Technological and Economic Development of Economy

Could “digital gold” resist global supply chain pressure?

Men Qin, Chi-Wei Su, Yunxu Wang, Nicoleta Mihaela Doran — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Exploring the safe-haven characteristics of bitcoin from novel perspectives is crucial to diversify the investment and reap the benefits. This investigation employs bootstrap full-and sub-sample techniques to probe time-varying interrelation between global supply chain pressure (GSCP) and bitcoin price (BP), and further answer if “digital gold” could resist the strains of global supply chain. The empirical outcomes suggest that GSCP positively and negatively affects BP. The positive influence points out that high GSCP might boost the international bitcoin market, driving BP to rise, which indicates that “digital gold” could resist the pressures of global supply chain. But the negative effect of GSCP on BP could not support the above view, mainly affected by the weak purchasing power and more valuable assets, which is not consistent with the assumption of the inter-temporal capital asset pricing model (ICAPM). In turn, GSCP is adversely affected by BP, highlighting that the international bitcoin market may be viewed as a stress reliever for the global supply chain. Against a backdrop of the deteriorative Russia-Ukraine war and the intensifying global supply chain crisis, the above conclusions could bring significative lessons to the public, enterprises and related economies.

First published online 17 April 2023

The impact of epidemics on green innovation: global analysis

Xin-Xin Zhao, Jie Ma, Jun Wen, Chun-Ping Chang — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Epidemics and their resulting pandemics have become essential factors influencing economic development, financial stability, poverty, and ultimately a country’s innovation level, including green technology innovation. This research thus investigates epidemic events’ correlation to green innovation by operating with skewed panel data involving 134 countries from 1971 to 2018 and provides compelling proof that Epidemics have a detrimental effect on green innovation, not only for the current year but also for the next six years. We also show that the quality of institutions and financial development levels weaken epidemics’ detrimental effects on green innovation. Overall, the findings would draw particular attention from policymakers.

First published online 17 April 2023

Valuation of reverse mortgages in the Spanish market for foreign residents

David Atance, Ana Debón, Iván De La Fuente — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The continuous growth in life expectancy, besides to the difficult economic and financial situation of the public pension system in Spain, makes reverse mortgages an attractive solution for providing additional income to retirees. However, despite being almost 20 years old, the Spanish market remains immature. Consequently, providers face significant risks, due to factors such as interest rates, housing prices, and longevity. Numerous tourists visit Spain, and many retire there, obtaining legal residence. Therefore, lenders could be interested in marketing reverse mortgages to foreign residents. Nevertheless, the longevity risk faced by these lenders may differ depending on the nationality of the borrower, and profits and losses could vary. Consequently, we propose a methodology for comparing the pricing of reverse mortgages in Spain by considering differences in longevity risk. Specifically, we calculate the amount offered by three types of reverse mortgages to customers of different nationalities, genders, and ages with contracts made in Spain. Our conclusions are pertinent to Spanish lenders since the results indicate that, in general, a Spanish lender would assume a slightly larger risk when lending reverse mortgages to borrowers of the selected nationalities, regardless of other considerations, such as legal issues, which are not addressed in this article.

First published online 31 October 2023

Impact of government support policies on regional economic resilience under the COVID-19 outbreak

Fei Fan, Zongyuan Weng, Jiahe Tian — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:44:36 +0200

Using the policy package pilot implemented in Hubei Province, China, in April 2020 as a natural experiment, we use the synthetic control (SC) and synthetic difference in differences (SDID) methods to estimate the impact of the Chinese government’s support policy on the economic resilience and to analyze the mechanisms by which it impacts. This study finds that the policy package has contributed to the growth of economic resilience in the pilot provinces, with the policy package increasing the average economic resilience of the pilot provinces by 0.062 compared to their potential resilience. The validity and robustness of the above conclusions are objectively confirmed by multidimensional quantitative outcomes such as placebo tests, ranking tests, and replacements in calculating resilience. The mechanism analysis shows that the investment in real estate development, the stimulus for consumption, and the core industry development are virtual channels for the policy package to promote economic resilience growth in the pilot provinces. Moreover, traditional investment in transportation fixed assets plays a minor role. This paper quantitatively corroborates the academic idea that government governance capacity affects regional economic resilience (RER), and research can provide empirical support for regional economic recovery and policy support under a major crisis.

Assessment of chosen technologies improving seniors' quality of life in the context of sustainable development

Katarzyna Halicka — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Sustainable development is a perspective on economic progress that takes into account the equilibrium among social, economic, and environmental elements. This implies that endeavours aimed at development should guarantee the satisfaction of present generations’ requirements while safeguarding the capacity of future generations to fulfil their own necessities. In the context of an aging society, sustainable development involves providing solutions, services, and technologies that address the needs of older people while also minimizing negative impacts on the environment and future generations. The aim of this article is to identify, analyse and evaluate technologies that improve the quality of life of older people without compromising the well-being of future generations from ecological, social, ethical and other perspectives. Technologies that enhance the quality of life for older people are often referred to as gerontechnologies in the literature.

The article identifies and then selects 3 gerontechnologies that can improve the quality of life of older people while remaining sustainable. Further, 42 criteria for evaluating gerontechnologies were identified. These gerontechnologies were then evaluated by potential users. A ranking of gerontechnologies was further developed. CAWI and CATI methods were used in the survey. The SAW method was used to build the ranking.

Indicators of non-performing loan: does efficiency matter?

Tao Jiang, Yanqiu Zheng — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of various factors on the level of non-performing loans (NPL) and, to determine the moderating role of efficiency on the relationship between different factors and NPL in China. The current study addressed four important factors to examine the role in relation to the NPL. These factors include; return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), economic sustainability and political instability index. Furthermore, the moderating role of efficiency is addressed between these factors and NPL. Secondary data is used in this study to consider the empirical results. Secondary data related to ROA, ROE, economic sustainability and political instability index is collected from different sources. Consistent with the literature, we found significant effect of ROA, ROE, economic sustainability and political instability index on NPL. Banking sector of China is majorly influenced by these factors due to the effect on NPLs. Furthermore, the efficiency has contribution to the NPLs as moderating variable. Results of this study are helpful for the management of banking industry to resolve various issues related to NPLs.

Foreign direct investment performance drivers at the country level: a robust compromise multi-criteria decision-making approach

Peter Wanke, Yong Tan, Jorge Antunes, Ali Emrouznejad — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This paper focuses on the performance drivers of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) at the country level, exploring the socio-demographic specifics of donor and receiver countries. To this end, a novel Robust Compromise (RoCo) Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) model is proposed using non-linear programming solved by genetic algorithms. The model builds upon established traditional models for alternative ranking and criteria weighting. Subsequently, a stochastic robust regression is performed, building upon previously computed bootstrapped Tobit, Simplex, and Beta regressions to handle performance scores ranging between 0 and 1. The goal is to test FDI performance against a set of contextual variables. The findings suggest that the performance of FDI is relatively low, and relevant improvements should be made. Our second stage analysis reports that higher GDP per capita and good social welfare, including lower infant mortality and higher life expectancy, contribute to the improvement in FDI performance. Furthermore, it is found that a large percentage of women in the total population, wealth concentration in the destination country, as well as the degree of urbanization, are helpful to improve FDI performance. Finally, we find that FDI performance is mainly concentrated on industries that are high-tech and high value-added.

The perceived relationship between sustainable energy technologies, eco-innovation, economic growth and social sustainability: evidence from China

FengSheng Chien, Ka Yin Chau, Xiang-Chu Huang — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Social sustainability is a global necessity because of environmental and economic uncertainty. This issue needs the foremost solution, and for this purpose, researchers’ and policymakers’ emphasis is required. Thereby, the present paper investigates sustainable energy technologies such as solar and hydroelectric, eco-innovation and EG and their impact on social sustainability in China. The study also used industrialization and inflation as the control variables in the time span of 1981 to 2020. The present study also applied the Dynamic Auto-regressive Distributed Lags (DARDL) model to evaluate the association between the outlined variables. The results indicated that sustainable energy technologies such as solar and hydroelectric, eco-innovation, economic growth, industrialization and inflation are significantly associated with social sustainability in China. The present paper offers standard policies to regulators in making regulations related to maintaining social sustainability by using effective sustainable energy technologies and eco-innovation.

Impact of open innovation on globalization: a survey study on China

FengSheng Chien, YunQian Zhang, Muhammad Sadiq — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The objective of this study is to examine the role of open innovation practices to promote globalization. For this purpose, this study considered two open innovation practices: external knowledge and supplier involvement. A survey was carried out to collect primary data from the respondents. This study preferred Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to examine the role of open innovation in globalization. Data were collected from the employees of SMEs in China. By employing Structural Equation Modeling, this study addressed the important insights for academicians and practitioners. It is concluded that; open innovation practices have key role to promote globalization. The promotion of open innovation practices among the Chinese SMEs can increase the globalization potential. The strategies of open innovation led to increase in business collaboration across the border business organizations. The business collaboration between the SMEs of various countries is the best way to enhance globalization by increasing the level of social capital. Therefore, those institutions who want to promote globalization should promote open innovation practices among the business organizations.

Green investment, energy efficiency, and economic growth: does economic freedom matter? Evidence from BRICS countries

HongMei Mu — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Sustainable development goals, particularly number 7, clearly urges economies over the globe to multiple their efforts in order to improve efficiency. Although witnesses stressed out the importance of energy efficiency and claimed that when it is improved drastically, it triggers economic growth, however, the reported evidences to support the claim are mixed. In BRICS scenario, economies are experiencing the change from high-speed growth to high quality growth, due to which it is equally important to look into green investment as it is an essential tool to build high quality economic growth. Although green investment targets energy conservation as well as ecological deficit as it main goal. However, limited literature claims that it affects economic growth as well. Thus, the present study aims to assess green investment, energy efficiency, and economic growth (EG) and their impact on economic freedom index of the BRICS countries. Methods of Moments-Quantile-Regression (MMQR) approach is applied to explore the association between the understudy constructs in the time span of 2001–2020. Interestingly, it is revealed that green investment, energy efficiency and renewable energy are positively related with economic freedom index of the BRICS countries. With the evidences, the study proposes a conclusive remark to spur development across the countries.

The moderating role of organizational support on the relationship between green supply chain practices, governance and sustainable economic performance: evidence from China

YunQian Zhang — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Recently, sustainable economic performance (SEP) has been the foremost requirement due to uncertainty of the economy and environment. This issue needs best practices and governance and also needs researchers’ focus. Thereby, the paper aims to assess green supply chain (SC) practices, green SC governance and their role in the achievement of SEP in the manufacturing sector of China. The paper also attempts to explore the moderating effect of organizational support in proposed framework. PLS-SEM model was employed to test model’s reliability and validity. The very same method has applied to test the linkage among outlined constructs. Obtained results confirms the moderating impact of organizational support among traditional governance, relational governance and the achievement of SEP in the manufacturing industry in China. This article provides guidelines to the regulators in developing policies related to the achievement of SEP using green SC practices and governance.

Assessing the diffusion of FinTech innovation in financial industry: using the rough MCDM model

Hsu-Hwa Chang, Ming-Tsang Lu, Li-Hua Huang, Hsiang Fa Ling, Yen-Chen Yen — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0200

We develop a conceptual structure to explore how financial technology (FinTech) innovation is being implemented to deal with vague, inconsistent and ambiguous knowledge in actual world. The structure of this study is built upon the technology, organization, environment (TOE) context, which one uses the concept of multi-criteria estimation to measure the significance of FinTech innovation. We develop an integrated MCDM (multiple criteria decision-making) model through rough set theory help administrators obtain a strategic influence relation map for enhancing performance approaching towards the aspiration value. This model involves three steps: primary, we apply this rough number to define group views which reflect upon experts’ real experiences; second, we use the rough DEMATEL-based ANP-(RDANP) to acquire the rough influential weights and rough influential network relationship map (RINRM) based on this TOE structure and its corresponding attributes; finally, we utilize the rough modified VIKOR with the influence to analyze the gap between the performance value and the aspirated level. The empirical case was originated from financial industry in Taiwan. According to the weighting results the expected benefits, technology integration, and competitive pressure were the most important criteria. Our results also illustrate how FinTech innovation can be used for promoting financial services.

Energy efficiency and COVID-19: a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis on economic effects

Xuan Yao, Zeshui Xu, Xinxin Wang, Lina Wang, Marinko Škare — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic has deferred global progress in energy efficiency to a decade-long low, posing a threat to the achievement of international climate goals, and also profoundly affected the development of economics. To gain insight into the research frontiers and hotspots in energy efficiency and COVID-19, a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis on economic effects are performed with the help of the bibliometric tools VOSviewer and Bibliometrix. This paper selects all the publications retrieved based on the subject terms in the Web of Science core collection. Firstly, this article performs a performance analysis of related publications to present the development and distribution of energy efficiency and COVID-19 from research areas, relevant sources, and influential articles. Afterward, a visual analysis of the literature called science mapping analysis is implemented to display the structural and dynamic organization of knowledge in energy efficiency and COVID-19 research. In the end, detailed discussions of two research hotspots and some theoretical and practical implications are concluded in the systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis findings, which may contribute to further development for researchers in the field of energy efficiency and eventually propel the progress of society and economy in an all-round way.

First published online 06 October 2023

Improving the strategies of the market players using an AI-powered price forecast for electricity market

Adela Bâra, Simona-Vasilica Oprea, Cristian-Eugen Ciurea — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This paper analyses the recent evolution of the electricity price of one of the East-European countries’ Balancing Markets (BM) – Romania, aiming to understand the prices trend and predict them in the current economic and geopolitical context. This is especially important as the electricity producers have to allocate their output between wholesale electricity market, ancillary services markets and BM targeting to maximize value and achieve a sustainable economic development. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an AI-powered electricity price forecast using several types of standout Machine Learning (ML) algorithms such as classifiers and regressors to predict the electricity price on BM. This approach, consisting of two steps, identifies the imbalance sign and significantly enhances the performance of the price forecast. The proposed method offers valuable insights into the market participants’ trading opportunities using two prediction solutions. The first prediction solution consists of averaging the results of five ensemble ML algorithms. The second one consists in weighting the results of the five forecasting ML algorithms using either a linear regression or a decision tree algorithm. Thus, we propose to combine supervised and unsupervised ML algorithms and find the fundamentals for creating optimal bidding strategies for electricity market players.

First published online 14 November 2023