Search results

The global labor market has been upended and a new landscape has emerged. New models for ensuring the value and relevance of post-secondary education are needed. Learners need better understanding of the value and relevancy which the education provides and more immediate return on the educational investment. Education providers must ensure the relevance of the credentials. Employers require transparency into skills an individual possesses based on the credentials they hold. New models are needed to guide an understanding of credentials so that all have equitable pathways to opportunity. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.

The authors in this paper discuss how Western Governors University implemented a Unified Credential Framework (UCF) for ensuring credentials are relevant, verified, transparent and portable. The UCF is predicated on the use of skills as an underlying foundation.

Using a structured theory for understanding skills and micro-credentials creates more transparency into what post-secondary credentials represent, and the value they hold for individuals, employers and education providers.

This paper represents a use case where the proposed solution is still emergent. Additional research is warranted as longitudinal data become available on student outcomes and impacts.

This paper presents a model that any organization can implement for clearer line of sight into the value and relevance of post-secondary credentials.

This study investigates the factors that influence citizens trust in public leaders [i.e. presidents, members of parliament (MPs) and local government leaders (LGs)] in 34 countries in Africa between 2019 and 2021.

Individual-level data with a sample size of 48,084 was obtained from the Afro-Barometer round 8 survey only and analyzed using multivariate binary logistic regression.

Several important and intriguing observations were made from this analysis: (1) the performance of public leaders influences citizens trust in their leaders; (2) the perceived corruption of public leaders and civil servants and the level of corruption influence citizens trust in public leaders; (3) perceived neighborhood problems (i.e. fear of violence, fear of terrorism and service delivery) influence citizens trust in their public leaders and (4) the socio-demographic characteristics of citizens (i.e. age, religion, education, location, employment and political party affiliation) influence citizens trust in their public leaders.

This study is exceptional in two ways: (1) it examines and compares citizens trust in public leaders across different levels, i.e. presidents, MPs and LGs in Africa and (2) it examines and compares the factors influencing citizens trust in public leaders in Africa comparatively.

This study investigates the factors influencing household financial choices in Malawi. The authors also compare how household financial decisions differ in urban and rural areas.

The authors utilize the logit model to examine the factors that influence household financial decisions using the Malawi Integrated Household Survey 2019–20, while Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition is used to estimate the variations in household financial decisions between urban and rural areas.

The authors find that the likelihood of saving increases with income, secondary and tertiary education, and age. The likelihood of saving also decreases with household size and remittances. Additionally, the authors report that marriage reduces the likelihood of loans, whereas sex, age, and income raise the likelihood of loans. According to this study’s findings, income discrepancies between urban and rural samples account for most observed household financial variations. The authors also find that most of the observed variations in household financial decision-making between urban and rural households are reduced when income equality, participation in agriculture, university education, and household size are considered.

Using data from the Malawi Integrated Household Survey 2019–20, this research analyzes the components that affect household financial decisions. While most studies only look at one component of household finances, this study concurrently addresses debt and savings. The study also evaluates whether changes in the variables between urban and rural households impact those households' financing choices.

Critiques of international business (IB) have long pointed to the weaknesses in the understanding of context. This has ignited debate on the understanding of institutions and how they “matter” for IB. Yet how institutions matter ultimately depends on how IB applies institutional theory. It is argued that institutional-based research is dominated by a narrow set of approaches, largely overlooking institutional perspectives that account for institutional diversity. This paper aims to forward the argument that IB research should lend greater attention to comparing the topography of institutional configurations by bringing political economy “back in” to the IB domain.

Using principal components analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis, the authors provide IB with a taxonomy of capitalist institutional diversity which defines the landscape of political economies.

The authors show institutional diversity is characterised by a range of capitalist clusters and configuration arrangements, identifying four clusters with distinct modes of capitalism as well as specifying intra-cluster differences to propose nine varieties of capitalism. This paper allows IB scholars to lend closer attention to the institutional context within which firms operate. If the configurations of institutions “matter” for IB scholarship, then clearly, a quantitative blueprint to assess institutional diversity remains central to the momentum of such “institutional turn.”

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of institutional theory, serving as a valuable resource for the application of context within international business. Further, our taxonomy allows international business scholars to utilise a robust framework to examine the diverse institutional context within which firms operate, whilst extending to support the analysis of broader socioeconomic outcomes. This taxonomy therefore allows international business scholars to utilise a robust framework to examine the institutional context within which firms operate.

This paper aims to study the relationship between working while studying in college/university and education mismatch among employed youth in the Zambian labour market.

The study uses data from the 2014 School-to-Work Transition Survey and a multinomial logit model to examine three education-mismatch categories: undereducated, matched and overeducated. The paper also examines heterogeneities by education level and gender and uses empirical and subjective approaches of education mismatch.

The evidence shows that employed youth who worked while studying have a higher likelihood of having well-matched jobs. The subgroup analysis by education level reveals no significant relationship between working while studying among employed youth with higher education (secondary and above). However, employed youth with lower education (primary and lower) are less likely to be mismatched for the job. The linkage between the education system and the labour market needs to be strengthened to support a smoother school-to-work transition for youth. Additional support to enable exposure to the right type of work during youth's college or university studies could increase job match and reduce labour market inefficiencies.

The paper provides insights into a significant challenge faced by youth in developing countries, i.e. finding a suitable job for youth's level of education.

The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 was welcome globally, mainstreaming sustainability in all sectors, including education and training under Goal 4, which advocated “inclusive and equitable quality education and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all”. However, is it realistic to attain a substantially equitable adult education policy amidst the hegemony of neoliberal regimes and utilitarian approaches? Our data, drawn from the OECD Survey of Adult Skills and the European Adult Education Survey (AES), highlight, in alignment with relevant research, that education and training opportunities are still significantly unequal, failing to reach those adults more at risk, reproducing a “Matthew” effect. Against this backdrop, the present policy brief reiterates important parameters that have emanated from relevant research, which can formulate a set of concrete measures that bear the potential to facilitate the “unreached” not simply to participate, but also to substantially benefit from adult education, mitigating social inequalities.

This paper investigates the relationship between health and labour market participation considering the potential role played by the presence of children and elderly persons (with/without disabilities) in Italian households.

The authors use longitudinal data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and full-information maximum likelihood to estimate a two-equation model (one equation for labour force participation and one for health status) with instruments to address the endogeneity of the labour force participation choice. The model is estimated separately by gender.

The authors find that while the presence of children, elderly persons or both is positively associated with the health status of both genders, the presence of disabled elderly persons exerts a negative role. As for participation, interesting differences emerge. The presence of children discourages women's participation but is positively associated with men's labour force participation. Interestingly, a caring role for elderly persons without disability emerges for both genders when the presence of children is combined with that of elderly people. Gender differences are also at work for the role of childcare services and elderly and/or disabled home care/assistance.

The findings indicate a possible caring role for elderly persons without disabilities, neutralizing the effect of the presence of children on the labour force participation of both genders. The results also suggest that greater coverage of care services should increase the active participation of women in the labour market.

This study was designed to assess the predictors of citizens' trust in public leaders in Ghana. Specifically, it assesses the effect of eight trust variables—competence/ability, integrity, communication, benevolence, political/quality of governance, rational/economic, risk-taking and socio-demographic characteristics—on citizens' trust in public leaders—the president, members of parliament (MPs) and metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs)—in Ghana from 2016 to 2018.

Summary statistics, bivariate correlation and binary logistic regression were employed to analyze 2,400 responses of Ghanaians obtained from the Afro-Barometer round seven surveys on Ghana (2016–2018).

The results reveal that competence/ability, that is to say, the performance of the president, MPs and MMDCEs, influence citizens' trust in these leaders. Furthermore, communication, benevolence, rationality, risk-taking and socio-demographic variables were significant predictors of citizens' trust in the president. Likewise, competence/ability, communication, politics, benevolence and socio-demographic variables were predictors of citizens' trust in MPs. Additionally, competence/ability, communication, integrity, politics, benevolence and socio-demographic variables influence citizens' trust in MMDCEs. In short, the rationality and risk-taking variables only influence trust in the president, while the political variables influence trust in MPs and MMDCEs. However, integrity influences trust in MMDCEs. Future studies can investigate the factors that account for these differences to augment the current literature.

This article is unique because it examines and compares citizens' trust in three categories of public leaders—the president, MPs and MMDCEs—in Ghana using nationally representative data.

In this paper, the authors attempt to understand how labour market attachment during the ages of 30–59 influences individuals' transition out of the labour market.

Using high-quality Swedish register data, the authors follow individuals born in 1950 and observe their labour market attachment during mid-life and their exit from the labour market.

The authors find evidence that labour market attachment in different stages of the career is differently related to exit from the labour market. At the age of 30, as well as between the ages 50–59, low attachment is related with earlier exit from the labour market. On the contrary, low labour market attachment during the ages 40–49 is related with later exit from the labour market. However, regardless of age, lower labour market attachment increases the risk of work-related benefit receipt in the exit year. The authors also find evidence that gender, migration status and childhood socioeconomic disadvantages may represent obstacles to longer working lives, while high education is a consistent factor in avoiding early exit from the labour market.

This study provides insights on the link between labour market attachment in different stages of the career and the exit from the labour market as well as work-related benefits dependency in the year of exit.

Women’s empowerment remains a key development challenge in Kenya. The purpose of this study is to attempt to understand the status of women’s empowerment and the key contributors to their disempowerment in Kenya’s aquaculture sector.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 534 male and female fish farmers from 300 households drawn from six counties in Kenya (Kakamega, Kisumu, Kisii, Kiambu, Meru and Nyeri). The Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI) was adapted to Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Fisheries and Aquaculture Index (A-WEFI) to suit the aquaculture and fisheries sub-sector. The adapted A-WEFI was then used to estimate and the status of women’s and men’s using five domains of empowerment (5DE) and a gender parity index (GPI). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Cramer’s V and sensitivity analysis as test statistics.

About 86% of the men and 80% of the women were classified as empowered. The mean score of the 5DE was 0.93 and 0.95 for women and men, respectively. In addition, 82% of the households achieved gender parity, suggesting that for such households, empowerment of men was no greater than that of women. Overall, the results suggest no major differences between the empowerment of women and men. Findings suggest areas of improvement in empowerment: when observed separately, women report lack of agency in production, resource, time-use and allocation and leadership.

This paper adapts the A-WEAI to the fisheries and aquaculture context, in bid to bridge the gap in standard women’s empowerment measurement methods in this area. Also, there are limited empirical studies on the multifaceted empowerment of women in aquaculture in Kenya. The findings are meant to serve as a point of reference for policymakers, as they develop gender-responsive intervention programmes, and in implementing gender mainstreaming in Kenya.