Efficiency Evaluation and Influencing Factors of Government Financial Expenditure on Environmental Protection: An SBM Super-efficiency Model Based on Undesired Outputs

In recent years, the adoption of the precise approach for coordinating socio-economic growth and environmental protection to attain sustainable development has become an urgent challenge to be addressed in China. The current development of environmental governance and the efficiency of government financial expenditure on environmental protection (EPEE) deserves enormous attention. With the aid of the provincial panel data, this study emphasized on the use of the SBM super-efficiency model based on unexpected output to quantify the efficiency of China’s government expenditure on environmental protection from 2013-2018 and constructed the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model to investigate the influencing factors of the government expenditure on environmental protection. The results of the efficiency measurement portray that the aggregate EPEE in China is unsatisfactory. The efficiency value for the western region is greater than that of the central and eastern regions, while the values obtained from the eastern region are above that of the central region. Population size and urbanization level have negative implications on the efficiency value, while the regional economic development level positively promotes the efficiency of the government expenditure on environmental protection. Finally, the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions for policy implementation are outlined accordingly.

The impact of China's financial expenditure on energy and carbon emission efficiency: Applying a meta-dynamic non-radial directional distance function

China is the world's largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, but despite unbalanced growth among the eastern, central, and western regions, local financial expenditure on energy conservation and environmental protection has increased from 255.1 billion yuan in 2011 to 582.5 billion yuan in 2018. This research thus introduces financial expenditure like a new input into a dynamic meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function to evaluate China's energy and carbon emission efficiency over that period of time. Different from previous studies, after considering financial expenditure we find that most provinces have narrowed their gap with the benchmark frontier, reflecting that increasing financial expenditure does help improve energy and carbon emission efficiency. The results highlight that most provinces should increase their financial expenditure on energy conservation and environmental protection, especially in the central and western regions, so as to narrow their technology gap with the eastern region.

Physician adherence to acute rhinosinusitis antibiotic treatment guidelines

Antibiotic treatment guidelines promote proper diagnosis and treatment and optimize antibiotic treatment, minimizing both antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics and financial expenditure. This study aimed to investigate whether community physicians and emergency department (ED) physicians diagnose and treat acute rhinosinusitis according to accepted guidelines. This was a retrospective study of medical records and referrer letters of patients admitted to the medical center between 2014 and 2015. Physician adherence to antibiotic guidelines regarding indication, type and duration of treatment was assessed. Overall, the study included 84 patients diagnosed with acute rhinosinusitis and admitted to the ED. Fewer than 20% of doctors treating patients with rhinosinusitis at our institution followed the current recommended guidelines. In most cases, the type of treatment administered by ED physicians and by community physicians complied with the guidelines (90% and 96%, respectively, p=0.564). The duration of treatment prescribed by the ED physicians aligned with the guidelines in 37.7% of the cases. There was insufficient compliance with acute rhinosinusitis treatment guidelines among all treating physicians in this study, which was characterized by excessive antibiotic treatment. Therefore, ways to increase understanding and adherence to clinical guidelines, and to provide optimal settings in the clinics to carry out the guidelines should be investigated.

Municipal modernity: the politics of leisure and Johannesburg's swimming baths, 1920s to 1930s

In the 1920s and 1930s, the all-powerful Johannesburg Council, comprising English-speaking middle-class white males, realized the importance of providing leisure spaces and sport facilities for its white residents and prioritized the building of swimming baths in their suburbs. It was regarded as the ideal facility, supporting the growing demand for outdoor activity. The upswing in the economy in the 1920s and especially in the 1930s, expedited this endeavour, as it eased the financial expenditure. As a result, Johannesburg could boast 10 new swimming baths by the end of the 1930s. The council was adamant that the swimming baths should be on a par with international standards. This venture fitted comfortably into the larger project of transforming the economically vibrant Johannesburg into a modern city. In contrast, the first swimming bath for Johannesburg's black residents was only built in the mid-1930s, proving that racial considerations determined the council's provision of leisure facilities.

Economic costs of biological invasions in the United Kingdom

Although the high costs of invasion are frequently cited and are a key motivation for environmental management and policy, synthesised data on invasion costs are scarce. Here, we quantify and examine the monetary costs of biological invasions in the United Kingdom (UK) using a global synthesis of reported invasion costs. Invasive alien species have cost the UK economy between US$6.9 billion and $17.6 billion (£5.4 – £13.7 billion) in reported losses and expenses since 1976. Most costs were reported for the entire UK or Great Britain (97%); country-scale cost reporting for the UK's four constituent countries was scarce. Reports of animal invasions were the costliest ($4.7 billion), then plant ($1.3 billion) and fungal ($206.7 million) invasions. Reported damage costs (i.e. excluding management costs) were higher in terrestrial ($4.8 billion) than aquatic or semi-aquatic environments ($29.8 million), and primarily impacted agriculture ($4.2 billion). Invaders with earlier introduction years accrued significantly higher total invasion costs. Invasion costs have been increasing rapidly since 1976, and have cost the UK economy $157.1 million (£122.1 million) per annum, on average. Published information on specific economic costs included only 42 of 520 invaders reported in the UK and was generally available only for the most intensively studied taxa, with just four species contributing 90% of species-specific costs. Given that many of the invasive species lacking cost data are actively managed and have well-recognised impacts, this suggests that cost information is incomplete and that totals presented here are vast underestimates owing to knowledge gaps. Financial expenditure on managing invasions is a fraction (37%) of the costs incurred through damage from invaders; greater investments in UK invasive species research and management are, therefore, urgently required.

Financial Assessment on Designing Inventory Policy by Considering Demand, Lead Time, and Defective Product Uncertainties: A Monte Carlo Simulation

Inventory is one of the main components in supply chain. However, it is not easy to design inventory policy under uncertainties. The frequent occurrence of overstocks increases the company's financial expenditure. Otherwise, stockout decreases customer satisfaction and damage the company's image. This study aims to provide monte carlo model to design inventory policy with the aim of maximizing net income with a variety of uncertainties, one of the uncertainties is defective product because of the travel from suppliers. To handle the complexity and uncertainty of problem, a Monte Carlo simulation is used with spreadsheet-based representation. To test the reliability of the model, guitar company is used as relevant use case with uncertainty adhered ‘the greater number of order quantity, the greater likely the defective guitar will be’. The verification & validation process, experimental design, and alternative selection are also done with statistical tests. Based on the simulation result, it is known that changing the reorder point to 80 and the order quantity to 90 gives the best result which can increase net income by 0.44% compared to the initial net income. In addition, the number of stockouts has decreased.

Optimising the Business and Talent Environment in Chengdu to Help High-quality Economic Development

This paper selects the time series data of Chengdu city from 2009 to 2018, refers to the existing literature, constructs an econometric model for empirical research, uses Eviews software to conduct regression analysis and model testing, and selects the data of its representative variables from the three perspectives of the construction of business talent environment (policy environment, talent attractiveness, and ecological livability level) to conduct an empirical study on the relationship between business talent environment and The results show that: the financial expenditure on social security and employment The results show that social security and employment expenditure, average annual wage and green space in Chengdu, as important factors influencing the construction of business and talent environment, have a significant effect on the high-quality economic development of Chengdu.

Analysis of the agglomeration of Chinese manufacturing industries and its effect on economic growth in different regions after entering the new normal

Entering the new normal of economy symbolises the innovation of growth mode and continuous optimisation and upgradation of economic structure. Using EG index, this paper measures the agglomeration degree of 31 provinces and cities and 31 manufacturing industries in China from 2012 to 2016; the results show that under the new normal, the degree of industrial agglomeration in China's manufacturing industry remains basically stable, but the overall situation is still in a state of moderate agglomeration, the regions with higher degree of concentration continue to present the pattern of ‘one pole, two domains’. To further reveal the relationship between the concentration of Chinese manufacturing industry and regional economic growth, the GMM method of dynamic panel two-stage system was used, and the results showed that industrial agglomeration and economic growth do not have simple linear relationship, but inverted U-type relationship. There was a dynamic continuation effect of regional economic growth, and external factors such as fixed asset investment and government financial expenditure can promote regional industrial economic growth. Finally, the enlightenment of the complete article is given.

The Consistency Of Islamic Corporate Financial Sustainability In Covid-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Analysis

The concept of sustainability is the ability of a company to carry out work program activities in a sustainable manner to achieve company goals. This study aims to examine empirically the consistency of financial sustainability in Islamic companies before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. To measure the financial sustainability performance, this study used ratios from financial income and financial expenditure. The sample in this study used purposive sampling that is 14 Islamic companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Multiple linear regression and a chow test were used to examine the consistency. The result showed that The financial sustainability ratio of companies at the time of the pandemic has a higher value than before the pandemic. the pandemic period in Indonesia affected the financial stability of companies listed on the Jakarta Islamic Index. The independent variable that affects the dependent variable experiences structural changes in Indonesia in the period 2019 to quarter II of 2020