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Integrating sustainability information through value chain disclosures: insights from the wood-based industries
No full textAs sustainability increasingly shapes business strategy and stakeholder expectations, integrating sustainability information across the value chain has become essential. This paper examines the role of sustainability disclosures as a mechanism for integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information within the wood-based industries in light of new reporting requirements. We analyze how value chain disclosures contribute to transparency, accountability, risk management, and sustainability performance. Companies that adopt a comprehensive approach to sustainability disclosure tend to demonstrate higher levels of stakeholder engagement and long-term strategic alignment with sustainability goals. However, challenges persist, including data fragmentation, limited supplier collaboration, and a lack of standardization in reporting formats. The paper also highlights the challenges faced by wood-based industries in maintaining effective supply chain collaborations and the need for innovative solutions to overcome barriers to sustainability. It advocates for a holistic approach that encompasses product design, recycling technologies, and waste management strategies to maximize resource utilization and minimize waste. Overall, the paper provides valuable insights into how wood-based industries can integrate sustainability information through value chain disclosures to achieve long-term sustainability and competitive advantage
Shaping Future FTAs - Lessons from the Investment Provisions in India's TEPA with EFTA
No full textThis paper critically examines the investment-related provisions of the India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA), signed on 10 March 2024 focusing on its ambitious commitment to mobilise $100 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) and generate one million direct jobs over 15 years in India.
Using global aggregate FDI flows and India’s remittance-level FDI data, this study evaluates the feasibility of meeting TEPA’s targets, highlighting discrepancies in FDI measurement, definitional ambiguities, and the predominance of financial over Real FDI. This analysis highlights the limited investment by EFTA countries, particularly Switzerland and Norway, in recent years.
The study reveals that a significant portion of reported FDI includes acquisitions and reinvested earnings, rather than fresh equity inflows or greenfield investments. This raises questions about achieving employment targets, especially in the manufacturing sector, given the global employment scale and trends of Swiss companies.
This study critiques the lack of clarity in several provisions of TEPA, which are unexpected and unacceptable in an international agreement, and warns against overreliance on generic FDI inflows.
The study wonders whether this was due to the hurry to beat the announcement of India’s general elections. Evidence shows that the EFTA did not wish to lose another opportunity, as had happened
before the 2014 elections. Nevertheless, the study notes that the EFTA introduced safety clauses to hedge against failure. This was understandable because the EFTA had consented to the
commitments only to secure an agreement that would provide tariff-free access to the Indian market.
If one goes by TEPA’s provisions regarding third-country investments through the EFTA, India would be receiving global FDI flows rather than EFTA investments. The mechanism for applying remedial
measures available to India, in case the targets are not met, is good only on paper and not in practice. In effect, they only enable the EFTA to prolong the period of meeting the targets for much longer than 20 years and/or to have the targets revised downwards.
By treating FDI as an end in itself, TEPA ignores the conventional wisdom of bartering market access for technology and other benefits.
This study calls for precise definitions, strategic prioritisation of sectors aligned with India’s developmental goals, and the establishment of robust monitoring mechanisms. India must proactively shape the operational framework of the Investment Sub-Committee to be set up under TEPA to safeguard its interests and ensure that TEPA delivers tangible benefits to India.
Ultimately, this study positions TEPA as a test case for India’s evolving FDI strategy and urges the Indian policymakers to balance quantitative targets with the qualitative outcomes. It advocates for a
more nuanced, evidence-based approach to future investment treaties that prioritise technology transfer, joint ventures, and indigenous enterprise development.
We hope this study will serve as a timely input for India’s ongoing FTA negotiations with the EU and New Zealand, and for preparing the work plan of the Investment Sub-Committee to be set up under
TEPA
Primary Conditions for Institutional Trust in Ukraine during the Conflict
No full textUsing Ukraine as an example, this study explores how performance-based and ideational factors interact in shaping institutional trust under wartime conditions. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is employed to analyse their joint presence in configurations associated with high and low levels of trust in state institutions. The findings suggest that trust is primarily shaped by performance indicators—economic satisfaction, perceived corruption, and personal safety—while ideational factors such as national identity, war-related ideologies, and democratic values play a secondary role. However, misalignment with dominant ideational narratives tend to exacerbate distrust during conflict, especially when institutional performance is perceived as weak. These results are used to argue that a divergence may appear between regime and institutional legitimacy in conflict-affected regions
Dynamic Spatial Treatment Effects and Network Fragility: Theory and Evidence from the 2008 Financial Crisis
No full textThe 2008 financial crisis exposed fundamental vulnerabilities in interconnected banking systems, yet existing frameworks fail to integrate spatial propagation with network contagion mechanisms. This paper develops a unified spatial-network framework to analyze systemic risk dynamics, revealing three critical findings that challenge conventional wisdom. First, banking consolidation paradoxically increased systemic fragility: while bank numbers declined 47.3 \% from 2007 to 2023, network fragility measured by algebraic connectivity rose 315.8 \%, demonstrating that interconnectedness intensity dominates institutional count. Second, financial contagion propagates globally with negligible spatial decay (boundary d* = 47,474 km), contrasting sharply with localized technology diffusion (d* = 69 km)—a scale difference of 688 times. Third, traditional difference-in-differences methods overestimate crisis impacts by 73.2 \% when ignoring network structure, producing severely biased policy assessments. Using bilateral exposure data from 156 institutions across 28 countries (2007-2023) and employing spectral analysis of network Laplacian operators combined with spatial difference-in-differences identification, we document that crisis effects amplified over time rather than dissipating, increasing fragility 68.4 \% above pre-crisis levels with persistent effects through 2023. The consolidation paradox exhibits near-perfect correlation (r = 0.97) between coupling strength and systemic vulnerability, validating theoretical predictions from continuous spatial dynamics. Policy simulations demonstrate network-targeted capital requirements achieve 11.3x amplification effects versus uniform regulations. These findings establish that accurate systemic risk assessment and macroprudential policy design require explicit incorporation of both spatial propagation and network topology
Emergent Dynamical Spatial Boundaries in Emergency Medical Services: A Navier-Stokes Framework from First Principles
No full textEmergency medical services (EMS) response times are critical determinants of patient survival, yet existing approaches to spatial coverage analysis rely on discrete distance buffers or ad-hoc geographic information system (GIS) isochrones without theoretical foundation. This paper derives continuous spatial boundaries for emergency response from first principles using fluid dynamics (Navier-Stokes equations), demonstrating that response effectiveness decays exponentially with time: , where is baseline effectiveness and is the temporal decay rate. Using 10,000 simulated emergency incidents from the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS), I estimate decay parameters and calculate critical boundaries where response effectiveness falls below policy-relevant thresholds. The framework reveals substantial demographic heterogeneity: elderly populations (85+) experience 8.40-minute average response times versus 7.83 minutes for younger adults (18-44), with 33.6\% of poor-access incidents affecting elderly populations despite representing 5.2\% of the sample. Non-parametric kernel regression validation confirms exponential decay is appropriate (mean squared error 8-12 times smaller than parametric), while traditional difference-in-differences analysis validates treatment effect existence (DiD coefficient = -1.35 minutes, ). The analysis identifies vulnerable populations—elderly, rural, and low-income communities—facing systematically longer response times, informing optimal EMS station placement and resource allocation to reduce health disparities
The Phase Diagram of Debt-to-GDP Limit and Debt-Financing of Interest
No full textThis paper proposes an alternative way of assessing government debt sustainability – instead of focusing on the absolute level of debt-to-GDP ratio, compute the time it takes before the government is compelled, if ever, to finance debt interest with additional debt, a condition I refer to as “Defit” (Debt-Financing of Interest), to distinguish it from Default. Defit occurs when the government’s annual revenue falls short of annual debt interest obligation, which is equivalent to the debt-to-GDP ratio reaching the threshold x/r, where x is the effective tax rate of the government revenue and r the average interest rate on outstanding debt. The paper derives the sufficient and necessary conditions of Defitting, and the formula for time to Defit in terms of observable economic and fiscal inputs. The present analysis departs from the prior literature as it models the joint dynamics of government cash and debt balances, establishing a link between the debt-to-GDP ratio and the debt-to-cash ratio. This approach yields a more precise characterization of debt-to-GDP divergence, particularly in relation to the differential g-r, where g is the nominal GDP growth rate. The result replaces the absolute level of primary surplus with the differential s-r, where s is the ratio of primary surplus to primary outlays
Would Keynesian Expansionary Policies Eliminate the Natural Rate of Unemployment: Insights from The Sri Lankan Economy
No full textThis paper develops a Keynesian stochastic framework to reassess the natural rate hypothesis in the context of the Sri Lankan economy. By embedding fractional Brownian motion to capture persistent inflationary shocks and incorporating nonlinear interactions between unemployment dynamics and aggregate demand, the model contrasts expansionary Keynesian policies with the monetarist view of structural unemployment. Empirically, the estimated income series indicates that targeted income interventions can systematically reduce unemployment over time, illustrating the capacity of demand-side policies to stabilize labor markets. The results suggest that fiscal and monetary measures, when sustained and coordinated, not only mitigate hysteresis effects but can also shift unemployment away from the so-called natural level, reaffirming the Keynesian insight that active policy can shape real economic outcomes even in the presence of structural frictions. This study contributes both theoretically to macroeconomic stabilization debates and practically to policy design in economies facing recurrent shocks and structural vulnerabilities
Bayani Chronicles: A 3D Mobile Game on the Lives and Legacies of Philippine national Heroes
No full textIn the digital age, traditional approaches to history education often fail to sustain student engagement and foster knowledge retention. This study presents Bayani Chronicles: A 3D Mobile Game on the Lives and Legacies of Philippine National Heroes, a capstone project designed to merge cultural learning with interactive digital entertainment. Developed using the Unity game engine, the project transforms Philippine history lessons into immersive experiences through quest-based storytelling, open-world exploration, and interactive mini-games. Guided by game-based learning theories and the Agile development model, the study employed developmental and experimental approaches. Data were collected from three respondent groups: students and teachers from Jose Abad Santos High School – Manila, and representatives of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP). Evaluation using the ISO/IEC 25010 quality framework showed that the game achieved an overall “Above Average” rating across eight quality criteria, with particularly strong scores in usability, functional suitability, and educational value. Students emphasized the game’s ability to sustain interest and improve comprehension, teachers recognized its promise as a supplemental teaching tool, and NHCP representatives affirmed its historical accuracy and cultural relevance. These findings suggest that 3D mobile games can serve as innovative platforms for education, fostering both meaningful learning outcomes and renewed appreciation of national heritage
Trade Openness and Economic Growth in Southeast Asia
No full textThis paper investigates the extent to which the integration of Southeast Asian countries into the global economy has contributed to their economic growth. It uses regression analysis to model the relationship between trade openness and economic growth, identifying policy lessons on the key drivers of convergence for the next set of developing countries that seek to achieve rapid rates of economic growth in the context of a more challenging globalization context
Georgi Petrov and the model of socialist market economy in Bulgaria
No full textWe provide brief information about the context of the 1963 reform. This is followed by a presentation of the main themes and ideas in Georgi Petrov's life research project, which systematically and logically derives the need for decentralisation of the economy, a transition from directive planning to economic levers, granting full autonomy to enterprises included in market mechanisms and profit incentives