Using time series data covering the years 1980 to 2020, this study examines the effects of government spending, population growth, and economic expansion on unemployment in the context of South Africa. The study’s variables include government spending, population growth, and economic growth as independent factors, and unemployment as the dependent variable. To ascertain the study’s outcomes, basic descriptive statistics, the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), the Johansen Cointegration Procedures, the Augmented Dicky-Fuller Test (ADF), and diagnostic tests were used. Since all the variables are stationary at the first difference, the ADF results show that there isn’t a unit root issue. According to the Johansen cointegration estimation, there is a long-term relationship amongst the variables. Hence the choice of VECM to estimate the outcomes. Our results suggests that a rise in government spending will result in a rise in South Africa’s unemployment rate. The findings also suggest that there is a negative correlation between unemployment and population growth. This implies that as the overall population grows, unemployment will decline. Additionally, the findings suggest that unemployment and economic growth in South Africa are positively correlated. This contradicts a number of economic theories, including Keynesian and Okuns Law, which hold that unemployment and economic growth are inversely correlated.

The year of 2024 marked the twelfth anniversary of the cooperative mechanism between China and Central and Eastern European countries (China-CEEC). China has repeatedly affirmed its willingness to implement the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which created many opportunities to enhance the cooperation of the two sides. The paper exemplified some cases in the process of the cooperation, which were rarely discussed previously as normally it was dominated by the large-scale investment project. The cases of the climate change and ocean issues were perceived as a package of holistic EU-China relations that demonstrates the commitments from both sides to deal with SDG 13 and SDG 14. A qualitative method of the policy-circle evaluation and the goal-setting in the global governance was applied in the paper. The findings affirm that the current China-CEEC cooperation scheme is still carrying on both opportunities and challenges and affected by various internal and external factors.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) manage significant portion of world economy, including in the developing countries. SOEs are expected to be active and play significant role in improving the country’s economic performance and welfare through enhancing innovation performance. However, closed innovation process and lack of collaboration hinders SOEs to reach satisfying innovation performance level. This paper explores the construction and role of innovation ecosystem in the strategic entrepreneurship process of SOEs, of which is represented by dynamic capability framework, business model innovation, and collaborative advantage. Based on the analysis, this paper concluded that the collaboration between actors in the Innovation Ecosystem (IE) has positive effect to strengthening SOE’s Sensing Capabilities (SC) related to the process of exploring and identifying innovation opportunities. The increase of Sensing Capabilities (SC) will play significant role as input or antecedent on formulating proactive Innovation Strategy (IS) in orchestrating SOE’s innovation process. SOEs which has implementing proactive Innovation Strategy (IS) will be able to build collaboration and finding right Business Model Innovation (BMI). Finally, by building collaboration with other actors through the innovative business model has significant role to increase SOE’s Collaborative Advantage (CA), which considered as a proxy for competitiveness of SOEs.

This study explores the interconnected roles of organizational atmosphere, psychological capital, work engagement, and psychological contract on the work performance. Structural equation modeling and moderated mediation analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized relationships. Methodologically, the study employed a stratified random sampling of 369 faculty members across various disciplines. Key findings reveal that both organizational atmosphere and psychological capital have a significant positive impact on work engagement, which in turn, enhances work performance. Work engagement acted as a mediator in these relationships. Moreover, the psychological contract was found to moderate the relationship between work engagement and work performance, indicating that the engagement-performance link is stronger when employees perceive their psychological contract has been fulfilled. The implications of this research are multifaceted. Theoretically, it contributes to organizational behavior literature by integrating psychological contracts into the engagement-performance narrative. Practically, it provides actionable insights for university administrators, suggesting that investments in a supportive organizational atmosphere and the development of faculty psychological capital are likely to yield improvements in engagement and performance. The study also underscores the importance of effectively managing psychological contracts to maximize employee output.

The food insecurity and inadequate management of family farm production is a problem that per-sists today in all corners of the world. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the socioeconomic and agricultural production management factors associated with food insecurity in rural households in the Machángara river basin in the province Azuay, Ecuador. The information was collected through a survey applied to households that were part of a stratified random sample. Based on this information, the Latin American and Caribbean Household Food Security Measurement Scale (ELCSA) was constructed to estimate food insecurity as a function of socioeconomic factors and agricultural production management, through the application of a Binomial Logit model and an Ordinal Logit model, in the STATA^® 16 program. The results show that head house a married head of household, living in an informal house, having a latrine, producing medicinal or ornamental plants, and the relationship between expenses and income are significant variables that increase the probability of being food insecure. In this way, this research provides timely information to help public policy makers employ effective strategies to benefit rural household that are food vulnerable.

To fight inflation, European Central Bank (ECB) announced 10 successive interest rate hikes, starting on 27 July 2022, igniting an unprecedented widening of interest rate spreads in the euro area (ΕΑ). Greek banks, however, recorded among the highest interest rate spreads, far exceeding ΕΑ median and weighted average. Indeed, we document a strong asymmetric response of Greek banks to ECB interest rate hikes, with loan interest rates rising immediately, whilst deposit interest rates remained initially unchanged and then rose sluggishly. As a result, the interest rate spread hit one historical record after another. Greek systemic banks, probably taking advantage of the high concentration and low competition in the domestic sector benefited from key ECB interest rate hikes, recording gigantic increases in net interest income (NII), and consequently, substantial profits (almost €7.4 billion in the 2022–2023 biennium). Such excessive accumulation of profits (that deteriorates the living conditions of consumers) by the banking system could be called the inflation of “banking greed”, or bankflation. This new source of inflation created by the oligopolistic structure of the Greek banking sector counterworks the very reason for ECB interest rate increases and requires certain policy analysis recommendations in coping with it.