Emergent Economy Research Articles

The interface between research funding and environmental policies in an emergent economy using neural topic modeling: Proposals for a research agenda

AbstractResearchers have been calling for further analysis of the relationships between academia and policy making. Since several studies are conducted with resources from public funding agencies, it is essential to assess whether governments have been supporting research that can contribute to future environmental policies and whether research has been supporting the elaboration of public policies. To fill these gaps, the objective of this study was to evaluate the similarities and gaps between research and environmental policies. A bibliometric analysis of studies funded by Chilean agencies and text analytics techniques were employed to analyze research and environmental policies. We used BERTopic, a topic modeling technique that generates coherent topic representations. Then, topics obtained from the two sets of documents (research and policies) were compared. This study found that sustainability, life‐cycle assessment, climate change, and ecosystem services are central research themes in the country. The topic modeling analysis showed that research has been concentrated on the areas of “Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture Management” and “Sustainable Bioenergy Production and Chemical Processes.” The topics most frequently present in the environmental policies were “Environmental Education for Children: Awareness and Care,” “Bird Conservation and Habitat Importance in Chile,” and “National Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use Strategy.” The greatest gaps are observed in the clusters of “Sustainable Bioenergy Production and Chemical Processes” and “Copper Mining and Mineral Processing Techniques” (prevalent in research) and in “Anatomy and Physiology of Aquatic and Terrestrial Organisms” and “Biogeography and Taxonomy of Southern Hemisphere Insects” (prevalent in policy).

Environmental, social and governance performance and firm value: does ownership concentration matter?

PurposeThis paper has a dual purpose: to produce a clear panorama of microfactors behind the implementation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) in emergent economies, and to identify long-term versus short-term implications of ESG and its impacts on sustainable transformation. In particular, the paper investigates the moderating role of ownership concentration on ESG performance and firm value relationship in Southeast Asia during 2010–2022 and COVID-19 period 2020–2022.Design/methodology/approachBy adopting stakeholder and agency theory lenses, this study analyzes 591 nonfinancial listed companies in Southeast Asia from 2010 to 2022 with 2,673 firm-year observations. Data has been collected from Refinitiv and companies' annual reports. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimators are main strategies.FindingsDuring 2010–2022, the links between ESG performances and firm value are negative. Ownership concentration negatively moderates the nexus between governance pillar and firm value in both short and long run. In COVID-19, ownership concentration also plays an antagonistic moderating role in ESG combined score-firm value association. The results show a crucial role of blockholders in Southeast Asian firms and their strong support to ESG in conquering crisis period, suggesting that managers develop balancing mechanisms in making ESG-related decisions; policymakers and regulators improve effective control instruments with strong legal systems and enhanced law enforcement to protect minority shareholders.Originality/valueThis is the first study to test the connection between ESG performance, ownership concentration and firm value in Southeast Asia that has: (1) utilized different proxies of firm value and ownership concentration in robustness tests, (2) controlled heteroskedasticity defects, (3) eliminated companies in the Banking and Finance sector from the sample to avoid distorting the conclusions and (4) empirically verified the driven role of governance pillar in ESG performance and ownership concentration reversely moderated the impact of governance pillar on firm value.

A systematic review of business models in healthcare: research directions for emerging and developed economies

PurposeBusiness models (BMs) are becoming increasingly crucial for value creation in the healthcare sector. The study explores the conceptualization and application of BM concepts within the healthcare sector and investigates their evolution in emerging economies (EEs) and developed economies (DEs). This study aims to uncover these two contexts' shared characteristics and unique variances through a comparative analysis.Design/methodology/approachThe paper systematically investigates and consolidates the literature on healthcare by employing the antecedents, decisions and outcomes (ADO) framework and finally examines 71 shortlisted articles published between 2003 and 2022.FindingsThe recognition of the BM within healthcare is increasing, both in EEs and DEs. EEs prioritize value creation and capture through cost efficiency, while DEs focus on innovation. Key theories employed include a resource-based view, the network theory and the theory of innovation. Case studies are commonly used as a methodology. Further research is needed to explore the decisions and outcomes of BMs.Research limitations/implicationsThe study adopts stringent filtration and keyword criteria, potentially excluding relevant research. Future researchers are encouraged to broaden their selection criteria to encompass a more extensive range of relevant studies.Practical implicationsBeyond comparing and highlighting gaps in BMs between EEs and DEs, benchmarking DE's healthcare business models (HBMs) helps healthcare organizations in EEs align their practices, mitigate risks and establish efficient healthcare systems tailored to their specific contexts. The study adopts stringent filtration and keyword criteria, potentially excluding relevant research. Future researchers are encouraged to broaden their selection criteria to encompass a more extensive range of relevant studies.Originality/valueThe study analyzes HBMs using an SLR framework perspective and provides practical implications for academicians and practitioners to enhance their decision-making.

The national spatial governance and planning systems in the LAC region: The structure of Brazil, Bolivia, and Cuba

The Spatial Governance and Planning System (SGPS) analysis was born in European studies, has reached a certain stage of maturity in Europe and can be adopted by researchers in other continents. Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries currently represent an interesting field to experiment with this analytical approach for several reasons. One of them is the ascertainment that LAC national SGPSs are deeply influenced by the ongoing national democratization which started after the demise of conservative right-wing authoritarian regimes, somehow belonging to the postcolonial political stream and pushed by imperialist and neocolonial pressures. By its own nature, democratization as a whole is an extremely complex, articulated, and multidimensional process that deserves to be treated ad hoc. Within democratization, this work merely considers the institutionalization of spatial governance and planning activities and processes and so, the Structure of SGPSs. Supposedly, the formation and functioning of institutions are central in the process of consolidation of a democratic state which ensures rights and redistributes resources to citizens. To do this, based on the reconstruction of the overall SGPSs of three different countries included in the doctoral thesis of the author, this article presents the analysis of the so-called “Structure” of the Brazilian, Bolivian and Cuban SGPSs. Arguably, the set of Structures of the SGPSs of these countries is especially representative of the wide range of the LAC national cases. In fact, Brazil, Bolivia, and Cuba are iconic cases of distinguished spatial configurations. Brazil, which has experienced industrialization, tertiarization and metropolisation, has become an emergent economy characterized by structured democratic public institutions. Despite a range of well-known redistributive policies, however, Brazilian society remains extremely unequal and stratified. Bolivia has experimented with the promotion of plurinationalism in political and social terms, potentially improving the reciprocal integration of different ethnic groups and cultures. Nevertheless, a great developmental delay is shown by social and economic indicators, if compared to other LAC countries. Cuba, which has experimented with its own form of socialism for decades, is still a socialist republic with tragic problems of widespread poverty in a flattened society. To analytically present the Structure of the three selected national cases, four main scopes of investigation were adopted: (i) National spatial configuration, (ii) Postcolonial legacy in spatial governance and planning, (iii) Spatial governance and planning as redistributive practices, (iv) Metropolitan governance. The identification of these scopes represented the first result of the field research carried out in 2018–2019 in those countries. Assumably, those four scopes are sufficiently comprehensive to describe the Structure of SGPS of a LAC national system and they help systematize at least the main “Structural” factors – which are described one-by-one in this article – and characterize the LAC SGPSs. The article presents the four scopes for each country, according to a case-by-case logic. After that, it analyses the four scopes simultaneously comparing the three cases. Based on the analytical comparison of the main factors from the four scopes, the article discusses a range of issues that emerged, to problematize and operate convenient generalizations on the quality and characterization of the Structure of national SGPSs.

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions from emerging economy firms: a new channel for technology augmentation

PurposeExtending the springboard perspective with the resource dependence theory, the authors posit that cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are a new channel for emerging economy firms (EEFs) to enhance their technology capabilities. This study aims to examine the impact of cross-border M&As initiated by EEFs on their technology augmentation vis-à-vis matched domestic M&A cases and investigate the factors influencing the difference in post-merger innovation capability.Design/methodology/approachThis paper estimates the post-acquisition innovation capability of acquirers from emerging economies (EEs) that engage in cross-border M&As. To remove possible selection bias, the authors leverage a difference-in-difference-style approach in combination with a matched sample constructed by pairing each cross-border M&A case with a similar domestic deal. The data set contains 266 cross-border M&As and 266 matched domestic M&A deals between 2003 and 2011, whereby acquirers are based in 6 EEs and targets are in 36 countries consisting of both EEs and advanced economies (AEs).FindingsThe present empirical results show that cross-border M&As engaged by EEFs are an important engine for improving EEFs’ innovation capability through technology augmentation. The main empirical results are as follows. First, compared with matched domestic acquirers with similar characteristics, EE cross-border M&As have a positive effect on innovation capability. Second, the positive effect of the EEFs’ cross-border M&As relative to the matched domestic M&As on innovation capability is driven largely by cross-border M&As with targets in AEs. Third, the increase in post-M&A innovation capability of the EE cross-border acquirers comes mainly from deals where targets are based in countries with relatively superior human capital and innovation capability than those of the acquirers.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first systematic study of whether cross-border M&As serve as an effective channel of technology augmentation for EE acquirers compared to matched domestic acquirers with similar characteristics.

Ambidexterity within a multinational context: how organisations can leverage explorative and exploitative reverse innovation

Organisational ambidexterity allows firms to maintain a competitive advantage. In today's globally competitive environment, characterised by dispersed knowledge and diversified markets, ambidexterity assumes an even more important connotation from a geographic perspective. In this context, emerging economies (EEs) play a vital role as sources of innovators and market disruptors. This has resulted in the emerging phenomenon of reverse innovation (RI) and the rethinking of firms' multinational R&D and innovation strategies. The present study aims to answer how RI can be incorporated into multinational R&D strategies to bring about organisational ambidexterity on a firm level by balancing explorative and exploitative innovative activities across advanced economies (AEs) and EEs. With primary data collected through semi‐structured interviews with thirty R&D executives and senior managers, we find that RI can occur in the form of complete products and smaller innovative contributions toward developing new products that arise from the multinational collaboration between headquarters of organisations, their subsidiaries, and partners. We also find that multinational enterprises use both exploration and exploitation in EEs as the foundation for RI. Finally, we propose four distinct explorative and exploitative RI types that multinational enterprises can pursue to balance their ambidextrous activities across geographies. These four types of innovation are comprised of reverse product innovations and reverse flows of innovative contributions, each of explorative and exploitative nature.

A decision support model to investigate the pandemic recovery challenges and strategies in the leather supply chain

AbstractThe COVID-19 has caused unprecedented disruptions to supply chains (SC) worldwide, posing numerous challenges for industries, particularly in the emerging economies (EE). These economies are undergoing a phase of recovery from the pandemic devastations now, requiring investigation into the recovery challenges (RCs) and propositions for effective recovery strategies (RSs) to address RCs. Given this backdrop, this study aims to explore the COVID-19-related RCs in the Bangladeshi leather industry and build an integrated decision-making model to formulate RSs to counteract the RCs while the industry seeks to recover. This study used Pareto analysis to deduce lists of the nine most critical RCs and nine vital RSs for the Bangladeshi leather industry. This study also applied the best worst method (BWM) to identify a long-term liquidity crisis and an increasing bankruptcy of business stakeholders as the most urgent RCs, highlighting financial sustainability as a significant matter of concern for the sector. With regard to the RSs, the application of the fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) indicated a need to solve the existing problems of central effluent treatment plant (CETP) and provisioning of solid waste management facilities for long run business as priorities to make the leather industry SC more financially and operationally sustainable. The RSs formulated in this study have managerial implications for decision-makers in reducing the adversities caused by the pandemic and hence improving the SC performance of the leather industry. Although not totally, these valuable insights into the RCs and RSs for the leather industry during and following COVID-19 periods can be generalized across other industries in Bangladesh and EE regions affected by the pandemic.

An Investigation into the Determinants of Venture Capital Investment: Evidence from Emerging Economies of Asia Pacific

Since the 1980s–90s, Venture capital has grown to be widely considered as an effective source of funding for creative operations besides playing a pivotal role in the development of economies. Focusing primarily on sixteen Emerging economies of Asia-Pacific, the research sheds light on the determinants of venture capital, over the period 2006–2021, coinciding with the peak of venture capital activity in this region. By employing Panel regression analysis, incorporating fixed and random effects, and complementing the findings with Pairwise Granger Causality tests, this scholarly work offers a comprehensive understanding of the distributional and operational characteristics of the Asia-Pacific venture capital market. Moreover, it provides valuable insights for entrepreneurs and policymakers on how to efficiently foster venture capital activities in emergent economies.

Bamboo Construction Inspired by Vernacular Techniques for Reducing Carbon Footprint: A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Whilst upcoming innovations on digital technology and renewable energy can have a significant impact on the reduction of operational carbon emissions in the construction industry, readily available fast-growing building materials like bamboo are already proving reductions in the embodied carbon of dwellings above 60% when compared to traditional brickwork in Colombia. This paper presents a like-by-like comparison of the environmental impact of a conventional clay brick house (CBH) and a bamboo house for social housing in Colombia, which was built using adapted vernacular technologies. The bamboo house uses bamboo species Guadua angustifolia Kunth as the main structural support for the light cement bamboo frame (LCBF) system, a.k.a. ‘cemented bahareque’, whilst the CBH combines clay bricks and steel for the load-bearing walls. Traditionally built Guadua angustifolia Kunth bahareque (GaKB) houses are a key part of the vernacular architecture in the ‘coffee cultural landscape of Colombia’ (CCLC) recognised by UNESCO. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to calculate the carbon footprint of the houses following four phases: (1) definition of objective and scope; (2) inventory analysis; (3) impact assessment; and (4) interpretation of results. The results show that the carbon footprint of the GaKB house accounts for about 40% of the CBH, i.e., the GaKB generates a carbon footprint of 107.17 CO2-eq/m2 whilst the CBH results in a carbon footprint of 298.44 kg CO2-eq/m2. Furthermore, from a carbon balance calculation, the carbon footprint of the GaKB house is further reduced to about 36% of the CSB house. LCA results for the built GaKB house demonstrate that vernacular housing projects that preserve cultural heritage can also be resilient and climate-neutral. This paper sets a precedent for the establishment of targeted government policies and industry practices that preserve the cultural heritage and vernacular technologies in the CCLC region and in other emergent economies worldwide whilst promoting future-proof and net-zero carbon construction.

Long-run macroeconomic impact of climate change on total factor productivity — Evidence from emerging economies

Emerging economies (EMEs) often ignore effective mitigation strategies for persistent climate changes to prioritise growth acceleration. This paper shows that they cannot sustain their economic growth due to the adverse impact of temperature rise on total factor productivity (TFP). Using a standard growth model, it demonstrates how temperature rise and variation for growing carbon emissions reduce capital productivity along with the damage to ecosystem services and labour productivity, adversely impacting total factor productivity (TFP) of an individual economy. A cross-sectional augmented auto-regressive distributed lag model (CS-ARDL), which addresses the issues of endogeneity, heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence with stochastic trends, has been applied to 21 EMEs over the period from 1990 to 2018 and reveals a strong negative impact of temperature rise on total factor productivity. Although EMEs have heterogeneous impacts across the countries depending upon their climatic zones and income levels, one degree increase in temperature, on average, has decreased the TFP by approximately 3.22 per cent. It is much higher in the extreme climatic zones and less developed economies.

The cultural underpinnings of platformization: How social movement organizations helped form the category of the sharing economy

This paper explores the cultural dynamics underpinning platformization by unpacking the emergence of the sharing economy—a vital terrain of platformization—as a culturally significant category. Drawing on online archival data, our study reveals the important role of social movement organizations (SMOs) in establishing the sharing economy as a prominent cultural category and infusing it with powerful social meanings. We outline the discursive strategies used by SMOs to articulate this macro-market category, and to frame platform technology as a benevolent enabler of social change. Our study contributes to platformization research by turning attention to how cultural dynamics (i.e., the discursive strategies giving rise to the emergence of sharing economy) shape platformization. In addition, we contribute to market system dynamic research by expanding the focus of investigation from singular industries to the macro economy level, shedding light on new discursive dynamics (e.g., discursive strategies for articulating and technologizing the emergent economy), and by the extending previous work on the role of SMOs and social movements in market shaping.

The Effect of Knowledge Creation Practices on Managerial and Marketing Innovation Through Creativity

Knowledge creation (KC) is viewed as one of the important practices in knowledge management (KM) process. It is argued that the success of the firm is measured, to a great extent, by its level of innovation. In fact, an innovation-oriented perspective contributes to sustainability. Moreover, innovation is usually developed through new knowledge and creative ideas. That’s why; it is relevant to examine the relationship between KC, creativity, and innovation. The first objective of the present paper is to study three direct relationships: The first relation is between KC and innovation (managerial, marketing). The second direct relation is between knowledge creation and creativity. The Third direct relation is between creativity and innovation. The second objective is to analyze the relationship between KC and innovation through the mediation of creativity. Finally, we will compare the results and identify the strongest and significant links useful for practice. The focus is on non-technological innovation because the majority of studies dealt with technological innovation. Added to that, managerial and marketing innovation is supposed to procure an advantage for emergent economies in a post-revolutionary and Covid context. The quantitative approach is adopted upon which 83 valid questionnaires are analyzed using the SEM with Pls3 to test the relationships between the variables. The results show that KC has a positive and significant effect on the two considered types of innovation. In addition, since KC dynamics allow organizations to develop and generate new ideas favorable to innovation, it has a positive effect on creativity. The test of mediation proves that creativity intervenes in the relation between KC, operationalized by the SECI model, and innovation. Based on these results, we may conclude that the relationship between KC and innovation becomes the strongest with the mediation of creativity. Certainly, these results have several implications both on the theoretical and empirical sides.

Social Capital and Innovative Performance in Networks: The Journey of Romanian SaaS Entrepreneurs

Abstract Entrepreneurship is increasingly acknowledged as a critical economic and growth driver. As a result, practitioners’ and scholars’ inquiry into the link between the entrepreneurial social network and its pursuit of innovation have gained momentum in developed economies. However, it remains scarce in the context of emergent economies. Drawing upon social network theory, this qualitative study explores this knowledge gap by examining how Romanian software as a service (SaaS) entrepreneurs enable innovative performance by using social capital in national and international entrepreneurial networks. This qualitative interpretative study relies on the experiences and practices shared by 24 Romanian SaaS entrepreneurs interviewed to expand our understanding of how these entrepreneurs use social capital-driven networks to achieve innovative performance in international markets. Feeling unsupported by a weak institutional entrepreneurial context, Romanian SaaS entrepreneurs build their international entrepreneurial journeys and achieve innovative performance extensively by relying on social capital-driven networks. This paper contributes to the emergent economies stream on entrepreneurship literature and regional entrepreneurship policies. These findings show that motivated to overcome the challenges of a weak institutional context and pursue their entrepreneurial path, these Romanian SaaS entrepreneurs’ international presence and innovative performance are relational manifestations of bonding and bridging social capital-based networks.

Domestic barriers to entry and external vulnerability in emerging economies

Emerging economies (EMEs) exhibit high regulatory costs of firm creation. At the same time, lower firm-creation costs are associated with greater financial development and use of formal credit, which can expose EME firms to external financial shocks that propagate to EMEs via the banking system such as those that EMEs experienced during the Global Financial Crisis. We present evidence showing that in response to an adverse shock to the US banking system, EMEs with low firm-creation costs exhibit smaller contractions and earlier recoveries in cross-border bank flows, domestic bank credit, and GDP compared to EMEs with high firm-creation costs. A two-country model with banking frictions, cross-border bank flows, and endogenous firm entry can successfully capture this evidence. Our findings suggest that greater domestic credit-market deepening via lower barriers to firm entry in EMEs need not be associated with greater macro and domestic credit-market volatility.

Do market, resource and knowledge distance impact inbound cross-border acquisition?

With the increasing phenomena of cross-border acquisition (CBA) activities in emerging economies (EE), evidence about “distance” factors that make these economies attractive to home country firms is sparse. Given this background, we employ major locational advantage distance measures such as market, resource, and knowledge distances and examine their impact on the value and number of inbound CBAs in India. We source inbound CBA deal data from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database for the 1990–2020 period during which 47 home countries were making acquisitions of target firms in India. We develop relevant hypotheses based on a comprehensive literature review. We run tobit and negative binomial regression models on a final sample of 921 country-pair-year observations to test the hypotheses. The results show that increasing market and knowledge distances enhanced the value and number of India's inbound CBAs, fueled by the country's growth potential and knowledge base. However, we find no evidence of a role played by resource distance.

Emotional and behavioural appeals as key determinants in Ghanaian consumer pre-banking behaviour

PurposeThe pre-purchase phase of consumer behaviour for financial services, especially retail banking, has been under-researched. This study explored the determinants of consumer pre-banking behaviour (BAB) in the Ghanaian banking sector.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative approach was employed by extending the constructs of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and technology acceptance model (TAM) to include affective and conative components and utilising a partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis.FindingsAffective, conative, cognitive attitude, emotions and perceived trust (PT) were significant determinants of consumer pre-BAB. From a practical point of view, marketing managers need to be emotionally connected with their potential consumers to enhance the propensity of automatic purchasing.Research limitations/implicationsThe country context, sample type and size are limitations and so extending the study to other countries, with larger samples and additional insights on subjective norms (SNs), could help improve the model's efficacy.Originality/valueThe results presented in this paper are relevant and original because it is the only study, based on potential customers in an emergent economy context, to advocate the need for an emotional connection with potential consumers at the pre-banking stage to enhance the possibility of automatic purchasing.

Insider Trading Recognition among the Stakeholders of Bangladesh and Adequacy of the Regulations

Purpose- As an emergent economy Bangladesh is trying to develop a capital market, but the share prices in Bangladesh are widely believed to be artificially designed and manipulated. It is necessary to get back the public confidence back in the market. Without analyzing the factual scenario would not be feasible. This study tries to empirically ascertain the allegations regarding insider trading in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approach– This isexploratory research with a limited focus on quantitative analysis. It analyses the primary data collected through structured questionnaires from four groups of stakeholders (board members, top-level employees, stock dealers, and investors) for description and relationship. Findings– Although a significant proportion of the respondents are aware of insider trading, 1they feel their knowledge about insider trading is not adequate to detect or prevent it from happening through an employee (insider) code of conduct. Also, the respondents think that the rules preventing insider trading in Bangladesh are not adequate. According to their opinion companies are not taking sufficient measures to prohibit insiders to make a profit or avoid loss at the cost of general investors.Originality/value– The outcome of this research will be helpful for managers and financial regulatory bodies to ensure better fiduciary responsibility of the key employees towards the general investors. An important barrier to the creation of an efficient market can be removed by being aware that insider trading occurs in the face of an ineffective legal and regulatory system.

Corruption, crime and investments by firms in emerging economies

PurposeThe study aims to investigate the effect of corruption and crime on the investments by firms in emerging economies (EEs).Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts the generalised methods of moments (GMM) estimator and data across 57 EEs.FindingsThe study shows that crime management, corruption and external quality assurance drive-up investments. Additionally, investments decline with firm age and crime incidence. Corruption and crime managements increase investments by exporting firms more than non-exporting firms investments. Also, external auditor services benefit investments by large firms more than small-medium firms.Originality/valueThere is a need for EEs to implement policies that will curtail corruption and create a level playing field and sustainable firm growth. EEs firms must be innovative to expand their productive investments and grow over time. Also, EEs firms should seek external quality certification, invest in internal security and monitor goods in transit.

Universal prenatal screening: a initiative from Guanajuato, Mexico to improve equity in perinatal healthcare.

The prenatal approach from a preventive perspective is necessary to reduce perinatal complications. A perinatal care model with a holistic and horizontal approach is required. Mexico is currently considered an emerging market economy with inequality and an economic gap that impacts the accessibility and distribution of healthcare services. Guanajuato is one of the 32 states of Mexico and represents 1.6% of the country's surface. Strategies during the prenatal approach allow prediction, diagnosis, and anticipation of the principal causes of morbidity and mortality. Combining data from maternal characteristics and history with findings of biophysical and biochemical tests at 11 to 13 weeks of gestation can define the patient-specific risk for a large spectrum of complications that include miscarriage and fetal death, preterm delivery, preeclampsia, congenital disorders, and fetal growth abnormalities. We aim to describe the care model designed and implemented in the State Center for Timely Prenatal Screening of the Maternal and Child Hospital of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico. Previous research showed there is a lack of information for low and middle-income countries regarding how to integrate prenatal screening strategies in the absence of resources to perform cell-free fetal DNA or biochemical serum markers in countries with emergent economies. This care model is carried out through horizontal processes where the screening is provided by trained and certified general practitioners who identify the population at risk in a timely manner for specialized care, and could help guide other Mexican states, and other countries with emergent economies with limited financial, professional, and infrastructural resources to improve prenatal care with a sense of equity, equality, and social inclusion as well as the timely evaluation of specialized perinatal care of high-risk patients.

The Pandemic Waves’ Impact on the Crude Oil Price and the Rise of Consumer Price Index: Case Study for Six European Countries

This study examines the response of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in local currency to the COVID-19 pandemic using monthly data (March 2020–February 2022), comparatively for six European countries. We have introduced a model of multivariate adaptive regression that considers the quasi-periodic effects of pandemic waves in combination with the global effect of the economic shock to model the variation in the price of crude oil at international levels and to compare the induced effect of the pandemic restriction as well and the oil price variation on each country’s CPI. The model was tested for the case of six emergent countries and developed European countries. The findings show that: (i) pandemic restrictions are driving a sharp rise in the CPI, and consequently inflation, in most European countries except Greece and Spain, and (ii) the emergent economies are more affected by the oil price and pandemic restriction than the developed ones.