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This study examines whether national digital technological readiness moderates the relationship between national sustainability performance and supply chain logistics performance. Using a panel of 157 countries across six biennial waves from 2010 to 2023 (N = 850), with every predictor measured two years before the wave it explains, drawn from the World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI), the World Bank Sovereign ESG indicators, and the UNCTAD Frontier Technology Readiness Index (FTRI), we estimate a hybrid within-between panel model that separates durable cross-country differences from within-country change, with sustainability performance measured through three separately constructed environmental, social, and governance dimensions. Sustainability performance relates positively to logistics performance between countries, and the association strengthens with readiness. The association becomes statistically significant only above a readiness threshold on the FTRI scale, below which every low-income country in the sample falls. The moderating effect is driven by the social and governance dimensions rather than the environmental dimension. It operates on the sub-dimensions that domestic institutions govern, most notably customs and infrastructure, while disappearing for international shipping. The between-country interaction remains stable across alternative moderator definitions, alternative measure constructions, an expanded control set, and a permutation placebo test. This moderation follows the continuous level of readiness rather than income group boundaries. Grounded in Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the findings suggest that digital readiness functions as the capability through which sustainability investments translate into realized logistics performance, and they locate a readiness threshold with direct implications for the sequencing of development policy.

A lot has been written on the impact of economic freedom and its components on economic growth. This paper focuses on financial freedom, which is one aspect of economic freedom. Financial freedom measures how deeply the government is involved in a nation’s financial industry and how that industry is open to foreign competition. The aim of this study is to measure the effect of financial freedom and other factors on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. We estimate a model using panel data of 184 countries from 2012 to 2019. Our empirical estimations show that financial freedom positively affects per capita GDP, while tariff rates, corporate tax rates, unemployment, and inflation negatively affect per capita GDP.

How elderlies participate in social activities is a key issue in coping with aging and has an important impact on elderlies’ well-being. This paper examines the effects of different social participation patterns on the happiness of the elderlies in China. The empirical analysis was conducted based on the data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2015. The research results show that compared with reemployment after retirement, community governance is a more common way for retired people to be involved in social activities. We found that reemployment significantly reduces the happiness degree of the retired. Furthermore, this negative effect is more significant in samples without a formal labor contract, relatively lower education level, & senior retired people. In contrast, participating in community governance can significantly improve the happiness level of retirees, which is more essential in the sample of the medium education level and junior retirees.

Abstract Income inequality has, in recent years, become a serious issue especially in emerging markets. This paper examines the relationship of income inequality in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions to several factors such as gross capital formation, corruption, and per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Using a cross-sectional dataset of 36 countries from both regions for the year 2018 and ordinary least squares regression, the paper shows that gross capital formation and the lack of corruption have a negative and significant relationship with income inequality (as represented by the Gini coefficient). In contrast, per capita GDP has a positive and significant relationship with income inequality. Policymakers who want to rein in income inequality should therefore focus on ways to reduce corruption and increase the formation of capital. This study could be of use for those who are interested in discovering and mitigating the factors that cause income inequality in the developing world.

The paper examines the concept of green banking and sustainable financing, the forces driving green banking, and the reasons for this. The paper suggests that the move toward green banking and financing is the result of environmental degradation and the public’s demand for remediation. As enablers of the industries that create pollution, financial institutions bear a significant responsibility in leading the efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Also, greenhouse gas emissions are the result of market failures; therefore, there is a need for governments to act. The paper also examines the challenges facing green banking and its prospects. The conclusion is that while green banking displays good growth prospects, there exists three major challenges: (1) limited awareness of green products and services that banks can offer, (2) greenwashing, and (3) the high cost of offering green financial services. Despite these challenges, the paper affirms the potential of green banking to promote sustainability and mitigation of the environmental crisis.

The Philippines has had high levels of unemployment for years. During the 2000s, the unemployment rate hovered between seven and ten percent. High unemployment can have adverse effects on individuals and society. The question that this paper analyses is how unanticipated money growth affect the unemployment situation in the Philippines. There has been literature on the relationship between unanticipated growth on the money supply and unemployment. The paper proposes that only unanticipated money movements will affect real economic variables like unemployment and the output level. In order to test our hypothesis, it is important that we need to quantify the concepts of anticipated and unanticipated money movements. This paper uses time-series data on several economic variables as well as a model based on Geetha et al. (2023). Using an error-correction model, the results show that an unanticipated increase in M2 money is a factor that contributes to unemployment in Philippines.

Using a dynamic panel dataset of 150 countries for the period of 2006-2018 and a two-step system GMM estimation model, this paper shows that natural resources have a positive effect on economic development while holding corruption constant. Our findings support the notion that natural resources have a positive effect on the economy of a nation. When a country has less corruption, it improves the appropriation of economic gains from natural resources which serves as natural capital that would drive further capital accumulation and further development. We also find that physical capital, human capital, and freedom from corruption show strong positive effects on economic development, controlling for other economic and institutional variables.

Parental Education Matters for Adolescent Health: The Importance of Parental Education in the US

Human trafficking is a global problem. In this paper, I seek to find the determinants of international human trafficking by using the US as a case study. Previous studies have drawn primarily from the migration literature, proposing hypotheses that focus on economic factors, the level of democracy and other “push” factors in the countries of origin that create incentives for individuals to migrate. However, we know that international human trafficking is an involuntary form of migration and may be influenced by additional factors. I hypothesize that factors that influence the cost–benefit calculation of the trafficker determine the volume of human trafficking, in addition to the factors that affect the size of the pool of trafficking victims. I test my theory using the negative binomial regression model. My results indicate that while income inequality within a country and poor protection of women's rights are likely to produce a specific pool of victims, it is the reduction of operational costs for the trafficker that increases the number of individuals who are trafficked.

This paper analyzes the effect of TV advertising and in-store displays on the sales of chocolates. I examine which method is more effective in gaining customers and in increasing total sales. Also, I look at the evidence to see whether the lack of advertising by a firm will hurt the industry as a whole. In this paper, I use a nested logit model on scanner data obtained by the Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy at the University of Connecticut to examine the effect of TV advertising on chocolate sales. The results show that in-store displays and advertising both help increase the demand for chocolate.

Purpose: This study examined the history, growth and structure of two of the world's largest confectionery makers, Hershey and Mars, to determine why these two companies chose their current organizational form. Design/method/approach: This paper starts off with an analysis of the industrial foundation which is a common organizational form in Europe but rarely found in the United States. A historical analysis is then made of both Hershey and Mars using literature from economics, law, history and management to come up with answers as to why the two corporations are organized the way they are today. Findings: The study found that Hershey adopted the industrial-foundation organizational form based on the donor-agency theory which assures donors that their donations are not redistributed as profits to residual claimants. The non-distribution constraint in the Hershey Trust Company prevents dividends (donations) from being redistributed to residual claimants, and that the non-distribution constraint makes more sense for Hershey because its founder, Milton Hershey, expressed his preference to leave a long lasting legacy. The study also found that Mars has chosen a family-controlled organizational form based on the competitive advantage theory which postulates that firm value is maximized when families retain control, benefitting both family and nonfamily shareholders. Originality/value: There have been few studies on the history and organizational evolution of the American confectionery industry. The study is unique as it addresses some gaps in the literature as it provides a historical and institutional study into that particular industry.

Wallace Huffman continued the tradition of research on Midwest rural labor markets at Iowa State University that was begun in the 1930s by his advisers T.W. Schultz and D. Gale Johnson. We review the lessons learned from this research about the wisdom of policies aimed at retaining population in rural areas in the face of market forces and technological changes that create incentives to migrate to urban areas. Professor Huffman's teaching and lessons learned from the Iowa State Human Resources Workshop continues to shape recent research on the roles of agglomeration economies, information technologies, and returns to human capital on the strength of rural labor markets and policies regarding rural economic development.

The often observed empirical divergence between WTA and WTP measures of welfare change continues to be a topic of interest to both theoretical and applied economists. The divergence has particularly important implications for environmental policy. In this article, we review behavioral and other explanations of the disparity, with a focus on their connections to neoclassical welfare theory, and evaluate the empirical evidence of these explanations through the same lens. Some explanations of the disparity are consistent with neoclassical models, and some are not. Likewise, some imply that the divergences are attributed to underlying preferences (neoclassical or not), whereas others suggest that the divergences are due to elicitation methods, cognitive limitations, or other non-preference-related reasons. We argue that the source of the divergence can inform the choice of which measure, WTP or WTA, to use in a given empirical application.