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Article
Publication date: 21 November 2023

Lazaros Antonios Chatzilazarou and Dimitrios Dadakas

This study deals with changes in European Union's (EU's) trade potential in Machinery (HS 84–85) and Transportation (HS86-89) products.

Abstract

Purpose

This study deals with changes in European Union's (EU's) trade potential in Machinery (HS 84–85) and Transportation (HS86-89) products.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a Structural Gravity model, Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation together with panel data for the years 2002–2018 and a two-step procedure that employs predicted values of bilateral trade to compare potential to actual trade.

Findings

Results for Machinery products suggest a potential to expand trade with existing Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) in the American continent, and countries of the IGAD region in Africa. In Transportation, a high trade potential with RTAs is found in the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. Policy suggestions concentrate on opportunities for enhancing trade relations through trade liberalization and agreement proliferation.

Originality/value

There are no studies to date, that examine “collective” measure of EU trade potential, that treats the EU as a single country. Changes in existing opportunities to expand trade, common for EU members, are of special interest for policy formulation, especially after the recent turmoil presented by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the Greek Economic Crisis (GEC). Treating the EU as a single entity, is necessary for the formulation of an effective, common, EU trade policy. This study concentrates on the manufacturing sector to examine existing opportunities for the EU to expand trade, after the GFC and the GEC. This article deals with Machinery (HS 84 and 85) and Transportation (HS 86 through 89) products as they comprise a significant part of total EU exports, reaching 41% of total exports in 2016. Finally, this study offers a unique illustration of results through trade potential heat maps.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 January 2024

Tan Zhang, Zhanying Huang, Ming Lu, Jiawei Gu and Yanxue Wang

Rotating machinery is a crucial component of large equipment, and detecting faults in it accurately is critical for reliable operation. Although fault diagnosis methods based on…

Abstract

Purpose

Rotating machinery is a crucial component of large equipment, and detecting faults in it accurately is critical for reliable operation. Although fault diagnosis methods based on deep learning have been significantly developed, the existing methods model spatial and temporal features separately and then weigh them, resulting in the decoupling of spatiotemporal features.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors propose a spatiotemporal long short-term memory (ST-LSTM) method for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. The authors collected vibration signals from real rolling bearing and gearing test rigs for verification.

Findings

Through these two experiments, the authors demonstrate that machine learning methods still have advantages on small-scale data sets, but our proposed method exhibits a significant advantage due to the simultaneous modeling of the time domain and space domain. These results indicate the potential of the interactive spatiotemporal modeling method for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery.

Originality/value

The authors propose a ST-LSTM method for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. The authors collected vibration signals from real rolling bearing and gearing test rigs for verification.

Details

Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, vol. 76 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0036-8792

Keywords

Expert briefing
Publication date: 18 September 2023

Western sanctions exposed supply-chain vulnerabilities for farm machinery, high-yield seeds and pedigree livestock. Western governments have not attempted to maximise their…

Article
Publication date: 25 May 2023

Md Noor Uddin Milon and Habib Zafarullah

Money laundering (ML) is a major criminal offence stemming from unethical practices by personnel on the ground at Chattogram Port, an important import and export facility in…

Abstract

Purpose

Money laundering (ML) is a major criminal offence stemming from unethical practices by personnel on the ground at Chattogram Port, an important import and export facility in Bangladesh. Because money can be more easily laundered through imports, it is necessary to investigate the dubious process in this sector. This study aims to identify the items most regularly used for easy ML and the factors contributing to their vulnerability.

Design/methodology/approach

This research uses a qualitative approach and analyses information from primary sources. Data is obtained from customs officials, port authority personnel, importers and customs brokers through semi-structured questionnaires. Although there are many techniques for ML, this study only found three most overwhelming: under-invoicing, over-invoicing and misdeclaration. A few case studies have been used based on newspaper reports and the internet to triangulate the qualitative data.

Findings

Four import items – food products, garments, capital machinery and chemicals – have a higher risk of ML. This study also revealed that money launderers prefer under-invoicing food and garment items. Misdeclaration is more commonly associated with capital machinery and chemical items. Over-invoicing, on the other hand, is only prevalent in government purchases. The port authorities need to pay particular attention to these issues.

Research limitations/implications

As ML is an ongoing activity that changes over time, the findings of this research are circumscribed by the data collected at a single point in time. Additionally, this research did not consider alternative laundering methods.

Practical implications

The research results can provide a basis for creating effective anti-money laundering (AML) strategies to assist with sustainable economic growth.

Social implications

Developing effective AML measures can help combat corruption and establish good governance in the country and support human well-being.

Originality/value

This paper presents original research findings based on technical analysis. The Chattogram Port Authority and the National Board of Revenue have accepted and used the main findings in a collaborative action plan to tackle ML. The Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank, has also incorporated the necessary guidelines and regulations into the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012.

Details

Journal of Money Laundering Control, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1368-5201

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 February 2024

Xi Yu, Awudu Abdulai and Dongmei Li

This study aims to examine farmers' decision to use smartphone agricultural applications (SAAs) and how SAAs adoption impact their land transfer behaviors in terms of the current…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine farmers' decision to use smartphone agricultural applications (SAAs) and how SAAs adoption impact their land transfer behaviors in terms of the current land transfer-in area (LTA) and the future willingness to renew land transfer-in after it expires (WTR).

Design/methodology/approach

This study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between farmers' use of SAAs and land transfer choice, using a field survey data of 752 rural farm households in 2020 from Sichuan province of China. The endogenous switching models are employed to address potential self-selection bias associated with voluntary SAAs use and to quantitatively examine the impacts of SAAs use on land transfer choice.

Findings

The empirical results reveal that SAAs significantly improves the probability of transfer-in of more land by 39.10%. We find SAAs use has heterogeneous impacts on land transfer-in choice in the groups of agricultural technology, extension service, marketing and credit. Besides, we also find that SAAs use exerts highly positive and significant impact on farmers with less land area transfer-in. Moreover, SAAs can increase the probability of farmers' willingness to renew the land transfer-in by 30%.

Originality/value

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to explore the quantitative relationship between the use of SAAs and farm households' land transfer choice. The findings of this work can provide policy-related insights to help government promote the development of digital applications in the agricultural sector.

Details

China Agricultural Economic Review, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-137X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 December 2021

Verona Ramas Joseph and Nur Kamaliah Mustaffa

The demand to reduce carbon emissions has become an increasingly important social factor due to the unprecedented impacts of climate change. However, most existing publications…

1835

Abstract

Purpose

The demand to reduce carbon emissions has become an increasingly important social factor due to the unprecedented impacts of climate change. However, most existing publications have focused on minimizing emissions during the operational phase of buildings. At the same time, there is a lack of comprehensive research conducted on carbon emissions, specifically during the construction phase. The purpose of this paper is to identify, review and classify current practices related to carbon emissions management in construction operations to gain greater insight into how to reduce and mitigate emissions and achieve more sustainable solutions.

Design/methodology/approach

This study reviewed the published literature on carbon emissions from construction. A total of 198 bibliographic records were extracted from the Scopus collection database and analyzed using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). PRISMA is used as a basis for reporting possible trends, research methods and strategies used in published literatures. A total of 99 papers related to carbon emissions in the construction operations were further reviewed and analyzed. This review paper draws on existing research and identifies current carbon management patterns in construction projects.

Findings

Data indicated an upward trend in the number of publications in carbon emissions research during the last few years, particularly in 2015, 2017 and 2019. The most significant contributions to the domain were reported from China, Europe and the USA. This paper found that most studies conduct the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method to estimate carbon emissions. This paper found that the primary studies have focused on construction machinery and equipment emissions. The strategies such as establishing uniform standards for carbon emissions policies and regulations, equipment and logistic planning and low carbon design material will potentially impact carbon emissions reductions.

Practical implications

This paper provides information that will be beneficial for the construction industry to design and manage construction operations. It will also be of interest to those looking to reduce or manage construction emissions.

Originality/value

Although there is a diversity of current thinking related to the practical estimation and management of carbon emissions in construction projects, there is no consolidated set of keys of standardized carbon emissions management in practice. By assessing the existing paradigms of carbon assessment methods and tactics in the construction industry, this study contributed to the existing knowledge base by providing insights into current techniques in the construction sector for monitoring and mitigating emissions.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 30 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 October 2023

Lijuan Zhao, Yan Liu and Junhong Shi

In the context of carbon peaking and neutrality, effectively controlling agricultural carbon emissions has gained academic attention. As an essential form of agricultural service…

Abstract

Purpose

In the context of carbon peaking and neutrality, effectively controlling agricultural carbon emissions has gained academic attention. As an essential form of agricultural service scale management, this study investigates whether and how trusteeship affects the carbon emission behavior in planting production.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors established a theoretical framework to analyze the impact of agricultural production trusteeship on carbon emissions from planting. China's provincial panel data in the 2012–2021 period were selected to test the impact, mechanisms and heterogeneity of agricultural production trusteeship on carbon emissions from planting using the bidirectional fixed effect model and the panel correction standard error regression model.

Findings

The findings indicate that agricultural production trusteeship significantly inhibits carbon emissions from planting, especially in the dimensions of fertilizer input, pesticide application, agricultural film use and mechanical fuel. Agricultural production trusteeship primarily affects the intensity of these carbon emissions through contiguous farmland management and planting structure adjustment. Further examinations revealed that the influence of agricultural production trusteeship on carbon emissions from planting was heterogeneous with respect to geographical location, proportion of non-farming income and scale of agricultural production.

Originality/value

This study is the first to systematically evaluate the impact of agricultural production trusteeship on carbon emissions from planting.

Details

China Agricultural Economic Review, vol. 15 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-137X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 July 2023

Marcello Braglia, Francesco Di Paco, Marco Frosolini and Leonardo Marrazzini

This paper presents Quick Changeover Design (QCD), which is a structured methodological approach for Original Equipment Manufacturers to drive and support the design of machines…

1095

Abstract

Purpose

This paper presents Quick Changeover Design (QCD), which is a structured methodological approach for Original Equipment Manufacturers to drive and support the design of machines in terms of rapid changeover capability.

Design/methodology/approach

To improve the performance in terms of set up time, QCD addresses machine design from a single-minute digit exchange of die (SMED). Although conceived to aid the design of completely new machines, QCD can be adapted to support for simple design upgrades on pre-existing machines. The QCD is structured in three consecutive steps, each supported by specific tools and analysis forms to facilitate and better structure the designers' activities.

Findings

QCD helps equipment manufacturers to understand the current and future needs of the manufacturers' customers to: (1) anticipate the requirements for new and different set-up process; (2) prioritize the possible technical solutions; (3) build machines and equipment that are easy and fast to set-up under variable contexts. When applied to a production system consisting of machines subject to frequent or time-consuming set-up processes, QCD enhances both responsiveness to external market demands and internal control of factory operations.

Originality/value

The QCD approach is a support system for the development of completely new machines and is also particularly effective in upgrading existing ones. QCD's practical application is demonstrated using a case study concerning a vertical spindle machine.

Details

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, vol. 34 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-038X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 April 2023

Nida Rahman and Krishan Sharma

Regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) is understood as the world's largest trading bloc given its contribution to the world output (30%). The mega trade bloc brings…

Abstract

Purpose

Regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) is understood as the world's largest trading bloc given its contribution to the world output (30%). The mega trade bloc brings together 15 countries of East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania to eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers in goods and services trade. The study suggests the importance of sector specific reforms for Malaysia to strengthen domestic capability.

Design/methodology/approach

The analytical framework constructs upon the partial equilibrium analysis and uses WITS SMART simulations.

Findings

The study finds that Malaysia's elimination of tariffs under the RCEP will cause a surge in imports from developed member countries of RCEP like Australia, South Korea and Japan. The study also finds a trade diversion in countries such as India. The empirical results establishes that RCEP would further strengthen intra-ASEAN trade.

Research limitations/implications

The study explores select sectors of the manufacturing industry in Malaysia.

Practical implications

The implementation of RCEP would impact the manufacturing sector immensely, especially in sectors like electrical machinery and equipment and inorganic chemicals, which are two of the major trading commodities of the Malaysian economy.

Social implications

Any trade agreement has a larger impact on the society. It may raise income, boost the consumer preferences and create or erode consumer welfare. The study reports the consumer welfare effect of the implementation of RCEP in Malaysia.

Originality/value

The study is the first attempt to do a partial equilibrium analysis for the electrical machinery and equipment sector and inorganic chemicals sector of Malaysia using both aggregated and disaggregated data at HS two-digit and HS six-digit level.

Details

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, vol. 40 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1026-4116

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2023

Jason Loughrey and Herath Vidyaratne

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the association between farm/farmer characteristics and unsubsidized farm insurance premium expenditure in Ireland. The distribution of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the association between farm/farmer characteristics and unsubsidized farm insurance premium expenditure in Ireland. The distribution of farm insurance expenditures is wide, and it is important to understand the extent to which individual factors influence demand for different levels of insurance premium.

Design/methodology/approach

The quantile regression approach and farm accountancy data from the Teagasc National Farm Survey are used to model the association between farm/farmer characteristics and farm insurance demand in Ireland.

Findings

Asset values (livestock, buildings and machinery) are positively associated with total insurance expenditure. Both forestry area and crop area are significantly associated with farm insurance expenditure with a stronger influence on the middle and upper part of the distribution. The interaction between farm income and farmer age is positively associated with insurance expenditure pointing to the importance of farm income protection.

Research limitations/implications

The research is mainly concerned with insuring against substantive risks, which are capable of threatening the asset base and continuation of the farm business. Future research can integrate questions in relation to farm safety and farmer health with research on the economic survival of the farm business.

Practical implications

Farmers in Ireland adopt unsubsidized farm insurance as a risk management tool. This situation is relevant to other EU member states including Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Sweden. The findings can be used to inform stakeholders and policymakers about the relative impact of different factors on insurance expenditure.

Originality/value

Previous research has typically focused on the linear relationship between farm/farmer characteristics and insurance demand without accounting for variability across the size distribution. This research is based on the quantile regression approach where the association between farm/farmer characteristics and farm insurance expenditure can be assessed at different points of the distribution.

Details

Agricultural Finance Review, vol. 83 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-1466

Keywords

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