Sustainable development and circular economy: The role of institutional promotion on circular consumption and market competitiveness from a multistakeholder engagement approach

The transition from a linear economy to a circular economy (CE) is a real challenge to achieve long‐term sustainability. To push CE in the market, institutional promotion could become a key driver to positively impact both circular consumption and the competitiveness of the market. This paper analyzes the influence that soft and hard initiatives have on circular consumption and market competitiveness. Based on a survey of 1,281 respondents from different types of stakeholders, structural equations modeling statistical analysis was run. Results show that soft initiatives support the achievement of both objectives, whereas hard ones only influence greater circular consumption. However, the perception of the different stakeholders considered is very heterogeneous. It is indicative that not all institutional promotion initiatives are effective. Thus, institutions should guide, in an adequate and differentiated manner, their efforts to promote CE and sustainable development depending on the stakeholder they are targeting.     

Liquidity Constraints,Competition, and Markup Cyclicality

This article provides evidence on the relation among financial constraints, competition, and the cyclicality of markups. Based on a long series of industry data from a large number of countries, we find that markups increase in conjunction with the business cycle in environments with higher short‐term financial constraints (liquidity constraints) and more competition. The evidence also suggests that these two elements complement each other: the procyclicality of markups in firms facing both high competition and high liquidity constraints is higher than that explained by each determinant independently.     

省级国土资源信息化建设现状及对策分析--以山东省国土资源信息化建设为例

摘要:为国土资源管理部门更好地履行政府管理职能,提高国土资源行政管理水平,实现国土资源管理信息化本文以山东省国土资源信息化建设为例,简要分析了省级国土资源信息化建设的情况。     

Family firms’ identity communication and consumers’ product involvement impact on consumer response

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the image transfer theory and the elaboration likelihood model can provide a theoretical framework capable of assessing the influence of consumers’ product involvement and family firms’ identity communication through websites on consumer responses. This research conducted an experiment using an eye‐tracking technique measuring attention to family and nonfamily corporate websites. The procedure involved 120 participants. Consistent with the image transfer theory, family firms’ identity through websites positively impacts attitude toward the website and intention to buy. Additionally, the attitude toward the website affects the relationship between family firms’ identity through websites and the intention to buy. In line with the elaboration likelihood model, consumers’ product involvement negatively impacts the relationship between family firms’ identity through websites and intention to buy.     

A Bayesian Net Benefit Approach to Cost‐effectiveness Analysis in Health Technology Assessment

The economic literature on cost‐effectiveness analysis in the context of decisions by health technology assessment agencies assumes as the quantity of interest a linear combination of the mean of the sampling distribution of the effectiveness and the cost. We argue that this is not always reasonable. Our reasons for this assertion are that (i) treatments are compared on the basis of mean values, and for some useful models the mean of the distribution of the cost, which is conditional on the available data, does not exist, and (ii) even for models for which the mean does exist, it might not constitute an accurate reflection of the distribution. This paper presents a general Bayesian cost‐effectiveness analysis of a single treatment, where the quantity of interest is the distribution, conditional on the data, of the net benefit. This approach permits a natural extension to several treatments, which enables us to make a statistical comparison. Illustrations with treatment comparisons for real and simulated data are given.     

African Education Challenges and Policy Responses: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the African Development Bank's Assistance*

Abstract: From marginal access to school before 1960, African modern education systems expanded steadily during the 1960s and 1970s, prompted by high priority given to education. The 1980s experienced stagnation and decline due to a drastic decrease in education financing further to the balance of payment and budget deficits, and the ensuing structural adjustment programmes. Since 1990, there have been intensified efforts to reverse the trend through national and international efforts. The African education sector continues to face serious challenges of low and inequitable access to education, irrelevant curriculum and poor learning outcomes, inadequate political commitment and financing, weak education system capacity, and weak link with the world of work. Drawing on relevant documents and data, the paper discusses briefly those challenges and the education policy measures taken to address them. It also assesses to what extent the Bank response was relevant and effective in addressing the African education challenges. While progress has been made in bringing more children to schools, the results in terms of quantity and quality have been far from the targets, particularly in sub‐Saharan Africa. The paper concludes with a call for a greater effort to keep the promise for education for all and for quality education. This may require an invitation for a new forum on education to take stock and try again more realistic policies and better defined means to effectively implement them. The forum's resolutions should not be limited to the primary education but consider the education sector as a whole in the context of a globalized economy and labor market.     

THE IMPACT OF FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION: A SURVEY

In this paper, we offer a comprehensive and updated review of the impact of fiscal decentralization on the economy, society and politics. Our first target is the examination of two crucial and yet unsolved issues in the empirical literature on decentralization: the proper measurement of decentralization itself and its potential endogeneity in econometric estimates. Then, we discuss the main existing findings on the effects of decentralization on a relevant list of socio-economic issues. The impact of fiscal decentralization reforms on political institutions and public policies is also considered. Complete answers on the impact of fiscal decentralization are not likely to be certain but, overall, there are reasons to be optimistic about the net positive result. Our survey by necessity has to be selective but it presents a balanced view of what is known and what is not yet known opening room for further research and practice on fiscal decentralization.     

Green practices in restaurants: Impact on firm performance

Although some researchers have recently studied green practices in restaurants, scant previous research has analyzed the impact of these practices on overall performance in this field. Moreover, these studies have generally focused on mega-sized restaurants in the United States. The primary objective of this study is therefore to examine the motivations for the adoption of green practices in restaurants in Spain and the impact of this adoption on firm performance. The results are based on a survey completed by 374 small restaurant managers. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze links between the studied dimensions. The findings indicate that green practices have a strong positive direct influence on operational performance and competitiveness in Spanish restaurants and that they indirectly influence overall firm performance. Therefore, the results of this paper suggest that being proactive about environmental issues can provide restaurants with a great number of benefits that improve firm competitiveness and performance.     

Viability of competencies,skills and knowledge acquired by industrial design students

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Many Industrial Design professionals in Spain have difficulties when it comes to getting a job related to their field. They also have...