Technological and Economic Development of Economy

Can digital financial inclusion promote the nighttime economy? - New evidence from Chinese counties’ nighttime lighting data and threshold model

Lei Chen — 2024-11-06

In the post-pandemic era, the relative weakness of the economy is reflected not only in the macro data but also in the nighttime economy. Based on the threshold model and unbalanced panel data of 1772 county-level administrative units in China from 2014 to 2020, this paper deeply explores the relationship between digital inclusive finance and night economy and draws the following conclusions. (1) When digital financial inclusion exceeds certain thresholds, its beneficial influence on promoting the nighttime economy increases from 8.13% to 26.59% and 87.71%. (2) Digital financial inclusion promotes the nighttime economy by increasing employment in the secondary industry and promoting technological innovation. However, digital financial inclusion hinders the nighttime economy by reducing entrepreneurial activity in the accommodation and catering sectors. (3) Coverage breadth first inhibits, then promotes, and inhibits the nighttime economy in different intervals; the effect of usage depth and digital level on the nighttime economy in intervals shows an increasing trend. (4) In the Yangtze River Economic Belt region, digital financial inclusion initially inhibits the nighttime economy but turns into promotion as it develops; after the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy in 2017, digital financial inclusion can more positively and significantly promote the nighttime economy.

High-quality marine economic development in China from the perspective of green total factor productivity growth: dynamic changes and improvement strategies

Peide Liu — 2024-11-06

High-quality marine economic development (HMED) is regarded as a new development pattern of the marine economy in China. This paper aims to examine the dynamic changes and improvement strategies of HMED from the perspective of the green total factor productivity (GTFP) growth. First, the GTFP growth of the marine economy in China’s coastal regions for the period 2007–2020 is calculated using the bootstrapped Malmquist index. Second, the dynamic changes and spatial impacts of the GTFP growth are characterized using kernel density estimation (KDE). Moreover, a novel analytical framework to study the improvement strategies of the GTFP is developed. Within this framework, the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method is used to explore the paths to achieve HMED. The findings show that: (i) the GTFP growth for coastal regions shows significant fluctuations, suggesting that a stable pattern of marine economic development has yet to be established; (ii) the regional distribution of GTFP growth varies significantly, with provinces with fast GTFP growth gathering resources from neighboring provinces, resulting in a siphon effect; (iii) for coastal provinces that lack certain development conditions, the combined effect of other advantageous factors can be used to achieve HMED. Finally, this study presents policy recommendations for achieving HMED, which can provide insights into the design of China’s future marine economic policies.

First published online 10 September 2024

Sustainable urbanization and green total factor productivity: evidence from China’s new-type urbanization plan

Zhijiu Yang — 2024-11-06

Sustainable urbanization is significant in developing countries. This paper studies whether Chinese-type sustainable urbanization, that is new-type urbanization, promotes green total factor productivity (GTFP). We find that the new-type urbanization implementation in China, on average, significantly promotes GTFP by 3.2%. The positive effect of new-type urbanization on GTFP is correlated with promoting innovation, especially green innovation, and improving allocation efficiency. We do not find clear evidence for industrial upgrading, including industrial advancement and rationalization. This is because industrial upgrading is a gradual process and cannot be achieved shortly. Instead, we find that pilot cities might screen the entry of new firms and keep polluting firms out comparatively. The heterogeneous results indicate that the promotion effects on GTFP are more salient in regions with strong environmental regulation and adequate factor endowments. We have some practical implications for sustainable development in developing countries.

First published online 17 September 2024

Well-being effects of the digital platform economy: the case of temporary and self-employment

Maite Blázquez — 2024-11-06

The surge in non-traditional employment, including self-employment and temporary jobs, driven by the digital platform economy (commonly known as the gig economy), has thrust this form of work into the centre of social and political discussions. Among the European Union countries, Spain stands out with the highest volume of digital platform work. To explore the well-being effects of various gig economy employment arrangements, this study utilizes microdata from the Spanish Living Conditions Survey for 2018 and Google Trends data related to platforms like Deliveroo, Airbnb, Just Eat, Uber, and Freelance as a proxy for digital platform economy demand. Employing an econometric approach based on instrumental variables, the study reveals that the most detrimental well-being effects are observed among self-employed workers. Specifically, in terms of self-reported health, self-employed individuals (own-account workers) exhibit 125.8% lower average health levels compared to permanent workers. These findings suggest that the heightened job insecurity and precariousness associated with self-employment outweigh the potential benefits arising from greater flexibility and autonomy in this type of work.

first published online 17 September 2024

Towards a comprehensive evaluation of decentralization: a multidimensional insight of OECD countries

Marzanna Poniatowicz — 2024-11-06

The present paper introduces a novel methodology for analyzing decentralization across three dimensions: political, administrative, and fiscal. Considering the challenges in determining the degree of decentralization, we have constructed synthetic measures for assessing political (MPD), administrative (MAD), and fiscal (MFD) decentralization employing the TOPSIS method (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution). The use of this method allowed the creation of a linear rank of OECD countries. Furthermore, on the basis of constructed synthetic measures and utilizing the k-means clustering method, we also constructed a non-linear grouping of those countries. This approach enabled us to achieve the final objective of our research, the revelation of varied interrelationships among the different dimensions of decentralization in selected OECD countries. The combined application of the TOPSIS and the k-means methods enhances the methodology for analyzing decentralization by offering a multidimensional perspective. Given the potential repercussions of negative outcomes, such as overt or covert centralization, the findings of our study could turn out to be of significant relevance.

First published online 10 July 2024

Existential risk from transformative AI: an economic perspective

Jakub Growiec — 2024-11-06

The prospective arrival of transformative artificial intelligence (TAI) will be a filter for the human civilization – a threshold beyond which it will either strongly accelerate its growth, or vanish. Historical evidence on technological progress in AI capabilities and economic incentives to pursue it suggest that TAI will most likely be developed in just one to four decades. In contrast, theoretical problems of AI alignment, needed to be solved in order for TAI to be “friendly” towards humans rather than cause our extinction, appear difficult and impossible to solve by mechanically increasing the amount of compute. This means that transformative AI poses an imminent existential risk to the humankind which ought to be urgently addressed. Starting from this premise, this paper provides new economic perspectives on discussions surrounding the issue: whether addressing existential risks is cost effective and fair towards the contemporary poor, whether it constitutes “Pascal’s mugging”, how to quantify risks that have never materialized in the past, how discounting affects our assessment of existential risk, and how to include the prospects of upcoming singularity in economic forecasts. The paper also suggests possible policy actions, such as ramping up public funding on research on existential risks and AI safety, and improving regulation of the AI sector, preferably within a global policy framework.

First published online 10 July 2024

The effect of remittances on poverty and economic growth in Jordan: evidence from augmented autoregressive distributed lag model

AbdelKarim AlBataineh — 2024-11-06

This study investigates the effects of remittances on poverty and economic growth in Jordan from 1970 to 2022. The study makes use of the augmented autoregressive distributed lag (AARDL) cointegration method to investigate the relationships between remittances, poverty, and economic growth. The study also incorporates control variables including foreign direct investment, inflation, interest rates, government expenditures, and the composite trade index to take into consideration their potential impact on the outcomes. The findings support remittances’ role as an economic development accelerator by demonstrating their strong positive impact on Jordan’s economic growth. Remittances have a detrimental impact on poverty as well, suggesting a potential role for them in efforts to eradicate it. The research also confirms the anticipated impacts of the control variables, indicating that while inflation, interest rates, and the composite trade index have favourable effects on poverty, government expenditures and foreign direct investment have negative consequences. The policymakers and stakeholders in Jordan will need to consider the implications of these findings carefully. Policymakers can create measures to draw in and successfully channel remittance flows by recognising the beneficial effects of remittances on economic growth and poverty alleviation. The findings also highlight how important it is to encourage foreign direct investment, control inflation and interest rates, and facilitate trade diversification in order to boost economic growth and lower poverty.

First published online 28 August 2024

Sustainable food supply chain screening and relationship analysis with unknown criteria weight information

Huchang Liao — 2024-11-06

Sustainable food supply chain management (SFSC) can control food loss and waste by reducing resource consumption and environmental pollution, thereby ensuring sustainable food consumption and production patterns. Scholars have investigated specific aspects or links in SFSC but rarely studied the sustainability evaluation and selection of a whole supply chain to provide management suggestions under uncertain decision-making environments. This paper presents a comprehensive multiple criteria decision-making method called the SMAA-ORESTE method for SFSC selection. To reduce experts’ efforts, the holistic acceptability index in the SMAA-2 method is used to screen inferior SFSCs from a large number of alternatives. Then, the ORESTE method is combined with the SMAA method to evaluate SFSCs under uncertain information. The ORESTE method can specifically analyze the relationship between alternatives, and the SMAA method can analyze alternatives with unknown criteria weights by Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed method ensures the robustness and credibility of obtained ranking results. An illustrative example validates the applicability and robustness of the proposed method in selecting SFSCs with unknown criteria weights.

Exploration of multiple enhancing pathways of digital economy development of city clusters using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

Xuhui Cong — 2024-11-19

As a crucial catalyst for worldwide economic expansion, the digital economy (DE) has garnered widespread attention and has been regarded as crucial for the promotion of economic growth and innovation. The development of the DE brings both significant opportunities and challenges to city clusters. It enhances urban competitiveness, improves residents’ quality of life, and strengthens urban governance, which is of great significance for the development of city clusters. In this context, although previous studies comprehensively analyzed the advancement of the DE of certain cities and revealed their strategies, challenges, and successful experiences in the development of their DE, research on the determinants and enhancing pathways of the digital economy development of city clusters (DEDCC) is scant. As the core node of DE development, city clusters, as well as their potential and influence, cannot be ignored. Therefore, this study investigates the Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration in China, constructs a theoretical analysis framework for the DEDCC, and utilizes fsQCA (Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis) to examine the complex causal processes of the DEDCC. The fsQCA method is utilized from a configurational perspective to explore the complex driving mechanisms of DEDCC. The objective is to investigate the pathways for enhancing DEDCC and provide insights for the DE development of other city clusters. Results reveal the following: (1) the reciprocal collaboration between market factors and fundamental factors should be examined to accelerate the high-quality DEDCC. (2) technological innovation (TI) capacity is a crucial determinant of the high-quality DEDCC. (3) the coordinated development of the market, the foundation, and TI should be prioritized to achieve the high-quality DEDCC.

Who benefits more from supply chain alliances? Customers or suppliers

Yun Xia — 2024-11-25

Existing research provides limited evidence on the impact of supply chain relationships on the financial performance of upstream and downstream firms. Taking the recent proliferation of supply chain alliances between Chinese listed companies as an opportunity, we study the impact of supply chain alliances on the performance of customers and suppliers as well as the underlying mechanisms at play. We focus on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2001 to 2021 and use announcements issued by the listed companies to identify whether they have established a supply chain alliance with another listed company. The announcements come from the information disclosure system of listed companies of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Finally, we obtained 148 pairs of supply chain alliances which formed by 231 listed companies and involved 296 announcements of supply chain alliances. By using the propensity score matching method and difference-in-differences regressions, we find that supply chain alliances can alleviate friction between customers and suppliers and significantly improve the efficiency of working capital used by both customers and suppliers. Supply chain alliances increase suppliers’ inventory turnover and accounts receivable turnover, and reduce cash holdings, while supply chain alliances improve customer raw material turnover, and reduce accounts payable turnover. Moreover, the economic impact of supply chain alliances on customers and suppliers is asymmetric. Suppliers benefit more from alliances relative to customers, as evidenced by significant improvements in their financial performance and significantly reduced performance volatility. The “inherent differences” in market power and market value between customers and suppliers can have considerable asymmetries on economic consequences. We divide firms in a pair of supply chain alliances by market power and market value. The magnitude of the financial performance accruing from an alliance is considerably higher for the lower-market-power firm than for the higher-market-power firm. The magnitude of the financial performance accruing from an alliance is considerably higher for the lower-market-value firm than for the higher-market-value firm. Additionally, vertical supply chain alliances can significantly improve firm performance and reduce performance volatility compared to horizontal supply chain alliances. This paper provides new empirical evidence for our insight into the economic consequences of supply chain alliances and their boundary conditions.

Job satisfaction and its contributing factors, relationship to economy, analysis among four types of organization

Richard Gardiner — 2024-11-28

The study examines job satisfaction among workers in four types of organizations (Czech companies, foreign companies, transitory companies, and state institutions) in the Czech Republic. Using Spector’s determinants of job satisfaction, along with innovation and organizational support, a survey was conducted. The analysis involved multi-linear regression, mean, and standard deviation tests. Results show a positive correlation between job satisfaction and factors like communication, nature of work, co-worker relationships, working conditions, contingent rewards, supervision, promotion, and pay across all organizations. We also observed that innovation had a positive correlation with job satisfaction in foreign companies and state institutions, but the impact was not significant. However, there was a significant inverse relationship between innovation and job satisfaction in Czech and transitional companies, though not significant for transitional ones. Organizational support significantly impacted job satisfaction in Czech and transitional companies, but for foreign companies and state institutions, it was not significant. Consequently, the paper suggests that much attention should be given to the area with less satisfied parameters. This research can guide HR, managers, employers, and policymakers in enhancing worker satisfaction based on their abilities or contributions to organizational effectiveness and improving the organization’s economic situation.

How do lifecycle, employment and childcare support contribute to the gender pension gap in Europe? The clustering methods analysis

Anna Jędrzychowska — 2024-12-04

Despite ongoing efforts in Europe to tackle discrimination against women in the labor market and societal roles, gender inequality remains entrenched. This study shifts focus from the design of pension systems to explore other key factors impacting women’s careers. By examining life cycle demographics, career paths, and childcare support systems, we utilize clustering to categorize European countries based on factors influencing women’s pension capital accumulation, excluding pension design. Our innovative approach highlights the significance of these factors in the gender pension gap. Findings suggest demographic and social similarities across countries do not necessarily equate to equitable retirement scenarios for women compared to men, underscoring the potential of pension system design to mitigate disparities. Using Ward’s method and the silhouette index for country classification on 10 variables, our analysis reveals distinct differences in gender pension gaps across Southern, Northern, Western, and Eastern Europe. This divergence, alongside observed differences in retirement outcomes for women affected by prior pension regulations, points to increasing challenges for younger European women in achieving pension parity with past generations.

First published online 10 October 2024

Exploring the approaches towards support of academic entrepreneurship: evidence from an emerging market

Marek Zinecker — 2024-12-18

Over the past three decades, an exponentially growing body on elements and actors of the concept of an entrepreneurial university has emerged. Compared to its western European counterparts, however, the idea of the third role of the university has only recently been implemented in Central and Eastern European countries, and thus both research and entrepreneurial practice grapple with empirical results. In this paper, we attempt to fill this gap while adopting a case study approach to examine the issue of what resources a prominent technical university operating in the emerging market of the Czech Republic transfers to academic ventures to utilise and commercialise university research results. Within a survey, nine academic founders and two university representatives were interviewed to assess the role of university resources in facilitating academic entrepreneurship. Our research results suggest that creating infrastructure to foster the third role of universities in an emerging market is a complex and long-term issue. Formal institutions embedded in the intra-university organisational structure, such as knowledge transfer offices and entrepreneurial centres, need to be equipped with sufficient resources and competences. Skilled people with their own network of contacts to intra-university departments and external environment represented by regional incubators, venture capital providers, business angel associations, and experienced entrepreneurs should be involved in the process of creating and increasing capacity. Furthermore, the upcoming agenda should undoubtedly acknowledge the significant role of entrepreneurship education with a focus on talent recognition and entrepreneurship training to impact the entrepreneurial intentions of researchers and students. Overall, we also conclude that the motivation of academics to commercialise their inventions could be positively affected by the applied concepts of assessing their performance. Finally, this study shows that measures at all management levels have to be adopted to create a vital organisational culture that will be in alignment with the vision of entrepreneurial university. The novelty of this paper is twofold. First, the study provides a useful methodological concept of data collection as the multi-level approach was applied for studying the phenomenon of entrepreneurial university. Furthermore, the research findings have valuable implications for university authorities, as well as national and local policy makers, in creating growth programmes and supporting the entrepreneurial mindset.

The impact of social features on the financial sustainability of pension systems in Central and Eastern Europe and Baltic States

Florin Cornel Dumiter — 2024-12-18

This paper analyses the financial sustainability of pension systems from the perspectives of labour supply, population aging, and demographic changes. The time period chosen was 1995 to 2022 and it takes into account nine countries from Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. The econometric modelling techniques used are traditional linear regression, ridge and lasso regression, cross-validated glmnet models, and xboost flexible model used for the whole nine countries and also for country groups. The empirical results show that government expenditures and revenues in terms of social security funds are influenced by the demographic changes of the population that we face nowadays, are bound to the population aging phenomenon, and are dependent upon the elderly labour supply movements. The conclusions of this article reveal the practical need to reshape the financial sustainability of pension systems in all nine countries by developing a sustainable pension scheme that needs to be adjusted to the new social, demographic, and behavioural patterns of labour supply.

Import dependence of the European organic market and the role of Ukrainian exports

Olena Nifatova — 2024-12-18

The European market for organic products has been expanding, with a persistent difference between the growth rates of organic retail trade (actual demand for organic products) and the growth rates of organic agricultural land areas (potential supply of organic products). This makes the European Union (EU) dependent on global imports. This research focuses on the import of organic products from Ukraine. To understand the underlying factors of the EU-27 countries’ import dependence on Ukrainian exports, this article proposes the following: 1) an analysis of Ukraine’s contribution to the total import volume to EU-27 countries by categories of organic products that have the most significant share in overall imports from Ukraine (these categories include: cereals, other than wheat and rice; soybeans; wheat; oilseeds, other than soybeans); 2) a study of the general trends of the European organic market’s import dependence on imports from Ukraine by the categories with the highest contribution; 3) clustering of the EU-27 countries based on organic market indicators; 4) an analysis of the European organic market using Ukrainian imports as an example. Ukrainian imports do not threaten the domestic European market; instead, countries with the highest level of dependence can use Ukrainian organic raw materials for processing and further re-export.