Non-compliance with tax obligations, particularly by wealthy taxpayers and large corporations, continues to represent a source of social injustice that fuels social instability, especially in developing countries. Understanding the strategies of tax evasion and avoidance is of critical importance. This article highlights five main strategies used by large corporations and wealthy taxpayers to avoid taxes, including tax havens, the underground economy, aggressive tax optimization, alternative financial markets, and crypto currencies. We also propose several actions to tackle global tax non-compliance, including prevention, peer reporting, active monitoring of compliance indicators and inter- national cooperation. These actions can be combined to achieve optimal results in reducing tax evasion and avoidance.

Under the background of digital economy, global tax governance has become one of the important topics in today's world development and change. In recent years, new challenges, such as tax base erosion and profit transfer, and the imbalance of cross-border tax source division, have become prominent, forcing the reform of international tax rules and the reshaping of international tax order. Based on this, the article first deeply digs into the scale and cross-border characteristics of the spatial-temporal aggregation of the digital economy, and comprehensively evaluates its impact on the global tax governance pattern. After that, the article combs out the realistic picture and challenges of the current digital tax reform from the aspects of theoretical basis, basic principles and governance mechanism. Finally, based on China's basic national conditions, the article puts forward some institutional ideas and policy suggestions, with a view to improving China's participation, voice and influence in global tax governance, and also enabling governments, enterprises and residents of various countries to enjoy the fruits of world economic development fairly and promote the construction of Community of Shared Future for Mankind.

Overall development of a country largely depends on the economic policy instruments particularly fiscal and monetary policy to streamline the development and continue the developmental progress. These two policies have significant effects on long-term growth. It is noticed that policy adoption and reforms in both fiscal and monetary policies undertaken by Southeast Asian nations during the 1960s through 1990s have contributed to their advancement. This paper discusses the strategies for flourishing as emerging economies. Examples from Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are highlighted in this study. It is found that prudent fiscal and monetary policy, effective discounting and interest rate; modernized tax system and most importantly policy regime are the contributing factors of these emerging economies. However, in spite of high-income growth and development because of supportive these policy initiatives, administrative and politico-economic constraints challenged the path of economies. Long-term development strategies are suggested to sustain the growth and continue the development pace.

Environmental degradation is becoming a fundamental issue as it is directly associated with human lives and environmental sustainability. This research particularly highlights the significance of green transportation taxes in achieving environmental sustainability due to limited available literature considering the environmental sustainability and green transportation taxes nexus. By employing the newly developed QARDL approach, this study is unfolding the linkages of green transportation taxes on transport-based CO2 emissions for Chinese economy spanning 1992 to 2020. The results infer that green transportation taxes to enhance environmental sustainability in the long-run for the highest quantiles, i.e., 0.70 to 0.95. Though, green transportation taxes enhance environmental sustainability in all quantiles in the short-run. Based on these results, the study suggests that the Chinese government and policymakers should increase green transportation taxes that help in combating CO2 emissions, which ultimately enhances environmental sustainability.

The development of digital economy is becoming an important path to promote the kinetic energy of China's tax revenue development. Based on the panel data from 2011 to 2018, this paper uses Gini coefficient to analyze the regional differences of China's digital economy, and uses fixed effect model, spatial Durbin model, multi-period double difference model and other empirical methods to examine the tax effects of digital economy development. The results show that the regional disparity is the main reason for the regional disparity of digital economy development in China. The development of digital economy directly increases the tax amount of local digital industry, and at the same time it also radiates and drives the increase of local total tax revenue; The tax effect of digital economy has a negative spatial spillover, showing a "siphon effect" to neighboring areas; Mechanism analysis shows that the development of digital economy mainly promotes the increase of local tax revenue through growth effect.

Despite the status of the United States as one of the world’s economic superpowers, the country is plagued by child poverty. The issue of child poverty is most prominent in rural, majority-minority communities, where years of limited opportunity, often created by systematic oppression, have created a vicious cycle of economic despair. There are a number of policies that have been explored which could limit the effects of child poverty, most notably the Expanded Child Tax Credit (ECTC), which was introduced as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. This paper uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to thoroughly examine this policy (ECTC) and its potential to both cut child poverty in the short term and increase educational attainment and economic mobility in the long term for recipients. The ECTC program ended in 2022 and only lasted in a short period. By examining the impacts of a similar and long-standing but less accessible and generous program, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), on educational attainment in specific communities we can theorize and determine the significance the Expanded CTC would have. We use EITC program as a proxy of ECTC and reach inference of the long-term impact of ECTC program on children’s education attainment. The result of this research indicates a number of benefits of the Expanded Child Tax Credit, including its potential to cut child poverty and increase educational attainment, its impact on future economic prosperity in rural, majority-minority communities, and the policy’s ability to decrease economic disparities between non-metro and metropolitan areas.

This study investigated the response of currency outside the banking system to the rise in the use of the e-payment outlets in Nigeria. The study is motivated by the recent rise in the use of e-payment systems and their likely tendency to reduce the currency outside the banking system. Using monthly series over the period from 2012M12 to 2022M12, the study applied the VAR model. The study found that currency outside the banking system responded negatively to shocks in the three e-payment channels included in the study, even though such responses were short-lived. The study equally revealed that while bank reserves responded positively to shocks in e-bills payment only in period one, its response to shocks in both NIP and POS was positive up to periods six and eight, respectively. These outcomes found support in the results of the variance decomposition. On grounds of the findings, the study concludes that the e-payment system led to a reduction in the currency outside the banking system with the likely implication of causing much liquidity in the banking system. It is the view of the study that the monetary authorities should encourage the use of the e-payment systems in order to reduce the currency outside the banking system, but should monitor the various e-payment channels to avoid financial instability.

This paper specifically underscores the disparities among various ESG rating systems in China, highlighting their varied interpretations and emphasis on corporate financial factors. Analyzing data on Chinese listed firms from 2009-2022, we observe that while company size and leverage ratio uniformly correlate with ESG scores across rating agencies such as Bloomberg, Huazheng, Wind, and Hexun, the influence of factors like return on assets, cash flow, company age, and Tobin's Q is markedly inconsistent among these agencies. For instance, while operational cash flow and company age are positively associated with ESG ratings from Bloomberg, Huazheng, and Wind, they hold an inverse relationship with Hexun's ratings. This divergence underscores the unique data collection, weighting, and evaluation methodologies employed by each rating system. The study emphasizes the criticality of comprehending the nuances of each rating agency's approach when interpreting ESG scores and crafting ESG strategies. Moreover, it advocates for integrating insights from multiple rating systems to cater to the diverse expectations of stakeholders.

Bank capital requirements would entail large social costs if they made resource allocation suboptimal and banking services costly by unduly limiting the banks’ ability to lend. This paper considers three main factors that may make capital requirements relevant, namely, deposit insurance subsidies, stock valuation errors, and tax shields derived from debt financing. The theoretical model analyzes the combined effects of the three factors on the banks’ incentives to make fairly priced loans, which should also be socially optimal loans. A key finding is that the long-term cost of capital requirements is likely to be very small when deposit insurance is underpriced. Increased funding costs resulting from higher capital requirements are absorbed by shareholders of banks, rather than passed on to borrowers. Under some reasonable assumptions, higher capital requirements improve resource allocation by countervailing distortionary effects of deposit insurance subsidies. Short-term adjustment costs can still be large, but it should be relatively easy to mitigate the short-term effects.

Purpose: To realize the benefits a Quality Management System (QMS), an organization needs to effectively implement its principles. This includes embracing these principles within an enabling environment. Hence, organizational structure is a critical success factor for adopting quality management systems. This paper aims at understanding how the organizational structure impacts ISO 9001 QMS implementation and vise versa, besides exploring how quality management initiatives affect organizational resilience through parts. Design/methodology/approach: The research deploys a qualitative methodology, with an outsider-insider approach. 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted, plus one final reflective interview. Interview questions dealt with structural constructs: communication, employee engagement, employee empowerment, process/routine-orientation, multidisciplinarity, cross-functionality, expertise-utilization and change-readiness. The questions also dealt with how the organizational structure impacted ISO 9001 implementation and vice versa. Findings: The results show that ISO 9001 implementation was more successful and fruitful under process-orientation and to some degree under semi-process orientation, while it looked inconsistent under routine-orientation. This indicates a significant role played by the organizational structure when it comes to ISO 9001 implementation. More importantly, the results also demonstrate that ISO 9001 implementation managed to improve organizational resilience by consistently driving the organizational structure toward higher levels of process-orientation for process-oriented units, whereas it failed to realize such impact for routine-oriented units. Originality/value: This study is unique as it is the first - within the reviewed literature - to examine the moderating role of the organizational structure between the ISO 9001 standard and organizational resilience. It draws a roadmap for the successful realization of organizational resilience through quality management systems, considering organizational structure constructs.

This paper presents an operational framework for assessing the trajectories of production, energy, emissions, and capital accumulation to ensure the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The framework combines widely used methodologies (STIRPAT, system dynamics, and optimization) to simulate the pathways of variables until a target year. The CO-STIRPAT dynamic system allows us to identify the spillover pathways from carbon policy to economic growth based on output optimization principles; to conduct a more systematic analysis of the interconnections between the main drivers that determine carbon emissions; to develop a cost-effective climate policy mix that is a backbone for the right combination of carbon pricing, energy efficiency, and carbon intensity; and to assess NDC targets with respect to ambition gaps, implementation gaps, and feasibility.

This paper investigates the effects of an unprecedented education policy called ‘double reduction’ (DR) on students’ performance, with evidence from China. One of the significant changes brought about by this policy is the transition of examination scores from a numerical system to a grading system. We found a junior middle school in a small town in Guangzhou that met the requirements for a natural experiment, and we used such unique data to examine three hypotheses. After the implementation of DR, the ‘rat race’ reflected on the students’ grade is reduced. To examine heterogeneity, we apply quantile regression showing that the high-ability students exert less efforts on the ‘rat race’ than low-ability students. Meanwhile, we also provide possible explanations in terms of this phenomenon. Overall, this study not only does it assess the grading transformation that DR policy induced but also fills the gap in the field of DR from an economic perspective.

High levels of trust are positively correlated with increased collaboration, prosocial actions, and heightened adherence to preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies on trust during the pandemic have primarily focused on either cross-sectional data or its impact in conjunction with other related variables, such as political party affiliations or vaccine availability. In this study, we employed a national survey panel comprising data from 760 individuals interviewed at three intervals between July 2020 and January 2021. We used pooled datasets, panel datasets, and dependent variable lags to control for time-invariant unobservable variables and endogeneity. Our findings reveal that trust in government influences individuals’ behavior when they are requested to follow public interventions. Notably, trust in local government is associated with increased adherence to COVID-19 preventive behaviors, similar to the effect observed with an annual income exceeding $100,000.

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have emerged as a promising strategy for enhancing the membrane permeability of bioactive molecules, particularly in the treatment of central nervous system diseases. CPPs possess the ability to deliver a diverse array of bioactive molecules into cells using either covalent or non-covalent approaches, with a preference for non-covalent methods to preserve the biological activity of the transported molecules. By effectively traversing various physiological barriers, CPPs have exhibited significant potential in preclinical and clinical drug development. The discovery of CPPs represents a valuable solution to the challenge of limited membrane permeability of bioactive molecules and will continue to exert a crucial influence on the field of biomedical science.

Gravity Energy Storage (GES) systems are recently being considered as a viable solution for storing intermittent renewable energy power, specifically in high curtailment zones. While a few studies have analyzed the material costs of GES systems, there is a paucity of literature on analyzing the socioeconomic costs of GES systems. This study analyzes the location-dependent costs of GES plants using a multi-factor spatial parameterization model for evaluating the existence of a point of minimum cost in a suburban mountainous geography. A case study of 500x500 points in a 50x50km2 area in the suburban area of Fukuoka city in Japan is performed. It is found that the cost of material transportation and transmission is more dominant in determining the position of an optimal cost location than factors of excavation and land costs. The position of the minima is also related to the principal urban area in that the line connecting the Center Business District (CBD) and suburban flat areas (line 1) is where the potential minima lie. The intersection point of an orthogonal to the line connecting the CBD with a substation nearest to the flat area with line 1, is the potential zone of minima location. The findings of this study are critical for urban energy planners and reveals how socioeconomic cost factors can aid in geolocation a suitable GES installation site.

The knowledge-capital model explains outward foreign direct investment (FDI) of a country from its relative abundance of its knowledge assets. Early versions of the knowledge-capital theory model these assets as if they were only the results of knowledge investments by private firms. We extend the theory by a formal model of the public-private interaction in knowledge development. This sheds light on the role of the origin country of multinationals. The paper extracts four testable predictions from the model. We use the inter-country variation in national knowledge-creation systems and FDI performance to test the model using a new dataset; it holds knowledge-creation indicators for about 200 countries over the period 2000-2020. Based on a range of non-parametric tests, we can corroborate that the basic tenet of the knowledge-capital model is correct. Moreover, the results show the important role of public knowledge production for outward FDI.

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) may, in the coming decades, result in tens of thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in additional economic activity. While much of the discussion surrounding AAM focuses on the technical aspects of the nascent industry, estimates of the potential economic impact vary significantly. Much less attention has been paid in the literature to potential externalities, positive and negative, and how these externalities may impact estimates of economic impact. We argue that much work remains to be done before policy advisors and decisions makers can formulate and implement strategies based on the projections of future economic impact of AAM.

Green credit policy (GCP) relies on financial means to promote environmental governance. Whether it can achieve the goals of economic development and environmental protection, especially in the context of different institutional supplies, remains to be scientifically tested. Based on the implementation of China’s Green Credit Guidelines in 2012, this study uses panel data of Chinese companies from 2009 to 2019 to explore the influence of GCP on green technology innovation and the role of institutional supply in it. The results show that GCP is instrumental in promoting green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises, and the promotion effect is heterogeneous based on green patent types, firms’ ownership, and regional financial development levels. Further analysis finds that the supply of environmental protection systems by local governments can strengthen the green innovation effect of GCP. However, the institutional supply of innovation has not yet released a promotional effect. This paper finds that green credit can be used as an environmental governance tool and provides inspiration for local governments to issue environmental protection policies scientifically.

In this work we aim to identify potential determinants and seek to predict terrorism attack. Thus, to eliminate uncertainty linked to explanatory variables we used the BMA method. We show that, contrary to expectations terrorism in MENA region is no longer purely of economic origin but mainly due to political problems, education, financial development and countries’ demographic characteristics. Likewise, we find that national, international and global terrorism are not of same origins even they present many common roots. In the end, we show that it is possible to predict majority of attacks based on a small number of indicators measuring political risk, financial development and income inequalities.

Carbon emissions trading is essential for reducing carbon emissions, and its role in regional carbon unlocking needs further clarification. This study uses the difference-in-differences (DID) model and synthetic control model (SCM) to evaluate the carbon unlocking effect of China’s six pilot carbon trading provinces. This study found that (1) carbon lock-in effects in China are mainly influenced by technology lock-in and fixed input lock-in; (2) each province’s overall carbon lock-in level presents a decreasing trend yearly, and the regional distribution presents characteristics of “low in the east and high in the west”; (3) carbon emissions trading pilot policies effectively promote the carbon unlocking effect in pilot regions overall, with Guangdong having the most significant unlocking effect. Conversely, Beijing, Hubei, Chongqing, and Shanghai also had different degrees of carbon unlocking. Finally, (4) an assessment of impact mechanisms indicates that technology and institutions have a significant mediating role in effectively promoting carbon unlocking under the carbon trading policy. Conversely, social behavior has an inverse effect, and fixed assets are not affected by the policy. This study demonstrates the carbon unlocking effect of carbon emissions trading and provides a quantitative reference for implementing carbon emissions trading policies and determining carbon unlocking paths.