Application gaps in Economics

Representative open questions

Showing 30 of 109 — one per source paper, highest-quality first.

• Of ticks and tigers: Subjective event spaces in complexity economics (2026) · doi

  The paper identifies that antitrust analysis, financial regulation, and industrial policy all implicitly assume regulators and regulated agents share an event space, but does not provide concrete methodologies for how regulators should model or discover the subjective event spaces of regulated agents when designing policy interventions in these three domains.

• Artificial intelligence, capability transformation, and marine green development: empirical evidence from Coastal China (2026) · doi

  The study demonstrates that AI's positive effect on marine green development is unstable and not yet fully materialized in regions with higher shares of marine secondary industry output (coefficient of 0.108, statistically insignificant). Future research should investigate the specific technological and institutional barriers preventing AI adoption in traditional marine manufacturing sectors and identify policy interventions to overcome these adoption constraints.

• Black and green: How electoral outcomes influence provincial circular economy performance in Italy (2026) · doi

  The study identifies that circularity transitions in marginalised areas require enhanced local participation and bottom-up engagement strategies to counteract populist narratives and rebuild institutional trust, but provides no specific operational framework for designing or measuring the effectiveness of participatory governance mechanisms tailored to low-trust institutional environments.

• What Determines the Demand for Online High-Cost Credit? Evidence from Loan Applications from Digital Credit Intermediaries (2026) · doi

  The paper identifies that lead generating platforms exclude non-for-profit providers (credit unions, CDFIs) that could offer lower-cost alternatives, yet there is no empirical analysis of whether applicants would accept such alternatives or how loan terms differ between lead generator-sourced lenders and excluded providers.

• Dynamical analysis of an OLG model with interacting epidemiological and environmental domains (2026) · doi

  The paper does not address firm uncertainty in estimating marginal total factor productivity within the OLG framework. The authors identify this as a policy-relevant gap and call for developing suitable approximation methods to handle productivity estimation uncertainty in the integrated economic-epidemiological model.

• Multi-Source Data Fusion and Machine Learning for Soybean Crop Price Forecasting in India (2026) · doi

  The paper demonstrates AgroNET achieves AUC=0.96 and superior performance over LSTM/GRU on test data, but does not evaluate performance degradation during out-of-sample prediction periods (e.g., forecasting prices 3-12 months ahead). The practical applicability for real-time soybean price forecasting in Indian agricultural markets with limited retraining frequency remains unvalidated.

• Predicting option prices from their price history via machine learning (2026) · doi

  The delta-hedged trading strategy does not rebalance the delta hedge during the weekly holding period following the conservative approach of Goyal and Saretto (2009). The performance improvement from daily or intra-week delta rebalancing for machine learning-predicted IV forecasts has not been evaluated.

• From Hype to Hesitation: A Longitudinal Analysis of User Sentiments towards AI‑Enabled Fintech Lending Platforms (2026) · doi

  The paper addresses user sentiment toward AI-enabled fintech lending but does not examine whether sentiment divergence correlates with specific AI transparency factors (e.g., explainability of creditworthiness algorithms, disclosure of alternative data usage). Future research should conduct comparative sentiment analysis between platforms with varying levels of AI model explainability and e-KYC disclosure practices.

• Evaluating Innovation Levels based on Standard Deviation of Parameters and MCDM Methods (2026) · doi

  While the study confirms that underperforming provinces require intervention in Institutions (C1), the paper lacks quantitative thresholds or benchmarks specifying how many standard deviations below the mean warrant different policy interventions, limiting operationalization of the findings.

• Using artificial intelligence in marketing (2026) · doi

  The paper documents that SMEs face AI adoption barriers including high licensing costs, lack of pre-trained models tailored to organizational specificity, and IT infrastructure expansion requirements, yet no concrete solutions are proposed for developing cost-effective, modular AI implementations compatible with existing IT ecosystems in small and medium enterprises.

• Mathematical Modelling of the Ukrainian IT Industry Potential Assessment in the Context of Global Challenges (2026) · doi

  The qualitative sociocultural model is designed for peacetime planning but applied during active warfare in Ukraine; the paper does not specify how security-related disruptions, displacement, infrastructure damage, or security clearance requirements for IT workers should be incorporated as time-varying qualitative factors in conflict-affected regions like Kharkiv.

• Economic analysis based on the dual constraint assumption of resources and needs from the perspective of ecological civilization (2026) · doi

  The application of the dual constraint model to real-world policy design is underdeveloped; the paper lacks demonstration of how the theoretical framework translates into specific regulatory instruments for achieving sustainable development and ecological civilization. No sectoral or regional application examples are provided showing how nations or economies can operationalize the reasonable needs interval concept.

• A Study on the Impact of UPI and Digital Payment system on the Spending Behaviour of college students (2026) · doi

  The paper concludes digital payments will play a vital role in the evolving digital economy but provides no evidence of how regulatory changes, payment gateway policy modifications, or emerging UPI features will specifically impact student spending behavior patterns.

• Impact on Adoption of Artificial Intelligence(AI) in the Banking Industry. (2026) · doi

  The study identifies lack of expertise as an impediment to AI adoption but does not quantify the specific skill gaps (machine learning engineering, data science, AI governance expertise) required for different AI banking applications or measure training outcomes needed to address workforce readiness for AI-powered banking systems.

• TEXNOLOGİYALARIN İQTİSADİ VƏ SOSİAL TƏSİRLƏRİNİN GÖSTƏRİCİLƏR ƏSASINDA QİYMƏTLƏNDİRİLMƏSİ (2026) · doi

  The paper discusses labor market adaptation to technological change but does not specify what reskilling requirements, sectoral employment transitions, or workforce competency frameworks should be measured to evaluate technology-induced labor market disruption in innovation-oriented economic systems.

• Workforce Analytics for Manufacturing: Predicting Employee Job Satisfaction via Explainable Machine Learning and SHAP (2026) · doi

  The predictive pipeline achieved high accuracy (R² = 0.8731) in manufacturing environments but generalizability to healthcare and logistics industries requires validation. The paper does not specify whether the same feature importance hierarchy (Transformational Leadership, Employee Empowerment) transfers across industries with different stress profiles, or whether industry-specific feature engineering would be necessary for the XGBoost-SHAP framework.

• VERGİ RİSKLƏRİ VƏ VERGİLƏRİN OPTİMALLAŞDIRILMASININ MÜASİR İQTİSADİ ŞƏRAİTDƏ ROLU (2026) · doi

  The paper discusses how developed versus developing countries apply different tax policies, but does not empirically analyze how tax optimization strategies and tax risk profiles differ across countries with different development levels, nor establish country-specific models for tax risk management adapted to varying institutional capacities and economic structures.

• A Study on Integrating Production and Service Management Strategies for Achieving Competitive Advantage in Modern Organizations (2026) · doi

  Scenario planning and contingency planning improvements through production-service integration are mentioned as a benefit, but no specific framework, simulation approach, or case studies demonstrate how integrated organizations develop resilient systems compared to siloed functional structures.

• An Empirical Study of Price Action, Return, Volatility and Risk in MCX vs International Exchange: A Comparative Analysis of Gold, Silver, Oil, Gas and Copper (2026) · doi

  The implication section suggests that global price shocks transmit quickly to MCX for hedging strategies, but the paper does not quantify the speed of transmission (in hours or days) or estimate optimal hedge ratios specific to each commodity pair (MCX-COMEX for metals, MCX-NYMEX for energy) using dynamic hedging models or rolling-window correlation analysis.

• Recruiter's Perception of Artificial Intelligence Based Tools in Recruitment at Virtusa, Chennai (2026) · doi

  Data privacy concerns are reported by 18% of respondents regarding candidate data processing in AI systems, but the paper does not specify which regulatory frameworks (GDPR, CCPA, India's DPDP Act) apply to Virtusa's recruitment context or how privacy compliance impacts AI tool selection. Compliance-driven AI tool evaluation frameworks for recruitment require development.

• How artificial intelligence improves the resilience of marine firms: insights from China’s A-share market (2026) · doi

  The paper identifies that AI penetration in traditional marine industries (fisheries, oil/gas extraction, logistics, chemical/metal manufacturing) breaks path dependence and optimizes redundant processes, but does not specify which AI technologies (machine learning algorithms, predictive maintenance systems, autonomous optimization, real-time monitoring) are most effective for each subsector or identify which redundant processes are eliminated.

• FINANCIAL LITERACY AMONG WOMEN EDUCATORS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, AND BEHAVIOUR (2026) · doi

  Early-career academics with less than 6 years of experience are identified as a target population requiring continuous professional development in financial literacy, but the study does not investigate whether the deficit stems from insufficient cumulative financial decision-making experience, lack of mentorship, or absence of institutional financial literacy programming at recruitment.

• ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF ENTERPRISES AS A FACTOR FOR INCREASING THEIR COMPETITIVENESS IN REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETS (2026) · doi

  The paper identifies transportation costs as critical for international enterprises' competitiveness but does not investigate how different AI algorithms, predictive models, or optimization techniques for supply chain management (demand forecasting, route optimization, inventory management) differentially impact cost reduction across regional versus international market contexts.

• The Influence of Gen Z Characteristics and Company Strategy on Turnover Intention (2026) · doi

  The paper identifies work flexibility, accelerated career development, work meaning, and adaptive work environment preferences as Gen Z characteristics influencing turnover, but does not measure whether different startup contexts (pre-seed, growth-stage, Series A/B) differentially satisfy these needs. Research should examine how startup lifecycle stage moderates the relationship between Gen Z characteristics and turnover intention.

• Organizational Justice, Cultural Intelligence and Workforce Inclusion in Digitally Transformed Multinationals: A Systematic Integrated Review of Expatriate and Hybrid Workers in Emerging Economies (2026) · doi

  The moderating role of worker category (expatriates, hybrid, local workers) and cultural distance on organizational justice effects is documented but differential support structures remain unarticulated; specific research is needed on customized digital inclusion interventions that account for remote workers versus office-based staff and varying levels of cultural distance in emerging economies.

• Attitude Toward AI Use, Extent of AI Tool Utilization, and Administrative Efficiency among School Heads in SAMARICA District (2026) · doi

  While the study identifies that 'functional breadth' of AI use among school heads remains moderate, it does not specify which specific administrative functions (e.g., budget planning, student record management, staff scheduling) are underutilized or which AI tool types would address these gaps in school leadership operations.

• WHAT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN DO TO MITIGATE ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION IN ISLAMIC BANK: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK REVEALED (2026) · doi

  The framework proposes IoT integration for real-time monitoring of borrower business operations (e.g., machine idle time, production efficiency), but lacks specification of which IoT sensor types, data collection frequencies, and data integration protocols would be compatible with Islamic banking infrastructure and Shariah-compliance requirements.

• HYBRID FORECASTING FOR THE CONSUMER PRICE INDEX USING SARIMAX, SARIMAX-MACHINE LEARNING AND SARIMAX-DEEP LEARNING MODELS: THE CASE OF CÔTE D’IVOIRE (2026) · doi

  The hybrid SARIMAX-ML/DL models were developed and evaluated exclusively for Côte d'Ivoire's consumer price index; the transferability and performance of these hybrid architectures (SARIMAX-XGBoost, SARIMAX-LSTM, SARIMAX-Seq2Seq) across other African economies or countries with different inflation dynamics and seasonal patterns remains unexplored.

• Interpreting Primary Energy Consumption in Europe and Türkiye Using Explainable Artificial Intelligence (2026) · doi

  The model demonstrates that GDP effects are heterogeneous (both positive and negative) across country-year combinations in the SHAP heatmap, but the paper does not identify threshold GDP levels or economic development stages where the relationship between GDP and primary energy consumption changes from linear to nonlinear for policy design purposes.

• Global Fast Fashion Industry: Present Opportunities and Future Challenges for Sustainability (2026) · doi

  While the paper discusses Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) financing for collection, sorting, and recycling systems, it lacks specific investigation into how EPR collection revenues should be optimally allocated across these three functions or how effectiveness varies by textile fiber type (synthetic vs. non-polymer fibers).