Can environmental sustainability be decoupled from economic growth? Empirical evidence from Eastern Europe using the common correlated effect mean group test

The European Union(EU) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) aim to develop long-term policies for their respective member countries. Having observed increasing dangers to the environment posed by rising economic growth, they are seeking pathways to enable policy action on economic growth and environmental sustainability. Given the facts in theoretical and empirical studies, this study assessed the validity of the decoupling hypothesis by investigating asymmetricity in the relationship between environmental sustainability and economic growth in nine Eastern European countries from 1998 to 2017 using the cross-section augmented Dickey-Fuller(CADF) unit root, panel corrected standard error(PCSE), common correlated effect mean group(CCEMG), and Dumitrescu Hurlin causality approaches. Both population growth and drinking water are used as controlled variables. The outcomes establish strong cointegration among all the variables of interest. According to the results of CCEMG test, economic growth exerts short-term environmental degradation but has long-term environmental benefits in Eastern Europe;and population growth and drinking water exert a positive effect on environmental sustainability in both the short-and long-run. The results of Dumitrescu Hurlin causality test indicate that environmental sustainability is unidirectionally affected by economic growth. Based on these outcomes, we suggest the following policies:(1) the EU and OECD should implement member-targeted policies on economic growth and fossil-fuel use towards regulating industrial pollution, water use, and population control;and(2) the EU and OECD member countries should invest in environmental technologies through green research and development(R&D) to transform their dirty industrial processes and ensure productive energy use.

Capital mobility in Latin American and Caribbean countries: new evidence from dynamic common correlated effects panel data modeling

This study investigates the degree of capital mobility in a panel of 16 Latin American and 4 Caribbean countries during 1960 to 2017 against the backdrop of the Feldstein-Horioka hypothesis by applying recent panel data techniques.This is the first study on capital mobility in Latin American and Caribbean countries to employ the recently developed panel data procedure of the dynamic common correlated effects modeling technique of Chudik and Pesaran(J Econ 188:393–420,2015)and the error-correction testing of Gengenbach,Urbain,and Westerlund(Panel error correction testing with global stochastic trends,2008,J Appl Econ 31:982–1004,2016).These approaches address the serious panel data econometric issues of crosssection dependence,slope heterogeneity,nonstationarity,and endogeneity in a multifactor error-structure framework.The empirical findings of this study reveal a low average(mean)savings–retention coefficient for the panel as a whole and for most individual countries,as well as indicating a cointegration relationship between saving and investment ratios.The results indicate that there is a relatively high degree of capital mobility in the Latin American and Caribbean countries in the short run,while the long-run solvency condition is maintained,which is due to reduced frictions in goods and services markets causing increase competition.Increased capital mobility in these countries can promote economic growth and hasten the process of globalization by creating a conducive economic environment for FDI in these countries.

Comparison of Hypolipidemic Effect of Refined Konjac Meal With Several Common Dietary Fibers and Their Mechanisms of Action

The effects of RKM in comparison with pectin, algin and agar on lipid levels in serum and liver and on liver histopathology in rats were studied. In addition, the effects of all the tested materials on the composition and output of fecal bile acid were observed. All four kinds of dietary fiber were given at a level of 5% of diet to young male rats of Wistar strain fed on a lipid-rich diet contalning 5 % lard, 1% cholesteral and 0. 25 % cholate. All the dietary fibers tested have similar effects on serum lipid composition. In all groups, these substances prevent ed increases in total cholesterol in fasting serum, but the level of triglyceride was tmchangd.The concentrations of totaI cholesterol and triglyceride in the liver were lower in the RKM group than in the control group and the other three groups. Hepatic histopathological exami nation also showed the most significant lipotropic effect in the RKM group. The daily output of fecal bile acids (CDCA+GDCA) was significantly increased in the four experimental groups than in the normal group and the control group. The increase of CDCA was more significant than GDCA, suggesting that the increase of fecal bile acids, especially CDCA, may be one of the mechanisms by which RKM and the other three dietary fibers exerts a hypocholesterolemic effect

Reducing the Common Environmental Effect on Litopenaeus vannamei Body Weight by Rearing Communally at Early Developmental Stages and Using a Reconstructed Pedigree

Heritability estimates may be severely biased when a large common environmental effect on a family arises from a longlasting separate rearing at early stages(SRES)in traditional selective breeding programs,especially when bred populations have weak genetic ties.Communal rearing at early stages(CRES)may reduce common environmental effect since all families are reared in the same environment immediately after hatching.Here,we compared the effects of CRES and SRES strategies on genetic parameter estimation for harvest body weight in a selective breeding population of Litopenaeus vannamei with a small number of half-sib families.Genetic parameters of each strategy were estimated by using animal models excluding and including the common environmental effect(Model 1 and Model 2,respectively).Heritability estimates for body weight were 0.21±0.06(P<0.05)and 0.69±0.09(P<0.05)for CRES and SRES,respectively,in Model 1,and 0.21±0.06(P<0.05)and 0.52±0.27(P>0.05)in Model 2.The ratio of common environmental variance to phenotypic variance was 0.002±0.000 and 0.071±0.112 for CRES and SRES,respectively.Neither strategy precisely partitioned the common environmental variance according to likelihood ratio test.Lower heritability for body weight in CRES than in SRES implied that a large common environmental variance was confounded with additive genetic variance and was not effectively partitioned in SRES.Moreover,genetic correlation of body weight between the two strategies was 0.75±0.15,indicating that family rankings truly changed.The CRES should be followed in the selective breeding program of shrimp,especially in a population with a shallow pedigree and weak genetic ties between families.

Panel data models with cross-sectional dependence: a selective review

In this review, we highlight some recent methodological and theoretical develop- ments in estimation and testing of large panel data models with cross-sectional dependence. The paper begins with a discussion of issues of cross-sectional dependence, and introduces the concepts of weak and strong cross-sectional dependence. Then, the main attention is primarily paid to spatial and factor approaches for modeling cross-sectional dependence for both linear and nonlinear （nonparametric and semiparametric） panel data models. Finally, we conclude with some speculations on future research directions.

A Fluctuation Test for Structural Change Detection in Heterogeneous Panel Data Models

Structural change in panel data is a widespread phenomena. This paper proposes a fluctuation test to detect a structural change at an unknown date in heterogeneous panel data models with or without common correlated effects. The asymptotic properties of the fluctuation statistics in two cases are developed under the null and local alternative hypothesis. Furthermore, the consistency of the change point estimator is proven. Monte Carlo simulation shows that the fluctuation test can control the probability of type I error in most cases, and the empirical power is high in case of small and moderate sample sizes. An application of the procedure to a real data is presented.

Effect of unbalanced and common losses in quantum photonic integrated circuits

Loss is inevitable for the optical system due to the absorption of materials, scattering caused by the defects, and surface roughness. In quantum optical circuits, the loss can not only reduce the intensity of the signal, but also affect the performance of quantum operations. In this work, we divide losses into unbalanced linear losses and shared common losses, and provide a detailed analysis on how loss affects the integrated linear optical quantum gates. It is found that the orthogonality of eigenmodes and the unitary phase relation of the coupled waveguide modes are destroyed by the loss. As a result, the fidelity of single-and two-qubit operations decreases significantly as the shared loss becomes comparable to the coupling strength. Our results are important for the investigation of large-scale photonic integrated quantum information processes.

Estimation of Partially Linear Panel Data Models with Cross-Sectional Dependence

This paper studies the estimation of the partially linear panel data models,allowing for cross-sectional dependence through a common factors structure.This semiparametric additive partial linear framework,including both linear and nonlinear additive components,is more flexible compared to linear models,and is preferred to a fully nonparametric regression because of the‘curse of dimensionality’.The consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators are established for the case where both cross-sectional dimension and temporal dimension go to infinity.The theoretical findings are further supported for small samples via a Monte Carlo study.The results suggest that the proposed method is robust to a wide variety of data generation processes.