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The purpose of this paper is to review policy or guidance on the implementation of Section 5(4) written by NHS mental health trusts in England and health boards in Wales.

A Freedom of Information request was submitted to all trusts in England (n=57) and health boards in Wales (n=7) asking them to provide a copy of any policy or guidance on the implementation of Section 5(4). Documents were analysed using content analysis. Specific attention was given to any deviations from the national Mental Health Act Codes of Practice.

In total, 41 (67.2 per cent) organisations had a policy on the implementation of Section 5(4). There was a high level of consistency between local guidance and the Mental Health Act Codes of Practice. There were however; different interpretations of the guidance and errors that could lead to misuse of the section. Some policies contained useful guidance that could be adopted by future versions of the national Codes of Practice.

The research has demonstrated the value of examining the relationship between national and local guidance. Further research should be undertaken on the frequency and reasons for any reuse of the section.

Greater attention should be given to considering the necessity of local policy, given the existence of national Codes of Practice.

This is the only research examining the policy framework for the implementation of Section 5(4).

The paper aims to examine the digital economy's influence on China's regional innovation and development. It focuses on direct effects and spatial spillover across regions, and the mediating role of human capital. This analysis is vital for policy and strategic planning in the digital era.

This study uses panel data from 30 Chinese provinces (2004–2019) and uses the entropy method to quantify the digital economy's development. It investigates its impact on regional innovation using a dynamic spatial Durbin model (SDM) and mediation effect model, assessing direct effects, spatial spillover and human capital's mediating role. Various control variables are included for comprehensive analysis.

Findings show the digital economy significantly boosts regional innovation, acting as a growth driver. However, impacts vary regionally, with the central region gaining more than the eastern and western areas. Spatial spillover effects are mixed, showing negative short-term and positive long-term impacts under different weight matrices. Human capital is crucial for fostering innovation through the digital economy.

The paper offers unique insights into the spatial dynamics of the digital economy's impact on regional innovation in China. It advances understanding of the digital economy's role in regional development using innovative methods like the entropy method and dynamic SDM. Highlighting human capital as a key mediating factor enriches discussions on digital economy strategies for regional innovation.

The global economy is facing a steep challenge from volatility, risk and uncertainty associated with climate change, pandemics, regional conflicts and trade wars which are unprecedented and overlapping. These crises are leading to macro- and microeconomic imbalances. The immediate effects like rising inflation, shortage of energy and fertiliser, food insecurity, loss of jobs and poverty are looming large, leading to existential threat. It is evident that decades of progress are at risk and pursuing sustainable development goals (SDGs) requires dedicated and customised efforts by the governments and other relevant actors, especially in the low- and middle-income countries (LMICS). The concept of circular economy is considered to bring a paradigm shift by reducing the dependence on natural resource extraction and decoupling economic growth from use of natural resources. Bioeconomy is another emerging field which deals with the use of renewable biological resources such as biomass to produce renewable biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower for economic, environmental and social benefits. Circular bioeconomy (CBE) lies at the intersection and is defined as the production of recoverable biological (waste) resources and the conversion of these resources into high-value-added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy. It has been estimated that the economic opportunity for the sector to complement or even substitute conventional ones is estimated to be USD 7.7 trillion by 2030 for food and feed waste products, and energy. CBE is perceived as a pathway for development and has the potential to target different SDGs directly like 6, 7 and 12 and SDGs 2, 3, 11, 12, 13 and 15 indirectly. This study explores the linkages of CBE with the SDG goals and provides recommendations to stimulate the sector.

In the postglobalized world, information and communication technology (ICT) has been considered a key driver of human development. The world is reshaping from resource-based economy to knowledge-based economy after rapid growth of ICT. ICT can be considered as an umbrella that incorporates any communication device such as radio, television, cell phones, computer and network hardware, satellite systems etc., and also various services and appliance with them such as video conferencing and distance learning (Akarowhe, 2017). ICT is a technological system that is able to meet the gap of formal communication system and ultimately affects the level of standard of living. Human development can be defined as a process of enlarging people's freedoms and opportunities and improving their well-being. Whereas, human development index (HDI) is a statistical tool used to measure a country's human development based on the health of people, their level of education attainment, and level of income. The present chapter tries to find out the impact of ICT on human development for selected high HDI and medium HDI countries during the period 2001–2018. Applying panel data technique result shows that ICT has a positive and significant impact on human development.

Economy consists of several economic activities like production, consumption, distribution etc. Nowadays, a new concept of knowledge economy has been introduced. A knowledge economy is an economy in which the production of goods and services is based primarily upon knowledge-intensive activities. At this phase, development has two aspects – quantitative and qualitative aspects. In qualitative aspects, concept of human development index (HDI) is included. HDI has been constructed on the basis of education index (EI), health index, and standard of living index. This education implies research and development. New growth theories emphasize the potential for human capital and increase knowledge to provide new sources of economic growth and high levels of productivity. Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness, or understanding of someone or something, such as facts, information, descriptions, or skills, which is acquired through experience or education by perceiving, discovering, or learning.

In this paper, the HDI and EI of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, in particular India, are taken into consideration. To study the knowledge economy as well as human capital, Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) is used. On the other hand, for analyzing the development of any sector of the economy, the role of FDI is important. Whether the role of FDI is still there in transition to knowledge economy or not, relationship between FDI confidence index and EI is taken into consideration. Data are used from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Investment Report, AT Kearney etc.

This paper aims to consider the effects of a merger on technology adoption and welfare in the presence of passive cross ownership. Merger increases investments in process technology and may increase welfare. The results are important for antitrust policies and suggest that the antitrust authorities may not need to be too concerned about mergers in industries with cross ownership.

Game-theoretic analysis.

Merger increases investments in process technology and may increase welfare.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is original.

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to offer a discussion on the role played by Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in enhancing financial inclusion. The central interest of the study is to place CBDC on the financial inclusion landscape and provide insights on potential opportunities and barriers in making CBDC a strong building block of financial inclusion, as well as the digital financial system.

Design/methodology/approach: This chapter is a conceptual work that builds on relevant literature. This study identifies and suggests potential aspects that can help in the adoption of CBDC as a tool for financial inclusion.

Findings: This chapter analyses opportunities, barriers, and concerns for CBDC in the context of financial inclusion and discusses how critical functions of blockchain technology can lead to the acceptance and adoption of CBDC. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated how CBDC can pave the way for financial inclusion and benefit the existing financial system taking more people from financial exclusion towards financial inclusion.

Originality/value: This is evident that CBDCs and financial inclusion need to be intertwined to support upcoming technological transformations happening in the digital financial ecosystem. Therefore, CBDCs must be viewed from varying lenses to understand the relevance of including CBDCs in the financial system can be expanded. Further, repercussions from the given framework are suggested.

Most analyses of the relationship between the internal distribution of formal organizational power, generally manifested in ownership and governance rights, and innovation efforts apply a principal-agent framework. The key implication of this framework is that firms with distributed formal power are more likely to engage in labor-intensive innovation because external capital providers are unwilling to entrust their investments to a worker controlled firm. In this paper, we critique the principal-agent framework and propose an alternative institutionalist approach, where the type of innovation pursued by firms with distributed formal power is contingent on the norms advanced by the innovation and the alignment of external stakeholders with those norms. After presenting this alternative framework, we illustrate its application with positive and negative cases of capital and labor-intensive innovation at the MONDRAGON cooperatives, a network of worker cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain. We conclude with a set of propositions to guide future research.

The health crisis linked to COVID-19 has made digitization a significant issue for companies regardless of their form or geographical location. Our research focuses on the financial technology (Fintech) revolution in the context of international development. Its theoretical framework lies in both the fields of Fintech and factoring. As innovative start-ups that combine finance with new technologies, Fintechs have been able to disrupt the banking world in a few years by challenging its traditional practices. We use the case method to analyze two Fintech in-depth, and our results highlight the upheaval of Fintechs in the factoring sector. The supply of the analyzed Fintech is a limited working capital requirement. Furthermore, Fintechs may threaten classical banks due to the innovation of their offers and business models. However, the Fintech revolution focused on corporate finance is still in its infancy.

In recent years, the global economy has undergone major transformations involving the liberalization of markets for traditional goods, services, and capital flows. This has led to the emergence of a world financial market underpinned by digital platforms, innovative and the rapid growth of integrated digital platforms, integration, investment, economic growth, development, and the potential for poverty reduction, especially, in the Global South and, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa. The goal of this chapter is to investigate the increasing accessibility and relationship between digital (e-economy) financial integration and poverty alleviation since the era of structural adjustment programs in sub-Sahara Africa with Ghana as a case study. The emphasis is on the New Digital Economy (NDE) relative to new sources of data from mobile and ubiquitous Internet connectivity. The processes of digitalization and financial sector integration and inclusion become increasingly contestable, decomposable, and reconfigurable, and the capacity to innovate will be a key success factor in policies geared toward poverty alleviation. The multiple linear regression model and its estimation using ordinary least squares (OLS) is doubtless the most widely used tool in econometrics. It helps to estimate the relation between a dependent variable and a set of explanatory variables. An OLS model for macro data set relative to a regression model is applied to provide the empirical estimations of the increasing accessibility and the relationship between digital financial integration, investment, economic growth, development, and poverty alleviation.