American Journal of Economics and Sociology最新文献

Primary climate-change denialism rejects the idea that global warming is driven by human activity. This belief system now appeals to about one-third of Americans. Having been influenced by a 1990s Exxon campaign to sow doubt that fossil fuels are responsible for global warming, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be primary climate-change deniers. But polls show that many US climate-change accepters do not take it seriously enough to pay a nominal sum to prevent continued warming. This secondary denialism (accept the science, deny the urgency of action) may stem from the economic analysis of climate change. Discounting future damage and believing that economic growth will compensate for damage are two standard features of economic theory that justify treating climate issues with a degree of apathy—or at least as low priority. The work of Nobel-Prize-winning economist William Nordhaus provides almost as much cause for indifference among accepters as the climate denialists offer their followers. Scientists may view climate change with alarm, but policy-makers mostly take their cues from economists. Nordhaus stated in a popular book in 2008 that his model demonstrates that 3.45°C warming is economically optimal. Not just tolerable, but optimal. His work is highly influential. Even though some economists have objected to the methods of economic analysis that understate the perils of climate change, their voices have had little influence on policy. Thus, seeming partisan differences about climate change have converged around go-slow polices that manage climate issues as technical problems and that do not impose significant demands upon citizens or disrupt present economic arrangements.

Climate change may affect economies and the welfare of people around the world. To design appropriate policy responses, the economic effects of climate change should be known. One strand in the literature empirically estimates the growth effects of climatic variations. However, those studies often neglect economic variables that have proven to be robust in explaining economic growth. Further, often they fail to check for the robustness of their results. The main aim of this study is to detect whether there exists a statistically significant robust relation between climate change and economic growth by estimating different model specifications. To do so panel estimation techniques for 24 European economies for the period from 2002 to 2019 are applied whereby panel fixed effects estimations and dynamic Generalized Methods of Moments estimations are resorted to. No statistically significant robust relationship between the temperature change and economic growth is found just as for precipitation that does not exert a significant effect on growth. As regards the institutional and macroeconomic control variables the rule of law, the fiscal variable, and the output gap are statistically significant and robust. It is argued that far-reaching policy measures, such as the net zero goal of the European Union, should be given only based on robust results. Otherwise, economic policy may turn out to be inadequate and can lead to welfare losses. Hence, the conclusion is that the net zero goal of the European Green Deal is to be seen skeptical.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between income inequality and overconfidence. Using data from the FINRA Foundation's National Financial Capability Study, we measure respondents' self-perceived and actual investment knowledge and thus identify overconfident individuals. We also identify for each respondent their U.S. state of residence and the corresponding state-level income inequality. We then examine the relationship between state-level income inequality and overconfidence of the survey participants. Using a number of controls, several overconfidence measures, and two different datasets we find a positive and significant relationship between income inequality and overconfidence. We also find evidence that income inequality is positively related to financial satisfaction and financial risk taking. Indeed, we find that as inequality increases, poorer individuals increase their risk willingness.

This paper seeks to reconcile the divergent views on the role of proximity in knowledge spillovers through a comparative analysis of proximity's various dimensions and an examination of conditions under which proximity is effective. Our findings indicate that cognitive and social proximity not only mitigate the hindrance of geographical distance on knowledge diffusion but also play a dominant role in facilitating knowledge flows over long distances. Consequently, non-geographical proximity has a more profound impact on knowledge spillovers, although the effect of geographical proximity remains significant and should not be overlooked. Through mechanistic analysis, we find that geographical proximity is effective in facilitating the diffusion of tacit knowledge, learning by firms with poorer knowledge stock, and searching for unfixed knowledge sources. The impact of geographical proximity on knowledge spillovers depends on a range of conditions, and appreciating this complexity is vital for an accurate comprehension of its role. In contrast, non-geographical proximity exhibits greater robustness, as it faces fewer limiting conditions and possesses stronger explanatory power.

This research paper investigates the impact of market liberalization on country-level suicide rates using a sample of 96 developing and developed countries from 1980 to 2019. We estimate fixed-effects panel regression models with robust standard errors clustered at the country level and conduct a variety of robustness checks, including using different estimators and disaggregating the data. We consistently find that the aggregate Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) measure is not statistically significantly related to within-country variations in age-standardized suicide rates, but some individual components are. Freedom to trade internationally weakly predicts increases in suicide rates, while sound money is associated with decreased suicide rates. The former result is highly vulnerable to different specifications. This study underscores the existence of a complex, non-intuitive relationship between market liberalization and suicide rates, suggesting that both critics and defenders of liberalization might be mistaken in making any unequivocal judgments about the process.

Based on the growing interest in understanding the impact of uncertainty on various aspects of the economy, this study investigates the long-run relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU), its components, unemployment, capital adequacy, liquidity risk, and non-performing loans (NPLs) in Greece. Our findings indicate several key results: (1) There exists a negative, long-term co-integrating relationship between EPU and its components with financial stability. (2) Unemployment and capital adequacy also exert long-term negative effects on financial stability. (3) These results hold robustly even after decomposing the total NPL ratio into mortgage, consumer, and business NPLs. (4) Consumer NPLs exhibit the slowest adjustment to long-run equilibrium among the NPL sub-categories, with mortgages presenting the fastest rate of adjustment. The findings underscore important policy implications: initiatives aimed at reducing fiscal and banking policy uncertainties and fostering a stable environment for businesses and households could effectively manage NPLs more efficiently, as uncertainty influences NPLs not only in the short run but also in the long run.

Much literature acknowledges the importance of political systems for population health. People living in democratic countries tend to have higher life expectancies and lower rates of infant mortality compared to those in other countries. However, few quantitative comparative studies explore the political origins of chronic disease. To address this gap, this study examines the impact of political democracy on cancer risk. Using data from the Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN), regression models test differences in age-adjusted cancer rates across 170 countries. Counter to study hypotheses, overall incidence of cancer is not any lower in democratic countries. This is evident even when removing the confounding influence of economic and several other factors. However, among children and adolescents, cancer mortality rates and leukemia incidence are exceptions since these are lower in democratic countries in some models. Results otherwise do not support the view that political regime type alone prevents cancer. Overall findings appear robust to threats of endogeneity, higher average age in developed countries, comparative differences in the ability to diagnose cases, and several other threats. The broader literature indicates that democratic countries have better health overall. However, findings are that democratic countries have higher cancer incidence on average, which is likely due to having higher levels of economic prosperity compared to more autocratic countries. Economic policy is likely to be an important consideration for preventing cancer. Longitudinal analysis was not possible for these data, which is reason for caution when interpreting these findings.

Although numerous scientific studies have extensively analyzed religion's impact on environmental performance at the firm level, the literature on environmental effects at a country level is relatively poor. This paper aims to fill this gap by studying how the dimensions of national culture, including religion, impact a country's sustainability performance in 96 countries. We apply Geert Hofstede's cross-cultural dimensions and evaluate countries' sustainability performance using the EPI indicator, which provides a comprehensive environmental overview, including indicators such as climate change, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality. Additionally, to provide a more comprehensive framework for the sustainability performance of countries, we conducted a comparative analysis using the SDG index scores encompassing 1056 country-year observations. Our findings suggest that the impact on a country's environmental performance varies according to the cultural dimension, mainly, the Christian religion positively influences national sustainability performance.

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations face a dual fiscal challenge: the need to increase tax revenue mobilization and to manage revenue instability. This paper examines the causal impact of institutional quality on tax revenue stability in SSA from 2000 to 2020. Using UNU-WIDER data and the System GMM technique, the study finds that institutional quality reduces tax revenue instability, with a stronger effect on indirect tax revenues than on direct taxes. This result is robust to changes in the measure of tax revenue instability, the measure of quality of institutions, the sample, and the time horizon. The effect is particularly pronounced in resource-rich countries and in countries experiencing economic growth. The article's results are relevant to tax policy, specifically the necessary adjustments to improve tax revenue stability through institutional quality.

Temporary migration to international destinations has many implications for the family members left behind. This paper discusses family economic theoretical perspectives and the family strategies that are adopted in Chitwan, Nepal. The family strategies include single united, split-single generation, multigenerational, and split-multigenerational households that are linked to the presence or absence of fathers and grandfathers. We examined how family strategies impact school outcomes, that is, school investment and school progress. We obtained three critical findings about family migration and structure strategies and school investment. First, multigenerational family strategies mitigated the negative association between siblings on educational investments. Second, split-household strategies mitigated the negative associations between age and private school and between remittance dependency and top school fees. Third, family strategies shaped how ethnicity and caste influence educational investments as split-household, multigenerational (and both) mitigated negative connection between the least powerful castes and ethnicities and school investment. Our findings did not show significant associations between family strategies and children's educational progress in Chitwan. Families in rural Nepal are responding to macrostructural changes, and there is a need for more research to better understand shifting family migration and household structure strategies, in all their complexities, and their implications for children in rural Nepal or other rural locations with a high temporary migration rate.