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The fundamental idea that we seek to establish in this chapter is that the establishment of regional or local, peace calls forth global peace. In other words, our argument is that local and regional conflicts are partly driven by global factors, especially what is commonly known as international tension. In order to achieve meaningful and sustained peace, there is a reason to believe that it is mandatory to manage and contain international tensions. The main thesis of this chapter is to explain or posit, conflicts as a product of continuing international chasms, splits and differences of political and social ideologies in our modern world. Thus, we argue that conflicts are, to some extent, driven by international tension or global, ideological and geo-political factors. Notwithstanding the global influence, local factors – such as income inequality, income growth or lack of it, political institutions – can and do exacerbate conflicts and a peaceful resolution of conflicts becomes a difficult phenomenon.

This paper extends a methodology proposed by Nissanov and Silber (2009) who decomposed the coefficient β used in convergence analysis into three components checking respectively whether there was σ-convergence, whether ‘pure mobility’ (upward or downward income mobility) was lower among the poor and what the extent of ‘residual mobility’ (the third component) was.

The present paper extends this analysis by applying it to the analysis of regional per capita income levels but also to that of within regions inequality and regional welfare levels. The empirical illustration uses Portuguese data on average earnings at the level of NUTS3.

This paper aims to tackle an important question related to women’s economic empowerment in highly patriarchal societies like Egypt. The paper discusses individual, household, wealth and location factors determining women empowerment, as measured by two dimensions: decision-making power and mobility.

Using the “Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey” (ELMPS) 2012, a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model was estimated to study the main economic resources and social constraints that determine women empowerment as measured by the power of women over household decisions and her freedom of movement in Egypt.

Three key messages could be delivered. First, women’s own economic resources as captured by her employment status are an important source of her empowerment. Second, contrary to theoretical prediction education is not playing its expected role in developing awareness and transforming ideas concerning gender roles in Egypt. Third, the importance of social local context is fundamental for Egyptian women empowerment.

This study is an attempt to address some of the gaps in the literature for the Egyptian case, where there is a lack in rigorous studies measuring women empowerment and examining its determinates. This is done by first, tackling multiple dimension of women’s empowerment, decision-making inside households and freedom of mobility. Second, using MIMIC model, which is a modeling approach that allows for studying the relations between several causes of a given latent variable, such as “Empowerment” in our case, and a number of its possible indicators, without a directly observable measure of the latent variable. Third, using the most recent set of data; the ELMPS 2012 which has a special focus on women’s resources and agency that permits greater content validity of the multidimensional setup. Forth, the macro level differences in women’s status are tackled through using location dummy variables. Finally, given the important correlation between wealth level and women empowerment, the paper is considered a first attempt to analyze such impact by including a variable that captures the wealth level of the woman’s household as one determinant of empowerment.

The significance of smart mobility practices in shaping cities from a smart perspective has grown in recent years, influencing policies and the choices made by inhabitants. This transformation has led to the emergence of novel services and strategies, creating a new, vibrant and highly personalised urban environment that caters to the needs and preferences of both local residents and visitors. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of smart mobility practices on tourism flows in cities, considering the moderating effect of airport activities on this relationship.

Using a generalised method of moments estimation and focusing on 20 Italian cities over an eight-year period, the authors highlight the current relationship between smart mobility practices and tourism flows. Moreover, the authors demonstrate that the yearly advancement of airports positively moderates this relationship.

The findings indicate a significant relationship between smart mobility practices in modern cities and tourism inflows because they influence the development of tourism services and emerging trends such as smart tourism and smart destinations. Furthermore, airport activities as a proxy for city openness play a crucial role in this link. The study shows that airports have an incremental impact on tourism and on the relationship between tourism and sustainable practices.

The limitations of this quantitative approach include the focus on a single country, the challenge of measuring the development of smart mobility practices due to a lack of standardised variables and the need for future research to expand the sample to different countries in relation to tourism inflows.

This study has practical implications for policymakers and governance in their task of effectively coordinating internal smart mobility practices and managing incoming tourism flows.

This study has social implications, highlighting the need for policymakers and governance to address the societal impacts of smart mobility practices and tourism inflows, ensuring inclusive and sustainable outcomes for local communities.

This study contributes to the existing literature as one of the first attempts to examine the interplay between smart mobility practices in smart cities and tourism flows. Furthermore, it emphasises the role of airports in this relationship, highlighting how the interaction between these variables benefits both stakeholders.

This paper investigates the dynamic patterns of Vietnam’s comparative advantage in the context of ASEAN. Using the Galtonian regression method and the Markov transition probability matrices for data from 1997 to 2008, we find the following: Firstly, commodity groups with a weak comparative advantage improved their competitiveness, whereas those groups with a strong comparative advantage saw it decline, indicating a convergence of their comparative advantages. Secondly, in terms of intra-distribution dynamics, industries with no initial comparative advantage (Class a) and those with a strong initial comparative advantage (Class d) showed a high degree of persistence, suggesting a low degree of mobility in the trade patterns for Classes a and d. Thirdly, mineral resource-intensive products showed a high degree of export specialization, whereas other product categories showed a high degree of export diversification. Fourthly, all commodity groups showed a downward trend in the degree of specialization. Finally, Vietnam’s exports were dominated by unskilled labor-intensive products and agricultural resource-intensive products, reflecting the validity of Heckscher-Ohlin model. As a result of the country’s trade liberalization, the patterns of Vietnam’s comparative advantage have come to reflect its factor endowment. These results suggest that Vietnam could better diversify its export structures and shift to exports based on human capital and technology by further liberalizing its trade policies, fostering human capital formation, and facilitating the transfer of technology.

This study aims to investigate whether top management team (TMT)’s job mobility experience is related to firm innovation.

The authors use different strategies, including a two-stage instrumental model, difference-in-differences analysis based on TMT members’ sudden deaths, propensity score matching and firm fixed-effects model, to mitigate endogeneity concerns.

The authors find that firms whose TMT experienced more job mobility have better firm innovation. In addition, the authors reveal that the job mobility experience is positively related to engagement in explorative innovation strategies that generate new knowledge. The findings are robust to a battery of tests to alleviate potential endogeneity concerns. Overall, the results highlight the role of job mobility experience in influencing firm innovation.

This study contributes to the rising literature on the determinants of firm innovation. By showing the TMT’s job mobility experience is related to innovation, the authors expand the literature about the economic consequences of the heterogeneous TMT characteristics. Given that firm innovation is essential to competitive advantage, the results should be of interest to a range of stakeholders, including investors, directors and managers and policymakers.

This study aims to (1) identify the agricultural competitiveness of ASEAN countries in the global markets; (2) analyze the dynamics of these indicators for the period 1997–2015; and (3) test the consistency between trade indices.

The study uses RCA, RTA, and NRCA for the first objective; OLS method and Markov matrix for the second objective; and statistic tool for the final purpose.

The results show that: (1) ASEAN countries achieve the strongest competitiveness in rice, rubber, spices, vegetable fat and oils, wood, fuel wood, fish, and crustacean. Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia are the strongest competitive whilst Brunei, Singapore, and Cambodia are the weakest competitive; (2) They have convergent patterns in agricultural competitiveness; (3) They successfully maintain rankings of the strong competitive sectors; and (4) ASEAN countries obtain benefits from the regional integration and the specialization in competitive products.

ASEAN countries with strong competitiveness should specialize in and maintain their rankings to enhance competitiveness and maximize social welfare while the countries with weak agricultural competitiveness should specialize in the processed products and services based on their advantages of economic resources.

Comprehensive results of the static and dynamic agricultural competitiveness of ASEAN countries as a whole are provided. The findings and policy recommendations can be used by policymakers and enterprises to improve competitiveness and benefit. The discussions and findings should be a significant reference for economists.

Although the link between socioeconomic deprivation and health status has been identified by many researchers, not much attention has been paid to the intergenerational effect of poverty on physical and psychological health status. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of childhood deprivation on health at the later stages of the working age.

Data for individuals aged between 50 and 65 in six European countries are collected using purpose build questionnaires. The dataset provides information on issues such as physical and mental health status, past working experiences, socioeconomic and occupational background, incidence of diseases and sense of well‐being. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and ordered logit models are utilised to estimate the effect of childhood deprivation on health status indices. Logit models are also used to investigate the effects of childhood deprivation on the likelihood of an individual suffering from specific disease.

There is a consistent and significant negative effect of childhood deprivation on the overall health profile at later adulthood. For instance, for each additional unit of the childhood deprivation index, the index of the mobility status and physical health status in later adulthood decrease by 0.19 and 0.28, respectively, the index of the psychological health decrease by almost 0.41 and the odds of exhibiting better self‐assessed health decrease by a factor of 0.86 (all p‐values are <0.01). Similar negative effects of childhood deprivation on the likelihood of an individual suffering from a specific medical condition are unearthed.

It is shown that childhood socioeconomic deprivation has long lasting detrimental effects on the health of individuals that are observable at the later ages of working life. Hence, the relationship between childhood socioeconomic deprivation and adult health should be an important factor in social policy and health care planning in an era of aging populations.

A dynamic model of the evolution of health for those over the age of 50 is embedded in a structural, econometric model of retirement and saving. Effects of smoking, obesity, alcohol consumption, depression, and other proclivities on medical conditions are analyzed, including hypertension, diabetes, cancer, lung disease, heart problems, stroke, psychiatric problems, and arthritis. Compared to a population in good health, the current health of the population reduces retirement age by about one year. Including detailed health dynamics in a retirement model does not influence estimates of the marginal effects of economic incentives on retirement.

This chapter proposes tests for stochastic dominance in mobility based on the empirical likelihood ratio. Two views of mobility are considered, either based on measures of absolute mobility or based on transition matrices. First-order and second-order dominance conditions in mobility are first derived, followed by the derivation of statistical inferences techniques to test a null hypothesis of nondominance against an alternative of mobility dominance. An empirical analysis, based on the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), is performed by comparing four income mobility periods ranging from 1970 to 1990.