Past Issues
Volume 1, Issue 2
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This paper compares economic growth, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, and renewable energy use in the United States and China—the world's two largest economies and largest greenhouse gas emitters—over the period 1990 to 2024. Prepared as a capstone project for the final year of secondary school, the study draws on freely available data from the World Bank, Our World in Data, and the European Commission's EDGAR database. Percentage-change calculations, trend analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients, and simple linear regression were carried out in Microsoft Excel. The results show that the United States has cut its absolute CO₂ emissions by roughly 30 percent since their 2005 peak, while China's emissions have nearly tripled since 1990. A strong negative relationship is observed between economic growth and emissions in the United States (r = –0.78), whereas the same relationship in China is strongly positive (r = +0.96). The regression models suggest that emissions fall as the U.S. economy expands, while China has not yet reached that stage of development. In both countries, however, a rising share of renewable energy is associated with a decline in emissions.
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Milton Friedman argues that the responsibility of business is to maximize profits for shareholders, and that managers should not divert company resources toward social responsibility because that role belongs to the government and individuals, not the corporation. Friedman's 1970 paper became the foundation for shareholder primacy for decades and remains the default position that stakeholder-theory and ESG advocates argue against today. Since the 1970s, the business environment has changed substantially: corporate rhetoric has shifted toward stakeholder inclusion, ESG investing has grown sharply in scale, and new disclosure rules require companies to report ESG-related information. This review evaluates what these changes actually demonstrate, distinguishing evidence of changing norms and rhetoric from evidence about financial performance, and argues that Friedman's framing is too narrow for the present day even though the empirical relationship between ESG and firm value remains genuinely unsettled.
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28 Sep 2026
Conventional economic models consider how individuals choose the alternative that presents the highest expected payoff. While these models are useful for understanding the assumptions behind financial markets, they are limited in explaining the observed financial choices and behaviors of individuals. The choices individuals make are often influenced by several cognitive, emotional, and experiential constraints, and by the way information is presented to them. This paper studies present-biased discounting, loss aversion, overconfidence, mental accounting, and choice inertia in relation to saving, spending, borrowing and investing decisions. It carries out a comparative analysis of existing literature and secondary data from the OECD/INFE International Survey of Adult Financial Literacy and the World Bank Global Findex. The analysis indicates that financial decisions do not align with rational-choice assumptions. International survey data show a preference for short-term financial decisions. Experimental and field data show that overconfidence may lead to excessive trading and that loss aversion may influence financial decisions. Additionally, evidence suggests that commitment strategies can greatly enhance savings. These findings do not indicate that financial decisions lack reason. Rather, financial rationality is constrained by perceptions of risk and time, and by cognitive evaluations of decision outcomes and of losses. Recognizing these behavioral patterns can improve the design and implementation of financial policies and incentives.
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28 Sep 2026
Armenia's recorded exports of information and communication technology (ICT) services rose from 382 million US dollars in 2021 to 1,051 million in 2022 and 1,775 million in 2025. The change coincided with the arrival of large numbers of Russian citizens after February 2022 and with the registration of more than three thousand Russian-founded companies in Armenia. This paper asks whether the higher exports persisted after that exceptional net inflow ended, and what comparing them with Armenia's other service exports and with neighbouring countries shows about where the activity sits. Working from Central Bank of Armenia balance-of-payments data, it reports two findings. First, the higher level held: growth stopped around late 2024, but exports in early 2026 were still roughly four and a half times their 2021 level, well after the net inflow had ended. Second, the increase was not distinctively Armenian. Georgia and Kazakhstan, which received the same relocation wave, recorded larger increases from 2019 to 2025, of 11.4 and 10.3 times against Armenia's 5.7 on World Bank figures and 6.8 on Central Bank figures. The sector's absolute size, however, remains unusual for a country of three million. Because trade statistics assign exports by where a firm is registered rather than where its staff work, the data cannot separate a genuine gain in Armenian capability from relocated firms continuing to bill through Armenia. The paper therefore sets out, in Section 7, a framework that sorts technology policy decisions by whether they hold up under both explanations.
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This study investigates how artificial intelligence and digital transformation have shaped economic growth in Azerbaijan, drawing on time series data spanning 1996 to 2025. Using correlation analysis, Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root testing, Granger causality testing, and ordinary least squares regression, the analysis traces the relationship between a composite Digital Economy Index and both real and non-oil GDP growth. The Digital Economy Index is constructed as a weighted composite measure incorporating five standardized indicators: internet penetration (sourced from the International Telecommunication Union), mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (ITU and State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan), ICT sector value added as a percentage of GDP (State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan and Ibadoghlu, 2025), the United Nations E-Government Development Index (UN DESA, 2024), and the ratio of cashless payments to total transactions (Central Bank of Azerbaijan, 2024). Each component was min-max normalized to a 0–100 scale and aggregated using equal weights to ensure transparency and replicability. The results reveal a marked structural shift after 2016: while overall GDP growth slowed as oil production declined, the Digital Economy Index rose sharply and became closely linked to non-oil growth. In the post-oil period (2016–2025), this relationship is strong and statistically robust (R2 = 0.823, p < 0.001), with a one-unit rise in the index associated with a 0.208 percentage-point increase in non-oil GDP growth. These findings are interpreted alongside the objectives of the Azerbaijan Artificial Intelligence Strategy (2025–2028), and the study closes with policy recommendations aimed at translating digital gains into lasting, broad-based economic diversification beyond the hydrocarbon sector.
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25 Sep 2026
This independent research paper examines the contemporary economic and operational dynamics of the Middle Corridor (Trans-Caspian International Transport Route) connecting China and European markets via Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, and Georgia (Middle Corridor 2026). The central research problem addresses hidden logistical friction, demonstrating that total supply chain costs depend heavily on terminal storage and delays rather than basic transport tariffs. Utilizing empirical commercial tariff sheets from DB Cargo Eurasia GmbH (2023), this study models the exact financial impact of border idling and progressive demurrage rates at critical European cargo hubs. Furthermore, it evaluates the deployment of blockchain-backed “Smart Customs” solutions managed by the State Revenue Committee of Kazakhstan, specifically focusing on how decentralized ledger architectures secure electronic consignment notes (e-CMR) to establish multi-national data trust. The empirical findings show that automated transit workflows compress block train declaration intervals from 3 hours to just 30 minutes, yielding a distinct 83.3% time optimization (State Revenue Committee 2026). The study concludes that digital ledger trust and physical infrastructures must develop in tandem, creating a major potential for systemic cost reduction along global trade routes.
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This study examines whether uncertainty in the wording of annual reports (10-K) affects Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance for 72 US public firms. Findings show a negative relation between uncertain words and ESG performance, indicating that greater use of ambiguous words in firms' financial statements negatively affects firms' ESG scores. This finding shows that market participants may notice that firms may deploy vagueness or ambiguity to disguise their poor performance or negative impact on the environment (i.e., Greenwashing). Findings from this study could provide some insights to investors, managers, and regulators in the capital market by recommending that public firms use more transparent and clear language in their 10-K reports.
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13 Sep 2026
This paper analyses the differing labour market effects created by industrial robotics and generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the Australian economy. While industrial robotics and generative AI are often aggregated under the singular banner term of “automation”, treating them as a homogenous phenomenon downplays their radically divergent transmission mechanisms. By utilising a task-based framework, this paper argues that these two technologies propagate via entirely distinct tracks within the Australian economy; automation is not one overall phenomenon, but rather has a multifaceted dual-track impact, stemming from the automation of individual tasks as opposed to whole jobs. Track 1 investigates the substitution forces of robotics within sectors like mining and manufacturing. The capital intensive and highly structured nature of robotics implementation creates concentrated labour market displacement shocks that are felt within local communities. Track 2 examines the geographically diffused augmentation effects of generative AI across the services sector, specifically finance and retail. Driven by low-friction, decentralised implementation, generative AI has introduced an uneven wave of task transformation and restructuring as opposed to systemic job elimination. Via a qualitative review of domestic sectoral data, this study demonstrates that productivity gains realised at a national macro-level fail to capture the localised socioeconomic disruptions and adjustments observed at the community and firm level. By disaggregating these technological mechanisms, this paper leverages Australia’s distinct sectoral landscape to clarify the globally evolving friction between technological replacement and human reinstatement. In relation to controlling externalities, this paper uses the same disaggregation to conclude that because automation is not a singular process, labour market adaptation cannot be a singular response either.
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13 Sep 2026
Cryptocurrency is often described as a decentralized and accessible financial system, but the concentration of wealth among large holders raises questions about how decentralized cryptocurrency markets actually are. This study examines how high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), particularly cryptocurrency “whales,” influence cryptocurrency markets and how their influence extends beyond their direct transactions. Using a literature review and secondary data analysis, this research examines ownership concentration, market spillover effects, and behavioral responses to whale activity using academic research, blockchain analytics, institutional reports, and case-based evidence. The findings show that a small number of large holders control a disproportionate share of cryptocurrency assets, allowing their transactions to affect market volatility and generate spillover effects across other assets. However, the findings also suggest that whale influence is amplified by the behavior of smaller investors. Investors may interpret whale transactions and announcements as signals of future market movements, leading them to imitate these actions and further amplify price changes. The Tesla Bitcoin case provides an example of how a major institutional announcement can influence market behavior beyond the direct financial transaction. Overall, the findings support the hypothesis that whale influence comes not only from concentrated ownership and trading power, but also from the behavioral responses of other market participants. This suggests that cryptocurrency may be decentralized technologically while remaining concentrated in terms of wealth, influence, and market power.
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10 Sep 2026
Profit-driven behavior has caused long-lasting debates. Does it serve as an impetus to unlock human potential and foster achievement, or does it treat financial gain as the sole objective, thus leading to unethical harm to society? Gaining profit is vital for enterprises to seek survival and expansion, it is undoubtedly an incentive for businesses to find ways to improve. Generating creativity, evaluating multiple alternatives, optimizing process flow, and meeting diverse customer needs, are all driven by this incentive. As a result, innovations and even revolutions occur, which raise the overall economic and technological level, enhancing human capabilities. On the other hand, the temptation for money gain compels some people to lose sight of ethical business practices. In this case, regulations are ignored, public health is put aside, and environmental sustainability is sacrificed in exchange for short-term financial rewards. However, the intention for pursuing profit is not wrong, what needs to be rectified is the path some people take to reach the goal without integrity. Cultivating ethical values and civic responsibility, selecting ethical business leaders, enforcing strong regulations, and establishing a healthy competitive environment can help shape responsible business conduct and ensure the journey of profit acquirement promotes human progress rather than causing trouble for humanity.