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This article aims to investigate how institutional characteristics affect the level of financial development of economies collectively and compare between developed and undeveloped economies.

A dynamic panel with 131 countries, including developed and developing ones, was utilized; the estimators of the generalized method of moments system (GMM system) model were selected because they have econometric characteristics more suitable for analysis, providing superior statistical precision compared to traditional linear estimation methods.

The results from the full panel suggest that concrete and well-defined institutions are important for financial development, confirming previous research, with a more limited scope than the present work.

Limitations of this research include the availability of data for all countries worldwide, which would make the research broader and more complete.

A panel of countries was used, divided into developed and developing countries, to analyze the impact of institutional variables on the financial development of these countries, which is one of the differentiators of this work. Another differentiator of this research is the presentation of estimates in six different configurations, with emphasis on the GMM system model in one and two steps, allowing for comparison between results.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of capital efficiency on the economic growth of Bangladesh using the Harrod-Domar (H-D) model.

We use annual data from 1980 to 2019 for this paper. Three steps are taken in the data analysis. First, to check the existence of a unit root, we use the augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test and to determine co-integration among the variables, we use the Johansen-Juselius co-integration test. Next, for long-run estimation, we use the dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) estimator. The sensitivity of the long-run estimations is further checked by the fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimators. Lastly, we use the Granger causality test to determine the long-run causality among the variables.

The long-run co-integration test validates the co-integrating relationship among the variables. DOLS estimations reveal that the economic growth of Bangladesh is negatively associated with the incremental capital output ratio (ICOR), validating the notion that capital efficiency matters for achieving higher economic growth. On average, an increase in ICOR by a unit tends to reduce economic growth in the long term by 0.75 percent. Our results also reveal no significant relationship between savings and economic growth when the model is extended. Finally, causality results indicate unidirectional causality between ICOR and economic growth.

Based on the results obtained, we argue that the enhancement of capital productivity could bring efficiency because ICOR is an inverse of capital productivity. Since Bangladesh’s capital productivity is considerably low compared with other neighbouring countries, it is suggested that firms should gradually move towards technological advancement and enhance economies of scale, etc. in the long run. Moreover, policies in favour of continuous skill development programmes could be highly effective in increasing capital productivity given that capital follows a vintage structure.

This is the first paper to analyse the economic growth pattern of Bangladesh using the traditional H-D model by incorporating variables such as savings and ICOR and also by relaxing the assumption of time-invariant (i.e. fixed) data of the variables. Moreover, this paper extends the traditional H-D empirical model by introducing key indicators and time breaks for Bangladesh’s economy through a stepwise regression process.

A surge in demand for ethical products, including cruelty-free products, has been well documented in recent years, with direct ramifications for businesses. This trend towards ethical consumption seemed to be swiftly replicated in Eastern countries, especially in South Asian nations, as a result of westernisation. Based on the theory of planned behaviour and the concept of the attitude-behaviour gap, this study aims to investigate the impact of westernisation on the purchase intention of cruelty-free cosmetic products.

A positivist research paradigm was utilised in this study. Accordingly, an online self-administered questionnaire was shared among 242 consumers of cosmetic products in Sri Lanka in order to collect responses. The statistical techniques of correlation analysis, the Sobel test and moderator regression analysis have been utilised in this study.

It was found that there seems to be a positive impact of westernisation and the cruelty-free purchase intention of consumers. Moreover, consumer empowerment appears to mediate this relationship, while the attitude behaviour gap tends to further impact the relationship between consumer empowerment and the purchase intention of cruelty-free products.

This study seems to shed light upon the impact of westernisation on the purchase intention of consumers, especially from an ethical dimension and this study is likely to extend existing studies which have focussed on consumer empowerment, attitude-behaviour gap as well as the theory of planned behaviour, especially in the context of South Asia, where there seems to be a dearth of such investigations. Moreover, this study has attempted to contextualise the construct of “Westernisation” to the South Asian region in line with the tone set by an editorial article Dewasiri et al. (2021).