ABSTRACT South Koreaʼs local‐government reform has not been matched by evidence on how the officials administering intergovernmental relations judge the centreʼs involvement. Using five waves (2010–2022) of a national survey of Korean public officials, we measure whether officials consider central intervention in local affairs excessive. An unadjusted model suggests that judgement hardened; the rise is an artefact of changing sample composition. Standardised to the 2010 composition, an equivalence test bounds the net 2010–2022 change inside a tenth of a scale point, but not 2019–2022, the window nearest the reform. Over the same years Koreaʼs statutory record shows its largest devolution in three decades while its published fiscal ratios ended lower than they began: three records, three answers. A large positional gap persists in every wave, subnational officials judging intervention excessive far more readily than central officials, though a repeated cross‐section cannot separate what officials encounter from what they expect.
ABSTRACT SDG 2 ‘Zero Hunger’ has been a global commitment to ensure sufficient healthy food for all. Accounting for more than 40% of south‐east Asiaʼs population, several millions of Indonesians still face the risk of food insecurity despite of large improvements achieved. This article compares the progress made during the past decade to other ASEAN countries. It also explores the patterns and the changes of food security across Indonesiaʼs vast territory. We identify a gap in food security improvements at national level which has constantly been widening since 2019 and experienced a growth shortfall relative to the historical trend. We find a pronounced West‐East gradient in food security patterns across Indonesiaʼs 38 provinces which has been fairly stable since 2019. However, convergence of food security levels has barely taken place. Indonesiaʼs policies should ensure increased convergence of food security across its provinces and bring the country back to its stable pre‐Covid19 food security improvement trajectory.
ABSTRACT Final consumption expenditure as a percentage of GDP, our aggregate proxy for energy demand, is negatively and significantly associated with Chinaʼs green growth over 2004–2022. The relationship holds across specifications (H1 supported), with a long‐run elasticity of −1.29 under Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS). ICT adoption provides no significant positive association, leaving H2 unsupported. Cultural value added is tested without a directional prior under H3 and also has a significant negative long‐run coefficient under FMOLS. We examine these relationships using an annual model guided by Environmental Kuznets Curve theory and sectoral energy transition theory. A Green Growth Index constructed from World Development Indicators is the outcome; population enters alongside the energy‐demand proxy, ICT adoption, and cultural value added. Ordinary Least Squares and Generalised Least Squares with AR(1) correction provide benchmarks for the primary long‐run FMOLS estimates. Consumption‐oriented cultural expansion offers a possible explanation for the cultural result, although the aggregate series cannot identify that mechanism. The policy discussion develops implications for sector‐specific efficiency regulation, green ICT applications, and cultural‐industry finance in China. Application to other Asia‐Pacific economies remains illustrative and requires comparative evidence.
ABSTRACT The resource‐efficiency coefficient is not statistically significant in our full‐sample model of tourism receipts. The other estimates show why the outcome measure and the treatment of the pandemic period matter to its interpretation. We examine this relationship in a static panel of 14 Asian economies from 2002 to 2022. Inclusion in the sample is determined by data availability in the current World Bank extract. Resource efficiency is the primary explanatory variable, measured as GDP produced per unit of CO 2 ‐equivalent emitted. The Fixed Effects baseline uses country‐clustered standard errors and controls for population, electricity consumption, internet access, and urbanisation. Receipts as a share of exports yield a positive, statistically significant association with resource efficiency ( β = 1.318, p < 0.001); visitor arrivals do not yield a significant association ( β = 0.346, p = 0.608). Isolating or controlling for the COVID‐19 period strengthens the receipts result, with marginal significance in the pre‐COVID specification ( β = 0.753, p = 0.055). Taken together, these results favour evaluating resource‐efficiency policy in tourism‐dependent Asian economies in terms of the economic value generated by tourism, while retaining the conditions under which the association does and does not hold.
This study explores whether and how vertical common ownership along the supply chain plays a lubricating role in key core technology breakthroughs. Using a dataset of Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2023, we find that vertical common institutional ownership significantly promotes the breakthrough of key core technology. We also clarify that vertical common ownership exerts the lubricating effect by improving patent mutual citations along the supply chain and reducing firms' asset occupancy. This lubricating effect is stronger for non-state-owned firms as well as firms characterised by limited knowledge breadth and high asset specificity. Our findings provide valuable insights into understanding the importance of supply chain common institutional investors in promoting national strategic innovation capabilities.
