Economic policy uncertainty (EPU) has become a significant subject in economics and corporate finance since policy uncertainty can affect the manner in which firms make plans, finance, and use time in making investment decisions. This review article looks at the conceptualization and measurement of EPU, the theories that have been primarily applied trying to explain the importance of uncertainty to investment and what the fundamental patterns of evidence have shown across nations and sectors. The paper is organized around three general ways of transmission: real-options delay in case investment is irreversible, financing and cost-of-capital frictions and information flows which weaken the transmission of signals within decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. It also asks the question why firms respond differently- focusing on the importance of liquidity, constraints, ownership structure, and institutional context- and what strategies seem to assist firms in maintaining quality of investment when under uncertainty. The review concludes with the identification of implications to research design and the presentation of priority directions to conduct future research in measurement comparability, causal inference, and corporate responses.

Waves of uncertainty: Time-varying spillovers of China’s economic policies on belt and road economies

Changes of multidimensional frailty among older adults during 2010-2023: A systematic review and cross-temporal meta-analysis.

The U.S. shale energy sector navigating domestic policies in a fragmenting global economy

Decarbonising Europe's ammonia industry: Economic feasibility, policy constraints, and trade competition

Corrigendum to “Jump further or climb higher? Impact of different export upgrading strategies on exporter survival” [Economic Analysis and Policy, Volume 88, December 2025, Pages 2098-2115

How do climate and economic policy uncertainties relate to global fossil fuel price dynamics?

Economic policy uncertainty and artificial intelligence (AI) innovation: A cross-country analysis

Economic policy uncertainty, individual job hopping, and job match

Persistent inflation in Nigeria has raised concerns about the effectiveness of conventional macroeconomic policy instruments, motivating renewed attention to the role of governance and public sector performance in shaping price dynamics. This study investigates the extent to which public sector efficiency and bureaucratic structure influence inflation outcomes in Nigeria, beyond the effects of standard macroeconomic variables. The objective is to empirically examine the relationship between inflation and public sector efficiency, institutional quality, government regime type, interest rates, real economic output, and the nominal exchange rate. The analysis focuses on Nigeria from 1981 to 2024, incorporating key macroeconomic variables by alternating democratic and military regimes, structural reforms, and recurrent inflationary experiences. Methodologically, the study adopts an econometric time-series framework, modelling inflation as a function of public sector efficiency, institutional quality, regime dummy variables, interest rates, real gross domestic product, and the nominal exchange rate. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach alongside Granger causality tests, the study assesses both short-run and long-run relationships between institutional factors and economic performance, standard diagnostic tests and robustness checks are employed to ensure the reliability of results. The findings reveal that inefficiencies in the public sector and weak institutional quality significantly exacerbate inflationary pressures, while rigid bureaucratic structures constrain effective policy transmission. Interest rates and exchange rate movements are also found to be important channels through which governance weaknesses translate into persistent inflation. Based on these findings, the study recommends strengthening public sector efficiency through institutional reforms, bureaucratic streamlining, and improved policy coordination alongside monetary measures. It concludes that sustainable inflation control in Nigeria requires an integrated macro-institutional approach that addresses governance and bureaucratic constraints in tandem with conventional economic policy tools.

ABSTRACT This paper considers Keynes’ insights from The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill (ECMC) in light of three recent events: the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2022 pivot toward inflation targeting monetary policy, and the economic policies enacted during the second presidential term of Donald Trump. It argues that Keynes’ insight that governments have the capacity to derail economic recoveries through an array of policies that hurt workers and households can help us understand the policy successes and failures of these three events. At the time of writing, Keynes’ policy insights offer a blueprint for future recovery minded policies: strong economies should provide ample fiscal and monetary assistance to promote domestic aggregate demand, while eschewing policies that disproportionately burden households and workers.

While public debt is vital for economic growth and development, a heavy debt burden has adverse effects. Therefore, there is a debate about how public debt will affect economic growth. This study investigates the public debt and economic growth nexus in Türkiye using the Fourier-Augmented ARDL methodology over the years 1968-2019. Although Türkiye has a moderate level of public debt, it has significantly lost its fiscal space because of geopolitical risks, irregular migration, natural disasters, inaccurate economic policies, and the economic crises it has frequently faced in the last decade. Our analysis demonstrates that public debt has a detrimental impact on economic growth, as evidenced by linear and nonlinear models. These findings remain consistent even after conducting robustness checks. However, our nonlinear model differs from the majority by indicating a U-shaped relationship between public debt and economic growth, featuring a 61-63% threshold. Therefore, increasing public debt to stimulate growth is not a viable policy. Instead, policymakers should prioritize borrowing to fund productive investments that increase output and employment rather than financing budget deficits and increasing the debt burden. For Türkiye, these initiatives can increase the welfare of present and future generations and make both public debt and economic growth sustainable.

Modelling the cost effectiveness of screening interventions presents unique challenges. These relate to a lack of knowledge about underlying health states and disease progression in the absence of screening, added costs arising from incidental findings, screening recall and follow-up diagnostics, imperfect uptake, potential harms to otherwise healthy people, and impacts on resource capacity and equity. No specific but generalisable advice currently exists to help guide health economic modellers working in this area. There is a need for tailored recommendations beyond the widely used, health economic modelling frameworks. We aimed to develop a set of recommendations for modelling the cost effectiveness of screening programmes. In our iterative process, we first drafted a conceptual document outlining key issues requiring recommendations. This framework was then expanded based on additional themes identified through a survey of screening modelling experts. Next, the draft recommendations were shared with a broader international expert group, which included modellers, health economists and policy specialists. Finally, the core concepts were refined and agreed upon during a virtual stakeholder meeting. A set of ten recommendations and a checklist are presented. The document provides guidance on critical methodological requirements for modelling screening interventions. These guidelines are intended to help health economic modellers and screening policy makers working to evaluate screening interventions across a wide range of diseases and jurisdictions with clarity, rigour and consistency.

As African economies pursue economic growth under increasing environmental pressure, the role of institutional frameworks in promoting environmental sustainability has become increasingly important. This study investigates the direct and indirect effects of economic and regulatory institutions on environmental sustainability in 33 African countries between 2008 and 2022. Using data from the World Governance Indicators, the World Economic Freedom Database, the Global Footprint Network, and the World Development Indicators, the analysis applies the System Generalized Method of Moments to address endogeneity and dynamic persistence. The findings indicate strong persistence in environmental sustainability outcomes. Economic institutions such as government size, legal systems and property rights, sound money, and freedom to trade have a positive and statistically significant effect on environmental sustainability, whereas foreign direct investment is associated with negative environmental outcomes. Regulatory institutions including control of corruption, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and the rule of law further improve environmental performance. The interaction results show that the effectiveness of economic policies depends heavily on governance quality. Beyond economy wide implications, the findings are also relevant for environmentally sensitive and highly regulated sectors such as civil aviation, where weak institutional capacity can limit the implementation of sustainable aviation policies and alignment with global initiatives such as the International Civil Aviation Organization’s CORSIA framework.

This study examines the interrelationships between renewable energy consumption, economic policy uncertainty (EPU), and environmental quality in G7 economies over the period 1991–2020. Specifically, it explores whether economic policy uncertainty moderates the environmental benefits of renewable energy consumption, thereby addressing an important gap in the energy–environment nexus literature. Using second-generation panel econometric methods, including fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), the analysis confirms the existence of a long-run cointegration relationship among renewable energy consumption, EPU, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, and the ecological footprint (EF). The novelty of this study lies in explicitly modeling the interaction between renewable energy consumption and economic policy uncertainty while simultaneously employing CO₂ emissions and the ecological footprint as complementary indicators of environmental quality. The results indicate that renewable energy consumption significantly reduces both CO₂ emissions and EF, whereas economic policy uncertainty independently exacerbates environmental degradation. Notably, the interaction term reveals that, when combined with renewable energy consumption, economic policy uncertainty amplifies its mitigating effect on environmental pressure. Among the control variables, human capital is found to alleviate environmental degradation, while GDP per capita intensifies it. In contrast, foreign direct investment contributes to reductions in both CO₂ emissions and the ecological footprint. These findings highlight the dual role of economic policy uncertainty and provide robust empirical evidence to support the formulation of stable yet flexible energy and environmental policies. The results further underscore the importance of policy coherence, renewable energy expansion, and human capital development in achieving long-term environmental sustainability in advanced economies. Keywords: G7 economies; renewable energy consumption; economic policy uncertainty; environmental quality; CO₂ emissions; ecological footprint; energy–environment nexus.

Poverty in Indonesia remains structural and enduring despite constitutional commitments to social justice. Viewing law as a social practice within a stratified society rather than merely a written standard, this article examines structural poverty from a sociological perspective. Based on a review of academic literature, relevant public policy studies, and laws and regulations, this research employs a juridical-sociological approach with qualitative methods. The results show that structural poverty in Indonesia is not only caused by financial constraints but is also created and perpetuated by the ways in which laws are written, implemented, and accessed. Law often operates administratively and procedurally rather than functioning fully as a tool for social transformation, owing to the gap between law in books and law in action, limited access to justice, and an elite-dominated legal culture. This article argues that, without institutional and cultural reforms, the inherent limitations of law within an unequal social system may actually exacerbate inequality rather than redress it. The distinctive conceptual contribution of this paper lies in reframing structural poverty as a failure of law to operate as a social practice, rather than merely a failure of economic or social policy. In addition to offering a critical perspective for developing community-based responsive legal reform aimed at substantive social justice in Indonesia, this study theoretically advances the sociology of law by establishing law as a constitutive component of the system that reproduces inequality.

The renewed prominence of state-capitalism in contemporary economic policy debates reflects increasing concerns over market failures, global economic volatility, and the limitations of liberal market–oriented models. Across diverse political economic contexts, governments have expanded their use of state-led instruments to manage strategic sectors, stabilize macroeconomic conditions, and support long-term development. At the same time, the growing role of the state has intensified debates regarding efficiency, governance quality, and global economic integration. This study systematically reviews and synthesizes the contemporary academic literature on state capitalism as an economic policy framework, with a focus on its prospects and challenges across varying institutional environments. This study employs a qualitative Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology. Data were collected through a structured search of the Scopus database. An initial search using the keywords “State Capitalism AND Economic Policy” yielded 2,098 articles. Through sequential screening based on relevance, publication period (2020–2025), language, and open-access availability, 39 peer-reviewed journal articles were selected for final analysis. The selected studies were examined using thematic synthesis to identify recurring patterns in conceptual, institutional, economic, and governance-related areas. The review identifies five dominant thematic domains: conceptual diversity and typologies of state-capitalism; policy instruments and institutional mechanisms; economic performance and developmental outcomes; governance risks and market distortions; and political and global integration constraints. The findings indicate that state-capitalism can enhance strategic coordination, crisis resilience, and early-stage development in contexts with strong institutional capacity. However, weak governance structures are associated with persistent challenges, including inefficiency, accountability deficits, elite capture, and international economic frictions. In conclusion, state-capitalism should be understood as a context-dependent economic policy framework whose outcomes are shaped by institutional design, governance quality, and political–economic conditions. Future research should prioritize comparative and longitudinal approaches to better capture the evolving dynamics and long-term implications of state-capitalist policies.

This study investigates the factors that influence international labor migration from Timor-Leste, with a focus on South Korea under the Employment Permit System. An extended gravity model was employed using bilateral migration data for 29 destination countries from 2000 to 2024 to assess the impact of economic size, geographic distance, trade relations, and migration policy regimes on migration flows. Migration is significantly influenced by political factors, such as formal recruitment channels and visa availability, and a positive correlation is observed between migration arrangements and bilateral exports. Furthermore, primary survey data of 250 Timor-Leste migrant workers in South Korea provide micro-level insights into employment outcomes, remittance patterns, and migration motivations. The findings confirm that sectoral recruitment driven by household economic demand and demand in the manufacturing and fishing sectors is a key driver, supported by Korea’s open institutional structure. The policy implications of this study highlight the need for stronger labor governance, better skill development, and diversification of migration routes to ensure safe and productive mobility.

COVID-19 Economic Impact and Policy Failures: A Narrative Review and Lessons for Future Pandemics

Over Zambia is one of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa facing energy challenges due to climatevulnerability caused by the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The study uses Amartya Sen andMartha Nussbaum's Capability Approach to analyse the vulnerabilities resulting from Zambia's questfor energy transition. This theoretical framework is critical to understanding the challenges inensuring an inclusive energy transition process in the country. The methodology and data were mainlyfrom secondary sources. The main argument in this article is that although Zambia has embarked onan energy transition, it is important to consider key human security vulnerabilities in this process.The article shows that Zambia's electricity generation capacity has continued to dwindle primarilydue to a decrease in hydro generation, which is highly dependent on rainfall. The study also showsthat the Zambian government has devised several strategies and policies aimed at energy transitioningto alleviate the problem. These strategies and policies include promoting non-renewable energysources like coal, oil, and natural gas to renewable and sustainable energy sources like solar.However, the study shows that while Zambia's energy transition offers long-term benefits, it posesimmediate and significant security challenges for the country. These include economic disruptions,infrastructure vulnerabilities, environmental conflicts and policy and regulatory challenges. Thisarticle contributes to the ongoing discourse regarding the human security challenges and opportunitiesfor energy transition in Global South countries.