Effects of Charcoal Marketing on the Environment and Health in the City of Cotonou in Southern Benin

Charcoal marketing is the main activity in the Gbegamey district of Cotonou. The aim of the study was to determine the effects of charcoal marketing on the environment and health of the Gbegamey population. A mixed descriptive and evaluative design was adopted. Data were collected using an interview guide, a structured non-participatory observation grid and air quality analysis equipment (PCE RCM 8 air quality detector;Carbon monoxide meter AS 87000A and Anemometer AM 4812) among charcoal traders, food vendors and residents living near charcoal sales outlets, selected by non-probabilistic purposive sampling, and were analysed with reference to national regulatory provisions and WHO recommendations (2022). 57 people, including 26 shopkeepers, were surveyed. Their average age was 45, with extremes of 25 and 65. The effects of charcoal marketing on health and the environment were known to 23 traders, who unfortunately did not adopt any protective measures. Some of the health effects mentioned were rheumatic and cardiovascular diseases. Pollutants (PM1: 96 µg/m3, PM2.5: 161 µg/m3, PM10: 206 µg/m3, CO: 185 mg/m3) were present in the coal-selling environment at Gbegamey. According to the respondents, respiratory diseases (42.31%), rheumatic diseases (30.77%) and cardiovascular diseases (11.54%) affected the traders, while respiratory diseases (51.61%) affected the general population. The marketing of charcoal in the Gbegamey district generates a high concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere. The activity needs to be monitored in order to limit its effects.

Contribution of the MERISE-Type Conceptual Data Model to the Construction of Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators of the Effectiveness of Training in Relation to the Needs of the Labor Market in the Republic of Congo

This study proposes the use of the MERISE conceptual data model to create indicators for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of vocational training in the Republic of Congo. The importance of MERISE for structuring and analyzing data is underlined, as it enables the measurement of the adequacy between training and the needs of the labor market. The innovation of the study lies in the adaptation of the MERISE model to the local context, the development of innovative indicators, and the integration of a participatory approach including all relevant stakeholders. Contextual adaptation and local innovation: The study suggests adapting MERISE to the specific context of the Republic of Congo, considering the local particularities of the labor market. Development of innovative indicators and new measurement tools: It proposes creating indicators to assess skills matching and employer satisfaction, which are crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of vocational training. Participatory approach and inclusion of stakeholders: The study emphasizes actively involving training centers, employers, and recruitment agencies in the evaluation process. This participatory approach ensures that the perspectives of all stakeholders are considered, leading to more relevant and practical outcomes. Using the MERISE model allows for: • Rigorous data structuring, organization, and standardization: Clearly defining entities and relationships facilitates data organization and standardization, crucial for effective data analysis. • Facilitation of monitoring, analysis, and relevant indicators: Developing both quantitative and qualitative indicators helps measure the effectiveness of training in relation to the labor market, allowing for a comprehensive evaluation. • Improved communication and common language: By providing a common language for different stakeholders, MERISE enhances communication and collaboration, ensuring that all parties have a shared understanding. The study’s approach and contribution to existing research lie in: • Structured theoretical and practical framework and holistic approach: The study offers a structured framework for data collection and analysis, covering both quantitative and qualitative aspects, thus providing a comprehensive view of the training system. • Reproducible methodology and international comparison: The proposed methodology can be replicated in other contexts, facilitating international comparison and the adoption of best practices. • Extension of knowledge and new perspective: By integrating a participatory approach and developing indicators adapted to local needs, the study extends existing research and offers new perspectives on vocational training evaluation.

Evaluation of Role of Home Market Effects in China′s Manufacturing Industries

Under the theoretical framework of the New Trade Theory and the New Economic Geography, Home Market Effects (HMEs) is considered to be important sources of comparative advantage and significant reasons for industry agglomeration. Through the analysis on the input-output tables in China, the paper confirms the existence of HMEs for the manufacturing industries and their export trades on the national and provincial level in China. Several conclusions have been drawn in this study. Firstly, there exist prominent HMEs for manufacturing industries related with nondurable goods and materials in China. Secondly, 10 of the 15 kinds of manufacturing industries considered in this study display the existence of HMEs. Thirdly, the comparative advantage of factor endowment for the export trade of manufacturing industries is declining, while HMEs for them are increasing. Fourthly, among the 30 provincial regions studied in this paper, 11 regions show the existence of HMEs, most of which are located in the eastern coast region. This paper illustrates the simultaneous existence of the comparative advantage of factor endowment and scale economies of HMEs for China's manufacturing industries. HMEs will not only be the new dynamic for the increase of manufacturing industries and their export trade, but also be the primary power for urban economic growth, industry improvement, and urban space expansion for China.

Volatility spillover effect between financial markets:evidence since the reform of the RMB exchange rate mechanism

The volatility spillover effect between the foreign exchange and stock markets has been a major issue in economic and financial studies.In this paper,GC-MSV model was used to study the spillover effect between the foreign exchange market and the stock market after the reform of the RMB exchange rate mechanism.The empirical results show that there is a negative correlation of dynamic price spillovers between the foreign exchange and stock markets.There are asymmetric volatility spillover effects between these two markets for both RMB stages—continued RMB appreciation or constant RMB shock(a significant reduction in appreciation).However,this has been reduced over time.In conclusion,The RMB exchange rate is a key variable that can affect the internal and external equilibrium of the national economy in an open economic environment,and the stock market is capable of quickly reflecting subtle changes in the real economy.In order to keep the stability of the financial markets and the healthy and rapid development of national economy,some suggestions were proposed.

“Lock-in Effect” to Be Blamed for Regional Development Imbalances

Reform and opening up has made China’s economy develop faster than ever. But it has not succeeded in changing the regional disparity in China. In this article, we establish a model factor input called the "lock-in effect" and analyze the channel of the lock-in effect and how it influences the regional economy. On the analyses of thirty provinces’ panel data in China from 1990 to 2005, we find that the lock-in effect of factor inputs further exacerbates the developmental imbalance among regions.

Detecting the lead–lag effect in stock markets:definition,patterns,and investment strategies

Human activities widely exhibit a power-law distribution.Considering stock trading as a typical human activity in the financial domain,the first aim of this paper is to validate whether the well-known power-law distribution can be observed in this activity.Interestingly,this paper determines that the number of accumulated lead–lag days between stock pairs meets the power-law distribution in both the U.S.and Chinese stock markets based on 10 years of trading data.Based on this finding this paper adopts the power-law distribution to formally define the lead–lag effect,detect stock pairs with the lead–lag effect,and then design a pure lead–lag investment strategy as well as enhancement investment strategies by integrating the lead–lag strategy into classic alpha-factor strategies.Tests conducted on 20 different alpha-factor strategies demonstrate that both perform better than the selected benchmark strategy and that the lead–lag strategy provides useful signals that significantly improve the performance of basic alpha-factor strategies.Our results therefore indicate that the lead–lag effect may provide effective information for designing more profitable investment strategies.

A study on the factor market distortion and the carbon emission scale effect of two-way FDI

Based on the data of 30 Chinese provinces for the period from 2004 to 2015,this paper expounds the carbon emissions effect of two-way foreign direct investment (FDI) from the perspective of scale effect and factor market distortions.This study uses Kaya identity to decompose carbon emission and construct simultaneous equations model to empirically examine the factor market distortion and the carbon emission scale effect of two-way FDI.The results show that the inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) increase regional carbon emission through scale effect and also exacerbates factor market distortion in China,whereas the outward FDI trends reduce carbon emission and reduces factor market distortions in China.The study also shows that human capital,research and development (R&D),trade openness,and capital accumulation are important determinants of two-way FDI.Therefore,the study proposes that IFDI policies should focus on acquiring green technologies.In addition,the domestic enterprises should be encouraged to participate in global business.

Assessing effectiveness of existing building energy-saving reconstruction policy adapted to market development

The market development and policy matching of existing building energy-saving retrofits determine the effectiveness of policies in promoting the operation of existing building energy-saving retrofit market.Based on the perspective of market development to evaluate the effectiveness of existing building energy-saving transformation policy,it is necessary to clarify the basic connotation of the effectiveness of existing building energy-saving transformation policy,systematically analyze the evaluation content,construct a multi-level evaluation index system,and select scientific and effective quantitative evaluation methods to implement a strict evaluation process.

Analysis of Volatility Spillover Effect of Soybean Price between Domestic and International Markets

Sharp fluctuation of soybean prices in international and domestic markets has caused big risks for both domestic soybean producers and processing enterprises in recent years. It also increases the difficulties in implementing price stabilization policy for the government. This paper analyzes the volatility spillovers in soybean prices between international and domestic markets using the multivariate VAR-BEKK-GARCH model based on the data set from December 22,2004 to December 19,2014. The estimate results indicate that there are volatility spillover effects from domestic futures market to spot market and bilateral spillover between international futures market and domestic spot market. In order to prevent market manipulation and to reduce the impacts of price volatility in international soybean market on Chinese market,this paper proposes the following policy measures such as establishing early warning mechanism for soybean price fluctuations,improving soybean futures contract design and strengthening trading risk management mechanism,amplifying information disclosure system,and regularizing speculation activities of big traders.

Lemon Effect of Green Agricultural Products and Its Marketing Strategy

The paper introduces the lemon effect of green agricultural products,analyzes the formation reasons of the lemon effect of green agricul-tural products and summarizes problems brought by the effect,such as malicious deception and high price.The paper proposes countermeasures toavoid the lemon effect of green agricultural products from a perspective of marketing.The first is to strengthen the quality supervision of green agri-cultural products,upgrade the quality of products,and build up branded products.The government should foster the main body of the products andguide the main body to realize the importance of brand construction and management.The second is to construct a sales channel system of greenagricultural products,making use of the trading center of modern green agricultural products to sell products,developing a long term partnershipwith processing industries,big supermarket and restaurants,making use of internet and selling products online and offline.The third is to propagatethe products.Make a good use of advertisement,personal sales,propagation and public relations to accelerate the healthy development of greenagricultural market.

Research on the Effects of the Most Used Market Power Mitigation Mechanisms Considering Different Market Environments

The market power mitigation method of the supply-side has become one of the key points affecting the stability of the electricity spot market.Different mitigation mechanisms are used in the current mature electricity markets of the world.However,the same market power mitigation mechanism shows different effects in different market environments.Every market operator in the world needs the most efficient way to mitigate market power.Considering that there is no relevant literature discussing the market power effects of different mitigation methods in detail,the mitigation effects need to be discussed and further researched.So,we analyze the effects of the most utilized market power mitigation mechanisms while considering different market environments.Firstly,we establish a Nash-Stackelberg interactive game model to simulate the competitive strategies of power suppliers.Secondly,the different market power mitigation approaches are modeled.Then,a multi-agent system(MAS)genetic interior-point algorithm is proposed to solve the problem of suppliers.Finally,through the simulation analysis,the market power mitigation effects of different mechanisms while considering three operation states of the system in two market structures are all analyzed.

Agents’ Behavior in Market Bubbles： Herding and Information Effects

This paper explores some behavioral factors that may explain the formation of speculative bubbles in financial markets. The study adopts an experimental approach focused on the agents’ behavior when facing a “true” bubble and is incentivized to herd and/or receive information about the market sentiment. For this purpose, a straightforward laboratory experiment that reproduces the dotcom market bubble and asks subjects to forecast asset prices in a true dynamic information scenario. The experiment was conducted in the laboratory of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Salamanca and involved 137 undergraduate students in the degree of economics. The results show that incentives to the herding behavior increase the forecasted volatility and thus contribute to the bubble inflation. Nevertheless, this effect may be offset by giving information to the agents about the expected market trend. Therefore, under herding effects, it is the absence of clear signals about market sentiments what inflates the bubble.

Investigation on the Quality of Financial Enterprises＇ XBRL Formatted Financial Report and Its Market Effect

The application of extensible business reporting language （XBRL） has been widely used across the globe in recent years. Many countries already made XBRL mandatory in their accounting system. The financial industry is normally the first XBRL network report implementer in these countries and it has its own industry classification standard. However, there are many issues been reported on the quality of XBRL formatted financial statement in the financial industry, such as project omission, project misstatements, account omission, and amount misstatements. This paper has conducted an empirical research on the quality of XBRL financial statement in the financial industry based on all samples available from the Shanghai stock exchange and analyzed the market effect of these issues for over six year window period. A web presentation quality evaluation criteria evaluation model was used in the investigation. Evidences indicate that the number of errors in report item omissions was the biggest problem in XBRL formatted financial reports comparing with other types of errors, while this affected the growth rate of company, unexpected rate of return, and the adoption of XBRL. Suggestions on solving these issues are then provided after comparing with the data point methodology （DPM） implementation for XBRL financial reporting in European countries, especially the World Bank.

Empirical Analysis of the Market Effects of China＇s Listed—— Company＇s Dividend Policy ——Empirical Evidences from Shanghai Stock Exchange from 2004 to 2005

Dividend policy is one of the three core contents of financial management in listed companies. On one hand, it is the extension of financial and investment activities; on the other hand, appropriate dividend policy can not only set up a good company reputation, but also arouse enthusiasm of many investors to continue invest in this company, consequently acquire long and stable development opportunities and conditions. In this paper, the author has put forward some suggestions in order to solve the problems which existing in Chinese listed companies＇ dividend policies based on the result of positive test. Firstly, optimize the structure of equity title and perfect the corporate governance. Secondly, to establish wholesome shareholder protection mechanism, and also it is important measure for investors, especially medium and small investors to protect their rights and interests. According to the present situation of Chinese stock market, the authors consider we can protect the shareholder＇s benefits by carrying out cumulative vote system, establishing hortative derive lawsuit system, perfecting civil compensation system and establishing shareholder voting removing system and so on. Thirdly, the establishment of listed companies＇ dividend policy and the release of message should be standardized for the sake of good relationship of melon-cutting and corporation＇s refinancing plan. Finally, listed companies＇ dividend policy can be optimized by modifying and perfecting stock dividend distribution mode of accounting management, perfecting exit mechanism of listed companies.

Was there a Portfolio Effect of the Micro-economic Leverage ？ Some Empirical Evidence from the Chinese Stock Market

The study is on a linear model of the relationship between the systematic risk and the micro-economic leverage and analyzed the data from the steel, energy source and chemical fibre industry listed companies in the Chinese stock market in 2002 and 2001. Using the linear regression method, empirical equations were found. The portfolio effect was shown so that some empirical evidence had been found to support the micro-economic leverage portfolio effect theory, which was that the listed companies balanced the operating and financial leverage to minimize the systematic risk.

Comparative Analysis of the Effects of False Low-Price Marketing Strategy on Multiple Platforms

In order to make full use of the characteristics of commodity prices,merchants on e-commerce platforms have adopted the low-price marketing strategy.Regular promotional discounts can bring new vitality to the commodity sales market,but extreme discount marketing methods would lead to serious impacts on the sales of competing products,thus affecting the stable development of the online shopping market.The sales data of four electrical products using the false low-price marketing strategy on three e-commerce platforms(Taobao,JD,and Amazon)were used in this study.The sales data from different e-commerce platforms and different time periods were analyzed,and one-way ANOVA was used on the factors affecting the effect of marketing strategy.The results showed that there is a significant difference between the direct marketing of high-priced products and low-priced products on Taobao;the difference between the marketing effects of high-priced products and mid-priced products on JD and Amazon is significant.This analysis would help businesses formulate reasonable marketing strategies and promote the stable development of the online shopping market.

An Empirical Study on the Effectiveness of Technology Market Promoting Technological Innovation Capability—Based on panel data in the Yangtze River Delta

Based on panel data such as 2009-2018 R&D expenditures,full-time equivalent of R&D personnel,Number of valid invention patents,and technology market turnover in China's Shanghai,Jiangsu,Zhejiang,and Anhui provinces(cities),using Griliches-Jaffe knowledge to produce Function,construct Time fixed effects model,conduct empirical research on the main factors affecting the technological innovation capability of the Yangtze River Delta,focusing on the relationship between the technological market and technological innovation capability.The results show that human capital and R&D expenditures have a significant and positive impact on the technological innovation capacity of the Yangtze River Delta.Although the technology market has a positive effect on the scientific and technological innovation capacity of the Yangtze River Delta,the effect is not significant.Propose countermeasures and suggestions to strengthen the influence of the technology market on technological innovation.

PTA Import's Effect on Domestic Market

In recent years,the polyester industry has kept a stable development,and the consumption for PTA has been lifted up year by year.From 2001 to 2006,the growth rate of PTA consumption was around 20.7% averagely.Though it began to be not as fast as it used to in recent a couple

Fama-French-factor model,size and book-to-market effect:An empirical investigation of the Chinese stock market

In this study, we use Chinese A-share stock market data from 1995 to 2005 to test the persistence of the size and valueeffect and the robustness of the Fama-French three-factor model in explaining the variation in stock returns.Wefind that the three-factor model can explain the common variation in stock returns well.However, it is mis-specifiedfor the Chinese stock market.We demonstrate that the size effect and the book-to-market effect are significant andpersistent over our sample period.Interestingly, the book-to-market effect for China is much stronger than the averageones in mature markets and other emerging markets documented by Fama and French (1998).Moreover, we find noevidence to support the argument that seasonal effects can explain the results of the multifactor model.Last, our mixedobservations on firm-specific fundamentals suggest that the risk-based explanation proposed by Fama and French(1995) cannot shed light on the size and BM effect for China.In view of the features of the Chinese stock market, weinstead argue that China’s size and book-to-market effect may be attributed to syndicate speculators’ manipulation andmispricing caused by irrational investor behavior.

Analysis of Celebrity Effect

随着市场经济的发展，品牌已成为市场营销的重要手段。企业聘请明星作为广告代言人的现象日益普遍，“明星效应”这个词应运而生。同时，明星效应带来的负面影响也成为颇受争议的话题。本文从明星效应现象的形成及其在日常生活中的普遍性展开分析，探讨了明星效应的积极作用及其存在的弊端，并从法律及道德层面为这些弊端提出相应的对策，以达到全面解读明星效应现象的目的。