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This study used data from the General Social Survey (2011) to examine the trends in intergenerational educational mobility in Canada for the 1940–1989 birth cohorts. To this end, the purpose of this study is to focus on the relationship between mothers' education and children's education.

The study estimated intergenerational regression and correlation coefficients and several mobility indices, namely, the Prais–Shorrocks index, immobility index, upward mobility index and downward mobility index.

The study found considerable gender differences with respect to the trends in these coefficients and indices. The study found that, over the period of study, the correlation coefficient slightly increased for sons while it decreased for daughters. The Prais–Shorrocks index, immobility index, upward mobility index and downward mobility index show that educational mobility has increased for daughters while that of sons has decreased over time. Finally, the relative educational opportunities indicators also suggest a similar result that educational mobility has increased for the daughters while it fell for the sons.

A number of studies used Canadian data to examine intergenerational educational mobility. However, no study particularly focused on the relationship between mothers' education and children's education. In recent years, women's labor force participation rate and employment rate increased significantly. Thus, it will be interesting to see how mothers' education is related to children's education in Canada.

The purpose of this paper is to use longitudinal Canadian data from the National Population Health Survey (1994-2006) to examine the impact of provincial unemployment rate on mental health as measured by the short form depression scale.

To control for the unobserved individual specific factors, the study utilized individual-specific fixed-effects model.

The study found that, for the overall model, provincial unemployment rate has a significant positive impact on depression. The study further examined the impact of unemployment rate on depression for a number of sub-groups based on gender, age, marital status, and education. The results suggest that the impacts of unemployment rate on depression are heterogeneous across different sub-groups.

The results of this study have important policy implications. Previous studies suggest that mental stress may lead to risky health behaviours such excessive drinking, substance use, and smoking. These risky health behaviours may have long term health consequences in terms of chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer, etc. Thus policy makers may consider taking appropriate steps to provide mental health support during the period of recession. Such support may also be helpful for the unemployed individuals who are too depressed to search for job.

Previous studies on this issue may suffer from potential bias since they omitted unobserved individual specific factors from the estimating equations. This paper has taken the opportunity of utilizing longitudinal Canadian Population Health Survey and adopts an individual specific fixed effects method to estimate the effects of macroeconomic conditions on mental health. All of the studies reviewed here used data from the USA. So far no study has examined the impact of unemployment rate on mental health using Canadian data. It is interesting to conduct a study using Canadian data since there are important differences between Canada and the USA with respect to labour market policies and health care systems.

This paper aims to examine real estate price volatility in Hong Kong. Monthly data on housing, offices, retail and factories in Hong Kong were analyzed from February 1993 to February 2019 to test whether volatility clusters are present in the real estate market. Real estate price determinants were also investigated.

Autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity–Lagrange multiplier test is used to examine the volatility clustering effects in these four kinds of real estate. An autoregressive and moving average model–generalized auto regressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model was used to identify real estate price volatility determinants in Hong Kong.

There was volatility clustering in all four kinds of real estate. Determinants of price volatility vary among different types of real estate. In general, housing volatility in Hong Kong is influenced primarily by the foreign exchange rate (both RMB and USD), whereas commercial real estate is largely influenced by unemployment. The results of the exponential GARCH model show that there were no asymmetric effects in the Hong Kong real estate market.

This volatility pattern has important implications for investors and policymakers. Residential and commercial real estate have different volatility determinants; investors may benefit from this when building a portfolio. The analysis and results are limited by the lack of data on real estate price determinants.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first study that evaluates volatility in the Hong Kong real estate market using the GARCH class model. Also, this paper is the first to investigate commercial real estate price determinants.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the reputational risk, which is elusive and difficult to measure due to the lack of its conclusive definition. Literature supports the notion that financial risks may translate into reputational risks that pose threat to bank performance. However, empirical investigations in this context are still at their nascent stage.

This study has used a panel dataset for the sample of 24 conventional and Islamic banks regarding the period 2007–2017 by using a structural equation model.

The results of this study show that reputational risk partially mediates the relationship between financial risks and the performance of conventional banks. However, for Islamic banks, the reputational risk remains insignificant as a mediator. This study provides significant implications to risk managers in banks, regulators and academics to understand the role of reputational risk linked to financial risks for the improvement of bank performance.

This study aims to add to the literature by measuring reputational risk through the shareholders reputational score index, which is used as a mediator to determine whether financial risks of banks affect the performance of conventional and Islamic banks in Pakistan.

The purpose of this research is to look into the governance–performance relationship in the context of critical firm characteristics, such as firm size.

Based on total assets, sample firms were classified as small or large. The governance index, which is based on 29 governance provisions covering the audit committee, board committee, ownership and compensation structure of the respective firm, measures governance quality among sample firms. A higher governance index indicates a higher level of governance quality and vice versa. Accounting and market value measures are used to determine firm profitability. The authors used the two-stage least square (2SLS) method of estimation of the model to eliminate the simultaneous equation bias.

Corporate governance (CG) appears to have a positive impact on accounting return and market indices (Tobin’s Q), but it has little impact on return on equity. In terms of firm size, larger companies profited more from better governance implementation than smaller firms that lacked these principles, thus improving CG. The findings indicate that small businesses should improve their governance mechanisms to reap the benefits of CG in terms of increased profitability.

There are certain drawbacks to this research. First, the authors omitted qualitative aspects of CG from the CG index, such as the board’s decision-making process, directors’ perceptions of the board’s position and directors’ age and qualifications. Such a qualitative component will improve the governance index in the future while building the governance index. Second, as the current study only looks at the nonfinancial sector, caution should be exercised before applying the findings to the entire population.

The findings show that companies that follow good governance standards have better accounting and market efficiency than those that do not. As a result, good governance practices can help firms in developing countries improve their performance. Academic researchers, regulators, investors, lenders and practitioners can find the findings useful in establishing a true relationship between firm performance and CG practices in Pakistan.

The relationship between governance and profitability in the context of firm size is examined in this research. Firms with varying resources and ability to implement CG codes have varying effects on profitability. To the authors’ knowledge, there was a gap in the literature that addressed this topic in the local context.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a normative perspective of employment relations in Islam.

The perspective on employment relations offered in this paper is based on a reading of the principal Islamic texts (the Qur'an and the hadith) and a review of the literature on Islamic economics.

Despite varied interpretations and practices of the economic system in Islam, it is possible to identify a common emphasis on ethical conduct of employers and employees and social justice in Islamic ideology.

Given the paucity of research on employment relations in Islam, the paper offers an original perspective on this topic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of different food choice motives on attitude and, subsequently, the impact of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control on the purchase intention of Pakistani ethnic food, based on the food choice motives theory and the theory of planned behaviour.

Using an intercept survey, data were collected from 559 local tourists coming from different areas of the country, who visited Swat, Gilgit and Muree regions of Pakistan, and the data were analysed using SmartPLS software.

In terms of direct effects, mood, familiarity, natural content and price were found to be significant predictors for attitude, whereas attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control were found to positively affect intention to purchase Pakistani ethnic food. In addition, attitude was found to serve as a mediator for the relationships between mood, familiarity, sensory appeal and price on purchase intention.

This study has shed some light on the food choice behaviour of domestic tourists opting for their own local cuisine in Pakistan, which is under-represented in the tourism and food research literature. We also tested an integrated model of food choice motives and the theory of planned behaviour in modelling purchase intention in the tourism perspective. The present study also adds to the existing literature on mediation by modelling attitude as a mediator between food choice motives and purchase intention in the context of a developing country.

This paper aims to formulate COVID-19 benchmarks that international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) have considered to recover from the sudden stopping of operations swiftly and consequences of COVID-19 pandemic; thus, to move forward toward readiness for both, the unpredictable spreading or disappearing of the virus (case of INGOs operating in Jordan).

This exploratory research has been informed by the broader social constructivism paradigm and the basics of grounded theory method to identify the common themes. Six semistructured interviews have been conducted with INGOs’ leaders. The findings have been categorized, triangulated and prioritized toward the final identification of benchmarks.

Seven COVID-19 benchmarks for INGOs’ effective responses during COVID-19 pandemic have been proposed, comprising of (1) donors’ policies and regulations, (2) needs, expectations and relevancy, (3) coordination, (4) staff management, (5) business continuation plans, (6) balanced short-term and long-term planning and (7) permanent adoption of successful modalities.

INGOs play a vital role in the lives of vulnerable people around the world through their international development and aid (IDA) projects. However, the restrictions of movements associated with COVID-19 pandemic drive more burden on these communities and interrupted their access to assistance and support. This paper helps to sustain the crucial support of INGOs to those people who need it.

COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the implementation of IDA projects, which added further obstacles toward the achievement of quality implementation of these projects. The proposed COVID-19 benchmarks help INGOs to overcome the consequences of pandemic on the near longer-term alike.

This paper aims to identify specific corporate governance determinants of asset quality in the Indian banking system and suggest a future course of action for research in the Indian banking industry. The results will guide other developing nations to handle poor asset quality in banks. Nations with economic interest in India can take cognisance from the results.

The authors identify the determinants of asset quality for the Indian banks using novel data from 2010 to 2019 through a dynamic panel data approach. The authors analyse 45 public and private sector banks using general method of moments.

The results indicate that intensity of board activities, board functioning and ownership concentration are significant determinants of asset quality. Furthermore, the study hypotheses on board independence and board size are rejected as they do not significantly impact the asset quality. The authors also call for further research on the qualitative aspects of gender diversity, board independence and special committee activity for better insights.

This is the first study to identify specific corporate governance determinants of asset quality for the Indian banking system using a dynamic panel data approach with data spanning over ten years from 45 banks. Unlike all other studies, the authors have used both bank-specific and macroeconomic variables as control variables, making the results accurate and reliable. The authors also recognise the persistent nature of asset quality.

This qualitative study explores the issue of library management support in providing a self-directed learning environment for research-support librarians which is an under-explored feature of librarianship in Malaysian public university libraries.

A total of nine research-support librarians purposely selected from these libraries took part in in-depth interview sessions. The responses were analysed using Miles and Huberman's technique, which involves data reduction, data display, conclusion-drawing and verification.

Five emerging themes and 31 sub-themes were identified. There was a general consensus among the respondents that their library management does provide research-support librarians with a self-directed learning environment to enhance their competencies as academic librarians. Nevertheless, these librarians also highlighted some challenges, issues and barriers related to the initiative and support received. Some suggestions are advanced for improvements to support self-directed learning by research-support librarians working in public university libraries.

Empirically, this study attempts to fill the gap in the knowledge that needs to be addressed from the perspective of Malaysian librarians, especially the research-support librarians, who serve in public universities in Malaysia, who have received little attention from local librarianship researchers.