Core Countries Research Articles

Political Differences and Conflicts Between France and Germany in the European Union

France and Germany are the core countries of the European Union and have played an essential role in promoting the historical process of European integration. The two countries have a deep friendship and cooperation. However, in recent years, with Europe facing multiple crises and challenges, there have been a series of differences and conflicts between France and Germany in energy, defense, economy, diplomacy, and other aspects, which have brought uncertainties and risks to the prospect of European integration. This reflects the strategic differences, the leadership struggle, and the solidarity crisis within Europe. The paper aims to analyze the political differences and conflicts between France and Germany in the European Union. These challenges not only affect the friendship and cooperation between France and Germany but also adversely affect the unity and development of Europe. Therefore, France and Germany need to strengthen communication and coordination, seek common interests and goals, enhance mutual trust and understanding, and contribute to the prospect of European integration.

Falling behind whom? Economic geographies of right-wing populism in Europe

ABSTRACT Existing studies suggest that right-wing populist parties (RWPPs) appeal to people in communities that have fallen behind in material terms. However, it remains open which benchmark communities apply as they become politically discontented. We argue that the structure of territorial inequalities influences the benchmarks used by people in regions falling behind. Panel data regressions using subnational election results in EU states from 1990 to 2018 reveal a sharp contrast between the economic geographies of right-wing populism in core and peripheral EU member states. We find a strong association between falling behind the richest region of the country and RWPP support within core EU countries, while in peripheral EU states falling behind the EU core is associated with regional support for RWPPs. This suggests that RWPP voters in peripheral countries cue on how they are faring relative to the EU core, while RWPP supporters in core countries cue on how they are faring relative to dynamic regions of their own country. Our analysis also shows that increased manufacturing employment reinforces the effect of falling behind the richest region in core EU member states, while we find no strong evidence that regional economic stagnation is important to the electoral performance of RWPPs.

The role of wages in triggering innovation and productivity: A dynamic exploration for European economies

This paper addresses the issue of sluggish productivity growth in advanced countries and investigates its underlying causes, focusing on the direct impact of real wages. Analyzing data from 14 European countries spanning 1995 to 2018, we employ Local Projections to estimate the Sylos Labini productivity equation. Advancing our understanding of established literature, we dynamically explore the wage-productivity nexus, testing the hypothesis that higher wages enhance productivity independently of aggregate demand. Our findings indicate that wages exert a persistent and direct positive effect on productivity, both at the aggregate and sectoral levels. This effect remains stable over time, even with large changes, and is more pronounced during periods of low or negative wage growth. Moreover, higher wages prove to stimulate innovation more effectively in core countries. These findings suggest that demand-side expansionary policies would be more effective in enhancing labor productivity and long-term growth when combined with policies promoting wage growth.

Visualization analysis of research hotspots on structural topology optimization based on CiteSpace

Structural topology optimization has gained widespread attention due to more possibilities of innovative structural design. The current research focus/hotspots, application areas, main research scholars, institutions and the countries involved in structural topology optimization are visually presented through clustering and visual analysis based on CiteSpace. The four metric dimensions of the literatures in this paper are as follows: annual quantity of papers and core countries, core authors and co-authors’ institutions, hotspots and burst terms, and the highly co-cited papers. The results show the research hotspots in this field are concentrated on keywords such as "level set method", "sensitivity analysis", "homogenization", "genetic algorithm", etc. Regarding the research frontier, “moving morphable component (MMC)”, “additive manufacturing (AM)” and “deep learning” are hot topics. In addition, Y. Sui, Z. Kang and O. Sigmund, etc. have high publications. M. Bendsøe and O. Sigmund have high citations. Dalian University of Technology, Technical University of Denmark, etc. are prominent institutions. Moreover, China accounts for more than 34% in the terms of original WOS literatures following by the USA and Australia. This paper could identify structural topology optimization development patterns for the scholars concerned with this field, especially novices, to quickly focus and track the research priorities.

Genetic characterization of Dibothriocephalus latus and Dibothriocephalus dendriticus (Cestoda: Diphyllobothriidae) from Chile based on haplotype analysis using mitochondrial DNA markers.

Dibothriocephalus latus and Dibothriocephalus dendriticus are found throughout the temperate and sub-arctic zones of the northern hemisphere, but they are also found in the southern core countries of South America, Chile and Argentina. Genetic characteristics of D. latus and D. dendriticus from South America have yet to be fully defined. The present study aimed to understand the genetic characteristics of D. latus and D. dendriticus from Chile by haplotype network analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (cox1) and cytochrome b gene (cob), as well as their origins. Dibothriocephalus latus and D. dendriticus plerocercoid larvae were obtained from feral and/or wild salmonids captured in Lake Llanquihue in Región de Los Lagos, and Lake Panguipulli in Región de Los Ríos, located south of central Chile. Haplotype analysis of D. latus revealed that H1 in cox1 and H2 in cob are the key haplotypes common to D. latus across the world, including Chile, and both genes exhibited limited genetic diversity in D. latus. It was assumed that D. latus was brought into South America by European and Russian immigrants in the 19th century as previously reported. In contrast, both the cox1 and cob of D. dendriticus display considerable genetic diversity, with no common haplotypes between D. dendriticus populations from Chile and the northern hemisphere. More intriguingly, two cob haplotypes (H24, H25) detected in Chilean D. dendriticus were closely linked to haplotypes (H30, H31) detected in North American D. dendriticus, strongly implying that D. dendriticus in Chile was brought by piscivorous migrating birds from North America. It has also been estimated that the D. dendriticus from Chile genetically diverged from the D. dendriticus from the northern hemisphere approximately 1.11 million years ago, long before humans migrated to the southern parts of South America.

Comparative study on the international coal trade network before and after COVID-19 outbreak

COVID-19 that broke out at the end of 2019 made countries to implement strict blockade measures to curb the spread of the virus. These measures have seriously disrupted the coal import and export trade, causing a significant impact on the coal trade network. This study aims to investigate the disparities between coal trade networks before and after COVID-19 outbreak. First, using complex network theory, we constructed global coal trade networks for the years 2019 and 2020. Subsequently, utilizing a cascading failure model, we developed a coal supply risk propagation framework. Through an analysis of network topology and theoretical supply risk propagation, we explored the similarities and differences of the coal trade networks during these 2 years. In terms of network topology structure, our findings reveal a decrease in trade tightness in the coal trade network of 2020 compared to 2019. Moreover, the Netherlands no longer retains its significance as an important trade hub country in 2020. Looking at the theoretical perspective of supply risk transmission, we observed that in 2020, COVID-19 resulted in a higher number of countries experiencing crisis outbreaks compared to 2019. However, it is noteworthy that the core countries within the coal trade network have remained consistent, and their roles as either net importers or net exporters have not changed. This indicates that the position of coal core countries is very stable. Therefore, no matter what happens, the country should pay timely attention to the dynamics of core countries. Interestingly, in 2020, the risk associated with coal supply did not conform to the spatial patterns typically seen in trade. For instance, the Russian Federation, identified as a country facing a crisis outbreak, transmits supply risks to geographically distant regions in West Asia, including countries like Ghana and Western Sahara.

Structural Position in the Global Economy and Major Episodes of Civil Violence, 1970 to 2018

This study draws on world-systems theory to generate new explanations for the uneven patterns of civil violence found in the world today. A large and well-developed literature shows that low-income countries with stagnant economies and undemocratic political systems are the most susceptible to outbreaks of civil violence. This literature, however, fails to consider how countries are positioned relative to the structures of global capitalism. By contrast, world-systems theory has long emphasized that a country’s position within the international division of labor shapes many of its domestic outcomes, including those related to development and democratization. Combining these two literatures suggests that “world-system position” has direct and indirect effects on civil violence, with the indirect effects being mediated by development, democratization, and related factors. Drawing on a sample of 152 countries observed from 1970 to 2018 and using high-quality data on major incidences of civil violence around the world, the study finds compelling evidence that non-core countries are considerably more prone to civil violence than core countries and that this gap is widening, not narrowing, over time. These results are robust to alternative measures of world-system position and various model specifications.

Research Trends of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Orthopedic Medical Practices: A Bibliometric and Visualized Study.

Background and Objectives: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), also known as self-report measures, are critical tools for evaluating health outcomes by gathering information directly from patients without external interpretation. There has been a growing trend in the number of publications focusing on PROMs in orthopedic-related research. This study aims to identify the most valuable publications, influential journals, leading researchers, and core countries in this field using bibliometric analysis, providing researchers with an understanding of the current state and future trends of PROMs in orthopedic research. Materials and Methods: All PROMs in orthopedic-related publications from 1991 to 2022 were obtained from the WoSCC database. R software (version 4.2.2), VOSviewer (version 1.6.17), and Microsoft Excel (version 2303) were used for the bibliometric and visual analysis. Results: A total of 2273 publication records were found from 1991 to 2022. The results indicated that the United States (US) has made significant contributions to orthopedic-related PROMs. The majority of active research institutions are located in the US. J ORTHOP RES has published the most articles. J BONE JOINT SURG AM has the highest total citations. Conclusions: Our study provides a valuable reference for further exploration of the application of PROMs in orthopedics. PROMs have emerged as an increasingly popular area of research within the field of orthopedics, both in clinical practice and academic research. We conducted a bibliometric analysis in terms of journals, authors, countries, and institutions in this field. Additionally, we analyzed the potentialities and advantages of using PROMs in orthopedic research. There is an increasing trend towards using network-based or short message service (SMS)-based electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMs) in orthopedic medical practices. It is anticipated that the role of PROMs in psychological and mental health research and telemedicine will continue to grow in importance.

The effects of scar in psychological disorder: A bibliometric analysis from 2003 to 2022.

Scars are fibrous tissues that replace normal tissue during the wound healing process. Scarring can lead to low self-esteem, social impairment, depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric and psychological distress, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of the latest perspectives, topical research, and directions in scarring-mental health. This is a biblioshiny and VOSviewer based bibliometric analysis study. All data were obtained from the Web of Science, and a total of 664 articles from 2003 to 2022 met the criteria. The last 7 years have been a period of rapid growth in the field, with 2022 having the highest number of articles. The United States is the core country with the highest production and citation rate. The most cited literature was written in 2003 by Van Loey NE et al. Van Loey NE is the most prolific and influential author in this field. The top five popular keywords include "quality of life", "depression", "management", "anxiety", and "prevalence". The paper concludes that the current focus of scholars in the field is on the treatment of scars and that multidisciplinary treatment of such patients is worth exploring. These findings provide relevant researchers with the current state of research and possible future directions in this field.

The Impact of the Crisis on Poverty and Socio-Economic Inequalities in Europe

We want to investigate the factors that have had an impact on poverty rates and inequalities in Europe and enquire about the possibility to reduce them in the future. Our enquiry is largely novel in the literature on the topic. The immediate causes of the increase in poverty rates and inequalities have certainly been the financial crisis, the pandemic and the increase in unemployment that derived from them in almost all European countries. In a nutshell, the underlying novel factors that we underline can be attributed to the EU institutions and policies, the ensuing asymmetries and the situation in “core” and “peripheral” countries, more specifically: 1) The “credit-led” strategy of growth pursued by peripheral countries. 2) The “export-led” strategy of growth pursued by core countries. These strategies implicated pernicious imbalances that reflected on poverty rates and inequalities. We find also that only the welfare state has succeeded in mitigating the negative impact on poverty and equity, but at the cost of further burdening public finances, especially in peripheral countries, casting a shadow on the ability to perform the same role in the future. In the future what is needed to avoid asymmetries and imbalances in the European Union is a common strategy of growth.

Mapping the global flows of steel scraps: an alloy elements recovery perspective

Recycling steel scraps by the use of electric arc furnace is one of the most promising approaches for the steel industry to achieve net-zero emissions. Due to the uneven distribution of global steel scraps, many countries are actively involving in the global steel scraps trade. Steel scraps contain a range of critical elements, which may be transferred across borders through international trade of steel scraps. However, existing studies have paid little attention to the global flows of steel scraps and its embodied alloy elements (AEs). This study maps the journey of global steel scraps and the embodied AEs for the period of 2000–2021 for the first time by employing trade-linked material flow analysis and social network analysis. The results indicate that the global steel scraps trade had increased during the study period, with a few core countries (such as USA, Germany, and Turkey) leading the global steel scraps network. Also, critical metals had been transferred across borders in the form of AEs through the trade of steel scraps, especially from global north countries to global south countries. The largest AE flows include Chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn) and molybdenum (Mo) flows. Other AE flows, such as cobalt (Co), vanadium (V), and niobium (Nb) flows, were less, but with high values or being regarded scarce. From a global perspective, steel scraps trade and recycling can contribute to the decarbonization efforts of the global steel industry and address resource shortages in some countries. Therefore, it is urgent to promote the overall resource efficiency of steel scraps and the embodied AEs by various efforts.

Regimes of robotization in Europe

This work analyses the impact of robots on employment testing for the presence of different robotization regimes. Focusing on European manufacturing industries, we find that robot adoption positively affects total employment. Heterogeneous patterns are detected across both countries and occupational groups, however. The labour-friendly impact of robotization is detected only in core and service-oriented countries and for those at the top of the occupational structure (i.e. managers and technicians). In turn, peripheral countries and manual workers do not seem to benefit at all from robotization.

The sources of economic uncertainty: Evidence from eurozone markets

This study examines the sources of economic uncertainty in Euro Area countries with a special focus on the effects of the ECB’s monetary policy on economic uncertainty, for the period between 2001 and 2020. The contribution of the research lies (a) on the employment of an uncertainty factor that combines information from different uncertainty variables, rather than just one as in many previous studies, (b) on the fact that we obtain our results with the employment of a significant number of variables that consist a large data set which offers a great amount of information and (c) the examination of the behavior of Core and Peripheral Eurozone countries, since many studies indicate that their reaction to economic shocks may be different. We examine a sample of four Core and four Peripheral Eurozone Countries and employ for each country and for panel data a Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregression framework (FAVAR) with six different factors (real activity, inflation, interest rates, monetary policy, financial market and uncertainty). The results indicate that real activity and financial markets are important contributors to economic uncertainty, especially for the Core Eurozone countries, while for the Peripheral countries the uncertainty factor itself seems to contribute to its own level; in addition, our results indicate that periods of high uncertainty tend to be followed by periods of low uncertainty.

Revisiting the debate on the Eurozone crisis: causes, clustering periphery and core, and the role of interest rate convergence

ABSTRACT Explaining the Eurozone crisis requires explaining the origins of the external imbalances until then. The paper divides the literature arguments into three ”fundamental causes”, not mutually exclusive: a competitiveness problem, North-South flows, and excess of public and/or private spending. Within each of these causes, we find divergences between authors in the literature and identify a set of variables correlated with the accumulation of external imbalances before the crisis. These variables help to create clusters of Eurozone countries and separate core countries from the periphery. We then develop an original argument, that the convergence of nominal long-term interest rates in the periphery cluster countries, relative to the core cluster countries, between 1996 and 2007, was the trigger for the three ”fundamental causes” mentioned. We find Granger-causality between this convergence and subsequent (after four quarters) annual variations in the quarterly current account balance.

Beyond views, productivity, and citations: measuring geopolitical differences of scientific impact in communication research

Scientometric analyses applying critical sociological frameworks have previously shown that high-prestige research output—with regards to both quantity and impact—is typically clustered in a few core countries and world regions, indicating uneven power relations and systematic biases within global academia. Although citation count is a common formula in these analyses, only a handful of studies investigated altmetrics (impact measures beyond citation-based metrics) in communication science. In this paper, we explore geopolitical biases of impact amongst the most productive scholars in the field of communication from 11 countries and 3 world regions. Drawing on SCOPUS data, we test three formulas that measure scholarly performance (citations per document; views per document; and citations per view) to investigate how geographical location affects the impact of scholars. Our results indicate a strong US-dominance with regard to citation-based impact, emphasizing a further need for de-Westernization within the field. Moreover, the analysis of altmetric formulas revealed that research published by Eastern European and Spanish scholars, although accessed similarly or even more often than American or Western European publications, is less cited than those. Country-level comparisons are also discussed.

Global ginseng trade networks: structural characteristics and influencing factors.

Background: Ginseng is a rare and highly valued Chinese materia medica with a rich trading history and has a wide range of application, including medicine, food, healthcare, and daily chemical production. However, the global trade of ginseng exhibits diverse features and uneven development across different countries and regions. Surprisingly, the intricate network relationship and the underlying characteristics and influencing factors of ginseng trade networks remain unexplored. Methods: This study analyzed ginseng trade data obtained from the UN-Comtrade database and used social network analysis to construct global ginseng trade networks. To elucidate the structural characteristics, we analyzed the indicators of the overall network structure and node attributes. Core-periphery analysis is used to examine the evolutionary patterns within the global ginseng trade networks. Furthermore, we apply the quadratic assignment procedure to investigate the impact and relevance of spatial proximity, cultural differences, economic indicators, population size, technological similarity, and institutional distance. Results: The findings reveal that the global ginseng trade networks exhibit typical small-world and scale-free properties, as well as a core-periphery structure. Several core countries, including China, South Korea, Germany, and the United States, exert significant control over both trade volume and trade partners. South Korea and China initially occupied central positions in the export market due to their resource endowments, their prominence has gradually diminished with the ascendancy of Germany and the United States. According to the core-periphery analysis, the ginseng trade has shown a gradual concentration within specific trade groups comprising core and semi-periphery countries, most of which are along the "Belt and Road" religion. We also found that geographic distance and GDP per capita exert negative effects on ginseng trade, while factors such as land adjacency, technology and economic gap, population size, and institution similarity play significant positive roles. Conclusion: The global ginseng trade has experienced increasing concentration and close linkage among a limited numbers of participants. It is crucial to pay close attention to the relationship between ginseng industry development and resource conservation. Strategies such as expanding trade channels, implementing trade substitution measures, and optimizing the quality and standards of ginseng products can effectively enhance trade security.

A network analysis of international migration: Longitudinal trends and antecedent factors predicting migration

AbstractBuilding on previous research, this study investigates the international migration network and its changes from 1990 to 2017. The findings suggest that certain core countries play pivotal roles in shaping global migration by providing economic opportunities or political refuge. Community detection identified nine groups of nations in 2017, indicating regionalization. The study also examined the networks of antecedent factors that reflect both structural factors, such as geography, language, colonial history, political stability and economic differences, as well as transnational interactions, including student flow, trade, Internet flow and remittance, in relation to the international migration network. Applying multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure, it was found that these networks constituted approximately 11% of the migration network's distribution when chain migration was excluded, and 16.5% when it was included.

A pre-pandemic analysis of the global fertiliser trade network

In this paper a complex network analysis of global fertiliser trade during the period 2014–2018 has been carried out. The goal is to study its structure both at the global and local level, identifying communities and main players, motifs, structural holes and brokerage roles. The persistency and variability of trade links have also been analysed. The Global Fertiliser Trade Network is characterised as a small-world network with scale-free properties, revealing a high level of reciprocity and centralisation. The network has a core-periphery structure consisting of five core countries (namely EU, USA, China, Brazil, and the Russian Federation) which trade among themselves and with most periphery countries, which have sparse connections between them. The interregional and community analyses indicate a moderate level of heterophily and a geographical component in the trade communities. The network also exhibits an overall tendency toward intransitivity which implies a strategic advantage for countries that act as brokers. This study provides a clear picture of the situation prior to the COVID pandemic and the Ukraine military conflict. Those events have affected global fertiliser trade in a way that has yet to be fully ascertained. The purpose of this paper is to firmly establish a reference against which to gauge the direction and magnitude of those changes.

Rich scholar, poor scholar: inequalities in research capacity, “knowledge” abysses, and the value of unconventional approaches to research

The dominance of modern rationality in knowledge production implies that the distribution of intellectual capital highly depends on the capacity to gather representative data and generate generalizable theses. Furthermore, as research becomes more formalized and dominated by large funding schemes, intellectual capital allocation is increasingly associated with high economic, labor force and institutional power. This phenomenon has consequences at the global level. As the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has documented, there are significant disparities between countries in research capacities, with a marked difference between “core” countries with semi-monopolies over sanctioned knowledge production and “peripheral” states primarily used as data mines. The core–periphery divide in research capacity brings about what decolonial theorists call knowledge abysses: the widespread idea that core countries are the ultimate knowledge producers and thus the legitimate guides in humanity’s road to “progress.” In that context, the democratization of knowledge and the prevention of neo-colonial dynamics require the development of cheaper and more accessible ways of collecting representative data. In this article, we make a call for innovations in methods that can serve to overcome this, and we illustrate possible avenues for achieving sound research without incurring high financial costs by describing and discussing our experiences in researching narco-violence in Colombia and prostitution in Russia with what we call the “taxi method.”

An Assessment of the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict on the European Cereal Exports Using Network Theory

Abstract Cereal grains are basic nutrients in the human diet. Given the production capacity gap between countries, food security is subject to global challenges. The Russian invasion of Ukraine from February 2022 has inevitably raised concerns on the resilience of the agro-food system. In this paper, we use network theory to examine the export flows of the European producers of wheat, maize, and barley. Based on annual data from the United Nations Comtrade database, we build specific weighted and directed networks to comparatively assess the dynamics of cereal exporting patterns. We employ centrality metrics for network statistics and modularity for community detection. The central hub for all three cereals remained unchanged. Our results show the following core countries Russia for wheat, France for barley and Ukraine for maize. Their main export destination is also the same, from Russia to Türkiye, France to China and Ukraine to China respectively. Compared to the previous year, several destinations including low-income countries worldwide did not appear as recipients of the Ukrainian exports, but additional countries located in Europe and interconnected by land emerged as partners. This study provides a general assessment of the European exports to support a better understanding of the community structure under the Russo-Ukrainian conflict setting.