How Do Voters Evaluate the Economy? An Empirical Study of Government Change in the European Union

The government encourages every Regency/City to cooperate between district/regions in order to increase its competitiveness in the global economy. In Central Java there are several regional collaborations which have been formed, one of which is the collaboration of Kedungsepur region. However, this collaboration has differences in income between Kedungsepur region as evidenced by the high differences in per capita income between regencies/municipalities. This study aims to find out how much the per capita income disparity between the Regency/City regions of Kedungsepur region and any sectors that cause disparity in per capita income. The analytical method used in this study is the Williamson Index and Location Quotient. Based on the results of the Williamson Index analysis, the per capita income disparity between Kedungsepur regions from 2010-2017 has a tendency to increase with an average per capita income disparity of 0.8368 and a high per capita income disparity due to more than 0.5. Based on the Location Quotient analysis shows that there are 9 economic sectors that result in per capita income disparity in the Kedungsepur region.

The evolution of income disparities among the regions of the European Union

Recent retrospective voting studies have focused not only on the retrospective economic voting (economic voting), but also on the retrospective accountability voting (accountability voting). Retrospective voting based on voter’s evaluations of economic conditions is considered economic voting, whereas accountability voting is where voters consider the consistency between promises the government makes and what it actually implements. Voters are assumed to waver between economic and accountability voting; this balance informs time-series transitions in relative weight given to each in voting behavior. Referring to such voters as nuanced voters, this research uses the case of Japan’s electoral politics and attempts to determine historical change in retrospective voting patterns. In this study, electoral accountability is set as the deviation of the realized (observed) value from the promised value by the government. Two types of analysis are then conducted: the impulse-response functions between economic/accountability voting and the cabinet approval rate by a Bayesian structural vector autoregressive (B-SVAR) model, and time-series contributions of economic/accountability components for approval ratings by historical decompositions (HDC). Assuming that the weight of economic/accountability voting changed after 1993-94 electoral institutional reform in Japan, a transition in the behavior of nuanced voters was clearly apparent in public works spendings in the private goods sphere. Moreover, according to theoretical expectations, accountability voting in regard to government expenditures and GDP predominated both pre- and post-reform, and neither nuanced change between economic and accountability voting nor critical change after reform were observed.

Purpose The stylized evidence suggests that economic growth is one of the significant factors contributing to ecosystem degradation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of enterprise creation on the environment and the moderating impact of financial development in the linkages between enterprise creation and the environment. Design/methodology/approach A panel of 31 African nations between 1991 and 2020 are used for the study. Furthermore, cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag, augmented mean group, common correlated effect mean group, Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality tests are used to examine the long-run relationship and direction of causation among the variables. Findings This found that enterprise creation, per capita income and trade openness worsen environmental quality in the long run. Conversely, financial development strengthens ecological assets. Regarding the moderating role of financial development in the linkages, the result suggests that financial development lessens the negative impact of enterprise creation on the environment. The panel causality results indicate that a unidirectional causality exists from enterprise creation and trade openness to ecological footprint. However, a bidirectional causal relation exists between financial development, per capita income, urbanization and ecological assets. Practical implications This study’s outcome hints that most entrepreneurs in the region are “opportunity entrepreneurs” and not “green entrepreneurs” just looking for a means of survival. Hence, regional policymakers should formulate policies to transform entrepreneurs into green entrepreneurs. Originality/value The study deviates from the literature trend to investigate the role of enterprise creation and financial development in sustainable environments in African economies.

This paper applies the distribution dynamics method to study the per capita income disparity from 1990 to 2005 among the 75 cities and counties in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). The main conclusions are as follows: Firstly, the distribution of per capita income across the YRD has changed from being bi-modal to being positively skewed over the period 1990–2005; the income disparity lessened in the 8th Five-Year Plan, increased in the 9th Five-Year Plan, and then reduced again somewhat in the 10th Five-Year Plan. Secondly, the main contribution to disparity comes from the intra disparity of the Jiangsu region which is bi-modal over the period. Thirdly, the rich and poor cities developed independently and steadily at different speeds. Fourthly, convergence in the YRD is caused by the decline of the rich cities rather than progress by the poor cities. Finally, there is relative independence in the region's development, but over the long-term, the YRD indicates a trend of convergence.

This article examines multiple dimensions of regional per capita income disparities in the USA between 1955 and 2003 with a particular focus on scalar effects. It combines various exploratory analytical tools of spatial disparities, including inequality indices, mobility indices, kernel density estimation, spatial autocorrelation statistics and scale variances, to analyse regional average per capita income distributions at multiple spatial scales, ranging from counties to multi-state regions. The analysis reveals previously unrecognised systematic patterns of cross-scalar dynamics, whereby spatial income disparities are increasingly more pronounced at smaller scales in the last few decades.

This study examines the effects of health expenditure, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, population size, and income on health outcomes in 46 Asian nations between 1997 and 2019. Cross-sectional dependence (CSD) and slope heterogeneity (SH) tests are utilized due to the close linkages between Asian nations as a result of commerce, tourism, religion, and international agreements. The research uses unit root and cointegration tests of the second generation after validating CSD and SH issues. Due to the results of the CSD and SH tests, it is clear that conventional methods of estimation are inappropriate, so a new panel method, the inter autoregressive distributive lag (CS-ARDL) model, is used instead. In addition to CS-ARDL, the study's results were checked with a common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) method and an augmented mean group (AMG) method. According to the CS-ARDL study, higher rates of energy use and healthcare spending lead to better health outcomes for Asian countries over the long run. CO2 emissions are shown to be harmful to human health, according to the study. The influence of a population's size on health outcomes is shown to be negative in the CS-ARDL and CCEMG, but favorable in the AMG. Only the AMG coefficient is significant. In most instances, the results of the AMG and CCEMG corroborate the results of the CS-ARDL. Among all the factors influencing life expectancy in Asian countries, healthcare spending is the most influential. Hence, to improve health outcomes, Asian countries need to take the required actions to boost health spending, energy consumption, and long-term economic growth. To achieve the best possible health outcomes, Asian countries should also reduce their CO2 emissions.

Income convergence refers to the idea that poor countries grow more quickly than rich ones and catch up in terms of per capita income; as a result, the per capita income of integrated nations eventually converges. Beta convergence suggests that less developed nations grow more quickly than more developed ones and reach their average per capita income level by growing more quickly. Meanwhile, sigma convergence suggests that the per capita income disparity among the countries in a regional block narrows over time.The objective of this study is to test income convergence through beta and sigma convergence for Central and South Asia integration using data from 1990 to 2022. Sigma convergence is tested through the standard deviation and coefficient of variation of average per capita income, while beta convergence is tested using panel unit root tests. The results of the study confirm the beta convergence and sigma convergence, which implies income convergence for the integration of Central and South Asia.The implications of this study are manifold. It recommends that Central and South Asian countries ensure economic, political and social cooperation with one another. This is possible by eliminating trade restrictions and decreasing import taxes to increase free trade. Additionally, ensuring free labor, capital, and technology movement between Central and South Asia will be beneficial for ensuring economic integration, facilitating income convergence, and reducing income inequality between these regions. This study contributes to the income convergence literature by focusing on integration between Central Asia and South Asia.

Income distribution dynamics across European regions: Re-examining the role of space

Can environmental sustainability be decoupled from economic growth? Empirical evidence from Eastern Europe using the common correlated effect mean group test

Growing socio-economic disparity is a global issue that could disturb community health. Numerous case studies have examined the health influences of income disparities as well as the patterns that implicate those disparities. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the core determinants of mortality rate, which are environmental degradation, green energy, health expenditures, and technology (ICT) for the 25 provinces of China over the period of 2005-2020. This study uses a series of estimators to investigate the preferred objectives in which CS-ARDL and common correlated effect mean group (CCE-MG). Estimated results show the significant contribution of environmental deterioration and income inequality to the mortality rate. Furthermore, health expenditures, ICT, and green energy significantly reduce the mortality rate. Similarly, the moderate effect of income inequality on health expenditure, green energy, and ICT significantly reduces the mortality rate in selected provinces of China. More interestingly, the current study suggests policy implications to reduce the rising trend of mortality rate.

Convergence is a process whose end product is the leveling of productivity of the factors of production. In closed economies, this leveling is brought about by the law of diminishing returns, which in open economies is strengthened by transfers of capital and technology from rich countries to poor and by movements of labor from poor countries to rich. Because immigration restrictions prevent free mobility of labor, the anticipated reductions in real per capita income disparities among countries are destined to be determined by movements of capital and technological transfers as outdated capital stocks in lagging countries are replaced by stocks embodying th e most advanced technology (Abramovitz 1986). Whether convergence is working is decided not by whether absolute equality in per capita incomes has been at tained but by the narrowing of disparities of per capita incomes. In other words, convergence is identified as a trend toward homogenization that seldom, if ever, results in complete homogenization. Only under the most extreme and totally unrealistic conditions, such as equal and identical human and natural resource endowments, can complete homogenization and absolute equality of real per capita income everywhere in the world be expected.

Analysing export quality and ecological footprint nexus: evidence from South Asian countries

Proposal of fishing load capacity curve and testing validity: Evidence from top 20 countries with highest fisheries production by panel data approaches

PurposeThis article investigates the validity of the different types (conditional, unconditional, deterministic, stochastic) of ß-convergence in per capita GDP for EU-28 and EU-19 between 1990 and 2019.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses nonstationary heterogeneous panel-data methodology.FindingsThe panel data reveal that both conditional and unconditional ß-convergence are valid in EU-28 countries However, only conditional convergence exists in EU-19 countries; group-specific findings show that the income levels of 10-EU countries converge toward the EU-19 average and 11-EU countries converge to the EU-28. The convergence speed to EU average varies between 15 and 18%. The robustness of the augmented mean group (AMG) findings are checked with common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) and are consistent. Moreover, panel unit root tests are applied to examine the stochastic and deterministic convergence of the average EU per capita income in the two groups of EU economies. The findings show no evidence of deterministic or stochastic convergence in EU countries. Besides, conditional convergence has not been experienced in countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, which are new members of the EU. As a remarkable aspect of the study, the evidence suggests that the Brexit is economically rational for the UK.Originality/valueThe growth and convergence processes of economies differ from each other. Convergence studies in the literature are generally based on the cross-section OLS methodology. In this context, the study is one of the rare studies to examine convergence using heterogeneous panel techniques and allows the convergence of countries to the EU average to be analyzed individually.