Search results

The stability maintenance system has played an essential role in maintaining social stability although it also has brought about social problems worthy of attention. Admittedly compensation-based stability maintenance policy can address the appeals of citizens whose rights are infringed and the dissolving effect in the provision of compensation can save the cost of stability maintenance but such stability maintenance system lacks equilibrium.

The establishment of a strict assessment system for stability maintenance performance can encourage the stability maintenance authorities to eliminate the “fuse effect” as much as possible and ensure the effective implementation of the stability maintenance system. However, the rigorous stability maintenance performance assessment also provides the possibility for profit-driven petitions.

Due to the continuous accumulation of social dissatisfaction and the lack of stability maintenance equilibrium in the implementation of the compensation-based stability maintenance policy, public governance will fall into a stability maintenance paradox of “greater instability resulting from stability maintenance”.

The provision of sufficient means for the people to protect their interest by implementing measures such as strengthening the rule of law mechanisms is the key to achieve long-term social stability.

Revenue stability has been an important policy objective for state government administrators. This study explores whether the effect of revenue diversification on revenue volatility varies in terms of the instability of a state’s economic base. To empirically answer the question, an econometric model that explores a series of factors that could affect revenue stability is estimated using panel data on 47 state governments during the years 1986-2004. The findings indicate that revenue diversification reduces revenue instability for states that are economically stable. However, the revenue-stabilizing effect of diversification diminishes as the economic instability of a state increases. Although revenue diversification has been advocated as a desirable practice for sub-national governments, this study indicates that the benefits of revenue diversification are not always clear and its practice should be moderated by the conditions of a state’s economic base.

Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every person in a free society to control his/her own labor and property without government intervention beyond what is necessary to protect and maintain freedom itself. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between economic freedom, inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade flows.

The authors test a moderated mediation model of the effects of economic freedom on trade flows with the objective of exploring the mediation effects of FDI and the moderating effects of government stability.

Based on a sample of 155 countries from different geographical areas, the study shows that economic freedom is associated with inward FDI, which, in turn, predicted trade flows. Furthermore, government stability moderated the relationship between economic freedom and FDI.

This study goes beyond the traditional focus on the macro determinants of trade flows and explores the link between economic freedom and trade flows, and the roles of inward FDI and political stability in the context of this relationship. It also provides a novel methodological approach to examine this relationship.

This study investigates how bank competition affects financial stability and whether government intervention contributes to shaping this relationship in North African countries.

A review of the literature on the subject was conducted, combined with an empirical analysis that used a two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) and a sample of 45 banks operating in North African countries over the period 2005–2019.

The findings reveal a quadratic relationship between competition and banking stability in North African countries. Competition–stability view and competition–fragility view could be applied at the same time for North African banks. Additionally, in this context, results highlight a negative impact of government intervention on financial stability in a competitive financial sector. North African banks operating in a high government intervention quality environment tend to engage in high-risk investments. Robustness checks with alternative measures of competition and banking stability also show consistent results.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the North African context has been explored to determine the role of the quality of government intervention in the relationship between competition and banking system fragility. This paper seeks to cover the shadow field in existing literature through further new information. Thus, it contributes to the emerging market banking literature by showing that both high and low levels of competition can improve financial stability in North African countries. Moreover, it expands its contribution by displaying the moderator effect of intervention quality on the bank competition–stability relationship.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the earnings quality of politically connected firms is affected by changes in political stability and government effectiveness in a developing country.

This study uses a sample of 2,073 firm-year observations from 349 firms listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange from 2003 to 2012 to examine how political stability and government effectiveness affect the earnings quality of politically connected firms, relative to non-politically connected firms. A two-stage model is used to address self-selection issues in the choice of firms to establish political connections.

This study finds that increased government effectiveness reduces the benefits of political connections, requiring politically connected firms to be more responsive to market pressures and resulting in higher earnings quality. However, increased political stability enhances the certainty of benefits from political connections, reducing the need for politically connected firms to respond to market pressures and resulting in lower earnings quality.

For policymakers, these results indicate that different dimensions of political and economic development can affect the incentives of firms with political connections in different ways.

This study finds that the earnings quality of politically connected firms increases as government effectiveness improves, but it decreases as the political environment becomes more stable.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of companies is influenced by the barriers and opportunities created by three factors characterising a country’s governance landscape: democracy, political stability and regulatory quality. Additionally, this study separately explains the influence of the three country governance factors on the ESG performance of companies and how they are affected by the profitability of the company.

Fixed effects multiple linear regression is performed on 6,035 firm-year observations drawn from 27 countries relating to 1,207 unique constituents of the S&P Global 1200 index for a five-year period from 2015 to 2019. Clustered standard errors robust to heteroscedasticity and serial correlation are estimated for a specification that includes Refinitiv ESG scores as the dependent variable, selected Worldwide Governance Indicators as the independent variables and several country- and firm-level controls.

The study finds that companies’ ESG performance is higher in countries with a lower level of democracy and political stability, and corporate governance performance is higher in countries with higher regulatory quality. A component-level analysis finds significant variation in the results across the different ESG pillars. Firm profitability moderates the relationship between country-level governance factors and companies’ ESG performance.

The study reveals that national governments can prompt companies to enhance their governance performance, invariably leading to greater engagement in sustainability by improving their regulatory environment and enforcement mechanisms. Thus, the implementation of regulations targeting corporate environmental and social performance is not always needed to prompt better corporate ESG performance.

This study shows that internationalised companies proactively work towards achieving sustainability in countries where the country governance landscape is ineffective and inadequate to enable it.

This study addresses the association between country-level governance and firm-level ESG performance, in contrast to firm-level corporate social responsibility disclosure that has been the focus of prior research. As disclosures can be symbolic and may not reflect actual ESG performance, the results of prior studies examining the relationship between country-level governance performance and corporate social responsibility disclosure is inappropriate to explain the factors affecting the ESG performance of companies.

Discusses the heritage of John Maynard Keynes in terms of application and results of his new economic philosophy over the last four decades. Compares the Keynesian school of thought with other classical and contemporary economists in relation to foundations of monetary and economic analysis, the economics of stable equilibrium, and the economics of disequilibrium. Comments on Keynes’ concept of economic stability, his view on the instability of money and monetary reform, his concept of monetary policy and of the pure theory of money, and his misjudgement of the mixed nature of the modern gold standard. Examines the provisions of the US Federal Reserve Act (1913), focusing on the Federal reserve systems’ nature and functioning, cited by Keynes as a prototype of a modern gold standard. Concludes with an examination of the international aspect of the modern gold standard.

Decreasing revenues among local governments across the country have placed an increased focus on governmental financial practices. For states with local government financial oversight organizations, the ratios and other benchmarks used to assess fiscal stability face increased scrutiny. This study examines financial reports sent to North Carolina’s financial oversight body, the Local Government Commission (LGC), to determine the types of operational and policy practices that can lead to fiscal stress based on guidelines established by the LGC. Findings indicate that lowering levels of fund balance, increased salaries, increased debt service levels, and the presence of a countywide water system all increased the probability of a county government receiving notice of potential financing problems requiring immediate action.

While extant literature explores the influence of institutions on the national innovation system (NIS), most research has either focused on specific institutional aspects or treated institutions as a unified entity. This study aims to examine the effect of various institutional factors on a country’s NIS.

The conceptual model was empirically validated using regression analysis. The study sample comprised a total of 84 countries.

This study identifies and empirically validates a comprehensive set of institutional factors. It also highlights the significant institutional factors (including political stability, government effectiveness, ease of resolving insolvency and the rule of law) that can help improve a country’s NIS.

The research provides practical implications for organizations and policymakers seeking to understand and foster an innovative culture within the NIS. Policymakers are encouraged to develop a nurturing environment within the NIS by focusing on significant institutional factors. Organizations are encouraged to closely monitor developments in the NIS of a country to make informed strategic decisions at the business, corporate and international levels.

This study aims to empirically identify investment incentive preference segments for international logistics zones from the manufacturer's perspective.

Eight critical investment incentives were identified, based on the following factors: cost, agglomeration, resource, port, policy, political stability, location and transport, and economic. Cluster analysis was subsequently performed to group respondents on the basis of their factor scores. Three groups or segments were identified: firms that preferred political stability and location factors; those which preferred low‐cost and port‐related factors; and those which preferred agglomeration effect and resource factors. Six factors, i.e. cost, agglomeration effect, resource, port, policy, and political stability, differed significantly across the three segments.

Results suggest that political stability is the most important incentive, followed by corporate tax incentives, government administration efficiency, labor cost, and energy cost.

This study is a first attempt to understand investment incentive preferences for an international logistics zone from the manufacturers' perspective and to segment investors into different groups.