In this study, I analyze the impact of the aggregate, income, corporate and social security tax revenues on both the U.S. output and the stock market return in a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) framework between 1960:Q1 and 2015:Q4. Unlike some of the other studies, I use aggregate and disaggregated tax revenue variables to examine the impact of scal policy. Results show that an increase in aggregate tax revenue reduces output and market return. In addition, an increase in income, corporate, and social security tax revenues reduces output and the market return signi cantly at varying degrees.

Since the last decade, ecological preservation has become a critically debated topic in developing and developed nations. Hence, to ensure environmental sustainability, countries and international bodies have canvassed for measures that support severe restrictions to protect the Earth's biodiversity. This study's objectives were two-fold: the sole effect of renewable energy on ecological sustainability and second, identify the impacts of external debt and financial globalisation in the renewable energy-ecological sustainability nexus, both within the Environmental Kuznet Curve (EKC) framework for 44 African economies. Second-generation estimation techniques were employed and deduced inferences from the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag method used in the study. The study empirically demonstrated that renewable energy is insignificant for ecological sustainability without debt stock and financial globalisation. However, the inclusion of both variables revealed that while renewable energy and financial globalisation accelerated ecological sustainability, external debt worsened it in the short and long-term periods. Therefore, the study proposed amongst others that for the productive benefits of renewable energy use to human and environmental well-being, policymakers must execute clean energy portfolios by restricting brown energy use. This measure will require considering introducing a significant amount of carbon tax or emission permit and incentivising businesses to adopt green technologies.

We theoretically examine whether a US-Japan trade agreement would be effective as a buffer against the US-China trade war. There are two ways to mitigate the negative impacts of US protectionism: a “domestic pressure effect to suppress external pressure” and a “free trade agreement (FTA) effect. The former is an effect arising from Japanese protectionist political pressure to suppress the negative impacts of US tariff increases on Japan's political support function. The latter is an effect of the Japan-US free trade agreement. In the absence of a US–Japan trade agreement, both Japan and China’s political support functions decrease when the US raises tariffs. By contrast, when an FTA is agreed between Japan and the US, an increase in US tariffs causes the Chinese political support function to decrease, while the Japanese political support function increases. The US–Japan trade agreement thus plays an effective role as a buffer in mitigating the negative impacts of the US–China trade war on Japan.

In response to the twin environmental crises of climate change and resource depletion, the circular economy has emerged as a key strategy to reduce waste, minimize the extraction of virgin materials, and promote reuse, repair, and recycling. However, the circular economy, as currently conceived, does not inherently support continuous economic growth in the conventional sense. At the same time, modern societies — grounded in ideals of progress, innovation, and rising living standards — rely on economic growth to sustain social stability, employment, and investment. In this paper, Focardi and Fabozzi argue that integrating qualitative economic growth with circularity offers a viable pathway to decoupling economic progress from the depletion of natural resources. Qualitative growth refers to economic progress driven by increased quality, functionality, and complexity of products, services, infrastructure, and institutions rather than the sheer output volume. To illustrate how qualitative growth and circularity can complement each other in practice, the paper highlights initiatives in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, and Amsterdam, Netherlands, where circular economy strategies have been combined with urban greening, infrastructure regeneration, and resource-efficient policies to enhance both environmental sustainability and quality of life.

This study investigates the effects of innovation reform on wealth inequality by analyzing China’s Comprehensive Innovation Reform Pilot Zones (CIRPZs). Employing a difference-in-differences methodology, we assess the impact of CIRPZs on urban wealth distribution among China’s prefecture-level cities. Our findings reveal a paradox: although CIRPZs are designed to stimulate economic growth and technological advancement, they inadvertently exacerbate wealth inequality. This outcome is confirmed through a series of rigorous robustness checks. We identify two key mechanisms driving this phenomenon: the virtual wealth effect, whereby technological progress disproportionately benefits tech-savvy individuals and firms, and wage stratification, leading to increased income disparities within innovative sectors. Additionally, we find that the impacts of CIRPZs vary across regions, with significant widening of wealth inequality observed in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and Chengdu-Chongqing, while a moderating effect is noted in the Central Plains. These insights emphasize the nuanced effectiveness of innovation reform policies and their implications for policymakers in developing economies. We advocate for policy frameworks that balance technological advancement with equitable economic outcomes, a crucial step for fostering sustainable and inclusive development.

As a new economic innovation, live streamers have widely accepted video streaming technology combined with specific business activities in real time. To predict live streamers’ continuous streaming marketing intention on live streaming platforms, the study refers to the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and designs influencing factors from attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control. Meanwhile, given the interactive nature of live streaming platforms, the paper divides the subjective norm into online and offline subjective norms and considers the influence both from online and offline communities. The data analysis based on the partial least squares path modelling and variance-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) shows that attitude, online subjective norm, offline subjective norm, and perceived control towards the continuous streaming marketing have positive relationships with live streamers’ continuous streaming marketing intention and result in their final behaviours. Related scholars and platform managers should consider the impact of online and offline subjective norms when they analyse live streamers’ marketing psychology. Properly guiding live streamers to carry out marketing activities can not only be beneficial to their mental health but also contribute to the stable development of live streaming economy.