Digital and economic transformations for sustainable development promotion: A case of OECD countries

Digitalization, dematerialization of production and consumption, and structural shifts in the direction of service economy forming do promote to reduction of material use and sustainable development. The paper aims to investigate the role of digital, structural, economic, and social factors in sustainable development promotion in OECD countries. The paper uses the data on digital achievements, social and economic development of OECD member states from World Bank data sources for the period 2007–2018. The random-effects GLS regression model is used, and empirical regression models to estimate the influence of key factors related to digital transformation on GDP per capita and CO2 emissions per capita are constructed. The results of the regression analysis show that using the number of Internet users as an indicator for achievement in digitalization has a positive and statistically significant influence on GDP per capita due to lower transaction costs and higher share service economy. An increase in urbanization rates (as an indicator of capital concentrations and labor specialization) by one percent promotes a GDP per capita increase of 299 USD. Also, an increase in Gini coefficient by one percentage point correlates with decrease in GDP per capita on 196 USD and the reduction of CO2 per capita by 0.12 tones due to the structural shifts in aggregate demand. Still, improvements in digital transformations have no significant environmental effect in OECD members, while processes related to urbanization, income inequality, and share of industrial output are important drivers for CO2 per capita reduction. AcknowledgmentsThe paper contains the results of a study conducted within the framework of research projects: “Sustainable development and resource security: from disruptive technologies to digital transformation of Ukrainian economy” (No. 0121U100470); “Fundamental bases of the phase transition to an additive economy: from disruptive technologies to institutional sociologization of decisions” (No. 0121U109557).

Specialists and generalists

The article considers labor specialization in terms of A.A. Bogdanov’s General Organizational Science (Tectology), whose methodology provides conclusions different from generally accepted A. Smith’s concept of labor division. The article’s goal is to investigate specialist’s characteristics and his difference from generalist.In terms of tectology, the difference is the cause of any process or phenomenon. Labor specialization is also based on difference – the difference between initial resources and collective consumption. The depth of labor specialization is determined by the number of people and the volume of their consumption. Reaching the global market’s limits has led to a reduction of differences in most markets and a decrease in production profitability, which in the long term can lead to the curtailment of material and energy flows. A qualitatively new difference may be the difference between the values and meanings of humanity, on the one hand, and the dehumanized technosphere, on the other. Subjects capable of linking these differences are generalists, capable of combining an understanding of the technosphere as a system, an awareness of long-term cause-and-effect relations, and the values and meanings of humanity.The scientific novelty of the findings obtained lies in studying labor specialization and the prospects of its transition to universalization and generalization.

From discretion to standardization: Digitalization of the police organization

In this article, we aim to examine whether intelligence-led policing in police practice reinforces the control model of the police organization. We argue that digitalization of police working life resurrects several of Taylor’s management principles, such as greater division of labor, specialization, standardization and focus on measurable and efficient processes. Drawing on empirical research via two cross-sectional surveys, focus group and individual in-depth interviews with 40 Norwegian police officers, we analyze the extent to which this is conditioned by how work processes are organized and how knowledge practices are operationalized and standardized. We show perceptions of standardization that break up policing processes and lead to greater control over which tasks the front line performs and how these should be carried out. As a result, traditional police discretion becomes more standardized, constrained and de-contextualized. This is reinforced by the implementation of intelligence-led policing to manage knowledge within the police organization, which may eventually lead to a more top-down, bureaucratic and fragmented style of policing. Thus police professionalism becomes understood as being greater standardization and organizational control. An unintended consequence is a shift towards digitalized neo-Taylorism in policing, with implications for de-skilling of the police. The results demonstrate a managerialist view of the police organization, in which top-down steering and use of technology ultimately lead to a narrowing of police discretion and a more invisible high-policing style of police that may increase militarization of the police organization.

Analysis of the Impact of Monetary Relations Between the Russian Federation and the Middle East on the Region's Economy

International monetary and credit relations are an integral part and one of the most difficult areas of a market economy. They reflect the problems of the national and world economies, which historically developed in parallel. With the globalization and internationalization of the world economy, there is an intensification of international flows of goods, services, and especially capital and loans. International monetary and credit relations (IMCO) are one of the forms of international economic relations (IEE) along with such forms as: international trade, international movement of capital and foreign investment, international labor migration, international cooperation in science and technology, international division of labor (specialization and cooperation of production). Russia is one of the key partners in the world market in the field of currency and credit relations and trade, which affects the country's economic development. On the financial market arena, Russia acts as a lender for developing countries, and is also a borrower from more developed countries. In the modern realities of the development of international economic relations, it is worth considering various alternative financial markets or renewing old international economic relations, as an option these are the countries of the Middle East. Today, market economic relations between Russia and the Middle East are based on mutually beneficial conditions for both parties. The Russian Federation views the Arab countries, firstly, as a market for its manufactured products, technical equipment, and secondly, as a prospect for credit relations and the development of a market for energy products. At the moment, the improvement of relations in the currency and credit directions is aggravated by the state of the world economy and foreign economic activity of Russia.

Novel phylogenetic methods reveal that resource-use intensification drives the evolution of “complex” societies

Explaining the rise of large, sedentary populations, with attendant expansions of socio-political hierarchy and labor specialization (collectively referred to as “societal complexity”), is a central problem for social scientists and historians. Adoption of agriculture has often been invoked to explain the rise of complex societies, but archaeological and ethnographic records contradict simple agri-centric models. Rather than a unitary phenomenon, “complexity” may be better understood as a network of interacting features, which in turn have causal relationships with subsistence. Here we use novel comparative methods and a global sample of 186 nonindustrial societies to infer the role of subsistence practices in shaping complexity. We also introduce a phylogenetic method for causal inference that generalizes beyond two binary traits, lifting a major constraint on comparative research. We found that, rather than agriculture alone, a suite of resource-use intensification variables leads to broad increases in technological and social differentiation. Our study provides evidence that resource intensification is a leader, not a follower, in the rise of complex societies worldwide.

Conclusion

This chapter summarizes the economic principles, research questions, and findings in the book. Themes reviewed include: autonomy, interdependence, and labor specialization, markets and merchants, boundedness and regional economies, movements of goods and social affiliations, and trade routes. Lingering questions are also discussed, especially the fact that it is time for archaeologists to consider data regarding Maya economies on their own terms, without consideration of previous assumptions based on comparative work from outside this region. Current controversies such as the issue of market form evolution (via barter markets) or the status of general purpose monies in Pre-Columbian Maya exchange are also discussed.

Financial management, division of financial management power and financial literacy in the family context – evidence from relationship partner dyads

PurposeThe article aims to study the relationship between the assignments of financial management responsibilities and the level of financial literacy within married and cohabitating couples.Design/methodology/approachThe link between household financial management and the financial literacy of union partners was examined using dyadic survey data. In the dyadic multilevel regression analysis, the financial management process was scrutinized, and two distinct measures of financial literacy (tested and self-assessed) were used as the outcomes in the analysis.FindingsThe extent to which married and cohabitating individuals engage in household financial management was found to positively correlate with their financial literacy. Self-reports about the division of financial management responsibilities were found to be biased with individuals typically overestimating their share in household financial management. Consequently, the status of household financial manager was not as crucial for financial literacy as was the self-perception of engagement in household financial management. Despite the benefits of intrahousehold labor specialization, delegation of sole responsibility for household financial matters may place the person who waives the responsibility at a serious risk of self-exclusion from lifelong financial learning.Originality/valueThe article uses dyadic data (from married and cohabiting couples), which ensures more rigorous and accurate evidence for the link between the household financial management and financial literacy. A novel approach to the analytical treatment of partners' contradictory reports on the role of couple's financial manager is also proposed. The breadth of household financial management is captured by analyzing three stages of the process: proposing, decision-making and implementation of financial solutions or actions.

Silvicultura do eucalipto e a especialização do trabalho na cadeia produtiva de papel e celulose em Imperatriz-MA

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o processo de especialização produtiva do trabalho no Maranhão mediante o avanço da cadeia de papel e celulose em face da expansão e da intensificação da silvicultura do eucalipto desencadeada pela implantação da unidade fabril da Suzano Papel e Celulose no município de Imperatriz, sudoeste do estado do Maranhão. Dessa forma, busca-se questionar: há em curso uma especialização produtiva do trabalho nesse segmento, considerando trabalhadores com qualificação profissional de nível médio/técnico, em Imperatriz? Metodologicamente, além de revisão da literatura pertinente, utilizou-se, conjuntamente com pesquisas de campo, dados secundários sobre transformações no emprego local e nas qualificações profissionais locais advindas da implantação da Suzano. Os dados utilizados são originários da RAIS; CAGED; IBGE, além de escolas técnicas locais. Os resultados encontrados permitiram realizar mapeamento da cadeia de trabalho no segmento em destaque e verificar que há intenso e rápido aprofundamento da especialização produtiva do trabalho no setor de papel e celulose no estado. Abstract EUCALYPTUS SILVICULTURE AND THE SPECIALIZATION OF WORK IN THE PULP AND PAPER PRODUCTION CHAIN IN IMPERATRIZ - MA The main goal of this article is to study the labor specialization process in the state of Maranhão through the progress if the paper and cellulose chain over the expansion and reinforcement of the forestry from eucalyptus based on the implementation of the factory “Suzano Papel e Celulose” in Imperatriz, southwest of the Maranhão State. This drives the question: is there a movement to improve and specialize workers in this sector, taking into consideration not specialized or technical workers in the city of Imperatriz? For methodology it was used the book references, field research and secondary data about the changes in the way of work in the local plant and technical requirements for professional workers due to the implementation of “Suzano Papel e Celulose”. The data comes from “RAIS”; “CAGED”; “IBGE” and local technical schools. The results allow us to map the working group in the sector emphasizing that there is an intense and quick specialization regarding the work in this specific sector of paper and cellulose.

Market Integration, Demand, and the Growth of Firms: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in India

In many developing countries, the average firm is small, does not grow, and has low productivity. Lack of market integration and limited information on non-local products often leave consumers unaware of the prices and quality of non-local firms. They therefore mostly buy locally, limiting firms’ potential market size (and competition). We explore this hypothesis using a natural experiment in the Kerala boat-building industry. As consumers learn more about non-local builders, high-quality builders gain market share and grow, while low-quality firms exit. Aggregate quality increases, as does labor specialization, and average production costs decrease. Finally, quality-adjusted consumer prices decline. (JEL D22, D83, L15, L25, L62, O12, O14)