Research on the Promotion of New Energy Vehicles Based on Multi-Source Heterogeneous Data

Under the background of green development, new energy vehicles(NEVs), as an important strategic emerging industry, play a crucial role in energy conservation and emission reduction. In the post-epidemic era, steadily promoting the promotion of NEVs will be a hot topic. Based on heterogeneous source data, combined with the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model, Social Network Analysis (SNA), and econometric methods, this paper explores whether individual purchase decisions and company-level cooperative research and development will promote the promotion of new energy vehicles. The results show that whether BEV, HEV, or PHEV, users are more concerned about space dimension, power performance, and design style; Patent collaboration network analysis indicates that NEV enterprises are establishing close partnerships, which will urge the promotion of NEVs; For BEV and HEV models, new energy vehicle companies will invest more patents and R&D investment will better expedite the advancement of NEVs.

The effect of COVID certificates on vaccine uptake, public health, and the economy

In the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have used various interventions,1,2 including COVID certificates as proof of vaccination, recovery, or a recent negative test, required for individuals to access shops, restaurants, and education or workplaces.3 While arguments for and against COVID certificates have focused on reducing transmission and ethical concerns,4,5 the effect of the certificates on vaccine uptake, public health, and the economy requires investigation. We construct counterfactuals based on innovation diffusion theory6 and validate them with econometric methods7 to evaluate the impact of incentives created by COVID certificates in France, Germany, and Italy. We estimate that from their announcement during summer 2021 to the end of the year, the intervention led to increased vaccine uptake in France of 13.0 (95% CI 9.7–14.9) percentage points (p.p.) of the total population, in Germany 6.2 (2.6–6.9) p.p., and in Italy 9.7 (5.4–12.3) p.p.; averted an additional 3,979 (3,453–4,298) deaths in France (i.e., 31.7%), 1,133 (-312–1,358) in Germany (5.6%), and 1,331 (502–1,794) in Italy (14.0%); and prevented gross domestic product (GDP) losses of €6.0 (5.9–6.1) billion in France, €1.4 (1.3–1.5) billion in Germany, and €2.1 (2.0–2.2) billion in Italy. Notably, the application of COVID certificates substantially reduced the pressure on intensive care units (ICUs) and, in France, averted surpassing the occupancy levels where prior lockdowns were instated. Overall, our findings are more substantial than predicted8 and may help to inform decisions about when and how to employ COVID certificates to increase vaccination and thus avoid stringent interventions, such as closures, curfews, and lockdowns, with large social and economic consequences.

Assessing emerging beef farmers participation in high-value market and its impact on cattle sales in South Africa

The participation of emerging farmers in high-value agricultural markets in South Africa cannot be over-emphasized. It is one of the objectives of the government to assist emerging farmers with the necessary resources and programmes to enable them to meet the requirements and participate in high-value markets. The study investigated the impact of participation in the high-value market on cattle production (cattle sold). A systematic random probabilistic sampling technique was used to obtain a sample of 55 emerging beef farmers. Interviews were undertaken using questionnaires to collect data. Descriptive statistics and econometric methods such as Tobit model and a treatment effect model using propensity score matching estimator were employed for the data analysis. The results of binary logit regression from the PSM revealed that participation in a high-value market was significantly affected by age, household size, years of farming and difficulty accessing a high-value market. The average treatment effect of the treated showed a negative impact and decreases the number of cattle sold by 58%. The recommendations informed by the findings from the study are that youth in the study area should be involved in beef farming, appropriate training should be given to the farmers and farmer's advisor should motivate farmers to sell more cattle and participate in a high-value market, and educate them about the requirements to participate in the high value markets. The DARD lease assistance should continue and include the lease of more land. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 11(2): 27-36, Dec 2021

Assessment of the resource potential of agricultural organizations in the Kurgan region

The purpose of the research is to comprehensively assess the resource potential of agricultural organizations in the Kurgan region to form the trajectory of their development and determine the contribution to agricultural production in the region. Methods. The study was based on the use of statistical and econometric methods for collecting, processing, modeling data. It is based on the assessment of the use of the following functional components of the resource potential: land, material and technical, personnel, innovation and financial. At the same time, the dynamic assessment for each subspecies of the resource potential gives an idea of the trend in the volume and level of resource use, and the stochastic assessment – to identify the relationship between the indicators of resource investment and their return. Results. The presented assessment of the existing relationships between the quantitative and qualitative indicators of the resource potential and its subspecies indicate, on the one hand, an acute shortage of certain types of resources, and, on the other hand, an increasing intensity of their use without a proportional level of return. The study allows us to conclude that it is necessary to develop levers for managing the resource potential of agricultural organizations based on the symbiosis of the needs of agricultural producers and the territory in which they operate. Scientific novelty. The research methodology allows combining several methods of assessing (dynamic and stochastic) in achieving the final result, as well as assessing the elasticity between the general level of resource productivity of agricultural organizations and indicators of the efficiency of using the main types of resources. This approach makes it possible to form a sequence of actions to ensure an increase in the level of development and use of the resource potential of agricultural organizations.

Resource allocation procedures for unknown sales response functions with additive disturbances

We develop a modified exploration–exploitation algorithm which allocates a fixed resource (e.g., a fixed budget) to several units with the objective to attain maximum sales. This algorithm does not require knowledge of the form and the parameters of sales response functions and is able to cope with additive random disturbances. Note that additive random disturbances, as a rule, are a component of sales response functions estimated by econometric methods. We compare the developed algorithm to three rules of thumb which in practice are often used to solve this allocation problem. The comparison is based on a Monte Carlo simulation for 384 experimental constellations, which are obtained from four function types, four procedures (including our algorithm), similar/varied elasticities, similar/varied saturations, high/low budgets, and three disturbance levels. A statistical analysis of the simulation results shows that across a multi-period planning horizon the algorithm performs better than the rules of thumb considered with respect to two sales-related criteria.

FINANCIAL PROFITABILITY OF DEMERGED COMPANIES

The paper presents a complete analysis of the evolution of the profitability of some Romanian companies that decided to demerge in 2013. The sample of companies was analyzed with statistical and econometric methods of panel data, in the sub-periods before and after demerger: 2005-2013 and 2014-2019. The main objective of research was to find out if the organizational management strategy was beneficial for obtainingbetter economic and financial performance. The research results were extended to the population to characterize the financial situation of all Romanian companies in the same situation as those in the sample

Cluster Analysis of Financial Strategies of Companies

Measuring the value of companies and assessing their risk often relies on econometric methods that consider companies as a set of objects under study, homogeneous in the sense of their use of financial strategies. This paper shows that cluster analysis methods can divide companies into classes according to financial strategies that they employ. This indicates that homogeneity can be considered within these classes, while between-class companies should rather be perceived as heterogeneous. The clustering of companies has to be performed on quite a dense set of strategies, which requires a combination of formal and heuristic methods. To divide companies into classes, we used financial coefficients characterizing strategies for the 2030 largest non-financial companies within the time period from 2006 to 2018. As a result, a stable division into seven clusters/strategies was obtained. We revealed that some strategies were more characteristic for the companies of high-tech economy, while others were typical for the companies in basic industries. The dynamics of clusters is characterized by an increase in the share of risky strategies. A good meaningful interpretation of the resulting clustering confirms its consistency. The identified clusters can be used as dummy variables in econometric studies of companies to improve the quality of the results.

Development of Transport as a Factor of the Economic Miracle (Wirtschaftswunder) of West Germany

The post-war economic policy of West Germany (FRG) is largely associated with the so-called economic miracle (German: Wirtschaftswunder) and therefore its causes are the subject of many different analyzes. They include the correlation between the rate of economic growth in Germany and the development and transport potential of transport, including rail and road-car transport. This position prompted the author to try to search for long-term interdependencies and thus verify the thesis using the analysis of time series (1950–1989) available for West Germany and using original econometric methods in this field, e.g. unit root test to determine the stationarity and the Engle-Granger cointegration test. In addition to the introduction, the article consists of three parts and conclusions. The broadest one includes the description of the assumptions and stages of the research procedure and its results, both on the empirical and methodological level. It is based on synthetic theoretical foundations presented on the basis of a review of international literature on the subject and review of the essence of the German economic miracle and the main trends in changes in the field of economic growth and transport development in Germany after World War II. The research presented in this way fits into the principles of the new economic history paradigm, which is still not very popular in Europe.

Impacts of Emission Reduction Technological Changes on China’s City-Level PM2.5 Concentration Based on Sustainable Development

As an important field for human activities, cities play a critical role in PM2.5 reductions. Among the determinants for PM2.5 concentration, technological progress is considered to exhibit significant inhibitory effects. Although most extant research has focused on energy technologies or total factor productivity, due to limitations in data and methods, few scholars have focused on emission reduction technological changes at a city-level scale. Therefore, based on the combination of k-means clustering and the log-mean Divisia index method, this study estimates and explores the impact of PM2.5 emission reduction technology (PME) on the temporal changes and spatial differences of 262 Chinese cities’ PM2.5 concentration during 2003–2017. The findings show the following: (1) although the results based on econometric methods indicate that emission reduction technological changes decreased China’s city-level PM2.5 concentration, there were turning points in the yearly impacts, indicating that the improvements to emission reduction efficiency were not stable; (2) compared with PME, energy intensity played a more stable role in PM2.5 emissions reductions, implying that the improvement of energy efficiency was still very important in controlling PM2.5 concentrations; (3) based on the classified groups after clustering, most cities’ PME contributed to negative differences, but the PME of a small number of cities was very weak to largely lower the average level of their group; and (4) distributions of the spatial decomposition of the three classified groups were stable in the period of 2003–2017, implying that the catch-up and transcendence effects of PME within the group were limited. Thus, policymakers should focus on the impact of different policies on PME differences between cities.