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Does democratization promote economic competition? This paper documents that the disruption of political connections associated with Suharto's fall had a modest pro-competitive effect on Indonesian manufacturing industries in which his family had extensive business interests. Firms with connections to Suharto lost substantial market share following his resignation. Industries in which Suharto family firms had larger market share during his tenure exhibited weak improvements in broader measures of competition in the post-Suharto era relative to industries in which Suharto firms had not been important players.

Competition Policy --- Corporate Governance and Corruption --- Corruption --- Cronyism --- Democracy --- Democratic Government --- Firm Dynamics --- Governance --- Manufacturing --- Political Connections --- Political Turnover --- Private Sector Development --- Public Sector Development --- State-Business Relationships

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A void in the literature on the business environment is how it evolves over time. Focusing on China during its crucial two decades of transition (from the early 1990s to the early 2010s), this paper documents how the country's business environment and the characteristics of entrepreneurs evolved, along with the role played by local governments. Relying on multiple comprehensive data sets, the paper shows that many aspects of local business environments improved: infrastructure, development of the court system, and access to external finance. Meanwhile, the share of politically connected private firms remained large, and their advantage in accessing key resources increased. Under this dual-track private sector development, private firms became larger and more innovative and adopted more formal corporate governance mechanisms. Entrepreneurs became much better educated, with more diverse sectoral experience. Market competition increased over time, especially after China's World Trade Organization entry. The paper offers suggestive evidence that this dual track development had negative consequences, such as a lower tendency to innovate by politically connected firms.

Business Environment --- Competitiveness and Competition Policy --- Corporate Governance --- Enterprise Development and Reform --- Entrepreneurship --- Governance --- Innovation --- Local Governance --- Local Government --- Market Competition --- Political Connections --- Private Sector Development --- Private Sector Economics --- World Trade Organization

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This paper examines whether political connections ease financial constraints faced by firms. Using firm-level data from six Central and Eastern European economies, the paper shows that politically connected firms: (i) have high levels of leverage, (ii) have low levels of profitability, (iii) are less capitalized, (iv) have low marginal productivity of capital, and (v) do not invest more than unconnected firms. Next, the paper shows that connected firms borrow more because they have easier access to credit and that political connections lead to a misallocation of capital. The results are consistent with the idea that political connections distort capital allocation and may have welfare costs.

Allocative Efficiency --- Corruption --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Constraints --- Financial Regulation and Supervision --- Governance --- Investment --- Marginal Product of Capital --- Misallocation of Capital --- Political Connections --- Politically Exposed Persons --- Public Sector Development --- Return On Asset

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This special issue provides a collection of 15 papers with modern theories and applications for circular economy, engineering projects, entrepreneurship models, and investor decisions. After the commencing review on Occupational Health and Safety Management-Systems Standards, follow papers which can be classified into four categories which cover the overall scope of special issue. The first category includes papers regarding the micro-level of circular economy. This means case studies in firm-level which implement different techniques to achieve sustainable development and circular economy goals. The findings reveal interesting achievements which are associated with cultural characteristics of the countries these case studies have been conducted. The second category of papers refers to the meso-level of circular economy where firms cooperate with each other by exchanging byproducts and organizing common operational procedures and routines to address environmental problems. The findings suggest assessment information technology tools to support industrial symbiosis among European firms. The next body of literature encompasses macro-level where circular economy techniques are implemented at a country level. Findings suggest methodologies for implementing and tracking circular economy in cities. Finally, a number of papers are included that focus on advanced engineering techniques. These techniques are useful tools for achieving circular economy and sustainability.

optimal project profitability --- social capital --- risk assessment --- Life cycle assessment (LCA) --- corporate philanthropy --- Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition --- steel production --- adaptation --- Value-at-Risk --- construction delay --- sustainable economy --- Project Definition Rating Index --- circular city --- piping construction --- transport planning --- rule-based systems --- resource competition --- traffic congestion --- smart governance --- Management Standards --- value of travel time savings --- climate change --- Fuzzy TOPSIS --- manufacturing firms --- construction safety --- action theory --- sustainable city --- SME --- stochastic simulation --- Theory of Inventive Problem Solving --- indicators --- sustainability --- urbanization --- prefabrication housing production --- pollution impact --- sustainable development --- cost prediction of substation project --- buffer management --- circular economy --- drivers --- Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) --- smart city --- CCPM --- research and innovation projects --- probabilistic alternative approach --- Industrial symbiosis --- cost benefit analysis --- investments --- solar thermal collectors --- Support Vector Machines --- social network --- emergy analysis --- IT tools --- China --- sources of funding --- Cuckoo Search --- strategic management --- photovoltaics --- material procurement management --- PRAT method --- PERT/CPM --- fuzzy logic --- renewable energy systems --- carbon footprint --- transport project evaluation --- framework --- planning and control --- political connections --- critical success factors --- information transfer --- social network centrality --- resource consumption