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This study examines the impact of working capital management policies (WCMP) and macroeconomic variables on the profitability of 83 industrial firms listed on the JSE over the period 2010-2020. The system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach was employed in regression analysis to deal with the existence of endogeneity. Results establish that working capital investment policy (WCIP) is significantly and negatively related to firm profitability. A significant and positive relationship was found between working capital financing policy (WCFP) and firm profitability. Contrary to our expectations, interest rates demonstrated significant and positive relations with return on assets(ROA). Exchange rates and inflation rates proved to impact firm profitability significantly and negatively, which resulted in the study recommending JSE-listed industrial firms to pay special attention to the external environment. Economic growth influenced firm profitability positively and significantly, which aligned with the idea that GDP growth increases the average consumers' income per capita, increasing the goods and services consumed, enhancing profitability.

This article uses a logistic probability distribution approach to examine the effect of lecture attendance, aptitude test results, individual heterogeneity and pedagogic intervention on student performance for first-year microeconomics and second-year macroeconomics modules at a leading South African university. The research was motivated by the throughput concerns in South African institutions of higher education, where approximately one in four of the students enrolled complete their degrees in the minimum regulated time. Using secondary data of 630 and 360 first- and second-year students, respectively, the findings revealed that lecture attendance, aptitude score and having received a foreign high school education have a positive and statistically significant effect on academic performance. Students who received intervention and those using English at home performed better than others at second-year level. Based on these findings, a more stringent attendance policy, varied assessment measures, and wider intervention strategies, among others, are recommended to enhance performance.

Students' attendance and engagement with teaching and learning practices is perceived as a critical element for academic performance. Even with stipulated attendance policies, students still choose not to engage. The study employed a principal component analysis to analyze first- and second-year students' perceptions of the importance of the 12 teaching and learning practices used in the Economics modules. The results showed that first year students perceive lecturer consultation, ADO consultation, and revision classes as the most beneficial practices for their academic performance. Second-year students recognize interactive group learning practices as most beneficial for their academic performance; they also perceive weekly tutorials, PowerPoint lectures, small group tutorials, and revision classes as contributing the most to academic performance. Self-study and e-learning are perceived as the least beneficial by both streams of students. The main conclusion from this study was that first-year students are more likely to be solitary learners and prefer teaching and learning practices that involve one-on-one interaction with the instructor. On the other hand, second-year students tend to be more social learners, preferring teaching and learning practices that are in a group setup. This is a possible explanation of why they do not attend or engage with some teaching and learning practices.

This study evaluated oil price pass-through to economic growth in Nigeria. The motivation for this study originated from the need to understand the transmission channels and mechanisms through which sudden oil price changes affect economic output and to make recommendations on how to bring about output sustainability. This study employed the new Hamilton Index within the Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) environment to investigate the responses of macroeconomic variables to sudden changes in oil prices. It was observed that the structure of the variables in the transmission process of these macroeconomic variables to endogenous and exogenous shocks play key roles in the determination of the effectiveness of their influence on output growth. The study found that negative oil price movements have a stronger effect on economic growth than any other forms of oil price fluctuation. Interest rate and money supply were found to be effective macroeconomic policy in Nigeria that has the capacity of efficiently driving economic output. The study concludes that oil price is transmitted to economic output through the exchange rate, money supply and interest rate. The study recommends that Nigeria should adopt aggressive monetary control measures whenever there are positive or negative oil price shocks. Secondly, the interest rate should be efficiently used in times of oil price movements in order to ensure that economic growth in Nigeria is not compromised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses a logistic probability distribution approach to examine the effect of lecture attendance, aptitude test results, individual heterogeneity and pedagogic intervention on student performance for first-year microeconomics and second-year macroeconomics modules at a leading South African university. The research was motivated by the throughput concerns in South African institutions of higher education, where approximately one in four of the students enrolled complete their degrees in the minimum regulated time. Using secondary data of 630 and 360 first- and second-year students, respectively, the findings revealed that lecture attendance, aptitude score and having received a foreign high school education have a positive and statistically significant effect on academic performance. Students who received intervention and those using English at home performed better than others at second-year level. Based on these findings, a more stringent attendance policy, varied assessment measures, and wider intervention strategies, among others, are recommended to enhance performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The authors estimate an Engel curve for cigarette consumption in Japanese single households and compare it to that of family households. The study utilizes quarterly panel data for six regions for the period January 2002 through June 2011. The objective of the study was to evaluate and determine the cigarette consumption responsiveness of these household groups to expenditure changes, tax reforms, and other factors. Taking into account the short-term adjustment processes and long-term equilibrium, the authors adopt an error correction model as the analytic framework, where they estimate long- and short-term expenditure elasticities, tax effects, regional effects, and demographic effects. The estimation results show cigarette demand to be highly inelastic to expenditure changes in both household groups, both in the long- and short-term, confirming the findings of previous research. Cigarette tax increases were found to have no significant effect in reducing consumption in single households both in the long and short term, a result different from that of family households in Japan. [EconLit classification: D100, D120, D190]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]