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We use longitudinal data from the income tax system to study the impacts of firms’ employment and wage-setting policies on the level and change in immigrant–native wage differences in Canada. We focus on immigrants who arrived in the early 2000s, distinguishing between those with and without a college degree from two broad groups of countries – the U.S., the U.K. and Northern Europe, and the rest of the world. Consistent with a growing literature based on the two-way fixed effects model of Abowd, Kramarz, and Margolis (1999), we find that firm-specific wage premiums explain a significant share of earnings inequality in Canada and contribute to the average earnings gap between immigrants and natives. In the decade after receiving permanent status, earnings of immigrants rise relative to those of natives. Compositional effects due to selective outmigration and changing participation play no role in this gain. About one-sixth is attributable to movements up the job ladder to employers that offer higher pay premiums for all groups, with particularly large gains for immigrants from the “rest of the world” countries.

We investigate the impact of asymmetric information on the investment decisions of firms and analyze the effect of asymmetric information on the over-investment and under-investment of firms. Further, we examine the effect of leverage on the investment behavior of firms and check this association in the presence of asymmetric information. We extract data from DataStream of 280 non-financial firms listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange over the period of 2000 to 2018. We apply the Fixed Effect Model to analyze the data and System Generalized Method of Moments to check the robustness of the results. We find that asymmetric information negatively affects the investment decisions of firms. Due to asymmetric information investment decreases rapidly as compared to increase in investment. Further, leverage is an important determinant of investment decisions and the presence of asymmetric information increases the adverse effect of leverage on the investment of firms.

The canonical difference-in-differences (DD) estimator contains two time periods, ”pre” and ”post”, and two groups, ”treatment” and ”control”. Most DD applications, however, exploit variation across groups of units that receive treatment at different times. This paper shows that the two-way fixed effects estimator equals a weighted average of all possible two-group/two-period DD estimators in the data. A causal interpretation of two-way fixed effects DD estimates requires both a parallel trends assumption and treatment effects that are constant over time. I show how to decompose the difference between two specifications, and provide a new analysis of models that include time-varying controls.

An extensive body of work within the marketing and economics literature has been devoted to studying vertical restraints, yet only a few researchers have investigated the violation behavior of retailers. In this paper, we investigate violation behavior in the context of retailer price maintenance. We investigate this behavior using a unique data set from a subsidy program in China, which includes transaction-level information that shows retail price maintenance (RPM) practices in multiple product categories by multiple manufacturers across multiple markets. The results from our fixed effects regression show that retailer violations are more likely to occur when intra-product competition is high. However, how retailer violation likelihood varies with inter-product competition may depend on the product category. We find that inter-product competition, is negatively associated with the likelihood of violation, for “less popular” product categories in the program such as washing machines, air conditioners, etc., but is positively associated with the likelihood of violation for “popular” product categories such as refrigerators, televisions, and cell phones. Our research provides some of the first empirical evidence about retailer violation behavior under RPM in the world’s largest emerging market by focusing on the relationship between violation behavior and market structure. We discuss the implications for monitoring efforts of manufacturers and regulators.

This paper establishes a general equilibrium trade model, adopts the “market access” approach to measure the impact of the high-speed railway (HSR) network on the economic growth of 110 main Chinese prefecture-level cities, of which we manually collected the pairwise travel distances and railway speeds to calculate MA (Market Access). The empirical results show that the launch of HSR exhibits significant positive effects on growth, specifically, 1 percentage increase in MA leads to an increase of real income by 0.123 (controlling region fixed effect) or 0.121 (controlling province fixed effect) percentage. Counterfactual econometrics analysis shows that if all HSR were removed in 2015, the market access would fall by an average of 76.2%, and aggregate real income would decline by up to 9.4%. The growth effect of HSR varies across cities, and HSR has a more prominent impact on services than on manufactures. The conclusion stands valid after a series of robustness tests.

Objective This study has 3 objectives: to examine the association between state-level firearm ownership and suicide among adolescents of high school age; to compare the strength of the firearm ownership−suicide association among adolescents relative to adults; and to evaluate the relationship between 11 child access prevention (CAP) laws and suicide. Method Using an ecological time series cross-sectional design, we modeled suicide rates from January 1, 1991, to December 31, 2017, as a function of household firearm ownership and states’ implementation of CAP provisions using fixed effect negative binomial models. Results There were 37,652 suicides among adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 years during the study period, and more than half of all suicides (51.5%, n = 19,402) involved firearms. Each 10 percentage-point increase in states’ firearm ownership was associated with a 39.3% (35.1%−43.5%) increase in firearm suicide, which in turn contributed a 6.8% (2.5%−11.1%) increase in all-cause suicide. The association between firearm ownership and suicide was approximately 2 times stronger among adolescents relative to adults. Policies mandating locks and safe storage were associated with a 13.1% (2.7%−22.3%) reduction in adolescent firearm suicide and an unexplained 8.7% (1.2%−15.7%) reduction in non-firearm suicide. CAP provisions were associated with reduced firearm suicide across the lifespan, but effects were stronger among adolescents. Conclusion There is an increased risk of adolescent suicide associated with household firearm ownership, and safe storage provisions are associated with decreased adolescent firearm suicide.

We explore lender behaviour on Renrendai.com , a leading Chinese peer-to-peer (P2P) crowdlending platform. Using a sample of around five million investor-loan-hour observations, and applying a high-dimensional fixed effect estimator, we confirm evidence of herding behaviour: the investors in our sample prefer assets that had attracted strong interest in previous periods. The herding behaviour relates to both the experience level of the investor and the length of time of an investment session on the platform. We also provide evidence of significant herding behaviour in the first hour of experienced investors’ sessions. Our results are robust to the use of alternative specifications.

This paper aims to provide evidence regarding the interpretation that test scores of a newly developed test instrument reflect learning progress in competence in sustainability management. As compe...

Purpose There was no previous firm-level empirical research to examine cross-sectional differences in climate financing. The purpose of this study is to determine the key elements of the climate investment decision by business management. The study also explores how politics and media influence corporate climate investment decisions. Design/methodology/approach The study incorporates a theoretical lens of institutional, stakeholder and media setting agenda to explain the relationship of climate finance with political connection and media influence along with other institutional and firm-specific variables. The sample of the study is collected from the financial sector firms that financed climate/green projects. In total, 178 firm-year observations are documented during 2014–2018. The unbalanced panel data model uses a fixed effect and a 2SLS regression model to test a set of hypotheses. The study uses several alternate methods to check and verify the reliability of the study. Findings The empirical findings show that climate finance is positively and significantly associated with Islamic Sharīʿah and media visibility, and negatively and significantly related to financial constraints. Moreover, the empirical results document that listing regulation has no significant influence on climate investment. The political connection plays a negative moderating role between media and climate finance. The result indicates that if a former or current politician is on the board, the media’s positive impact on climate financing diminishes. Practical implications The study has significant managerial implications especially to the regulatory bodies, business management and policymakers. The central bank in the developing countries needs to take into consideration the finding of the study promoting climate/environmental/green finance and investment. Islamic Sharīʿah promotes climate finance that would be a prominent indicator for Islamic financial institutions. Social implications Politics can deter positive decisions on climate financing such that it negatively influences the media’s role of a watchdog of the society in developing countries. Climate investment would be an important mechanism to reduce carbon emissions and environmental hazards and to solve many social problems. Originality/value The study provides first-ever firm-level evidence of the determinants of climate finance and investment that has a significant value in the area of climate change and green investment by the financial firms.

We propose a new integrated likelihood based approach for estimating panel data models when the unobserved individual effects enter the model nonlinearly. Unlike existing integrated likelihoods in the literature, the one we propose is closer to a genuine likelihood. Although the statistical theory for the proposed estimator is developed in an asymptotic setting where the number of individuals and the number of time periods both approach infinity, results from a simulation study suggest that our methodology can work very well even in moderately sized panels of short duration in both static and dynamic models.

We examine how banking supervisors affect credit at the local level by charging fines to individual banks. Using a macro approach to capture the direct effect on the fined bank and the indirect effect on the other banks operating in the local credit market, we estimate reputational, reallocation and balance sheet effects on Italian provinces over the period 2005–2016 by a fixed effects model and instrumental variables. Provincial gross bank loans expand after a fine independently of its size. The impact of fine frequency depends on the size of the provincial banking sector, but neither on bank governance/ownership nor crises. No statistically significant evidence supports reputational or balance sheet effects. Instead, our results suggest that it would behoove bank supervisors to favor frequency over size of bank fines. Bank fines seem to work more like a good housekeeping seal of approval, enhancing transparency and effective banking practices.

PurposeThis study investigates how a firm's structural embeddedness, the structural position in a supply network that consists of major customers, influences the acquisition of supplier trade credit. Specifically, this study examines how network interconnectedness, network integration and network independence of a firm affect its ability to acquire supplier trade credit.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes financial data from Compustat to build a longitudinal dataset of manufacturing firms from 1998 to 2013. Customer segment disclosure data are used to construct firm-level network variables. A fixed effect regression approach is used for estimation.FindingsThe study results show that network interconnectedness is negatively associated with supplier trade credit, while network integration is positively associated with supplier trade credit. Network independence does not influence the extent of supplier trade credit. The post hoc analysis shows that the effects of the hypothesized factors vary under different product categories and credit ratings.Originality/valueThis study broadens the supply chain finance literature by showing how a firm's embedded network structural position can influence its ability to obtain supplier trade credit.

PurposeThis paper focuses on the relationship between the regulatory capital requirements and the supply of credit for commercial banks that are operating in the MENA region from 1999 till 2017.Design/methodology/approachThe application of the Fixed Effects Model on a panel of commercial banks in the MENA region has shown a negative relationship between supply of credit and both the capital requirements and solvency ratios.FindingsThe results showed that the idiosyncratic, the macroeconomic and the institutional variables affect the supply of credit behavior of banks. The robustness tests using the Two-Stage Least Square method (2SLS) also led to a negative correlation between the growth of credit and capital requirements. Specific macroeconomic and institutional variables have revealed the expected sign and are significant regardless of the estimated specifications.Research limitations/implicationsThis work can be subjected to further future extensions. The explanatory power of our model can be improved by incorporating variables that reflect the corporate governance and structure of banking sector. Similarly, we can also include a variable that takes into account the increasing competition that could affect the stability of the banking sector and therefore the prudential banking regulation.Originality/valuePrevious studies that investigated only the relationship between capital level and risk-taking behavior of banks in the MENA region did not take into account neither the economic and institutional environment nor the impact of these regulations on credit (loans) supply.

We estimate a model capturing influences on attendance in British horseracing. A fixed effects regression is employed in analysing data containing information on attendances at 23,999 race-days (20...

PurposeThis study examines the possible nonlinear effect of size on stakeholder and shareholder profitability in the Ghanaian insurance brokerage industry.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a panel dataset of 64 Ghanaian insurance brokerage firms spanning 2011–2015. Static [ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effect and random effect and dynamic (two-step generalized method of moments (GMM))] estimation techniques are employed to analyze the data.FindingsThe study finds the existence of both economies and diseconomies of scale and scope theories in the Ghanaian insurance brokerage industry confirming the existence of nonlinear nexus between size and performance. This finding is consistent for both stakeholder and shareholder profit performance. Thus, the results show that size improves profitability of insurance brokerage firms, but beyond a certain threshold, the relationship turns negative as size negatively affects profitability.Practical implicationsThe research findings have implications for both policy and research; the study recommends that Ghanaian brokerage managers should understand that not all growth is good and exercise a duty of care when applying growth strategies by monitoring size effect on performance so as not to go beyond the inflection point. Further research can be done to examine this effect in other contexts, timeframes and jurisdictions.Originality/valueThis research is unique in that it employs a panel dataset consisting of 96% of insurance brokerage firms in Ghana whilst employing both static and nonstatic regression models to examine the effect of size. The research analysis adopted is robust, and the findings are significant. Also, the lack of empirical studies on the operations and dealings of auxiliary institutions such as the insurance brokerage firms adds value to this research.

This study investigates how two aspects of agricultural production diversity – farm production diversity and composition of production – relate to child height-for-age and weight-for-height in Ethiopia. We use longitudinal data on child anthropometric measurements, household farm production diversity and farm production composition from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey for 2011, 2013, and 2015 available through the World Bank. Using longitudinal fixed effects models, we show that an increase in farm production diversity reduces the risk of chronic food insecurity (child height-for-age) but has no impact on acute measures of food insecurity (child weight-for-height). Results also suggest that, in a context of poor rainfall, more diversity in farm production can adversely impact child height-for-age, although livestock sales might mitigate that detrimental effect. These findings highlight the importance of considering the relationship between farm-level food production and child nutrition in a context of climate change.

Purpose This study aims to examine the effect of enterprise risk management (ERM) on financial performance and firm value, as well as the moderating role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Design/methodology/approach The samples in this study are listed companies in the ASEAN 5 (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) during the years 2014–2018, with total observations of 680 firm-years. Fixed effect panel data regressions were used to test the hypotheses. The data was collected from Financial Report, Annual Reports and Thomson Reuters. Findings The results show that ERM has a positive significant effect on financial performance and firm value. This paper also finds that ESG has a significant moderating role in increasing the effect of ERM on firm value. Further, this paper divides the samples into sensitive and non-sensitive industries and find a significant moderating role of ESG performance on firm performance for sensitive industries. Originality/value Extant studies have not empirically examined the moderating role of ESG on the effect of ERM on firm performance and firm value. The findings have important implications in suggesting that firms need to analyze various threats and opportunities related to and ESG risks in achieving competitive advantage.

This study provides evidence that infrastructure investment can encourage economic activity through illicit pathways. I examine this relationship in the context of Afghanistan, where I show that the construction of the country's largest modern infrastructure project, a 2,200 kilometer highway known as the A1 or Ring Road, led to significant increases in local opium cultivation over the past decade. Estimates from a two-way fixed effects model that exploits spatial and temporal variation in district-level poppy cultivation and proximity to the road suggest that the introduction of a highway to a district is associated with a 650 hectare increase in poppy cultivation in the subsequent year. This cultivation increases the longer a district has access to the road: Production in the second and third years rises by 750 and 900 hectares over pre-highway levels, respectively. Estimates also suggest that improved highway access leads Afghan farmers to substitute away from the production of legal crops towards opium, and that more farmers grow opium as their primary income-generating crop. These findings suggest that in nations where the rule of law is limited and opportunities for legal livelihoods remain scarce, investments in physical infrastructure can inadvertently incentivize illegal economic activity.

PurposeThe authors analyze the effects of controlling shareholders' stock pledging on firms' strategic change behavior, and investigate how the balance of power between shareholders and analyst coverage moderates those effects.Design/methodology/approachEmploying fixed effects models, the authors test hypotheses based on Chinese listed company data from 2011 to 2017.FindingsControlling shareholders' stock pledges has a negative effect on strategic change. As the balance of power among shareholders and/or analyst coverage increases, it mitigates the effect of controlling shareholder stock pledges on strategic change. In particular, the balance of power between shareholders and analyst coverage weakened the relationship between controlling shareholder stock pledges and strategic change. Lastly, after distinguishing family from nonfamily firms, the authors discovered that these findings only held for family firms.Originality/valueThis study makes important contributions to strategic change, stock pledge and family firm literature, and also provides guidance on firms' strategic change practices.

Recent studies have found that adoptive parents invest in their children equally or more than biological parents do. Most of these studies observed relationships across families, comparing families with adopted children to those without. In this study, alternatively, we focused on within-family comparisons to more fully isolate the relationship between biological ties and parental investments. Using American Time Use Survey (2007–2018; n = 1,152 children) and American Community Survey (2014–2018; n = 34,673 children) data, we employed within-family fixed effects regression models and focused on both parental time and financial investments, using private school enrollment as a proxy for the latter. Our findings show that parents spent less one-on-one, quality, and total time daily with adopted children compared to biological children. In terms of financial investments, 90% of children in the sample received equal investments, meaning that either all or no siblings within the same family were enrolled in private school. However, among families with enrollment differences between siblings, adopted children were significantly less likely than their non-adopted siblings to be enrolled in private school. These findings show that adopted children within mixed-adoption families may receive equal or fewer investments than their non-adopted siblings. The findings highlight the possibility of selection as an interpretation of the adoptive-child advantage, illustrate the importance of within-family studies on this topic, and point to the complexity of parental investments in adopted children.

Negative attitudes towards out-groups have been of academic interest for many years — and even more so with the increased levels of migration to European countries in recent years. Building on insights from intergroup contact theory, this paper seeks to extend our knowledge of the association between contact and negative attitudes toward immigrants among youth in Sweden. Multiple regression analysis and fixed effects models are used to analyze a large, high-quality dataset on Swedish adolescents based on representative survey information, complemented with extensive registry data and official statistics. Our objective is to measure contact on different levels in order to better understand the importance of these different contact variables’ associations with negative attitudes. The results of the analysis indicate that high-quality contact in the form of friendship is associated with a reduction in negative attitudes among Swedish adolescents, even after controlling for background variables. Superficial forms of contact — measured on the school level — are, on the other hand, associated with an increase in negative attitudes.

The agglomeration of the tourism industry has important effects on its efficiency. This article used panel data on the Chinese provincial tourism industry for the 2011–2016 period, applied the location quotient index and three-stage data envelopment analysis method to, respectively, measure the degree of agglomeration and efficiency, and explained the impact of agglomeration on tourism efficiency. The empirical results of this study indicate the following. (1) China’s tourism industry shows a trend towards agglomeration, revealing gradient differences where the highest degree of agglomeration is in the eastern region, followed by the western and central regions. (2) After eliminating random and environmental factors, the adjusted efficiencies are lower than the unadjusted efficiencies. The average overall tourism efficiency is higher in the eastern region than in the central and western regions. (3) From the national perspective, industrial agglomeration can significantly improve the overall efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE), and scale efficiency of the tourism industry. (4) Based on regional analysis, the agglomeration of the eastern tourism industry can significantly enhance its TE and PTE. Agglomeration for the western area has a significant positive impact on PTE. There is no significant relationship between agglomeration and efficiency in the central region.

Although frontline empowerment is central to managerial reform, few scholars have explored the conditions which effectively promote empowerment. We argue that empowerment is linked to inherent orga...

PurposeThe economic and financial literature dealing with the subject of bank profitability has often been based in the measurement of banking results on three main indicators: ROA, ROE and MIN. This article aims to determine and analyze the different determinants that influence bank profitability and to identify the impact of these determinants on the profitability of Moroccan banks.Design/methodology/approachFor this purpose, a fixed individual effect model was adopted for the case of six Moroccan banks during the period of study from 1997 to 2018. The authors carried out their estimates at three levels according to three categories of profitability factors: bank factors, factors of the banking system and macroeconomic factors.FindingsThe empirical findings show that Moroccan banks react on their size to boost their performance, which further explains the continued expansion of Moroccan banking networks. The authors confirm that Moroccan banks have not yet reached a level of size that will be detrimental to their performance. Therefore, the authors can conclude that the big Moroccan banks do not follow the concept of economy of scale. The effects of the variation in the level of economic growth as well as the evolution of the level of inflation on the performance of Moroccan banks are not significant.Originality/valueThe authors’ findings and results have some important originality and value. Primarily, these results would consist of better helping the State, bankers, and bank managers to better understand the various determinants of bank profitability. The results may also help to better examine the effect of each factor, whether internal or external, on banks' bottom line.

In this paper, we study the awareness of European and U.S. insurance companies of climate-related risks and opportunities using a respective indicator from the Refinitiv Eikon database that uses reporting data. Based on this, we examine the determinants and value of the awareness of business risks and opportunities resulting from climate change, which, to the best of our knowledge, has not been done so far, despite its increasing and specific relevance for the insurance industry. We use a logistic regression analysis as well as a linear fixed effects model for a 10-year period from 2009 to 2018. Our results show that larger European insurers are significantly more likely to exhibit such awareness. When controlling for subsectors, property & casualty insurers tend to be aware of the risks and opportunities resulting from climate change. Moreover, when using the linear fixed effects model, we find a statistically significant positive value effect on Tobin’s Q.

Entrepreneurial activity has been seen as the single most important activity of individuals due to its role in the economic development of nations. However, little is known about the impact of entrepreneurial activity on the subjective well-being of nations beyond its economic impact. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of different types of entrepreneurial activity – total entrepreneurial activity, opportunity-driven entrepreneurial activity and innovative entrepreneurial activity – on subjective well-being across nations. We consider three distinct mechanisms by which entrepreneurship may influence subjective well-being at the national level. Our panel data includes representative country-level data from 2008 to 2015 from five different data sources for 31 European countries. We employ four econometric models for analyzing the panel data: pooled OLS regression (POLS), fixed effects model (FE), random effects model (RE), and simultaneous equations model (3SLS). Our results suggest that opportunity-driven entrepreneurial activity has a positive impact on subjective well-being. In addition, we find that subjective well-being affects the level of opportunity-driven and innovative entrepreneurial activity. These findings have implications for policy-makers seeking to promote not only economic development but also subjective well-being in the nation.

In 2003, the Nebraska Legislature enacted the Livestock Friendly County designation program to promote the livestock industry in the state. Forty-nine of the state’s 93 counties received the designation at staggered years. Our paper estimates the causal effect of the program on the state’s cattle industry using a fixed effect difference-in-difference model that accounts for self-selection and staggered designation. Results indicate that the program does not appear to have a statewide effect on livestock expansion, but it is effective in some crop reporting districts. We offer some hypotheses on why this may be the case and draw some policy implications.

PurposeSome progress have been made over time in improving health conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). There are, however, contradicting reports on the relationship between health outcomes and economic growth in the region. The paper aimed at assessing the effect of health outcome on economic growth in SSA.Design/methodology/approachData for 41 countries from 2000 to 2018 were obtained from WDI and WGI and analyzed using system generalized method of moment (sGMM) which is appropriate for the present scenario. AR(1) and AR(2) tests were used to assess the validity of the model while Sargan and Hansen tests were adopted to examine the validity of the instrumental variables. The robustness of the estimation was confirmed using the pooled OLS and fixed effect regression.FindingsHealth outcome (proxied by life expectancy), lagged GDP per capita, capital formation, labor force (LF), health expenditure (HE), foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade openness (TOP) significantly affected economic growth emphasizing the importance of health in the process of economic growth in the region. AR(1) and AR(2) tests for serial correlation and Sargan/Hansen tests confirmed the validity of the estimated model and the instrumental variables respectively. Robustness of the GMM results was established from the pooled OLS and the fixed effect model results.Social implicationsImprovement in the national health system possibly through the widespread adoption of National Health Insurance, increase government spending on healthcare alongside increased beneficial trade and ease of doing business to facilitate investment were recommended to enhance.Originality/valueThe study used up-to-date data with appropriate methodology.

PurposeThe paper examines the differential impact of various firm characteristics on firm value across various threshold levels of foreign ownership.Design/methodology/approachUsing a panel of 408 Indian publicly listed companies for the period during 2010–2018, a fixed-effect panel threshold regression model is adapted to study the threshold effects between foreign ownership and firm value. Tobin's Q is used as a proxy for firm value.FindingsThe study identifies three threshold levels, that is, four threshold regions in which foreign ownership changes its slope considerably. Various firm characteristics impact firm value differently in these four regions.Research limitations/implicationsThe study employs observations of the past nine years on variables identified as firm characteristics impacting firm value. Some variables are dropped due to the problem of multicollinearity. The employed variables may not be exhaustive in nature.Practical implicationsThe present study implies that there exists no impact of foreign ownership on the value of the firm. Foreign investors invest for financial considerations and not with the objective of governing the firms. The governance effect of foreign investments is negligible, so their activism in the firms needs to be encouraged.Originality/valueThe study employs a novel approach to study the impact of foreign ownership on firm value applying fixed effect panel data threshold regression, considering foreign ownership as a proxy of corporate governance.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the presence of an executive with customer experience (ECE) in a supplier firm’s top management team (TMT). The role of ECE presence remains understudied in the marketing literature. This study attempts to examine the relationship between ECE presence and firm performance.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on the resource-based view of the firm and adopts a panel firm fixed effects estimator to test the proposed hypotheses. The empirical analysis uses a sample of 1,974 firm-year observations with 489 unique supplier firms. Selection-induced endogeneity is mitigated through the Heckman procedure.FindingsECE presence improves firm performance. Additionally, firms benefit less from ECE presence if a board member with customer experience (BCE) is also present, if a chief executive officer commands a higher pay slice (compared to other executives), and if a TMT is more functionally diversified. However, ECE presence is particularly beneficial if the overall economy is in contraction. Comparing the functional positions held by ECEs reveals that ECE in the marketing function (as a chief marketing officer) offers the largest benefit to an average supplier firm. ECE presence is also associated with other firm outcomes (e.g. bankruptcy odds, innovation and customer orientation).Research limitations/implicationsThis study makes four contributions to the literature. First, this research contributes to existing studies that investigate marketing expertise in the upper corporate pyramid. Second, the study contributes to the burgeoning body of work across business disciplines that attempt to understand the impact of CxOs on firm performance. Third, the study contributes to the vast literature on customer orientation indirectly. Finally, this paper contributes to the broader literature studying the influence of board and TMT characteristics.Practical implicationsThe findings are of particular importance to business-to-business firms. This paper shows that suppliers can benefit significantly from managers with customer experience. Four contingency factors moderate the relationship between ECE presence and firm performance. Among the various functional positions held by an ECE, the findings suggest that hiring an ECE for the marketing functional area is the most beneficial. ECE stands out as a better option for a company than BCE to improve firm performance. ECE presence is also associated with bankruptcy odds, innovation and customer orientation.Originality/valueThis paper provides the first empirical evidence regarding how ECE affects firm performance and also extends prior research on the value of human capital in TMT.

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.

As a participator in corporate investment decision-making, the institutional investor is directly related to the corporate innovation investment. However, the economic policy uncertainty is aggravated by problems, such as economic slump and trade friction. Thus, institutional investors are not optimistic about the prospects of innovation investment. To explore the influence of institutional investors on corporate innovation investment from the perspective of economic policy uncertainty, using the 2010–2018 panel data in China and the fixed effect model, the influences of institutional investors on innovation investment and the moderating effects of the economic policy uncertainty were analyzed. Results show that institutional investors facilitate corporate innovation investment. Moreover, the increasing economic policy uncertainties repress the promoting effect of institutional investors on innovation investment. Furthermore, the institutional investors boost the corporate innovation investment by improving the internal control and relieving the financing constraints. For private companies, new and high-tech companies, the promoting effect of institutional investors on the corporate innovation investment is inhibited by the economic policy uncertainty to a small extent. For the listed companies located in areas with a high level of investor protection and intellectual property protection, the economic policy uncertainty has a minimal influence on the institutional investors and corporate innovation investment. The conclusions obtained from this study provide empirical evidence for giving full play to the role played by institutional investors in corporate innovative development. The conclusions also reveal, from the macroscopic level, that the consistency and stability of governmental economic policies have important effects on corporate development.

After the advent of a new economic policy, the stock market had shown exponential growth. The world’s financial markets have become a global financial village via the free flow of capital from one market to another. This provides breadth and depth in the stock market. On the other hand, with the dawn of globalization, the market has become cointegrated and thus more vulnerable to financial shocks. Thus, as a rational investor, catching early signs of financial distress and predicting stock prices is the challenge. This study considers the Altman Z-score to predict the financial distress and stock prices with special reference to the automotive sector in India. The study has been conducted in two parts: the first part focuses on analysing the financial distress of the automotive sector under the face of the financial crisis and GST regime. Thus, this study has been conducted in four window periods. The second part of the study deals with predicting the prices of auto stocks by panel data modelling for the period from 2000 to 2020. Using econometric-based growth curves, the study analyses that the automotive sector is affected by the financial crisis and the GST regime. Lastly, with the application of the panel data static-based fixed effects model, it has been analysed that EBITDA/TA and MV/TL are the significant ratios to predict the stock prices.

PurposeThis study examines whether female directorship on board is related to firm's risk-taking behavior in India.Design/methodology/approachThe study considers the top 500 listed companies in India during the period 2013 to 2018 for the analysis. The paper employs fixed effects as well as a dynamic panel data model to address the bias in the fixed effects model when the lagged risk outcome is included as an explanatory variable.FindingsThe study finds that the presence of female directors on board is unrelated to the firm's risk-outcomes and the risk-adjusted return earned by the shareholders. The results are in line with the tokenism theory of board diversity. Having a higher share of female independent directors is also unrelated to the risk-taking behavior of firms. The findings are in contrast to the critical mass theory and the agency theory of gender diversity. The study does not rule out the possibility of female directors' risk-preferences being similar to those of male directors.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that regulations related to having independent female directors may not add value for the shareholders in the short run. The business case for such stringent regulations in India on the gender diversity of boards remains unclear.Originality/valueThis is the first study to analyze the relationship between gender diversity of boards and firm-level risk in India. Most of the studies have focused on gender diversity and firm performance in India. However, modern portfolio theory suggests that both risk and return are important as shareholders care about risk-adjusted returns.

PurposeThis study examines the impact of financial institutions access and financial institutions depth on economic growth in 51 low- and lower–middle-income countries from 1996 to 2017.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs an index of financial institutions depth and financial institutions access that considers the multidimensional nature of finance. The study employs a generalised least squares model as the baseline fixed effects model suffers from serial correlation. In addition, the study examines the marginal impact of financial development on growth at varying levels of financial access.FindingsThe results show that both financial access and financial depth are positive to growth. However, the marginal impact of financial depth is negative at low levels of financial access, while the finance–growth relationship becomes positive at higher levels of financial access. Results suggest the importance of developing inclusive financial systems that emphasise quality rather than quantity to promote economic growth.Research limitations/implicationsThe major limitation lies in the measurement of financial access as it focusses more on financial system penetration and overlooks the other aspects of financial inclusion such as financial literacy and cultural differences.Practical implicationsDeveloping countries should continue to develop an inclusive financial system that supports the Universal Financial Access 2020 initiative.Originality/valueThis study provides further empirical evidence on the finance–growth literature focussing on the impact of financial inclusion which is scarce. Furthermore, the study employs an index of finance that captures the multidimensional nature of finance.

Previous research on the association between marriage and life satisfaction is limited due to the lack of attempts to investigate the time profiles of life satisfaction around marriage. This study addresses unresolved questions about the positive association between marriage and life satisfaction as well as tests if it is moderated by childhood parental divorce. Using 14 waves of the Korean Welfare Panel Study(N=3,890 individuals or 25,338 person-year observations), the author first used an ordinary least squares model with clustered standard errors and found that married people reported higher life satisfaction before marriage, compared to people who remained single during the survey. This result supports a social selection perspective. Next, the author used a fixed effects regression model and found that the transition into marriage was associated with an initial rise and subsequent decline in life satisfaction. Life satisfaction increased after reaching its lowest level in the third year of marriage. Life satisfaction after the transition into marriage was significantly higher than that observed three or more years prior to marriage. The result supports a social causation perspective. Such changing patterns were not moderated by parental divorce during childhood. This study advances the current literature on marriage and life satisfaction by using a nationally representative longitudinal data set as well as by testing social selection and causation perspectives.

PurposeInternet use has become particularly prevalent among adolescents, prompting much thought and concern about both its potential benefits and adverse effects on adolescent learning outcomes. Much of the empirical literature on the impact of Internet use on adolescent learning outcomes is mixed, and few studies examine the causal relationship between the two in rural China. In order to bridge these gaps, we use empirical analysis to investigate the effect of Internet use on the learning outcomes of adolescents in rural China.Design/methodology/approachWe use fixed effect models with samples drawn from a large nationally representative dataset (the China Family Panel Studies—CFPS) to identify the causal impacts of Internet use on the learning outcomes of three cohorts (Cohort A (N = 540), Cohort B (N = 287) and Cohort C (N = 827)) of adolescents in rural China.FindingsThe results of the descriptive analysis show a continued increase in the number of adolescents accessing the Internet and the amount of time they spend online. The results of the fixed effect models show that Internet use has positive (in many of the analyses), but mostly insignificant impacts, on the learning outcomes of adolescents. In the sets of results that find significant associations between Internet use and learning outcomes, the measured effects are moderate.Originality/valueThis study investigates the causal relationship between Internet use and adolescent learning outcomes in rural China. The findings claim that there is not a great need to worry about adverse effects of Internet use on adolescent learning development. Attention, however, should focus on seeking ways to improve the positive effects of the Internet use on adolescent learning outcomes. The study will provide a reference and experience for the development of education and the Internet in rural areas and promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas in China.

The accounting ratios and published financial information serve as a critical tool for investors, creditors, and other stakeholders to ascertain companies' profitability, control, and financial status, which may significantly impact the Stock returns and performance on exchanges. This paper aims to examine whether crucial accounting information affects the price of paint companies in India. In this paper, nine-years (2012-2020) accounting ratios such as returns on asset, equity, and cash cycles for the five listed paint companies in India as explanatory (independent) variables to estimate stock returns. Secondary data is collected chronologically and at a regular yearly frequency. Variables data are derived from the company’s financial statements, Stock Exchange and related website. The study aims to assess and elaborate these accounting ratios effectiveness to substantiate the stock returns of these listed companies. The study uses three-panel data models, the pooled OLS, fixed and random effects, to assess stock returns for the cross-sectional data of these five paint companies. This research indicates that accounting information is significant and positively affects the price of Paint company stock returns on the stock exchange. Both Fixed and Random effect model found to fit the data, significance level of 0.05 (Fixed (FE) at F= 6.3625, p

Purpose The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on debt financing (natural logarithm of debt and leverage ratios) of listed firms. Design/methodology/approach Using content analysis for data extraction, the study examines listed firms on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) from 2010 to 2019 financial year. It uses a quantile regression and panel fixed effect regression as the model's application. Findings The study shows that CSR expenditure has a positive and strong correlation with debt financing (i.e. natural logarithm of long-term and short-term debts). The first findings show that CSR expenditure has a negative and statistically significant association with total leverage ratio, using conditional mean and median percentile. However, there is a positive and statistically significant association between CSR expenditure and long-term leverage ratio at the 25th and 50th percentile. The second findings show that CSR expenditure has a positive and statistically significant association with long-term debt but an insignificant association with short-term debt and total debt under a conditional mean average. The application of quantile regression addresses the values that fall outside the confidence interval and therefore document a positive and statistically significant association between CSR expenditure and debt financing (short-term debt, long-term debt and total debt) at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile. Originality/value The introduction of quantile regression gives a novelty in CSR and debt financing study, which to the best of the authors’ knowledge, has not received any attention. Similarly, firms have better information on how to position their CSR expenditure to attract providers of debt financing.

PurposeThis paper investigates the relationship between a firm's susceptibility to a hostile takeover and investors' reactions to a seasoned equity offering (SEO).Design/methodology/approachThe study applies ordinary least squares (OLS) with fixed effects regression analyses to a sample of 2,517 observations from US listed companies. Event study methodology was employed to capture market reactions to the announcement of newly issued stocks. To achieve cross-sectional analyses, time variations in takeover laws allowed us to perform the desired tests across two decades of data.FindingsThe results suggest that investors react positively to the announcement of an equity offering when the threat of hostile takeover is higher. The magnitude of positive stock market reactions varies over two decades due to time series variations in takeover laws. Furthermore, the findings show that a higher hostile takeover index (HTI) score reduces investors' concerns about the inefficient usage of proceeds in acquisitions.Practical implicationsThe results demonstrate that the corporate takeover legal environment provides an important external governance mechanism through which investors' confidence increases during an SEO event. The study's empirical evidence implies that the extent of external disciplinary mechanism plays a significant role in reducing investors' uncertainty about the misuse of raised capital.Originality/valueThe exogenous fast-evolving legal environment surrounding the takeover market in the United Status allowed our study to bypass the endogeneity concerns in measuring governance strength. From the review of prior literature, this paper appears to be the first to use HTI scores to examine investors' reactions to a corporate announcement.

Based on a sample of Listed Companies in China between 2007 and 2018, this paper analyzes the impact of stock market mispricing on company’s innovation. The results demonstrate that when the stock price is overvalued, a company’s innovation investment will be higher, that is, overvaluation by the stock market is significantly positively related to firm innovation. In the path analysis, this paper finds that about 10% (RII, RVI, MPI) or 20% (MFFLOW) influence of stock mispricing on enterprise innovation is from financing demand. Further, this paper finds that the level of firm growth and stock turnover play a moderating role in the relationship between them. The conclusions of this paper are robust after a series of tests, such as instrumental variable, sub-sample test, two-way fixed effect and two-way cluster analysis.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of microfinance programs on the income and food expenditure of farm and nonfarm households in Thailand.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs secondary data from the Thai Socioeconomic Survey (cross-sectional data from 2017 and panel data from 2012 to 2017). The cross-sectional data (2017) include 43,210 households. Panel data from the 2012 and 2017 Socioeconomic surveys (SES surveys) include 4,406 households. The estimation methods include propensity score matching (PSM) and a fixed effect (FE) model.FindingsThe result shows that village funds (VFs) have a significant negative impact on income and food expenditure for both farm and nonfarm households. The empirical results reveal that the saving groups for production (SGPs) effects are positively significant in terms of income and food expenditure, but only for farm households. The FE model result also shows that while VFs have a negative impact on income they have a positive impact on food expenditure for farm households. In contrast, SPGs have no impact on both farm and nonfarm households' income and food expenditure.Practical implicationsFarm and nonfarm households require both welfare and microfinance programs. Microfinance programs can only help these households once they have the necessary education. The government should provide social programs and business skills for these households; completion of these courses should be a pre-requisite for accessing microfinance programs.Originality/valueThis study is unique because it reveals the microfinance impact between VFs and SGPs programs so that most low-income and poor people in Thailand can access basic financial services.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine whether the characteristics of boards are more important in determining dividend policy than management characteristics. The authors show that as the final declarers of dividend policy is a firm’s board, the composition of a firm’s board significantly subsumes the effect of management characteristics that may also influence dividend policy.Design/methodology/approachUsing the dividend declaration dummy variable, the authors run a fixed effect logistic regression of the dividend indicator on board characteristics, and managerial characteristics with firm level controls, year effects and industry effects while clustering standard errors at the firm level. For dividend yield variable which is censored at zero, they use a fixed effect Tobit regression.FindingsThe results of the study show that board characteristics such as average age, female presence and size have a strong positive significant effect, whereas board independent chair and voting right of directors have a negative significant effect on the likelihood of dividend declaration. For dividend yields, the results suggest that the presence of directors with financial expertise and the board size are the main influencers of dividend policy. Managerial characteristics are subsumed by director characteristics for determining dividend policy. The results overall support the evidence on the monitoring role of boards on management.Originality/valueThe originality and value of this study lies in the approach of including a comprehensive number of board characteristics unlike previous studies which makes the study of the influence of board composition on dividends more encompassing.

Poverty is an important predictor of child maltreatment. Social policies that strengthen the economic security of low-income families, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), may reduce child maltreatment by impeding the pathways through which poverty leads to it. We used variations in the presence and generosity of supplementary EITCs offered at the state level and administrative child maltreatment data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) to examine the effect of EITC policies on state-level rates of child maltreatment from 2004 through 2017. Two-way fixed effects models indicated that a 10-percentage point increase in the generosity of refundable state EITC benefits was associated with 241 fewer reports of neglect per 100,000 children (95% Confidence Interval [CI] [−449, −33]). An increase in EITC generosity was associated with fewer reports of neglect both among children ages 0–5 (−324 per 100,000; 95% CI [−582, −65]) and children ages 6–17 (−201 per 100,000; 95% CI [−387, −15]). Findings also suggested associations between the EITC and reductions in other types of maltreatment (physical abuse, emotional abuse); however, those did not gain statistical significance. Economic support policies may reduce the risk of child maltreatment, especially neglect, and improve child wellbeing.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the effect of setting up a separate risk management committee (RMC) on the performance of listed companies in Malaysia's consumer goods sector. The study considers several firm characteristics as control variables to influence the establishment of the RMC, such as firm size and leverage.Design/methodology/approachThe sample comprises 169 observations throughout a nine-year time frame starting from 2010 to 2018. The current study used a dichotomous variable of “1” to represent a listed company that establishes a separate RMC and “0” as otherwise. The data analysis is based on a static panel data technique, which utilised the fixed effects model (FEM) and random effects model (REM).FindingsThere is a significant positive relationship between a separate RMC and Tobin's Q which suggests that the establishment of a separate RMC that consists of a majority of independent non-executive directors would significantly improve the firm's performance. The current work supports agency theory which suggests that independent non-executive directors can enhance the transparency of corporate boards as they improved the firm's compliance with the disclosure requirements.Originality/valueProper risk management and internal control are critical aspects of a company's governance, management and operations that can influence a firm's performance. The empirical evidence contributes to the knowledge of corporate governance within the context of a RMC’s role in monitoring a company's risk management framework, policies and its implementation. The formation of a separate RMC as a board committee will help to enhance the effectiveness of the risk oversight role of the BOD.

This paper explores the link between nonprofit financial support and the service quality of city park systems. Specifically, this research constructs a longitudinal dataset and utilizes the fixed effects model to empirically investigate the relationship between nonprofit financial support for major US city parks and service quality. The findings show that the level of nonprofit financial support to city parks has a positive relationship with two major indicators of city park service quality: the size of parkland and the public access to parks. However, a small statistically significant relationship is found for the number of playgrounds in parks and the level of nonprofit financial support. This research contributes to the theoretical understanding of government–nonprofit relationships which heavily emphasize the resource flow from park-supporting charities to governments. It also improves our empirical knowledge of the general associations between public service provision and nonprofit organizations in urban areas.

Our paper explores the ability of the state-level economic institutions, i.e., economic freedom and its components, to explain the movements of entrepreneurship rate after the Great Recession. We use panel date from 50 U.S. states during the period (2008–2017). This paper employs three estimators, fixed effect, panel-corrected standard errors method with states dummy variables, and generalized method of moments (GMM) to extract robust results. The results show that the effect of economic factors on the entrepreneurship rate persists more than that of the institutional and profit opportunity factors. Economic freedom, economic development, and firms’ death rate have a statistically positive effect on entrepreneurship activities. However, the unemployment rate and tax regulations have a statistically significant negative effect. This finding implies that in the state of a recession such as the Great Recession, the entrepreneurship activities will deteriorate sharply. In such a case, the economy needs a genuine government intervention to support economic growth, reduce the unemployment rate, and thus enhance the entrepreneurial activities.

Dynamic endogeneity occurs when the current values of a study’s independent variables are affected by the past values of the dependent variables, which can lead to biased estimates. Our analysis of 80 empirical papers published in the Journal of International Business Studies uncovers cases of inappropriate treatment of dynamic endogeneity. Our simulations reveal factors that lead to bias in a fixed effects estimator and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the system generalized method of moments estimator. We demonstrate our points with an empirical study of the impact of the international experience of managers and board members on firm internationalization. We show how using a fixed effects estimator rather than a generalized method of moments estimator can lead to differences in regression results. We also show the proper use of a generalized method of moments estimator.

The consequences of pregnancy outcomes other than live birth on subjective well-being have rarely been analysed in research to date. This study examines pre-event determinants as well as the temporary and long-term effects of induced abortion and miscarriage (spontaneous abortion) on satisfaction with various domains of life. The data were derived from the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam). The longitudinal sample consists of 5331 women of reproductive age, of whom 214 women had an induced abortion, 331 women had a miscarriage, and 1156 women had a live birth during the observation period. First, pre-event measures of women who had an induced abortion and women who had a miscarriage were compared with the pre-event measures of those women who gave birth. Second, fixed effects models were used to examine whether overall or domain-specific life satisfaction changed following a pregnancy termination. The results show that pregnancies resulting in abortion or miscarriage were less frequently preceded by pregnancy intentions compared to those resulting in live birth, and that induced abortion—but not miscarriage—was furthermore accompanied by lower pre-event satisfaction than live birth. Following both miscarriage and induced abortion, women experienced temporary declines in overall life satisfaction and showed persistently lower satisfaction in several domains of life. With regard to induced abortion, pre-event measures were a better predictor of overall well-being than the consequences of the event itself. Low life satisfaction might therefore be a risk factor for having an abortion rather than a result.

In this paper, we propose a biased-corrected FE estimator for the dynamic panel data model that works for the autoregressive coefficient $$\rho \in (-1,1]$$ . We further derive the asymptotic result of the suggested bias-corrected FE estimator. We show that when $$\rho =1$$ , the suggested estimator is super-consistent and is more efficient than the existing estimators that also work for $$\rho \in (-1,1]$$ . In addition, when the initial condition is nonstationary, many of the existing dynamic estimators become inconsistent; however, the consistency of the bias-corrected FE estimator we propose does not depend on the stationarity of the initial condition. We also compare the finite sample performances of these estimators using Monte Carlo simulations.