American Journal of Economics and Sociology最新文献

In Morgantown, West Virginia, curbside recycling is available to residents who reside within the city limits. However, residents in Monongalia County who reside outside the Morgantown city limits are expected to bring their recyclables to a drop-off site which discourages people from recycling in general. Moreover, there exists a disparity between residents within and outside the Morgantown city limits in terms of rights to have access to curbside recycling. This study presents the economic value of curbside recycling at the County level. Furthermore, the paper presents a framework and empirical analysis that separate the value of the improved program as a club good and the value of the program as a public good, using a survey data from Morgantown and Monongalia County in collaboration with a local waste and recycling service provider.

Evangelicals have long been suspicious of scientific expertise. About 60% of evangelicals, a group which makes up approximately one-third of the US population, reject climate change. Many evangelicals allow the Bible to take precedence over science. Various non-scientific factors contribute to this pervasive skepticism. This paper lists several social and cultural factors that contribute to evangelical concerns, including religion, politics, education, and conservative media. The paper ends on a positive note, pointing out that young evangelicals are taking the lead in getting the word out, lobbying climate-denying politicians and educators, in addition to contacting young people in universities, places of worship, and through social media, sharing information about climate change with their peers, with the clear advantage of being from the same faith community. As a group, evangelicals present a formidable challenge to effectively dealing with global warming, but a few glimmers of hope are beginning to emerge.

Discounted present value (DPV) calculations have appeared in textbooks as well as numerous peer-reviewed journal articles. Such articles address a wide variety of topics/issues, ranging from migration to educational pursuit to investment in new plant and equipment to the NFL draft. Recognizing the remarkably versatile and useful tools that the DPV concepts are to valuation and intelligent decision-making, some years ago, the Harvard Business Review published a discussion by Gallo of the derivation and uses of DPVs (and NPVs). This note extends and corrects the analysis in Gallo so as to make it more accurate and useful to the reader.

The study proposes methods for deterring earnings manipulation in Chinese commercial banks, recognizing it as an ongoing problem with the potential to destabilize investors and financial markets. The increasing integration of the global financial system has heightened the importance of addressing this issue, given the systemic risk posed by large individual financial institutions. Utilizing the Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis method (fsQCA) on 139 Chinese commercial banks in 2021, the paper explores factors influencing banks' earnings manipulation behavior. The study reveals several key findings: (1) Factors associated with reducing the likelihood of earnings manipulation in commercial banks are diverse and multifaceted. (2) Multiple paths exist to achieve earnings manipulation, categorized into Resource-guided, Corporate Governance, Resource and Supervisory Mechanism, Supervisory Mechanism, and Corporate Governance as the main mechanism. Among these, the Supervisory Mechanism exhibits the highest consistency. (3) Hiring “Big Four” accounting firms as auditors emerges as a significant deterrent against earnings manipulation in commercial banks. (4) Banks with powerful major shareholders affiliated with the government or ample resources are effective in deterring earnings manipulation. These two factors are complementary, while a bank's growth prospects and industrial competition serve as substitute factors.

This study examines the impact and its mechanisms of green finance on economic growth by using the green finance reform and innovation pilot zone (GFRIPZ) as a quasi-natural experiment. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019, we employ a difference-in-differences (DID) model and find that the GFRIPZ's construction has a positive effect on economic growth, resulting in real GDP growth of 2.2% in the pilot zones. Mechanism analysis shows that the GFRIPZ policy promotes economic growth by stimulating green technological innovation and increasing green fiscal expenditures. Further, the moderating effect result reveals that the more powerful the environmental regulation, the better the economic growth effect of the GFRIPZ policy. Additionally, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the GFRIPZ policy can contribute more in accelerating economic growth in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Xinjiang. Our findings provide the latest empirical evidence that green finance promotes economic growth, as well as cross-references for policymakers to scientifically execute green monetary policies and effectively balance green development and economic growth.

The proceeding investigates the ineffectiveness of law enforcement placement in specific circumstances from the penological framework of rational choice theory. This work employs game theory modeling to determine an individual's propensity to commit a crime. The succeeding illustrates how it is counterproductive to nudge potential criminals where socially preferable behavior corresponds to a pure strategy Nash equilibrium in a simultaneous two-player game. The result of this analysis demonstrates an addendum to contemporary rational choice theory in criminology. The solutions of these stage games show that increasing the placement of criminal deterrents, like surveillance or fines intended to reduce the number of opportunities to commit deviant behavior, is dysfunctional under particular circumstances. This suggests that law enforcement resources should not be directed to enforcing certain crimes. The implications of this work could help optimize department assets and personnel hours.

This paper examines the impact of exchange rate changes on cultural services trade balances in China, Japan, the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany from 2006 to 2015. These six countries represent dominant players whose experiences reflect global impacts. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models test for J-curve effects. Cultural distance matrices combined with cluster analysis explore how cultural proximity influences trade structures. Results demonstrate a J-curve effect in China contrasting with a reverse J-curve in the United States. China and Japan form one cultural trade cluster distinct from a Western bloc of the United States, United Kingdom, and France. This signifies emerging economies have developed unique cultural trade models. The research enriches empirical evidence on exchange rate impacts for understudied cultural services trade. Introducing cultural distance provides a novel perspective and policy insights for emerging economies.

The rapid digitalization of jobs in the United States and globally provides both an economic opportunity and a challenge for upskilling and reskilling the workforce. Retraining and reintegrating displaced or at-risk workers, particularly in a competitive labor market, brings significant economic benefits to communities, employers, and employees. Individuals in at-risk or declining occupations likely lack requisite digital literacy and associated skills that enable them to transition smoothly into roles that require digital proficiency. Drawing from research indicating the rapid digitalization of the U.S. economy and workforce, this study employs skillshed analysis to examine a sample of vulnerable occupations within coal-related industries. The goal is to evaluate training gaps and wage differentials for individuals shifting from coal-related occupations to roles requiring higher levels of digital literacy. Providing quality reemployment options for coal-economy workers reduces the barriers to transitioning to more sustainable energy provision, yet prior studies have found that coal-economy workers possess lower levels of digital literacy. Our study reaffirms these prior findings that many coal economy workers lack the requisite knowledge, training, and educational attainment to easily transition to occupations requiring high degrees of digitalization. As a result, to be successful in retraining and upskilling those in coal-related occupations and to meet sustainable development goals, it is necessary to assist these workers in their transition into viable occupations.

Labor faces a universal process of increasing exploitation as the following processes converge: Labor is increasingly divorced from a community purpose; the community's economy becomes privatized, which leads to debt bondage and the loss of personal land or availability of land for personal use. This process is repeated from early records of 10,000 BC to the present day. In ancient times, a wise ruler would respond to widespread debt bondage by canceling private debts for the sake of the community. However, there are now no wise rulers on the horizon to cancel debts. This paper may give those who labor, inspiration to continue their struggle for wealth distribution equity.

The recent prevalence of digital currencies has challenged policymakers as they try to control the supply of money and rein in clandestine activities. Corruption and shadow economy are widely prevalent illegal/unobserved activities that have been hard to eliminate worldwide. These longstanding and entrenched activities have possibly found a new avenue to thrive and evade detection/punishment. So disentangling the nexus between corruption, shadow economy, and digital currencies is important. Using recent cross-country data, this paper analyzes the interrelationships between corruption, shadow economy, and cryptocurrencies. We argue that a large underground sector in a nation provides a mechanism through which corrupt government officials use cryptocurrencies to conceal their unauthorized earnings. Employing formal mediation analysis, our results show that the positive nexus between corruption and cryptocurrency adoption is mediated by the shadow sector. Quantitatively speaking, three-fourths of the correlation between corruption and cryptocurrency usage is mediated by the shadow economy. The primary implication of our findings is that effective monitoring of cryptocurrencies should pay attention to policies to control both corruption and the shadow economy.