Bücher der Reihe SpringerBriefs in Economics

This novel book, motivated by the recent introduction of a major innovation in information technology, explores the possibility of the Internet being made available to millions of poor people in developing countries, who are not yet connected.

This open access book offers up-to-date advice and practical guidance on how to undertake a discrete choice experiment as a tool for environmental valuation. Compiled by leading experts in the field, the book promotes discrete choice analysis in environmental valuation through a more solid scientific basis for research practice.

Testing for economic convergence across countries has been a central issue in the literature of economic growth and development.

The book provides an estimate of the size of the shadow economy in Poland.

This book assesses the capacity of the rural populace in terms of their ability to perceive a change in climatic variables and, if so, how they react to these changes in order to minimize the adverse effect of climate change.

The book examines in depth, the centrality of the Saudi fixed currency regime to the US dollar, SAMA¿s monetary tools, macro prudential policies and its supervision of the Saudi commercial banking sector and new sectors such as insurance, the emerging Fin Tech industry as well as a closer examination of SAMA¿s investment policies as custodian of the local currency.Saudi Arabia has long been associated with its central role in the global energy market, with its decisions on production volumes affecting the global financial markets. However, the Kingdom has also emerged as a significant global financial player due to its large holdings of international currency, its dominance of the regional Gulf and Arab world capital markets, and the aspirations of its Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Public Investment Fund. The G20 Presidency in 2020 has also placed Saudi Arabia on the global stage for the country to showcase progress in many and opening up its financial market toforeign investors. But the path to financial regulation and liberation to unleash Saudi Arabiäs potential has not come overnight, but through incremental steps and learning by doing. The results speak for themselves as this book examines:¿ The Saudi Capital Market and the evolution of its main Tadawul and parallel NOMU stock markets following the inclusion of Tadawul in the FTSE Russell, MSCI and S&P EM Indexes¿ The centrality of the Saudi fixed peg exchange regime as well as a closer examination of SAMA¿s investment policies as custodian of the local currency¿ SAMA¿s rebranding in 2020 as a Central Bank, its monetary and macro prudential policies and the re entry of foreign banks to the Saudi market, reversing previous Saudization of foreign bank branches in Saudi Arabia. The Author offers an analysis of the key challenges facing Saudi Arabia in an age of financial globalization, FinTech and digitization. The challenges faced by the Saudi regulators in the COVID 19 era are examined, along with the country¿s financial sector objectives as part of the Vision 2030 program, SME financing now a central plank in the country¿s Vision 2030 program, the role of FDI in economic growth, the reasons behind Saudi Arabia languishing behind other countries in attracting FDI given the size of its economy and rising domestic and foreign debt levels. It has been an incredible journey for a young country, and by all indications, the journey for expanded global partnership continues as Saudi Arabia also puts into practice its version of the circular carbon economy, its commitment to climate change, and being at the forefront of a new global digital economy.

Using data provided by Statistics Portugal, the Brief performs econometric analysis on three cases: new paradigms for overnight stays and guests, changes in tourism revenues and prospective alternatives, and a comparison of effects on changes in number of guests and overnight stays at the regional level.

This book discusses the concepts, types, models, and patterns of Japan's Hometown Tax Donation Payment system, to provide a clear picture of this newly developed unique and innovative fund-raising tool used by municipalities.

This book provides an interesting review of Japanese monetary policies after the bubble economy.

This book presents the 2020 Digital Platform Economy Index (DPE Index).

This book provides cases and analyses of causes and consequences of difficulty in downsizing and exiting in the electronics industry during the "two lost decades" in Japan.

This Brief examines the dynamics between the informal economy and unemployment rates, the causes of informality, its consequences and potential reduction measures at both the theoretical and empirical level. Using Lithuania as a case study, this book tests the assumption that participation in the informal economy is largely by the unemployed in emerging economies. Chapters present a systematic and comparative literature analysis, a quantitative survey of participation in the Lithuanian informal economy, especially among the unemployed, an expert evaluation involving representatives of municipalities in charge of the issues of employment, and a statistical analysis of the results. Challenging traditional narratives around the informal economy, this Brief is targeted at academic and postgraduate researchers studying labor economics, public economics, human resource management, industrial relations, and economic sociology.

This is the first book to focus comparatively on the development processes of finance in China and Japan during the prewar period. The key issue is how to evaluate the role of government in the establishing of modern financial system. Both China and Japan started from a similar pre-modern situation in the middle of 19th century in that the monetary conditions were primitive and complicated, the traditional financial institutions were money-exchange-based, and above all, both countries had faced serious challenging pressure from the Western powers. International or domestic military affairs largely affected the development processes in both countries. While Japan succeeded in establishing its modern financial system that consistently supported its economic growth, China failed to modernize its money and banking system effectively at least until the end of World War II and the government had to change hands to the socialists, which further delayed the financial development. The experience of Japan suggests that the establishment of modern financial system may not simply be as a result of "e;spontaneous order"e;, a concept used by Hayek, at least for the case of a catching-up country. The evolution process of money and banking in China shows that the role of government, especially its enforcement ability of and compliance to the rule of law may be more important than the "e;legal origins"e;.

This book analyses the dynamics of Indian stock market with a special emphasis during the period following emergence of Covid-19. Coming from the instability in stock market following Covid-19, it delves deeper into the dynamics and unfolds the causal relationship between various economic fundamentals and the stock prices. Observing short-term herding in the stock market following Covid-19, the book's finding suggests that investors in the Indian stock market made investment choices irrationally during Covid-19 crisis periods. It also showcases how the stock market became inefficient following the emergence of pandemic and did not follow the fundamentals. Interestingly, the findings suggest no relationship between stock returns and real economic activities in India. The format of presentation makes the book well suited not only for students, academics, policy makers and investors in the stock markets, but also people engaged or interested in business and finance. The book wouldthus be of interest to both specialists and the laity. Analysis contained in this book will help different readership groups in different ways. Researchers from economics and finance disciplines will be able to learn about frontiers in the theoretical paradigms discussed in the book; advanced econometric techniques applied in the book will also be useful for their own research. The macroeconomic insights, and insights from behavioural economics, can expand the knowledge of corporate sector, useful in making real life decisions. Finally, it will help policy makers, like SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India), to formulate appropriate regulatory policies so as to minimize possibility of speculative bubbles as experienced during the pandemic period in the Indian stock markets.

The sister cities of the southwestern United States border are challenged by widespread environmental and health issues and limited access to help. And while different initiatives have been set up to improve health outcomes and lessen inequities in the border region, evaluation data are scarce.Culture and Health Disparities provides a perspective on U.S.-Mexico border health with an evidence-based guide for conceptualizing, implementing, and evaluating health interventions. Taking into account the unique qualities of border life and their influence on general wellbeing, this important volume offers detailed criteria for creating public health programs that are medically, culturally, and ethically sound. The book identifies gaps in intervention research on major health concerns in the area, relating them to disparity-reduction efforts in the rest of the U.S. and arguing for more relevant means of data gathering and analysis. The author also asserts that progress can be made on both sides of the border despite concurrent social and political problems in the region. Included in the coverage:The border region as a social system.The development of health disparities: a life-course model.A social systems approach to understanding health disparities.A critique of U.S.-Mexico border health interventions.Evaluating interventions to reduce healthcare disparities.Ethical issues in health interventions across cultures and contexts.A text for researchers and practitioners working to promote border health and reduce service inequalities, Culture and Health Disparities asks pertinent questions and provides workable, meaningful answers.

This book investigates the potential medical benefits natural biomaterials can offer in developing countries by analyzing the case of Bolivia. The book explores the medical and health related applications of Bolivian commodities: quinoa, barley, sugarcane, corn, sorghum and sunflower seeds. This book helps readers better understand some of the key health concerns facing countries like Bolivia and how naturally derived biomaterials and therapeutics could help substantially alleviate many of their problems.

This book discusses the historical context, country experience, and best practices that led to eliminating infectious diseases from the WHO's South-East Asia Region, such as malaria, lymphatic filariasis, yaws, trachoma, and mother-to-child HIV in the mid-twentieth and twenty-first century.  The UN Sustainable Development Goals (3.3) targets to end AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases by 2030. In this context, this book is of high significance to countries from the SEA region and around the globe. It helps create national strategies and action plans on infectious disease elimination and thus attaining SDG 3.3.

This book on the fisheries sector in India, through primary surveys as well as secondary literature, brings out various nuances of the sector and its trade opportunities, the complexities surrounding the supply chain of fish, as well as the evolution of its marketing channels.

This open access book offers an interdisciplinary perspective and presents various case studies on music as ICH, highlighting the importance and functionality of music to stimulating social innovation and entrepreneurship.

This is the first book that analyzes the growth of the Peruvian fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) export industry from the view point of the industrial development.

This book analyzes the use of the mobile Internet against the background of gender bias and Covid-19, currently two of the most important and pressing problems of the Global South. The book argues that the degree of benefits from this new technology depends heavily on the way it is actually used and that most new technologies are developed for the conditions prevailing in rich countries, where they tend to be quite easily adopted and used. In the Global South, by contrast, a paucity of digital skills and other factors make the potentially valuable benefits from the Internet much more difficult to derive. Using empirical data recently provided by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), the book examines the existence and extent of the digital divide between males and females in mobile Internet use, which constitutes a new form of divide. It sheds light on the acute difficulty for first-time mobile Internet users in the Global South, and especially Sub-Saharan Africa, to learn the digital skills that are needed to use the said technology effectively, with a special focus on how these users acquire the required knowledge, without having undergone the process of learning by doing. The book further discusses the determinants of digital skills in the Global South, as well as major factors underlying the extent to which different users actually benefit from the mobile Internet, such as gender, location, age, and education. Finally, it investigates how womens' use of the Internet has been altered by the pandemic in the Global South.This book will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of development economics and development studies, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the impact of gender bias and Covid-19 on mobile internet use in the Global South.

This book compares urban finances in cities located in two different South Asian countries and assesses their fiscal health. It uses simulation to estimate the required augmentation in financial resources by the urban local bodies (ULBs) to reach a level of city development that is significantly better compared to existing levels. The book provides a systematic analysis of the fiscal health of two city corporations in Bangladesh, viz. Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC); and one city corporation in the Indian state of West Bengal viz. Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). The choice of city corporations was based on the shared history and the similarity of heritage, culture, topography and socio-economic conditions. Both DNCC and DSCC as well as the KMC have a high population density, which puts immense pressure on the service delivery provided by these corporations of basic services such as water supply, sanitation facilities, street lighting, drainage and sewerage and waste disposal. This is compounded by poor fiscal health of the ULBs.  Using primary data collected through surveys and personal interviews and information obtained from official documents, the book estimates fiscal gaps of the ULBs and undertakes simple simulations to estimate potential revenue enhancements and expenditure requirements to deliver services at the internationally acceptable standards. It highlights under-exploited sources of revenue which can be better realized and also identifies untapped revenue sources that can be easily introduced, in order to significantly enhance city revenues. The book is an excellent resource not only for researchers studying this topic, but also for policy makers and urban planners, particularly those from developing countries having to deal with burgeoning cities with high migrant population density.

This book aims to assess the roles of entrepreneurship and social innovation for socio-cultural changes. It also evaluates farmers' performance in disaster risk management at a community level toward sustainable regional development in a rural haor region of Bangladesh. To achieve the purpose of the research, both a qualitative method (Trajectory Equifinality Modeling, TEM) and a quantitative method (Structural Equation Modeling, SEM) are introduced, based on the results of case studies on local entrepreneurs, interview and focus group discussions with stakeholders, and questionnaire surveys of farm households.First, the results clarify that social capital is critically important both for male and female entrepreneurs in the haor region, and that education is more important to women for empowerment and technology adoption in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the haor region of Bangladesh. In addition, it makes clear that the Common Interest Group approach plays a role for women's empowerment in the target region. Furthermore, it identifies the multi-causal relationships among the factors affecting farm households' performance in disaster risk management at the community level.This book helps readers to understand regional development through social and cultural transformation in a rural community where poverty and gender discrimination are path-dependent problems.

This Open Access Brief presents the KAPSARC Global Energy Macroeconometric Model (KGEMM). KGEMM is a policy analysis tool for examining the impacts of domestic policy measures and global economic and energy shocks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The model has eight blocks (real sector, fiscal, monetary, external sector, price, labor and wages, energy, population, and age cohorts) that interact with each other to represent the Kingdom¿s macroeconomy and energy linkages. It captures New Keynesian demand-side features anchored to medium-run equilibrium and long-run aggregate supply. It applies a cointegration and equilibrium correction modeling (ECM) methodology to time series data to estimate the model¿s behavioral equations in the framework of Autometrics, a general-to-specific econometric modeling strategy. Hence, the model combines ¿theory-driven¿ approach with ¿data-driven¿ approach.The Brief begins with an introduction to the theoretical framework of the model and the KGEMM methodology and then walks the reader through the structure of the model and its behavioral equations. The book closes with simulations showing the application of the model. Providing a detailed introduction to a cutting-edge, robust predictive model, this Brief will be of great use to researchers and policymakers interested in macroeconomics, energy economics, econometrics, and more specifically, the economy of Saudi Arabia.

Seasonality in economic time series can "obscure" movements of other components in a series that are operationally more important for economic and econometric analyses. In practice, one often prefers to work with seasonally adjusted data to assess the current state of the economy and its future course.This book presents a seasonal adjustment program called CAMPLET, an acronym of its tuning parameters, which consists of a simple adaptive procedure to extract the seasonal and the non-seasonal component from an observed series. Once this process is carried out, there will be no need to revise these components at a later stage when new observations become available.The authors describe the main features of CAMPLET, evaluate the outcomes of CAMPLET and X-13ARIMA-SEATS in a controlled simulation framework using a variety of data generating processes, and illustrate CAMPLET and X-13ARIMA-SEATS with three time series: US non-farm payroll employment, operational income of Ahold and real GDP in the Netherlands. Furthermore they show how CAMPLET performs under the COVID-19 crisis, and its attractiveness in dealing with daily data.This book appeals to scholars and students of econometrics and statistics, interested in the application of statistical methods for empirical economic modeling.

This book focuses on economic inequality, its measurement, and its relationship with economic growth and development. The current literature uses multiple points of view, ranging from ethical, legal, philosophical, to political and economic, to understand the nature of (in)equality. Presenting the problem objectively, this book shows how to measure the phenomenon statistically along with an international comparison of the level of income inequality and economic growth and of their complex relationship. The book also analyzes three decades of theoretical and empirical evidence to understand this phenomenon and discusses a number of political measures to reduce economic disparities while stimulating economic growth.