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Depression imposes substantial individual and societal economic costs, including lower productivity and higher healthcare use. However, while the relationship between employment and mental health has been explored, less is known about the potentially countervailing effects of different types of economic inactivity on depression among older individuals. The authors employ a series of models, including fixed effects panel data models and matching on rich data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) to investigate whether different types of inactivity might have heterogenous effects on depression. The authors find that whereas transitions to involuntary inactivity (unemployment) do not appear to have a perceivable effect on depression, transitions to voluntary inactivity (retirement) seem to decrease it.

This paper aims to provide insights into the environment needed for advancing a digitally enabled circular plastic economy in Africa. It explores important technical and social paradigms for the transition.

This study adopted an interpretivist paradigm, drawing on thematic analysis on qualitative data from an inter-sectoral engagement with 69 circular economy stakeholders across the continent.

The results shows that, while substantial progress has been made with regard to the development and deployment of niche innovations in Africa, the overall progress of circular plastic economy is slowed due to relatively minimal changes at the regime levels as well as pressures from the exogenous landscape. The study highlights that regime changes are crucial for disrupting the entrenched linear plastic economy in developing countries, which is supported by significant sunk investment and corporate state capture.

The main limitation of this study is with the sample as it uses data collected from five countries. Therefore, while it offers a panoramic view of multi-level synergy of actors and sectors across African countries, it is limited in its scope and ability to illuminate country-specific nuances and peculiarities.

The study underlines the importance of policy innovations and regulatory changes in order for technologies to have a meaningful contribution to the transition to a circular plastic economy.

The study makes an important theoretical contribution by using empirical evidence from various African regions to articulate the critical importance of the regime dimension in accelerating the circular economy transition in general, and the circular plastic economy in particular, in Africa.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive systematic literature review using bibliometric approach to investigate the academic structure of World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement research.

The study examines the bibliographic information for 1,858 articles from Scopus and the Australian Business Deans Council-indexed journals published between 1995 and 2024 using Dimensions.ai and Google Scholar search engines. Exploratory-cum-descriptive research design with bibliometric approach is used to answer the stated literature review research questions.

The data shows a gradual decline in WTO-Dispute Settlement System (WTO-DSS) research relative to the total international business area in the three decades. Developed countries appear as key contributors to the research, with the USA and the UK standing out as the most productive and influential research countries. The study shows a significant change in the focus of this research corpus from legalized to non-legalized approaches, with a greater emphasis on transparency and environmental sustainability. The research identifies global politics and international trade law as influential subjects in the discipline.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is a first of its kind where bibliometric approach has been used to study the evolution of WTO-DSS literature. The study adds to the understanding of WTO Dispute Settlement research patterns and recommends future research options.