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In order to succeed, universities are forced to respond to the new challenges in the rapidly changing world. The recently emerging fourth-generation universities should meet sustainability objectives to better serve their students and their communities. It is essential for universities to measure their sustainability performance to capitalise on their core strengths and to overcome their weaknesses. In line with the stakeholder theory, the objective of this study was to investigate students’ perceptions of university sustainability including their expectations about and satisfaction with the efforts that universities make towards sustainability. This paper proposes a new approach that combines the sustainable university scale, developed by the authors, with the importance-performance analysis to identify key areas of university sustainability. To collect data, an online survey was conducted in Hungary in 2019. The sustainable university scale was found to be a reliable construct to measure different aspects of university sustainability. Results of the importance-performance analysis suggest that students consider Hungarian universities unsustainable. Research findings indicate that Hungarian universities perform poorly in sustainable purchasing and renewable energy use, but their location and their efforts towards separate waste collection are their major competitive advantages. The main domains of university sustainability were also discussed. This study provides university decision-makers and researchers with insightful results supporting the transformation of traditional universities into sustainable, fourth-generation higher education institutions.

the research process has as a result the creation of knowledge through solving a researchproblem. thus, research methodology refers to all the decisions that the researcher makesto achieve their research goals and deals with issues such as research design, the strategyto use, the study sample, the methods used to collect the information, techniques to beused in the analysis of information and the criteria to be used to increase the quality ofwork, among others. the current research designs revolve around two major paradigms:quantitative model and the qualitative model. this article reviews both perspectives andexplains when and why it is appropriate to use each one. El proceso investigativo tiene como propósito final producir conocimiento a través de la resolución del problema establecido al inicio del estudio. Así pues, bajo la etiqueta demetodología de investigación se hace referencia a todas las decisiones que el investigador toma para alcanzar sus objetivos, las cuales se enfocan en aspectos tales como el diseño de la investigación, la estrategia a utilizar, la muestra a estudiar, los métodos empleados para recoger los datos, las técnicas seleccionadas para el análisis de los resultados y los criterios para incrementar la calidad del trabajo, entre otras. Los diseños de investigación actuales giran en torno a dos grandes paradigmas: el modelo cuantitativo y el modelo cualitativo. Este artículo hace una revisión teórica de ambos modelos y explica en qué consisten y cuándo es apropiado utilizar cada uno.

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es analizar el grado de acceso al crédito para microempresarios en Alajuela, Cartago y Heredia. Se toma como muestra un grupo de 401 negocios, que posean de 1 a 5 trabajadores y que no se dediquen a actividades agrícolas. El artículo muestra que el grado de acceso al crédito de los microempresarios suele ser bajo en lo que respecta a créditos formales (instituciones financieras reguladas por la SUGEF) e informales (prestamistas, parientes o amigos), pero alto en lo relativo a créditos semi-informales (proveedores y clientes).

Siendo hoy en día tanto la inflación como la devaluación de las monedas una constante en todas las economías mundiales, y las “potencias” o economías desarrolladas no se escapan de ello aún cuando las tasas sean “de un dígito”, es importante poder tomar en cuenta sus efectos a lo largo del tiempo en un proyecto para su evaluación e impacto en sus métricas de evaluación tradicionalmente utilizadas: Valor Actual Neto (VAN) y Tasa Interna de Retorno (TIR).

Costa Rica no sigue durante la primera década del siglo XXI la tendencia observada para la mayoría de los países de la región, que experimentan una reducción de la desigualdad en la distribución del ingreso familiar per cápita. Durante la primera mitad de esa década sí se produce una reducción en la desigualdad pero se revierte en el quinquenio siguiente. Para estudiar esos cambios se utiliza una desagregación de la desigualdad, medida por el coeficiente de Gini, por fuentes de ingreso, usando 12 fuentes distintas. Los resultados señalan que la reducción de la desigualdad en la primera mitad de la década, se da en un contexto de crecimiento económico pero estancamiento de los ingresos reales, que se concentra en los estratos de mayores ingresos. Esto implica que la reducción de la desigualdad se concentró en la reducción de los ingresos reales de las fuentes con mayor poder concentrador (elasticidades Gini ingreso mayor a la unidad y cambios marginales positivos), como lo son los ingresos laborales de los más calificados, las rentas del capital y las pensiones contributivas. En la segunda mitad de la década, el repunte de la desigualdad se produce por un aumento significativo de los ingresos reales de todas las fuentes, pero principalmente de las que tienen un impacto concentrador que no puede ser neutralizado por la expansión de las fuentes que reducen la desigualdad (ingresos laborales de los trabajadores no calificados y las transferencias estatales). Los resultados sugieren la necesidad de aplicar una política de salarios mínimos más activa, reforzar los programas de apoyo productivo para el sector informal, ampliar la oferta de trabajadores más calificados a través de la política educativa y ampliar las transferencias monetarias hacia los más pobres, lo que requiere de una reforma tributaria.

El objetivo del presente trabajo consiste en analizar, para una muestra amplia de países, la relación entre el gasto total en salud, el ingreso nacional y el estatus de salud poblacional. Se realiza un estudio descriptivo, cuantitativo y ecológico con base en datos de 192 países provistos por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), para los años 2000 y 2009. Los indicadores utilizados para medir el estatus de salud son la Esperanza de Vida al Nacer (EVN) y la Tasa de Mortalidad Infantil (TMI). Si bien este estudio no permite hacer conclusiones respecto a la existencia de causalidad, el análisis estadístico realizado permite afirmar que existe una relación positiva y estable entre los resultados en salud, el gasto en salud per cápita y el ingreso nacional per cápita. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between total health expenditure, national income and population health status for a large sample of countries. We performed a descriptive, quantitative, ecological analysis based on data from 192 countries provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the years 2000 and 2009. The indicators used to measure health status are the life expectancy at birth and the infant mortality rate. While this study does not allow conclusions regarding the existence of causality, the statistical analysis performed suggest that there is a positive and stable relationship between health results, per capita health expenditure and per capita national income. Fil: Lago, Fernando Pablo. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Economía; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Geri, Milva. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Moscoso, Nebel Silvana. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Monterubbianesi, Pablo Daniel. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

El presente trabajo tiene la finalidad de recapitular las principales teorías desde un enfoque sociocultural o institucional que fomentan la creación de nuevas empresas. Dado este contexto, se planteó la importancia del estudio teórico de los factores que influyen para tomar decisiones en el desarrollo de nuevas empresas y cómo afecta el entorno en el cual se desenvuelven los mismos empresarios. El método de investigación empleado es la revisión de la literatura existente mediante el análisis de las principales teorías que intervienen en la creación de empresas, enfatizándose en el enfoque sociocultural. El análisis concluye profundizando en cómo la actividad de entrepreneurship ha fomentado la creación de empresas, siendo un factor importante en el desarrollo económico del país.

El artículo pretende integrar los desarrollos teóricos en el campo de los mercados imperfectos y monopólicos, y el funcionamiento de la firma en tales condiciones, con las teorías de la distribución del ingreso; particularmente entre los grandes agregados macroeconómicos del capital y el trabajo. Formulando así, hipótesis de trabajo desde una perspectiva integral, para enfocar el rompimiento del proceso de acumulación de capital expresado en la crisis económica actual.

Con base en cifras sobre exportaciones de Costa Rica para el período 2000-2008, desglosados a nivel de empresa, productos exportados y mercados de destino, el presente estudio busca identificar los factores relacionados con las decisiones de una empresa, que aumentan o disminuyen la probabilidad de abandonar el mercado externo. Este trabajo cuantifica el impacto de una serie de factores, utilizando una tasa de supervivencia que pondera los años de actividad exportadora por la antigüedad de las transacciones y el número de veces que cada empresa salió del mercado externo. Se presenta un análisis de supervivencia de las empresas exportadoras que operan en Costa Rica, con base en un modelo de riesgos proporcionales de Cox, y el estimador de Kaplan-Meier. El estudio confirma la importancia de la diversificación de las exportaciones para la supervivencia de la empresa exportadora.

This study of fiscal policy in State Budget (APBN) 2017 that the task of the Indonesian government to run them to create prosperity for the community. The state budget is prepared using the rules of public economics consisting of state revenues, state expenditures, and budget financing has the posture of the budget, the issues of fiscal policy, and the role of the government in carrying out its functions. With the analysis of Islamic economics, fiscal policy in the State Budget 2017 is the duty of the government to implement the budget for the public welfare with indicators on aspects of religion (religious life), life (justice and security), intellect (education), descent (health and social security family), and treasure (income distribution and access to employment).Keywords: fiscal policy, state budget, welfare, maqashid shariah, Islamic economicsJEL Classifications: E62, F52, G18, H61, O23, P43

espanolPara ser sostenible en el tiempo, la responsabilidad social empresarial debe incidir en su entorno y sus colaboradores en tiempos de incertidumbre. Una crisis en los sistemas de salud, politicos y economicos en Peru se ha desencadenado como resultado de la COVID-19. El proposito de esta investigacion fue determinar la relacion entre la responsabilidad social y la gestion de calidad en una empresa peruana de seguros. La metodologia utilizada para lograr el objetivo fue de enfoque cuantitativo, diseno no experimental y de alcance transversal. Se encuestaron a 331 colaboradores en la ciudad de Lima. Se aplico como instrumento un cuestionario validado por juicio de expertos y con una confiabilidad de Cronbach >0,96. Los resultados evidencian que la empresa apoya a las comunidades menos privilegiadas en campanas de salud y nutricion a traves de colaboradores voluntarios de los programas de responsabilidad social empresarial que contribuyen al cuidado del medio ambiente. En conclusion, existe una relacion significativa entre las variables estudiadas; sin embargo, la alta direccion de la empresa aseguradora es consciente de que aun falta trabajar en la gestion del conocimiento y estrategias para conseguir la participacion de sus colaboradores y proveedores en las labores de responsabilidad social en tiempos de pandemia, que permitan mayores niveles de competencia. EnglishTo be sustainable over time, corporate social responsibility must influence its environment and its collaborators in times of uncertainty. A crisis in the health, political, and economic systems in Peru has been triggered as a result of COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between social responsibility and quality management in a Peruvian insurance company. The methodology used to achieve the objective was a quantitative approach, cross-sectional and non-experimental design. A sample of 331 employees in the city of Lima was surveyed. The survey was applied as an instrument through the validation of contents by expert judgment and reliability of Cronbach Alpha>0.96. The results show that the company supports the less privileged communities in health and nutrition campaigns through voluntary collaborators of corporate social responsibility programs who contribute to caring for the environment. We conclude that there is a significant relationship between the variables studied, however, the insurance company is aware that it is still necessary to work on knowledge management and strategies to get the participation of its collaborators and suppliers in social responsibility tasks in times of pandemic, which allow higher levels of competition.

espanolEl objetivo de este estudio se centra en realizar una revision de literatura de las Tecnologias de la Informacion y Comunicacion (TIC) como un factor exclusivo que incide en el comportamiento del consumidor; la metodologia tiene un alcance descriptivo de tipo bibliografico, se seleccionaron estudios que han sido publicados en los indices mas importantes a nivel mundial, en el siguiente orden: Web of Science, Scopus, Ebsco y ProQuest, desde el ano 2009 hasta el 2020, con un total de 62 publicaciones entre articulos cientificos, libros y tesis, que discutieron el desarrollo de las TIC exclusivamente enfocado hacia el consumidor moderno. Se encontro una considerable produccion cientifica entre los anos 2013 y 2017 con un 47,00% de los documentos analizados. Asimismo, en dichas publicaciones se resaltan palabras clave como TIC, consumidores digitales y comportamiento de consumidor con el 27,00%, 19,00% y 10,00% respectivamente, en cuanto a la procedencia de los documentos se destaca que la mayoria de estos provienen de America Latina con un porcentaje del 53,00%. Como principales conclusiones se destaca que la intervencion de las TIC esta inmersa en casi todas las fases de la toma de decisiones que realiza el consumidor, adicional a ello, los consumidores actuales se encuentran permanentemente conectados, disponiendo mayores alternativas de eleccion segun la informacion que la empresa desarrolla para alcanzar la compra final del producto y/o servicio. EnglishThe objective of this study, focuses on carrying out a literature review of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as an exclusive factor affecting consumer behavior. The methodology has a descriptive scope of a bibliographic type, studies were selected that have been published in the most important indexes worldwide, in the following order: Web of Science, Scopus, Ebsco and ProQuest, from 2009 to 2020, with a total of 62 publications among scientific articles, books and thesis, which discussed the development of ICT exclusively focused on the modern consumer. A considerable scientific production found between 2013 and 2017 with 47,00% of the documents analyzed. Likewise, in these publications key words such as ICT, digital consumers and consumer behavior are highlighted with 27,00%, 19,00% and 10,00% respectively. Regarding the origin of the documents, it is highlighted that most of them come from Latin America with a percentage of 53,00%. As main conclusions it is highlighted that the intervention of the TIC is immersed in almost all the phases of the decision making that the consumer makes, in addition to it, the present consumers are permanently connected, having greater alternatives of election according to the information that the company develops to reach the final purchase of the product and/or service.

Research on FDI in promoting economic growth has been the focus of recent decades, especially in developing countries. Foreign direct investment can be one of the main objectives in increasing economic growth. FDI is assumed to indirectly contribute to economic growth through a spillover effect on the absorption capacity of a country by increasing the stock of human capital and the quality of institutions. This study aims to analyze the spillover effect of FDI on economic growth in Asian emerging markets. The data were analyzed using dynamic panel regression (GMM) during 2008-2017 period with STATA 14 software.The results in this study strongly indicate that the spillovers of FDI is proven to be able to drive economic growth through human capital and institutions in Asian emerging markets.

This paper is devoted to research the validity of options strategies with a particular emphasis on weekly options. The author proves that options, when traded successfully, could be a better substitute than buying or selling the underlying and that options with a good given volatility strategy and with a well capitalised underlying stocks could give superb results. The author analysed a simple strategy using the simple moving average and the bollinger bands on the US market. Then a new capital allocation method is explained with the target of maximizing the results obtained. For further comparison the options strategy is compared with the same strategy made with selling or buying the underlying.Keywords: Financial markets, options, technical analysis indicatorsJEL Classifications: G11; G15; G24DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.11144

This study investigates the impact of certain macroeconomic determinants on stock market returns in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Those macroeconomic factors are: interest rates, oil prices, exchange rates, and money supply. Those factors were empirically studied and investigated to have an impact on stock market returns in many countries. This paper also attempts to capture that impact of those macroeconomic factors on the stock market, using a panel set of data by implying several tests on the data, which include unit root tests, cointegration test, and error correction model (ECM). The empirical results support previous studies that suggest the high reliance of governments and stock markets in the GCC on macroeconomic determinants, specifically oil prices, while other determinants were found to have less effect on stock market returns than oil prices. The findings of the study will presumably enable investors and stakeholders in making better investment decisions, in addition to assisting policy-makers in enhancing the efficiency of stock markets and better regulating them. Keywords: Stock Market, Oil Prices, Interest Rates, Exchange Rates, Money Supply (M2)JEL Classifications: Q41, E02, G1, N95DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.11189

This study intended to explore when and how often fixed asset revaluation (FAR) is practiced in Bangladesh and explain the impacts of FAR on net asset value (NAV), stock prices, and debts of companies. Based on 175 listed companies on the Dhaka Stock Exchange, this study found increasing use of the revaluation model where the textile industry witnessed the highest number of revaluations. Most of the listed companies were irregular revaluer, and they performed FAR during the bull market in 2010. Most newly listed companies did it just before their initial public offerings (IPO). The results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test imply that the changes in NAV, stock prices, and total debts after revaluation were statistically significant. This study found evidence of enhancing debt capacity and stock prices of several companies through improved NAV. The findings will assist regulators to recognize the consequence of revaluation and enable them to take an appropriate stance for controlling abusive and creative reporting. The study will also make investors cautious about companies with revaluation induced assets. This study suggests that companies practicing the revaluation model should perform FAR on regular intervals to reduce information asymmetry about assets’ value and thus help improve investors’ confidence.Keywords: Fair value accounting, IAS 16, PP&E, Bull-bear market, Information asymmetry, NAVJEL Classifications: G1, G11, M41, M48DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.10828

We examine the long-run relationship between tourism development and economic growth using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model for Bangladesh using annual data from 1980-2016. We find an asymmetric relationship between tourism and Bangladesh's economy since a one percent increase in tourism receipt increases economic growth by about 0.19 percent. On the contrary, due to a one percent decline in the tourism receipt, economic growth will decrease by about 0.66 percent. So, the decline in tourism receipt will have a higher negative impact on economic growth than the increase in the tourism receipt in Bangladesh, which result is important for current pandemic situation in tourism due to Covid-19. We also reveal that the impact of positive change in the tourism revenue on GDP stabilizes around 8 years; however, an adverse change on GDP does not stabilize in 15 years. We recommend that a systematic allocation of resources is required to promote and stimulate the tourism industry in Bangladesh for a favourable impact on the country's long-run economic development.Keywords: Tourism Development; Economic Growth; NARDL; Bangladesh; AsymmetryJEL Classifications: C32, O50, Z32DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.11040

This study has investigated the impact of gender inequality and environmental degradation on human well-being in the case of Pakistan from 1980 to 2019. Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test is used for stationarity of the variables. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) is used for co-integration among the variables of the model. The results show that gender inequality has a negative and significant impact on human well-being in Pakistan, while gender equality encourages human well-being. The calculated results show that there is a positive, but insignificant relationship between environmental degradation and human well-being in the case of Pakistan. The estimated results show that economic misery has a negative and significant impact on human well-being in the case of Pakistan. The estimated results show that economic growth has a positive and significant relationship with human well-being in Pakistan. Based on estimated results, it is concluded that gender equality, economic misery, and economic growth are playing an important role in determining human well-being in Pakistan. Therefore, to improve human well-being, the government must reduce gender inequality and economic misery while enhancing in parallel economic growth.Keywords: gender inequality, environmental degradation, human well-beingJEL Classifications: J1, O10, Q0DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.8415

In 2021, the issue of supporting the Member States for the European Union to ensure the transition to a normal economy as soon as possible, deeply affected by the health and economic and financial crisis. However, it is necessary to launch major objectives at Community level that give consistency to economic recovery. The approach in this article is also in this context. The Member States of the European Union aim individually and at the same time in a complex way to achieve superior results, in order to ensure sustainable economic growth, which would be the main factor in improving living conditions. In this sense, that of the economic growth of the European Union and of all the Member States, it is important to initiate economic objectives with the participation of as many Member States as possible. At the same time, the individual development of each stratum is important so as to ensure harmonized growth in order to pursue the second objective, which is to bring the level of economic growth closer to all Member States. Member States’ individual investments, as well as those harmonized in the context of economic objectives, are the steps by which this challenge could be achieved, could be met. There are enough contradictions in the European Union, in the sense that some states that have entered the last tranche or the last stage in the European Union, have yet to set a series of individual objectives to ensure the elimination of dysfunctions and consequently, creating a harmonization of economic developments. The question is whether the European Union is an appropriate framework, so that actors and partners can look with confidence and confidence to achieve major goals. The example of Brexit is one that brings a new possibility of insecurity, in the sense that the United Kingdom leaves a gap in terms of individual participation in the Community budget. Under these conditions, it is likely that the annual and multiannual budget will be slightly smaller and the lack of Great Britain in the entourage of the Member States will be able to be covered only by a sustained activity on multiple levels by the Community countries. There are a number of objectives in the European Union’s strategy that must be pursued in full accordance with the national strategies of the Member States. Only a harmonized policy can ensure a development closer to the aspirations and wishes of the Member States. The European Union is also manifested in a series of contradictions that exist between some Member States, which arise between what each Member State pursues and the global policy promoted by the European Union. In this regard, in this article we will seek to identify those points that may be positive aspects of harmonization of efforts or that are discordant and should be eliminated in order to reach a possibility of correlating the intentions and measures taken, so that it can be achieve some of the challenges facing the European Union. It should also be noted that between the United States and the European Union in economic, trade, tourism there are some different positions that can have an effect on the development of the European Union and its Member States within it.

Tourism is one of the largest global industries; it generates economic and non-economic benefits for the world's nations, creates opportunities for many related industries, and has a significant contribution to local communities’ prosperity. Despite the extraordinary difficulties posed by the global pandemic crisis, its prospects to remain one of the main providers of jobs, income, and regional or global development are still encouraging. However, tourism is at a crossroads, and the contribution of entrepreneurship can give a new meaning, a new direction to the efforts to recover and resume growth. That is why it is important to understand the nature, scope, challenges, and dimensions of tourism entrepreneurship, the trends that accompanied its evolution in recent decades, and to perceive its future prospects. The emergence of new types and forms of tourism, the expansion of digital technology in most tourism sectors, challenges in existing practices, competition, and the changing models have to be carefully understood and analysed. Tourism and entrepreneurship, two driving forces for economic development, have been under the scrutiny of this study, as we tried to map out the knowledge base yielded between 1994 and 2020 timeframe. Bibliometric methods were employed in the analysis of articles. After analysing the available articles chosen with the criteria set of the study, 322 articles concerning tourism and entrepreneurship were obtained. Based on the citation analysis made with HistCite software, we identified the most influential authors, articles, and journals.

Acknowledging the fact that immigration crisis is one of the most debated and challenging phenomena, especially in most of the OECD countries, this study involves a utilisation of the panel econometric techniques like Panel Error Correction Model, FMOLS and DOLS to empirically analyse the direction of the effects of immigration on native unemployment, in both the short and the long run, in aggregate. The analysis has been performed on a sample of 33 OECD countries between 1990 and 2017. The results suggest that immigration reduces unemployment in the short as well as the long-run. The impacts of immigration on unemployment are confirmed with a series of robustness tests using different estimation techniques and combination of regressors.

This study examined oil price influence on the Nigeria exchange rate volatility spanning the retro of thirty five (35) years. The Simultaneous equation modeling of Granger causality test and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) techniques were adopted, to analyzed the data stream from 1983 – 2019. A dynamic framework analysis that includes test of unit root, descriptive statistics and co-integration preliminary test were carried out. Specifically, the empirical findings show that the coefficient of oil price and other variables (rate of interest, inflation rate and external reserve) considered has varying degree of significant relationship with volatility of exchange rate in Nigeria both in the succinct and long run during the retro under review. The study concludes that oil price has a long run positive non-significant influence on exchange rate volatility and a short run negative non-significant influence on exchange rate volatility in Nigeria during the sample retro under concern.

This paper evaluates the response of oil price and exchange rate to the corona virus pandemic shock aside from the link between oil price and exchange rate for the first three quarters of 2020 in Nigeria. The theoretical framework emanates from the informal approach and the terms of trade channels. Using VAR cointegration approach, results show existence of long run relationship among the oil price, exchange rate movement and the corona virus indicators based on Max-Eigen and Trace test statistic. End of first quarter oil price, discharge rate and fatality rate negatively relate with current exchange rate. First quarter exchange rate and fatality rate positively relates to oil price behaviour in the third quarter while end of first quarter discharge rate increase fosters oil price decline. First quarter spread rate increase gradually reduces oil demand and the price in the third quarter. All corona virus indicators and exchange rate variable Granger Cause current oil price. Diversification is key to widen export base and increase foreign exchange and stability. Policy measures to sustain the economy in the post COVID-19 and beyond are necessary for long term development.

Theory of the games offers perfect tools for modelling imperfect competition specific processes, manifested in relation with product quantity (Cournot/Stackelberg type), product price (Bertrand type) or quality. The equilibrium solution in terms of output is highlighted in a Cournot situation, whilst the price equilibrium solution can be revealed in a Bertrand scenario. Despite the different strategy type based on, the common denominator of these two models is given by the fact that strategic choices are made simultaneously. The Stackelberg model instead, represents a perfect information sequential game – firms advocating for quantity competition – having both theoretical and practical applicability. In the simplest possible case, with two players moving in two stages, the leader will always choose a certain output level, and the follower observes this decision and then establish his action path accordingly. Present paper’s main goal is to analyze a duopoly market with players adopting a Stackelberg behavior. Regardless the analyzed scenario, both firms are expected to survive and a stable equilibrium will manifest (the Subgame Perfect Equilibrium). The price will be invariable at market demand curve slope, whilst player’s choosed quantities and also gained profits level will be in an inverse dependence relation with it. The leader’s chosen output and also registered profit levels will be double vs the follower’s profit.

Deepening of financial system in emerging market economies is crucial for economic development. Financial depth enhances the ability of financial system to supply funds to private sector. In this study, the impact of exchange rate volatility on financial depth in Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa is investigated in the short and long run. In this regard, annual data belonging to 1980-2018 period is used. The findings obtained from empirical analyses confirm that real exchange rate is not a factor that affects financial depth and so financial development. On the other hand, financial depth is a factor affecting exchange rate volatility in Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa. These results may be a reason of relatively enough size and development of financial systems. Moreover, dominancy of public sector in financial system may be another reason.

The current research aims to study the importance of applying lean accounting technology with its important tools such as (value stream, points box, continuous improvement) and pointing to the role of correct behaviors by the decision maker that helps in making the right decision in improving the quality of the product and its reflection on reducing its cost Reducing waste and wasting of resources, meeting customer requirements, and trying to apply it in one of the factories of the Southern Cement Company represented by the Kufa Cement Factory, the sample of the research, and to achieve this goal, it was adopted in the application of lean accounting tools on the laboratory data obtained by the result of coexistence field Take a look at the laboratory records for the sample. The researchers reached several conclusions, the most important of which is that the research sample represented by the Kufa Cement Factory is far from the concept of lean accounting, including the important tools and what it reflects in its application of a role in improving the quality of the product, including this concept holds multiple meanings, in addition to not paying enough attention to achieve customer satisfaction Which is one of the important constituents of the newly targeted, because the customer has become the starting point for the business of economic units and the basis of their survival in the market. Also, not taking into consideration the behavior of the decision-maker, which may not be in harmony with the organization and reflected in making weak decisions that affect the concept of lean accounting.Keywords: Product Quality, Lean Accounting Tools, Behavioral ApproachJEL Classifications: M41, L15, M11DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.10975

The aim of the paper is to assess the effects of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID – 19) on two stock market indices: BET index for Bucharest Stock Exchange and WIG20 index for Warsaw Stock Exchange. The negative effects of the pandemic have had an influence on the performance of the stock markets since its debut. Many companies as well as sectors have ceased their activity during the outbreak, causing devastating financial losses worldwide. By comparing indices evolution during 2020 using the data available on the stock markets’ websites, as well as analyzing in part the companies that make up the indices portfolio, we will try to present the sectors most affected by the pandemic as well as their evolution during the analysis period. The results of this research can be a starting point for future empirical analysis on the long-term effects of the pandemic on stock markets’ performance for Romania and Poland. The results could be a source of information for state institutions, companies, investors, analysts but also representatives of the medical sector (responsible for crisis management) - in order to observe the severity and magnitude of the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the financial markets and also help develop and ensue their long-term sustainable growth.

Outward habit formation affects consumption decisions. Since consumption displays a negative environmental externality, outward habits has as well an (adverse) effect on the environment. This research paper centers around the theoretical linkage between the combination of both externalities (environmental deterioration and outward habits). The objective of this study is to examine the impacts of outward habits on the state of the environment in the context of an overlapping generations economy. In our study, environmental quality is a public good negatively affected by consumption activity and positively affected by maintenance investment. With outward habit formation, the build-up level of average past consumption in the economy at large influences the current utility of an individual consumer. Thus, individuals draw utility not only from their own level of current consumption, but also from its level relative to the average consumption in the economy. How does outward habit influence the state of the environment? We analyze this question using an overlapping generations model with outward habit and environmental quality in the utility function. In steady state equilibrium allocation, we show that whether outward habits are destructive to the environment depends on the degrees of outward habit formation and the size of the economy.

In this paper we explain the influence of some economic-social and psychological factors on a higher life satisfaction, as an expression of the subjective state of well-being, on a sample of 32 European countries. In the analysis, we used results of surveys on quality of life conducted during 2011-2012 and 2016 by Eurofound. We opted for estimating spatial models to highlight influences on well-being due to the existence of spatial autocorrelation between variables. The findings reveal that there is consistent positive relationship between life satisfaction and satisfaction in the fields and a significant negative relationships were found in relation to negative emotions, perception of a high degree of corruption in society or, even more importantly, unequal income distribution.

This study examines the relationship between environmental responsibility and financial performance of international oil companies in Niger Delta region of Nigeria. In pursuance of this, a sample of twelve (12) international oil firms was used for the study. Secondary data were obtained from the audited annual financial reports of the selected companies and Federal Ministry of Environment covering the period of 2009 to 2018. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, panel causality test and fixed effect, selected as the appropriate strategy after using the Hausman test. Based on the data analysis, the study reveals that there is a bi-directional relationship between environmental responsibility and firms’ financial performance. The study further reveals that there is a positive relationship between environmental responsibility and firms’ financial performance. When environmental responsibility interacts with corporate governance, the impact is found to have a significant positive relationship with firms’ financial performance. The study also finds that growth opportunities and firm size are positively and significantly related to firms’ financial performance. Based on the findings, the study recommends effective regulation, strong institutional mechanism and good corporate governance structures to enforce or engender environmental sustainability and compel firms to adopt the culture/strategy of sustainable finance. Such strategy will alleviate the curse of dependency and poverty that comes with the destruction of the environment and the means of sustenance of the people in oil producing communities.

The growing within-country income inequality has brought to the forefront of the economic policy agenda the question of the role of fiscal policy in income redistribution. However, there may be a tradeoff between the objectives of addressing income inequality and promoting economic growth vis-à-vis fiscal policies. This study investigates the potential growth-inequality tradeoffs in the design of fiscal policy in Cote d’Ivoire. Using a Bayesian VAR framework which is more suitable to deal with possible issues that may appear in small data sample, the results show that a positive shock in government current expenditure undermine economic growth but reduce income inequality. Also, we find that public investment and direct taxes promote growth and reduce income inequality while indirect taxes decelerate growth with a marginal effect on income inequality. Overall, our findings reveal that government current expenditure is the fiscal policy instrument that generates growth-inequality tradeoff in Cote d’Ivoire.

This study examines Behavioral Factors and Investment Decision Making in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Thus, the research question is what are the psychological factors affecting investment decisions in the Nigerian capital market. A structured questionnaire was used in collecting data and it was able to collect data from 75 investors with the application of a convenient sampling method. Using overconfidence bias, availability bias, conservatism, and herding effect to define the most important behavioral element affecting investment decision making by investors in the Nigerian. Multiple regression analysis was used as the key methodological method for evaluating the research hypothesis, whereas the internal consistency of the questionnaire calculated from Cronbach's alpha on all variables showed values greater than 0.7 with a sufficient level of reliability. The primary beneficiary group would be the buyers on the stock market who would be educated enough about the effect of their own behavioral influences on their stock market decision making. The knowledge would be useful in making optimal investment decisions and avoiding unfavorable decisions to increase their resources. In turn, it will be helpful to policymakers and stock market regulators to help them understand the position of behavioral influences inherited in consumer decision-making and that may be associated with the need for stock market brokers to update their customer's trading practices to a higher level. The findings of this study suggest that overconfidence, availability bias, and herding impact demonstrated a positive significant relationship with NSE investment decision-making except conservatism which showed a negative relationship with investment decision-making but at 0.01 levels statistically significant. On the basis of the results, it can be generalized that the most prevalent factors affecting investor investment decision taking in NSE are overconfidence, availability bias, and herding influence.

We develop a health production model with input financing in the spirit of standard health capital model. Health production depends not only on tangible inputs required to produce health services, but also depends on institutional set up or governance, and general awareness about health and related issues. In our model, part or all of inputs required to produce health is financed through tax revenues. Using Cobb-Douglas utility and production function, we explore the optimum tax rate under various scenarios of health care financing through tax revenues. The model is further extended to account for increasing returns to scale where input elasticity parameters in health production are not same. We find that increasing returns to scale in health production calls for higher tax rate to finance health productions.

This paper analyzes the effect of Bank of Japan’s implementation of negative interest rate policy on various macroeconomic indicators – the Nikkei Stock, unemployment rate, foreign exchange rate, gross domestic product (GDP), and inflation rate – in a pre-and-post analysis. The implementation of negative interest rates was in response to conventional monetary policy having little to no effect after the financial crisis of 2008. The Bank of Japan was not the first central bank to implement negative interest rates; however, it is only one of six central banks to do so. For this reason, literature in unconventional monetary policy, specifically negative interest rates, is limited. In this paper, we find evidence that movements in the Nikkei 225 Stock, the exchange rate, unemployment, and GDP coincide with movements expected under conventional monetary policy. We also find evidence of statistically significant impact on GDP and unemployment. However, we could not find evidence it had an effect on the inflation rate. Overall, this paper finds that the unconventional monetary policy of negative interest rates followed similar movements as that of conventional monetary policy.

Purpose - The concept of recognizing all inclusive income, which is used by IFRS and Indonesian SAK, is the basis for presenting other comprehensive income in the income statement. This change in format became the idea of developing a financial performance measurement. Methodology - Testing the effect of attributable comprehensive income ROA and attributable ROA net income on future cash flows and net income, as a proxy for the ability to provide future returns, and applying them in measuring performance before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings - ROA net income is better able to predict future investment returns. ROA comprehensive income has more relevance value, when only other items of comprehensive income that have the potential to be realized are included. In assessing performance, users are advised to keep using the ROA of the net income version, and when using the ROA of the comprehensive income version, it is advisable to include only OCI which will be reclassified. The financial performance of companies in many industrial sectors experienced a decline during the Covid 19 pandemic using two ROA measures. Novelty - Development of ROA formulation by including other comprehensive income and profit attribution, so far ROA is only based on net income.

This study is the first attempt to investigate the empirical relation between progress in technology and unemployment of high and low skilled workers at macro level. Although there is substantial literature on the theory to associate unemployment with technology, empirical analysis of the relation is rare. The theoretical background is split between two opposing assertions: On one side, technology is claimed to increase unemployment since more advanced technology replaces labor, especially in advanced countries where the cost of labor as wages is too high. On the contrary, technology is supposed to cause the enlargement of the already existing sectors and the formation of new industries. We established a model to check for the existence of a cointegrating relation between technology and unemployment using additional control variables with Pedroni’s (1999, 2001) methodology. After securing our model’s adequacy, we report that technology leads to more unemployment, even in developed countries. On the other hand, we detailed the analysis by searching for the nature of the same relation with high and low skilled workers. Our estimation results revealed that the relationship is somewhat different for these skill groups.

This article analyses the efficiency of coal-fired power plants in Romania in the European Green Deal context. The focus is on the coal-fired power plants of the Oltenia and Hunedoara Energy Power Plants, as they generate over 97% of coal-fired electricity in Romania. Oltenia Energy Power Plant (CEO) is composed of eleven power plants with an average lifetime of 37 years while of Hunedoara Energy Power Plant (CEH) is composed of six power plants with an average lifetime of 42 years. At the same time, the article estimates the impact of the closure of these two energy groups on the main air pollutants and how close this would bring Romania to the targets set by the Green Deal for 2030. The article also estimates the losses from different energy sources incurred in the process of transforming raw electricity into electricity delivered to the consumers and finds that oil & gas and coal sectors have considerably higher losses than other electricity sources, with wind being the most efficient from this perspective.

Despite repeated wars and the persistence of feudal land tenure, the agricultural sector is at the center of economic activity for most rural households in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This study aims to assess the competitivity of the agricultural sector in relation to other sectors of economic activity, such as mining. To achieve this aim, it analyses and compares the agricultural incomes of different farmers. It also compares these incomes with their incomes from other sectors of economic activity. This study paid particular attention to two factors of production which may explain the differences in income between farms, namely access to land and family agricultural work labor. A survey was carried out among the 33 dynamic and efficient farmers selected on the basis of the results of previous research carried out in Kalehe territory, sud-Kivu province. Households selected depend almost entirely on agriculture and their agricultural activity makes up 91% of the overall household income. Statistical analysis suggests two important facts. First, there are no relation between the mode of access to land, family labor and rural households' income level. Second, it is only the area farmed and the number of fields that have an impact on overall household income.Keywords: agricultural sector, land tenure, farm income, farm households, poverty, South KivuJEL Classifications: Q1, Q12, Q15DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.10793

This article tries to answer to the question if the actual wave of globalization may be considered viable under the conditions of increasing inequalities, poverty, environmental degradation, behavioral rules of international markets and other important factors. The author considers that the last wave of globalization cannot be fully feasible on the long run, based upon several arguments offered by the specialized studies in the field and from important data evidence reported by some international economic organizations. By definition, the globalization of the economy reflects a reality that has various meanings. Being focused on the free movement of goods and capital, this phenomenon does not necessarily imply a political globalization, although it cannot be completely detached from this field. That is why, from the beginning, it has offered the possibility to large multinational corporations to operate everywhere in the world, thanks to the unprecedented development of transport and communications that have reduced material production costs and permitted companies to be in close and permanent contact. Moreover, the author tries to demonstrate that contemporary economic globalization, in the same respect, is less integrated and interconnected, therefore more limited, than many could realize. Those limits influence important aspects of economic life and especially the economic environments in different countries, regardless of the characteristics and level of development. Factors such as economic gaps between nations, poverty and inequality, international migration and the new protectionism could, and most probably will, have an important impact upon the shape and pace of the economic globalization phenomenon. Realities such as different economic standards for North and South, fragmentary character of protectionism, intense fluctuations of international remittances remain as essential arguments supporting this idea.

The main aim of this investigation was to model the volatility of Somali shilling against US dollar by using monthly data covering from 1950 to 2010. Further to that, this finding has adopted both symmetric and asymmetric generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (GARCH) family models in order to capture volatility clustering and leverage effect as the most stylized facts of exchange rate returns. Result from ARCH indicates presence of conditional heteroscedasticity in the residual series of exchange rate. Symmetric GARCH(1,1) model shows presence of volatility clustering and persistent coefficients of greater than one indicating that volatility is an explosive process. Results from asymmetric TCHARCH(1,1) and EGARCH(1,1) indicates presence of leverage effect in the series of exchange rate where positive news have large effect on volatility than bad news of same magnitude. This study has an important implication to investors, business and risk managers. Nevertheless, this study suggests monetary authority to print new currency and de-dollarize the economy in order to be able influence exchange rate volatility. The outcome from this finding also suggests that GARCH family models sufficiently capture the volatility of Somali shilling against US dollar.Keywords: exchange rate, Somali shilling, US dollar, conditional heteroscedasticity, volatility clustering and leverage effectJEL Classifications: F31, O24DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.9788

This analysis investigates the influence of the timing of the Lunar New Year on the January effect for the Vietnam stock market. The data selected for this study is a weekly series of the market index (VN-Index) over the period from January 7th, 2009 through December 26th, 2018. To test for the presence of the January effect and the impact of timing of the Lunar New Year on the January anomaly, OLS and GARCH(1,1) regression models are employed. The empirical findings obtained from these models confirm the existence of the January effect during this period in the Vietnam stock market. However, the analysis reveals that the January effect is only in existence when the Lunar New Year is in February, but it is disappearing when the Lunar New Year falls in January. These findings suggest that Lunar New Year has a significant impact on the January anomaly in the Vietnam stock market providing evidence against tax loss selling while supporting other holiday and window dressing hypotheses for this widely documented seasonal phenomenon. Keywords: The January effect, Lunar New Year influences, Vietnam stock marketJEL Classifications: G10, G40DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.10928

This article has analyzed the association of economic-political uncertainty with efficiency in international capital markets. As the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis (HMA) points out, market efficiency may be affected by changes in market conditions. We understand that periods of economic-political uncertainty represent changes in the economic environment of countries. The capital market’s efficiency level was obtained through Hurst’s exponent, calculated based on the average performance indicators of stock markets belonging to 21 different economies. We got the political-economic uncertainty through an index representing the frequency of information regarding uncertainty made available in the countries’ media from 2003 to 2018. After calculating Hurst’s exponent in four-time windows, the regression method with panel data was used, with the cultural dimensions, inflation, and growth of the economy as control variables. The results point to a negative and significant relationship of economic-political uncertainty with market inefficiency. These findings denote periods of more significant economic-political uncertainty and tend to present less informational inefficiency. However, the global financial crisis results point to a positive and significant relationship between political uncertainty and market inefficiency. These results show that uncertainty increased the level of inefficiency, specifically in periods of recession. However, this picture has reversed over the years, which may represent that the economies have begun to adapt to these environments of uncertainty, thus corroborating capital markets’ adaptability.

The role of saving in promoting economic growth has received considerable attention all over the world. Saving is considered as real driving force behind the growth of an economy. The aim of this paper is to examine the casual relationship between economic growth and savings in India. To analyze this relationship time series data from 1960 to 2019 was used. To check the stationarity of data ADF and PP test were used. The Johansen co-integration test was employed to check the relationship between the variables. Finally Granger causality test was applied to see the direction of causality. The results have shown that all the variables are non stationary. The Johnson method shows that both the variables share the relationship with one another. The econometric evidence supports that savings do cause economic growth and economic growth in turn to savings. The bi-directional casual relationship was observed, which suggests that in India higher economic growth leads to higher savings and higher savings to more economic growth.

The present study attempts to assess the impact of institutional investments, foreign direct investment, index of industrial production, interest rate, inflation rate, exchange rate, gold rates and oil prices on the sectoral indices of NSE using monthly data from 01/01/2009 to 30/12/2019. The study is covering four sectoral indices financial services, FMCG, IT and oil and gas which cover almost 78% of market capitalisation of NSE. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is used to examine the short run and long run method co-integration between macroeconomic variables and stock market performance as the variables are integrated of different order. The outcomes of the study find that in the long run institutional investment and index of industrial production are the major determinants and in the short run, the major determinants are index of industrial production, wholesale price index and exchange rate. Government must focus on these areas to efficiently run the stock market.

Amidst the ongoing liberalization of international trade and transnational movement of capital, each nation-state’s fiscal policies have gradually become more dependent on other countries. Developing countries, especially, are forced to make changes to taxation and public expenditure in this era of globalization. It is thus important to understand what kind of relationship exists between globalization and public spending. This study aims to clarify the effects of fiscal competition on public expenditure, from the perspective of the compensation and efficiency theses. These effects currently remain uncertain, despite the growing wave of academic interest in the field. To see how fiscal competition affects the structure of public expenditure, the determinants of public expenditures have been examined for 10 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 2006-2014. Eleven panel data models have been set up. Public expenditures, as the dependent variable, have been addressed in 10 sub-groups – based on their distribution both as a whole and per their socio-economic functions. Thus, we analyzed the relationship between fiscal competition and both total of public expenditures and the composition of public expenditures. The study thus contributes to the existing literature on fiscal competition. It is observed that corporate tax competition has decreasing effects on all public expenditures. Falling tax revenues due to fiscal competition have the effect of reducing overall public expenditures by decreasing the resources available for use by public policymakers. We can thus evaluate corporate tax competition as having an efficiency increasing effect, by decreasing the government’s share of within the economy.

This paper attempts to investigate the relationship between capital account openness and occurrence of financial risks in India by employing finite distributed lag model. Annual data from 1979 to 2018 on real effective exchange rate, real interest rate, international reserve and net capital have been used to compute Exchange Market Pressure index and the degree of capital account liberalization. The study finds that opening up of capital account will have harmful effects on the financial stability of the country in the initial years, say a year or two. However, the degree of financial risks will go down in later years by influencing capital inflows. Finally, the study has suggested that the Reserve Bank of India needs to take precautionary measures to mitigate short term volatility of capital flows before choosing fuller capital account convertibility.

In an efficiently functioning market, the exchange rate and return from the currency futures contract should be perfectly contemporaneously correlated. In this article, the authors investigated the interconnection between volatility and trading activity (open interest and volume) during January 2012 to March 2020 in Indian currency futures market. Data on three variables are used: trade settlement rates, open interest, and trading volumes for each one of the currency futures contracts. The paper found the corroboration of time-varying volatility, which exhibits high persistence and predictability in the Indian futures market. The results imply that the speculative activities, as proxied by the volumes, tend to increase the futures volatility from the GARCH (1,1) model and trading volumes have a positive relationship with volatility, while open interests have a negative relationship with volatility. The ramifications imply that futures volatility from the GARCH (1,1) model increases based on speculative activities which are proxied by the volume. Thus, Open interests have a negative impact with volatility, but trading volumes have the exact opposite relationship.

The goal of this paper is to investigate the reaction of monetary policy in Turkey to the coronavirus disease pandemic through the credit channel. For this purpose, the paper employs nonlinear smooth transition models considering nonlinearity. The empirical findings show a positive reaction of monetary policy to the confirmed cases and deaths. Therefore, the paper discovers the credit channel in Turkey is likely to play a critical role in the fast recovery of the Turkish economy during the pandemic period.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between leverage and its main determinants in the Argentine context, using the trade-off theory and the pecking order theory. Studies that have addressed this issue in emerging economies are still quite rare and the results are incomplete and controversial. To identify the companies to be analyzed, we used a stratified sampling methodology, following an economic criterion. The balance sheet data were collected through a questionnaire and were normalized to neutralize the effects of high inflation. The period analyzed is 3 years and concerns 181 companies. The research hypotheses were tested using a static fixed effects (FE) model. The results of this paper contribute to the existing literature, providing further empirical evidence on the financial behaviour of firms in an as yet unexplored economic context. Furthermore, empirical findings can be useful for Argentine entrepreneurs and managers of companies to improve their financial decisions.Keywords: Capital structure, Leverage, Profitability, Business Risk, Emerging MarketsJEL Classifications: G32, M16, M21DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.10997

Despite the efforts of various federal and regional governments over the years, poverty still exists in several places across the world, especially in the developing countries. Microfinance services have been promoted as viable tools to decrease poverty. Sarawak, Malaysia is an example of a region where microfinance services are being used to reduce the incidences of poverty. This paper proposes a conceptual model to understand the effect of different microfinance services on poverty reduction efforts in Sarawak, Malaysia. This paper is further expanded into research hypotheses for subsequent papers on the nexus. The model will serve as a valuable guide for approaches on using microfinance services in reducing poverty.Keywords: Microfinance services; Poverty reduction; Sarawak; MalaysiaJEL Classifications: G10; G20DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.11258