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The research deals with the issue of slums, urban sprawl on agriculture land and its impact on the city of Baghdad. This topic needs close attention because it has become a problem facing the city of Baghdad through recruiting agricultural lands and converting them to residential homes in addition to the transgression on the state lands and building abuses. This research deals with the causes of slums, irregular urban sprawl and risks of excesses on land uses of land in Baghdad. In this research, we try to know the extent to which these problems have affected the city of Baghdad. The research methodology based on the descriptive methodology to clarify the factors affecting urban sprawl at the expense of agricultural land, using studies in government and service institutions and images from satellites to clarify the size of urban sprawl over periods after the 2003 war. Finally, a conclusion and future solutions were set to solve these problems.

The present article was prepared as part of the government contract as requested by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation on the subject formulated as «Structural changes in economy and society as a result of achieving the target indicators of National projects, which provide opportunities to organize new areas of social and economic activity, including commercial, both in Russia and abroad» (project No. FSSW-2020-0010).

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis and measures aimed at curbing the pandemic have a widespread impact on various aspects of well-being, such as housing, social connections, and others. Moreover, COVID-19 does not affect all population groups equally. This study analyzes the impact of major COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on a set of national well-being indicators from the most recent version of the OECD Well-Being Framework. Using causal loop diagrams (systems maps), we consider direct and indirect effects of these policies on various components of the national well-being system. Our results show that business closures directly and/or indirectly impact more national well-being components than any other policy. The most affected national well-being components by all policies are life satisfaction, perceived health, and prevalence of depressive symptoms. In addition, we specify how the impact of the anti-pandemic measures differs for various population strata, using the degree of income and employment loss as key stratifying variables. Our insights can be helpful to identify and promote measures that can alleviate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the national well-being.

Received 17.09.2020. The author undertakes an attempt to analyze the impact of the COVID‑19 pandemic on the phenomenon of the sharing economy and the viability of this business model in force majeure circumstances. The sharing economy is a business model of the digital economy, born by the fourth industrial revolution during the Great Recession of 2008 and developing in the context of the unprecedented economic crisis of 2020, when the impact of the coronavirus pandemic simultaneously collapsed production, financial markets and consumer demand for goods and services, and the task of “conscious consumption” – to spend money correctly and reduce costs – became vital. The concept does not focus on ownership but rather on the sharing of assets and resources. A predictive construct is given: the sharing economy is not so much the introduction of new technologies to implement the world-old idea of renting on digital platforms, but a new paradigm of production and consumption and as such leads to a circular economy, causes systemic changes that form qualitatively new principles of business organization, the economy and society as a whole. The study concluded that the sharing model has proven its viability not only in a period of stable economic development, but also in a contemporary crisis, which is caused by the COVID‑19 pandemic. Moreover, it was during this period of force majeure that the sharing economy model showed its importance both in everyday life and in business. This allows us to conclude about the further growth of the sharing economy, the creation of new services – both in spite of and thanks to the COVID‑19 pandemic.

Abstract The transition from a traditional agrarian to a fossil fuel based energy regime began before the industrial revolution and is still ongoing. This paper explores the relation of this transition process and social revolutions. Using statistical analysis, we find that at the very beginning of countries' energy transition, a critical phase can be identified, within which social revolutions are most likely to happen. This applies to the grand revolutions across the past five centuries investigated for a core set of industrial and emerging economies, as well as to supplementary samples of Latin American and post-World War II developing countries. No statistically significant relation between the historical time and the pace of transition towards modern fuels is found, which means that the energy transition does not accelerate. Among the sample of developing countries with revolutions after World War II we find an even slower pace of transition to an industrial energy regime. Apparently, transitions in primary energy source and energy abundance are not just a matter of technological change, but strongly interact with the social, institutional and political fabric of societies. Significance statement Revolutions are not randomly scattered in space and time, nor are they confined to a certain historical epoch. They are likelier under certain conditions, the early stages of a transition from an agrarian energy regime to a fossil-fuel-based energy regime. Seemingly, unique historical events like social revolutions followed a pattern linked to the specific mode societies exploit natural resources. Not just human inventiveness and technology matters, but also a gift from nature – fossil energy carriers – is found to be at the roots of the industrial transformation. Their superior energy return on investment (EROI) over traditional biomass, and their sheer quantity, permit a fundamental transformation; these benefits can only be harvested if accompanied by an equally fundamental socio-political transformation. Such insights link the study of politics and history to the study of social metabolism in a systematic way.

The paper is to analyze the relationship between Global Economic Growth and Global Mergers and Acquisitions. After applying empirical analysis, conclude that Global Economic Growth and Global Mergers and Acquisitions have mutual influences on each other in the long-term period. In the short-term period, the results show the same trend. But in some short certain periods like rapid economic recessions, the trend shows the other way around. The paper also analyzes the economic intuitions of the mutual influences.

Authors analyze the differences between the influence of the foreign direct investments on the economic growth in the developed and developing countries. For the model of the gross domestic product (GDP) on the foreign direct investments for the developed countries the following data are used: observations for the 10 countries during 1983-2013. For the model of the GDP on the foreign direct investments (FDI) for the developing countries the following data are used: observations for the 11 countries during 1994-2013. Investigators conclude that the influence of the foreign direct investments on the economic growthdefinitely has the positive effect in both cases. However, the degree of this influence depends on the type of the country. The developing countries get the smaller effect from the foreign direct investments because of the non-transparent institutional environment and negative influence of other non-economic factors. These findings provide an opportunity to judge that in developed countries, institutional and economic environment and, most of all, human capital allow you to get the full effect of FDI, that is, as capital accumulation and spill-over effects. In developing countries, there should be thresholds to reduce effects of FDI, such as insufficient human capital and poor economic and institutional environment. Thus, the impact of FDI on economic growth is certainly positive, however the level of this effect depends on country characteristics. That is, the hypothesis that FDI affects developing countries less than developed, due to the existence of thresholds in the form of unhealthy institutional and economic environment were confirmed.

The paper addresses networking as a basis for cooperation of small cities leading to more sustainable regional development at the city, regional, and federal level. It is shown that networking of cities can contribute to increasing sustainability in many ways. Still, additional research is needed to adjust best management practices discussed in the relevant academic literature to the peculiarities of transition economies. The objective of the research presented in the paper was to help regional and municipal authorities in the optimization of territorial development planning aimed at long-term sustainability. Research was carried out in Russia on an example of two regions, namely Perm Krai and Vladimir Oblast. The case study revealed that local authorities underestimate the potential of small cities in raising regional sustainability. Actually, a number of small cities in both regions have hidden competitive advantages but cannot realize them separately, whilst development of regional city networking is a fruitful approach to improve their socioeconomic situation, and to boost sustainable regional development. Therefore, when planning regional development, federal and local authorities should regard the role of small cities, including disadvantaged and depressed ones, as potentially valuable members of a city network. Measures to embed small cities into different types of networks should be based on the thorough assessment of their resources, with the aim to develop collaboration of cities with mutually beneficial network externalities.