Daniela Andreatta, Serena Favarin, Maurizio Lisciandra, Emanuele Millemaci (p)

This study conducts an econometric analysis on the main factors influencing waste crime in Italy, applying the System Generalized Method of Moments on panel data from 2009 to 2015 at provincial level. The results show that socio-economic factors are important drivers of this crime type. High population density and GDP per capita reduce illegal waste management, while higher levels of education increase the reporting rates of illegal environmental activities. Waste crime is also associated with the presence of organized crime and other criminal factors such as criminal association and money laundering, as well as performance-driven factors such as waste sorting.

Hiroyuki Shibusawa (p)

Environmental friendly vehicles have economic and environmental benefits. In the past decade, the automotive industry has experienced a technical innovation. As part of the country’s economic recovery policies, Japan has subsidized vehicles having a significant positive impact on the environment. Though conventional pet-rol cars are included in the models entitled to subsidy, hybrid vehicles are the main focus of this policy. Hybrid vehicles are a type of next-generation vehicles, which also include electric vehicles, bio-ethanol vehicles, and fuel-cell vehicles. Factors underlying the advent of next-generation vehicles include the prevention of global warming accompanied by carbon oxide reduction as well as energy saving measures. On the one hand, next-generation vehicles have been used as an eco-nomic policy tool to encourage recovery following the worldwide recession caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers; however, even after such revival measures, new policies are expected to be developed to promote these vehicles in response to inherent environmental issues.
This paper focuses on the economic effects of the shift in the production technology used for next-generation vehicles. Specifically, we use input–output analy-sis to derive the production inducement coefficients for conventional vehicles and next-generation vehicles. Furthermore, we also identify the impact of increased production in hybrid and electric vehicles at both the national and regional levels. Shibusawa and Sugawara (2011, 2013) conducted effect analyses on the produc-tion of next-generation vehicles using the input–output tables for Japan. Shi-busawa and Xu (2013) compared the effects of the production of next¬-generation vehicles in Japan and China. This paper analyzes the impact of the shift in production from conventional vehicles to hybrid and electric vehicles on the Japanese economy and its individual regions. A key aspect of this study is that it identifies the impact of technological changes in automobile production (i.e. in the produc-tion shift from internal combustion engines to electric motors and batteries) on the industry at the national and regional levels by considering these technological changes as changes in the input coefficient of the input–output model.

Lamara Hadjou (p), Jugurta Akkoul

Abstract : The globalization of trade has had repercussions on consumer buying habits spread across the globe. This has significantly changed their behavior and the way they choose products. Some product attributes such as country of origin and brand have become important variables in the consumer decision process. The article looks at the impact of country of origin on brand equity from the point of view of consumers. The aim of this work was to demonstrate the relationships between the country of origin as well as brand loyalty, brand association, brand awareness and perceived quality. For this purpose, a conceptual model is developed to explain this type of relationship in the sector of biscuits, through the BIMO brand. A field survey was conducted among 200 consumers in the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou using a pre-established questionnaire to verify the conceptual model adopted in this paper. A linear correlation is performed using the Pearson coefficient to verify the main assumptions made in our research. The result that appears gives us an overview of the evaluation of consumers surveyed of the BIMO biscuit brand manufactured in Algeria. Our work offers various perspectives to economic actors and researchers interested in understanding the behavior of Algerian consumers and their relationship to the brand and country of origin of the products they consume. Keywords : country of origin, brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality.

Yongjoon Kim (p), Donghwan An

The breakdown of one sector triggered by natural disaster will produce a negative influence on the total economic system through inter-industry relationships (Miller and Blair, 2009). This highlights the importance of evaluating inter-industry effects under natural disaster events, however, unlike the other climate change induced effects, the inter-industry effects were rarely considered in climate change framework. In particular, extreme flood event could jeopardizes regional infrastructure facilities, this causes indirect economic cost within the flood occurrence region and neighboring regions which has strong inter-industry relationship. Along with inter-industry aspects, investigating climate change at the regional level is required given that climate change shows regional heterogeneity effects and economic resilience is different across regions. If we assume the necessity of climate change adaptation reaches an agreement, uncertainty and inter-industry effects of climate change need to be considered at the regional level in establishing adaptation measures for natural disaster.
Being consistent with this argument, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the economic recovery of natural disaster at regional level in Korea. Predicting the recovery pathway and time of an economy after disaster (e.g., flood) can be viewed as valuable information in establishing disaster related adaptation policies.
This paper utilizes a regional input-output analysis model to quantify the indirect economic impact of natural disaster under imbalances of post-catastrophe economies (Steenge et al., 2007; Hallegatte, 2008; 2014, Koks et al., 2015; Shibusawa et al., 2018). In this paper, the regional input-output table of the year 2013 is used (the bank of Korea). This regional input-output table includes 16 regions of Korea, and this table divided industries into 161 sub industries. In particular, economic recovery time and path were evaluated associated with bottleneck effect, this sheds some light on the dependence of inter-industry effects across regions. Along with above statement, the dynamic aspects of economic recovery appears to be empirical contribution of this paper, since estimated inter or intra-trade effects are different across bottleneck simulation scenario and recovery time.
In the estimation results, we found the difference of economic recovery across region, and the difference dramatically increase when bottleneck effects pass certain threshold level. Regional estimates indicate that the coastal regions show severe intra-trade damage due to high probability of natural disasters. However, the inter-trade damage estimates in inland area are higher than coastal area reflecting inland area is a center of logistic distribution.