Keeping in view the concept of agglomeration economies and the New Economic Geography (NEG) angle, this paper makes an attempt to examine the rural to urban population movement at the district level in India. The findings do not favour a strong positive association between levels of urbanization and migration rates.  However, there exists a cluster of districts which are able to attract migrants on a large scale in spite of being already urbanized. The work participation rate, share of services and construction work, and literacy rate all form parts of this positive nexus, indicating that opportunities exist with increased levels of urbanization which in turn prompt people to migrate. The positive spill-over effects of higher levels of urbanization are not limited to the urban spaces only as the adjoining rural areas also seem to have undergone   a significant transformation. The land use pattern and activities are changing and some of the developmental impact is evident. However, the regional variations in this respect are evident. There are sharp differences in the relationship between urbanization level and migration rates across regions. The nature of urbanization and its determinants and the outcome variables of urbanization and migration also unravel regional variations. Besides, there are many districts with higher levels of urbanization; yet, they are not able to attract migrants at a rapid pace. New investment opportunities can be created in these spaces to reduce the cost of growth and make employment generation process more effective, facilitating the rural population to take the benefits of agglomeration economies.

This study analyzed whether the level of corporate governance of companies listed on the Brazilian capital market is related to the investment decisions of Brazilian pension funds. We start from the assumption that the corporate governance system mitigates the moral risk, that may arise in the relationship between corporate managers and investors and respective shareholders, Brazilian pension funds. Shareholding dispersion would enable opportunism for corporate managers, making decisions focused on their interests to the detriment of shareholders or investors. The governance system would signal that this behavior would be controlled, signaling safer behavior for investors. Thus, the hypothesis is that the level of corporate governance would attract pension funds that would understand this system as reducing investment risk. To test this, we used panel data, with a sample of 1,582 observations of companies listed on the Brazilian Stock Exchange (B3) from 2010 to 2017. The statistical results show that corporate governance positively correlates with investment in pension funds. This leads to the conclusion that, for Brazilian pension funds, companies' signaling about their corporate governance practices is a risk-mitigating factor. Furthermore, these results allow us to infer that the company's governance level associated with leverage is a differentiating signaling element as the evidence points to a positive relationship.

Understanding how academia and industry operate and relate to each other is core to improving the efficiency of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Reason why, this paper focuses on whether university prestige has a homogeneous effect on university entrepreneurship. Specifically, whether the relationship between academic prestige and entrepreneurship varies according to the nature of the firm, digital or not, or according to the size of the entrepreneurial partner. To answer this question, this paper uses a negative binomial regression model with panel data with respect to the number of intellectual property (IP) licences granted by the university, using mainly data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency. The results suggest that although university prestige affects the number of IP licences granted, its effect ceases to be significant when the nature of the licences is digital. Moreover, we cannot claim that the influence of prestige is greater when the licencee is a small company.

Understanding the economic trends and demographic dynamics of a country is crucial for policymakers and researchers to formulate effective strategies and policies. This study aims to examine the GDP trends and aging index dynamics in Portugal from 2011 to 2021, with a focus on regional disparities and their implications for demographic challenges. The findings highlight the relationship between regional GDP and the aging index, indicating that regions with higher GDP values tend to have a relatively younger population, while regions with lower GDP values have a relatively older population. The study contributes to the existing literature on population aging by providing insights into the demographic, economic, and social implications of an aging society. It provides valuable insights into the demographic, economic, and social implications of population aging in Portugal. The findings contribute to the existing literature and can inform policymakers and stakeholders in developing targeted strategies and policies to address the specific challenges faced by each region.

Many startups look for venture capital (VC) funding to grow their business. Anecdotally, in the Southeast Asia context, startup founders who attended an elite institute of higher learning have greater access to this kind of capital, but this has not been demonstrated quantitatively. We look at a dataset of nearly 800 startups in Southeast Asia who have received VC funding in the last 5 years and look for any correlation between the founder's educational background and the amount of VC funding received. We find that founders who have obtained a postgraduate degree from an elite university receive significantly more VC funding than those who graduated from other universities. Furthermore, this effect is only seen at later stages of funding, not at the seed stage. Potential reasons for this effect could be from stronger signaling of business acumen or technical skill; or better access to funding networks.

How does democracy relate to the initial economic policy responses to Covid-19? Using a cross country analysis, we find that countries with a higher degree of democracy have stronger economic policy responses than their peers. However, when we separate monetary and financial policies from fiscal policy, democracy is not associated with the latter when we control for the income level of a country. Finally, for countries with lower levels of labor participation, high levels of income inequality are associated with weaker policy responses.

There is a considerable amount of debate on the impact of capital liberalization on economic performance. Using Three-Stage Least Squares (3SLS) estimation technique introduced by Zellner and Theil (1962), we synthesize studies on the determinants of governance and capital flows. We find evidence of a revolving door relationship. Foreign aid has a negative impact on governance and, thereby reduces capital inflows since bad governance hinders capital inflows. The need to fill the gap created by private capital outflows encourages inflow of foreign aid, which in turn harms governance. Therefore, capital liberalization could grease a revolving door and undermine economic development in the aid receiving countries.

I present a theoretical model and an empirical approach for jointly estimating the effectiveness of fiscal policy and the stochastic process of sovereign interest rate shocks. The theoretical model has features relevant to small open and emerging economies. Interest rate shocks affect the ability of firms to finance payroll expenses. This theoretical feature creates a propagation mechanism for interest rate shocks and affects government spending multipliers. This paper proposes a strategy for jointly estimating government spending multipliers and the interest rate shock process parameters.

Energy Performance Certificates are a key tool for achieving energy efficiency in the building sector. The existence of this type of legislation provides incentives for the energy renovation of buildings, increases energy-efficiency investments, and improves social welfare. At the same time, informational asymmetries are mitigated and energy consumption is reduced. However, the decarbonization of the building sector might influence regional energy poverty, especially because the rural energy poor are more vulnerable to energy price increases than their urban counterparts. Empirical research on rural-urban differences and the effects of Energy Performance Certificates is urgently needed, given the rising fuel prices and vulnerabilities of the energy market.

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.

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.

This paper deals with the gender gap in accessing and using financial services provided by mobile money and financial institutions. Using data from ECOWAS member countries, we applied the Fairlie decomposition method to estimate and decompose the gender gap. The results show that mobile money contributes to improving of the use of services compared to financial institutions. However, it also increases the gender gap in women's disadvantages in accessing and using these services. The difference in the level of education and income between males and females is the main factor explaining the gender gap.

This paper examines impacts of China’s financial liberalization policy on income inequality, through three channels: financial scale, financial structure and financial efficiency, an empirical analysis based on panel data of 30 provinces in China from 1996 to 2013 is conducted. The results confirm the Kuznets effect between financial scale, financial structure and income inequality. As the size of the financial sector expands, the financial structure is tilted toward direct financing, and the income gap among residents will experience a "reverse U-shaped" trend that rises first and then falls. Most of China has not yet passed the turning point, and is still in the upper bound of the "inverted U-shaped" curve. Financial liberalization policies will continue to exacerbate income inequality. The impact of financial efficiency on income distribution is quite different in different regions of China. After dividing the whole China into three regions according to the degree of economic development, it is found that the financial efficiency of the eastern and western regions has a Kuznets effect on the income gap, but compared with the eastern region, more provinces and cities in the western region have entered the stage of reducing the income inequality, and the financial development has a great impact on the western region. The effects of financial development on central China are weak, and income inequality increases with financial efficiency.

The use of All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) has gained considerable attention within the recreation industry. The incorporation of ATVs into tourism and recreational activities has demonstrated substantial economic potential for local economies. However, there is a lack of comprehensive knowledge regarding the economic impact of ATV recreation. This paper conducts an extensive review of existing literature from 2004 to 2022, evaluating the economic impact of ATVs on local economies in the United States. The review aims to identify commonalities and disparities among existing economic impact studies and assess whether these studies have included costs associated with ATV-induced environmental, societal, and public health damages in their economic assessments. To this end, there is a scarcity of scientific peer reviewed journal articles that exclusively focus on the economic impact of ATVs. As such, we reviewed a total of seven publications comprising reports. The results of our analysis shed light on similarities and differences in aspects of resident and non-resident ATV spending, type of ATV expenditures, and the approaches used to evaluate economic impact assessment. The findings indicate that existing studies have assessed the economic impact of ATVs solely based on gross expenditures, lacking comprehensive inclusion of the costs associated with ATV damages to the environment, society, and human health. This study advocates for the need for a more comprehensive consideration of both benefits and costs in the economic impact of ATVs to assist ATV business managers, policymakers, and researchers in making informed decisions and planning future programs.

The business world is a competitive place, and enterprises must cultivate sustainable relationships with their clients to gain customer loyalty. Concepts of relationship marketing (RM) are becoming vital in the service industry. Different RM strategies are used to attract customers, but some of these strategies do not achieve customer loyalty as easily as predicted due to customers’ changing behaviour patterns. This paper investigates the impact of RM strategies on customer loyalty through relationship qualities (customer satisfaction and trust) by concentrating on the high-end hairdressing sector in Auckland. Additionally, this research investigates the expectations of customers of high-end hair salons formed by RM strategies, which influence their satisfaction, trust, and customer loyalty to their service provider. The results indicate that brand image shows a significant relevance to trust, satisfaction, and customer loyalty claiming that brand image is an essential element of RM. Additionally, this investigations revels that, hair salons in Auckland are looking forward to ascertaining a sustainable relationship with their clients through a spectrum of strategies such as positive brand image, good service quality, reasonable price, and good value deals to earn optimistic relationship quality, which will ultimately escalate to customer loyalty. Findings of this research will be useful in supporting hair salons to gain a greater understanding of their customers by adopting effective RM strategies.

The issue of food security has become a global challenge, and it is therefore crucial to seek measures to ensure food security. As an emerging economic model, the digital economy is regarded as the most effective tool for the modernization of agricultural development. As a large food-producing country, China faces serious problems of agricultural non-point source pollution and food loss and waste. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of digital village construction on food security. We measure the level of digital village construction and food security by entropy method and use the spatial Durbin model to analyze them. In this paper, we found that digital village construction facilitates food security not only in the region but also in neighboring regions. In addition, we found that the promotion effect is significant in main grain producing regions, while the opposite result is found in non-main grain producing regions. We hold that the application of the digital economy in the countryside has played an obvious role in promoting food security in main grain producing provinces, and provides important experimental evidence for reference to ensure food security in the future.

This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) deposits across 13 African nations from 2016 to 2022, using a seven-year dataset and Ordinary Least Squares estimator. Notably, it uncovers a significant positive link between the pandemic and SMEs deposits, indicating heightened reserves amidst economic uncertainty, potentially driven by risk mitigation or government support. Associations between gross domestic product (GDP), inflation, unemployment, foreign direct investment (FDI), exchange rates, and SMEs deposits were evident, showcasing higher GDP aligning with increased deposits, while inflation and unemployment linked to reduced ones. FDI showed a positive influence, and exchange rate fluctuations notably affected SMEs deposits, especially for those in international trade. These findings emphasize policy reconsideration for crisis strategies supporting SMEs reserves during uncertainty and interventions addressing inflation, unemployment, and exchange rate risks. Future research exploring regional nuances and global comparisons could further enrich policymaking for resilient SMEs amid evolving economic landscapes.

This study underscores the chronic issue of gender pay disparity that prevails across different STEM fields and educational qualification levels in Australia. Despite instances where women's incomes may align or even surpass men's, the broader pattern of inequality remains undeniable. The study advocates for targeted strategies to address gender pay gaps, particularly in fields like Engineering and Science, and emphasises the significance of cultivating inclusive work environments that recognise and reward contributions regardless of gender. This study serves as a critical call to action to rectify these inequities and promote a more balanced and equitable STEM landscape.

The manufacturing sector must incorporate digitalization and greening as crucial strategies to attain high level of development in the context of the digital economy, given its significant role in quality of environment. Most of existing studies explore net effect of a single or several factors on the digitalization or greening in the manufacturing industry. Limited investigation has been done to integrate various factors impacting the connection and synchronized advancement of digitalization and greening within the manufacturing. Factors affecting the synergy of digitalization and green change within manufacturing are recognized in this article, and a theoretical framework is established to analyze. FsQCA tool is also put into use to survey configurational cases, which contains synergy degree of green digitalization from 30 provinces’ manufacturing in China. Results show that: (1) Between 2007 and 2020, the development level of digital-green integration in the manufacturing industry shows an upward trend. There are three types of collaborative modes, namely, "industrial robot driven" "market development driven" and "market development driven - industrial robot driven", with each mode consisting of at least one to four equivalent pathways. (2) The marketization level and application of industrial robots are the important external and internal pulling forces that drive the synergy degree of digitalization and green change within manufacturing industry, respectively.(3) The influencing factors of the collaborative mode choice of digital-green development within manufacturing industry are complementary, among which, the degree of marketization is similar to the role of industrial robots in the configuration, which are capable to weaken the negative impact from insufficient government R&D investment support under specific conditions; (4) The non-high collaborative state of digital green in manufacturing industry is mainly due to the low level of marketization, openness, and economic development, as well as the low application rate of industrial robots and software products. This study enriches the theoretical understanding on digitalization and green change of manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, it also provides insights to advance the integrated and synergistic advancement of digital green transformation in manufacturing practice.

This study delves into the intricate interconnections among the financial sector, macroeconomic dynamics, and the advancement of sustainable energy production in South Asia. Utilizing data from 1987 to 2022 in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, the research employs the Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) method to analyze financial market responses. The findings reveal nuanced insights into the complex relationship between economic and environmental factors, fostering a comprehensive understanding of the region's intricate nexus between financial markets and sustainable energy initiatives. In the Economic Growth model, the negative coefficient for CO2 emissions underscores environmental concerns, indicating an inverse relationship with economic growth. Conversely, positive coefficients for non-fossil energy production, Gross Fixed Capital Formation, stock exchange value, and domestic credit emphasize their positive impact on economic growth. A positive GDP coefficient in the CO2 emission model signifies heightened carbon emissions with economic growth, while a negative coefficient for non-fossil energy production suggests potential environmental benefits. The nearly unitary positive coefficient for Gross Fixed Capital Formation highlights its significant role in driving carbon emissions. The Non-Fossil Energy Production model reveals an inverse relationship between GDP and clean energy, suggesting a potential reliance on fossil fuels during economic growth. Positive coefficients for CO2 emissions, Gross Fixed Capital Formation, stock exchange value, and domestic credit highlight factors influencing non-fossil energy production. Long-run stable coefficients affirm variable significance, while a negative error correction term suggests convergence in developing countries. These models offer nuanced insights into the intricate relationships among economic, environmental, and energy variables, guiding sustainable development policies in South Asia.