Public-private partnerships (PPPs) were established in Brazil at the beginning of this century, following a global trend of using these partnerships to stimulate investment in infrastructures, particularly in a framework of restrictive budgetary and fiscal conditions. Despite their growing importance and the expectation of an expanding role in the future, not much is known about the actual facts on the ground. The objective of this paper is to be a first step in the direction of filling this information gap by providing important stylized facts about the universe of PPPs in Brazil: the quantitative evolution of PPP adoptions; the characterization of the geographical distribution of PPPs by government level (federal, state, district, and municipal); the characterization of the PPP intervention areas, including the total value of contracts and the modalities of PPP concession (sponsored and administrative). This objective is rendered possible by the development of a new database that covers the entire process of PPP contracting from 2005 to 2022, including the opening of public consultation procedures, the publication of the official notice, and the signing of contracts, as well as multiple thematic, financial, jurisdictional, and regional indicators. In turn, we see the establishment of these stylized facts as a necessary first step in the direction of understanding the factors that may determine or condition their adoption. In general, having a clear picture of the universe of the PPPs in Brazil is fundamental as their use and their role are expected to significantly increase in the future as the country pursues a path of improved economic activity and well-being of the population.

Introduction/Main objectives: This study aims to test the influence of the application of the concept of value for money on regional government financial management at the quality level of regional development, which is determined by the level of foreign and domestic investment in local governments. Background problems: State the problem or economic/business phenomena studied in this paper and specify the research question(s) in one sentence. Novelty: This study has a research model that has yet to be widely carried out in Indonesia, namely, a moderated model regression analysis of the value concept for money on the quality of regional development with investment as a moderating variable. Research methods: This study uses data on financial performance, domestic and foreign investment levels, and human development index of 34 provincial governments from 2017 to 2021. This research data comes from the website of the Directorate General of Fiscal Balance, Ministry of Finance and the Central Bureau of Statistics. The data collected in this study is then analyzed using moderated regression analysis (MRA) with the SPSS ver 23.0 application. Findings/Results: The findings in the research show that the application of value for money ( economics, efficiency, and effectiveness ) from local government financial governance can influence the quality of regional development in Indonesia’s provinces in 2017–2021. In addition, the existence of foreign and domestic investment in the provincial government also strengthens the influence of value-for-money financial governance on the quality level of regional development in the provincial government. Conclusion: Based on existing research, local government financial management applies the concept that value for money needs to be increased to create optimal public services to improve the quality of human development in the regions. Regional governments are also expected to be able to encourage the level of capital investment both domestically and abroad to support the creation of development that can strengthen the quality of regional development in the regions.

This study examined the role of cryptocurrencies in tourism and their acceptance across EU regions, with particular attention to the digital transformation precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis focuses on the relationship between cryptocurrency acceptance points and the intensity of tourism, highlighting that the acceptance of cryptocurrencies is significantly correlated with tourism services. The literature review highlighted that Web 3.0, especially blockchain technology and decentralized applications, opens new possibilities in tourism, including secure and transparent transactions, and more personalized travel experiences. The research investigated cryptocurrency acceptance points and the intensity of tourism within the EU. The study illuminates that the acceptance of cryptocurrencies significantly correlates with tourism services. The data and methodology demonstrated the analysis methods for examining the relationship between cryptocurrency acceptance points and tourism intensity, including the use of clustering neural networks and Eurostat data utilization. The results showed a positive correlation between the number of cryptocurrency acceptance points and tourism intensity in the EU, affirming the research hypothesis. According to the regression analysis results, each additional cryptocurrency acceptance point is associated with an increase in tourism intensity. The significance of the research lies in highlighting the growing role of digital payment solutions, especially cryptocurrencies, in tourism, and their potential impacts on the EU economy. The analysis supports that the intertwining of tourism and digital financial technologies opens new opportunities in the sector for both providers and tourists.

To achieve the energy transition and carbon neutrality targets, governments have implemented multiple policies to incentivize electricity suppliers to invest in renewable energy. Considering different government policies, we construct a renewable energy supply chain consisting of electricity suppliers and electricity retailers. We then explore the impact of four policies on electricity suppliers’ renewable energy investments, environmental impacts, and social welfare. We validated the results based on data from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China. The results show that government subsidy policies are more effective in promoting electricity suppliers to invest in renewable energy as consumer preferences increase, while no-government policies are the least effective. We also show that electricity suppliers are most profitable under the government subsidy policy and least profitable under the carbon cap-and-trade policy. Besides, our results indicate that social welfare is the worst under the carbon cap-and-trade policy. With the increase in carbon intensity and renewable energy quota, social welfare is the highest under the subsidy policy. However, the social welfare under the renewable energy portfolio standard is optimal when the renewable energy quota is low.

Pakistan is a leading emerging market as per the recent classification of the International Monetary Fund (MF), and hedging is used as a considerable apparatus for minimizing a firm’s risk in this market. In these markets, investors are customarily unaware about the hedging activities in firms, due to the occupancy of asymmetric environment prevailing in firms. This research paper adds a new insight and vision to the existing literature in the field of behavioral finance by examining the impact of hedging on investors’ sentiments in the presence of asymmetric information. For organizing this research, 366 non-financial firms are taken up as the size sample; all these firms are registered in the Pakistan Stock Exchange. A two-step system of generalized method of moments (GMM) model is implemented for regulating the study. The findings of empirical evidence exhibit that there is a positive relationship between investors’ sentiments and hedging. Investors’ sentiments are negative in relationship with asymmetric information. Due to the moderate presence of asymmetric information, hedging is positively related to investors’ sentiments although this relation is non-significant.