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This paper examines the impact of Covid‐19 lockdowns on exports by Chinese cities. We use city‐level export data at a monthly frequency from January 2018 through April 2020. Differences‐in‐differences estimates suggest cities in lockdown experienced a ceteris paribus 34 percentage points reduction in the year‐on‐year growth rate of exports. The lockdown impacted the intensive and extensive margin, with higher exit and lower new entry into foreign markets. The drop in exports was smaller in (i) coastal cities; (ii) cities with better‐developed ICT infrastructure; and (iii) cities with a larger share of potential teleworkers. Time‐sensitive and differentiated goods experienced a more pronounced decline in export growth. Global supply chain characteristics matter, with more upstream products and industries that had accumulated larger inventories experiencing a smaller decline in export growth. Also, products that relied more on imported (domestic) intermediates experienced a sharper (flatter) slowdown in export growth. The rapid recovery in cities' exports after lockdowns were lifted suggests the policy was cost‐effective in terms of its effects on trade.

Why do some towns recover faster than others after intrastate conflict? Many important decisions about post-conflict recovery are made at the substate level, but little empirical work has investigated what causes differences in recovery outcomes within a country. This article suggests that proximity to ethno-religiously diverse neighbors slows a town’s post-conflict recovery. A town has ‘diverse neighbors’ if towns with different plurality ethno-religious groups are nearby. This hypothesis is tested by exploring variation in recovery speed among Iraqi towns after the 2014–17 Islamic State insurgency (ISIL). The article constructs 81-month panels of economic activity for 379 Iraqi settlements occupied by ISIL by using satellite-observed nighttime light emissions as a proxy for economic activity. The panels reveal large variation in post-conflict recovery among towns during the first year of peace. Village-level survey data are then used to construct a measure of neighbor diversity, which is combined with lighting-based recovery scores in spatial autoregression. The results show that greater neighbor diversity is robustly associated with slower settlement recovery. The neighbor diversity penalty cannot be fully explained by cleavages between groups ‘on opposite sides’ of the conflict; proximity to out-group neighbors appears to slow recovery even between wartime allies. Several explanations are considered, and this article suggests that the types of post-liberation controllers that arise in diverse areas – which tend to be substate militias rather than the government – may be one important mechanism.

Background Individuals who participate in outdoor sports are subject to an increased risk of developing skin cancer. To date, there has been no review examining skin cancer and sun protective behaviours specific to outdoor, water based sports. Therefore, this scoping reviews objectives were to (1) summarise volume and type of scientific literature available relating to skin cancer, (2) examine current sun protective behaviours and (3) identify knowledge gaps to inform future research. Method A scoping review was conducted to address the objectives following the PRISMA guidelines. Seven databases were searched; identified studies were screened based on title, abstract and full-text for outdoor water based sports which examined skin cancer and/or sun protective behaviours. Data was extracted, synthesised and critically appraised using a modified AXIS tool. Percentage frequencies were calculated, and key results were placed in tabular or graphical presentation. Results Nine cross sectional studies were identified, all defined as low level evidence. A combined sample of 4,377 participants across six countries and five water based sports showed BCC (71%) was the most common skin cancer, followed by melanoma (18%) and SCC (10%). The head (41%) and upper-limbs (27%) were the most common location. Conclusion This review highlights the minimal research available and demonstrates those in water based sports are at high risk of developing skin cancer. Due to difficulty adhering to sun protective behaviours, the most prevalent location is the upper body. Included studies were of low level evidence, providing opportunity for future research to expand upon the gaps in the current literature.

We analyze contract-level data on approved and rejected microloans to assess the impact of a new credit registry in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country with a competitive microcredit market. Our findings are threefold. First, information sharing reduces defaults, especially among new borrowers, and increases the return on lending. Second, lending tightens at the extensive margin as loan officers, using the new registry, reject more applications. Third, lending also tightens at the intensive margin: microloans become smaller, shorter, and more expensive. This affects both new borrowers and lending relationships established before the registry. In contrast, repeat borrowers whose lending relationship started after the registry introduction begin to benefit from larger loans at lower interest rates.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common emergency presenting among high risk patients. It is important to have a structured approach to clinical assessment, diagnosis and management of this potentially life-threatening emergency. Clinical and management pathways have improved over the last 10 years as clear guidelines have emerged. Newer diagnostic modalities have become available and will hopefully improve the pick-up rate of PE and reduce the morbidity and mortality. High level evidence presented by the American Society of Haematology and the European Society of Cardiology forms the basis for this review.

We examine whether firms’ tax uncertainty affect their trade credit and inventory investment policies. Using a measure of tax uncertainty based on an accounting reserve for contingent tax liability...

Firms actively participate in the production of the global value chain (GVC), which is an important driving force for economic development. Using a difference‐in‐difference method, our research shows that industries that are relatively more human‐capital intensive experienced a larger GVC position upgrading after 2003 than they had in prior years. Second, mechanism analysis shows that human capital expansion increases firms’ GVC position not only through an imported intermediate input effect but also through an innovation effect. Third, this study shows that increases in the college‐educated labor force have a heterogeneous effect on a firm's GVC position across firms’ various characteristics. Human capital expansion has the largest positive effect on state‐owned firms relative to foreign and domestic private firms. Human capital expansion has also significantly improved the GVC position of firms located in China's eastern and central regions. The findings of this study indicate that it helps upgrading the GVC position of Chinese firms.

Using confidential tax return data, we provide a unique research setting in which the Belgian notional interest deduction (NID) is replaced by the Allowance for Growth and Investment (AGI) as it is proposed by the European Commission. Our results show that the AGI would be a more viable option from a budgetary view. From a company view, however, introducing an AGI system would increase the probability of a higher effective tax rate (ETR). Especially large companies would be harmed as they would face a 7.6 percentage point higher probability of an ETR increase compared with SMEs. Furthermore, we find that there is a positive relationship between the equity ratio and the increased ETR, which is stronger for large firms compared to SMEs. This is in line with previous studies stating that large firms adjusted more aggressively to the NID by increasing their equity ratio more heavily than SMEs. However, large firms still face an ETR that is on average 10.4 percentage points lower compared with SMEs, indicating that the AGI is insufficient to undo the unequal level playing field between large and small companies. (JEL codes: H21, G32, H25, K34).

Employing Lennox’s (2000) methodology on a uniquely long time series of Spanish companies’ data, we find evidence of successful audit opinion-shopping through the firm switching decision. However, in contrast to Chen et al. (2016) in the Chinese setting, we find no evidence of successful opinion-shopping at the partner level. This supports the thesis that the audit market characteristics that are key to promote or deter opinion shopping might differ at the firm and partner level within a country, with consequences for audit quality. In addition, we provide evidence on the strategies that companies use to secure more favourable opinions. The results suggest that companies may prefer to opinion shop at the partner level, which is consistent with the argument that the costs and benefits associated with opinion-shopping are different at these two levels, and lead to different outcomes. We gratefully acknowledge helpful comments and suggestions from the editor (Edward Lee) and two anonymous reviewers, as well as from seminar participants at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, University of Navarra, University of Murcia, Zurich University, the XXIII Finance Forum, the 39th Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association, and the 2016 International Conference on Business Information. An early draft of the paper won the award for ‘Best Paper on Regulation’ at the XXIII Finance Forum. This award is sponsored by the Spanish Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV). This award implied presenting the paper at the premises of CNMV in Madrid and providing a summary of the paper for their March 2016 bulletin. The paper also was awarded with the best paper award of the Accounting and Finance section at the 2016 BAI Conference. A prior version of the paper focused on auditor switching was presented at the VIII Workshop on Empirical Research in Financial Accounting, and the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association We acknowledge financial contribution from the AECA Chair in Accounting and Auditing (2018-2019), the Spanish Ministry of Science & Innovation (ECO2016-77579 and PID2019-111143GB-C33), the Cátedra UAM-ICJCE/AT1, and Universitat Jaume I (research project funding 09I340/P11B2009-05).

The objective of this study is to summarize literature from the past 10 years on pediatric stone management with a focus on evidence generated from meta-analysis, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Systematic literature search was performed on May 26, 2020. The search was on publications from the past 10 years and limited to meta-analysis, systematic reviews, and relevant RCTs on pediatric urolithiasis. Summary of literature was clustered to stone etiology, diagnostics, medical management, and surgical management. Summary of evidence was extracted with GRADE criteria used to standardize the level and quality of evidence reported. A total of 32 articles (19 systematic reviews with meta-analysis, 4 systematic reviews, and 9 relevant RCTs) were included. We summarized the genetic association with pediatric stone formation, diagnostics, medical management such as dissolution and medical expulsion therapy, procedural efficacy, as well as safety for extracorporeal lithotripsy, retrograde intrarenal surgery, and percutaneous nephrolithotomy. We also evaluated each article’s approach to the comparison of outcome measures. Most of the available evidence was determined to be “very low” to “low” quality. Heterogeneity and low precision of the included studies led to downgrading using GRADE criteria. Relevant RCTs qualified as “high” to “uncertain” risk of bias in several domains of the study implementation and analysis. In the past decade, several systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and relevant RCTs that were mostly “very low” to “low” quality of evidence are available, and no definitive recommendations can be given to guide a pediatric urologist. We strongly recommend an individualized approach in the management of pediatric urolithiasis.

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the wage and leverage relationship, which supports the notion of strategic leverage. Unlike in previous papers, I use worker-firm matched data of Korea...

Research background: Wage inequalities are still part of an interesting policy-oriented research area. Given the developments in international trade models (heterogeneity of firms) and increasing availability of micro-level data, more and more attention is paid to wage differences observed within and be-tween firms. Purpose of the article: The aim of the paper is to address the research gap concerning limited cross-country evidence on a nexus of wage inequality?global value chains (GVCs), analysed from the perspective of wage inequality components within and between firms. Methods: This paper uses a large employee?employer database derived from the European Structure of Earnings Survey (SES), combined with sector-level indicators of GVC involvement based on the World Input-Output Database (WIOD). As a result, a rich database covering more than 7.5 million observations is created. The regression-based decomposition modelling technique developed by Fiorio and Jenkins (2010) is used to identify the contributions of different factors to wage inequalities, focusing on the components within and between firms. Findings & value added: The analysis presented in this paper aimed to show the contribution of GVC involvement, among various other factors, to the observed inequality of wages. Due to the use of a rich database that merges employer and employee data, the effects materialised with respect to different types of wages could be analysed separately, in particular components between and within firms. The general conclusion from the regression-based decomposition in log wages is that GVCs contribute marginally to the observed wage inequality in the European sample analysed in this paper. Some differences confronting the components within and between firms (the latter dominates) are observed; there is also certain intra sample heterogeneity in the estimated results (e.g. due to sector type or country group), but the general result is robust.

Subject. The article investigates the impact of trends in food prices and real public income on the affordability of food. Objectives. We determine the current situation in the affordability of food and make a short-term forecast of the demand and consumption of food products in the Krasnoyarsk Krai. Methods. The methodology was based on the comparative analysis and matching of the price for certain combinations of food products as per the actually existing consumption model and rational food consumption rates. Furthermore, we examined what made up the price for the combination of food products by product group. The article also traces the dynamics for 2017–2020. The study refers to evidence from the Krasnoyarsk Krai. Results. The average price for food products was found to exceed the actual consumption price by 12 percent in 2020. For the analyzable period, households' spending on food products and a combination of food products grew by 10.4 percent on average and 5.6 percent as per rational rates respectively. The actual consumption of bread and flour products, potato and meat products exceed the rate by 19 kg, 10.3 kg and 7 kg per annum respectively. The consumption of vegetable and fruits, dairy products are obviously lower than the rate. The actual consumption is dominated by dairy products (27.09%), meat products (23.37%) and chicken eggs (16.63%). According to studies, considering the current level of income, the acquisition of food products is significantly difficult for about 26 percent of people, while 43 percent of people simply cannot afford to buy food products by rational rates. Conclusions and Relevance. For the analyzable period, food products became less affordable for a significant number of people, which can get critical in the mid run. Considering the continuing growth in prices and a decline in income, the situation triggers threats to the social sustainability and economic security of the Krasnoyarsk Krai.

Financial constraints have been a significant obstacle to firms operating in developing countries. Prior studies show that foreign direct investment (FDI) helps to ease credit constraints for domestic firms. However, they only account for horizontal FDI spillovers. This paper therefore investigates both horizontal and vertical FDI spillovers using firm-level data from Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar (CLM). The key findings of this paper are threefold. First, FDI inflows lessen the financial constraints faced by local firms through partnership or joint venture. Second, an increasing share of FDI in horizontally and vertically related industries raises higher credit constraints for domestic firms. Third, the crowding-out effect of FDI is not uniform across domestic firms of different sizes. Therefore, policymakers should be aware of these possible negative spillovers and formulate policy to maintain FDI inflows while also ensuring the growth and survival of domestic firms.

The study explains the export pricing behaviors of Egyptian firms using detailed customs data and high-dimensional fixed effects. Firstly, it finds that more productive firms (as proxied by firms’ ...

PurposeThe authors provide firm-level evidence that external financing affects international trade in a way different from internal financing.Design/methodology/approachThe authors separate new entrants from incumbent exporters and investigate the roles of external and internal financing in export market participation and export quantity.FindingsThe authors find that external financing is of particular importance, as well as internal financing, in helping a firm become a new exporter. By contrast, external financing, unlike internal financing, is not significantly important for an incumbent exporter to stay in the international market. Regarding export quantity, a firm's internal financing is positively associated with more export quantity, whereas external financing is not.Originality/valueThe authors’ findings are consistent with the existence of significant fixed cost for entering the export market and external financing is particularly needed to cover such cost. Meanwhile, the financial need for maintaining the export status is much less and can be satisfied via internal financing.

This study investigates the existence of convergence in public-expenditures and its nine different sub-categories to reveal regional disparities in Turkey. To this end, we employ a club convergence analysis proposed by Phillips and Sul (in Econometrica 75(6):1771–1855, 2007) for 81 provinces of Turkey over the period between 2004 and 2018. The findings show that (i) except for social and environmental protection expenditures, total public expenditures and its seven sub-categories have multiple equilibria; (ii) there are major disparities across regions, especially between the eastern and western regions; (iii) spendings on education, health, and economic affairs expenditures might pose serious challenges for long-term development; (iv) expenditures on defense and economic affairs are the most important components of multiple equilibria found in total public expenditures. The existence of club convergence and the distribution of provinces across clubs propose some important policies which might help policymakers to reduce regional disparities amongst provinces.

This letter provides firm-level evidence that policy makers tailor trade policy to suit selected firms. It argues that firms with higher levels of specific assets find it more costly to reorganize production, and are hurt more by international competition. In response, policy makers grant more trade protection to firms with fixed assets. Since protectionism is costly, firms compete for it, which creates diffusion dynamics in which the protection granted to one firm affects the protection granted to others. This claim is tested utilizing the special role antidumping duties (ADDs) play in international trade, and combining petitions for ADDs with financial data on the firms filing them in a unique dataset. Using spatial autoregressive models, the authors find that firms with specific assets are granted more protection. However, diffusion dynamics differ within and between groups of firms producing the same good. This suggests that firms can partly shape their own level of trade protection.

Purpose Based on 9,281 firm-level survey data on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India, this study aims to investigate how access to different finance sources and collateral requirement facilitates the firm’s innovation activity across industries. Design/methodology/approach This paper used ordered logit regression models using Stata software for explanatory variables to measure the impact of explanatory variables on firm innovation performance. Firms’ innovation performance is measured through the aggregate innovation index obtained by adding up the no. of “new-to-firm” activities. Findings The empirical results reveal that external sources of funding impact innovation activity than other financing sources. Also, the requirement of collateral for financing impacts innovation performance significantly. This paper finds that firms funded by state-owned banks or government agency are more actively engaged in innovation activities. The firm’s size, ownership structure and location of the firm also show the varying innovation performance. This paper found variation in innovation performance across industries as well. Practical implications First, the present study underlines the significance of funding sources. Second, minimizing the need for collateral to obtain external finance boosts small firms’ innovation activity and will also trigger overall economic growth. Finally, while making policies for ownership transformation of state-owned institutions, policymakers should discuss these policies’ impact on innovative firms. Originality/value What facilitates innovation performance in an emerging market is missing in the literature for MSMEs, largely due to lack of data. It is reasonable not to generalize innovation knowledge in large firms to small firms because of the constraints, particularly MSMEs face.

This paper explores the relationship between financial constraints and firm participation in global value chains (GVC). We use a rich firm-level data belonging to the Indian manufacturing sector fo...

This paper extends and refines the concept of ICT-driven skills-biased technological change by disentangling the effects of information technologies (IT) and communication technologies (CT). Guided...

We examine to what extent domestic firms reap differential productivity gains from the presence of manufacturing affiliates of multinational firms in the home country (FDI spillovers), in the context of simultaneous participation in international trade through exporting and importing. FDI spillovers can occur within the industry (horizontal) and across industries due to client (forward) or supplier (backward) linkages of multinational firms, but the mechanisms underlying spillover effects may be attenuated if local firms are less reliant on inputs, clients, and competition in the domestic market. Fixed effects panel analyses on a sample of 4594 domestic Belgian firms during 2000-2007 reveal positive effects from horizontal, backward, and forward FDI spillovers on the productivity levels of domestic firms, as long as these firms do not engage in international trade. Horizontal spillovers from FDI are weaker for firms engaging in trade, while forward FDI spillovers do not benefit importing firms. Two-way traders benefit least from FDI spillovers. Forward and backward spillovers, are enhanced by human capital levels in local firms, while horizontal spillovers are reduced. The findings are broadly consistent with the notion that trade engagement and inward FDI can be substitutes in their effects on domestic firms’ productivity. ispartof: Eurasian Business Review vol:11 issue:1 pages:83-109 status: published

We examine how political conflicts affect trade, using both the Goldstein score that scales all political conflicts daily worldwide and the firm-country-product level data of Chinese imports. We find that political conflicts reduce Chinese imports in general. Specifically, (i) the imports of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are most reduced, and the effects mostly fall on imports of intermediate goods while not so much on capital goods; (ii) foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) are less negatively affected, because most of their trade is processing, which is less negatively affected by political conflicts than ordinary trade. These results are obtained via mechanisms in the mode of trade (processing vs. ordinary), variations in broad economic categories (BEC) and import boycotts and export controls.

Most of the foreign direct investment (FDI) studies on location determinants are based on macroeconomic characteristics. However, it is important to understand to what extent microeconomic obstacles hinder FDI. This study explores obstacles to FDI in Malaysia, based on firm‐level data. To overcome the problem of uncertainty in variable selection, Bayesian model averaging for logistic regression is employed. Using the Enterprise Surveys 2015 dataset for analysis, the Bayesian logistic regression approach provides robust findings on the importance of access to land, crime, and disorder as obstacles to FDI.

This paper studies productivity convergence to the regional and national frontiers among manufacturing firms in India, using panel data over the period 1999 to 2010. We find evidence that lagging firms converge to their national and regional frontiers, with faster speed of convergence to the national frontier than to their regional frontier. We extend our analysis to explore how firms��� participation in foreign markets (through exporting and investing abroad) affects the process of convergence. Our results suggest a ranking of firms��� speed of convergence based on their level of international engagement through exports, with non-exporters converging faster to their technological frontiers, followed by non-continuous exporters, and finally by continuous exporters. These results suggest that more established exporters are closer to the technological frontier and therefore have less scope to catch up than their less persistent counterparts and non-exporting firms. However, we did not find significant differences in the speed of convergence amongst exporting firms that have moved to the next stage of globalisation by investing abroad.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) conducted by exporting firms on their productivity.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses two Chinese firm-level datasets. To reduce the bias when merging the two datasets, this study uses a comprehensive link approach to obtain more observations. The propensity score matching method is employed together with the difference-in-difference and difference-in-difference-in-difference approaches to identify the casual effects.FindingsThe study finds that exporting firms become more productive through learning effect via OFDI, and the positive impact of OFDI on total factor productivity materializes very quickly but subject to diminishing return. The study also finds that state-owned enterprises gain less learning effect via OFDI than private-owned enterprises, and firms with higher export intensity or larger size tend to gain less improvement in productivity via OFDI.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to investigate empirically the impact of OFDI conducted by exporting firms on their productivity. In particular, the study analyzes three types of firm heterogeneous factors, namely, ownership, export intensity and size, in affecting exporting firms' learning effect via OFDI.

Several existing studies have documented a negative relationship between firm financial constraint and export activities but do not attempt to examine factors that could attenuate this relationship in Africa. In this paper, we examine the effect of financial constraint on exports in Africa and explore how the level of trust in countries where firms are located shapes this relationship. We combine the World Bank Enterprise Surveys with different measures of country-level personal and interpersonal trust computed from the Afrobarometer surveys of 19 African countries. Our results show that financial constraints negatively affect export activities. However, this negative effect is attenuated for firms that are located in trust-intensive societies. These findings are robust to different specifications. Interestingly, we find that small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa are more likely to be affected by financial constraints but also more likely to benefit from a higher level of both personal and interpersonal trust, while for larger firms only interpersonal trust matters.

Introduction: Physical therapists are required to perform tasks that predispose them to developing work related musculoskeletal disorders. The physical therapists personal and professional life can be affected by work related musculoskeletal disorders. High level evidence is lacking regarding work related musculoskeletal disorders. The purpose of this study was to combine information on prevalence, risk factors and the consequences of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in physical therapists. Material & Methods: A systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines.Three members independently searched the databases PubMed and other online sources including google scholar for relevant data from July 2014 to September 2020. Cross-sectional studies published in English language which reported work related musculoskeletal disorders in physical therapists were included. Studies involving physical therapy students and internees, having insufficient information about past or current work-related musculoskeletal disorders, sample size of physical therapists less than 50 and not published in peer reviewed journals were excluded. Results: Twenty one articles were included in current systematic review. The 1-year prevalence of workrelated musculoskeletal disorders among physical therapists ranged from 38.5% to 97.6%. The low back was the commonest affected body part. Treating large number of patients and manual therapy were the leading risk factors for developing work related musculoskeletal disorders. The most common consequences were modifying treatment techniques and reducing work hours. Conclusion: Prevalence of work related musculoskeletal disorders are high among physical therapists. The nature of physical therapy job presents significant risk factors which can lead to work related musculoskeletal disorders.

This paper employs euro area firm-level data covering the years 2002–18 to examine the impact of cross-border debt flows on the domestic allocation of credit across firms conditional on their profitability. As only debt flows driven by global push factors are exogenous with respect to domestic credit allocation, I overcome the endogeneity of debt flows by instrumenting them with a measure of global uncertainty (VIX). My results show that debt flows raise the credit growth rates of low performing firms significantly more than those of high performing firms. This result is driven by domestic banking sectors with lower capitalization.

This study empirically investigates the role of political connections in corporate environmental spending. It employs a sample of listed Chinese firms from polluting industries within the 2010–2013 period. Our empirical results show that having politicians as directors reduces the magnitude of discharge fees. We also find that such reductions are more pronounced in firms with a higher ratio of politically connected directors (i.e., listed Chinese polluting firms that are privately controlled). This negative relationship is robust to various model specifications (e.g., a sample of polluting firms after addressing the sample selection bias and reverse causality without an increase in new investment). Moreover, we observe that the negative relationship between political connections and discharge fees is stronger in listed Chinese polluting firms located in more polluted regions. Meanwhile, a polluting firm's incentive to engage in environmental protection, measured by firm‐level environmental awards (incidents), alleviates (exacerbates) the negative relationship. Finally, the impact of politically connected directors on discharge levies is explicitly driven by having local officials and officials from the home province as directors.

Based on an extended three-step CDM model, this paper addresses the impacts of research and development (R&D) and information and communication technology (ICT) on firm productivity for the World Bank innovation survey data of China. The study includes ICT investment and R&D as the two main inputs into innovation and productivity. We find that R&D and ICT investments positively affect product innovation and process innovation, with R&D being more important for innovation and productivity, and ICT being more important for innovation and no direct effect on productivity. We conclude that R&D and ICT investments increase the probability of product innovation and process innovation, which increase firm’s productivity, suggesting that R&D and ICT investments indirectly affect productivity through innovation.

The COVID-19 episode has left the institutions worldwide, which were earlier reluctant to change their traditional pedagogical approaches, with no choice than an emergency shift to virtual learning, creating several arguments associated with digital infrastructure, digital divide, digital literacy, technical and pedagogic skills of teachers, digital contents and so on. With this background, this study intended to assess the implementation mechanism of COVID-19-lockdown-induced emergency online learning at undergraduate level in Assam, its effectiveness, and finally the problems faced therein, from the perspective of students’ experience and satisfaction. Primary data were collected from 132 undergraduate students drawn at random from different provincialized colleges in Assam through using a questionnaire in Google Form structured on the basis of available literature. The result revealed that 46.21% students perceive emergency online learning partially effective, 34.09% as effective, and 19.70% as ineffective. Poor Internet connectivity, irregular electricity, high cost in data plans, lack of compatible devices, lack of conducive environment at home, lack of technical and pedagogic skills of teachers, insufficient students’ engagement and so on, turned out to be the main challenges of online learning. Thus, the findings sufficiently yield the need of collaborative effort to improve digital infrastructure, reduce cost involvement and well-structured teachers’ training on pedagogical and technical skills. Creating, adopting and evaluating innovative techniques and tools, student-friendly contents, and above all a positive attitude are next to none measures to be accelerated for inclusive and effective online delivery of higher education in India in coming days.

Using firm-level data, we document that politically connected firms (PCFs) create more jobs than unconnected firms in Lebanon. We observe, however, that the presence of PCFs in a sector is correlat...

Using loan level data on mortgage loans originated by Dutch banks during 1996 to 2015, we analyse the determinants of the incidence of non-performance. We find that both the originating loan-to-value ratio (OLTV) and the debt-service-to-income ratio are significantly positively associated with the probability of non-performance. The results suggest that mortgages with government-loan-guarantees perform better. Moreover, several mortgage loan and borrower characteristics, such as the (interest-only) loan type and the underwater status of the borrower, increase credit risk. Our model predictions suggest a novel policy implication: in order to avoid acceleration of non-performance probabilities, the OLTV-limit should be set to about 70–80% for uninsured mortgages, and to about 90% for those with mortgage insurance.

PURPOSE: The life expectancy for people with spina bifida has increased, thus resulting in greater need for guidelines in urologic care in order to protect normal renal function, to develop strategies for urinary continence, and to advance independence through adult years. METHODS: The English literature was assessed from 2002–2015; greater than 300 publications identified. Case reports and opinion pieces were eliminated leaving 100 for in depth review. Clinical questions were then established for each age group that allowed for focused assessment. RESULTS: There was no Level 1 evidence for any of the defined clinical questions. This resulted in group consensus for all questions throughout all age groups. Guidelines were provided for identifying a symptomatic urinary infection, the role of urodynamic bladder testing and identification of bladder hostility, determining methods of renal function assessment and surveillance, the initiation of continence control, and transitioning to self-care through the teen and adult years. CONCLUSION: Urologic guidelines continue to be based on clinical consensus due to the lack of high level evidence-based research. Further research is required in all aspects of urologic management. While not the “Standard of Care,” these guidelines should be considered “Best Practice”.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the: 1) quality of articles cited in systematic reviews (SRs); 2) methodological quality of the SRs; and 3) impact of quality on level 1A evidence. METHODS: SRs related to musculoskeletal physical therapy interventions were identified. The methodological quality of the SRs and articles cited by the SRs were assessed by two blinded reviewers. Data analysis was performed by a third blinded researcher. Additional comparisons were made based on the Journal Impact Factor, spin, financial bias, and conflict of interest. RESULTS: Twenty-four SRs were identified; 21/24 SRs had ‘critically low’ quality on the AMSTAR 2. Thirty-four percent of included studies were ‘low quality,’ and 58% of SRs included studies that had unreported external validity. One-half of the SRs represented ‘spin,’ and one-third of the SRs generated conclusions based on low-quality clinical trials. DISCUSSION: The ‘critically low’ SRs methodological quality was exacerbated by low-quality research inclusion. Most SRs failed to follow best practices, including prospective registration and integration of professional librarians in the search process. Based on the high proportion of SRs that include low-quality trials and overall low methodological quality, further discussion regarding practice recommendations on level vs. quality of evidence is warranted. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1a

This paper examines the effect of export value-added tax (VAT) rebate policy on the margins of exports in terms of export value, quantity and price. Treating the VAT rebate adjustment implemented in July 2007 as a quasi-natural experiment, we find that a reduction in the export VAT rebate rate has significantly reduced export value and quantity with an incomplete pass-through to export price. The estimated responses to the rebate are generally higher than those to exchange rate fluctuations and comparable to those to tariff changes.

The paper investigates related variety’s role in enhancing firm productivity in South Korea’s environmental industry using the 2016 Environment Industry Survey. Results suggest related variety is positively associated with firm productivity. However, it was not significant for every establishment: it did contribute to the increased productivity of small environmental establishments in the service sector and those which perform R&D.

The Philippines is a country that faces many development challenges, including providing reliable and good quality electricity. Access to good quality electricity connection matters because it affe...

Inter and intra seasonal trends in livelihoods options have been reported at country and rarely at ward level in Zimbabwe. Evidence based on local level trends in livelihoods options is rare. This study thus reviewed data on livelihoods activities based on the Agriculture Food Security Monitoring System (AFSMS) surveillance system. It was conducted by the Department of Crop and Livestock Production formerly Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services (AGRITEX) in four wards of Murewa District over 5 seasons from 2010 to 2014. It was done to document local trends in livelihoods options over time for improved food security. The review consulted AGRITEX records, secondary data from web and other public documents. The results showed that income generating activities and livelihoods options at local ward level fluctuate within the farming season and across seasons. However, contributing factors were not ascertained in this study. Casual labour and market gardening were major sources of livelihoods in the wards under study in contrast to generalised extension reports which indicate crop production as a major livelihood option in the study district. The paper provides local level evidence on trends of livelihoods options and argues for diversified livelihoods coping strategies and adoption of extension messages that go beyond crop and livestock production to include other non–farm (off -farm) based livelihoods options such as brick moulding, arts and crafts. Key words: Trends in livelihoods, socio-economic, extension, income generation, food security, local level.

The objective of the paper is to estimate the asymmetric response of firms for prices to supply and demand shocks. Firms give an asymmetric response to supply and demand shocks while setting at a price, and the prices are upward flexible and downward rigid to changes in the determinants. Asymmetric response to the cost of raw material is highest. Moreover, the seasonal factors have the lowest degree of asymmetric response. Firms give an asymmetric response to different shocks, with respect to a price increase and decrease, and across variables of demand-side and supply side. The central bank has to focus more on stabilization in response to supply shocks than to demand shocks because supply shocks are found more important than demand shocks to change the prices of firms. Measures should be taken to prevent the possible effects of adverse supply shocks.

We study the impact of anticorruption efforts on firm performance, exploiting an unanticipated corruption crackdown in China’s Heilongjiang province in 2004. We compare firms in the affected regions with those in other inland regions before and after the crackdown. Our main finding is an overall negative impact of the crackdown on firm productivity and entry rates. Furthermore, these negative impacts are mainly experienced by private and foreign firms, while state-owned firms are mostly unaffected. We present evidence concerning two potential explanations for our findings. First, the corruption crackdown may have limited bribery opportunities that helped private firms operate. Second, the corruption crackdown may have interfered with personal connections between private firms and government officials to a greater extent than institutional connections between state-owned firms and the government. Overall, our findings suggest that corruption crackdowns may not restore efficiency in the economy, but instead lead to worse economic outcomes, at least in the short run (JEL L2, M1, O1).

This paper investigates the impact of technological innovation associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) on firm wage levels using longitudinal firm-patent data for 27 OECD countries. The study finds that 4IR technological innovations raise firm wage levels, and this wage-boosting effect is stronger than that generated by non-4IR innovations. We also find evidence that the wage-boosting effect only appears amongst firms in high technology sectors and firms innovating in core technologies.JEL classification: O31, O33.

This paper introduces a new methodology to identify space-time patterns of regional resilience using a micro-level approach. The novel empirical tool combines geographically weighted regression with panel stochastic frontier analysis with endogenous covariates. The analysis is implemented on a panel of farm holdings operating in the Italian wine industry, focusing on the impact of a major institutional change. The results show the effectiveness of the new procedure in identifying geographical clusters of wine producers who reacted to the shock in similar ways. The responses are found to be homogeneous within specific territories and heterogeneous between regions.

We use firm-level data from ASEAN5 to examine the significance of tax-motivated profit shifting by multinational enterprises and to analyze how anti-avoidance measures mitigate the profit shifting. We show that (1) tax-motivated profit shifting is statistically and economically significant, especially for manufacturing firms, (2) auditing and transfer-pricing scrutiny is more effective in reducing profit shifting than documentation requirement alone and (3) tax-motivated profit shifting is prominent for large firms, while anti-tax avoidance measures result in the absence of profit shifting detected from small manufacturing firms. The findings have important implications for developing countries with weak governance but dependent on MNEs.

Radical nephroureterectomy is the mainstay of surgical treatment for upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC), a disease which comprises approximately 5% of urothelial malignancies. Minimally-invasive and nephron-sparing interventions have been explored, although thus far have not shown comparable oncologic outcomes except in a relatively narrow set of patients. Due to the relative rarity of the disease, it has taken decades and multi-disciplinary efforts to sufficiently identify prognostic factors of oncologic outcomes. Despite these efforts, however, oncologic outcomes of nephroureterectomy have remained remarkably stable over the past 30 years. New techniques, such as laparoscopic and robotic surgery, have been applied to this procedure. High level evidence regarding equivalent oncologic outcomes is lacking and open surgery remains the standard of care for high-stage disease, although there is a role for laparoscopic and robotic nephroureterectomy. The importance of bladder cuff removal in improving oncologic outcomes has been broadly accepted, although there is no consensus as to the most oncologically appropriate technique. There does appear to be evidence that endoscopic techniques confer worse oncologic control. The role of lymphadenectomy remains controversial, although there is evidence that increased nodal yield could have oncologic benefit. Given disease heterogeneity and varied technical approaches to the procedure, no consensus standardized template has been identified. There is level 1 evidence for the use of intravesical chemotherapy peri-operatively and that this intervention can improve the risk of intravesical recurrence. Advances in systemic neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy have yielded promising results and are likely to become standard of care for patients without contraindications. Immunotherapy and targeted biologic agents are also likely to improve the surgical efficacy of radical nephroureterectomy as well. Ultimately, more high level evidence is needed to identify successful surgical and medical approaches to UTUC and multi-institutional collaboration is critical to this progress.