The trilemma of innovation, logistics performance, and environmental quality in 25 topmost logistics countries: A quantile regression evidence

Comparative analysis of the USA's Washington Ferries and road transport carbon emissions using the Trozzi and Vaccaro and Greatest Integer functions

Countries' sectors are currently under great scrutiny for their response to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission profile and the general effect of the sectoral activities on the environment. As in the agenda of all sectors, environmental concerns and investigations are of high importance in shipping and maritime transport. Amidst the rising forms of globalization, the need for sustainable transportation is constantly increasing. However, the machines that are the cornerstone of transportation largely depend on fossil fuels, thus resulting in environmental degradation. Notably, environmental-related degradation has continued to account for global warming, climate change, and ocean acidification. Shipping is considered the most environmentally friendly mode of transportation in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per ton per mile of transported unit load when compared against road transportation. In this study, six ferry lines (FLs) of Washington State Ferries were calculated to compare ship-generated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions with those from road transportation as if the carried vehicles had used the highway instead of transport by FL. While making these calculations, the Greatest Integer function (GIF) and Trozzi and Vaccaro function (TVF) were utilized. From the examined three scenarios, i.e., all passengers travel by car instead of ferry as scenario 1, all ferries carry both cars and passengers as scenario 2, and all car-free passengers travel by bus instead of ferry as scenario 3, the outlined results are as follows: (i) none of the cars were carried by the ferry, and car-free passengers preferred traveling by their own cars as observed in scenario 1; (ii) hypothetical scenarios (1 to 3) in which the road vehicles carried on FLs had instead used the highway, and the total potential CO2 emissions of these road vehicles were calculated as 2,638,858.138, 704,958.2998, and 1,394,148.577 tonnes per year, respectively. Policy-wise, this study revealed the management strategies for CO2 emissions reduction for two transport modes, shipping and road transportation, under current conditions.

Closing the loop of a global supply chain through a robust optimal decentralized decision support system

This paper presents a novel decentralized decision support system to optimally design a general global closed-loop supply chain. This is done through an original risk-based robust mixed-integer linear programming that is formulated based on an initial uncertain bi-level programming. Addressing the decision-maker's (DM's) attitude toward risk, a scenario-based conditional value-at-risk is used to deal with demand and return uncertainty. Also, the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions are employed to transform the model into its single-level counterpart. The results obtained from solving a numerical example through the proposed framework are compared with those of the corresponding centralized system, which is formulated through deterministic multi-objective programming and solved by the Lp-metric method. The results show that the use of the proposed framework improves the robustness of profit, income, and cost by about 28%, 34%, and 36% on average. However, a more conservative DM faces a larger cost of robustness than an optimistic DM while experiencing a more significant improvement in the system responsiveness. Using the proposed framework, the manager can measure the advantages, disadvantages, and consequences of their decisions before their actual implementation. This is because the model is capable of establishing fundamental trade-offs among risk, cost, profit, income, robustness, and responsiveness according to the DM's attitude toward risk.

The nexus between economic growth, health expenditure, environmental quality: a comparative study for E7 countries

The motivation of this study is to analyze the relationship between economic growth, health expenditures, environmental pollution, gross fixed capital formation and labor force by using annual data of E7 countries for the period 2000 to 2018. The co-integration coefficient of the variables was analyzed using the PMG technique, and the causality relationship between the variables was analyzed using the Emirmahmutoglu F, Kose N. Testing for granger causality in heterogeneous mixed panels. Econ Modell 2011;28:870-6 technique. In the empirical findings, the elasticity coefficient of health expenditures, environmental pollution, gross fixed capital formation and labor force variables is positive and significant. On the other hand, in the results of the causality relationship, it was concluded that economic growth and health expenditures are causal. It is concluded that economic growth is causal to CO₂ emissions. In addition, CO₂ emissions are the cause of health expenditures. As a result of the empirical findings obtained, the implementation of policies that will reduce environmental pollution in the perspective of sustainable growth will also affect health expenditures.

Asian logistics industry efficiency under low carbon environment: policy implications for sustainable development

Logistics is a crucial part of every business. The logistics sector not only contributes significantly to Asian economies but also has far-reaching effects on ecological and social concerns. Therefore, it is important to examine the factors that can affect the logistics performance of the country. Hence, the primary objective of the study is to estimate the impact of CO₂ emissions, ICT, and human capital on the logistics performance of the 20 Asian economies. In order to investigate the relationship between the variables, we have employed the OLS, 2SLS, GMM, and panel quantile regression. The estimates of CO₂ emissions and GHG emissions are significantly negative in 2SLS and GMM methods, implying that environmental pollution hurt logistic performance. The estimates of ICT and education are positively significant, suggesting that increased use of internet and higher education rate are crucial in improving logistics performance. In the panel quantile regression model, the estimates of CO₂, internet, and education are insignificant at most quantiles except at a few higher quantiles. Thus, governments should invest in the development of efficient logistics infrastructure to achieve sustainable development.

Assessing the EKC hypothesis by considering the supply chain disruption and greener energy: findings in the lens of sustainable development goals

This paper investigates the effect of the supply chain disruption, greener energy consumption, and economic growth on carbon emissions in advanced economies and emerging markets from 1997 to 2021 using panel quantile autoregressive distributed lags (QARDL) and the panel quantile regression (QR). The results of the two models confirm, on the one hand, the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and, on the other hand, the role of renewable energy consumption in mitigating carbon emissions in advanced and developing economies. Furthermore, the finding shows that the supply chain disruption for the long run is positive at all quantiles, indicating the evidence of association at the extreme low and high quantiles than at the intermediate quantile. In addition, the effect of the supply chain decreases at the lower quantile. It turns negative at the upper 90th quantile in the short run, indicating that the supply chain disruption reduces the environmental degradation under the bearish market conditions. In the future, the increasing supply chain disruptions due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and further COVID-19 worldwide can consider sluggish economic growth and play an essential role in promoting renewable energy abundance and reducing CO₂ emissions. Practical implications are reported in the lens of carbon neutrality and structural changes.

Basic research investment, innovation capability improvement, and economic growth efficiency

This study explores the relationship between the proportion of basic research investment in R&D expenditure and regional economic growth efficiency and its influence path. A panel of data from 31 China's provincial was analysed by the fixed-effects model over 2009 to 2019. Empirical results highlight that: (1) the increase in the proportion of basic research investment has a significant promoting effect on regional economic growth efficiency, but it presents an "inverted U-shaped" impact path. Meanwhile, the threshold effect model test results reveal that basic research investment plays a more significant role in promotion when the per capita income level exceeds a certain threshold. (2) The test results of the mediating effect model indicate that the improvement of the level of human capital is the intermediate channel through which the investment in basic research affects regional economic growth efficiency, while the mediating effect of the increase of knowledge storage on the process of the investment in basic research affecting regional economic growth efficiency is not supported by data. Potential policy measures are discussed.

Management of Green Economic Infrastructure and Environmental Sustainability in One Belt and Road Enitiative Economies

Green infrastructure has been considered as one potential solution for improving air quality as well as enhancing environmental sustainability in the modern era. Therefore, the study aims to examine the impact of green economic infrastructure on environmental sustainability in one belt and road initiative (OBRI) economies for the period 2007 to 2019. For empirical investigations, the study adopts 2SLS and GMM approaches. The study uses three proxies to measure green economic infrastructure, namely, green logistics, use of the internet, and green technology. Our 2SLS findings demonstrate that green logistics increases CO2 in OBRI, Central Asia, MENA and reduces CO2 in Europe. However, GMM findings report that green logistics increases CO2 in OBRI, central Asia, and MENA and reduces CO2 in Europe. While our 2SLS findings show that internet use reduces CO2 in OBRI and East and Southeast Asia Europe and increases CO2 in MENA. While GMM findings reveal that the use of the internet reduces CO2 in OBRI and Europe and increases in East and Southeast Asia and MENA. While green technology also enhances environmental sustainability in OBRI. Based on the findings, environmental policies can be revised for OBRI economies.

Case Study of Municipal Waste and Its Reliance on Reverse Logistics in European Countries

The authors have examined municipal waste, its components and their integration with reverse logistics processes. Background: The theoretical part begins with a definition of municipal waste. Later, the integration between municipal waste and reverse logistics is provided, including presentation of the hierarchy of qualitative methods and models. Methods: The authors constructed a correlation matrix and applied a dynamic regression model to identify that the level of municipal waste impacts recycling of biowaste which demands reverse logistics. Results: The authors provided a dynamic regression model which could be applied for forecasting the size of recycled municipal waste into biowaste indicated in European Union countries. Conclusions: The variety of components in municipal waste prevents the increase of the recycling rates and has to be changed to ones that have higher recycling rates.

Green Supply Chain Management With Sustainable Economic Growth by CS-ARDL Technique: Perspective to Blockchain Technology

Logistics plays a major part in any country's or region's economic success. Logistics performance depends upon the trade between other countries and urbanization. Urbanization has major role in logistics performance. However, being a significant energy user, logistics has negative consequences. As the logistics performance increases, carbon emissions increase as well because of more transportation and urbanization. Logistics performance has positive effects related to trade openness which reduces carbon emissions. As a result, it is necessary to understand function of logistics from both economic and environmental standpoint. Logistics performance is affected by urbanization of any region. The dataset for this research is made up of 10 Asian nations with 550 observations from 2010 to 2018 and is based on the theoretical underpinnings of impact of population affluence and technology (IPAT) and stochastic impacts by regression on population affluence and technology (STIRPAT). After applying various tests like cointegration analysis, unit root test, cross-sectional dependence now long & short-term relation of variables is studied by Cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL). As indicated by the discoveries, the logistic performance index (LPI) is basically effective on economic growth and carbon emissions, particularly when related to IPAT and STIRPAT. The findings are reviewed, and policy implications are offered, which say that current logistical infrastructure should be transformed to more environmentally friendly operations. Finally, the limits are acknowledged, as well as future research possibilities that should be pursued.