Search

Purpose Previous studies have challenged the Human Development Index’s (HDI) ability to emulate the achievement of falāh (happiness). This paper aims to evaluate the role of religious values in establishing a positive link between the current measurement of development and falāh. Design/methodology/approach First, this study derives an improved value-loaded development measure from the concept of Maqasid al-Shari’ah (the higher objectives of Islamic law). Second, this paper compares the calculated Maqasid al-Shari’ah Index (MSI) with the HDI of some Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries by using the parametric pair difference z-test and t-test along with the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Finally, the relationship of both indices and the proxy of falāh are examined by using the ordinary least square and the generalised method of moments estimations. Findings As far as the religious-led development is concerned, the HDI underestimates OIC countries’ development progress. Here, the MSI can better embody the attainment of falāh than the HDI. Research limitations/implications This study only covers limited OIC countries due to the data availability issue. Practical implications The cultural-based development stemming from the religious values proves useful for putting the government effort towards the attainment of the objective of human well-being in the right direction. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study examining the empirical relationship between the MSI and falāh.

The study in hand attempts to investigate the intervening role of satisfaction on service quality and reputation relationship with brand loyalty in the hotel industry of Pakistan. The sample of the current research was customers of the hotels operated in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Based on convenience sampling, a total of 400 respondents were selected. A total of 356 questionnaires were received back, from which 345 were usable. Data were collected from the targeting customers through a structured questionnaire. The instrument validity and reliability were checked. The study found that reputation and service quality are significantly related to brand loyalty. The relationship between service quality and brand loyalty is did not mediated by satisfaction. Based on these results, the study recommended that the hotel industry give due importance to service quality, including physical environment, location, and staff behaviour, and reputation, to gain customer loyalty. In the end, we also recommend future directions to explore the phenomena further.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the dynamic co-movement and interconnection among 69 security investment indices in China using the multi-time scale framework. Design/methodology/approach The authors first use the multiple coherence analysis method to exhibit the degree of relationships among the variables under study. In addition, the wavelet multiple correlation and wavelet multiple cross-correlation analyses are used to examine the time-frequency synchronization interdependence structure among the variables. Findings From the empirical findings, one may infer less opportunity for portfolio diversification at higher time scales. Obviously, at these scales, the authors find that the 69 Chinese investment indices generate a simple security investment class, as indicated by higher interconnection between the indices. Research limitations/implications Further research can increase the sample size to re-investigate the empirical relationship for security investment indices. Practical implications In the nutshell, the results demonstrate the potential for Chinese investors to invest in security investment indices to earn from portfolio diversification at lower time frequencies. The Chinese investment market indices under study yield further opportunities of portfolio diversification toward the short-term investors than the long-term investors. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the dynamic co-movement and interconnection for security investment indices in China.

This paper proposes a model of statehood, defined as elite extraction of resources from a subject population. Different from most of the existing literature, the size of the subject population evolves endogenously in a Malthusian fashion, and the elite take into account the effects on future population levels when taxing the current population. The elite can spend extracted resources by investing in productive and extractive capacities. Productive capacity increases the size of the pie, while extractive capacity makes it easier for the elite to tax it. Together—but not each on its own—these two types of investment can give rise to multiple steady-state equilibria, such that one steady state has both a higher rate of extraction, and higher population density and output, than the other steady state. The model can also account for a positive empirical relationship between land productivity and state antiquity among countries with relatively late state development. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10887-021-09188-9.

Based on the recent scientific literature on the social ecology of smartphone addiction, we have examined the empirical relationship between social digital pressure (SDP) and smartphone addiction by also looking at the influence of users’ personalities, psychological distress, social support, and residential social living conditions on this addiction. The analyses were carried out on a nationally representative sample of 2,820 Spanish smartphone users. The results of the causal and multigroup models (structural equation model) indicated that the SDP was positively related to smartphone addiction. This influence was also independent of the effects on smartphone addiction of some personality traits (mainly low conscientiousness), high depression, low social support, and high social disorder in the neighborhood. SDP also showed an important mediating effect mainly for social factors (social support and social disorder in the neighborhood). SDP may be a relevant variable for understanding the potential risk of smartphone addiction in cases where there is a high need for social connection.

We re‐examine the theoretical and empirical relationship between income inequality and long‐run economic growth in an endogenous growth model with a flat tax on income, distributive conflicts among agents, and median voter dynamics. We show that when government spends tax revenue on the provision of public goods in the form of both production and consumption services, the theoretical relationship between inequality and economic growth is neither strictly positive nor strictly negative, but ambiguous. An empirical evaluation of the theoretical findings is carried out by applying a semi‐parametric model on a sample of 63 countries for the period 1991–2017. Results show that the relationship between income inequality and growth takes the form of an inverted U‐shape in that income inequality initially has a positive impact on growth up to an average Gini coefficient threshold of 35.92, beyond which it negatively impacts on growth.

The inflow of foreign direct investment shows the economic and political strength of a country (Bevan & Estrin, 2004). Resources agglomeration and foreign direct investment have a theoretical and empirical relationship (Carlton, 1983; Hansen, 1987; Krugman, 1991; Wheeler and Mody, 1992; Friedman et al., 1992; Head et al., 1995; Henderson and Kuncoro, 1996; Head and Ries, 1996; Devereux and Griffith, 1998; Head et al., 1999; Guimaraes et al., 2000). This paper has examined the impact of aggregate and disaggregates natural resources agglomeration on foreign direct investment in the case of France from 1989 to 2012. Seven different model specifications are used for empirical analysis. The inflow of foreign direct investment from Greece, Australia, Austria, Germany, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Italy, Republic of South Korea, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, United States, Mexico, Korea and United Kingdom in France is taken as the dependent variable. Total natural resources agglomeration, population density, trade openness, secondary education, taxes, inflation rate, primary education, agriculture land agglomeration, forest agglomeration, oil production agglomeration, mineral production agglomeration and natural gas production agglomeration are selected as explanatory variables. The results show that aggregate and disaggregate natural resources agglomeration are important indicators of foreign direct investment. The results show that the population density is a key indicator of foreign direct investment, the current population growth of France and many developed countries is below the replacement rate. Agriculture land agglomeration, oil production agglomeration and mineral production agglomeration are the inputs of many economic activities. This shows that for higher amount of foreign direct investment, natural resources agglomeration must be encouraged. Keywords: natural resources agglomeration, foreign direct investmentJEL Classifications: N5, F21DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.10869

Previous studies on the impact of immigration on productivity in developed countries remain inconclusive, and most analyses are abstracted from firms where production actually takes place. This study examines the empirical relationship between immigration and firm-level productivity in Canada. It uses the Canadian Employer-Employee Dynamics Database that tracks firms over time and matches firms with their employees. The study finds that there is a positive association between changes in the share of immigrants in a firm and changes in firm productivity. This positive effect of immigration on firm productivity is small, but it is stronger over a longer period. The effect tends to be larger for low-skilled immigrants as compared with highly-skilled workers, as firm productivity growth is more strongly associated with changes in the share of recent immigrants (relative to established immigrants), and immigrants who intended to work in non-high skilled occupations (relative to immigrants who intended to work in high-skilled occupations). Those differences are more pronounced in technology-intensive and knowledge-based industries. Immigration is found to have little estimated effects on capital intensity in a firm. Finally, this study finds that high skill and lower skill immigrants have similar effects on average worker earnings arising from the positive productivity effect of immigration, but only skilled immigrants are associated with higher firm profits.

This paper investigates the empirical relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth and energy use in post-communistic countries during 1990-2018. Pedroni’s (1999) panel cointegration test discovered cointegrating relationship between the variables. To distinguish short- and long-term effect, as well as to account for homogeneity caused by previous common socio-political system and current country specific characteristics, Pesaran’s (1999) Pooled Mean Group estimator is employed. PMG estimates identified short- and long-term relationship between energy use and CO2 emissions and short-term relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth. Finally, the Dumitrescu and Hurlin’s (2012) Granger non-causality test for heterogeneous panels revealed bidirectional causality between CO2 emissions, energy use and economic growth. Keywords: CO2 emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, post-communistic countries.JEL Classifications: C23, P18, O47DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.9637

Aerosols in the atmosphere not only degrade visibility, but are also detrimental to human health and transportation. In order to develop a method to estimate PM2.5 mass concentration from the widely measured visibility, a field campaign was conducted in Southwest China in January 2019. Visibility, ambient relative humidity (RH), PM2.5 mass concentrations and scattering coefficients of dry particles were measured. During the campaign, two pollution episodes, i.e., from 4–9 January and from 10–16 January, were encountered. Each of the two episodes could be divided into two periods. High aerosol hygroscopicity was found during the first period, when RH was higher than 80% at most of the time, and sometimes even approached 100%. The second period experienced a relatively dry but more polluted condition and aerosol hygroscopicity was lower than that during the first period. An empirical relationship between PM2.5 mass concentration and visibility (ambient aerosol extinction) under different RH conditions could thus be established. Based on the empirical relationship, PM2.5 mass concentration could be well estimated from visibility and RH. This method will be useful for remote sensing of PM2.5 mass concentration.

PurposeThis article estimates the empirical relationship between workplace diversity in terms of nationality and individual worker job satisfaction in the context of a multicultural country. It also examines the role of the level of communication between coworkers in moderating this relationship.Design/methodology/approachUsing merged survey and administrative data, the paper estimates OLS and ordered Probit regression estimates of the correlations between two measures of workplace diversity and self-reported job satisfaction.FindingsThe relationship between nationality diversity and job satisfaction is negative. While there is some evidence of a nonlinear relationship, it depends on the specification and measure of diversity used. Contrary to expectations, the level of interaction between colleagues does not moderate this relationship.Practical implicationsThe research highlights the need for employers to actively manage the diversity within their firms.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the diversity and job satisfaction literature by focusing on the nationalities of coworkers. It also is the first to measure the impact of the levels of interactions with coworkers on the diversity-satisfaction relationship.

The civil war in Syria has destabilized the whole Middle East along with neighboring regions. In this respect, the impact of Syrian refugees on Turkish labor market is one of the most important contemporary issues discussed in Turkey. This issue has both political and economic significance. Deriving from this point, the aim of this study is to research the empirical relationship between the Labor Market Indicator (LMI) and the growing number of Syrian Refugees in Turkey (RS) by using time series analysis. The data employs monthly data for the period from January 2012 to August 2017. Results of the ARDL bounds test suggest that the Labor Market Indicator and the number of Syrian Refugees are in a long-run relationship. The Gregory-Hansen cointegration test with a structural break confirms the robustness of the ARDL bounds test of cointegration. The Kalman filtering approach was designed to investigate the dynamic relationship between the Labor Market Indicators and the growing number of Syrian Refugees. The results show that the increase in the number of Syrian refugees negatively affects the Labor Market Indicator in Turkey, which implies that the inflow of Syrians has negative effects on labor market outcomes such as employment and unemployment in the country. These results also confirm the postulation of general labor migration theory, which holds that an influx of refugees negatively affects labor market outcomes in the harboring country.

There is emerging shift form in conceptual and theoretical focus on what workplace dimension relates with employee commitment. While it is hitherto posited that behavioural concerns are channeled by social relational action at work, the structural dynamics in terms of how they create intra functional relationship towards goals needs to be explored therefore this study scientifically examines the empirical relationship between intra-functional linkages and employee commitment. The study which was conducted within the Bayelsa State Civil Service used the questionnaire marked INFECQ to generate data primarily from a sample of 236 respondents that were obtained through a proportionate stratified random sampling. The data generated were descriptively and inferentially analyzed. The standardized β value of 0.537 & .256 from the multiple regression indicates that team work and collaboration has significant relationship with employee commitment in the civil service respectively. It shows that teamwork has strong impact than collaboration and brainstorming. It was concluded that intra-functional linkage creates a stimulating work setting that instigates employee commitment therefore, it was recommended amongst others that structural flexibility should be ensured as it helps to integrate work units where information can be commonly shared for goal.

Purpose: This research aims to examine the empirical relationship between earnings quality and financial flexibility, i.e., how information related to earnings affects firms’ cash levels in the emerging economies. Design/Methodology/Approach: To attain the research objectives, we used panel data for 18 years (2000–2017) obtained from the CSMAR database. Statistical software STATA used for data analysis. Descriptive, multiple correlations, and unbalanced panel data analysis are used. Findings: Our empirical results negate the works conducted on the advanced economy showing that information related to earnings (Earnings Quality) is negatively associated with firms’ Financial Flexibility irrespective of firms’ characteristics, i.e., firms with profit or loss and firm’s with R&D or without R&D expenditure. However, the firm’s earnings quality, firm size, cash flows, financial constraints, dividends, and growth are the dominant predictor of financial flexibility. Moreover, the degree of dominance depends on the firm’s specific characteristics. Research Limitations/Implications: This research has been conducted on the emerging Chinese market. For consistent and robust results, this research excluded the financial and other firms that possess different operational and regulatory attributes than the manufacturing firms. The study is useful for policymakers and managers to design their cash levels and avoid the hurdle of external finance or to accelerate their flexibility to raise money from an external source. Originality/Value: Previous research addressed the issue related to cost and benefit, information asymmetry, ownership concentration, and firm’s propensity to cash holdings. A very little research conducted with earnings quality and cash holdings in the developed market (in Europe and the USA), and thus, for the first time, we address the issue of earnings quality and financial flexibility in the emerging economy.

The decline in the share of bank credit to non-financial firms since the 1990s, relative to credit for real estate and financial asset markets, has raised concerns over economic growth and financial stability and sparked renewed interest in credit policies, instruments and institutions. We examine their theoretical case and post-war use, and trace their demise during the wider market-oriented policy reconfiguration from the 1980s. Notably, this included home ownership polices favouring mortgage markets. We then examine the empirical relationship between credit policy and credit allocation in the 1973–2005 period for 17 advanced economies. Taking account of co-integration, we present evidence that the decline of credit policies is significantly associated with a lower share of lending to non-financial firms. It may be worth revisiting the potential of credit policies to support adequate financing for goals such as innovation, industrial development and the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Perceptions of threat from Russia’s military activities in Ukraine and President Trump’s critical attitude towards NATO have put the idea of a common European army on the agenda of European politic...

Confidence factors play an important role not only in the assessment of business cycles but also in the evaluation of national competitiveness (e.g. the Global Competitiveness report published by the World Economic Forum) due to both using soft data obtained from opinion surveys. The subjective nature of confidence leads to questions about the soundness of such findings. Since the answers from opinion surveys are subjective, the empirical relationship between sentiment indicators and economic variables is not unambiguously established. In these conditions, the results of business surveys and the findings published by competitiveness rankings should not be accepted unconditionally. This paper starts with the comparison of soft data (respondents' sentiment) assessing the quality of institutions among world regions in the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-18. The aim of this paper is to offer a more precise view of the development of economic sentiment in the EU countries, especially in Germany and the Visegrad group countries (the V4). As tools for this description, a business sentiment indicator (ESI) and confidence indicators were applied. For analysis of changes in business sentiment and respondents' confidence, a graphical examination of variables, correlation analysis, changes in standard deviation, changes in countries' ranking, and the comparison of average sentiment (confidence) in the pre-crisis and the post-crisis period were used. Our analysis indicates the equivalent of the so-called halo effect in the pre-crisis period for the V4 (the positive expectation connected with the EU accession) and the deterioration in sentiment and confidence indicators in the post-crisis period.

Prior research has consistently documented a weight-related earnings penalty for females. However, there is debate concerning the existence of a similar wage penalty for men, with many studies having found no statistically significant effect. Prior research has also found a wage penalty associated with lower self-esteem. Drawing data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we refine the empirical relationship among self-esteem, wages, and weight. Implementing mediation models, our results suggest men face an obesity wage penalty, but the penalty is characterized through a persistent decrease in self-esteem when relatively young which leads to lower wages as adults. In contrast, the obesity wage penalty for females is not mediated through lower self-esteem and is likely the result of factors related to contemporaneous body weight.

This study aims to highlight the empirical relationship between public debt and economic growth in Cote d’Ivoire using the Threshold Autoregressive (TAR) model over the period 1970-2018. The results obtained in the short run shed light on the no relationship between public debt and economic growth. In the long run, there is a bi-directional Granger causality between public debt and the sustainability of economic growth. Moreover, the non-linearity between the variables of interest has been explored and the results show the presence of a threshold effect: beyond 48.03 percent of GDP, any increase in public debt by 1% should reduce economic growth by 0.28%. Thus, the study questions the relevance of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) criterion set at 70% of GDP.

The present study proposes an empirical technique for the prediction of tentative yield expected from a reservoir propounded at any site in the study area. The proposed methodology was validated in two parts considering India as the case study region. In the first part, seventeen major river catchments of the country were examined to establish an empirical relationship between peak flow rate and average flow rate. The former was calculated using the rational formula while the latter was acquired from the WRIS portal. The generated equation provided the average streamflow value by using only the rainfall data of an aspiring reservoir location. In the second part of the validation, a mathematical model was established for computing the yield from a reservoir. The dependent variables were computed using the streamflow dataset of 212 sites, spread widely, across the country’s geography. The results of the present study may prove to be beneficial for the reconnaissance planning of a reservoir. The proposed methodology may also be applied to other countries/regions to achieve similar results.

While the literature is extensive on school districts' revenue sources, less research has been done on the impact of donations on school district funds. In this paper, we extend the theoretical literature on crowding out of private donations by government grants for one type of nonprofit firm, namely charter schools. The theoretical model leads us to focus on the key relationships among fundraising effort, enrollment (which is tied to federal and state funding) and donations. Using a dataset on Texas charter schools we adopt a two‐stage approach to examine the empirical relationship between changes in nondonor revenues and the donations received by charter schools. Like the extensive empirical estimates of the effects of government grants on donations for other types of nonprofit firms, we find evidence of crowding‐out with respect to our sample of charter schools. We also find a significant, positive effect of fundraising on donations with a $1 increase in fundraising associated to a $0.58 increase in donations, a pattern consistent with overinvestment in fundraising. Enrollments exhibit a robust inverse relationship to changes in nondonor revenues. (JEL H00, H32, H50)

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the empirical relationship between gray directors (non-executive non-independent directors) and executive compensation among companies listed in India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE). The paper also examines the possible interplay of relationships between controlling shareholder duality (controlling shareholder being the CEO), ownership category and executive compensation.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 438 firms listed in the NSE of India was studied using data spanning five financial years, 2012–2013 to 2016–2017.FindingsEmpirical evidence suggests that there is a positive association between the proportion of gray directors on the board and executive compensation. The sensitivity of executive compensation to gray directors is found to be higher among family controlled firms. This research has also found that CEOs who belong to controlling shareholder groups received higher pay than professional CEOs. The authors conjecture that these results suggest cronyism and may contribute to lower levels of corporate governance practices in the country.Research limitations/implicationsThe hybrid board structure, which India has adopted with the desire to bring the best of Anglo Saxon and Japanese board philosophies, has paradoxically led to self-serving boards. Exploration of alternative thinking to bring about changes in the regulatory framework is, therefore, necessary.Originality/valueSerious problems are identified with the philosophy behind board composition mandated by Listing Requirements for Indian firms with empirical evidence showing how the existing rules generate cronyism and unfairness to minority shareholders.

This article estimates the empirical relationship between prejudicial attitudes toward homosexuality and the wages of gay men in the United States. It combines data on prejudicial attitudes toward homosexuality from the General Social Survey with data on wages from the U.S. Decennial Censuses and American Community Surveys—both aggregated to the state level. The author finds that a one standard deviation increase in the share of individuals in a state who are prejudiced toward homosexuals is correlated with a decrease in the wages of gay men of between 2.7% and 4.0%. The results also suggest that the prejudice of managers is responsible for this correlation. The author finds that a one standard deviation increase in the share of the managers in a state who are prejudiced toward homosexuals is associated with a 1.9% decrease in the wages of gay men. The author finds no evidence that the wage penalty for gay men is correlated with the prejudice of customers or co-workers.

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the empirical relationship between economic development and intergenerational education mobility. By exploiting large regional variation in the level of economic development across Turkey, we find that educational outcomes of daughters who grow up in more developed regions depend less on their parents’ educational outcomes. We do not find evidence for a similar relationship between development and mobility for males. Moreover, the development level of place of residence during childhood has a stronger positive association with intergenerational education mobility compared to the development level of place of residence during adolesence. We find that regions that feature higher school availability, greater level of social capital, more favorable cultural attitudes toward women, higher level of home resources, and lower degree of educational inequalities also tend to feature higher degree of intergenerational mobility.

We study the real long‐run effects of the structural stance of monetary policy and of inflation, in the context of a monetary growth model where R&D is complemented with physical capital accumulation. We look into the effects on a set of real macroeconomic variables that have been of interest to policymakers—the economic growth rate, real interest rate, physical investment rate, capital‐to‐labor ratio, R&D intensity, and velocity of money. These variables have been previously analyzed from the perspective of different, separated, strands of the theoretical and empirical literature. Additionally, we analyze the long‐run relationship between inflation and both the effectiveness of real industrial‐policy shocks and the market structure, assessed namely by average firm size. We present novel cross‐country evidence on the empirical relationship between the latter and long‐run inflation.

This paper examines the empirical relationship between cash holding and investment behavior when problem directors are on the Board. We argue that problem directors provide lower quality (weak) corporate governance which encourages excess cash holdings. The findings show consistent evidence that firms with at least one problem director hold more cash. In addition, evidence is found that firms with higher cash holdings engage in over-investment and such behavior is more pronounced when problem directors are on the board. This study contributes to the limited research on the professional history of directors and provides evidence of the financial effects for firms served by problem directors.

This paper investigates how land size measurements vary across three common land measurement methods (farmer estimated, Global Positioning System (GPS), and compass and rope), and the effect of land size measurement error on the inverse farm size relationship and input demand functions. The analysis utilizes plot-level data from the second wave of the Nigeria General Household Survey Panel, as well as a supplementary land validation survey covering a subsample of General Household Survey Panel plots. Using this data, both GPS and self-reported farmer estimates can be compared with the gold standard compass and rope measurements on the same plots. The findings indicate that GPS measurements are more reliable than farmer estimates, where self-reported measurement bias leads to over-reporting land sizes of small plots and under-reporting of large plots. The error observed across land measurement methods is nonlinear and results in biased estimates of the inverse land size relationship. Input demand functions that rely on self-reported land measures significantly underestimate the effect of land on input utilization, including fertilizer and household labor.

It is evident from the existing research that transformational leaders play a vital role in project success, but little is known about the channels that elaborate on this effect. To unveil one of these channels, this study supposed project teamwork as the mediator between transformational leadership and project success. To test the stated empirical relationship, data were obtained from 125 project managers working on various projects of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan. The results revealed that project teamwork partially mediates the relationship between project leadership and project success. The study has also discussed valuable implications including theoretical, practical and managerial.

While the empirical relationship between public debt and economic growth has been well-researched, there is a gap in terms of understanding the relationship between equity market performance and public debt. Based on propositions derived from a theoretical model and using a quarterly unbalanced panel dataset of 56 economies in the period 1995–2017, we examine this nexus by first estimating a threshold value of public debt above which equity market performance is adversely affected by a change in public debt. After that, the dynamics of equity market performance and change in public debt are examined. We estimate the threshold level to be approximately 17.97 percent of GDP. The short-run and long-run multipliers of a one-percent increase in public debt on equity market returns are 11.57–37.59 and 27.51–78.72 percentage points. These dynamics appear to be different between the economies that are below and above the estimated debt threshold.

PurposeThe increase in volumes and circulation of internal and international remittances have become a substantial part of resource flow for economic development especially in developing countries with a significant impact on household welfare. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between remittances and savings mobilization.Design/methodology/approachUsing the most recent wave of the Ghana Living Standard Survey data, the study accounts for the endogeneity in remittance receipts by employing treatment effect estimators, in addition to a probit model to establish the relationship between remittances and likelihood of savings.FindingsThe results suggest that receiving remittances significantly affects household’s propensity to save. Households that receive international remittances seem to have a slightly higher probability of savings compared to households that receive only domestic remittances.Originality/valueFrom the literature, whereas the theoretical relationship between savings and remittances is mixed, it is also evident that the empirical relationship between remittances and savings has not been clearly established, especially in sub-Saharan African countries in general and Ghana in particular. The present study adds to the paucity in the literature in two main ways. First, the study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between remittances and savings by not only focusing on international remittances but also on internal remittances. Second, in sharp departure from other studies, the current study employs more robust empirical estimators in estimating the relationship between remittances and savings.

This study is conducted to revisit the empirical relationship between exports, imports and economic growth in Bangladesh using annual time series data from 1981 to 2017. To capture the objective, the study used Johansen Co-integration test and Granger-causality test in Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) framework. Based on the results of Johansen Co-integration test, it confirms that there is statistically significant long-run equilibrium relationship between exports, imports and economic growth. The results of the VECM Granger Causality test assure that the disequilibrium in long-run GDP growth rate is corrected or adjusted by 24% in short-run following the next year. Furthermore, the study found short-run causality running from exports to economic growth and from economic growth to imports. Finally, findings of the study will help the policy makers and development partners of Bangladesh to rethink about the current policies regarding the exports, imports, inflation, gross capital formation (investment) and economic growth.

The need to further explore the understanding of human behaviour as a strategic means of facilitating functional workplace outcomes has been stressed. This study therefore scientifically examined the empirical relationship between employee self-esteem and workplace spontaneity in the Nigerian hospitality sector. The cross-sectional survey design was deployed hence, the questionnaire instrument was primarily used to generate data from a sample of 286 participants. The data were analyzed descriptively using mean scores and standard deviation. Inferential analysis was also done using the Pearson Statistic and regression. The results indicates a positive and significant relationship between employee self-esteem and workplace spontaneity. It was also found that assertiveness has greater impact with s=0.638 and t=3.913 on work place spontaneity. The study concluded based on the findings that employee self-esteem correlates with workplace spontaneity and it was therefore recommended amongst others that managers and other employees should build capacity in terms of psycho-social element, that ensures assertiveness.

This study attempts to reconcile competing positions in an important debate about the relationship between regime type and human development. We contend that this empirical relationship is contingent upon issues of conceptualization and measurement in democracy. First, the relationship is more likely to be perceived when democracy is measured in a nuanced fashion, taking account of gradations of democracy and autocracy. Second, some aspects of democracy–those associated with competitive elections–are more strongly associated with human development than others. Third, the components of electoral democracy interact in a reinforcing manner. Finally, the impact of democracy on human development is a distal relationship that depends upon a country’s entire regime history. Our approach draws on several new datasets that interrogate change across a century, enhancing empirical leverage on this important question. To measure human development, we employ the Gapminder project, covering most sovereign countries from 1900 to 2012. To measure democracy, we draw on Varieties of Democracy data, which measure democracy in a highly differentiated fashion for most sovereign countries from 1900 to the present. An extensive set of analyses offer strong corroboration for the argument.

This paper uses a variety of estimation methods to explore the empirical relationship between interest rate and collateral requirements in bank loan contracts. Methods that do not allow for endogenous contract terms detect a positive reciprocal association between interest rate and collateral. Methods that allow for endogenous contract terms point to a strong positive effect of interest rate on collateral but the effect of collateral on interest rate is weaker. This highlights the importance of incorporating the endogenous nature of contract terms in empirical work.

1AbstractThe rate of climate change (CC) has accelerated to the point where it now affects the mid-to long-term sustainability of fishing strategies. Therefore, it is important to consider practical and effective ways to incorporate CC into fisheries advice so that the advice can be considered conditioned to CC. We developed a quantitative model to characterise the empirical relationship between a variable affected by climate and fish production. We then used model projections as a foundation for a risk analysis of CC effects on harvesting of Greenland halibutReinhardtius hippoglossoidesin the Gulf of St Lawrence, Canada. The risk-based approach quantified a) the relative change in risk of a status quo fishing strategy under various CC scenarios, and b) the change in fishery exploitation rates required to achieve a management objective over a specified time period at a level of risk considered acceptable (risk equivalent fishery exploitation advice). This empirical approach can be used to develop risk-based advice for any other external variable that affects stock production in addition to climate-related variables and it can be applied in most situations where there is an index of stock biomass and fisheries catch. Shifting the focus from process-based understanding of the responses of fish stocks to CC to quantification of how CC-contributed uncertainty can alter the risks associated with different fishing strategies and/or management options, can ensure timely delivery of robust scientific advice for fisheries under non-stationary environmental conditions.

The revised Phillips Curve is an empirical relationship between the inflation gap and the cumulative wage gap. Our hypothesis is that the inflation rate stays below its target until the cumulative wage gap closes, and that it increases above its target when the cumulative wage gap becomes positive. This hypothesis is validated using two different datasets: a panel for 35 OECD countries, over the last three decades, and a separate one for the US, over the last half century. The cumulative wage gap explains about one fifth of the deviation of inflation from its target; the result is statistically significant at 1 percent. The coefficient compares well to other models while it can be estimated with higher frequency and accuracy. The cumulative wage gap plays a stronger role in determining inflation when it takes negative values. We also estimate a labor share—augmented Phillips Curve.

This chapter describes the historical evolution of the Phillips Curve from an empirical relationship between wage inflation and unemployment to a complex model comprising inflation persistence, inflation expectations and output gap. Then it provides an overview of the current explanations for the flattening of the Phillips Curve after the Great Recession. The final section exposes the frequent measurement errors associated with the short-term Phillips Curve and builds the case for an alternative measure of economic slack.

There are limited studies that empirically evaluate the interactions between households and infrastructure systems. As a result, the extent to which interruptions in infrastructure services influence different aspects of well-being for different subpopulations is still only vaguely understood. In order to address this knowledge gap, this study investigates multiple dimensions of well-being to derive an empirical relationship between sociodemographic factors of households and their subjective well-being impacts due to disruptions in various infrastructure services during and immediately after Hurricane Harvey. Statistical analysis driven by spearman-rank order correlations and fisher-z tests indicated significant disparities in well-being due to service disruptions among vulnerable population groups. The characterization of well-being is used to explain why and to what extent infrastructure service disruptions influence different subpopulations. The results show that disruptions in particular infrastructure systems are more likely to result in well-being impact disparities, in which racial minorities experience the greatest impact. Similarly, interruptions in services were more likely to evoke changes in social well-being and household’s connectivity to their communities. These findings present novel insights to understanding the role of infrastructure resilience in household well-being, as well as inequalities in well-being impacts across various subpopulations. The approach of the research and its findings enable a paradigm shift towards a more human-centric approach to infrastructure resilience.

Sediment control structures such as check dams, groundsills, and revetments are commonly used to balance sediment transport. In this study, we investigated the visual quality of sediment control structures that have been installed to manage mountain streams by analyzing images from the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB) of Taiwan. We used visual preference (P) as an indicator in the evaluation of visual quality and considered two softscape elements and four cognitive factors associated with P. The two softscape elements were the visible body of water and vegetation, which were represented by the percentage of visible water (WR) and the percentage of visible greenery (GR). We considered four cognitive factors: naturalness, harmony, vividness, and closeness. Using a questionnaire-based survey, we asked 212 experts and laypeople to indicate their visual preferences (P) for the images. We examined the associations of the P ratings with cognitive factors and softscape elements and then established an empirical relationship between P and the cognitive factors using multiple regression analysis. The results showed that the subjects&rsquo, visual preferences were strongly affected by the harmony factor, the subjects preferred the proportion of softscape elements to be 30% WR and 40% GR for optimal harmony, naturalness, and visual quality of the sediment control structures. We discuss the visual indicators, visual aesthetic experiences, and applications of the empirical relationship, and offer insights into the study&rsquo, s implications.

This paper focuses on examining the empirical relationship between technology upgrading, disaggregated skills upgrading variables, and exports among manufacturing firms in the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council (GJMC). The importance of skill development as a determinant of value-added in export basket, and the latter’s subsequent impact on economic development, is widely acknowledged. The analysis of the relationship between disaggregated training variables and exports are rare. The data used in this study comes from the joint World Bank/Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council co-ordinated survey of large manufacturing firms, within the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council (GJMC) area. Some of the key findings of the paper are as follows. First, the data analysis supports the perspective that different knowledge accumulation channels (or learning mechanisms) may have differential impact on exports; Imports and exports tend to be complementary, thereby re-enforcing firm-level learning and capability building. Dynamic capability building can take place if exporting activities drives the importation of capital goods. Second, recently introduced product lines had a positive impact on exports, suggesting the importance of frequent product upgrading/product innovations in exploiting competitive and demanding export markets. Third, a lot of training offered to different occupational groups did not seem to have any significant impact on exports. The results raise questions about the quality, content, and focus of employment-based training programs. One major implication of the study findings is that skill upgrading of ‘unskilled production workers’ through inhouse firm-based training is key to ensuring production of quality ‘exportgrade’ output. The importance of frequent product upgrading when targeting demanding export markets suggests the need to have policy objectives that strengthen the National Innovation System.

The distinction between constitutional amendments and constitutional replacements figures prominently in the study and practice of constitutional change, but it is also deeply problematic. Scholars have struggled to distinguish between mere “amendments” and true “replacements” in a manner that is both conceptually satisfying and amenable to empirical study. A common approach is simply to look to whether particular constitutional changes are formally labeled as “amendments” or “replacements.” It is widely known that the application of these labels can be arbitrary or idiosyncratic, with the result that the labels do not necessarily correspond to the actual importance or magnitude of the changes in question. Little is known, however, about how reliably–or unreliably–these formal labels reflect the actual degree of change. Nor do the methods traditionally used by empirical scholars offer convenient alternatives for gauging the magnitude of constitutional change. Natural language processing techniques drawn from computer science offer powerful new tools for measuring textual change and investigating various aspects of constitutions, such as the empirical difference between amendments and replacements. Latent semantic analysis of 1,000+ constitutional changes in the world over a fifteen-year period shows that the formal “amendment” and “replacement” labels paint a systematically misleading picture of the magnitude of constitutional change and cannot be used to reliably distinguish between major and minor changes. On average, so-called “amendments” involve changes of a lesser magnitude than so-called “replacements,” measured in terms of the proportion of the text that changes. However, these labels are prone to both overstating and understating the degree of constitutional change. In some cases, amendments can be massive and amount in substance to stealth replacements. More frequently, replacements can be inconsequential and amount in substance to overblown amendments. In reality, most constitutional changes—regardless of how they are labeled—are relatively minor in textual magnitude. Automated analysis of the constitutional texts also reveals an empirical relationship between the magnitude of constitutional change and the passage of time. The more time that elapses between constitutional changes, the bigger that the changes tend to be. At one end of the spectrum, some constitutions evolve in a gradual way through incremental and frequent tinkering. At the opposite end, other constitutions are characterized by punctuated equilibrium, or long periods of stasis interrupted by spurts of drastic change. These findings support the view that the need or demand for constitutional change tends to accumulate over time and leads to periodic major changes if it is not instead satisfied by smaller, more frequent adjustments.

This chapter addresses the impact of the composition of expenditures and the design of programs on the effectiveness of government expenditures. No clear empirical relationship has been found between growth and public expenditures. This may be due to differences in the efficacy of expenditure programs across countries, differences that are not reflected in expenditure data. If spending has not been implemented efficiently, or allocated optimally across spending categories, it may be possible to increase growth and welfare by redesigning spending programs, or shifting spending from one sector to another. This chapter also identifies specific problems and constraints that are likely to hinder the success of spending programs, so have implications for the choice and design of spending priorities. Although there are no universal rules, a review of the empirical evidence suggests that high priority should be assigned to develop an effective legal system to protect and enforce property rights, effective financial regulations, and maintenance of existing infrastructure. Spending priority should also be given to improvements in the quality and quantity of primary education and basic health care, water and sanitation, and well-targeted consumption subsidy programs for the very poor.

The very few studies on the empirical relationship between time preference and migration have been developed in small samples or without controlling for individuals’ cognitive skills. This study uses data from a large, nationally representative survey with information on time preferences and cognitive skills to investigate whether lifetime cross-region migrants in Spain are less impatient than individuals who choose to remain in their birth region. The empirical model incorporates predicted probabilities of misclassifying the migrant status. Results suggest that the effect of impatience on the likelihood of ever migrating is negative though diminishing, and that it is smaller than the effect estimated for international migrants.

To understand the weak empirical relationship between human capital and macroeconomic performance, we present a model in which human capital is allocated to three activities: production, tax collection (bureaucracy), and public education. The effective tax rate is low in poor countries because tax collection requires human capital, which is scarce. Throughout the transition, the effective tax rate rises, which involves a diversion of human capital from production to bureaucracy and public education. Consequently, human capital has a weak effect on production, even when human capital is efficiently allocated. Differences in institutional quality may involve a spurious negative correlation between gross domestic product and human capital.

How should one use (quasi-)experimental evidence when choosing policies such as tax rates, health insurance copay, unemployment benefit levels, and class sizes in schools? This paper suggests an approach based on maximizing posterior expected social welfare, combining insights from (i) optimal policy theory as developed in the field of public finance, and (ii) machine learning using Gaussian process priors. We provide explicit formulas for posterior expected social welfare and optimal policies in a wide class of policy problems. The proposed methods are applied to the choice of coinsurance rates in health insurance, using data from the RAND health insurance experiment. The key trade-off in this setting is between transfers toward the sick and insurance costs. The key empirical relationship the policy maker needs to learn about is the response of health care expenditures to coinsurance rates. Holding the economic model and distributive preferences constant, we obtain much smaller point estimates of the optimal coinsurance rate (18% vs. 50%) when applying our estimation method instead of the conventional “sufficient statistic” approach.

The objective of this article is to analyze the relationship between the deportations of Mexican migrants from the United States with the behavior of the US economy, unemployment in that country and the immigration policy that affects “massive” deportations. To prove this relationship, we used the information from the ICE, the World Bank and the Labor Bureau of the United States to run a multiple regression with the theoretical and empirical relationship of the deportations and the macroeconomic variables included in this work. From the outset it was proved that the evolution of the economy and US unemployment are directly related to deportations from that country. Based on this, decisions are made regarding migration policies that are implemented to achieve this goal.

Particulate matter (PM) pollution and its health effects are receiving more attention. Green space can provide critical ecosystem services, and increasing the supply of green space can reduce PM pollution, but effects of green spaces on PM at different scales are not clear. Based on the traffic and meteorological factors from 50 monitoring stations, principal composition cluster analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were implemented. Daily PMs (PM10 and PM2.5) concentrations were measured at 50 monitoring stations in Zhejiang (1 Feb 2015 to 28 Feb 2017) to quantify the spatiotemporal change of PM concentration and its empirical relationship with green spaces and landscape structure. The result shows: (1) At 5-km, or smaller, scale, the correlation between green space and PM2.5 is stronger than PM10; (2) at 2-km scale or less, the total edge length has more impact on PMs than green cover area, while at 3–5-km scale, the influence of green cover is more dominated; (3) In the mountain and hilly area in Zhejiang that are dominated by meteorological factors, we can establish the PM2.5 forecast model by 3–4-km scale green spaces, while in those basins or low lands, we can build the PM2.5 forecast model by using 1–2-km scale green spaces. The results are of great importance for urban green space planning, especially when it comes to the size and shape of the green space. In addition, it can provide guidance to the future application of LUR model in Zhejiang area.

This paper investigates the empirical relationship between household wealth composition and income inequality in the USA, proxied by households’ relative position in the income distribution. Previous research highlights wealth–income interactions as important driver of inequality, but less is known about whether wealth composition is conducive to sustained improvements in relative income across households. Using non-parametric median slope analysis on the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances between 1989-2013, the paper examines patterns of empirical regularities between wealth composition and relative income, finding significant differences over time and between income, gender, racial, and intergenerational groups. Higher relative holdings of other property, business equity, financial investment, retirement and insurance assets, and secured debt are associated with higher position in the income distribution; to be more resilient to losses after the Great Recession; and not to be enjoyed equally by households in the poorest 20% of income distribution, female, Black/Latino, and millennial households.

The authors investigate the impact of austerity policies by empirically analysing the crowding out effect, the Ricardian equivalence principle, and the effect of domestic competitiveness on economic growth in Slovenia. Using the narrative method, the authors researched determinants of economic growth and the impact of fiscal policies on the empirical relationship between state debt and economic growth. The authors show that Slovenia has executed austerity measures over short time periods only, and argue that one cannot find convincing evidence that the enacted austerity policy created the theoretically and empirically expected effects. The authors show that the revival of economic growth was independent of enacted austerity policies. Such economic growth has also benefitted the general budget balance and fiscal position of Slovenia.

To improve landslide hazard mapping quality, a functional relationship with travel distance prediction is essential. To obtain a more accurate empirical relationship for predicting loess slide travel distances, we developed a loess slide database for the central Loess Plateau using a combination of remote sensing image interpretations, existing datasets, and an intensive field survey. The loess slide travel distance was concentrated within less than 200 m, according to a cumulative frequency analysis. Our results reveal that the loess slide volume, slope height, and slope inclination of the sliding area control the travel distance, and this relation is well-described by a power law function. Furthermore, statistical analysis suggested that the equivalent coefficient of friction decreases with an increase in loess slide volume but increases with an increase in slope inclination. We compared the prediction performances of four empirical relationships proposed in this study using the mean absolute percentage error and Theil inequality coefficient methods. We discovered that the empirical relationship with three independent variables can more accurately predict the loess slide travel distance than the relationships with one or two independent variables.