ABSTRACT This study examines the complex relationships between productive sophistication, societal well‐being, corporate sustainability practices and the stability of the financial sector across three major Western countries. Using extensive panel data from 320 publicly traded financial institutions in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States between 2010 and 2022, we analyse both micro‐level equity performance measures (buy‐and‐hold returns) and macro‐level stability indicators ( z ‐scores) to evaluate banking sector health. Our framework, based on Hofstede's cultural typology, confirms that the selected countries share similar institutional and behavioural traits, reducing concerns about unobserved structural differences biasing our results. Through rigorous econometric analysis using ordinary least squares and feasible generalised least squares for robustness, we find a surprising paradox: while advanced productive structures promote national prosperity, they also create vulnerabilities within the banking system. Specifically, we observe a strong negative link between economic complexity indices and both types of bank performance, indicating that the features enabling advanced economies, such as sectoral interdependencies, rapid innovation and complex financial products, also introduce coordination challenges and contagion risks that banks struggle to absorb. Conversely, indicators of national happiness and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) scores consistently correlate with greater financial stability, suggesting that social trust and responsible governance act as buffers against systemic risks. Notably, we develop and empirically test a new interaction between a country's well‐being and investor climate sentiment, which shows counterintuitive negative effects on banking outcomes. This suggests that optimism combined with climate‐related fears can lead to sentiment‐driven mispricing, weakening rather than strengthening financial resilience. Our study advances the literature in three key ways: first, by highlighting economic complexity as a crucial macro‐structural factor influencing banking risk; second, by demonstrating that ESG and societal happiness serve as stabilisers in complex economies; and third, by identifying the limits where positive social conditions do not automatically translate into financial stability. These insights carry important policy implications, indicating that efforts to strengthen financial sectors should incorporate sustainability initiatives, well‐being considerations and targeted regulation to address systemic risks inherent in highly developed economic systems.
ABSTRACT Housing wealth has become a central site of inequality, security, and political conflict in contemporary capitalism. Yet citizens who perceive large asset inequality do not necessarily support increasing taxes on property and capital income. This article examines this puzzle in South Korea, where homeownership is deeply tied to household security, family strategy, and expectations of social mobility. It argues that homeownership may create a fiscal dilemma: homeowners may recognize asset inequality as unfair while remaining more cautious about taxation that may affect an asset base on which their own security depends. Using survey data from the 2021 Inequality and Fairness Survey, this study examines whether perceived asset inequality is associated with support for increasing taxes on property and capital income, and whether this association is weaker among homeowners. The findings show that perceived asset inequality is positively associated with support for increasing taxes on property and capital income, but this association is significantly attenuated among homeowners. This pattern remains after accounting for additional socioeconomic and political characteristics, although the cross‐sectional data cannot establish a causal effect of homeownership or identify the underlying mechanism. The article contributes to political economy debates on housing, inequality, and tax politics by showing that homeownership conditions the association between perceived asset inequality and property and capital‐income tax support.
ABSTRACT While real estate brokers are generally expected to improve market efficiency by reducing information asymmetry and facilitating transactions, their impact on housing prices remains inconclusive in the existing literature. This study investigates the relationship between brokerage activity and housing prices in the housing markets of Taiwan's six major municipalities. Using the bootstrap Fourier quantile Granger causality approach, we examine whether the causal relationship between broker numbers and housing prices varies across different housing market conditions. The results reveal substantial heterogeneity across municipalities. Brokerage activity is positively associated with housing prices in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung, but negatively associated with housing prices in Taoyuan and Tainan under weaker market conditions. In New Taipei, broker numbers appear to reflect transaction‐cost considerations rather than exerting a direct influence on housing prices. We also find evidence of reverse causality, whereby rising housing prices stimulate growth in broker numbers, particularly in Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, and Kaohsiung during periods of strong market performance. These findings suggest that the economic role of brokers varies according to local housing market structures and stages of market development. This study contributes to the housing market literature by demonstrating that brokerage activity has heterogeneous effects across market conditions and municipalities. The results provide important implications for housing policy, market regulation, and the development of the real estate brokerage industry.
The proposal for a BRICS common currency lacks rigorous analytical treatment of which specific constraint makes it structurally inviable. This article applies a binding constraint methodology, adapted from Hausmann et al. (2008), to evaluate the institutional, financial, and geopolitical constraints confronting the BRICS common currency proposal under current international monetary architecture. Through structured focused comparison and counterfactual analysis, the article demonstrates that the financial convertibility and capital account constraint is binding: all five core BRICS members share an identical normalized Chinn-Ito capital account openness score of 0.16, against a Eurozone founding-member comparator of 0.82-1.00, placing the grouping uniformly in the bottom quartile of global capital account openness. Resolving institutional or geopolitical constraints alone cannot unlock monetary union viability; resolving the capital account constraint is necessary, though not sufficient, for viability to become conceivable. The article reframes the policy debate on BRICS de-dollarization and contributes a structural corrective to the Eurozone analogy dominant in existing literature.
The transport sector is one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, making it a key priority for climate mitigation policies. In this context, renewable fuels represent a promising complementary pathway to transport electrification, particularly due to their compatibility with existing internal combustion engine infrastructure. However, their large-scale deployment entails significant economic costs that are likely to be transferred to consumers, making public acceptance and willingness to pay (WTP) critical for policy design and implementation. This study estimates Quebec households' WTP for the adoption of renewable fuels, with a particular focus on solar fuels produced through artificial photosynthesis. The analysis is based on the contingent valuation method using a payment card format combined with a dichotomous choice question. Data were collected through an online survey of 367 respondents. To address potential econometric issues arising from zero and protest responses, a two-step Heckman selection model is employed. In addition, robustness checks explicitly include protest responses in the estimation sample to assess the sensitivity of results to alternative treatment of non-purchase motivations. This allows for a more nuanced distinction between true zero valuations and objections to the payment vehicle or policy design. The results show a positive but heterogeneous WTP. In the baseline specification excluding protest responses, non-parametric estimates range from CAD 0.17 to CAD 0.28 per liter, while parametric estimates adjusted for selection bias range from CAD 0.38 to CAD 0.42 per liter. When protest responses are included, non-parametric estimates decrease to CAD 0.10-0.27 per liter, whereas parametric estimates slightly increase to CAD 0.41-0.45 per liter, indicating the overall robustness of the econometric correction. Econometric findings indicate that the decision to pay is primarily driven by attitudinal factors, particularly climate change perception and trust in government climate policy, whereas the level of WTP is mainly influenced by socioeconomic characteristics and environmental engagement. The significant role of institutional trust and perceived policy credibility highlights the importance of non-economic determinants in shaping support for energy transition policies. From a policy perspective, the results suggest generally favorable but conditional public acceptance of renewable fuels in Quebec. While they provide indicative support for financing mechanisms such as fuel taxes or dedicated R&D funds, these findings should not be interpreted as direct evidence of political feasibility. Instead, they reflect a stated preference in a hypothetical context, where acceptance is strongly mediated by trust in institutions and perceived policy effectiveness. These elements are crucial for the design of socially acceptable and credible low-carbon fuel policies.
This article examined the direct and indirect effects of financial development on macroeconomic stability as measured by the volatility of GDP per capita in ECOWAS over the period 1981-2020. Unlike previous studies that use the standard deviation of the variables to measure volatility, this study considers the standard deviation of the random component extracted from the estimation of a first-order autoregressive process for the variables. Using CS-ARDL modeling to account for the characteristics of our panel, the empirical results reveal that financial development, measured by domestic credit to the private sector, has a direct negative and significant effect on growth volatility in the ECOWAS region in the long run. In addition, financial development has an indirect effect on macroeconomic stability through its effects on real and monetary shocks. It attenuates real shocks and, conversely, is a source of amplification of the effects of monetary shocks on macroeconomic volatility in ECOWAS. The policy implications suggest that focusing on financial development is a way for ECOWAS policymakers to reinforce the macroeconomic stability of the zone. It is also crucial to promote credit diversification by encouraging banks to support promising and resilient sectors while exercising greater prudence in the management of monetary policy.
Target-date funds were introduced three decades ago for retirement-investing purposes and now hold more than $4 trillion in assets. They are often the default in companies' 401(k) retirement plans. The annual management fees on these funds have been declining and now average 0.29%. While the decline in target-date fund fees is to be welcomed by investors, those annual fees can compound to erode investors' returns over the decades-long time horizon involved in investing for retirement. Here, it is shown that an alternative is for investors to construct a portfolio of lower-fee index funds that can be managed in such a way as to mimic the operation of a target-date fund, with near-zero fees. This low-fee "do-it-yourself" alternative to investing in target-date funds has the potential to upend the target-date fund industry.
Economist and entrepreneur Silvio Gesell was the legitimate creator of the subject of macroeconomics as an autonomous discipline, the driving force behind the abandonment of the fixed and rigid gold standard in Argentina (which was in force until 1899) as well as a legislative reform package known as the "Tornquinian Reform." That reform in monetary theory replaced the "theory of value" with the "theory of prices" and promoted the use of a general price index as a substitute for the previous gold-based system of measuring prices. This reform led to international awareness of Gesell's economic theories due to their great success in Argentina. His ideas were also the foundation of subsequent Keynesian economic theory, the basis for economic development in the 20th century throughout the world to the present day. The innovation and technical modernization of Gesell's analysis played a key role in the reform of the international monetary system through its influence on J. M. Keynes' BANCOR proposal which was based on Gesell's IVA model. Other key concepts pioneered by Gesell were the use of negative interest rates and stabilizing monetary velocity to eliminate speculative, financial, and economic bubbles and to transform economic development into a stable and predictable process. After having been ignored for decades, Gesell's impact is becoming a subject of widespread study in recent years.
This study investigates consumer preferences for renewable fuels in Quebec, with a particular focus on a solar fuel produced through artificial photosynthesis. Using a discrete choice experiment (DCE) and both conditional logit (CL) and random parameters logit (RPL) models, we estimate marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for key fuel attributes, including price, accessibility, environmental performance, and the share of solar fuel in gasoline. The analysis is based on a sample of 627 respondents, yielding 9405 choice observations. The results reveal a strong and statistically significant preference for renewable fuels, with substantial heterogeneity in consumer preferences. The RPL model outperforms the CL specification in terms of fit and behavioral realism, highlighting the importance of accounting for unobserved preference heterogeneity. Price has a consistently negative and highly significant effect on choice probability, while accessibility, environmental performance, and fuel mix are positively valued. MWTP estimates derived from the preferred RPL specification indicate that respondents are willing to pay, on average, $0.56/L for improvements in fuel mix, $0.58/L for accessibility, and $0.59/L for environmental performance. The alternative-specific constant reflects a strong intrinsic preference for renewable fuels, with an associated MWTP of $1.62/L, leading to a total MWTP of $3.37/L. In contrast, the conditional logit model produces lower and less stable welfare estimates, with a total MWTP of $1.58/L, suggesting that restrictive preference assumptions lead to an underestimation of welfare measures. Robustness checks using a mixed logit model in willingness-to-pay space confirm these findings and further support the stability of the estimated preferences. The results show consistent positive valuation of fuel mix and accessibility, as well as strong evidence of preference heterogeneity across individuals. Sociodemographic interactions reveal that women, more educated individuals, and urban residents exhibit stronger preferences for renewable fuels, while highly motorized households display behavioral inertia. These findings underscore the importance of heterogeneity in shaping energy transition preferences. Overall, the results suggest that renewable fuel adoption in Quebec is driven by a combination of economic, environmental, and behavioral factors. The findings provide important insights for designing targeted and socially inclusive policies to support the transition toward low-carbon transportation systems.
RN employment rebounded unevenly across the states of the U.S. after the acute phase of COVID-19. We examine how 2021 state COVID-19 policy mixes across six domains were associated with registered nurse (RN) employment recovery in 2022: telehealth expansion, early prescription refill flexibility, cost relief (cost-sharing + vaccine cost relief), paid sick leave, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates. Using 51 jurisdictions (50 states plus the District of Columbia), we apply Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in a mixed-set design, coding policy domains as crisp-set membership indicators (0/1) based on documented adoption in 2021 and calibrating the outcome as a set-membership score from the percent change in RN employment from 2021 to 2022 (p25/median/p75 anchors). At a consistency cutoff of 0.70, we identify multiple configurations sufficient for high recovery (solution consistency = 0.809; total coverage = 0.444), consistent with equifinality. Access-oriented tools (telehealth expansion and refill flexibility) recur across several high-recovery configurations, while mandates and paid sick leave vary across pathways. The empirical results are robust to stricter specifications, including a higher consistency cutoff (0.75), a higher frequency threshold (Freq >= 2), and alternative calibration anchors (20/50/80). In contrast, low recovery (1-Y) is characterized by different sufficient configurations (solution consistency = 0.965; total coverage = 0.416), underscoring causal asymmetry. We interpret these results as configuration-level associations rather than causal estimates and highlight how feasible access policies interact with mandates and workforce protections within broader state policy mixes linked to RN employment recovery.
Silvio Gesell's concept of "rusting money," developed in the late 1890s, aimed to stabilize economic cycles through state monetary policy. He proposed a controlled money supply to prevent inflation and stimulate circulation to counteract deflation. Gesell's ideas evolved with insights from Georg Friedrich Knapp's Chartalism, emphasizing the state's role in managing money through taxation and investment. His theories gained traction during the 1929 economic crisis, leading to the establishment of the W & Auml;RA exchange in Erfurt, which experimented with currency featuring negative interest rates. Despite initial success, government bans halted these experiments. Interest in Gesell's ideas resurfaced in the 1990s and 2000s with the emergence of mutual credit and convertible local currencies, focusing on community building and ecological transformation. These modern initiatives blend social ideals with monetary programming, promoting cooperation over competition and aiming to enhance social prosperity within ecological limits. The goal is to foster a sustainable economy that benefits all members of society. With the help of the quantity theory, the quantitative effects of the regional currency Chiemgauer are examined and critically discussed.
Adam Smith's two distinct benefits from foreign trade were offered to dissuade others from adopting the mercantilist view that there is one principal gain from trade: the importation of money. Although Smith's two benefits received considerable attention in the literature, there was no consensus on what Smith meant by his two benefits. This paper offers a new interpretation of those benefits. Smith's first benefit is a micro benefit, with its impact on individuals. That benefit is the subjective value creation that results from voluntary international exchange. Both parties to the exchange experience an improvement in their living standard. Smith's second benefit is a macro benefit, impacting the economy at large. International trade extends markets and allows for production on a larger scale. A greater division of labor increases labor productivity and increases the national product. This increase in aggregate production is the second benefit from foreign trade. What makes this interpretation of Smith's two benefits attractive is the evidence that Adam Smith concurs with the interpretation.
The NCAA's 2021 relaxation of transfer restrictions created a large institutional shift in athlete mobility. Using NCAA Division I men's and women's basketball data from 2008 to 2025, we examine how this policy change affected transfer volume and sorting across programs. Transfers increased by 78% for men and 116% for women in the 4 years following the reform relative to the 4 years prior. Movement shifted toward Division I-to-Division I transfers, and descriptive evidence indicates stronger sorting across conference tiers. The mean player efficiency scores (PER) of transfers received by top-tier programs increased, particularly for women, consistent with improved matching following the reduction in mobility frictions. Although the analysis focuses on observed movement rather than compensation, these patterns are consistent with possible underlying differences in total athlete compensation between programs. Limited data on athlete-level NIL compensation preclude direct estimation of price effects, leaving this as an important direction for future research.
This study examines the relationship between coal-fired power generator shutdowns and county-level divorce rates in Ohio using a two-way fixed effects model. The results show that reductions in coal-fired generating capacity have no measurable impact on divorce rates in non-rural counties but are associated with significantly higher divorce rates in rural counties. This rural-specific effect highlights the heightened social vulnerability of communities with less diversified labor markets, where economic shocks in male-dominated industries can have broader consequences for family stability. Counties with higher levels of religious adherence tend to have lower divorce rates, and this protective effect is stronger in rural counties where religious institutions play a central role in community life. Demographic patterns further indicate that rural counties with larger young adult populations experience higher divorce rates, while the share of older adults is not significantly related to divorce once other controls are included. Consistent with prior literature showing that transitions away from carbon-intensive industries create both winners and losers, we find that energy sector transitions can generate uneven social impacts in rural communities that extend beyond employment and income. These findings contribute to and inform emerging just transition scholarship by underscoring the importance of localized social dynamics and family stability when designing equitable transition policies.
In the article "Gesell's Natural Economic Order as a Blueprint for a 'Fairconomy' and a Sustainable Future" in this special issue, it was explained why and how our monetary system forces us to constantly increase economic output. However, whether or not there is in fact such a growth imperative inherent in our monetary system is a topic of ongoing debate in ecological economics and bio-economics, while conventional economic wisdom still outright rejects the concept entirely. This article categorizes into five groups the arguments often offered against the existence of a growth imperative inherent in our monetary system. It then discusses and discards each of the arguments. Using the case of Chile's forests and aquaculture management zones, it will be explained why this growth imperative applies to private and public goods alike. Even though a natural resource may be privately owned, this does not guarantee that the resource will not be overexploited.
Most discussions about money begin by identifying three core functions that money performs-i.e., medium of exchange (MoE), unit of account (UoA) and store of value (SoV). Silvio Gesell's revolutionary insight was that the MoE and SoV functions are inherently incompatible. Regardless of the specific design of money-whether backed by gold, unbacked fiat or crypto-any form of money that is intended to be used as a vehicle for saving will systematically fail to perform the MoE function. As Gesell put it, "money cannot be & mldr; simultaneously spur and brake." If we must choose between money's functions-and Gesell told us we must-clearly the MoE function is the one we should choose, since it is the fundamental precondition of an advanced division of labor system, upon which all of our lives depend. Therefore, Gesell said, including the SoV function in money's design is a fundamental mistake that gives rise to a variety of harmful consequences. After laying out a clear, logical analysis explaining how this flaw in the design of money is the root cause of problems including poverty, ever-increasing wealth inequality, inflation and deflation and recurring economic crises-Gesell offered a simple yet radical solution: "I therefore propose a complete separation of the medium of exchange from the medium of saving." His proposed methodology for accomplishing this is demurrage-a planned, consistent, gradual decline of the purchasing power of money. The purpose of this reform is to make money unsuitable for use as a vehicle for saving and thereby make it a reliable MoE that will perform its essential function without causing all of the aforementioned problems. He explained how doing so will completely transform the economy, finally allowing the free-market system to deliver on its promises of robust wealth creation, equitable distribution of wealth and economic stability.
This paper reassesses the legacy of Silvio Gesell and the fate of the anarchistic monetary reform tradition inspired by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. It argues that Gesell's proposal of "perishable money" (demurrage) provides the missing theoretical key to the long-standing problem of interest and rent, reframing them as institutional mechanisms of systemic rent extraction. The article reconstructs the intellectual genealogy leading from the Proudhon-Bastiat debate to Gesell's synthesis, and examines how Marxism, marginalism, Keynesianism, and libertarianism successively marginalized or neutralized this tradition. It contends that modern economics has obscured the political nature of money and the role of banking in sustaining oligarchic structures of power. The paper also reflects on the author's three decades of advocacy for Gesellian reform and the persistent institutional resistance encountered. Despite renewed interest in negative rates, complementary currencies, and cryptocurrencies, the essay concludes that the radical institutional implications of Gesell's project remain largely unacknowledged, leaving his "revolution" still waiting to happen.
The unsustainable trajectory of modern economic structures, especially the growth imperative, and the increasing disparity in income distribution, both widely acknowledged as barriers to sustainability, are fundamentally linked to the existing monetary system. However, the scope of this issue extends beyond sustainability alone, encompassing unemployment, inflation, and recurring financial crises, which are all intrinsically tied to the structural framework of current monetary mechanisms. This article contends that true sustainability can only be achieved by transitioning from an artificially structured monetary system to a more natural alternative, as advocated by Silvio Gesell. Implementing such a system is essential for approaching the theoretical construct of "perfect competition", which remains unattainable under existing financial paradigms, and for realizing what Max-Neef et al. (1991) describe as "development at human scale", a model that prioritizes the fulfillment of fundamental human needs.
We consider theories of interest as they relate to what we will call the Gesell-Keynes (GK) theory which is essentially a real theory of capital accumulation with a monetary constraint that arises because of a liquidity return on holding money. We give brief presentations of the neoclassical theory (Fisher), growth models (Solow and Ramsey), and monetary models of growth (Tobin and Sidrauski). The GK theory is a neoclassical theory of the return on capital with a liquidity return on money hindering the path to the growth theory steady state. The monetary growth models do address the GK liquidity return on holding money, and we will highlight a contrast here between how Gesell and Keynes relate to these with different models of the economy and their different solutions to the monetary constraint.
