The manufacturing sector must incorporate digitalization and greening as crucial strategies to attain high level of development in the context of the digital economy, given its significant role in quality of environment. Most of existing studies explore net effect of a single or several factors on the digitalization or greening in the manufacturing industry. Limited investigation has been done to integrate various factors impacting the connection and synchronized advancement of digitalization and greening within the manufacturing. Factors affecting the synergy of digitalization and green change within manufacturing are recognized in this article, and a theoretical framework is established to analyze. FsQCA tool is also put into use to survey configurational cases, which contains synergy degree of green digitalization from 30 provinces’ manufacturing in China. Results show that: (1) Between 2007 and 2020, the development level of digital-green integration in the manufacturing industry shows an upward trend. There are three types of collaborative modes, namely, "industrial robot driven" "market development driven" and "market development driven - industrial robot driven", with each mode consisting of at least one to four equivalent pathways. (2) The marketization level and application of industrial robots are the important external and internal pulling forces that drive the synergy degree of digitalization and green change within manufacturing industry, respectively.(3) The influencing factors of the collaborative mode choice of digital-green development within manufacturing industry are complementary, among which, the degree of marketization is similar to the role of industrial robots in the configuration, which are capable to weaken the negative impact from insufficient government R&D investment support under specific conditions; (4) The non-high collaborative state of digital green in manufacturing industry is mainly due to the low level of marketization, openness, and economic development, as well as the low application rate of industrial robots and software products. This study enriches the theoretical understanding on digitalization and green change of manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, it also provides insights to advance the integrated and synergistic advancement of digital green transformation in manufacturing practice.

The Weibull distribution is extensively useful in the field of finance, insurance and natural disasters. Recently, It has been considered as one of the most frequently used statistical distributions in modelling and analyzing stock pricing movement and uncertain prediction in financial and investment data sets, such as insurance claims distribution. It is well known that the Bayes estimators of the two-parameter Weibull distribution do not have a compact form and the closed-form expression of the Bayes estimators cannot be obtained. In this paper and the Bayesian setting, it is assumed that the scale parameter of the Weibull model has a gamma prior under the assumption that its shape parameter is known. A simulation study is performed using random claims amount to compare the performance of the Bayesian approach with traditional maximum likelihood estimators in terms of Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) for different sample sizes, with specific values of the scale parameter and shape parameters. The results have been compared with the estimated result via the maximum likelihood method. The result revealed that the Bayesian approach behaves similarly to the maximum likelihood method when the sample size is small. Nevertheless, in all cases for both methods, the RMSE and MAE decrease as the sample size increases. Finally, applications of the proposed model to the insurance claim data set have been presented.

In the behavioral domain, this study discloses the pattern between microblogging-opinionated information and yields on the investment. This phenomenon is particularly related to the political instability in the Pakistan’s economy through the multivariate techniques. Pre-political crisis, the pessimistic sentiments were priced in yields on the investment. In environments of political instability, the intensity of decline in yields was more responsive against an incline in the negative opinions. Meanwhile, the intensity of increase in returns was less responsive against an incline in the positive opinions. The findings were further supported by the Bayesian approach. Before the political instability takes place in the Pakistan’s economy, the occurrence of yields was noted in response to the bearish market period. Post-political instability, there was a higher posterior probability for occurrence of returns against the bearish market period. Conversely, a higher posterior likelihood was noted for occurrence of investment’s yields in response to the bullish market period, but this relevance was not completely probable. From the impulse response analysis, the response of returns was reported against the standard deviation shocks in the microblogging sentiment indicators. The analysis may have potential implications in terms of disclosing the investors’ behavior from a political perspective.

We empirically address the effects of monetary policy on the housing market in China using a novel Time-Varying Parameter VARX model. We show that an expansionary monetary has positive effects on the housing market, while during COVID-19, the effects are approaching to zero or even negative. In addition, the effects of the LPR policy are strong and even larger than that of COVID-19. Relative impulse response functions in the shorter and longer time horizons are dynamic and especially during COVID. This paper also contributes to the housing literature to show that COVID-19 can block the transmission of monetary policy.

Based on provincial panel data in China, this study is the first to investigate whether industry-university-research collaborative innovation (IURCI) can help to improve factor misallocation. It is found that IURCI can significantly improve capital misallocation and labor misallocation, and the effect has regional differences, which shows that the improvement effect is obvious in areas with factor under-allocation, such as the central and western regions, but not obvious in areas with factor over-allocation, which conforms to the rule of diminishing marginal returns. A regulatory effect model is built to explore the impact of regional heterogeneity, through which we find that after considering three external environmental conditions, including economic development level, academic research level, and marketization degree, the improvement effect of IURCI on factor misallocation undergoes significant changes. The research results show that to deepen the marketization reform of factor allocation, we can start with IURCI. The government should form a sustainable and normalized industry-university-research collaborative innovation ecological mode through pilot cases and adopt measures according to local conditions to ensure the efficient use and reasonable distribution of capital and human resources of enterprises, universities, and scientific research institutions.

The long-term extensive economic development has caused China's resource and environmental problems, especially the resource misallocation. The way China prioritises its limited resources is being significantly impacted by the rise of the digital economy and the interconnectedness of new technologies and the real economy. This paper quantitatively examines the linear and nonlinear impacts and mechanisms of digital development represented by internet development. With a series of empirical tests, we found that the internet development has significantly inhibited the resources misallocation, and the conclusion is still valid in the robustness test with internet popularization and internet infrastructure as the core explanatory variables. In addition to the marketization, internet development can further inhibit resource misallocation by promoting financial development, openness, urbanization and industrial structure. The findings of threshold regression suggest that the inhibitory effect of internet growth on resource misallocation becomes more visible as the degree of financial development and industrial structure increases; with the higher degree of urbanisation and marketization, although the internet development has always played an inhibitory role on resource mismatch, the inhibitory effect first increases and then decreases; with the improvement of openness, the hindering impact of internet growth on resource mismatch becomes more visible as the degree of financial development and industrial structure increases.

We explore the connectedness and portfolio implications between Islamic and conventional bonds in global and GCC regions. We also compare which bonds performed better during our sample period. Unlike previous studies, we focus on Islamic bond markets compared to their conventional counterparts and highlight the GCC bonds (Islamic and conventional) in respect of global bonds. We apply the DCC-GJR-GARCH (1,1) method, the Sharpe ratio, and the portfolio implications strategy over the period from September 1, 2013, to February 23, 2022. Our time-varying results suggest that the relationship among all variables varies over time, but most of them are positive, suggesting that there are fewer diversification opportunities between Islamic and conventional bonds. Hedging and diversification benefits are found only in the limited period among these variables, especially between GCC bonds and global bonds, and global Sukuk and GCC Sukuk. The findings of risk-adjusted returns reveal that Islamic bonds outperform their conventional counterparts. Moreover, mixed results are found in the case of hedging costs, and the majority of the fund, based on optimal weights, should be invested in Islamic bonds. Our study endows investors and regulators in the global and GCC markets with new insights on how to shield their investments and the financial system from financial crises through a hedging strategy with Islamic finance.

Credit markets around the world are undergoing digital transformation which has led to the rise in FinTech and BigTech lending. FinTech and BigTech lending is the provision of credit by FinTech and BigTech providers who have more capital, cutting-edge IT systems, worldwide recognition, greater online presence and are able to handle more big data on computers and mobile phones than traditional banks. FinTech and BigTech lending is growing in importance, but the determinants of FinTech and BigTech lending have received little attention in the literature. This study investigates the determinants of FinTech and BigTech lending. The study focused on the effect of financial inclusion and financial development on FinTech and BigTech lending. Using data for 18 countries from 2013 to 2019 and employing the difference-GMM and 2SLS regression methods, the findings reveal that financial inclusion and financial development are significant determinants of FinTech and BigTech lending. Financial development is a positive determinant of FinTech and BigTech lending while financial inclusion has a significant effect on FinTech and BigTech lending. Also, FinTech and BigTech lending lead to greater banking sector stability and also poses the risk of rising nonperforming loans. There is also a significant positive correlation between financial development and FinTech and BigTech lending. These findings add to the emerging literature on the role of FinTech and BigTech in financial intermediation. This research is significant because it provides insights into the role of financial inclusion and financial development in the digital transformation of credit markets.

Financial literacy seems to be more important and focused than ever. Several recent studies have found that Portugal is at bottom of the table compared to the Eurozone countries regarding financial literacy. As it’s a key factor in the development of a country, it appears to be crucial to understand what people know about financial matters when they complete compulsory schooling. With a sample of 296 Portuguese students who enrolled in the polytechnic higher education system for the first time, we studied if they understand simple concepts related to financial issues (such as loans), as well as whether they are aware of the risk of not recovering the money invested that is embedded in some of the most talked-about and common financial products that are available in the market. This last objective seems to be relevant since a lot of fraudulent schemes involving teenagers, young adults, and financial markets have emerged in recent years. From the results, some disturbing conclusions can be drawn. For instance, more than two-thirds of the sample do not know what Euribor is (similar result regarding Spread). About a third of the simple do not understand inflation’s consequences. 16,9% do not know what term deposits are, and derivative products and saving certificates are seen as very alike regarding the risk they represent. Students who chose a business-related course as their first choice when applying showed a higher level of financial literacy, although it is still low compared to what one would expect.

We develop a four-party model involving banks, merchants, consumers, and platform firms to explain why large shopping malls can offer interest-free installment services to consumers. Using a collaboration between an online shopping platform firm and multiple banks to issue co-branded credit cards as a natural experiment, we find that consumers’ spending on the platform fulfills the requirements for merchants and banks to choose a four-way model. This study highlights the pivotal role of platform firms in the credit card market.

Energy Performance Certificates are a key tool for achieving energy efficiency in the building sector. The existence of this type of legislation provides incentives for the energy renovation of buildings, increases energy-efficiency investments, and improves social welfare. At the same time, informational asymmetries are mitigated and energy consumption is reduced. However, the decarbonization of the building sector might influence regional energy poverty, especially because the rural energy poor are more vulnerable to energy price increases than their urban counterparts. Empirical research on rural-urban differences and the effects of Energy Performance Certificates is urgently needed, given the rising fuel prices and vulnerabilities of the energy market.

Self-employment is often associated with entrepreneurship and regarded as a driver of innovation, job creation and economic growth. As such, many countries have policies to promote and support self-employment. One mechanism for self-employment to drive job growth is for sole traders to become an employer through hiring employees. However, there are few studies that investigate if solo self-employment helps the transitions into employership. Using the Understanding Society data, this study shows that in the UK labour market solo self-employment does not work as a ‘steppingstone’ to employership. This raises the question why self-employment should be promoted through public policy as in the UK and many other developed countries.

Non-compliance with tax obligations, particularly by wealthy taxpayers and large corporations, continues to represent a source of social injustice that fuels social instability, especially in developing countries. Understanding the strategies of tax evasion and avoidance is of critical importance. This article highlights five main strategies used by large corporations and wealthy taxpayers to avoid taxes, including tax havens, the underground economy, aggressive tax optimization, alternative financial markets, and crypto currencies. We also propose several actions to tackle global tax non-compliance, including prevention, peer reporting, active monitoring of compliance indicators and inter- national cooperation. These actions can be combined to achieve optimal results in reducing tax evasion and avoidance.

Historically, increased credit union competition in Idaho and Montana has caused commercial banks to offer higher deposit rates to savers and lower loan rates to borrowers. Data are collected for the second quarter of 2018 to examine whether that pattern still holds true. Unlike prior studies, empirical results indicate that credit union competition no longer exerts statistically reliable impacts on deposit rates or loan rates in this northern Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Potential contributing factors include bank and thrift consolidation in recent years, the low interest rate environment prevailing during the late 2010s, and greater emphasis on non-interest forms of intermediary competition in the banking markets that comprise this regional economy.

Carbon emissions trading is an important part of emission reduction policy tools, and manufacturing is the foundation of a strong country. This paper explores the impact of carbon emissions trading pilot on the high-quality development of manufacturing industry by using the double difference method. It is found that carbon emissions trading can significantly promote the high-quality development of manufacturing industry, in which the government's will of ecological environment governance, technological progress and industrial structure rationalization have significant intermediary effects. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact of carbon emissions trading on the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry is most significant in the western region. Accordingly, the study proposes suggestions on how to further improve China's carbon emissions trading market and realize the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry.

The purpose of the study is to determine the relationships between the factors, attitude towards food consumption and green purchase intention in organic food markets of Pakistan. A Total of 301 sample data was analyzed by SPSS and PLS-SEM. These statistical techniques were used to test the hypotheses. The study was supported the theories include theory of Reasoned Action, Planned Behavior, and expectancy-value model of attitude theory. It also enhances the intention of purchase to buy organic food. The study found that environment, consciousness of health, and safeties of food have significantly direct and indirect influence on Intention of purchase while, taste of food, and exposure of media only have significantly indirect effect on Intention of purchase. The study recommended that retailers should advertise organic food via social media or channels as media persuasively increase the chances to grab the consumer attention to buy the product.

Cryptocurrencies have gained popularity over the past five to six years. Most recently, events like the FTX bankruptcy fueled the interest in regulation. Moreover, it is possible that the FTX event disrupting the cryptocurrency market was a factor in Silicon Valley Bank's failure. While several countries consider regulation, from soft regulation, like Japan, to more rigid standards, like the total ban in China, we study the effect of other news or events on cryptocurrency prices. This paper looks at historical closing prices for Bitcoin, the largest of the cryptocurrencies, and how prices react to various events. Then we focus on modeling the time series considering an 'event,' China's ban on cryptocurrency exchanges, using intervention analysis. We find that intervention analysis provides a reliable approach to quantifying the impact regulation may have on cryptocurrency pricing.

A differences-in-differences (DID) model and financial data from Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2019 are used to empirically investigate the effects of the digital economy on corporate financial asset holdings using the "Broadband China" policy as a quasi-natural experiment. After robustness testing and heterogeneity effects are disposed of, the digital economy dramatically boosts corporate financial asset holdings. According to the channel analysis, the digital economy can reduce corporate financing constraints and boost corporate financial asset holdings, notably based on speculative demand. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the digital economy has a greater impact on corporate financial asset holdings for firms with higher market competition, small-scale firms with a short-listed age, and firms in the western region. This paper provides policy guidance for enterprises returning to the real economy.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is widely viewed as a key driving force behind China’s exceptional growth performance in the last four decades. This paper investigates several questions posed by China’s success in capturing gains from FDI. What explains that success? Can other countries replicate it, or is it unique to China? What lessons are from China for other countries? China indeed has advantages in attracting FDI such as huge market and cheap labor, the well-designed policy and strategy, however, seem to play more important role in the successful story. Our empirical estimates support on four hypotheses: FDI and GDP growth in China positively interact each other; FDI is helpful to China’s technological progress, FDI promotes China’s industrial development, and FDI stimulates China’s manufactured exports.

The claim that “there is no third way” besides the economic models of capitalism and communism has faced a challenge from a new and growing body of research into a “third way” economic paradigm known as democratic planning. In this paper, we explore one of these democratic planning models–Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert’s model of a participatory economy, focusing in particular on its allocation mechanism–a non-market, non-command-planning procedure known as “participatory planning.” This procedure has recently been implemented in computer programs to explore its feasibility, the encouraging results of which have been published elsewhere and which we summarize here. But I present here for the first time the detailed algorithms and related pseudocode powering all of these computer programs for others to consider, examine, and build as their own programs. I also describe future directions for this avenue of research.