Theory gaps in Economics

Representative open questions

Showing 30 of 63 — one per source paper, highest-quality first.

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

  The paper demonstrates that left-wing political orientations align with circularity policies while right-wing preferences oppose them, but does not examine mechanisms of policy implementation or enforcement intensity—specifically whether provincial administrations with left-wing majorities allocate greater budgetary resources or administrative capacity to circular economy initiatives compared to right-wing counterparts.

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

  The model currently assumes no direct effect of environmental quality on productivity. Future research must introduce and analyze how pollution levels directly influence total factor productivity, as this represents a missing channel of interdependence between the environmental and economic domains in the integrated framework.

• Multi-asset optimal trade execution with stochastic cross-effects: An Obizhaeva–Wang-type framework (2026) · doi

  The proofs rely on the assumption that γ^{-1/2} and related processes have almost-surely continuous paths, but discontinuities arising from market dislocations, liquidity crises, or regime breaks could violate this regularity condition. Robustness of the optimal execution strategy to jumps or discontinuities in market impact and correlation matrices remains unexplored.

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

  The raw option strategy shows statistical significance only at the 5% confidence level (t-statistic of 2.25) with high volatility (annualized standard deviation 569.29%) and low Sharpe ratio (0.131 annualized). The sources of this extreme volatility and the conditions under which the LSTM IV forecasts fail to outperform random predictions remain uncharacterized.

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

  While the paper mentions Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT) as a theoretical framework, it does not empirically test ECT's core constructs (confirmation, satisfaction, expectation gap) through regression models or structural equation modeling applied to the sentiment data. Explicit hypothesis testing using ECT variables on fintech lending user sentiment would strengthen the theoretical contribution.

• Using artificial intelligence in marketing (2026) · doi

  AI analytics tools using Big Data capture correlations without explaining underlying causal mechanisms, providing "what" answers rather than "why" answers; research must develop methodologies that integrate AI pattern detection with theory-driven analysis to enable qualitative nuance capture that AI currently cannot achieve in market functioning analysis.

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

  The study finds overall positive perception of UPI despite overspending concerns, but does not investigate the disconnect between positive attitudes and risky spending behaviors—specifically whether students acknowledge overspending risks yet continue impulsive digital transactions.

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

  The paper suggests AI applications for chatbots, personalization, loan approvals, and compliance automation but provides no comparative analysis of implementation complexity, time-to-deployment, or ROI outcomes across these different AI banking use cases to guide prioritization of AI adoption strategies.

• Women and medicine (2010) · doi

  The paper notes that women are 'under-represented in academic medicine' which leads to under-representation in medical leadership, but does not establish the quantitative threshold or specific pipeline analysis identifying at which career stage women disproportionately exit academic medicine pathways.

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

  The finding that demographic factors (Age, Experience, Type of Job) show minimal SHAP relevance (values near zero) contradicts established HR literature, yet the paper does not investigate why these traditionally important variables failed to influence the job satisfaction model or whether this reflects dataset composition bias, feature scaling issues, or genuine low predictive power in this manufacturing context.

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

  The finding that 61% of recruiters reject AI replacement narratives is reported as reflecting 'irreplaceable role of human judgment' but lacks empirical characterization of which specific recruitment decisions require human judgment and which can be effectively delegated to AI. Task-level decomposition of recruitment workflows identifying human-AI collaboration boundaries is needed.

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

  The study identifies that AI's resilience-enhancing effect is substantially amplified only in marine firms with digitally-literate leaders, but the specific mechanisms through which leader technological knowledge moderates AI implementation remain unexamined. Future research should empirically isolate whether this moderation operates through strategic decision-making quality, risk assessment capability, or organizational change management competency in marine supply chain contexts.

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

  The model explains only 32.6% of turnover intention variation in Gen Z startup employees, with 67.4% attributed to unspecified external variables. Future research should empirically measure and integrate the identified mediating factors—job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work stress, and leadership style—into a comprehensive structural equation model to determine their direct and indirect pathways between Gen Z characteristics, company strategy, and turnover intention.

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

  The study concentrated on selected variables (attitudes, utilization, administrative efficiency) but did not examine other organizational factors such as institutional support mechanisms, resistance to change, or technological infrastructure quality that may influence the attitude-utilization-efficiency relationship in school leadership.

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

  The framework lacks guidance on ethical constraints and Islamic finance principles that should govern AI decision-making in borrower assessment and early warning alert generation, particularly how to ensure Maqasid Al-Sharia alignment when using automated systems that might falsely flag legitimate business transactions or borrower operational changes.

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

  The paper emphasizes localized production to reduce transport emissions and lead times but does not address the quantitative trade-offs between emissions saved through reduced transportation versus emissions increased through decentralized dyeing and finishing operations in regions with less efficient chemical and water management infrastructure.

• Entrepreneurial Skills and Quantitative Decision - Making: The Role of Business Mathematics in Emerging Enterprises of Assam (2026) · doi

  The mediation analysis demonstrates that business mathematics partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial skills and quantitative decision-making (indirect effect=0.21, p<0.05), but the mechanism by which business mathematics competencies translate entrepreneurial skills into improved decision-making remains unexplored and requires investigation of specific mediating pathways.

• Impact of Talent Management on Emotional Intelligence in Food Industry Companies in Hodeidah Governorate (2026) · doi

  The study found no statistically significant impact of talent attraction on emotional intelligence in food industry companies in Hodeidah Governorate (β=0.077, p=0.416), contradicting the theoretical assumption; however, the paper does not investigate whether this null result is specific to the food industry context, geographic region, or organizational size, or whether different talent attraction mechanisms (e.g., employer branding, recruitment channels, selection criteria emphasizing emotional competencies) would yield different outcomes.

• Directional and disruptive selection in populations structured by class and continuous ontogeny under incomplete plasticity (2026) · doi

  The model incorporates size-matching sexual selection (eq. 32) but assumes males only benefit from matching female size and do not experience viability costs from growth. Relaxing this assumption to include trade-offs between male growth investment and survival would require reformulating the male fitness function and determining how such costs alter convergence stable strategies and polymorphism conditions.

• Towards Environmental Sustainability: Evaluating the Role of Energy Consumption and Urbanization on Carbon Emission in Nigeria (1990-2023) (2026) · doi

  The ECM correction coefficient indicates 116% yearly adjustment of short-term CO2 emission disparities, but the paper does not explain the mechanisms driving this over-correction or test whether inclusion of environmental policy variables (carbon taxes, emission standards, renewable energy mandates) would modify the adjustment speed.

• O USO DA INTELIGÊNCIA ARTIFICIAL NO MARKETING SOCIAL PARA O COMBATE À HESITAÇÃO VACINAL INFANTIL: UM ESTUDO DE CASO EM PARAÍSO DO TOCANTINS – TO (2026) · doi

  AI adoption must be conducted in a planned, ethical, and gradual manner to ensure technology benefits translate into concrete gains for municipal public health, requiring frameworks for ethical implementation oversight.

• Predicting the Path of Progress: A Trend and Forecast Analysis of PMC Expenditure (2026) · doi

  The analysis relies on the assumption that future expenditure will stabilize around heightened 2025 levels unless new large-scale infrastructure projects are undertaken, but does not account for unpredictable external shocks or policy changes.

• The Impact of Innovation on Economic Complexity: The Role of Institutions (2026) · doi

  The interaction effects between institutional quality and innovation are tested, but potential interactions with other variables (exports, FDI, capital investment) are not examined.

• Artificial intelligence in human resource management: A review of applications, algorithms, and ethical challenges (2026) · doi

  The elaboration of interdisciplinary approaches to ensure ethical principles and governance systems for AI-HRM is incomplete and requires further development.

• Regularized Vector Autoregressive Model for the Assessment of Macroeconomic Variables Associated with Inflation in Nigeria (2026) · doi

  While the study demonstrates superior forecast accuracy of regularized models, the theoretical mechanisms explaining why LASSO and Elastic Net outperform standard VAR in the Nigerian context require deeper investigation.

• Artificial intelligence and supply chain management: A bibliometric exploration of impacts on operational performance (2026) · doi

  The need for integrative frameworks combining multiple theories (RBV, agency theory, and contingency theory) to explain AI's impact on SCM is reinforced but not yet fully developed.

• Talent Acquisition Vs Recruitment: Strategic and Operational Dimensions of Modern Hiring (2026) · doi

  Missing discussion of emerging technologies (AI, machine learning, predictive analytics) beyond basic ATS and AI intelligence applications in talent acquisition.

• Impact of artificial intelligence-driven digital twins and lean six sigma-assisted power system asset management on long-term investment planning (2026) · doi

  Trade-offs between precision versus speed (physics-informed DTs requiring domain expertise versus data-driven models risking overfitting) and between centralized versus decentralized control architectures require further research and resolution.

• Corporate ESG Performance and Audit Fees: Evidence from Chinese A-Share Listed Companies (2026) · doi

  The study does not address potential causal mechanisms in the reverse direction—whether lower audit fees enable firms to invest more in ESG initiatives.

• Comparative statics of trading boundary in finite-horizon portfolio selection problem with proportional transaction costs (2026) · doi

  The paper assumes log-normal stock price dynamics and CRRA utility functions; applicability to other utility functions and alternative stochastic models for asset prices remains unexplored.