How do insights from environmental politics of the 1970s–1990s inform our understanding of contemporary climate governance? I suggest that the governance response for addressing pollution problems of the 1970s–1990s was sequential. The first wave of governance interventions addressed market failures; the second wave targeted government failures. In contrast, climate governance seeks to correct both market and government failures simultaneously. Furthermore, unlike first-generation environmental problems, domestic and international factors together hinder progress on climate change. Theoretically, this article examines how governance failures are recognized and addressed, how and why backlashes arise, and which governance innovations are possible in contested policy spaces. Three lessons emerge. First, governance innovations should be sculpted with failure drivers in mind. Because political challenges stall climate progress, climate policy must address these political concerns. Second, governance innovations cannot be expected to deliver a perfect solution devised by a technocratic elite. Policy progress is uneven, slow, and incremental. Third, governance arrangements, even on arguably highly technocratic issues, require social and political licenses to operate. Instead of asking the public to “listen to science,” climate-policy advocates should listen to people and devise policies that the public views as improving their everyday lives.

This article investigates crash risk premiums in individual stocks using skewness swaps. These swaps involve buying a stock’s risk-neutral skewness and receiving the realized skewness as a payoff. The strategy’s returns, which measure the skewness risk premium, are found to be consistently large and positive. This suggests investors are concerned about potential crashes in individual stocks and require substantial compensation for bearing this risk. Notably, significant results are mainly observed after the 2007/2009 financial crisis, indicating changes in post-crisis option market dynamics. Cross-sectional determinants of skewness swap returns include measures of systematic crash risk and stock overvaluation.

With rising environmental awareness, public attention has become an important external force shaping corporate green behaviour. Using Baidu search data to measure public green attention (PGA), this paper examines its impact on green technological innovation (GTI) among 1543 Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2022. Employing a high-dimensional fixed-effects model, we find that PGA significantly promotes GTI, and the conclusion holds under alternative specifications. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this effect is stronger in firms and regions with more favourable conditions. Mechanism analysis indicates that PGA stimulates GTI mainly by strengthening environmental regulation, enhancing corporate social responsibility and reducing agency costs. Further analysis reveals that PGA-induced GTI leads to better Environmental, Social and Governance performance, lower business risk and improved operational outcomes. Overall, the results highlight the important role of public attention in advancing corporate green innovation and sustainability.

While Africa’s rapid urbanisation is expected to transform many aspects of political, economic and social life, decades of Africanist research shows that urban migration rarely severs rural ties. Building on this tradition, we use original survey data from 472 residents of Nairobi, Kenya, to examine how multiple forms of rural connection vary with urban duration and urban (re)orientation. We conceptualise four analytically distinct linkages – direct personal contact, provision of material support, anticipation of a rural safety net and spiritual connection – and measure each within a single empirical framework. We find that rural linkages do not diminish over time among first-generation migrants, but do decline across generations, with spiritual ties being especially persistent. Strong rural linkages are generally associated with weaker integration into urban social and political life. By disaggregating rural–urban connections and situating them in the temporal dynamics of urban residence, this article clarifies when and how African urbanisation transforms social and political orientations and provides a framework for cross-city and cross-country comparison.

The study provides a radiocarbon sequence for the Iron Age occupation in the elevated areas of the Phoenician settlement of Lisbon, located in the Tagus estuary (Portugal). The dataset is based in ten animal and human samples recovered during archaeological excavations at Largo de Santa Cruz do Castelo. These samples are associated with distinct phases of the Iron Age, dated by the ceramic findings between the 7th and 5th century BCE, as well as a latter sample from the Roman Republican Period (2nd half of the 2nd century BCE). Despite the challenges posed by the 1st millennium BCE radiocarbon calibration, this dataset proves valuable for establishing a more detailed chronological framework. It represents a significant contribution to refining the timeline of Lisbon’s Iron Age settlement and provides a stronger basis for interpreting local developments within the broader regional context.

In Paul of Aegina’s Pragmateia, the reading μυωτά for a type of short arrow has attracted scholarly attention. Das argued that an Arabic parallel supports the emendation μύωπα, but this has been questioned by Moseley. By looking at Graeco-Arabic translation technique, this short note shows that Das’s emendation μύωπα is probably right.

Dry ecosystems are critical to the global carbon cycle. Seasonally dry tropical ecosystems as a whole are botanically megadiverse, yet we have little understanding of how diversity impacts aboveground carbon, which is particularly noticeable for insular Asia. Across 133 vegetation plots on the seasonally dry tropical island of Flores, we used spatially explicit models to determine how land use impacts aboveground carbon stocks and whether this is dependent upon multidimensional diversity. Carbon is greatest in primary forests and least in agricultural landscapes. However, we find that land use interacts with phylogenetic and species diversity to shape carbon stocks. Across almost all models, quadratic effects of diversity were better predictors of carbon, indicating that whilst the initial build-up of diversity increases carbon, greater diversity causes carbon decline. Results suggest that future conservation plans will be needed to balance carbon storage with multidimensional diversity, which may offer distinct benefits for ecosystem resilience and services.

Andrews and El Bachraoui [‘On two-color partitions with odd smallest part’, Preprint (2024), arXiv:2410. 14190] recently investigated identities involving two-colour partitions, with particular emphasis on their connection to overpartitions, and posed questions regarding possible companion results. Subsequently, Chen and Zou [‘Combinatorial proofs for two-colour partitions’, Bull. Aust. Math. Soc. 113(1) (2025), to appear] obtained some companion results by employing q-series identities and generating functions. In addition, they presented a combinatorial proof for one of their own results and one of the results of Andrews and El Bachraoui. They posed questions regarding combinatorial proofs of the remaining companion results. In this paper, we provide such proofs.

“Embedded courts” explains how Chinese courts operate within the system of local bureaucratic organisation, raising concerns about how judges balance adjudicative functions with the expectations of local governance. Using 47,641 first-instance trademark judgments (2014–2021), we empirically examine adjudication in embedded courts and observe the following phenomenon: non-local plaintiffs are more likely to win but receive lower compensation; corporate defendants win more often yet face higher damages when they lose. Regional heterogeneity indicates that some courts exhibit lower support rates for local plaintiffs and well-known trademark holders. These findings reveal the strategic logic underlying local bureaucratic organisation. We develop a Judicial Behavior Index (JBI) and analyse Henan Province. The results suggest courts act as institutional actors responding to local governance incentives. By exercising discretion strategically, courts navigate local governance logics within the legal framework.

This article explores the logistics networks of the Qin state during its war of unification between 230 and 221 bce. First, the article investigates the Qin’s “assigned transfer” logistics system, which was comprised of two forms: the horizontal transfer of resources among regional administrative units, and the vertical transfer between the central and regional governments. Second, it examines the infrastructures and institutions underpinning this logistics system during the Qin conquest, exploring how the emergence of long-distance, empire-wide logistics networks contributed to the reforms to the Qin’s financial administration. Overall, this article analyzes not only the institutional reforms stimulated by the Qin’s war of unification but also the impact of war on economic developments.