Socio-economic Planning Sciences最新文献

{"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":"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}

{"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":"On education as a risky asset: Should the government help the working students?","authors":"Corrado Andini ,&nbsp;Pedro Telhado Pereira","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102388","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102388","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>One of the most important fields of government intervention in the economy is the field of education. In most countries, the government directly manages the provision of education up the secondary level and strongly finances higher-education activities, a policy that is seen as being useful to stimulate growth. Thus, a crucial issue from a socio-economic planning perspective is how to allocate the budget resources efficiently. A key argument in favour of government expenditure is that more education in a society today leads to higher income and tax receipts tomorrow. It follows that the initial public investment is somehow recovered at a later point in time. This argument, however, is typically based on the empirical evidence regarding the average wage returns for individuals who behave like in a standard human-capital model, i.e. individuals who stop schooling and start working. An understudied issue is whether it holds for working students that nowadays represent a significant share of the student population. This paper fills this gap in the literature by providing an economic rationale for government support to working students (e.g. special rights for these students while in higher education). It does so by performing a novel investigation of the return-risk link in education. The way in which it accounts for uncertainty due to pure individual luckiness is unique in the literature.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102388"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145683317","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":"Resilient emergency facilities location–allocation under cascading uncertainty: A two-stage robust optimization model","authors":"Hongyan Li ,&nbsp;Dongmei Yu ,&nbsp;Mengyuan Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102395","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102395","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The growing complexity of disasters originating from natural phenomena, compounded by cascading uncertainty, necessitates resilient emergency facilities location planning to enhance response capabilities. To address this challenge, this study proposes a novel “reinforcement-cascading uncertainty-recovery” framework to enhance system resilience. This framework specifically addresses the cascading effect propagation mechanism (CEPM) from supply-side facility disruptions to demand-side nodes, by integrating pre-disaster reinforcement with post-disaster coordinated response. Based on this framework, we develop a two-stage robust optimization model to jointly optimize facility location, structural reinforcement, and resource allocation decisions. A distinctive feature of our model is the decision-dependent uncertainty set, which captures the endogenous effect of reinforcement strategy on facility disruptions, and the cascading effect of facility disruptions on demand fluctuations. To solve the proposed model, we develop a hybrid methodology by combining a neutralization-based uncertainty transformation method with the column and constraint generation (C&amp;CG) algorithm to reformulate and solve the model. Through the earthquake case in Istanbul, we quantify the effect of reinforcement strategy on network resilience, conduct sensitivity analyses on key parameters, and derive critical managerial insights. Our results indicate that, in comparison to the baseline model without reinforcement strategy, the proposed model reduces the number of facilities that need to be opened by approximately 50% while maintaining the desired service level. These findings provide decision-makers with a practical and efficient strategy for enhancing disaster response capabilities under cascading uncertainty.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102395"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145683315","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":"Firms’ disclosure of university ties on their website: An explorative analysis of its role for innovation performance","authors":"Bastian Krieger ,&nbsp;Stefania Scrofani ,&nbsp;Linus Strecke","doi":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102387","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.seps.2025.102387","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores a novel web-based indicator to examine how firms' disclosure of university ties on their websites shapes their innovation performance. First, using data from the German Community Innovation Survey 2023 and the Tenders Electronic Daily database, combined with firms' disclosure of university ties on their website provided by ISTARI.AI, we investigate the indicator's properties by comparing the most frequently disclosed types of university ties: innovation collaborations, university customers, and employee education, with firms' survey responses and their procurement contracts. Second, we analyze how website disclosure of university ties relates to firms' revenues from new or significantly improved products or services, applying Ordinary Least Squares, a Control Function, and a Lewbel Instrumental Variable approach. In sum, the website disclosure of ties with universities is significantly associated with their related survey items and procurement contracts. Moreover, website disclosures show no consistent association with revenues from innovations new-to-the-firm. A consistent statistically significant relationship emerges only for small firms, where website disclosures are associated with higher revenues from market novelties. These findings suggest that our web-based indicator captures ties between firms and universities and that disclosing these ties on firms' websites may influence the market success of their novel products.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":22033,"journal":{"name":"Socio-economic Planning Sciences","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102387"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145737727","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}