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In Malaysia, there needs to be more explanation of the gig economy activities found in the literature. It is challenging to comprehend the size and growth of the gig economy in Malaysia due to the difficulty of obtaining accurate measures of revenue generated by digital platforms. This paper aims to address the knowledge gap by employing descriptive analysis of administrative data from the relevant agencies tasked with fostering the digital economy in Malaysia. The findings revealed that between 2016 and 2021, there was a substantial increase in the number of gig workers and digital platforms that provide gig workers with a stable source of income and an additional source of revenue for the Malaysian economy. Physical gig activities dominated the gig economy market compared to digital gig activities. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in the number of local digital platforms as a result of the increase in the demand for online services. The government must prioritise the regulation of the gig economy in order to protect gig workers and ensure equitable distribution of the wealth generated by the gig economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil dependence, as a main factor in driving economic growth, undoubtedly plays a crucial role in determining labour market outcomes. This paper utilises the quantile regression approach and the dynamic system GMM methods to investigate the role of oil dependence in determining Okun's coefficient differences. This study uses the difference version of Okun's law to estimate Okun's coefficients for each country through the "rolling window technique" from 1991 to 2019 for panel data from 29 oil-producing countries. Okun's coefficients, estimated in the previous step, became the dependent variable in the second step. The results indicated that the differences in oil dependence prove relevant when accounting for Okun's law differences in oil-producing countries. In other words, oil dependency is found to be the key determinant of Okun's coefficient. Particularly as oil production per capita increases, unemployment becomes less sensitive to output growth. Additionally, this study has found that better institution quality and a higher level of unemployment strengthen Okun's coefficient. Finally, our results confirm the effect of the financial crisis on Okun's coefficients. The findings of this paper conclude with clear evidence for policymakers about the role of oil dependency in economic performance. Economic policy improvements enable a country's oil income to be used more effectively by strengthening its economic sectors, achieving higher economic growth, and thus lowering unemployment rates. The governments of these countries should pay attention to the structural reforms that enhance the development of the non-oil sector and improve the incentives for workers to promote employment in other economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most countries have suffered from prolonged budget deficits over the past two decades. This situation has made researchers and policymakers aware of the challenges to debt sustainability. This study investigates the threshold effect of institutional quality on debt sustainability in a panel of 82 countries, focussing on various threshold effects at different income levels. All the countries selected for this study fell under the categories of high income (HI), upper middle income (UMI), and lower-middle and low income (LMLI) based on the World Bank classifications. The dynamic threshold panel regression results indicate the presence of a threshold effect of institutional quality on the fiscal reaction function (including debt sustainability and cyclical fiscal policy) in all the countries with different income levels. In HI countries, fiscal adjustment weakens if institutional quality surpasses the threshold value of institutional quality. The fiscal adjustment in UMI countries is similar to that in HI countries but statistically insignificant. By contrast, governments in LMLI countries can promote sustainable debt if their institutional quality exceeds the threshold value. Thus, policymakers in LMLI countries need to prioritise their efforts to raise the level of institutional quality to promote debt sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of blockchain adoption on the agri-food supply chain. A systematic literature review approach was used to analyze and synthesize the findings from the existing literature, focusing on fundamental research themes, research gaps, and the direction of future research on the impact of blockchain adoption in the agri-food supply chain. Twenty-seven full-length articles were considered and thematically analyzed in this study. The authors identified eight themes from the literature, including factors responsible for blockchain adoption and new research areas such as digitalization and the impact after adoption. These themes shed light on the agri-food supply chain practices following the adoption of blockchain technology. Moreover, this study provides a foundation for strategic and policy initiatives in the agri-food industry involving blockchain technology. The findings indicate that critical factors driving blockchain technology adoption in the agri-food industry include ensuring food traceability and transparency, food safety and security, food supply and logistics, food integrity, environmental awareness, and reducing food waste. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of guidelines and policy-level involvement after adopting blockchain technology, particularly in facilitating accurate quantification and promoting digitalization to address challenges and streamline processes. The study concludes by suggesting future research avenues for blockchain technology in the supply chain domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the dynamic heterogeneous effect of government expenditures on economic growth in 20 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries during the 1990–2016 period. The results reveal that a dynamic adjustment in economic growth in the MENA region occurred from the short to the long run. Arguably, government expenditures can promote economic growth. In the long run, the coefficients of government expenditures are positive and significant in oil and non‐oil countries; in the short run, the coefficient is statistically significant in oil countries but not in non‐oil countries. The coefficients of government expenditures markedly differ between the two groups. For the MENA region, as a whole, government expenditures exhibit a crowding‐in effect instead of a crowding‐out effect on growth. Importantly, to sustain economic growth, non‐oil countries must embark fiscal reform measures promptly by optimizing government expenditures. Oil countries should consider the implications of short‐ and medium‐term fiscal imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of bank-level characteristics in determining the nature of interest rate pass-through from monetary policy rates to commercial banks' lending rates in Pakistan. Several bank-level factors, namely market size, liquidity, capitalisation, profitability, and competition level, were used in analysing the pass-through mechanism. This study utilised a dynamic heterogeneous panel technique, namely the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation for the sample of 12 private commercial banks, over the time span 2003:Q2 to 2015:Q4. Banks of smaller size, large capital, and higher liquidity were significantly affecting the interest rate pass-through procedure. Thus, to improve monetary policy's transmission mechanism, Pakistan's central bank should limit bank capitalisation and draw out excess liquidity from the banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically investigates the dynamic effect of fiscal balance (FB) and investment on the current account balance (CAB) of 20 the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries over the 1990-2016 period. We employ the recently proposed panel VAR approach using the generalized method of moments (GMM)-style estimators. The findings emphasize that the twin deficits hypothesis (TDH) for the entire sample of the MENA region exists in the mid-term and gradually dissipates over time, supporting the Keynesians' conventional viewpoint that fiscal deficits have a negative effect on the CAB. By splitting the full sample, rising fiscal deficits lead to reducing the CAB in oil countries only. The results are consistent with the widespread view that expansion of government spending crowds out private investment, further denying the existence of the Feldstein-Horioka hypothesis in the MENA region. Importantly, to improve the CAB, MENA governments must reduce internal interest rates in a timely manner, while raising the private savings interest rate is necessary to avoid the undesired consequences for their economies of chronic fiscal deficits and current account downturns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to empirically evaluate the effects of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) on trade inflow by constructing augmented trade restrictiveness indices (ATRI) for ASEAN countries and their major trading partners for the year 2016. This study employs econometric estimation to estimate the ad-valorem equivalent (AVE) for NTBs and then uses mathematical calculations to measure the ATRI of the respective countries and sectors. Findings show that the previous calculation of trade restrictiveness indices (TRI) is bias towards large positive values, and the current study has overcome these issues by making some modifications in the formula. Results illustrate that poorer countries had imposed more restricted trade policies. It is obvious that NTBs have a vital role in influencing trade flows as the ATRI recorded on average, 17% higher value when we consider the existence of NTBs. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression supports our hypothesis that an increase in ATRI leads to reduction in imports. Hence, detailed analysis of NTBs is deemed necessary as it shapes the international trade flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the causality directions of stock return volatility in selected developed (United States, Canada, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Japan, France and Germany) and emerging market countries (Mexico and China) using daily data from January 2003 to March 2017. The study employes Granger Causality to identify the directions of causality between the markets. The findings revealed that there has been a mixed and strong indication of unidirectional and bidirectional causality between both the emerging and developed markets. The result illustrated that the developed countries act as a market leader especially during the pre, during and post crisis period, whereas the emerging countries act as a market follower. These results have significant implication for policy makers concerning the formulation of policy that could stabilize the economy, dwindle volatility and further contribute to the development of stock market. Besides, these findings could be necessity for the investors while making investment decisions that involves risk and also for hedgers to forecast risk and develop hedging strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ordinary Least Square coefficient of years of schooling in standard Mincer's (1974) equation may not reflect the effect of education on wages if it is correlated with ability of individual that also correlated with wages. Furthermore, productivity and skills between gender also may contribute differently on wages. Hence, this paper aims to estimate the economic returns to schooling on wages for Malaysia by using data gathered from the field survey of 1263 respondents in 2015. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we construct an ability index of individual during schooling and workplace to tackle the problem of omitted ability variable bias in OLS estimation. Then we compare this outcome with instrumental variable method by using family background as the instrument for education, taking into account the endogeneity problem. Second, we also investigate if the overall effect of education on wages reponds differently between genders by comparing both OLS and IV estimations. Our results indicate that family background is proven to be the best instrument for education, taking into account the endogeneity problem. Then, the IV rate of return for overall sample and split sample are higher than OLS. In regard of genders, the OLS suggests higher rate of return of men while IV estimates higher rate of return of women. These results have particularly important policy implications, concerning the government wage policies to achieve fair income between genders and thus contribute to the further development of Malaysian labor market efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]