The dynamics of information and communications technologies infrastructure,economic growth,and financial development: Evidence from Asian countries

This paper investigates causal relationships between information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure, financial development, and economic growth in Asian countries over the twelve-year period 2001–2012. Using panel cointegration techniques, our empirical results show these variables are cointegrated, with a myriad of short-run and long-run causal links between ICT infrastructure and economic growth, between financial development and economic growth, and between ICT infrastructure and financial development.     

Capacity building for trade impact assessment: lessons from the development of environmental impact assessment

This paper examines difficulties in creating capacity to undertake impact assessments of trade policy and possible approaches to overcoming them, particularly in developing countries. The assessment of trade agreements and related policies can be a highly complex task, involving many different specialist disciplines. Also, many hurdles have to be overcome to integrate an effective impact assessment process into policy- formulation and decision-making mechanisms. Difficulties in some ways similar, in other ways different, have been encountered in developing effective environmental impact assessment (EIA) systems. This paper reviews experience with EIA capacity-building, and considers how the lessons learned might be applied to initiatives to build capacity for the impact assessment of trade policy.     

The pathway of development: science and technology of NIEs and selected Asian emerging economies

Many emerging countries in Asia demonstrate a strong pattern of growth and potential of diffusion in science and technology that is dynamic and self-propagating. To elucidate the evolution in science and technology and the institutional dynamics that drive the self-propagating behavior, this paper examines the divergent models pursued by selected Asian economies in regard to science and technological catch-up. An analysis of papers and patents production for each nation was conducted to examine the indigenous science and technology capabilities. This study focuses on six major economies, namely China, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. In addition, Japan, a country with advanced development of science and technology, is included for comparison. The findings provided insight and understanding of evolving science and technological waves and the dynamic potentials in science and technology. We demonstrate the pursued catching-up models that drive the self-propagating behavior and industrialization, thus providing a more complete understanding of the innovation systems than those examined in previous studies.     

Heterogeneous impact of renewable energy on carbon efficiency and analysis of impact mechanisms: evidence from the provincial level in China

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Renewable energy (RE), the key to realizing the low-carbon transformation of energy, is significant in reducing social carbon emissions (CEs). However,...     

The environmental impact assessment auditing process in Greece: evidence from the prefectural level

This paper outlines a sociological perspective on the usefulness of economic models in assessment and policy-making. It combines an overview of the history of macro-economic modelling research in the UK with insights drawn from the author's own research into the economic forecasts and policy recommendations made by the Panel of Independent Forecasters to the UK Government during 1993. It argues that one of the most important achievements of the Panel was to communicate some of the diversity and excitement of its economic (and econometric) models. The more recent policy of giving operational responsibility for interest rate decisions to the Bank of England may have the opposite effect, and creates the potential for a ‘closed’ institutional space within which a particular economic analysis may be uncritically accepted.     

Revisiting the disruptive index: evidence from the Nobel Prize-winning articles

In the last two decades, scholars have designed various types of bibliographic-related indicators to identify breakthrough-class academic achievements. In this study, we take a step further to look at the performance of the promising disruptive index (DI) in reference (Wu et al. in Nature 566(7744):378-382, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-0941-9, 2019), thus deepening our understanding of the DI and further facilitating its wise use in bibliometrics. Using publication records for Nobel laureates between 1900 and 2016, we calculate the DI of Nobel Prize-winning articles and benchmark articles from each year, use the median and mean DI to denote the central tendency in each year, and analyze the variation of the DI since publication. We find that Nobel Prize-winning articles are not necessarily more disruptive than benchmark articles. Results based on DI depend on the length of their citation time window, and different citation time windows may cause different, even controversial, results. As a result, research assessment should balance between short- & long-term scientific impact; Also, discipline and time play a role in the length of the citation window when using DI to measure the innovativeness of scientific work. The study also discusses potential research directions around DI.

     

The causal relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth: evidence from Europe

The European Union Renewable Energy Directive sets an objective of increasing the renewable energy share of the used renewable energy in the EU by 2020. The objective of this study is to analyze and compare the short-run and long-run relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in 12 European Union countries and to derive implications for renewable energy policy. To do so, we apply panel vector error correction model using the available annual data from 1990 to 2014 on 12 European Union countries. Moreover, Granger causality test is conducted to examine whether there exists any causal linkage between economic growth and renewable energy consumption. The findings indicate the presence of unidirectional causality running from economic growth to renewable energy consumption in the short run. However, in the long run, a bidirectional causal relationship between the variables in question exists.     

Understanding driving patterns of carbon emissions from the transport sector in China: evidence from an analysis of panel models

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - China’s transport industry has made rapid progress, which has led to a great amount of carbon emissions. However, it is still unclear how carbon...     

Multi-project environmental impact assessment: insights from offshore oil and gas development in Brazil

Despite being adopted worldwide, environmental impact assessment (EIA) is under pressure in many countries, while perceived (rightly or wrongly) as an ineffective and inefficient process. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is thought to help address some of EIA’s shortcomings, but it is absent in many jurisdictions and sectors. In this paper, we argue that multi-project EIA can, in some contexts, simultaneously deliver greater effectiveness and process streamlining. To illustrate our claim, we present a case study from offshore petroleum production in Brazil, where the development of the pre-salt giant reserves is being licensed through a multi-project EIA approach, in a non-SEA planning environment. The analysis provides interesting insights on the strengths and challenges of that strategy, focusing on five aspects of practice: cumulative impacts, efficiency, approach to authorizations, follow-up and political issues. Proper scoping was found to be essential to consistent EIA processes and shorter review times. Finally, we suggest that multi-project EIA approach should be revisited by practitioners and regulators to identify opportunities for deployment, especially in jurisdictions where strategic assessments are not in place.     

Research,development and growth in state-owned enterprises: empirical evidence from Ecuador

ABSTRACT

Investment in R&D is essential for the survival and growth of organizations. Recent literature has focused on the study of effects of R&D on the growth of private companies. However, there is no research studying the effects of R&D on the growth of Latin American public companies. This paper estimates, using an endogenous growth model, the effect of investments in R&D on sales growth in public enterprises of Ecuador. Data corresponding to a sample of 86 public companies have been taken from the Survey of Activities of Science and Technology (ACTI) of Ecuador for the period 2012 to 2014. These data are estimated by OLS. The results show that there is a statistically significant positive relation between investment in research and development and the growth of sales in public companies.     

Endogenous dynamics between R&D,ICT and economic growth: Empirical evidence from the OECD countries

Intensification of research and development (R&D) and the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure have been regarded as important drivers for sustained economic growth across the globe. In this study, using a panel vector autoregressive model, we examine the endogenous relationships between R&D, ICT infrastructure development and economic growth in the OECD countries between 1961 and 2018. The empirical results show that both R&D and ICT infrastructure development contribute to long-term economic growth in the OECD countries. The short-run dynamics show that complex inter-relationships between these variables exist. The key insight from this study is that to attain sustained economic growth, policymakers in the OECD economies should put in place an integrated framework that takes into consideration co-development policies pertaining to R&D investment, ICT diffusion and economic growth-enhancing initiatives.     

Assessing the economic and environmental impact of remanufacturing: a decision support tool for OEM suppliers

The circular economy is often presented as a solution for companies to increase the sustainability of their business. In many situations where suppliers produce subassemblies or modules for OEMs in a B2B context, dependency on their clients limits their options for profitable closed-loop supply chains. In this paper, we develop a simple tool suppliers can use to quickly assess whether remanufacturing is economic and environmentally attractive compared to producing new components. We derive optimal acquisition and reuse quantities that minimise total costs. Based on our analysis with a supplier in the automotive industry, we find that used core prices and remanufacturing yield rates have a large impact while an optimised design for remanufacturing can only marginally improve the situation. The tool is applicable to a wide variety of suppliers and industries that remanufacture their modules or subassemblies, or are exploring the option to engage in remanufacturing operations.     

Non-linear dynamics of innovation activities over the business cycles: Empirical evidence from OECD economies

This study examines the non-linear and asymmetries of innovation activities in thirty-six OECD countries for the period 1981Q1-2019Q4. The impulse response function and historical decompositions were estimated to check the cyclical property of innovation activities (R&D expenditures, residential patents, non-residential patents, and international collaboration in technology development) during the boom and recessions. The impulse response function provided three important results. First, the results indicated that the R&D expenditures moves pro-cyclically in response to the gross domestic product (GDP), exports, imports, and gross fixed capital formation in both the boom and recession periods. Second, the findings suggested that patents (residential and non-residential) move pro-cyclically in response to GDP, exports, imports, labor force, R&D expenditures, and gross fixed capital formation shocks in the boom and recession periods. Third, variables including, R&D expenditures, GDP, exports, labor force, imports, and gross fixed capital formation shocks significantly affected patents (residential and non-residential) during the boom and recession periods across the sampled OECD states. Fourth, the results also suggested that the international collaboration in technology development moves pro-cyclically in response to GDP, R&D expenditures, exports, imports, labor force, and gross fixed capital formation shocks in the boom and recession periods.     

The impacts of environmental performance and development of financing decisions on economic sustainable performance: from the view of renewable and clean energy industry

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Developing green economy and mitigating environmental pollution have strategically important role in China's commitments against global climate...     

Optimization and environmental and economic impact evaluation of the micro-energy network system on the basis of the load characteristics analysis

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Micro-energy networks have been widely used in power distribution systems. Previous studies have not addressed how to avoid these networks being...     

A collection of evidence for the impact of the economic recession on road fatalities in Great Britain

There was a considerable reduction in the number of fatalities on British roads between 2007 and 2010. This substantial change led to debate as to the cause of the reduction. Multiple sources of information and evidence have been collated including STATS19 road accident data, population data, socio-demographic data, economic patterns, weather trends and traffic and vehicle data. Summary analyses of these data sources show a reduction in overall traffic, a large reduction in HGV traffic, a reduction in young male drivers, a reduction in speeding, and a reduction in drink driving during the recession period. All of these reductions can be associated with a reduction in fatal accidents and have led to the conclusion that the economic recession changed behaviours in such a way that fewer people were killed on the roads in Britain during this period.     

Electromagnetic and neutron emissions from brittle rocks failure: Experimental evidence and geological implications

It has been observed energy emission in the form of electromagnetic radiation, clearly indicating charge redistribution, and neutron bursts, necessarily involving nuclear reactions, during the failure process of quasi-brittle materials such as rocks, when subjected to compression tests. The material used is Luserna stone, which presents a very brittle behaviour during compression failure. The observed phenomenon of high-energy particle emission, i.e., electrons and neutrons, can be explained in the framework of the superradiance applied to the solid state, where individual atoms lose their identity and become part of different plasmas, electronic and nuclear. Since the analysed material contains iron, it can be conjectured that piezonuclear reactions involving fission of iron into aluminum, or into magnesium and silicon, should have occurred during compression damage and failure. These complex phenomenologies are confirmed by Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) tests conducted on Luserna stone specimens, and found additional evidences at the Earth’s Crust scale, where electromagnetic and neutron emissions are observed just in correspondence with major earthquakes. In this context, the effects of piezonuclear reactions can be also considered from a geophysical and geological point of view.     

Effectiveness of environmental offsets in environmental impact assessment: practitioner perspectives from Western Australia

Environmental offsets are positive mitigation measures implemented during environmental impact assessment (EIA) approvals to compensate for unavoidable negative environmental actions. Through interviews with 29 practitioners experienced with offsets, this study investigated the level of support for environmental offsets in Western Australia, implementation of the mitigation sequence and achievement of ‘net environmental gain’ and ‘like for like’ in practice. In-principle support for the use of offsets was almost unanimous. However, the practical workability of ‘like for like’ was questioned along with claims that offsets failed to deliver net benefits. Greater guidance and follow-up will be necessary if practice is to live up to expectation.     

Insights from the benchmark exercises and impact on methodological development

In order to understand the state of the art in Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) and to quantify and qualify the uncertainties involved, the Joint Research Centre has organised a series of benchmark exercises related to realistic problem cases. Four exercises dealt with, respectively; systems reliability analysis, common cause failure analysis, human reliability assessment and event sequence modelling and quantification. In this paper the main results and conclusions of the four benchmark exercises are summarised. Furthermore, it is discussed how identified weaknesses or open problems have been addressed in recent methodological developments.     

Space development, SPS 2000, and economic growth: the need for macro-engineering diplomacy

Solar power generation in space is anticipated as one remedy toward the solution of global environmental problems, including the energy crisis. It is argued that several problems could be solved through global cooperation that makes practical use of space solar power. Such applications today require the reduction of space transportation costs to one-hundredth or less, and the satisfactory operation of a viable pilot plant. In turn, this means that macro-engineering diplomacy is indispensable. The role that the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI now METI, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) would be expected to play in the former, and the proposal for an SPS 2000 pilot plant project for the latter, are discussed in this paper. Like the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), MITI should promote the reduction of space transportation costs by encouraging the private sector to create new industries and grow the economy. An Equatorial Alliance, formed by the equatorial countries that would be supplied with space solar power by SPS 2000, could take the lead in solving global warming problems.