Prediction of Surface Temperature and CO2 Emission using a novel grey system model

The increase in surface temperature and CO2 emissions are two of the most important issues in climate studies and global warming. The ‘Global Emissions 2021’ report identifies the six biggest contributors to CO2­ emissions; China, USA, India, Russia, Japan, and Germany. The current study projects the increase in surface temperature and the CO­2 emissions of these six countries by 2028. The EGM (1,1,α,θ) grey model is an even form of the model with a first order differential equation, that has one variable and a weightage background value that contains conformable fractional accumulation. The results show that while the CO2 emissions for Japan, Germany, USA and Russia show a downward projection, they are expected to increase in India and remain nearly constant in China by 2028. The surface temperature has been projected to increase at a significant rate in all these countries. By comparing with the EGM (1,1) grey model, the results show that the EGM (1,1, α, θ) model performs better in both in-sample and out-of-sample forecasting. The paper also puts forward some policy suggestions to mitigate, manage and reduce increases in surface temperature as well as CO2 emissions.

Urbanization can help reduce income inequality

The global community has been confronted with rising income inequality, in particular, for those least developed countries (LDCs), since the same level of inequality as in advanced countries would push many LDCs into abject poverty. This paper focuses on income inequality in developing countries, particularly LDCs. First, we demonstrate the infeasibility of fiscal measures in resolving income inequality even in developed countries. Second, we show that inequality in LDCs can be largely explained by urban-rural gap. Third, we uncover the benign impacts of urbanization on urban-rural gap. This leads us to propose an out-of-box strategy—containing income inequality by promoting well-managed urbanization. Fourth, we reveal a misperception that may have contributed to the neglect of urban-rural gap in constituting national inequality. This has possibly caused anti-urbanization mentalities and practices, with adverse distributional consequences. Finally, we provide evidence-based policy suggestions aimed at reducing income inequality and poverty—two major goals of SDGs.

Beschaffungsdienstleister im Vergabeverfahren

For the first time, this research opens up the field of procurement services, which has long existed in the real world, in a profound and comprehensive manner by developing a phenomenology and typology based on Art. 2 (1) No. 17 Directive 2014/24/EU. In essence, Nicole Lieb sheds light on the legal status of the procurement service provider and examines the legal requirements for the division of labour between it and the contracting authority in the context of an award procedure (the whether, the how and the consequences). Finally, valuable legal policy suggestions are made for the professionalisation of public procurement.

Socio-psychological profile of Latvian inhabitants who did not comply with the COVID-19 epidemiological requirements

Since the beginning of 2020, the world has been affected by the corona virus COVID-19. Since the spring, a number of nations around the world, including Latvia, have declared a state of emergency, with specific government restrictions developed in cooperation with WHO, to reduce spread of the COVID-19. The aim of this study is to examine socio-psychological profile of Latvian inhabitants who did not comply with the COVID-19 epidemiological requirements. A randomized nationally representative sample (N = 2608, aged from 18–74, men 39.8%, women 60.2%) from the online survey, carried out in the frame of the National research program, project Nr. VPP-COVID-2020/1-0011, was used in this study. The results showed that less compliant with COVID-19 epidemiological requirements were males, rural inhabitants, persons aged less than 60 years old, unemployed, with lower education level, and those, who are less afraid of COVID-19 and think that its dangerousness is exaggerated. Compliance with the restrictions did not relate to the marital and parental status. Based on this study, policy suggestions were made regarding a more targeted way of the providing important information on the preventive behaviour to reduce the spread of the virus.

Impact of Social Capital on Environmental Governance Efficiency—Behavior of Guangdong, China

The main purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of social capital level on environmental governance efficiency in economically developed areas. We choose China’s richest province Guangdong. Compared with other Chinese provinces, Guangdong’s local governments are in better fiscal status, and they can allocate environmental spending in line with the trend of gross domestic product per capita. We want to observe the important factors related to social cognition other than capital investment to gain a more profound influence on the efficiency of local environmental governance. This article assumes that the degree of local social capital will have a great positive impact on the efficiency of regional environmental governance. Super-efficiency slacks-based measure method of data envelopment analysis is adopted to calculate the environmental governance efficiency by considering the expected output and the nonexpected output. Then, short-panel regression was used to analyze the relationship between social capital and environmental governance efficiency. Through an empirical analysis of urban panel data of Guangdong province from 2001 to 2019, it is found that the degree of social capital does have a significant positive impact on the efficiency of local environmental governance. After the research conclusion, we propose some policy suggestions to local governments.

Measuring the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on the UK’s Leisure and Sport during the 2020 Lockdown

This research evaluates the effect of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic on sport Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and consumer expenditure in the leisure sector in the United Kingdom (UK). The leisure sector is divided into leisure at home and away from home, examining in this way the different patterns that emerged because of the national lockdown in 2020. The effect on sport GDP is examined using the Office for National Statistics (ONS) surveys and the UK Sport Satellite Account (SSA). The study found that, because of its reliance on human contact, sport GDP is likely to decline by more than twice the rate of the overall economy. Furthermore, this finding is consistent with the 2020 consumer expenditure on leisure that shows increases in spending on home leisure but also a huge decline in spending on out-of-home entertainment. The decline in GDP is extremely likely to put pressure on profit margins and hence threaten the survival of private enterprises, raising issues of sustainability under conditions of a pandemic. Increases in long-term public funding for reducing sport inequalities should be considered along with short-term relief packages for the sport sector. Additional policy suggestions are offered to address these issues.

Carbon and Energy Intensity of the USA and Germany. A LMDI Decomposition Approach and Decoupling Analysis.

The present study investigates the driving factors of energy and carbon intensity of the great economies of the USA and Germany, being two economies with different structures and dependencies on energy while they are among the world’s economic and geopolitical leading players. Both Decoupling and Decomposition Analysis are applied to identify and rank factors defining Carbon and Energy Intensity during the period from 2000 to 2017, with the so-called financial crisis being within this period. The decoupling analysis denotes that these advanced economies should enhance their decoupling efforts, while decomposition analysis confirms the leading role of energy intensity in CO2 emissions, next the income and the energy mix emerge as important factors with population trend to be an additional factor only in the USA. Finally, conclusions and relevant policy suggestions are presented.

Social Mobility in Developing Countries

The book distils our multidisciplinary investigation into social mobility, with this concluding chapter weaving together the research strands into coherent policy suggestions. Three sets of motivations guided our research work: identifying knowledge gaps; innovations and improvements in research practice; using the findings to craft social mobility policy advice, particularly in developing country settings. The concluding chapter synthesizes some of the key learnings in relation to these three guiding motivations. Investing in social mobility through policy investments ought to be a very important part of any future development agenda. A belief has prevailed that a country’s GNP must grow first before the problems of the poor can be addressed. We suggest that this logic be turned on its head via countries investing in social mobility for their entire populations, not just those with access to education, healthcare, etc. Growth and social justice can be promoted by well-designed policy tools.

Ethnographies on Prisoner Reentry

This chapter discusses ethnographies of reentry, or the process of people returning from prison to the community. In the chapter, both ethnography and reentry are defined broadly. For example, qualitative interviewing, participation observation, and a combination thereof are included under an umbrella of “ethnography.” These studies share an inductive or abductive analysis, with iterative engagement between data and existing literature and theories, and therefore the possibility for theoretical development. While much of the focus is on the return of people to the community after a period of incarceration, key works that focus on adjacent concepts, such as desistance, or why and how people with a pattern and history of offending stop, are also included. The chapter begins with a discussion of major ethnographic works on reentry, organized by those that focus on the individuals experiencing reentry (including major subgroups, such as men or women, people of different race/ethnic groups, youth, or young adults) and those that focus on systems and organizations. Then, it discusses major methodological issues, including researcher positionality. It concludes with brief discussions of future directions, which build both on earlier findings and on new technologies, and policy suggestions that emerge from both findings and practices in ethnographic work.