to examine the impact of environmental taxation on corporate green investment. The results show that: (1) the environmental protection tax significantly promotes corporate green investment, with substantial heterogeneity across firm size, ownership structure, and regional institutional environments; (2) market competition serves as an important external moderating mechanism, as intensified competition strengthens firms’ incentives to pursue technological differentiation through green investment, thereby generating an “escape-competition effect”; and (3) from an internal perspective, the effectiveness of environmental taxation is also shaped by firm endowments. High investment activity provides the necessary resource buffer to support strategic pivots, whereas rapid revenue growth and high financial slack (excessive cash ratio) generate strategic inertia, thereby attenuating firms’ responsiveness to the tax shock. This study not only provides empirical evidence from China on the mechanisms through which environmental taxes influence corporate green transformation, but also offers important policy implications for improving environmental tax systems in other countries. Full article

To address the “greenwashing” trust crisis induced by information asymmetry in sustainable supply chains, this study develops a comprehensive game-theoretic model integrating Stackelberg and evolutionary game theories (EGT). We quantitatively investigate the dynamic interactions among multi-dimensional consumer preferences, blockchain implementation costs, and boundedly rational government interventions. Our analysis yields three core contributions. First, we analytically reveal the “double-edged sword effect” of blockchain adoption. While structural transparency unlocks a trust dividend, exorbitant technological costs trigger a “budget crowding-out effect.” Quantitative results demonstrate that breaching the absolute Feasibility Threshold completely cannibalizes the environmental budget, driving substantive green investments strictly to zero. Second, EGT analysis proves that isolated punitive carbon taxes trap supply chains in a suboptimal “shallow greening” equilibrium. A composite tax-subsidy policy is structurally required to expand the feasible cost space and hedge against technological risks. Finally, we formulate a dynamic policy exit mechanism. As blockchain infrastructure matures and the endogenous green premium effectively offsets implementation costs, regulators must systematically phase out subsidies and converge toward a single-taxation regime to prevent corporate policy arbitrage and alleviate long-term public financial burdens. Full article

Rapid expansion in urbanisation, along with the rising demand for energy consumption, has deepened environmental apprehensions among developing economies and intensified their concerns about long-run environmental sustainability. This article examines how urban expansion and rising energy consumption impact environmental sustainability, and whether environmental taxes moderate this relationship, by using a panel of 110 developing countries over the period of 2010 to 2024. To capture both static and dynamic relationships among the variables, we have applied complementary econometric methodologies that allow for cross-country heterogeneity and persistence in emissions. The estimated outcomes show that urban expansion and energy consumption are significantly increasing gas emissions, and this outcome is consistent with the idea that environmental costs of urban-led growth and energy-intensive development. But as we have added environmental taxes as a moderating policy instrument, the positive impact of energy consumption and urbanisation on emissions becomes negative in most specifications. The significant impact of both interaction terms, i.e., environmental taxes and urbanisation, and environmental taxes and energy consumption, across different estimation strategies, suggests that environmental taxation weakens emissions and encourages structural change with rising energy use. Renewable energy consumption and foreign direct investment have significant influences on emissions, emphasising the role of energy structure and investment composition in shaping environmental outcomes, whereas the income effect varies across models. The outcomes of dynamic models also confirm emissions persistence, but over time, environmental taxes reduce the degree of emissions persistence. The estimated outcomes imply that environmental taxes can support a decoupling of urbanisation and energy-driven growth from environmental degradation. Thus, developing countries should balance urban development, energy demand, and environmental sustainability through credible market-based regulations. Full article

In the context of China’s “Dual Carbon” goals, the composite policy mechanism combining carbon trading and carbon taxation is widely considered a key pathway to achieve emission reductions. Although households are a major source of carbon emissions, their consumption behaviour has long remained outside the mainstream carbon reduction system, as existing policies focus primarily on enterprises and lack sufficient household-level participation and incentive mechanisms. Because China has not yet implemented an actual carbon tax, this study uses household high-carbon consumption dependency (HCD) as a proxy variable to capture the hypothetical administrative pressure that a carbon tax would impose on high-carbon consumption. Based on the concept of “Carbon Inclusion”, we construct an analytical framework for a composite mechanism that combines the carbon trading pilot policy (ETS) with this carbon-tax proxy. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and a two-way fixed-effects panel model, we empirically test the impact of this composite mechanism on household carbon emissions (total volume) and carbon intensity. The findings show that, while the composite mechanism does not lead to a statistically significant reduction in total household carbon emissions, it effectively lowers household carbon intensity by restraining high-carbon consumption and optimizing the consumption structure. This decoupling of intensity from total volume occurs because the mechanism reduces the share of high-carbon consumption (a compositional effect) but does not suppress total consumption growth (a scale effect). This result remains robust across multiple tests, confirming the policy effectiveness of the composite mechanism at the micro-individual level. By reducing carbon intensity without suppressing total consumption, this mechanism contributes directly to sustainable development, aligning with UN Sustainable Development Goals 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 13 (Climate Action). The main contributions of this paper are threefold: (1) it moves beyond traditional single-policy or single-agent studies by linking a carbon-trading-and-proxy-carbon-tax composite mechanism with household carbon consumption; (2) it explores a Carbon Inclusion pathway that connects households, enterprises and the nation; and (3) it provides empirical support and a theoretical reference for improving household-level emission reduction policies and promoting public participation in achieving the “Dual Carbon” goals. Full article

This paper studies how European low-cost carriers (LCCs) adjust and mitigate in response to environmental taxation over the past decade. Global and EU frameworks—most prominently the Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) and CORSIA—have raised carbon-related compliance costs, while several European states have introduced or increased aviation-specific taxes. Given their cost-sensitive business models, LCCs are especially responsive to tax-induced cost shocks. The paper is structured in three parts: an overview of global aviation taxation, a review of national initiatives in selected European countries and an analysis of how LCCs respond to mitigate these impacts. We assemble a hand-collected panel of ten European LCCs and conduct qualitative documentary analysis of annual and sustainability reports (2020–2024), triangulated with regulatory and policy documents. The findings indicate consistent adaptation via selective airfare price pass-through, capacity reallocation away from higher-tax, price-elastic short-haul routes and efficiency gains through fleet renewal and operational measures. We also document targeted stakeholder messaging and advocacy—public campaigns, legal challenges, and, in some jurisdictions, legal disputes—aimed at softening tax design burden. Full article

This paper proposes an adaptive decarbonization model for the Russian non-ferrous metallurgy sector. The model accounts for the specific structure of the national energy balance (with nuclear and hydropower accounting for up to 40%), existing technological constraints, and regulatory risks, including the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Based on a comparative analysis of key companies (RUSAL, Norilsk Nickel, and UMMC), an algorithm for the sequential assessment of decarbonization priorities is developed. Its core element is an integrated urgency indicator, which enables the ranking of enterprises according to their sensitivity to carbon-related restrictions. The model aims to minimize potential financial losses arising from external carbon taxation while leveraging the structural competitive advantages of the Russian energy system. The priority in decarbonization in Russia is determined not by the absolute level of technological development or the current carbon intensity of production, but by the degree of exposure to external regulatory and market risks combined with the ability to adapt. It is proven that in the current geopolitical and economic realities, the successful decarbonization of Russian non-ferrous metallurgy is impossible either as exclusively technological modernization or as a passive reaction to external regulatory pressure. The findings indicate that directly adopting international decarbonization strategies developed for the EU and North America (such as the EU Green Deal and CBAM) is ineffective due to fundamental differences in raw material bases, climatic conditions, and logistics. Full article

This article analyzes the scale, fluctuations and geographical distribution of olive (Olea europaea) cultivation in Palestine over 550 years, from the Late Mamluk period (1300–1517), through the Ottoman era (1517–1917), until the end of the British Mandate in 1947. Although olive oil played a dominant role in the diet and the local economy, there is currently no research that measures and quantifies the number of olive trees or the number of villages and towns that cultivated olive trees and produced olive oil. We reconstruct the agricultural landscape with its vast olive groves and examine the cultural history of olive tree farming, the growth of the olive oil industries and their economic role and importance. The earliest figures we have, that are from the year 1596, show that 400 villages cultivated 1,400,794 olive trees. By 1943, there were 6,053,367 olive trees that were cultivated by 644 villages. We found a strong correlation (R² = 0.96, p < 0.01) between the number of olive trees and the number of villages, indicating that olive oil demand and the olive oil industry align with population size. The research data derives from a variety of medieval local chroniclers, as well as diaries by European, North African and Middle Eastern travelers who provide descriptions of olive groves and the olive oil industry. Among the most important sources are the 1596 Ottoman tax registers. The tax registers are the first document that present clear-cut figures on the numbers of olive trees, olive presses and the names of the villages that cultivated olive groves. The main sources for the last period dealt with in this study are the British Mandate maps (1943), which display the acreage of the different crops across Palestine. The data from the maps is supplemented by two modern works on olive cultivation written by agronomists Assaf Goor (b. 1894) and Ali Nasouh (b. 1906) who were born in Palestine and employed by the British department of agriculture. The analysis of data shows that demands of local and oversea markets; the olive oil soap industry, which was based on the local olive oil; as well as competing agricultural crops like sugarcane, cotton and citrus, contributed to a complex economic structure. Olive tree cultivation did not depend on government investment. Olive groves in Palestine were rain fed, and, except for the harvest, they required relatively few working days a year. Hence, moderate policies (low taxation during periods of drought and low yields) adopted by enterprising local rulers and the central British government created a unique and relatively balanced relationship between rulers and farmers, which encouraged olive cultivation and led to a constant increase in the number of olive trees and the development of the olive oil industry. Full article

This study provides an early evaluation of the effectiveness of the Core Tax Administration System, a digital taxation platform introduced to integrate all tax administration processes in Indonesia into a single system. To conduct this evaluation, the study integrates two of the most established frameworks in the information systems literature, namely the DeLone and McLean Information Systems Success Model and the Technology Acceptance Model. Tax professionals are involved in the evaluation process because they are the primary users of the system and possess advanced knowledge of taxation. Structural equation modeling is employed as the analytical technique. The results indicate that system usage generates individual-level benefits by reducing perceived compliance costs, which in turn translate into organizational-level outcomes in the form of increased tax compliance intentions. However, the non-linear effect analysis reveals that this relationship is not entirely linear but follows an inverted U-shaped pattern. This finding suggests that over time, highly routine system usage may reduce professional vigilance by fostering excessive reliance on automated features and superficial processing. Such dependence can weaken perceived efficiency gains and diminish intrinsic motivation for careful and accurate reporting, highlighting the importance of balancing efficiency with system design features that support professional judgment and vigilance. Full article

The Ottoman Empire possessed a multi-religious social structure whose continuity was maintained through legal and administrative mechanisms. While Muslims, Christians, and Jews preserved their religious identities within the imperial framework, conversion was a closely monitored and regulated process at both the individual and public levels. Because religious conversion had direct consequences for taxation, legal and social status, family structure, and communal affiliation, it became a matter of concern for the Ottoman legal order. In this context, the sharia courts constituted the primary institutional arena in which cases of ihtidā (conversion) were recorded, supervised, and given legal effect; they also produced the principal documentation that verified the procedural validity of conversion and secured the legal standing of new Muslims. This study examines the social and legal contexts of religious conversion in the Ottoman provinces through cases recorded in the sixteenth- to nineteenth-century court registers of the district of Rodosçuk. It challenges interpretations that portray ihtidā as a coercive and one-directional policy of Islamization, demonstrating instead that legal protection and economic opportunity could function both as outcomes of conversion and as enabling preconditions. The study also questions assumptions about systematic judicial bias against non-Muslims, emphasizing that in the Rodosçuk example the courts operated as a neutral forum accessible to different confessional communities. The evidence suggests that conversion unfolded through slow, gradual, and largely individual processes shaped by the combined influence of religious, economic, and social motivations. Full article

This study investigates tax evasion and the informal economy in Greece through an integrated research design that combines bibliometric analysis with large-scale survey data to examine both the structure of scholarly discourse and public perceptions of economic non-compliance. The analysis integrates a bibliometric analysis of the academic literature with survey data from 1074 respondents, enabling patterns of scholarly attention to be assessed alongside public evaluations of institutional performance and economic behavior. The bibliometric findings indicate that academic research is organized around Greece and the tax system as central reference points, while governance-related themes such as transparency and public policy occupy comparatively peripheral positions within the thematic landscape, suggesting a field structured predominantly around country-specific institutional analysis. The survey results reveal a broadly comparable configuration, with political institutions, corruption, and tax evasion identified among the most salient national problems. Respondents differentiate among distinct forms of economic non-compliance and attribute tax evasion primarily to systemic factors, including high taxation, perceived injustice, ineffective revenue management, and corruption, rather than to individual moral failings. Overall, tax evasion in Greece is thus evaluated predominantly in institutional and governance-related terms. Future research could extend this approach through longitudinal bibliometric mapping, multivariate survey modelling, and sectoral or regional comparative analyses. Full article