Socio-economic Planning Sciences最新文献

{"title":"Assessing grain production eco-efficiency under rural land management institutions: A hybrid analytical framework","authors":"Huazhu Zheng ,&nbsp;Yongjiao Wu ,&nbsp;Jungang Lu ,&nbsp;Dong Cheng ,&nbsp;Xun Zhang ,&nbsp;Zhengyu Yao ,&nbsp;Claudio O. Delang ,&nbsp;Christopher Gomez ,&nbsp;Hongming He","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102433","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102433","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study evaluates grain production eco-efficiency (GPEE) and constructs a Rural Land Management Institution (LMI) index to quantify rural land policies in China and examine their impacts on GPEE in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). A hybrid analytical framework integrating an environmental preference-based Super-SBM model, Tobit regression, and mediation analysis is applied to socio-economic and ecological data from 53 cities in the YRB during 2000–2021. The main findings are as follows: (1) GPEE in the YRB was generally inefficient and remained below the national average throughout the study period. (2) Significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity is observed in GPEE, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency, with positive spatial autocorrelation characterized by high-high (H-H) and low-low (L-L) clustering patterns. (3) Pure technical efficiency contributes more to overall GPEE than scale efficiency, which remains relatively weak. (4) Changes in arable land are strongly influenced by rural land policies, with pronounced regional heterogeneity in LMI across different areas. (5) Rural land policies affect GPEE through two main channels: grain production technology utilization capability and land scale management. (6) In balanced grain production and consumption areas (BGPCA), LMI significantly improves both pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency, thereby enhancing GPEE, whereas in major grain-producing areas (MGPA), the effect of LMI on GPEE is limited, indicating environmentally unsustainable production practices. These findings highlight the need for more targeted and region-specific policy interventions by the central government to promote sustainable improvements in grain production eco-efficiency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102433"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146172641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sustainable joint maintenance and renewal planning for urban railways via lexicographic optimization","authors":"Malak Saiem ,&nbsp;Faicel Hnaien ,&nbsp;Hichem Snoussi ,&nbsp;Brice Nelain ,&nbsp;Anaïs Menetrier","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102423","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102423","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The growing emphasis on sustainable transportation has intensified the need to reduce carbon emissions in railway maintenance and renewal activities. This paper proposes a lexicographic optimization framework for joint maintenance and renewal planning in urban railway networks, in which CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span> emissions are prioritized over economic cost. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear program integrating key industrial constraints, including track possession windows, a degradation model, and activity grouping. A two-stage solution strategy is developed: the first stage identifies CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>-optimal solutions, while the second stage refines these solutions with respect to cost using either an exact MILP formulation or an iterated local search metaheuristic. Computational experiments on real-world network-level instance show that the proposed MILP–ILS approach preserves CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span> optimality while achieving notable cost reductions and significantly lower computation times compared to a fully exact lexicographic MILP. In several instances, the approach reduces network-level CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span> emissions by up to 50% while achieving cost savings of approximately 10% comparing to the company’s current strategy. Finally, an <span><math><mi>ɛ</mi></math></span>-constraint analysis is conducted to characterize the Pareto frontier between cost and CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span> emissions. The results confirm that substantial environmental gains can be achieved with moderate economic trade-offs, reinforcing the practical relevance of the proposed framework.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102423"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146172642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating sustainable last-mile delivery modes using IF-MAIRCA: The perspective of local authorities","authors":"Fulya Zaralı ,&nbsp;Şaban Fatih Yılmaz ,&nbsp;Neslihan Demirel ,&nbsp;Akram Elomiya ,&nbsp;Stefan Jovčić","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102393","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102393","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Significant changes have been observed in the shopping habits of urban populations, particularly following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shopping by physically going to the store has begun to be replaced by e-commerce shopping, offering advantages such as time savings, a wide variety of options, and opportunities for price comparison. Although online shopping enables modern urbanites to meet their needs comfortably, it increases the volume of commercial traffic in the city, resulting in emissions, parking problems, and air and noise pollution. For last-mile delivery (LMD)—one of the main contributors to commercial traffic in urban centers and defined as delivering orders to end customers—various alternative modes have been introduced in many countries and cities. These alternatives aim to replace conventional home delivery to reduce costs, lower energy consumption and emissions, eliminate failed deliveries, and address challenges such as low vehicle load rates and traffic congestion. Achieving these gains is closely related to the attitude of local authorities and the incentives and infrastructure provided by them. In this study, conventional home delivery and five alternative LMD modes (e-van, e-bike, drone, AGV, droid) are evaluated with a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach over a wide set of criteria from the perspective of local authorities. The IF-MAIRCA (Intuitionistic Fuzzy Multi-Attributive Ideal-Real Comparative Analysis) method is used to take into account the uncertainty in LMD processes and the intuition of decision-makers in the problem. The proposed framework is illustrated on a real-life problem in Kayseri, Türkiye. According to the results, the e-van was ranked first, followed by the e-bike, and the droid was ranked last. To test the consistency of the results obtained from IF-MAIRCA, a comparative analysis is conducted. An extended TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), Grey Relational Analysis, and WASPAS (Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment) methods are employed in an intuitionistic fuzzy environment for this purpose. Sensitivity analysis is also carried out to assess the robustness of the results against variations in the criteria weights. Analyses have shown that the performance rankings of alternatives obtained using different MCDM methods and varying criteria weights are generally consistent.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102393"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145683316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"System dynamics modelling for improving regional logistics integration: A case study of western China","authors":"Xuelu Xu ,&nbsp;Binxin Yang ,&nbsp;Peiming He ,&nbsp;Mengyao Tao ,&nbsp;Litai Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102417","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102417","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Regional logistics integration (RLI) has emerged as a pivotal driver of regional integration (RI), playing a critical role in fostering regional coordinated development. However, research on RLI operational mechanism has not been systematically explored, which limits the proper assessment of RLI level under various policy scenarios, thereby hindering the effective implementation of relevant policies. To address this gap, this study analyzes empirical data from western China through a dual-validation framework, employing system dynamics (SD) modeling for scenario simulation and utilizing the gravity model alongside historical data for validation, thereby enabling systematic examination of RLI dynamic evolution under diverse policy scenarios. First, the RLI level is assessed through a comprehensive indicator system and gravity model, which serves for dual validation purposes in the subsequent SD modeling. Second, a system framework for RLI is developed based on core-periphery theory to elucidate the causal relationships among related variables. Then, a SD model is constructed and optimized to simulate RLI changes in western China up to 2035. Finally, both single-policy and combined-policy scenarios are examined, with RLI in western China being enhanced through adjustments to endogenous variables. The results indicate that the impact of single logistics soft policies on RLI becomes more significant in the later stages of the study, while the benefits of single logistics hard policies are more pronounced in the earlier stages. However, combined policies produce effects that diverge from a mere linear aggregation of single policies impacts. Notably, the systematic integration of the three types of policies is most conducive to the long-term development of RLI. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers aiming to improve RLI. The proposed RLI model incorporates rich information, enabling policymakers to adjust the model parameters to reflect changes in complex environments, thereby facilitating the formulation of optimal RLI policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102417"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146022389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Measuring national sustainability: ESG scores from corporate data","authors":"Sergio Hoffmann ,&nbsp;Rita Laura D’Ecclesia","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102408","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102408","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics have become central to sustainability assessment, yet the link between national conditions and composite ESG performance remains largely unexplored. We develop a bottom-up national ESG rating by aggregating the distribution of listed firms’ ESG scores for twelve developed economies between 2013 and 2022. Several aggregation schemes—mean, median, Sen’s inequality-adjusted index, and a dispersion-adjusted mean—are benchmarked, and the resulting rankings prove highly consistent, supporting the median as the headline measure. National ratings are then compared with World Bank indicators of environmental efficiency, social welfare, and governance quality through panel fixed-effects regressions and four machine-learning models (Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, Support Vector Regression, and CatBoost), assessed via cross-validation and explainability tools. CatBoost achieves the highest predictive accuracy and balanced use of predictors. Energy intensity and under-five mortality consistently act as dominant negative drivers, while gender representation and demographic maturity contribute positively. A pillar-level (E, S, G) panel-VAR analysis reveals strong within-pillar persistence and asymmetric cross-effects led by the social dimension. Overall, the framework provides a transparent bridge from firm-level data to national ESG performance, delivering robust and interpretable evidence for policy evaluation and sustainable investment screening.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102408"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Best-worst multi-criteria decision-making method: A review of the literature","authors":"Pejman Peykani ,&nbsp;Ali Emrouznejad ,&nbsp;Mojtaba Nouri","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102345","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102345","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Best-Worst Method (BWM) has emerged as a powerful and efficient technique in the field of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM), renowned for its simplicity, computational efficiency, and ability to address complex decision-making problems involving multiple conflicting criteria. As one of the leading MCDM methods, BWM has received significant attention across a wide range of disciplines and application areas. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review and bibliometric analysis of BWM-related research from 2015 to June 2025. This study investigates the integration of BWM with other Multi-Attribute Decision-Making (MADM) techniques. It also systematically examines BWM's application in environments characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity, addressing critical methodological challenges. Furthermore, the research categorizes and evaluates real-world applications of BWM, demonstrating its practical relevance and effectiveness across various domains. The bibliometric analysis covers multiple dimensions, including document analysis to track publication growth and trends, keyword analysis to identify emerging research themes, source analysis to highlight influential journals and conferences, author analysis to recognize leading contributors, affiliation analysis to map institutional and geographical contributions, citation analysis to assess impactful studies, and application analysis to explore BWM's diverse real-world uses. By offering valuable insights into the current state of BWM research, this study provides a foundation for future research and promotes the broader adoption of BWM in decision-making processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102345"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145623376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hidden heterogeneity in measuring production factors: Implications for two-stage efficiency analysis","authors":"Lukáš Frýd,&nbsp;Ondřej Sokol","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102418","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102418","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is one of the two primary estimators of technical efficiency and is widely applied in policy evaluations within agricultural, environmental, and other domains. In the two-stage efficiency analysis, the DEA efficiency scores are estimated in the first stage, followed by an assessment of the influence of selected policy variables on these scores in the second stage. This paper demonstrates that two-stage efficiency DEA analyses are not robust to variations in the measurement of fundamental input variables, even when the correlation between alternative input measures exceeds 0.9. This lack of robustness is reflected in substantial heterogeneity in both statistical significance and the signs of parameters that capture the effects of environmental variables on efficiency. Consequently, by selecting seemingly interchangeable inputs, it is possible to obtain results that align with prior expectations, raising serious concerns about the reliability of DEA-based policy analyses. We argue that, given the nature of the problem, robustness cannot be achieved through methodological refinements of the DEA itself. Rather, the only viable strategy is to explicitly assess the robustness of the results with respect to alternative input specifications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102418"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146022388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Analyzing convergence across African economies while allowing for measurement errors","authors":"Raffaele Mattera ,&nbsp;Philip Hans Franses","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102415","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102415","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We propose a new spatio-temporal hierarchical clustering approach that is suitable for clustering African countries based on Gross Domestic Product under measurement error. To accommodate for measurement error, we use slave trade as an instrument. Furthermore, we extend our method to allow for a range of macroeconomic indicators, instead of just GDP. We document that our findings largely agree on the degree of convergence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102415"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145976772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Forging supply chain resilience: The synergistic effects of AI-enabled capabilities and integration","authors":"Xingwei Lu ,&nbsp;Xianhao Xu ,&nbsp;Shaobo Hou ,&nbsp;Fan Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102432","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2026.102432","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Supply chain resilience (SCR) has become a strategic imperative amid escalating global disruptions. This study investigates how synergistic configurations between supply chain integration (SCI) and AI-enabled capabilities (AIC) shape SCR across the readiness, response, and recovery phases. Using survey data from 232 senior supply chain executives in China, we apply polynomial regression and response surface analysis to uncover distinct curvature and slope patterns across phases. AI-enabled sensing capability combined with information integration (curvature = −0.432; slope = 0.989) and operational integration (curvature = −0.602; slope = 0.926) strengthens readiness. During the response phase, sensing capability with operational integration (curvature = −0.366; slope = 1.024) and seizing capability with operational (curvature = −0.630; slope = 0.943) and relational (curvature = −1.270; slope = 0.976) exhibit intensified synergistic effects. For recovery, transforming capability paired with relational integration shows similar negative curvature (−0.432) and slope (0.989), indicating strong synergistic. Heterogeneity analysis revealed slight variations in synergistic effects across regions with AI-related policies and state-owned enterprises. These findings demonstrate that SCR arises from complex SCI–AIC configurations that vary across phases, offering theoretical insights into SCR's dynamic evolutionary mechanisms and practical guidance for phase-tailored resilience-building strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102432"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146172638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nudging households' sustainable investments: results from a pilot lab-in-the-field experiment in two Italian cities","authors":"Beatrice Bertelli ,&nbsp;Marianna Brunetti ,&nbsp;Costanza Torricelli ,&nbsp;Mariangela Zoli","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102405","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102405","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates households' willingness to pay for sustainable investments using evidence from a pilot lab-in-the-field experiment run in different branches of a large Italian bank. The analysis reveals three main results. First, the willingness to pay is lower for graduated individuals, higher for those with a medium investment horizon, for those engaged in volunteering and for those concerned about climate change. Second, the exposure to a negative (vs. positive) visual treatment, causes an average increase in the willingness to pay for Environmental, Social, and Governance assets, albeit this effect vanishes once controls are added. Third, when dissecting results by the factor of interest, the negative visual treatment significantly increases the willingness to pay among the investors interested in the Environmental dimension only. This suggests that, with suitable leverage, the demand and willingness to pay for all sustainability dimensions can be nudged, with important industry and policy implications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102405"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145790465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}