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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every community across the globe, but the global COVID-19 data show that the United States remains the most affected country where well over 666,000 people died, and approximately 40 million citizens became ill due to the virus' spread by mid-2021 (CDC, 2021). It is also noteworthy that extreme racial disparities in rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths are high in the United States, specifically among African American population. This situation is particularly evident among African American population in Alabama's Black Belt. Subsequently, COVID-19, racial disparities, and health inequalities have become central to the national and regional conversation. This chapter examines the associations between COVID-19, social determinants of health, and the systematic health disparity in African American population in Alabama's Black Belt region using Geographic Information Systems and the concept of uneven spatial development. Understanding the relationship between COVID-19 and these disparities within a spatial context vital to developing pathways to overcome the pandemic's effects and combat the systemic discrimination in this region. The derived policy recommendation could apply to other regions experiencing social inequality and health disparity.

Nowadays, consumer behavior is more sophisticated and complex than before. In this study, I attempt to analyze the relationship between impulse buying (consumerʼs emotional side of the consumption) and an individualʼs self-discrepancy (the difference between what one is and what one would like to be). I propose that a consumer uses impulse buying to lift oneʼs self up and remove oneʼs self-discrepancy. Results from a sample of consumers in Spain established that a consumer experienced self-discrepancy was likely to have impulse buying. Moreover, the larger the self discrepancy, the more one was dissatisfied with oneʼs consumption. Finally, symbolic meanings of products to the consumer were associated with the different areas of self-discrepancy. Clothing is associated with not only oneʼs image in front of others but also oneʼs self-esteem. Therefore, impulse buying in clothing is positively related to oneʼs self-discrepancy in the emotional side of self.

There has not been a technology assessment study conducted that can be found publicly that created the energy policies of France and Germany – which are two nations that represent the vast extremes of national energy mix in Europe. This paper aims to use objective data to reverse generate the energy policy priorities that would yield the current portfolios.

A hierarchical decision model was developed and analyzed backward using the goal programming to identify the priorities of criteria in a variety of technology alternatives. The three levels of goals are combined in one discrepancy minimization. Goals are defined in a non‐linear way to determine the values in different levels. Although the goals are given the same priority, the proposed model is used to determine the weight of each criterion and then finds the weight of technical, political/social and economic influences. Discrepancies achieved after having run the goal‐programming model determines the unbalanced policies.

The paper results in key findings. First is that social/political factors have overwhelmingly low importance. It is also found that this is not completely reflecting the countries' portfolios, suggesting more research must be done to refine and extend the model. Also, experts need to be consulted and areas such as public opinion need to be quantified.

The paper presents a hybrid method to identify the true priorities that lead to the current energy portfolios of France and Germany. Although limited, this approach can be expanded to all Europe.

Israel is characterised by economic growth that is accompanied not only by prosperity but also by increasing poverty. This paper aims to conceptualise the role of Israel’s social enterprises in reducing the gap between prosperous and disadvantaged populations.

This qualitative study is based on 23 in-depth interviews. It makes use of a theoretical framework that incorporates two elements: cosmopolitanism and social entrepreneurship. Cosmopolitanism, together with government policies that aim to develop free enterprise and international trade, support entrepreneurship and advance education, accompanies and facilitates prosperity. Whilst prosperity increases inequality, social entrepreneurship develops as a tool to mitigate the side effects of economic growth in the form of the increasing gap between the rich and the poor.

This paper argues that the principal reason why the gap evolved and is increasing is in the discrepancy between rapidly rising requirements presented by the innovation-focussed economy and the workers’ skills. Based on interviews with social entrepreneurs who are (co)founders or managers of businesses with a social purpose, findings show that the gap between prosperity and social deprivation could be bridged by increasing workers’ capacity to align their skills with employers’ requirements, which is the area to which Israeli social enterprises contribute.

The paper argues that cosmopolitan orientation is one of the contributors to economic growth and innovation, whilst prosperity increases the gap between high- and low-income groups. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge about social entrepreneurs by applying the framework that makes use of cosmopolitanism as an important driver of Israeli social entrepreneurship, which helps to explain the role that social business enterprises play in reducing the gap between prosperous and disadvantaged populations.

The Beyond Budgeting movement has argued that traditional budgets failed to contribute to the management of tensions associated with the increasing complexity of business models. The literature has reported a range of budgeting practices developed to address these problems, which the authors refer to collectively as “non-traditional (NT) budgets.” The purpose of this paper is to consider how the design and use of a NT budgeting system facilitates the management of multiple organizational tensions.

The study reports the findings of an in-depth case study on three business units (BUs) of the French chemical giant SSB, a company that implemented a NT budget inspired by the Beyond Budgeting Round Table model.

The authors provide detailed empirical insights into the design and use of a NT budgeting system and analyze the manner in which the new system exposes organizational tensions across multiple axes.

It is a limitation of the study that only three of SSB 21 BU’s which implemented the NT budget project were examined in depth. This limitation is mitigated to some extent by the review of audit reports in respect of the implementation of the NT budget in a total of 15 BU’s.

The study contributes a means of analyzing NT budgets in terms of the different types of organizational tensions generated, which should be of use to both researchers and practitioners in researching, designing, and evaluating NT budgets.

This study provides detailed empirical insights into the design and use of a NT budgeting system and evidence of the success of this system in exposing organizational tensions across multiple axes. The study illustrates how productive tensions can be generated through the analysis of discrepancies between alternative views of organizational performance.

This paper aims to examine the impact that monetary policy uncertainty (MPU) has on stock market returns by taking into account limits to arbitrage and the economic cycle.

Using four news-based MPU measures, regression models have been applied in this study over a sample period from January 1985 to March 2020. The limits to arbitrage have been considered by taking Russell 1000 Value, Russell 1000 Growth, Russell 2000 Value and Russell 2000 Growth indices, and business cycles were established following the National Bureau of Economic Research.

A negative MPU impact on stock returns has been found. In particular, the most subjective and difficult to arbitrate stocks have been more sensitive to MPU. However, it could not be concluded that MPU has a greater or lesser impact on stock returns depending on the economic cycle.

The findings obtained are particularly useful for monetary policymakers showing the importance and need for greater control over the transparency of their decisions to maintain the stability of financial markets. The findings obtained are also useful for investors when selecting their investment assets at times of the highest MPU.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies investigating the effect of MPU on stock market returns, and the first to analyse this relationship taking into account the economic cycle and limits to arbitrage.

The chapter deals with social inequalities in post-conflict and post-2007/2008 financial crisis Northern Ireland. From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, Northern Ireland was characterised by a Catholic/Protestant sectarian conflict and affected by marked political, economic and social discrepancies disadvantaging the Catholic minority.

The combined effects of the economic boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and of the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, improved the social and economic living conditions of Northern Ireland citizens and diversified the ethnic composition of the population, as immigrants were attracted by new opportunities offered in the booming Northern Ireland labour market. The 2007/2008 financial crisis was to curb these positive trends, although Northern Ireland’s economy has now recovered as its unemployment rate indicates.

In the light of this specific context, this chapter first examines key indicators of social inequalities in Northern Ireland: wealth, employment and housing. It then focuses on traditional indicators of Catholic/Protestant inequalities: education employment and housing. It finally examines to what extent the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the 2006 St Andrew’s Agreement and the 2014 Stormont House Agreement have tackled the issue of social inequalities.

This paper aims to elucidate the practical and theoretical mechanisms which contribute to the perception of an economic sanction’s effectiveness as a foreign policy tool.

This paper is divided into three sections, the first two of which are heavily based on the current academic literature and media presentation of sanctions. The third section is rooted in the empirical approach presented in the first author’s exploratory work, Methods of Money Laundering (2021).

Economic sanctions cannot be perceived as effective when the standard for efficacy remains undefined and sanction circumvention remains feasible. The public perception of sanctions is characterized by a series of assumptions as well as conflict foreign policy objectives, which cultivate an economic theory that is benefited by a practical exploration of the routes of circumvention.

The efficacy of economic sanctions is not a stable equation, but rather the application of an economic tool which is dependent on its context. Paths of sanction circumvention remain open due to weaknesses in compliance regulation. These paths continue to undermine the credibility of sanctions and, ultimately, their efficacy.

In recent years, Asian countries have experienced rising rates of premarital cohabitation, mirroring a similar trend that could be observed in many European countries several decades ago. As international differences in these trends are often attributed to institutional and societal differences, this study explores how China’s and Germany’s welfare and cultural regimes relate to national differences in the timing and prevalence of premarital cohabitation and direct marriage.

On the basis of two post-hoc harmonized surveys (pairfam for Germany; CFPS for China), descriptive analyses and logistic regressions were conducted. A higher standardization of partnership trajectories during the transition to adulthood was observed in China; this being probably related to China’s collectivist and Germany’s individualistic culture. While urban–rural differences prevail in China, and are attributable to China’s hukou system, East and West Germans differ considerably in this regard, a finding which can be traced back to regional differences in historical legacy. Discrepancies in economic modernization explain why the likelihood of experiencing these events differs for individuals in the Eastern and Western Chinese provinces.

Besides these differences, the two national contexts resemble each other in the prevalence of educational hypergamy, as well as in greater rates of cohabitation prior to first marriage, in contrast to direct marriage, seen among wealthier individuals and those with higher education. For the first time, the effects of cultural and institutional differences on the transition to adulthood were compared between a collectivistic vs. individualistic cultural regime and a productivist vs. corporatist conservative welfare regime, enabling researchers to draw conclusions about the link between cultural and welfare regime types and partnership patterns.

Discusses the dilemmas faced by both host and visitor in “home stay” arrangements. Where there are great cultural and/or economic discrepancies the problems can be more difficult to deal with.