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Impacts of Algorithm-Powered Short Videos on Employment and Mental Health.
Get PDFAlgorithm-powered short videos, which leverage advanced algorithms and recommendation systems to analyze user preferences, have emerged as a dominant force in digital media. By comparing individuals before and after their
exposure to short videos, this study provides causal evidence that short videos have increased employment, mainly part-time jobs, by 7.5% in China. A larger increase in employment is observed among marginalized groups with lower education levels and lower incomes, those from rural areas, and mothers with young children. We also observe that being exposed to short videos significantly reduces individual mental health, plausibly as a side effect of allocating more time to work and less time to sleep and exercise. We do not find a significant difference in the impact on mental health across population groups, suggesting an unbalanced welfare impact favoring marginalized groups. Finally, we find that reducing the frequency of short video consumption could substantially reduce the damage to mental health while maintaining most of
the positive effects on employment
Divergent paths in digital currency development: a comparative study of China and the United States with a global perspective
Get PDFThe United States and China exhibit markedly different development paths in digital assets and blockchain technology. The US relies on market-driven approaches, with the private sector promoting stablecoin innovation to strengthen the dollar’s global position, while China adopts a government-led approach, implementing centralized
systems such as consortium chains and the digital yuan (e-CNY), emphasizing financial security and regulation. These divergent paths reflect fundamental institutional differences: American distrust of centralized institutions has fostered distributed ledger development, while China mitigates risks through government leadership. Currently,
the digital yuan faces adoption challenges due to insufficient enthusiasm from commercial banks. We propose implementing a “dynamic reserve mechanism” to incentivize circulation and enhance privacy protection to address user concerns. The private sector should participate more actively in innovation, and we recommend establishing AI-supported “dynamic regulatory sandboxes” or “smart regulatory gateways” based on smart contracts to better balance innovation and regulatory needs. To address inflation and depegging risks of stablecoins, we recommend moving beyond fiat currency
pegging to explore new models anchored to consumer goods, such as a “BigMac Coin.
How Politics Hinder Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Development and What to Do about It
Get PDFThe motivations and benefits of issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) are well known but the challenges faced by central banks in developing and issuing a CBDC have received less attention. To fill this gap, this article provides a succinct understanding of how politics hinder CBDC development. It presents the common arguments used by politicians to stifle CBDC development. It also suggests some ways to reduce political resistance towards CBDC development
Governance of land supply in Bulgarian farms - modes, factors, post-transition evolution
Get PDFThere has been enormous development in land supply governance in Bulgarian farms during the last two decades. However, due to insufficient (statistical, official, etc.) information and traditional inadequate (Neo-classical economics, Agency theory, etc.) approaches, there is no complete knowledge of dominating modes and driving factors of land governance. This chapter fills the gap and identifies dominating modes and factors of land supply in Bulgarian farms. Interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics methodology is incorporated, and original new representative data from the managers of farms of different types and locations is analyzed. The study found that rent and lease contracts are the most common forms of farmland supply, followed by ownership mode and joint cultivation. The importance of different governance modes, forms of supply contracts, the intensity of transactions, types of partners, and kinds of land rent and price varies considerably depending on the juridical type, size, specialization, and geographical and ecological locations of holdings. The main factors for the governance choice are frequency, uncertainty, asset specificity of transactions, and professional experience of farm managers. The amount of transaction costs for finding needed lands and natural resources is among the critical factors strongly restricting the development of many Bulgarian farms, particularly of sole traders and cooperatives, farms with large sizes, holdings specialized in permanent crops and mix crops, those located in plain regions, protected zones, and near big cities, and enterprises in North-east, North-central, and South-central regions of the country. Most problems and costs for land (purchase, rent, and lease) deals of farms are consequences of the lack of available lands, high prices, great fragmentation of land plots, and needs for deals with numerous (co)owners. A comparative analysis with a similar study demonstrated enormous modernization in land supply and overall governance of farms in the last two decades
New Ways of Financing Government and People
Get PDFDifferent payment means started from early human age existence in form of goods, wheats, gold and developed in China as coins or Babilon as Interest rates.
Today the world has access to various types of financing opportunities and reaches the global market by satellite and computers.
Although technology improved real quality connections between personal finance, government finance and corporate finance are lingering in their own aims and advantages. Quality linking is a message that needs to be done and accomplish measuring constant statistical data and making comparison of growth, interest levels, inflation rise with human advancement- free medical free schooling, secure pension ,corporate responsibility growth with environmental protection and government responsibility – providing diversify jobs and increase in standard of all people
Exogenous Surprises and Emotional Outcomes: An Analysis of Well-Being Dynamics. How has the happiness and optimism of Italians been affected by the US 2024 election result?
Get PDFThis paper investigates the emotional impact of exogenous political shocks on individual well-being by examining how Italian citizens’ optimism and happiness responded to the unexpected outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Leveraging a unique two-wave panel dataset collected before and after the election, we implement a difference-in-differences design to estimate the causal effect of electoral surprise. Respondents who had confidently predicted a Kamala Harris victory and were subsequently surprised by Donald Trump’s re-election exhibited a significant decline in self-reported happiness, controlling for individual characteristics. We interpret this as evidence of the emotional cost of unexpected geopolitical outcomes, even when such events occur abroad. Our findings underscore the conceptual distinction between optimism (a forward-looking cognitive disposition) and happiness (an affective state), showing that optimism may amplify both the emotional gains from positive outcomes and the emotional costs of negative surprises. The analysis contributes to the literature on subjective well-being by highlighting the role of global events in shaping personal affective responses and by emphasizing the need to account for exogenous shocks in models of life satisfaction. Finally, we discuss implications for future research on the causal relationship between optimism and happiness and suggest methodological strategies for disentangling endogeneity between the two constructs
Аграрен гавърнанс. Българският опит и принос
Get PDFThe interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics, to a large extent, contributes to the modern understanding of the essence and factors of governance in general and of governance in individual areas of social activity and levels of analysis, from the governance of individual transactions to the governance of global affairs. The paper presents results of recent research in the field of agrarian governance in Bulgaria. Without claiming to be exhaustive, these studies provide an idea of the Bulgarian experience in agrarian governance and of the modest Bulgarian contribution to the implementation of the institutional analysis of the forms and mechanisms of agrarian governance. First, a holistic approach to understanding and analyzing agrarian governance is presented, and its quality in Bulgaria is assessed. Then, the economic role of agrarian contracts is revealed, their types are classified, and an approach to assessing their effectiveness is presented. This is followed by an analysis of the types and costs of agricultural contracts in the country. Then, an analysis of the governance structures of cooperatives is made. The forms, factors, and effectiveness of the main types of transactions of Bulgarian farms are identified, such as supply of land, labor, knowledge and innovation, risk management, and provision of ecosystem services. Then, the impact of smart contracts on the transaction costs of agricultural holdings is assessed. An analysis is made of direct payments from the Common Agricultural Policy as the main form of public intervention upon accession of countries to the European Union. Finally, an assessment is made of the convergence and prospects of Bulgarian agriculture in global agricultural development
The Retreat from Causality: Local Projections and Econometrics Without Economics
Get PDFThis paper critically examines the local projections method introduced by Jordà (2005), questioning its validity in the absence of a well-defined causal framework. Although local projections have been widely adopted for their technical simplicity and perceived robustness, this study argues that such methods may obscure, rather than clarify, underlying causal mechanisms. At the heart of the critique is the method's neglect of the recursive and interdependent structure of the data-generating process, which results in logically inconsistent assumptions and potentially distorted forecasts
Stability of multiple cartels in differentiated markets
Get PDFWe characterize stable market structures under price-competition in differentiated markets when multiple cartels may form. Market structures without cartelisation are never stable and always involve multiple small cartels, and, but for one knife-edge case, only involves multiple small cartels. Combined with the result that the unique stable market structure under quantity-competition is also characterised by multiple small cartels, this underscores the importance of considering the possibility of multiple cartels in competition policy. Comparing stable market structures under price and quantity competition, we find that prices and profits are higher under price-competition whenever the market is sufficiently differentiated or sufficiently concentrated
Impact of Chikungunya Epidemic on Household Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures in Kassala State, Sudan
Get PDFThis study examines the health and economic repercussions of the 2018 Chikungunya epidemic on households in Kassala State, Sudan. The study draws on primary survey data from 407 households sampled proportionally across the localities of Kassala, Rural Kassala, and Rural West Kassala. The epidemic displayed widespread prevalence, with infection rates highest in urban areas due to greater population density and vector exposure. The study finds that existing socioeconomic vulnerabilities, particularly high illiteracy rates, female-headed households, and low-income prevalence in rural localities, substantially exacerbated financial pressures on affected households. The results from ordered logistic regression reveal that Chikungunya infection significantly increases out-of-pocket health expenditures (OOPHE), while health insurance offers notable financial protection. Furthermore, probit regression analysis confirms that catastrophic health expenditure (CHE), defined as OOPHE exceeding 20% of household income, is common across all income groups and strongly correlated with infection status. Elevated OOPHE is further shown to depress household consumption levels, deepening poverty risks, especially among economically disadvantaged groups. In coping with these health shocks, the majority of households turned to borrowing and informal support networks, highlighting the limited reach of formal safety nets. Taken together, these findings point to the urgent need for robust public health interventions, expanded insurance coverage, and strengthened financial protection systems. Enhancing epidemic preparedness through improved vector control, health education, and equitable access to healthcare is essential to safeguarding vulnerable populations and promoting resilience in Kassala State and similar contexts in Sudan