Urban air pollution represents one of the greatest environmental challenges facing mankind in the 21st century. Noticeably, many developing countries, such as China and India, have experienced severe air pollution because of their fast-developing economy and urbanization. Globally, the urbanization trend is projected to continue: 70% of the world population will reside in urban centers by 2050, and there will exist 41 megacities (with more than 10 million inhabitants) by 2030. Air pollutants consist of a complex combination of gases and particulate matter (PM). In particular, fine PM (particles with the aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm or PM_(2.5)) profoundly impacts
human health, visibility, the ecosystem, the weather, and the climate, and these PM effects are largely dependent on the aerosol properties, including the number concentration, size, and chemical composition. PM is emitted directly into the atmosphere (primary) or formed in the atmosphere through
gas-to-particle conversion (secondary) (Figure 1). Also,
primary and secondary PM undergoes chemical and physical
transformations and is subjected to transport, cloud processing, and removal from the atmosphere.

Formation of Urban Fine Particulate Matter

This paper investigates the relation between growth forecast errors and planned fiscal consolidation during the crisis. We find that, in advanced economies, stronger planned fiscal consolidation has been associated with lower growth than expected, with the relation being particularly strong, both statistically and economically, early in the crisis. A natural interpretation is that fiscal multipliers were substantially higher than implicitly assumed by forecasters. The weaker relation in more recent years may reflect in part learning by forecasters and in part smaller multipliers than in the early years of the crisis.

/pdf/growth-forecast-errors-and-fiscal-multipliers-3nwicszm2s.pdf

Growth Forecast Errors and Fiscal Multipliers

Internet and digitization are fundamentally changing and disrupting newspaper companies’ traditional operating models. Disruptive innovation theory offers explanations for why companies succeed or fail to respond to disruptive innovations. This study builds on disruptive innovation theory by ascertaining the role of dynamic capabilities in the performance of response to digital disruption. Empirical results suggest that first-order dynamic capabilities that are created by changing, extending, or adapting a firm’s existing resources, processes, and values are positively associated with building digital platform capabilities, and that these capabilities impact the performance of response to digital disruption. For information systems (IS) researchers, this study clarifies the role of first-order dynamic capabilities in responding to digital disruption. For IS practice, it helps managers to focus on the most promising factors for creating first-order dynamic capabilities, for building digital platfor...

The Role of Dynamic Capabilities in Responding to Digital Disruption: A Factor-Based Study of the Newspaper Industry

There is a need to develop a clearer understanding of what the social pillar of sustainable development means and how it relates to the environmental pillar. This article contributes to this proces...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15487733.2012.11908081

The social pillar of sustainable development: a literature review and framework for policy analysis

Using a stochastic life cycle model with endogenous financial knowledge accumulation, we show that financial knowledge is a key determinant of wealth inequality. The mechanism we posit is that financial knowledge enables individuals to better allocate re- sources over their lifetimes in a world of uncertainty and imperfect insurance. Moreover, because of how the U.S. social insurance system works, better-educated individuals have the most to gain from investing in financial knowledge. As a result, making financial knowledge accumulation endogenous amplifies differences in accumulated retirement wealth over the life cycle. According to our estimates, from 30 to 40 percent of wealth inequality can be accounted for by financial knowledge.

/pdf/optimal-financial-knowledge-and-wealth-inequality-2l0y1wd84h.pdf

R. Visser

Papers

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)